Breast cancer detection and prevention

Many people assume that a family history of breast cancer is a woman's number one risk factor, but at thirty-five, I had breast cancer and no family history of the disease. Researchers tell us that a woman's susceptibility to cancer involves her age, immune status, nutritional habits, genetics, and ethnicity. Only 5 percent of all cancers in the United States are thought to be attributable to heredity.1

As we learn more about cancer, more doctors are placing an emphasis on prevention through healthy living. A low-fat, highfiber diet that includes a variety of fruits and vegetables is recommended, as is daily exercise.

Newsweek recently reported that regular exercise also benefits women who have already had breast cancer. Two-thirds of all breast cancers are considered estrogen receptor positive (that is, the hormone estrogen fuels their growth), and regular exercise appears to lower the amount of estrogen in the bloodstream. Exercise also burns fat, and fat manufactures a substance called aromatase, which converts other hormones into estrogen.

After tracking nearly three thousand breast cancer patients for up to fourteen years, researchers found that recurrence rates and deaths from breast cancer (and from other causes) dipped 26 to 40 percent among those who exercised most. Furthermore, you don't have to be a weight lifter or marathoner to get this protective benefit- brisk walking for three to five hours a week-about thirty minutes a day-resulted in the biggest benefits. Even being active for one hour a week reduced the patients' risks.2

Do your family and friends a favor-learn to make time for exercise, and pick up some fresh fruit and veggies at the grocery store. You may not only live longer, but you'll be a better manager of the body God has given you.

1Paul Lagass, "Cancer," The Columbia Encyclopedia, sixth edition (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), electronic edition.

2Carolyn M. Kaelin, M.D., and Francesca Coltrera, "Cancer and Staying Fit," Newsweek, March 26, 2007, 70.