Every woman wants to know what she can do to lower her risk of breast cancer. Some of the factors associated with breast cancer like being a woman, your age, or your genetics, for example can’t be changed.
Whereas other factors like being overweight, lack of exercise, smoking cigarettes, or eating unhealthy foods can be changed by making choices. By choosing the healthiest lifestyle options possible, you can empower yourself and make sure your breast cancer risk is as low as possible.
Being a woman
Just being a woman is the biggest risk factor for developing breast cancer. There are thousands of new cases of invasive breast cancer and of non-invasive breast cancer diagnosed this year in women. While men do develop breast cancer, less than one percent of all new breast cancer cases happen in men.
The biggest reasons for the difference in breast cancer rates between men and women are: Women’s breast development takes three to four years and is usually complete by age 14. It’s uncommon for men’s breasts to fully form, most of the male breasts you see are fat, not formed glands.
Once fully formed, breast cells are very immature and highly active until a woman’s first full-term pregnancy. While they are immature, a woman’s breast cells are very responsive to hormones, including hormone disrupters in the environment. Men’s breast cells are inactive. So hormonal stimulation of highly responsive and vulnerable breast cells in women, particularly during the extra-sensitive period of breast development, is why breast cancer is much more common in women than in men.
Age
Everyone alive is growing older and as with many other diseases, your risk of breast cancer goes up as you get older. The aging process is the biggest risk factor for breast cancer. That’s because the longer we live, there are more opportunities for genetic damage (mutations) in the body. And as we age, our bodies are less capable of repairing genetic damage.
Family history
Women with close relatives who have been diagnosed with breast cancer have a higher risk of developing the disease. If you have had one first-degree female relative (sister, mother, daughter) diagnosed with breast cancer, your risk is doubled.
If two first-degree relatives have been diagnosed, your risk is five times higher than average. Even if your brother or father has been diagnosed with breast cancer, your risk is higher. In some cases, a strong family history of breast cancer is linked to having an abnormal gene associated with a high risk of breast cancer.
Recommended screening guidelines include:
• A monthly breast self-exam
• A yearly breast exam by your doctor or nurse practitioner
• A mammogram every year starting at age 40.
If you have been diagnosed with certain non-harmful (not cancer) breast conditions, you may have a higher risk of breast cancer. There are several types of non-harmful breast conditions that affect breast cancer risk: Excessive growth of normal-looking cells: Doctors call this “proliferative lesions without atypia.” In these conditions, cells in the ducts (the pipes of the breast that drain the milk out to the nipple) or lobules (the parts of the breast that make milk) are growing faster than normal, but the cells look normal.
Genetics: About five percent to 10 percent of breast cancers are thought to be hereditary, caused by abnormal genes passed from parent to child. Genes are particles in cells, contained in chromosomes, and made of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
DNA contains the instructions for building proteins and proteins control the structure and function of all the cells that make up your body. In any one person, if there is an error in a gene, that same mistake will appear in all the cells that contain the same gene.
Personal history of breast cancer
If you have been diagnosed with breast cancer, you are three to four times more likely to develop a new cancer in the other breast or a different part of the same breast. This risk is different from the risk of the original cancer coming back (called risk of recurrence).
Certain breast changes: If you’ve been diagnosed with certain non-harmful (not cancer) breast conditions, you may have a higher risk of breast cancer.
Race/ethnicity
White women are slightly more likely to develop breast compared to other races. Though non-white women are more likely to develop more aggressive, more advanced-stage breast cancer that is diagnosed at a young age.
Being overweight
Overweight and obese women have a higher risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer compared to women who maintain a healthy weight, especially after menopause. Being overweight also can increase the risk of the breast cancer coming back (recurrence) in women who have had the disease.
Pregnancy history
Women who haven’t had a full-term pregnancy or have their first child after age 30 have a higher risk of breast cancer compared to women who gave birth before age 30. When breast cells are made in adolescence, they are immature and very active until your first full-term pregnancy. The immature breast cells respond to the hormone estrogen as well as hormone-disrupting chemicals in products. Your first full-term pregnancy makes the breast cells fully mature and grow in a more regular way. This is the main reason why pregnancy helps protect against breast cancer. Being pregnant also reduces your total number of lifetime menstrual cycles, which may be another reason why earlier pregnancy seems to offer a protective effect.
Breastfeeding history
Breastfeeding can lower breast cancer risk, especially if a woman breastfeeds for longer than 1oneyear.
• Making milk 24/7 limits breast cells’ ability to become inactive
• Most women have fewer menstrual cycles when they’re breastfeeding (added to the nine missed periods during pregnancy) resulting in lower oestrogen levels
• Many women tend to eat more nutritious foods and follow healthier lifestyles (limit smoking and alcohol use) while breastfeeding.
Beyond breast health protection, breastfeeding provides important health benefits to the baby and helps the bonding process.
Menstrual history
Women who started menstruating (having periods) younger than age 12 have a higher risk of breast cancer later in life.
The same is true for women who go through menopause when they’re older than 55. Over the past 15 years, girls have been starting puberty at younger ages. Breast development has started even earlier than menstrual periods.
This unexpected shift has been attributed to the obesity epidemic and broad exposure to hormone disruptors, since a rise in hormones triggers the onset of breast development and puberty. The age when women go through menopause, however, has stayed about the same.
The earlier your breasts form, the sooner they’re ready to interact with hormones inside and outside your body, as well as with chemicals in products that are hormone disruptors.
This longer interaction with hormones and hormone disruptors can increase risk. Also, when girls start menstruating at a younger age, the time between breast development and a first full-term pregnancy is usually longer than when menstruation happens later. During this time, breast tissue tends to be immature, overactive, and particularly sensitive to hormonal influences. The longer a woman menstruates, the higher her lifetime exposure to the hormones oestrogen and progesterone. All of these factors are associated with a higher risk of breast cancer later in life.
Drinking alcohol
Research consistently shows that drinking alcoholic beverages like beer and wine increases a woman’s risk of hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer.
Smoking
Smoking causes a number of diseases and is linked to a higher risk of breast cancer in younger, premenopausal women.
Research also has shown that there may be link between very heavy second-hand smoke exposure and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women.
While many of the above processes can’t be stopped, you can make lifestyle choices and take steps that can keep your risk as low as it can be, such as maintain a healthy weight, exercising regularly, limiting alcohol, increase your intake of nutritious food and quit smoking.
