Daily Habits for Breast Cancer Prevention

We already knew that eating greens, exercise and decreasing alcohol was healthy, but the numbers are coming in to back this up. Dr. Juliana Kling (@DrJewelKling) of the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, presented these new findings on lifestyle at the latest North American Menopause Society (NAMS) meeting in Chicago just a few weeks ago. They’re the kind of findings we didn’t used to hear about as much from the medical community before, as lifestyle factors weren’t necessarily the focus in medical school and research. So the latest recommendations presented at the NAMS meeting piqued my interest. They speak to lifestyle and were based on The World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research. They include recommendations on food, body fat, alcohol and more. Physical activity alone can prevent one in eight breast cancer cases (this finding presented at NAMS comes from the CDC — Centers for Disease Control). Reducing body fat is a good strategy to help you reduce your risk of cancer because body fatness is suggested to increase cancer risk as a result of increased estrogen hormones, insulin and inflammation, all of which increase the risk for cancer. Non-starchy vegetables show a benefit Previous research has zoomed in on cruciferous vegetables — such as broccoli, cauliflower, as well as carotenoids — squash, carrots, spinach, kale, tomatoes, grapefruit, oranges, apricots to show their health benefits. The findings presented at NAMS actually zeroed in on non-starchy vegetables — such as broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower — to show that those who ate non-starchy vegetables had an even lower risk than people who ate vegetables in general. Non-starch vegetables include leafy greens, artichoke hearts, asparagus, beets, brussel spouts, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, eggplant, leeks, mushrooms, onions, peppers, radishes, zucchini, tomatoes. Starchy vegetables include potatoes, beans, corn, peas, squash, etc. which consequently lead to less sugar and therefore less insulin production. Dr. Kling also presented findings that alcohol is a carcinogen attributable to 6.4% of breast cancer cases, and that the more a woman drinks, the higher her risk of breast cancer. While there are some cases of breast cancer that are not preventable, it’s helpful to know there are some things that we can do that can become part of our daily routine. Read more on the full recommendations here.