Lifestyle can prevent breast cancer | Brain and Head Health

Put down the alcohol and get up and exercise to shed those extra pounds.

If women lived a healthier lifestyle, about 20,000 cases of breast cancer could be prevented annually according to new figures from World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF).

Scientists looked at 47,600 new cases of breast cancer reported in the UK in 2008.

They say about 42 percent, roughly 20,000 cases, could have been prevented through healthier lifestyle choices.

Dr Rachel Thompson, Deputy Head of Science at WCRF, says?There is convincing evidence that alcohol consumption increases the risk of breast cancer. In postmenopausal women there is convincing evidence that body fatness also increases risk and there is evidence that regular physical activity probably reduces the risk of breast cancer.?

WCRF recommends being physically active for at least 30 minutes a day and? limiting alcoholic drinks to two a day for men and one a day for women.

A healthy weight is defined as a Body Mass Index between 18.5 and 25.
The preventability estimates come from the Preventability of Cancer by Food, Nutrition, and Physical Activity, a paper published in WCRF report.? Policy and Action for Cancer Prevention. Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective, was launched in November 2007 and is the most comprehensive report ever published on the link between cancer and lifestyle. For more information, visit www.dietandcancerreport.org
In the US, about 1 in 8 women, 12%, will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime. In 2010, an estimated 207,090 new cases of invasive breast cancer?were expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with 54,010 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer, according to BreastCancer.org.

Additional Resources:

World Cancer Research Fund believes about a third of cancers could be prevented through changes to lifestyle. For more information on the charity?s work, visit www.wcrf-uk.org

Source: http://www.aafnh.org/news/lifestyle-can-prevent-breast-cancer.html

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