Walk Down That Breast Cancer Risk

Even late-blooming exercisers reap big benefits

THURSDAY, Nov. 1, 2001 (HealthDayNews) -- If you want to lower your risk of breast cancer, get off the couch and go for a long walk every day.

If you do, your risk of developing breast cancer may drop up to 40 percent, even if you've been a couch potato until now, reports a new Canadian study.

"There are very few modifiable risk factors for breast cancer, but now we know that physical activity does reduce the risk," says lead study author Dr. Christine Friedenreich, an epidemiologist and research scientist for the Alberta Cancer Board, in Canada, and adjunct associate professor at the University of Calgary.

This year, 192,000 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in the United States, and 40,000 women will die from the disease, says the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations. Over a lifetime, women face a one in nine chance of developing the disease.

The researchers recruited almost 2,500 participants; half had just been diagnosed with breast cancer, and half were healthy women of ages similar to those with breast cancer. The women were asked to describe their lifetime physical activity patterns -- household, recreational and occupational. Friedenreich says the researchers used special interviewing techniques designed to help the women accurately recall how much activity they had participated in. They also collected information on eating habits, alcohol intake, pregnancies and smoking history.

Women who were lifelong exercisers had a 42 percent lower risk of getting breast cancer, the researchers found.

But they say the surprising news is that women who took up exercise after menopause also seemed to reap major benefits, showing a 40 percent drop in breast cancer risk. Women who exercised before menopause but then stopped had a slightly lower risk for breast cancer than those who never exercised at all.

Friedenreich says another encouraging finding is that the exercise doesn't have to be very intense to be beneficial. It only needs to be consistent, she says.

"The frequency and duration of the activity were more important than the intensity," she says.

Recommended activities include an hour of brisk walking or two hours of moderate activity such as gardening, childcare or heavy housework. For those who are more active in their jobs, like waitresses or mothers of young kids, the study suggests 30 minutes of brisk walking daily to reduce their breast cancer risk.

Results of the study appear in the current issue of the journal Epidemiology.

"This is an important confirmatory study," says Dr. Ruth Oratz, associate professor of clinical medicine at New York University School of Medicine. "It shows that exercise even later in life is beneficial."

What To Do

Besides exercising, women can take several other steps to reduce their breast cancer risk. For starters, experts say, limit alcohol intake. An occasional glass of wine with dinner is OK, but not every day, Oratz says. Also, eating a healthy diet low in fat and calories is believed to lower the risk of many cancers, including breast cancer.

For advice on starting a new exercise program, visit Duke University online.

For more on breast cancer and the risk factors for the disease, check the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month site.

If you already face an increased risk for breast cancer and want information on participating in a preventative clinical trial, check the Cancer Trials Web site of the National Cancer Institute.

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