According to statistics from the medical website Medline Plus, breast cancer will affect roughly one out of every eight women. While avoiding this risk entirely is not possible, there are a number of steps you can take to minimize your chances of being in the unlucky 13 percent of individuals that will be diagnosed with the disease. As the most effective cancer-fighting treatment is avoidance, taking proactive steps now to minimize risk is your best cancer fighting policy.
Instructions
1. Limit the consumption of fat in your diet to decrease your risk of developing breast cancer, according to information from the Mayo Clinic. This means keeping your daily fat intake to 35 percent of your total calories. Take special care to limit consumption of saturated and trans fats, keeping most of your fat intake relegated to unsaturated fats like nuts, seeds and oils. Finally, do not make the mistake of thinking that "less is more" -- your body requires some level of dietary fat intake for proper functioning, so just strive to stay below the 35 percent ceiling and do not think that you must limit fat intake even further for more benefit.
2. Monitor daily caloric intake to ensure that you remain at a healthy weight. Keeping your body fat normalized is one key to avoiding breast cancer, so take great pains to limit your food intake in order to drop excess pounds. If you are currently overweight, aim to lose one to two pounds per week by restricting calories modestly (consuming a 1,500 to 1,800 calorie diet is usually enough to promote weight loss). Remember that slow and steady weight loss is longer-lasting than the rapid weight loss seen by fad diets, so take a moderate approach to losing weight for the best improvement in staving off primary and tertiary breast cancer.
3. Engage in at least 30 to 45 minutes of exercise performed four to seven days per week to help further reduce your risk of developing breast cancer. According to the Mayo Clinic, this means performing exercise such as aerobics, jogging or brisk walking, but other forms of exercise such as Pilates, yoga, swimming and strength training can also help to minimize your risk. When in doubt, more exercise is always better, so strive to schedule in the time for training to help to dodge the breast cancer bullet.
4. Consider the use of vitamin and nutritional supplements to help ward off breast cancer. According to information from MSNBC.com, you should take at least 1,000mg per day of vitamin D to help reduce your risk of developing breast cancer by up to 50 percent. Other vitamins and supplements that might help include C (at least 500mg per day) and E (around 1000IU per day). Other supplements containing antioxidants, such as grape seed extract, can also be of use if your diet is deficient in fruits and vegetables. Purchase these items online or at your local health food store.
Tags: breast cancer, your risk, breast cancer, developing breast, developing breast cancer, risk developing
