Track 21: Lifestyle and Breast Cancer:-
Lifestyle-Related Risk Factors For Breast Cancer:-
Anything that raises your likelihood of contracting an illness, like breast cancer, is a risk factor. However, having one or more risk factors does not guarantee that you will get the condition.
Personal habits including nutrition and exercise are linked to several breast cancer risk factors. The choice to have children and the use of hormone-containing medications are two additional risk factors connected to lifestyle.
See: for details on additional recognised and potential breast cancer risk factors:-
- You Can’t Change the Risk Factors for Breast Cancer
- Uncertainty about some of the risk factors for breast cancer
- Risk factors for breast cancer that are disputed or unproven
Consuming alcohol:-
There is no doubt that drinking alcohol increases the chance of developing breast cancer. According to the amount of alcohol drank, the danger rises. Compared to women who don’t drink, having one alcoholic drink per day increases risk by only around 7 to 10%, whereas having two to three drinks per day increases risk by approximately 20%. Other cancers are also associated with an increased risk of drinking alcohol.
It’s recommended to avoid alcohol consumption. If a woman drinks, she shouldn’t consume more than one per day.
Being fat or overweight
After menopause, being overweight or obese raises the chance of developing breast cancer.
Before menopause, a woman’s ovaries produce the majority of her oestrogen, with adipose tissue producing the remainder. Most oestrogen after menopause (when the ovaries cease producing it) originates from adipose tissue. After menopause, having more fat tissue can enhance oestrogen levels and increase the risk of developing breast cancer.
Blood insulin levels are frequently higher in overweight women. Some malignancies, particularly breast cancer, have been related to higher insulin levels.
The relationship between breast cancer risk and weight is complicated, though. For instance:
- Women who put on weight as adults are at increased risk for developing breast cancer after menopause.
- The risk is actually lower for women who are overweight or obese before menopause.
- The causes of this are not entirely obvious.
Additionally, various forms of breast cancer may respond differently to weight. For instance:
After menopause, being overweight is more strongly associated with a higher chance of developing hormone receptor-positive breast cancer.
According to several studies, having excess body fat before menopause may raise your chance of developing the less frequent triple-negative breast cancer.
The American Cancer Society advises combining your food and drink intake with physical exercise to maintain a healthy weight throughout your life and prevent excessive weight gain.
Without engaging in any exercise
There is mounting evidence that regular exercise lowers the risk of breast cancer, particularly in postmenopausal women. How much activity is required is a major concern. Even a few hours a week may be beneficial, according to some research, while more seems to be preferable.
It is unclear exactly how exercise could lower breast cancer risk, although it may be because of how it affects hormone levels, body weight, and inflammation.
Adults should engage in 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 to 150 minutes of strenuous intensity exercise per week, according to the American Cancer Society (or a combination of these).
Lacking children
Overall, the risk of breast cancer is somewhat greater in women who have never given birth or who had their first child after the age of 30. Early pregnancy and several pregnancies lower the risk of breast cancer.
The impact of pregnancy on the risk of breast cancer is complicated, though. For instance, the first ten years following having a child are when breast cancer risk is highest. Over time, the risk decreases as a result.
Failing to breastfeed
The majority of research indicates that breastfeeding, particularly if it lasts for a year or more, may somewhat reduce the risk of breast cancer. However, it has been challenging to examine this, particularly in nations like the United States where prolonged nursing is unusual.
Breastfeeding may lessen a woman’s overall lifetime menstrual cycle total, which might account for this result (the same as starting menstrual periods at a later age or going through early menopause).
Birth prevention
Hormones are used in several birth control techniques, which may raise the risk of breast cancer.
Oral contraceptives: According to the majority of research, breast cancer risk is marginally greater for women who take oral contraceptives (birth control pills) than for those who don’t. Within ten years of stopping the tablets, this risk appears to return to normal.
Shots for birth control: Although not all studies have shown this, some have suggested that having shots of long-acting progesterone (like Depo-Provera) every three months may raise the risk of breast cancer.
Skin patches, vaginal rings, intrauterine devices (IUDs), and implants for birth control These birth control methods also employ hormones, which theoretically might promote the development of breast cancer. Few research has examined the relationship between the use of birth control implants, patches, and rings with the risk of breast cancer, despite some studies suggesting one between the use of hormone-releasing IUDs and the disease.
Treatment with menopausal hormones:-
Estrogen-based menopausal hormone treatment (MHT), frequently in conjunction with progesterone, has been used for many years to ease menopause symptoms and prevent osteoporosis (thinning of the bones). Other terms for this procedure are hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and postmenopausal hormone therapy (PHT) (HRT).
Hormone treatment comes in two major forms:
- Doctors typically administer progesterone and oestrogen to women who still have uteruses (wombs) (known as combined hormone therapy, or just HT). Because oestrogen by itself can raise the risk of uterine cancer, progesterone is necessary.
- Only oestrogen can be administered for hysterectomy patients (women without uteruses). This is sometimes referred to as oestrogen treatment or oestrogen replacement therapy (ERT) (ET).
- Utilizing combination hormone treatment (HT) after menopause raises your likelihood of developing breast cancer. Usually, this increase in risk manifests itself after 4 years of usage. The risk that cancer will be discovered at a more advanced stage is also increased by combined HT.
- The combination of HT seems to raise risk mostly in current and recent users. After quitting therapy, a woman’s risk for breast cancer appears to decrease again after around 5 years, albeit the elevated risk persists.
- The term “bioidentical” is occasionally used to refer to oestrogen and progesterone that have the same chemical structure as those that occur naturally in humans (as opposed to the slightly different versions found in most medicines). These hormones have been promoted as a secure method of treating menopausal symptoms. There is no evidence that “bioidentical” or “natural” hormones are either safer or more effective than synthetic hormones, however, because there isn’t enough research that compares them. To be certain, more research is required. The usage of these bioidentical hormones should be regarded as having the same health hazards as any previous hormone treatment up until that point.
- Studies on the use of oestrogen alone after menopause have yielded conflicting outcomes. A modest increase in risk has been discovered by some, whereas no increase or even a slight decrease has been discovered by others. If ET does raise breast cancer risk, it does so just slightly.
- Other than perhaps for the temporary alleviation of menopausal symptoms, there aren’t many compelling reasons to employ post-menopausal hormone treatment (either combined HT or ET) at this time. Combination HT seems to raise the risk of heart disease, blood clots, and strokes in addition to the risk of breast cancer. There are alternative treatments to prevent and cure osteoporosis, and screening can occasionally prevent colon cancer, so the benefits must be balanced against the potential risks. It does reduce the risk of osteoporosis and colorectal cancer. Although it is unclear if ET raises the risk of breast cancer, it does raise the chance of stroke.
- After analysing the potential dangers and benefits (including the intensity of her menopausal symptoms) and taking into account her other risk factors for heart disease, breast cancer, and osteoporosis, a woman and her doctor should decide whether to take HT. In most cases, it’s preferable to use HT at the lowest dose that works for her and for the shortest amount of time feasible if they determine she should try it for menopausal symptoms.
Submit Your Abstract Here
Subtopics of Lifestyle and Breast Cancer:-
- Lifestyle changes for prevention of breast cancer
- Lifestyle-related Breast Cancer Risk Factors
- What are 3 lifestyle risks for getting cancer?
- Is breast cancer genetic or lifestyle?
- Can your lifestyle or environment cause or prevent breast cancer?
- Which cancers are caused by lifestyle?
- Lifestyle Factors that Raise Breast Cancer Risk
- Can Diet and Lifestyle Prevent Breast Cancer
- Find Breast Cancer – 2022’s Best & Worst Results
- Lifestyle changes for breast cancer
- How to avoid breast cancer
Track 21: Lifestyle and Breast Cancer:-
See Menopausal Hormone Therapy and Cancer Risk for further information.
Implanted breasts:-
The most prevalent forms of breast cancer have not been associated with a higher risk of breast implants. Breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL), a rare non-Hodgkin lymphoma that can develop in the scar tissue around the implant, has been connected to them. Women who receive implants with textured (rough) surfaces rather than smooth surfaces seem to develop this malignancy more frequently. If BIA-ALCL does develop after an implant, it may manifest as a lump, a clump of fluid, swelling, or discomfort close to the implant or as a change in the size or form of the breast.