Breast Cancer Screening and Prevention

Exercise Reduces Women's Risk of Breast Cancer

(iVillage Total Health) - Plenty of physical activity can benefit your health in many ways, and a new study shows it may even reduce cancer risk. Getting six or more hours of physical activity every week may help prevent breast cancer in women without a family history of the disease, according to a new study.

Experts have long agreed that regular exercise and proper diet are the keys to good health, regardless of age. The benefits of regular exercise include maintaining a healthy weight and increased energy and self-esteem. In addition, various studies indicate that it may help prevent other health conditions including obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. Now, a new study reveals that may even help to prevent breast cancer.

For this study, the UWCCC research team interviewed 7,630 healthy women, 1,689 survivors of noninvasive (in situ) breast cancer and 6,391 women who had survived invasive breast cancer. All of the study participants were between the ages of 20 and 69 years.

During the telephone interviews, the researchers asked the participants detailed questions regarding their levels of physical activity, occupation, family history of breast cancer, whether they had undergone menopause and their body mass index (BMI).

Results from the study showed that the women who engaged in six or more hours of strenuous physical activity each week reduced their risk of developing invasive breast cancer by as much as 23 percent. In addition, the reduction in breast cancer risk was apparent regardless of when the physical activity took place—early in the woman's life, in the postmenopausal years or in the recent past. The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Wisconsin's Paul P. Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center (UWCCC).

"A woman's hormone levels naturally fluctuate throughout her life, and we have found that exercise likely offers protection against breast cancer regardless of a woman's stage in life. The take-home message for women should be that it is never too late to begin exercising," Brian Sprague, research assistant at UWCCC and the study's lead author, said in a recent press release.

However, the researchers caution that more study is needed to fully understand the relationship between physical activity and reduced breast cancer risk as well as to be able to identify which groups of women would most likely gain the protective effects of regular exercise.

The study was published in the February issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention.

Copyright 2007 iVillage Total Health.