Lifestyle Changes and Prevention of Breast Cancer
Eat a Healthy Diet
A healthy diet helps your body remain strong while you undergo breast cancer treatments. Your diet can help your body rebuild damaged tissue, reduce therapy side effects, and reduce the risk of infection.
A healthy diet includes a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, dairy, and lean, high-protein foods, such as chicken, fish, legumes, and beans. Getting enough calories each day is vital, even if you don’t feel like eating.
Some breast cancer treatments may have side effects that make it difficult to eat well. These side effects may include nausea, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, dehydration, a sore mouth or throat, weight gain, or changes to your sense of taste or smell.
Your doctor can help you identify strategies to treat these side effects, reduce their impact, and eat as healthfully as possible despite them.
Foods to avoid during breast cancer treatment include alcohol, fried or greasy foods, and foods with high amounts of fat or sugar.
Stay Active
There was a time when doctors may have told women with breast cancer to rest, and exercise was an afterthought.
But a growing body of research suggests that a reasonable exercise program not only won’t hurt but might actually benefit patients by relieving treatment-related fatigue, depression, and pain. Physical activity might also reduce the risk of a painful buildup of fluid in the lymph nodes called lymphedema, as well as making the cancer’s return, known as recurrence, less likely.
Prevention of Breast Cancer
While you can’t change certain risk factors, such as your family history or your age, research shows that there are a number of lifestyle modifications you can make to reduce your risk of breast cancer, even if you’re at high risk.
Try to limit yourself to less than one alcoholic drink a day, and don’t smoke.
Control your weight — being overweight or obese increases your risk of breast cancer, particularly after menopause. Exercise can help you maintain a healthy weight. The American Cancer Society recommends that adults get 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity activity each week (or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity), ideally spread throughout the week.
Hormone therapy to alleviate symptoms during menopause can increase your risk of breast cancer. Consider nonhormonal options or use the lowest dose that works for you.
Try to avoid exposure to radiation and environmental pollution. Medical imaging methods, such as computed tomography, use high doses of radiation. While more studies are needed, some research suggests a link between breast cancer and cumulative exposure to radiation over your lifetime.
Reduce your exposure by having such tests only when absolutely necessary.
Women who are at an increased risk of breast cancer because of a family history or because genetic testing has revealed a mutation in their BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene should opt for closer monitoring by their healthcare provider and consider taking certain medications that may reduce the risk in certain high-risk women. For women with a very high risk, preventive surgery is an option to consider.
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