With the amount of research being conducted into breast cancer and other cancers, much is being learned about how to prevent, treat and beat it. Usually it is too hard to determine the specific causes of individual breast cancer in individual women and men but large studies can find trends and identify risk factors. So having certain risks factors in your lifestyle increases your chances of developing cancer and successfully beating cancer.
So here are seven top risk factors for not only but other cancers and major diseases so you have a fighting chance to win any health battles:
1. Free yourself of smoking and your wallet will be heavier, your lungs lighter and your conscious easier knowing you are taking away the greatest cancer risk factor. Quitting smoking also makes a massive boost to your sex appeal because you smell, taste and look a thousand times better. The chemicals you inhale with smoke reduces the effectiveness of your immune system making it harder for your body to be healthy and strong.
2. Keep your weight to the healthy body mass index range for your height. Carrying extra weight makes the body work harder for less benefit and increases your breast cancer risk factors on a sliding scale.
3. Exercise between 1.5 - 4 hours weekly at a minimum to keep a healthy mind and body. Regular exercise really builds up your health resilience factors and gives your body a greater fighting chance to heal more quickly and fight the good fight with a healthy immune system.
4. Modify your drinking of alcohol to a maximum of two serves per day, less is better. This still fits in with the tradition of a single glass of red wine being good for the heart but lets you see the direct results of moderation while still getting to enjoy a good glass of wine or two.
5. Anti-oxidants fight the good fight and a diet high in antioxidants keeps your immune system strong and resilient. Most fresh fruit and vegetables are full of anti-oxidants but you can get dietary supplements with vitamins. Having a glass of vegetable and fruit juice each day can be a really quick and easy way to get a daily dose.
6. Stress uses up your body's reserves, depressing your immune system, using up anti oxidants, making you tired and susceptible to illness. By reducing your stress levels you reduce not only your breast cancer risk factors but many more as well.
So find ways to manage your stress levels such as exercise, improving emotional intelligence skills, meditation, or where possible changing the life style issues that are causing the stress.
7. Finding peace in our daily lives can be really hard sometimes but research is showing that just 10 minutes a day of quiet time can do wonders for our entire health. Mediation can be a great way of settling the internal to do list that rattle round inside to give space for calm and peace.
You can do a structured mediation, take time out to enjoy sitting still and watching the world go round, go to a yoga class; anything that gives you peace and slows things down for a time gives your internal systems, like your immune and nervous systems, a slower time to work in. This will also improve restorative sleep and let you function at a more efficient level when you need it.
Online Calculator to Test Your Breast Cancer Risk Factors
Now there is a free online resource tool to test your lifestyle choices and find out your personal breast cancer risk rate at the National Breast Cancer Centre's website at http://thepinkbliss.blogspot.com - an Australian health resource that is freely available to women and men all round the world.
One of the things I love about this free risk factor calculator is it lets you test the impact of changing lifestyle issues like weight, alcohol, exercise and so on so you can directly and quickly see the effect of your actions. What I really liked about the calculator was its ability to tell your body mass index (BMI) which looks at height and weight details. This free online health tool lets you test and learn what is best for you.
So here are seven top risk factors for not only but other cancers and major diseases so you have a fighting chance to win any health battles:
1. Free yourself of smoking and your wallet will be heavier, your lungs lighter and your conscious easier knowing you are taking away the greatest cancer risk factor. Quitting smoking also makes a massive boost to your sex appeal because you smell, taste and look a thousand times better. The chemicals you inhale with smoke reduces the effectiveness of your immune system making it harder for your body to be healthy and strong.
2. Keep your weight to the healthy body mass index range for your height. Carrying extra weight makes the body work harder for less benefit and increases your breast cancer risk factors on a sliding scale.
3. Exercise between 1.5 - 4 hours weekly at a minimum to keep a healthy mind and body. Regular exercise really builds up your health resilience factors and gives your body a greater fighting chance to heal more quickly and fight the good fight with a healthy immune system.
4. Modify your drinking of alcohol to a maximum of two serves per day, less is better. This still fits in with the tradition of a single glass of red wine being good for the heart but lets you see the direct results of moderation while still getting to enjoy a good glass of wine or two.
5. Anti-oxidants fight the good fight and a diet high in antioxidants keeps your immune system strong and resilient. Most fresh fruit and vegetables are full of anti-oxidants but you can get dietary supplements with vitamins. Having a glass of vegetable and fruit juice each day can be a really quick and easy way to get a daily dose.
6. Stress uses up your body's reserves, depressing your immune system, using up anti oxidants, making you tired and susceptible to illness. By reducing your stress levels you reduce not only your breast cancer risk factors but many more as well.
So find ways to manage your stress levels such as exercise, improving emotional intelligence skills, meditation, or where possible changing the life style issues that are causing the stress.
7. Finding peace in our daily lives can be really hard sometimes but research is showing that just 10 minutes a day of quiet time can do wonders for our entire health. Mediation can be a great way of settling the internal to do list that rattle round inside to give space for calm and peace.
You can do a structured mediation, take time out to enjoy sitting still and watching the world go round, go to a yoga class; anything that gives you peace and slows things down for a time gives your internal systems, like your immune and nervous systems, a slower time to work in. This will also improve restorative sleep and let you function at a more efficient level when you need it.
Online Calculator to Test Your Breast Cancer Risk Factors
Now there is a free online resource tool to test your lifestyle choices and find out your personal breast cancer risk rate at the National Breast Cancer Centre's website at http://thepinkbliss.blogspot.com - an Australian health resource that is freely available to women and men all round the world.
One of the things I love about this free risk factor calculator is it lets you test the impact of changing lifestyle issues like weight, alcohol, exercise and so on so you can directly and quickly see the effect of your actions. What I really liked about the calculator was its ability to tell your body mass index (BMI) which looks at height and weight details. This free online health tool lets you test and learn what is best for you.