Exercise, Labor, Housework Lowers Your Risk for Both Types of Breast Cancer

1943 Feb: Woman is working on a "Vengeance" dive bomber in Tennessee. FSA/OWI Collection. LOC. Photographer: Alfred T. Palmer

Would you give 5 hours a week to lower your risk of breast cancer? Dr. Leslie Bernstein has just finished a study that shows that exercise, heavy labor or doing strenuous housework for about five hours a week will lower the menstrual hormones, particularly estrogen. Lowered hormone levels have proven to help protect against the formation of breast cancer tumors, both hormone-driven and hormone-negative tumors. "We believe the effect is universal," says Leslie Bernstein. "And so we recommend women exercise, and exercise as much as they can each week."

• Study: Strenuous Exercise Can Reduce Women's Risk for Breast Cancer
• Estrogen-Fueled Breast Cancer Rates Fall 7 Percent