1. Home
  2. Health
  3. Breast Cancer

Risk Factors Explained in Detail

Be sure you understand what your risk factors are. Read an in-depth explanation of: family health history, environment, smoking, alcohol, weight and hormones, and start of menses.
Top 10 Strategies to Reduce Breast Cancer Risk
What can you do to lower your risk of getting breast cancer? These strategies help keep you well and raise your defenses against many kinds of illness. Take control of lifestyle factors and make healthy choices to put yourself in the best position to prevent breast cancer and stay in good health.
Alcohol and Breast Cancer Risk – Lifestyle Factors You Can Control
Estrogen is a hormone that fuels 80% of all cases of breast cancer. Any kind of alcohol that you consume may change the levels of female hormones, and thus cause more cases of estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer. Read more to see how much is safe, and how alcohol affects your risk of breast cancer.
Smoking and Breast Cancer – Lower Your Risk of Breast Cancer
Smoking is a controversial lifestyle factor that has been tied to increased breast cancer risk. Studies have yet to conclusively prove a link between tobacco smoke and breast cancer, but evidence is piling up. Learn how active and passive smoking may raise your risk of breast cancer.
Weight, Menopause, Genes and Breast Cancer Risk
Many factors affect your risk of developing breast cancer, some of which you can control. Having a healthy weight, eating sensibly, and being active can reduce your risk of developing breast cancer. However, if you carry a BRCA mutation, your risk can still be reduced by watching your weight. Learn how weight control affects your risk of breast cancer.
Diet and Breast Cancer Risk
Having a healthy weight depends on smart choices for food, drink, and exercise. Keeping off excess pounds means balancing all these factors, to lower your overall risk for cancers, especially breast cancer. There's no particular food that guarantees you won't develop breast cancer, or have a recurrence of it. But a healthy diet has many benefits. Learn about diet and cancer risk.
Soy and Breast Cancer - Research, Controversy, and Your Diet
Soy is great food - but not everyone agrees on whether or not it's good for your health. Soy foods contain the isoflavone genistein, which may help prevent breast cancer, if you start eating it just before puberty. However, if you've had estrogen-sensitive breast cancer, soy may interfere with your tamoxifen or Aromasin. Learn more about soy and breast cancer.
Green Tea May Slow Breast Cancer
There's been a lot of talk about the benefits of drinking green tea. Among the headlines is an intriguing claim that a chemical found in the beverage may be a powerful weapon against breast cancer. But before you load up on green tea bags and start chugging away, you should learn a bit more about this alleged miracle brew and the science behind it.
Exercise Lowers Breast Cancer Risk
You don't have to start running triathlons or training for a boxing match to reduce your risk of breast cancer. Doing regular exercise will cut down your risk of developing the disease, as well as preventing its return, if you're a survivor. Learn how exercise lowers your risk and improves your health.
Fitness Boosts Breast Cancer Recovery and Survival
As women make the journey through breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and post treatment, exercise can provide energy, a sense of self-worth and relief from treatment side effects. There is even evidence that exercise has a positive impact on recovery and survival. Learn about the benefits of exercise, how to get started and when to hold back.
Pregnancy Offers Protection Against Breast Cancer - Pregnancy and Breast Cancer
Most of the benefits of motherhood are intangible, emotional, and social. But here's some evidence that pregnancy gives you a gift of health -- an edge against developing breast cancer. Read more to find out how pregnancy helps reduce your risk of developing breast cancer.
Young Women with a Family History of Breast Cancer - Genetic Testing
Genetic helps you deterine your risk for many diseases, including breast cancer. Learn more about decisions and trade-offs of genetic testing.
Breastfeeding Helps Prevent Breast Cancer, Lowers Your Risk
You can lower your risk of developing breast cancer by breastfeeding your baby. And if your baby is a girl, her risk can also be reduced. Learn how long to breastfeed to lower your risk, whether or not you can breastfeed after you've had treatment for breast cancer, and more.
The Breast Cancer Blame Game
Do you blame yourself for getting breast cancer? Obesessing about past lifestyle choices won't help - learn how to move forward.
Risk Assessment - A Collection of Web-based Tools
If you’re curious about your risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer, here are some online tools to help you. Most of these are simple questionnaires. None of these require you to enter confidential information, or to sign up for an account. I have tried all of these tools and reviewed them for you.
In Your Environment
What's in your environment that may increase your risk for breast cancer? Are you using any pesticides, herbicides, cleaning products, or phytoestrogens that raise your risk? Read a report from the Cornell Institute Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors.
Abortion and Breast Cancer - No Proven Link
Researchers have found no scientific link between abortion, whether it is spontaneous or induced, and breast cancer.
When Did Your Periods Start?
Did your periods (menses) start at age 12 or later? What effect does that, or pregnancy, which also accounts for fewer periods, have on the risk of breast cancer? Read a news release about this from New Scientist.
Explore Breast Cancer
About.com Special Features

Learn how you can reduce your your numbers with these nutrition and exercise tips. More >

Keep yourself, and your family, happy and healthy this fall with these tips. More >

  1. Home
  2. Health
  3. Breast Cancer
  4. Risk and Prevention
  5. Risk Factors in Detail

©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.