The risk of many different cancers, including breast cancer, can be reduced significantly by choosing a healthy lifestyle. Here is a quick list on where to start:

1. Find out whether you have dense breasts. People with more tissue than fat can often make cancer hard to detect. Tumours, as well as breast tissue, show up on the mammogram as white, which make them difficult to diagnose. Dense breasts also increase the risk of cancer. If you do have dense breasts, you should ensure you have regular screenings in order to detect any abnormalities early on.

2. Exercise is an important prevention for breast cancer. Not only does it keep body weight under check, it also ensures oestrogen metabolism. Women who do not exercise have a great ratio of bad oestrogen in their bodies thus increasing the risk of developing breast cancers. Walking for 30 minutes for 5 days a week is more than enough.

3. You should take efforts to learn about your family’s history of cancer. Learning about the history helps in understanding the risk of developing cancer and early diagnosis. But don’t just limit to first-degree relatives; look for the history among the second- and third-degree family as well.

4. Minimize your exposure to radiation including from screenings tests. Although this does not mean you stop your screenings, it means that you should do them only when the referring physician requires you to get one.

5. Eating right foods is an important preventive step. Increase your intake of leafy greens and fruits and vegetables with carotenoids. Phytonutrients are also good at protecting against breast cancer. Make sure you eat cruciferous vegetables and limit the intake of red meat. Also, increase your whole grain intake.

6. Breastfeeding is also considered to reduce the risk of breast cancer. Women who breastfeed have 10% less risk. This is so because breastfeeding women do not menstruate thereby lowering the oestrogen amount the body is exposed to. The bottom line is that breastfeeding is good for babies and mothers.