Risk of Cancer Reduced by Healthy Lifestyle

More exercise, weight control, and reduced alcohol intake can significantly reduce a woman's risk of breast cancer, according to leading Oxford researcher Professor Max Parkin.New research taking place at Oxford has discovered that changing certain aspects of a woman's lifestyle can decrease her risk of breast cancer significantly. Prof Parkin believes that the number of cases can be cut by more than 5700 each year if his guidelines are followed. According to him, regular exercise could help to prevent around 1400 cases, obesity prevention would help a further 1800 cases, while avoiding HRT would save another 2100 cases. Alcohol has been a common factor in a number of studies, finding that every alcohol unit drunk daily could increase the risk of breast cancer by as much as 11 per cent.The last decade has seen the number of breast cancer and incident rates increase by more than 12 percent. Prof Parkin acknowledges that an individual's genetics plays a significant part, but warns that women should be more aware of their lifestyle choices.