Don’t be a yo-yo dieter.
Every time you gain then lose weight, you get stretch marks around your breasts that are hard to get rid of, says Shirley Archer, a health-and-fitness educator at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Map out a family-health history.
Even if you don’t have breast cancer in your immediate family, you may still be at risk if you have first-degree relatives with other hormonally driven cancers, like prostate or ovarian cancer, which are also linked to the BRCA 1 or 2 genes, says Julia Smith, MD, director of the New York University Cancer Institute Breast Cancer Screening and Prevention program
Move a little more.
No time to exercise? Research shows walking just 10 minutes a day starts slashing your breast-cancer risk. A 2005 University of Southern California study found that women who exercised just 1.3 hours a week lowered their chances of developing the disease by 20 percent.
Wear sunscreen.
Protect your upper chest from sun damage and signs of aging. |