How to Cut Risk of Breast Cancer

From the journal of Clinical Oncology. . . .

Whereas observational studies have suggested that increased physical activity is linked to lower breast cancer risk, Canadian researchers explored how sex hormones were positively influenced by aerobic exercise. Specifically, the team examined how an aerobic exercise intervention influenced circulating estradiol, estrone, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), androstenedione, and testosterone levels, which may be involved in the association between physical activity and breast cancer risk.

The researchers enrolled 320 postmenopausal women, ages 50 to 74 years, in a year-long trial, with 160 women randomly assigned to 225 minutes a week of aerobic exercise, and the remaining study subjects maintaining their normal level of activity. At the end of the study, the team found statistically significant reductions in estradiol and free estradiol, as well as increases in SHBG, among the exercising women (as compared to controls). While these hormonal changes were modest, the researchers urge that: “This trial found that previously sedentary postmenopausal women can adhere to a moderate- to vigorous-intensity exercise program that results in changes in estradiol and SHBG concentrations that are consistent with a lower risk for postmenopausal breast cancer.”

Doc Wellness Comments: So what does this all mean? Bottom line is when you get on a solid exercise program, great things happen. Sedentary lifestyles are a major problem. These are not pieces of new information. So what will it take to get moving?

Schedule an Active Wellness Coaching session with me. Together we can identify what activities trigger passion in you. Does running a marathon light a fire? Swimming? Something significant. Something more than just joining a gym and going through the motions.

Without passion, there is no driving force and without this energy, one is bound to fall short. Again, you know this. You have done it countless times. Now . . . do something different.

You NEW YOU is waiting for you!