Women are primarily at risk when breast cancer is concerned. It is no surprise that 42,000 new cases of breast cancer among women aged 40 and above are reported each year. It is such an equalizer that it does not matter that you're rich, poor, black or white - this disease is bound to strike often unnoticed.

With the advent of new medical breakthroughs, breast cancer can be easily treated on its early onset. Preventive measures to avoid it are often not very clear cut yet, but there are certain ways you can alleviate its further development or avoid its reoccurrence if you previously had one before.

 

One way is that you avoid hormone therapy when experiencing menopause symptoms. You should put in mind that menopause is a natural thing and thwarting it may do damage since a lot of studies concur that menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) can induce the risk of having breast cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that when taking MHT for more than 5 years for women aged 45 and above will more likely expose you not only to breast cancer, but also colorectal cancer. In this case, you should start thinking of having an alternative to MHT, if you cannot help the discomforts of the menopausal syndrome.

 

Another factor that decreases your propensity to acquire breast cancer is prolonged breastfeeding. Of course, breastfeeding has been proven to have gargantuan benefits to you and your baby because this can assist his or her physical and mental development, aside from other positive health benefits. However, mothers can also benefit from it because when you do prolonged breastfeeding -- your body produces the right hormones for you to fight off cancer cells.

 

Other ways to decrease the risk of breast cancer is to stay away from contraceptive medications that contain estrogen, exercising regularly and living a healthy lifestyle by improving your diet and forget the intake of excess alcohol and smoking.

 

Follow these steps would certainly minimize your chances of contracting breast cancer. These are just simple things to do and you should maintain these steps in order to eradicate this dreaded women's disease. Change can start from yourself and you can even help inform other women about these proactive preventive measures on how to avoid breast cancer