Researchers have long advised middle-aged women that regular
exercise decreases the risk of breast cancer. But now they’ve discovered that being active beginning at age 12 substantially affects breast cancer risk
as well. In a survey of 65,000 women aged 24 to 42, those who had regularly exercised
as teens and young adults decreases had a 23 percent lower chance of getting pre-menopausal breast
cancer than those who'd been inactive.
This is sad news if, like me, your idea of exercise in high
school was to walk to 7/11 and buy a loaf of Wonder Bread and a jar of marshmallow
Fluff. (And that, folks, is the result of having strict health nuts for
parents. Be forewarned.)
If you have daughters between the ages of 12 and 22—the years
when regular activity has the greatest affect on pre-menopausal breast cancer
risk—you don’t have to go hire them a personal trainer: just encourage them to
do at least three hours and 15 minutes of vigorous activity a week, or 13 hours
of walking (well, I did go to 7/11
quite a lot). While older women are encouraged to exercise to reduce fat
tissue, a main producer of estrogen, the theory behind the benefits of youthful
exercise is that physical activity itself lowers estrogen levels. Perhaps this
has something to do with the fact that once I got seriously into yoga, my
boyfriend became much less irritating.
Photo: www.more4kids.info
