MODIFIABLE RISK FACTORS (YOU CAN CHANGE)

1. Not being physically active. Women who are not physically active have a higher
risk of getting breast cancer.
Explanation: Physically active at a moderate or intense level can lower risk of
breast cancer. It consumes and controls blood sugar and limits blood levels of insulin
growth factor, a hormone that can affect how breast cells grow and behave. People
mostly women who tend to be more physically active and are more likely to maintain
a healthy weight and have little or no excess fat compared to people who don't
exercise. Fat cells make estrogen and extra fat cells make extra estrogen too. When
breast cells are exposed to extra estrogen over time, the risk of developing breast
cancer is higher.

2. Being overweight or obese after menopause. Older women who are overweight

or obese have a higher risk of getting breast cancer than those at a normal weight.
EXPLANATION- Being over weight have a higher risk of being diagnosed with
breast cancer compared to women who maintain a healthy weight, especially after
menopause. Being overweight also can increase the risk of the breast cancer coming
back (recurrence) in women who have had the disease. This higher risk is because fat
cells make estrogen; extra fat cells mean more estrogen in the body, and estrogen can
make hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers develop and grow.

3. Taking hormones. Some forms of hormone replacement therapy (those that

include both estrogen and progesterone) taken during menopause can raise risk for
breast cancer when taken for more than five years. Certain oral contraceptives (birth
control pills) also have been found to raise breast cancer risk.
Explanation: taking hormones is also a risk factors because the female hormone
estrogen stimulates breast cell growth, exposure to estrogen over long periods of time,
without any breaks, can increase the risk of breast cancer. 

4. Drinking alcohol. Studies show that a woman’s risk for breast cancer increases
with the more alcohol she drinks.
EXPLANATION: Research consistently shows that drinking alcoholic
beverages — beer, wine, and liquor — increases a woman's risk of hormone-receptor-
positive breast cancer. Alcohol can limit liver’s ability to control blood levels of the
hormone estrogen, which in turn can increases the risk. Alcohol can increase levels of
estrogen and other hormones associated with hormone-receptor-positive breast
cancer. Alcohol also may increase breast cancer risk by damaging DNA in cells.

5. Smoking- Smoking is associated with a small increase in breast cancer risk

EXPLANATION: Smoking causes a number of diseases and is linked to a
higher risk of breast cancer in younger, premenopausal women. Research also has
shown that there may be link between very heavy second-hand smoke exposure and
breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women. Smoking also can increase
complications from breast cancer treatment, including: damage to the lungs from
radiation therapy, difficulty healing after surgery and breast reconstruction, higher
risk of blood clots when taking hormonal therapy medicines.

6. Light exposure at night- the results of several studies suggest that women who work at
night — factory workers, doctors, nurses, and police officers, for example — have a higher
risk of breast cancer compared to women who work during the day. Other research suggests
that women who live in areas with high levels of external light at night (street lights, for
example) have a higher risk of breast cancer.
Researchers think that this increase in risk is linked to melatonin levels. Melatonin is a
hormone that plays a role in regulating the body's sleep cycle. Melatonin production peaks at
night and is lower during the day when eyes register light exposure. When women work at
night or if they're exposed to external light at night, their melatonin levels tend to stay low.