My Weekly’s favourite GP Dr Sarah Jarvis from TV and radio writes for you
It goes without saying that nobody wants cancer. Because it’s so common, most of my patients know at least one person with breast cancer. I also see patients terrified that they have it on an almost daily basis.
There’s no guaranteed way to avoid cancer – sometimes bad things just happen – but where breast cancer is concerned, there are steps you can take to reduce your risk.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the country – more than 1 in 7 cancers detected in the UK is breast cancer. But there’s good news, too. Just a few decades ago, in the 1970s, 6 in 10 women diagnosed with breast cancer died within 10 years. Now, more than 3 in 4 women survive at least 10 years after diagnosis.
You won’t be surprised to hear that, where cancer is concerned, prevention is better than cure. Some of the factors that increase your risk aren’t within your control – for instance: starting your periods early, not having children, having your first child over the age of 30 or going through the menopause after the age of 55.
However, there are factors you can alter. Keeping your weight within ideal limits, or losing weight if you’re overweight, can significantly reduce your risk. So too can giving up smoking and keeping your alcohol intake within recommended limits.
From the perspective of breast cancer, the ideal is to avoid alcohol completely. But sticking within the government’s recommended limits of 14 units a week (a unit is about half a pint of normal strength beer and a small glass of wine is 2 units) will help.
Taking regular exercise is good for your heart, lungs, bones and more. It may also help reduce your risk of breast cancer. National guidance recommends that you aim for half an hour of aerobic exercise five days a week – the kind of exercise that gets your heart beating a bit faster and makes you mildly out of puff. But even if you can’t manage that much, every little helps.
About 1 in 20 cases of breast cancer is down to a faulty gene, which you inherit from a parent. This sort of inherited breast cancer most commonly affects women in their 30s and 40s. The same genes can also
