Photo by Ted Morrison

Fight for Your Life By Melissa Gotthardt, September & October 2008 New hope for beating breast cancer

• Breast Cancer: Map the Route to Recovery (September & October 2006)
• A Breast-Cancer Survivor's Personal Story (AARP Segunda Juventud Online)
• AARP.org's Health Encyclopedia: Learn About Conditions and Treatments
  
• The AARP Guide to Pills (AARP Books)
• Subscribe to the AARP Health Newsletter

The risk of breast cancer rises with age, but so does the determination to avoid or beat the disease. And researchers know more than ever about how to lower your odds of getting this illness—or getting it again.

Trim the fat In a Harvard study, women who dropped 20 pounds after menopause and kept it off cut their breast cancer risk by 57 percent.

Shake a leg Exercise also reduces your risk, and “it’s never too late to start,” says Anne McTiernan, M.D., Ph.D., of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Her research shows that two and a half hours of moderate exercise weekly (think walking, swimming, dancing) lowers risk by 20 percent.

Veg out Breast-cancer survivors who exercised and ate at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day were less likely to have a recurrence of the disease than those who did not, according to a study at the University of California, San Diego.

Dim the lights Women who live in cities that are brightly lit at night are 73 percent more likely to get breast cancer than those in the darkest areas, a recent study in Israel found. So keeping your bedroom dark might protect your health—and it can’t hurt.

Grin and bare it Regular mammograms mean a greater chance of survival if you’re diagnosed. And don’t let your mom convince you she’s too old: researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center showed that mammography offers survival benefits even to women in their 80s. (Since men can also get breast cancer, they should report any new lumps to their doctor ASAP.)

Watch out for age bias Some docs are slow to recommend chemotherapy and radiation to women in their 50s, 60s, or 70s—although older women tolerate them as well as patients under 50. Christa Corn, M.D., a breast surgeon at Phoenix Baptist Hospital & Medical Center in Arizona, advises: ask about all your options, and if your doctor says “not at your age,” seek a second opinion.