Tips to stay away from Breast Cancer

1) Breast self-examination
Women should begin self-examination at the early age of 20s. Self-examination helps you to identify breast cancer treatment early. Women should do self-examination at least one time a month the week after their period finishes. The women who are no longer menstruating should examine at the starting of every month. If you feel nodes or discomfort, then visit to a doctor for further examination. Self examination process can be found on medical websites but it is best to talk to a doctor and find out the correct process.

2) Mammogram
Mammogram can also help to identify breast cancer early. Women who are older than 40, must get mammogram once a year though there is no cancer in the family. Women should begin mammography in their 30s if their sister or mother had breast cancer before menopause. Mammogram is breast's x-ray picture. For women, who have no signs or symptoms of breast cancer, screening mammograms are used to check. For women who have lump or other sign or symptom of breast cancer, diagnostic mammograms are used to check.

3) Breastfeed your baby
Breastfeeding is among the most essential ways to prevent breast cancer. Now-a-days most women stay away from breast feeding as they think it will harm their figure but it is very essential to understand that avoiding breast feeding may increase the risk of breast cancer. Women who breastfeed their babies for up to 2 years decrease the breast cancer risk up to 60%. The theory is that breastfeeding decrease the complete menstrual cycle's number of women over her life and lower the level of estrogen hormone which is related to breast cancer.

4) Maintain healthy weight
Women who are overweight or obese after menopause are at higher risk of developing breast cancer. Before menopause, most of estrogen are created by ovaries and little amount of estrogen are created by fat tissues. After menopause, ovaries discontinue making estrogen so estrogen is created by fat tissues only. After menopause, having more fat tissue means higher estrogen levels which enhance the risk of breast cancer. Women should maintain a BMI below 25.

5) Genetic tests
Only 5 to 10% breast cancers are caused by gene mutations inherited from a parent. If you have been detected with breast cancer, you can look for genetic mutations recognized as BRCA-1 and BRCA-2. The cost of this test is $3,400. Before undergoing the test, you should talk to a genetic counselor, nurse or doctor to clarify the procedure and the results of these tests. Before these tests are done, it is also very essential for you to know pros and cons as well as what these genetic testing can and can't inform you.

6) Exercise
Breast cancer risk is decreased by performing exercise 1/2 an hour 3 times a week. Exercise also helps to burn excess fat, maintain weight and enhance the immune system. Exercise manages the oestrogen levels to stay balanced. Exercise decreased the risk of breast cancer by 20 to 40%. You can do moderate aerobic activity such as brisk walking.

7) Use the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool
Women can use Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool to evaluate her breast cancer risk for the next 5 years and up to age of 90 as well as compare the woman's risk calculation with the average risk for similar age woman. Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool is a computer program which is developed to help health care providers in talking about breast cancer risk with their female patients. You can found The Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool at cancer.gov.

8) Consume low-fat diet
Low-fat diet prevents breast cancer as well as excellent overall health. Low-fat diet also reduces the obesity risk. Reduce the amount of trans fat and saturated fats as they increase the risk of breast cancer. Increase the consumption of monounsaturated and fish oils. Also include yogurt, low fat milk and cottage cheese in your diet. Consume only 70g fat daily.

9) Avoid high doses of radiation
The risk of breast cancer also increases due to high exposure to radiation. Women who had undergone radiation therapy to the chest part as treatment for Hodgkin's disease or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma or for acne are at high risk of developing breast cancer. The risk of developing cancer differs with the age of patient when they had radiation. If the chest radiation was given during teenage years when the breasts were still developing the chances of developing breast cancer is highest. After age of 40, radiation treatment does not increase the risk of breast cancer.

10) Limit alcohol
Limit the use of alcohol as it enhances the risk of developing breast cancer. Alcohol increases the other toxins effect and directly damage DNA which cause cancer. Women who take 1 alcoholic drink increase somewhat chances of developing breast cancer than non-drinkers. Women who take 2 to 5 drinks regularly increase about 1½ times chances of developing breast cancer compared to non-drinkers. Excessive alcohol also enhances the risk of throat, mouth, liver cancer and esophagus cancer. Women should limit the alcohol consumption to 1 drink per day.

11) Consume soy
Consume soybeans and soy products like tofu, tempeh, edamame and miso as they decrease breast cancer risk. Soy contains isoflavones which binds to tissues in the body by obstructing estrogen from stimulating breast cancer cells. Avoid the consumption of sweetened and refined soy products like soymilk and soy oils.

12) Avoid too much exposure to pesticides and chemicals
Limit exposure pesticides and chemicals as they contain estrogen like properties which lets cells of breast cancer to reproduce quickly. It also lets the disease to spread faster. As per study oder women who exposed to pesticide DDT) and similar compounds had somewhat more risk of developing breast cancer compared to other women.

Why Count Calories? Because Health is Wealth

Many people try to avoid counting calories when trying to achieve weight loss. There are so many new weight loss methods today that it might seem like this is actually possible, especially when some diets specifically advertise that you won't have to count calories at all. In my opinion, this is like a financial self-help book that claims you can get rich without paying any attention to how much you earn or spend. Would you be tempted to believe such a claim?

Calorie counting is budgeting for the body
Even if you have no idea exactly what percentage of your income you spend on your rent, chances are you do keep a budget in your mind, if you're the average responsible adult. This means having a rough idea of how much you can splurge before it's going to land you in trouble. You've probably experienced both sides of the equation-getting into debt as well as having a savings account. The more experience you accumulate, the better equipped you are to judge how much you can spend and how much you need to save. You just can't get away from the basic truth that earning more than you spend equals savings, and that spending more than you earn equals debt.

Weight management is just like that. You have total freedom in deciding what, when, and how to eat your food, but you can't escape the basic truth that eating more than you burn equals weight gain and that burning more than you eat equals weight loss. It's not a theory, a special dieting method, or something someone invented to make you miserable-it's just plain physics.

Calorie counting is NOT a weight loss method
Surprised to hear that? Well, it's true. It could help you lose weight, gain weight, or maintain your weight, but calorie counting is not a weight loss method the same way budgeting is not a way to get rich-it is simply the foundation and basis for weight management the same way budgeting is the basis of money management. It's a tool you can use to see where you can improve your lifestyle choices to achieve what you want to achieve. Feel free to try any diet that sounds good to you-calorie counting still applies. Feel free to try out the latest fitness routine-calorie counting is as important as ever. While you can change your diet and fitness habits without counting calories, you'll be at a loss if for some reason they stop working. You won't know where it went wrong. At the end of the story you could have twenty diets that "just don't work" for you without having any idea why they failed. To use a financial analogy again, it's like buying and selling stocks without ever looking at the stock market. If you wouldn't entrust your finances to Lady Luck, why entrust her with your health?

Calorie counting is not an extreme last-resort measure
If the word "budget" revives in you traumatic memories of math class in grade school, consider this: you probably budget without ever realizing it. Unless you go through life blissfully unaware of the cost of foods, furniture, clothes, and so on, you probably frequently make choices based on what you think you can afford. If you ever treat yourself to something, whether it's an ice cream or a spa treatment, it's because you know that doing it on a daily basis would break the bank. That's budgeting!

Similarly, calorie counting can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Some people, like athletes and body-builders, want to know exactly where each calorie is going. They may spend hours planning the week's menu or reading and calculating fat percentages. For other people who have no issues with their weight, it may be enough to know that some foods, like chocolate-covered donuts, are very high in calories and low on nutrition. However, most people fall somewhere in the middle. We need to have a rough idea of how much we are actually ingesting per day and compare it to a rough idea of how much we are burning. If you fall into that group, there's great news in store for you.

Calorie counting is so much easier today
Even just a generation ago, no one had mobile devices that could keep track of calories in and calories out. There was no "app" for anything-a notebook and a pencil were your best bet. Besides that, calorie counting usually meant reading nutrition labels, doing the math, and looking up exercises in some kind of chart to calculate calories burned. Today, there are online calorie counters with huge databases of food items and activities so all you have to enter is how much you ate or exercised. That's it! In return, you get all kinds of charts and graphs showing you your progress and what you need to do to achieve your goals. It doesn't get much simpler or easier than that.

It's been said that "Health is wealth," but I would go even further to say that health is our greatest wealth. Responsible money management is all well and good, but your weight management is far more important. By budgeting for your body, you can avoid the high health risks associated with being overweight, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer. A few minutes every day on your computer or mobile device to make sure you're nutritionally on track-wouldn't you say it's worth it?

About the author: Varsha Aditya is a writer for the popular calorie counter website CaloriesAndMore.com which promotes healthy and sustainable weight loss without all the impossible rules of fad diets. Visit us to find more articles about sustainable weight loss, and see how CaloriesAndMore.com's huge database of foods and activities can make calorie counting a breeze.