Thursday, May 15, 2008

Study Shows that exercising in teen years can protect girls from breast cancer

Study: Active teens reduce risk
Exercise said to shield against breast cancer
By Lauran Neergaard | Associated Press
New research shows exercise during the teen years — starting as young as age 12 — can help protect girls from breast cancer when they're grown.

Middle-age women have long been advised to get active to lower their risk of breast cancer after menopause. What's new: That starting so young pays off too.


"This really points to the benefit of sustained physical activity from adolescence through the adult years, to get the maximum benefit," said Dr. Graham Colditz of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the study's lead author.

Researchers tracked nearly 65,000 nurses age 24 to 42 who enrolled in a major health study. They answered detailed questionnaires about their physical activity dating back to age 12. Within six years of enrolling, 550 were diagnosed with breast cancer before menopause. A quarter of all breast cancer is diagnosed at these younger ages, when it is typically more aggressive.

Women who were physically active as teens and young adults were 23 percent less likely to develop premenopausal breast cancer than women who grew up sedentary, researchers report Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The biggest impact was regular exercise from age 12 to 22.

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