Breast Cancer: The Exercise Connection

Breast Cancer: The Exercise Connection
-By Maury Wiegand

A family friend….. a teacher at school…..a colleague from work. We’ve all known someone that we care about who has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

My mother….. my sister….. my cousin. For me, the past five years have brought this diagnosis closer to home.

And I am not alone. In the United States during the year of 2009 it is estimated that 192,370 women will receive the news that they have become yet another new case of invasive breast cancer.

Knowing about my genetic risk has left me wondering, what can I do to decrease my chances of breast cancer? I’ve always felt I had a buffer of protection between me and breast cancer based upon being a committed, lifelong exerciser. But what exactly is the exercise connection? Perhaps my assumption that healthy lifestyle choices aiding in prevention has been little more than misguided denial.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and a good time to evaluate an overwhelming amount of research that has been collected over the past 30 years in an effort to determine an answer to this question. The Susan G. Komen Foundation has been an especially helpful resource in gaining a better understanding of what my own personal risk might be. Like many women, the risk factors of highest concern also tend to be the ones that are uncontrollable (for me being female, family history, and getting older each year.)

On the issue of how lifestyle choices can impact risk, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research/World Cancer Research Fund's report, as many as 40% (70,000 cases annually) of breast cancer cases might be prevented by making healthy changes in everyday living. Another optimistic note for my family members and other cancer survivors (who already are at greater risk of reoccurring cancer) is a new study from the Hutchinson Cancer Research Center which substantiates that lifestyle changes can significantly lower their risk of cancer re-occurrence.


Many studies have demonstrated that being overweight is linked with your breast cancer risk. When you gain the weight is also important. Extra weight in your post menopausal years can increase your risk as much as 30 to 60%. Where you put on weight is also a factor. Similar to the characteristics of both heart disease and diabetes risk factors, weight put on around the belly and intra-abdominal fat (the “apple” shape) has a higher association with breast cancer risk.


Although there have been inconsistencies with reports on exercise and breast cancer, women who are active on a regular basis demonstrate a 20% reduction in breast cancer occurrence. Many researchers believe that this link might be even stronger but have been challenged by collecting accurate data that speaks directly to the role of exercise as a prevention tool.

In one of the largest studies available, researchers in Norway tracked 25,000 women through the 1970’s and 1980’s. The women ranged in age from 20 to 54 at the onset of the study and were followed for an average of 14 years. The results of this study supported the fact that women who exercised at least 4 hours per week decreased their risk of breast cancer by 37%. Other good news from this study included statistics on women with occupations requiring movement patterns such as lifting and walking. Women with higher levels of work place activity demonstrated a 25% reduction in their risk of breast cancer. Higher overall activity levels seemed to correlate with better risk reduction citing gardening, cycling or walking to work as being valuable when done regularly.

Research done at the German Cancer Center and the University Hospitals of Hamburg-Eppendorf reinforced the idea that it’s never too late to begin exercise as a preventative measure. This research concluded that women who were more active in their later years (when the number of breast cancers diagnosed are the highest) reduced the risk of breast cancer even more than women who exercised in their 30’s.

Of course it is not as simple as, exercising will protect you from breast cancer. There are many other risks, some lifestyle related and others being uncontrollable or unknown. It is definitely worth a discussion with your medical practitioner. Evaluating your own personal risk, heeding the lifestyle changes that might be warranted and keeping up on early detection will continue to save countless lives.

An easy conclusion: exercise is good. The three leading killers of American women (heart disease, cancer and stroke) all acknowledge the role of exercise in prevention. The benefits of daily and lifelong activity just continue to accumulate. Exercise is a powerful weapon. Besides improving your chances of avoiding life threatening disease, you’ll also enjoy improved mood, better sleep, stronger heart and lungs, and that general feeling at the end of a good sweat, that all is right in the world.

Maury Wiegand is the owner of The Club in Bozeman, a CHEK Practitioner and ACSM certified Fitness Trainer