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Family matters

Are the seeds planted when you're very young?

Is one body type more likely to develop breast cancer than another? In other words can we just look at a woman to assess her risk? Doctors believe that our height and body-mass index (BMI) both play a part in determining risk, but is this picture accurate? Could it be that the real risk factors are established at birth or puberty?
New research suggests that this is very much the case. A study has concluded that women at greater risk had a high birth weight, they grew quickly as children, were tall at the age of 14 and also, at that age, had a low BMI. Each of these is an independent factor, although being tall and having a low BMI at age 14 seemed to carry a higher risk than the other measures.
So how do researchers know this? A team from Copenhagen University monitored 117,415 Danish women, and included their birth weight and developmental details in the mix. Of these, 3,340 went on to develop breast cancer - and most fitted one or more of the profiles.
So, does it mean that you will get breast cancer if you were tall for your age at 14, for instance? Not at all, but it makes great sense to take seriously nutrition and other lifestyle factors that can also influence breast cancer risk.

Type ii diabetes - It's the diet, stupid - Type II diabetes has become the lifestyle disease of modern times. The two main risk factors according to doctors are being seriously overweight, as...

Bone mass points to breast cancer risk - Bone mass levels may be another indicator to determine a woman's risk of developing breast cancer, researchers have discovered. ...

Minimising breast cancer risk - Maintain a healthy weight. Obesity increases your risk of postmenopausal breast cancer by 50 to 100 per cent (Am J Clin Nutrition, 1987; 45: 289). It...

BMI: The great red herring for heart health - Body mass index (BMI) is a clumsy and imprecise measure of obesity. It’s arrived at through a complicated computation, which involves dividing your w...

Studies exaggerate genetic basis of breast cancer risk - Studies estimating the lifetime risk of women with the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutation developing breast cancer may have exaggerated the risk by only...

Weight gain: Putting on the pounds can prolong your life as you get older - The body mass index (BMI) is one of the crudest measurements of our health and longevity. It’s been found wanting in many a study, and researchers at...

Low bone density or other risk factors? - It is generally assumed that low bone density indicates fracture risk. However, dense bones may not necessarily be sufficient to prevent hip fracture...

Factors increasing risk - In Europe and the US, the average life time risk of developing colorectal cancer is one in 20, but the risk can go up or down as a result of many fact...

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