New
cancer treatments are constantly being developed, but researchers now believe that simple housework could help to protect women against breast cancer.
Researchers from the Medical Research Council's Human Nutrition Research unit in Cambridge found that women who did the most housework had significantly reduced breast cancer risk, while work-related activity and recreation-based exercise had less effect on the level of risk.
The study, which looked at 218,169 women between the ages of 20 and 80, also found that regular moderate activity such as housework is better at preventing the disease than less frequent but more strenuous exercise.
Dr Petra Lahmann wrote in the January edition of the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention: "In this large cohort of womenincreased non-occupational physical activity and, in particular, increased household activity, were significantly associated with reduced breast cancer risk, independent of other potential risk factors."
Over 12,400 women die from breast cancer in the UK every year and, although several studies have previously found a link between exercise and reduced risk of developing the disease in post-menopausal women, this is the first piece of research to involve a significant number of pre-menopausal females.
Breast cancer treatment news : 2/01/2007
