A federal panel recently advised women get a mammogram every other year starting at age 40, rather than 50.

And the American Cancer Society estimates that in 2023, nearly 300,000 women in the United States will learn they have breast cancer. About 43,700 women will lose their life due to the disease.

The headlines are reminders to know your breast cancer risks. While many risks are out of your control, there’s just as much you can control, says Heather Thompson, a breast health navigator at OSF HealthCare.

Major risks you can control

• Active lifestyle and healthy eating: Thompson puts it plainly. If you eat junk, you’ll feel like junk. And any exercise will give you more energy and burn fat. Fat produces estrogen, which feeds cancer cells.

“You want to make sure you’re well-maintained with your weight, even after menopause,” Thompson says.

• Taking hormones: This impacts your ovaries, reducing or adding estrogen. Whether you’re at a routine appointment or you have been diagnosed with breast cancer, talk to your provider about what hormones you’re taking.

“We don’t encourage people who are having menopause symptoms [like hot flashes] to take hormones,” Thompson lists as an example. “We encourage other things to help treat those. It eliminates those estrogen cells increasing.”

• Alcohol and smoking: They are a risk for any type of cancer. But Thompson says one drink per day can increase a woman’s breast cancer risk by 12%. Alcohol is sugary, and that’s a fuel for estrogen.
   
• Night shift work: Thompson says our body expects to sleep when the sun goes down. Night work throws that off.

                “You’re getting artificial light all night. That changes the melatonin that the body naturally makes,” Thompson explains. “When your melatonin is off, it increases estrogen.”

                If you don’t work the traditional day job, see if you can work different shifts so you are not up all night all the time.

Risks you can’t control

• Age: Thompson says women generally develop breast cancer at age 50 and above. 
   
• Family history and genetic mutations: A family history of breast cancer puts you at a higher risk. Thompson says the higher risk is often seen on the person’s mother’s side of the family. For example, your mother and her sister (your aunt) may have breast cancer, and so you’d need to talk to your provider about your risk.

              Some women diagnosed with breast cancer and who have a family history may undergo a genetic test.

“Those tests can tell us if this is something being passed down from generation to generation,” Thompson says.

• Reproductive history: Young women who develop menstruation before age 12 and women who go through menopause after age 55 have an increased risk.

“That gives them a longer time with their ovaries working. They’re producing estrogen,” Thompson says.

• Dense breast: More tissue and less fat mean a dense breast and an increased cancer risk, Thompson says. Usually, the younger you are, the denser your breast is. The density of your breast is something that will be noted on every mammogram result. Thompson says mammogram technology is getting better at finding cancer in dense tissue. An early diagnosis may mean a better outcome.

Takeaways

Make sure your health care provider knows about your circumstances so they can decide on the best preventive care, like a different schedule for mammograms. Some of the information to have handy: a family history of cancer and any physical change you noticed during your monthly breast self-check.

Learn more about breast health and breast cancer care on the OSF HealthCare website.

Interview clips

Previous coverage

A breast cancer survivor's toolkit
Say yes ma'am to the mammogram
FDA dense breast rule promotes earlier cancer detection
A woman's battle with breast cancer
Prevention of breast cancer starts with awareness

Greasy pizza, cookies, sugary drinks – you name it – junk food has a grip on many Americans including people between 50 and 80 years old.

About 13% of adults in that age group are addicted to highly processed foods (1 in every 8), according to a study by the University of Michigan’s National Poll on Healthy Aging. 

“It doesn't surprise me: these are the ages where people are looking to retire," says Jason Crum, a dietitian with OSF HealthCare.  "And they're looking at what they're going to eat. How quickly will it take to eat these things, cooking, and processing. People don't want to do that anymore. They're tired, they're fatigued, so they look for quick, easy things.”

More than 2,100 adults between 50-80 were polled so researchers could learn more about the unhealthy relationship with processed foods including sweets, snacks, and fast food. The most common symptoms were intense cravings, the inability to cut down on intake and signs of withdrawal that caused headaches and trouble concentrating.  

“These processed foods not only have sodium, but they also have sugar of various types," says Crum. "And those paired together instigate a hormonal response that most of us don't know how to really read and respond to. So we fill ourselves with the calories instead of the actual food or the nutrients that would make our hormones work better, so it makes the addiction stronger.”

The study found that women had a greater addiction to these foods than men, especially those in their 50s and early 60s. Older adults who were overweight or suffering from mental health issues or isolation also had a greater risk of addiction to processed foods.

“We have a disconnection between how our gut really feels and how we interpret that hormonally, but also our lifestyle, how active, how busy we are," says Crum. "We see our nurses, for example, running around for 12-14 hours a day. They don't have time to eat, but it's easy in four minutes to eat a piece of pizza and a burger and fries. And that's the disconnect between our gut and our lifestyle and how we interpret that.”

According to the study, one reason that processed foods can be addictive is how they can trigger the release of dopamine in the brain’s reward system just like the effects of nicotine and alcohol.

“For most people we emotionally eat, it’s something to distract us," adds Crum. "And we tend to go for the things that will give us that reward center in our brain, sugar rewards that center, and we look for that as a temporary fix to things.”

Instead, Crum suggests people eat more “real” foods and stay away from processed ones. Real food is unprocessed, free of chemicals and full of nutrients such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, dairy, eggs and meat, fish and poultry. Real foods are low in sugar, heart healthy, high in healthy fats, and good for your gut, among other reasons.

“The first thing to do is to ask yourself if you’re hungry," he says. "And what am I looking to eat? Do I even know what it's made of? The more real the food is, the better that's going to work for us than these processed foods. There's far less added sugar, there's far less added sodium to it. So it makes it easier for our body to use the nutrients and reduce any cravings and addictions.”

For more on nutrition and general wellness, visit OSF HealthCare. 


 

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