The first step towards beating cancer is recognizing the link between lifestyle and the risk of getting breast cancer, or having breast cancer reoccur. The following is a list of easy to digest pieces of advice that have been well researched and proven to link lifestyle choices with the increased risk of breast cancer.

1.) Maintain a healthy body weight. Throughout your entire life, it is important to maintain healthy body weight. Medically speaking, doctors suggest that a person’s body mass index (BMI) should always be kept below 25. Weight gain during the middle years of your, has been shown to significantly increase breast cancer risk. Gaining more than 70 pounds as an adult doubles a woman’s risk for breast cancer. Additionally, and elevated BMI has been conclusively shown to increase the risk of post-menopausal breast cancer.

All men are at risk for prostate cancer, but most men diagnosed with it are older than 65. Additionally, as men get older, their risk for developing another disease, osteoporosis, increases. Osteoporosis is of particular concern for men with prostate cancer, because recent research has found a strong link between hormone deprivation therapy - which is one of the treatments for prostate cancer - and osteoporosis. Hormone deprivation therapy is also called androgen deprivation therapy because it deprives cancer cells of the male hormones (called androgens) that the cancer needs to grow.