A tremendous amount of promising research is under way to determine the cause of breast cancer and to establish effective ways to prevent it. Still, doctors can't always explain why one woman develops breast cancer and another doesn't.

Everyone seems to know someone with breast cancer, and we wonder whether we, too, will be affected during our lifetime. All of us want to do everything we can to reduce the risk of ever getting the disease. Right now, though, we just don't know enough about what causes breast cancer and we haven't yet figured out how to keep it from happening—so we can't say that we can “prevent” it.

However, researchers are working to learn how our “external” and “internal” environments may work separately and together to affect our health and possibly the risk of developing breast cancer. “Internal environment” means the things inside our bodies that influence our health, such as genetics (the genes you got from your mother and father), hormones, illnesses, and feelings and thoughts. “External environment” refers to the things outside of our bodies that influence our health, such as air, water, food, danger, music, noise, people, and stress. Also, the external environment enters our internal environment every day—think of the food you eat, water you drink, air you breathe (including whether you smoke or not), and medicines you take. More subtlely, there's the way you “breathe in” or absorb your environment, such as your home or workplace, and the way you take in energy from the people you spend time with.

Some of these factors, such as your genetic makeup and the medicines that you take, have a very direct effect on your breast health. The impact of other, indirect factors, such as air quality, exercise, meditation, and spending time with friends, is less well understood.

Anything that INCREASES your chance of developing breast cancer is called a risk factor. Anything that REDUCES your risk of developing breast cancer is called a protective factor.

You can control some risk factors. For example, if you are overweight, you can seek to lose excess pounds, which may reduce your risk of breast cancer. You can also make informed choices about the medicines you take.

But other factors are beyond your control. For instance, you can't change your gender. Women are much more likely than men to have breast cancer. This is mostly because women have more estrogen and progesterone in their bodies. These hormones stimulate breast cell growth—both normal and abnormal. Also, you can't stop growing older. Aging is the biggest risk factor for breast cancer (besides being a woman).

Risk reduction means making choices to avoid or minimize any possible risk factors that you can. It also means increasing the protective factors in your life so your chances of developing breast cancer are lower.

Although you can control many risk factors, remember that doing so does not guarantee zero risk. It is also important to keep in mind that many women who have a particular risk factor for breast cancer never develop it.

Knowledge is power. Instead of living under the shadow of myths and misunderstandings, KNOW your own realistic level of risk. Then you can talk to your doctor about ways to lessen controllable risk factors and boost your protective factors.