Just How Might Exercise Lower Breast Cancer Risk?

Exercise appears to change the way women's bodies metabolize the hormone estrogen, and this could help explain how aerobic activity reduces a woman's breast cancer risk, a new study suggests. Previous research has suggested that exercise lowers breast cancer risk, but there haven't been any clinical studies that explain the mechanism behind this, said Mindy Kurzer, a professor in the department of food science and nutrition at the University of Minnesota in Saint Paul. "Ours is the first study to show that aerobic exercise influences the way our bodies break down estrogens to produce more of the 'good' metabolites that lower breast cancer risk," she said. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_136635.html