Written by Madison Woods, an undergraduate student at UNCW and a Public Health Intern at Going Beyond the Pink.
*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

When we think about cancer prevention, it is almost always thought about from the perspective of someone who hasn’t had cancer. What isn’t covered enough is the importance of prevention for patients and survivors. After breast cancer patients finish treatment, the fight isn’t over. Preventing recurrence becomes a top priority. While the strategies for cancer prevention in the general population still apply, there are a few habits that are especially important to follow.

What Cancer Prevention Methods are Best for Preventing Breast Cancer Recurrence?

Eating healthy: a healthy diet looks different for everyone, but in general it is recommended to include fruits and vegetables, fish (particularly fatty fish like salmon or sardines), lots of fiber and protein. It is good to avoid red meat, foods high in fat, sugary food, and highly processed foods. Think of the food you put in your body as fuel- fried food will be much less efficient energy for your body than grilled or baked chicken would be!

Here are a few of our favorite cooking books: The Living Kitchen, The China Study Cookbook, Eat to Beat Disease, The Longevity Diet

Staying as physical as you can: exercising regularly is one of the best things you can do for your body. Something as simple as taking a fifteen minute walk a few times a week is a great way to move your body- consistency over intensity. Exercising is a great way to relieve fatigue symptoms, stress, and improve your overall health.

Using equipment like stretching bands, light weights, or a rebounder trampoline are a great way to customize your exercise plan to what works best for you!

Maintain a Healthy Weight- With cancer often comes weight gain, so maintaining a healthy weight the best you can during treatment and/or after is so important! Consulting your healthcare provider is important with this one, because a “healthy weight” means different things for different people. But in general, taking care of your body by exercising and eating food that fuels you is a great way to keep a healthy weight.
Reducing Stress: Obviously there are tons of stressors that surround the world of breast cancer, but taking care of your mental health and finding healthy ways to manage stress will help. Some helpful stress relieving techniques include:

Support groups
Work with a psycho oncologist (a specialized field within oncology that works with the emotional responses of patients and their families at all stages of cancer), grief or trauma counselor
Exercise: walks in nature, yoga, pilates
Practicing meditation and mindfulness
Journaling
Gardening
Getting creative- drawing, painting, dancing, ceramics
Massage therapy
Acupuncture
Alternative therapies like energy healing
If you want more tips on reducing stress, check this out

Ask your doctor for a survivorship care plan in writing- this will help you know the signs and symptoms of recurrence to watch for and will help you stay on track with regular screenings. If you want to know more about the importance of screenings, check this blog out.
Be patient in finding what your “new normal” is: This goes with reducing stress and taking care of your mental health, but I think it deserves its own bullet point. If our lives were compared to snow globes, your snow globe has been shaken up at least a few times and you’ve worked so hard to help settle that dust. What you’ve been through is unimaginable to most people, a “new normal” is bound to come after such hardship and there is no timeline! So, taking things at your own pace is so valuable in being satisfied with what you want out of your new life