How to care for breasts to stay healthy, beautiful, and toned

Not a few women tend to ignore the health of their own breasts. In fact, breasts can also get disease if they are not taken care of. One of them is breast cancer, the number two killer of women after cervical cancer. So, how do you care for your breasts to stay healthy and firm? Just take a look at the points below.

Various ways to care for breasts stay healthy even though you get older

1. Get enough rest

If you want to have healthy and firm breasts, immediately stop the habit of staying up late. Sleeping too late can expose the body to light longer, either from room lights or light cellphone, thus suppressing the production of the hormone melatonin.

The hormone melatonin is a hormone that helps you fall asleep. When the production of the hormone melatonin is disrupted, this can increase levels of the hormone estrogen, which is the hormone that triggers cancer in the body.

Therefore, make sure you get enough sleep for 7 to 8 hours every day so that your body's hormones stay balanced. This way, your breasts will remain healthy and firm even as you age.

2. Eat lots of vegetables and fruit

Everything you eat has a huge impact on your health, including your breasts. Eating a healthy diet can help reduce the risk of diseases that can attack the breast, especially breast cancer.

In order to keep your breasts healthy and firm, eat lots of vegetables and fruit every day that contain flavonoids and carotenoids. These two compounds include antioxidants that can help prevent breast cancer.

Examples of fruits and vegetables that you can consume are green vegetables, tomatoes, eggplant, carrots, broccoli, onions, apples, oranges and other citrus fruits.

3. Avoid stress

Breast health can also be affected if you are stressed. This happens because several types of hormones in the body become unstable during stress. Not only that, stress is also touted as a trigger for breast cancer, you know.

A stressed person will usually find an escape by doing all the things he likes, even if it is not healthy for his body. For example drinking alcohol, smoking, or overeating. Although it can make him feel more relaxed, this can actually lead to various diseases, including breast cancer.

As a solution, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Healthy Lifestyle Program provides special tricks so that you don't get stressed easily every day. Three ways to deal with stress are:

• Regulate breathing. Take a deep breath in through your nose, and slowly exhale through your mouth. This can help regulate your brain waves to become more stable, which can make you much calmer.
• Watch your favorite comedy movies. It's no secret that laughter provides many health benefits. Laughter activates areas of the brain that regulate happiness as well as suppresses stress levels in the body.
• Chant positive mantras. Once you are stressed, say positive words immediately and make this a mantra. This can help train your mind and make you feel more comfortable.

4. Sports

Regular exercise is one of the easiest ways to treat your breasts that you can do. Exercise can help tone your breasts so that they prevent sagging breast problems. In addition, regular exercise can also reduce the production of the hormone estrogen, which is said to trigger cancer.

Reporting from Self, the American Cancer Society recommends women to do aerobic exercise for at least 150 minutes a week so that their immunity is maintained. However, you can also do other types of exercise that you like, as long as they are done consistently.

5. BSE

Because of its hidden location, some women often neglect the health of their own breasts. In fact, you need to recognize signs of normal and abnormal breasts to detect breast cancer early.

The easiest way to recognize your own breasts is to do BSE or check your own breasts. This method can help you detect lumps in the breast that lead to breast cancer.

To do BSE, you only need hands, eyes, and the help of a mirror to help see changes in your breasts. The best time to do BSE is a few days after you finish menstruating.

First, stand in front of a mirror with your arms straight down. Watch for lumps or changes in shape and size in the breast. But remember, your right and left breasts are not exactly the same and this is normal.

Next, raise your left hand. Feel the left breast with your right hand. Perform a circular motion with gentle pressure in a clockwise direction, then a movement from top to bottom, and a movement from the center outwards. After that, do the same movement on your right breast.

Apart from standing, you can also do this examination while taking a shower or lying down to make it easier to feel your breasts. Most importantly, there is no need to rush when conducting an inspection. Make sure all surfaces of the breasts have been palpated and there are no suspicious lumps.

6. Mammography

Even though you have adopted a healthy lifestyle, there is nothing wrong with a screening test with mammography. Yes, mammography is one of the ways to maintain healthy breasts by detecting the presence or absence of cancer cells in the breast.

Mammography is a medical procedure that uses low doses of X-ray radiation to your breasts. This examination aims to see the possibility of cancer cells, even before a lump appears in your breast.

Mammography should be done every 1 to 2 years, especially in women aged 50 to 74 years. However, you can also get this check from the age of 40 years to prevent breast cancer as early as possible.