HHS HealthBeat (January 27, 2006)

Race, exercise and breast cancer

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Exercise can reduce the risk of getting breast cancer – and researchers now can say that's true for black women as well as white. While it might seem obvious, scientists couldn't be sure because prior studies had not focused on minorities.

To fill that gap, researcher Leslie Bernstein of the University of Southern California conducted a large study of black and white women who developed breast cancer and those who did not. Her study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health, was in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

"We recruited both black and white women. Our conclusion was that we saw comparable reductions in risk among black and white women." (nine seconds)

The study found, though, that black women were less likely to be exercisers – and so less likely to get the benefit.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: August, 15 2006