Doctors and researchers are sifting through tons of promising data to conclude how breast cancer occurs. From there, they hope to find ways that will prevent the disease from striking women. To this day, doctors are baffled by the mystery surrounding this silent killer. Why do some women get breast cancer but others do not?

Every person knows someone who is suffering or has suffered from breast cancer. When faced with this particular issue, many women wonder if they too will become afflicted with the disease. This is a normal reaction to something fearful. Women often look for ways to lessen their chances of getting breast cancer. However, there just isn't enough prevention data out for women to make effective health choices to keep the disease at bay. There is no way to prevent the disease from striking a woman at the present moment.

Researchers are looking to two factors, internal and external, which affect women's health, thus increasing the chances of them getting the disease.

Internal Factors

What sort of internal factors are used by researchers in determining why a woman may or may not get breast cancer? For starters, they will look at genetics. Those are the genes that are given at conception by the parents. Next, hormones are then looked at followed by illness, feelings and finally thoughts.

External Factors

What sort of external factors do researchers look at when making a breast cancer determination in women? They tend to look at the air everyone breathes, the food and drinks that are consumed. They'll look at music and noise as well as people and lastly, stress. Each day, the external factors enter the human body. Another thing researchers look at when dissecting the factors is how these external factors are inhaled into the body. This can include the home, the workplace or the people women are around.

Researchers know that two factors will have a direct impact on a woman's breast health. These direct impacts include the genetic makeup of the woman or medicines that she is taking to live healthier. However, little information is known regarding the indirect factors that can affect a woman's breast health. These indirect factors include but aren't limited to: exercise, air quality, time together with friends/family and meditation.

When trying to understand breast cancer and its factors, women need to know that anything that amplifies their chances of getting the disease is a risk factor. When a factor reduces the woman's chance of getting breast cancer, it's known as a protective factor.

Women do have some control over breast cancer risk factors. For instance, if a woman is overweight, she can lose the extra baggage she carries. An informed decision regarding the medicines she takes is another control factor.

While women can controls some aspects of their health, there are still many others they cannot change. This includes gender. Women are at much greater risk than men to develop breast cancer. Why? Men's bodies do not have near as much estrogen and progesterone which is vital in growing normal and abnormal breast cells. Another factor that cannot be changed is age. Growing older is a part of life.

If a woman wants to reduce her chances of getting breast cancer, she could find ways to raise the protective factors to outweigh the internal factors that are already working against her. However, controlling those factors to work in her favor does not mean she will not get breast cancer. Yet, women can be at high risk to get the disease but never develop it.

Women should always speak with their physician regarding their risk factors behind breast cancer. The more women know, the better the chance of surviving this disease.