One more reason to control your weight

Women sometimes feel there’s nothing they can do to improve their chances of survival after a breast cancer diagnosis. But there is, according to scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and other institutions. Don’t gain weight after age 40. A new study shows premenopausal women who gain more than 35 pounds after age 20 — prior to breast cancer diagnosis — are two times less likely to survive the disease. And postmenopausal women who gain more than 29 pounds after age 50 are nearly three times less likely to survive. Maintaining weight was not associated with the increased risk.