The life lesson: the better care you take of your breast health, the better equipped you’ll be to face breast cancer. The successful woman: Renée Zellweger.

“[Every woman] should put breast exams on a list of things you deserve to do,” says the Academy award-winning actress Zellweger. “You deserve to have a mammogram every year after a certain stage of life.”

Here’s how Renée Zellweger coped with a breast cancer scare, and how to take care of your own breast health. Being proactive and responsible not only gives you power, it increases your ability to cope with health scares…even the nasty ones like breast cancer. And, click on Better Breast Health for Life by Tirza Derflinger et al for more info on preventing cancer and other diseases.

Here’s a different take on health and illness: Making Yourself Sick With Breast Cancer? Olivia Newton-John.

Taking Care of Your Breast Health – Renée Zellweger

1. Do regular breast self-exams. How many times have you heard the importance of regular breast self-exams? Hundreds, I bet. How often do you actually check your breast health? If you’re like me, it’s “almost never.” Here’s Zellweger’s advice: “It’s your responsibility to be proactive. It’s your power. It doesn’t belong to someone else. It’s you in your shower, doing your self checks.”

2. Get your lumps checked right away. Zellweger found a lump in 1996, right after finishing the movie Jerry Maguire. She had a fine-needle biopsy at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and found out that it was benign (no breast cancer!). The life lesson from this successful woman: take care of your health even if you’re scared of the results. Whether it’s a breast cancer lump or a changing skin mole – you need to be proactive and take care of your health concerns as soon as they arise — and overcome your fear.

3. Find ways to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. “I love my salmon really crispy on a spinach salad chopped up with lots of onions and tomatoes,” says Zellweger. “It’s my favorite, favorite thing…I’d eat it every day if I could. I like to eat healthy food.” To take care of aspects of your health, find enjoyable ways to get and stay healthy! Play with different foods and ingredients until you find healthy recipes that you like – like Zellweger’s salmon and spinach salad. Find physical activities that you actually enjoy (read 10 Workouts to Boost Your Metabolism), that you look forward to doing.

What do you think of this info about taking care of your breast health? I welcome your comments below…

To learn more about taking care of your breast health, go to the American Cancer Society. And, read Women’s Health Tips for Disease Prevention for general health info for women. Source of Renée Zellweger’s info: Self magazine, “Facing Forward: Renée Zellweger confronts fears the same way she finds joy: head-on.” October 2008.