If you want to maintain beautiful and youthful breasts there are definite dos and don’ts to follow. The dos: breast feeding, daily moisturizing and hormone replacement therapy will make your breasts more beautiful. The don’ts: smoking, drinking alcohol and pregnancy are disadvantages for breast appearance.

ABC News, September 4, 2012, reports on a study of 161 pairs of identical twins that was published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal. Basically, the study shows that the way you treat your breasts influences how they age.

The study assumes that it is unlikely that both twins in a pair would be subject to the same environmental factors over the course of their lives. However, because twins have similar breasts genetically, if their breasts age differently, that difference is likely to be caused by environmental factors.

Twins come annually from all over the country to have fun and celebrate at the annual Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio. Researchers used that opportunity to find study subjects. Participants were consenting women between the ages of 25 and 74 with an average age of 45.5 years old. The study had two parts. First, each set of twins was given a questionnaire on lifestyle habits, including smoking, drinking, number of pregnancies, use of a bra, stress at work, sports, hormone replacement therapy, moisturizing and exposure to the sun. Each twin answered independently. Then, photos of the twins' breasts were taken. Those photos were subjectively evaluated by independent reviewers who assessed skin tone, droopiness, shape and areola size.

Here are the study results: like moisturizing the face, moisturizing the breasts seems to have an obvious advantage for breast appearance, causing fewer wrinkles. Further, those who received hormone replacement therapy after menopause had more attractive breast shape, size, projection, areolar shape and areolar size. The most surprising result was that the study seemed to refute myths about the negative effects of nursing a baby, “Even though the size and shape of the areola had suffered, skin quality was better in women who breast fed.” Researchers explained that although being pregnant has a negative effect on breast appearance, women who breast feed have a different hormonal situation, which is similar to internal hormone replacement. So despite the pregnancy disadvantages, they gained some benefit.

Other factors like higher body mass index (BMI) and larger bra and cup sizes also contribute to accelerated breast aging, according to the study.

An estimated 316,848 women had breast augmentations and 127,054 had breast lifts performed in 2011, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Now, you can use lifestyle behaviors to slow the aging process and avoid surgical intervention