Breast Cancer Stories and Information
In honor of October being National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I've created this group for MothersClick members to come and discuss breast cancer screening/mammograms, share the latest news, ask questions, and share personal stories. Have a survivor's story that needs to be told, whether your own or someone close to you? Come talk about it here. Come and talk about this important issue that affects so many women.
7 Members
Club type:
Common Interest
Leader:
pattireis00
Created:
Oct 06, 2009
Talk
15 Simple Tips to Reduce Your Risk!
We know that not all breast cancer can be prevented, some women will unfortunately get it no matter what. But it's still good to follow a few easy tips to stay healthy.
1. Know your family history and risk factors.
2. Be an informed patient. Have an open dialogue with your health care professional to create the best screening plan for
you.
3. By age 20, perform a breast self-exam once a month.
4. In your 20s and 30s, have a clinical breast exam every three years.
5. Beginning at age 40, have an annual clinical breast exam and mammogram.
6. If you are at high risk, talk to your health care professional about beginning to have mammograms at a younger age.
7. Be physically active and exercise regularly. A brisk walk once a day will help reduce your risk.
8. Maintain a healthy body weight.
9. Eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables every day.
10. Restrict sources of red meat and other animal fats (including dairy fat in cheese, milk and ice cream), because they may contain hormones, other growth factors, antibiotics and pesticides.
11. Do not smoke.
12. Limit your alcohol consumption.
13. Reduce your stress to strengthen your immune system.
14. If circumstances allow, consider having children sooner rather than later in life, and breastfeed your babies.
15. Join the Army of Women at armyofwomen.org and be part of groundbreaking research for breast cancer prevention.
Provided by the Prevent Cancer Foundation, the American Cancer Society, Breastcancer.org, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the Center for Disease Control and the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation.
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Common Chemicals Linked to Increased Hormones and Breast Cancer
Dear EarthTalk: Is there any proof linking human breast cancer to exposure to chemicals in the environment? Or do researchers think most cases of breast cancers are genetically inherited?
-- Bettine Carroll, New York, NY
A groundbreaking research study coordinated by the non-profit Silent Spring Institute and recently published by the American Cancer Society found that synthetic chemicals have likely played a large role in the rising incidence of breast cancer throughout the world over the last half-century.
Chemicals Found in Everyday Products Cause Cancer in Animals
The study identified 216 man-made chemicals—including those found in everyday products like pesticides, cosmetics, dyes, drugs and gasoline (and diesel exhaust)—that have been shown to cause breast cancer in animals.
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Researchers believe these substances, many of which “mimic” naturally occurring hormones once inside the body, are also to blame for the increasing prevalence of human breast cancer.
According to epidemiologist Devra Lee Davis of the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health and one of the lead researchers on the new study, the more hormones cycling through a woman’s body during her lifetime, the more likely she is to develop breast cancer. Synthetic chemicals that mimic hormones magnify the risk, as the body doesn’t know the difference between its own real hormones and other introduced chemicals. Only one in 10 women who develop breast cancer inherits a defective gene from their parents, Davis adds, meaning that in 90 percent of breast cancer cases studied, external non-genetic agents (e.g. synthetic chemicals) contributed to the development of the cancer.
Strong Link Between Breast Cancer and the Environment
Another telling clue is the fact that the breast cancer risk of adopted children parallels the risk of the family they grew up in, not that of their biological family, as proven by analyzing medical records from Scandinavian countries that keep detailed registries following people from birth to death. “What we understand is that if cancer runs in your family it could be because your family had similar eating patterns, similar lifestyle patterns as well as lived in the same area,” says Davis. “It’s really important that we take another look at…the kinds of chemicals that we are using everyday,” she adds. “We think that there are alternatives that can be used.”
What Governments are Doing About Synthetic Chemicals
The U.S. government has been reluctant to institute new restrictions on the production of highly profitable synthetic chemicals, but European regulators are taking the issue very seriously. The European Commission’s new Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals Program (REACH) calls on chemical manufacturers selling anywhere in Europe to re-register and re-evaluate the potential health hazards—including cancer risks—of their products. Environmental and public health advocates hope that American chemical companies will follow that lead with chemicals sold here.
How to Reduce Your Risk of Chemical Exposure
In the meantime, consumers can help prevent cancer by:
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