Breast Cancer - Reducing Your Risk

Breast Cancer - Reducing Your Risk

Almost one in twelve women will make grow breast cancer sometime in her life. There are a lot of risk brokers for condensing breast cancer, some within your control and a few that are not. Fortunately, for those factors that are in your control, no great sacrifice is required to minimize them.

Diet

Using up a healthy diet is the first, and in many ways the easiest, step. There's considerable evidence to suggest that diet does alter the odds. While there's nothing you eat that will produce breast cancer, nor anything you can eat to prevent it, a lot of foods are helpful, other people less so.

Since one leading theory indicates that breast cancer is, if not caused by at least encouraged by, free radicals in the blood, eating foods rich in antioxidants is a good idea. Free radicals are charged ions, usually oxygen, that can do damage to cells. Antioxidants chemically combine with these active molecules to render them harmless. There'sample evidence to suggest that eating foods rich in antioxidants lowers the risk of breast cancer. Green River vegetables are great for this purpose, but any others will also help. Apples, strawberries and other fruits are also beneficial. Blood-red wines in moderation, as well as green teas, are rich in antioxidants.

Exercise

Physical exercise is another risk factor within your personal control. Along with diet, not only does it help raise the general level of health but it can help smooth hormone levels and provide other health values. Even if you do contract breast cancer, making up in good shape helps you deal with treatments in an optimal way.

Hormones

Estrogen and progesterone are strongly believed by research worker* to contribute to the risk of contracting breast cancer (the first in particular). These natural hormones are vital for health, but excessive amounts can occur. They are readily stored in fat tissues and regular exercise helps keep your body fat percentage at the appropriate level. Proper diet helps here, too.

Alcohol

High alcohol wasting disease has been correlated with increased cancer risk. It has a typically bad effect on health and tends to raise estrogen levels and interfere with the body's ability to combat antioxidants.

A glass of wine per day is generally beneficial. Still a small drink of hard alcohol can be beneficial. Just for every 10g of alcohol consumed per day over long periods, the peril of contracting breast cancer increases by about 10%.

Menstruation

Reducing the number of menstrual cycles correlates with a reduced risk of experiencing breast cancer, since hormone levels are altered. The jury is still out on the contribution to cancer risk, if any, of taking oral contraceptives.

So far, no clear cut evidence suggests that long term use is harmful. And new pills that may soon come on the market promise to eliminate menstrual cycles entirely.

Gestation, of course, is another way of reducing the risk of breast cancer but it has its own set of risks for other

problems, of course. For those who wish to bear children, however, having them before age 30 has been correlated with a lower risk of breast cancer.

Although there is no magic bullet, a healthy lifestyle is your best preventative. Even if you do contract the disease, better health gives you a much better chance of detecting and eliminating it early. Those in good health have much better adventures of full recovery and long term endurance.

Awareness about the breast cancer

Awareness about the breast cancer

By now you should be familiar with the yellow 'Live Strong' rubber cancer awareness bracelets. They were popularized by seven-time Tour de France cycling champion and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong. The money from their proceeds goes for cancer research.

If he has planning to pitchfork cancer awareness into society's consciousness, Lance Armstrong has done a really good job. His rubber bracelets are ubiquitous today, an ever present awareness tool for cancer, and a fund-raising tool for cancer research.

Among cancer awareness bracelets, next to Armstrong's rubber wristbands come the breast cancer awareness bracelets. However, unlike the 'LiveStrong' rubber band bracelets, these breast cancer awareness bracelets come in different colors. The most popular color for breast cancer awareness bracelets is pink.

But why pink? There is a story behind it: Charlotte Haley, a 68-year-old woman, began making and distributing peach ribbons in the 1990s with cards that read: "The National Cancer Institute annual budget is $1.8 billion, only 5 percent goes for cancer prevention. Help us wake up our legislators and America by wearing this ribbon." Haley's daughter, sister and grandmother had breast cancer. Self magazine wanted to use Haley's ribbon but she refused saying they were too commercial. The magazine came up with another color then -- pink. Focus groups say pink is 'soothing, comforting and healing.' Soon the pink ribbon became the worldwide symbol for breast cancer, and Charlotte Haley's peach ribbon was history.

The National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. says that more than 211,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in America in 2005. Of these 43,300 will die. One woman in eight either has or will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. In addition, 1,600 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 400 will die this year.

However, the breast cancer awareness bracelets can come in all colors, a rainbow of them, depending on the organization or charity selling them. These bracelets usually have some message, such as 'Support Breast Cancer Research And Education' stamped on them.

Well, the breast cancer awareness bracelets needn't be made of rubber or silicone either. The bracelets can be made of pearl, or cats eye, or metal, or any other suitable material. There are even stainless steel breast cancer awareness bracelets! The difference between them is, of course, the price. The rubber ones would sell for around $1 a piece. The metal ones would sell higher. Some pearl breast cancer awareness bracelets sell for around $30 a piece. Such bracelets serve two purposes -- they are jewelry and also spread the message of charity and breast cancer research.

The advantage with rubber breast cancer awareness bracelets, apart from the price, is that they are infinitely customizable. Yes, you can order them in any color and with any message stamped on them. You needn't take them off while washing or playing -- they are all-weather bracelets. And you don't have to worry about losing them, unlike the pearl or cats eye ones.

The rubber breast cancer awareness bracelets can be ordered in bulk or bought in packets of a dozen or so from many Web sites.

what you should know about Breast Cancer

what you should know about Breast Cancer

The chance, that breast cancer is found early, it is more likely to be treated successfully. Checking for cancer in a person who does not have any symptoms is called screening.

Screening-Tests for breast cancer include, among others, clinical breast exams and mammograms and there is a very important base in the health-service for women.

The doctor or other health care professional can check the breasts and underarms for lumps, during a clinical breast exam, which could be a sign of breast cancer.

What is the “mammogram”?

“The mammogram is a special x-ray of the breast and that can often detect cancers that there are too small for a woman or her doctor to feel them. “

A lot of studies show's that mammography screening has reduced the number of deaths from breast cancer. But also, some other studies have not shown a clear benefit from mammography. So- you can't get a 100% results!

But, to day there are no other ways to check out the breast cancer with a good percentage. Concerning that, the Scientists are continuing to examine the level of benefit that mammography can produce. The National Cancer Institute recommends the following:

• you are a woman in your 40s, you should have mammography screening every one to two years.

• you are a woman age 50 and older, you should have mammography screening every one to two years.

• If you are a woman who is at higher than average risk for breast cancer, you should seek expert medical advice about whether to begin screening before age 40 and how often to have screening mammography.

The results are between 5 and 10 percent of mammogram not normal and require more testing. The one good information - the most of these follow-up tests confirm that no cancer was present.

What will be this "more testing"? The doctor will call it a “Biopsy”. The procedure which is needed is to take a small amount of fluid or tissue must remove from the breast to make a diagnosis. A doctor might perform fine needle aspiration, a needle or core Biopsy, or a surgical Biopsy.

This tissue goes to in the lab, this tissue will be checked on the pathologist examines under the microscope and the results let him see if any of the cells are cancerous.

In the last time, the Doctors are studying another new type of surgical biopsy that removes less breast tissue. This new type is called an image-guided needle breast biopsy, or stereotactic biopsy.

With this new system - If approved for general use, we can await, that the result's are much more efficient and clearly, so that the doctors would become an important surgical tool.

Please take note, that eighty percent of U.S. women who have a surgical breast biopsy do not have cancer!

***But take also note, that women who have breast biopsies are at HIGHER RISK of developing breast cancer than women who have never had a breast biopsy.***

If you know that “- you will have perhaps a second opinion of the doctor's information's.

The last technical review - With the magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, and ultrasound we have two other techniques which the researchers think might detect breast cancer with greater accuracy and with lower risk!

What's can help you?

Other new techniques used to find cancer include a new way of reading mammograms called digital mammography.

Magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, and ultrasound are two other techniques which researchers think might detect breast cancer with greater accuracy.