From the first moment
my wife discovered she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from
the men I know. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer
seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did
little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known
reason, I started this blog…
Every month, I’ll be
highlighting breast cancer research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from
different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable
English and share them with you. Today: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3322/caac.21225/abstract;jsessionid=AB68024307C6BEBA9839C5AED2B5EC49.f03t03
While this isn’t exactly a “breakthrough”, it IS research
that highlights the fact that we do less to promote the PREVENTION of breast
cancer than we do treating the disease. “With more than 234,000 new breast cancer diagnoses in the United States
each year, efforts to improve treatment and early detection resonate strongly
with clinicians and patients alike. Breast cancer prevention has received far
less attention but holds tremendous promise. In a discussion of cancer genomics
published in Science, Vogelstein et al note, ‘When we think of
cardiovascular or infectious diseases, we first consider ways to prevent them
rather than drugs to cure their most advanced forms.’”
I’ve highlighted the connection between exercise and breast
cancer recovery –and now I’ve labeled and grouped all of them together. You can
read them all here: http://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/search/label/Exercise
But as I just said, none of these are about PREVENTING
breast cancer. With my daughter, I’d just as soon see her begin to consider
preventing breast cancer using the recommendations of this study – and do NOT
include prophylactic radical mastectomies.
They can be simply reduced to integrating eight factors into
a woman (and a man’s!) lifestyle. Let me iterate one thing however: doing these
eight things DOES IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM GUARANTEE FREEDOM FROM BREAST
CANCER.
There is nothing that guarantee that. If you don’t have a
spiritual life, Mother Nature is notoriously fickle in following our
directions. If you do have a spiritual life, you know that prayer is not magic
and we are not God: “To pray is nothing more involved than to open the door,
giving Jesus access to our needs and permitting Him to exercise His own power
in dealing with them.” (O. Hallesby)
However, these seem to be sensible steps to take for breast
cancer prevention:
- Keep Weight in Check
- Be Physically Active
- Avoid Too Much Alcohol
- Breast Feed If Possible
- Avoid Birth Control Pills, Particularly After Age 35 or If You Smoke
- Avoid Post-Menopausal Hormones
- Find Out Your Family History
- Tamoxifen and Raloxifene for Women at High Risk
Not sure about the last one – but that’s a “see your doctor”
one. Also you should research that yourself. You can start here: http://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2012/12/breast-cancer-research-right-now-5-take.html
Most of the above could be reasonably grouped into the “clean
living” category that often pops up when the media interviews centenarians, so
following them might just be a ticket to long life AS WELL AS the prevention of
breast cancer.
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