Saturday, December 23, 2017

BREAST CANCER RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #58: Recurrence...Even a SMALL Weight Loss Can Lower Breast Cancer Risk and Recurrence

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://www.breastcancer.org/research-news/lower-risk-with-modest-weight-loss

Because it's the holidays, this one will be short and sweet (hmmm...I just realized that this is more of a pun than I intended...)

“In addition to lower breast cancer risk, losing weight also can help lower any inflammation in your body and also reduce your risk of heart disease and other conditions [including diabetes].”

After moving into our new choice of lifestyle – using Weight Watchers® and teaming TOGETHER – we’ve both lost 30+ pounds and are both feeling better and looking better.

Curious about how my wife’s weight loss might affect the recurrence of BC, though it’s a bit late for reducing the risk of breast cancer, I discovered that “Melinda Irwin, Professor of Epidemiology from Yale University…found that 66 per cent of breast cancer survivors were overweight and obese, and only one in three were meeting physical activity guidelines…[She] also found that a marker associated with breast cancer mortality is reduced by 30 per cent when women reduce their weight by just five per cent. Insulin pathways within the breast tissue were also seen to change in ways that are linked to lowering cancer risk and mortality.”

These articles are NOT talking about surgical weight loss, or stomach stapling, or even expensive weight-loss programs. They’re talking losing amounts that a normal, thoughtful person might be able to do living an average life and skipping the occasional DQ Blizzard. “…you didn’t have to go down to a normal weight. This was a weight loss that was achievable by women making their own decisions, probably very few of them got into formal programs, and so the idea is that you don’t have to… get back to my weight when I was 22 years old…You just have to lose about 5% and you will have a likely health benefit.”

Keep on working toward health! Have a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Holiday, a powerful Kwanzaa, or simply enjoy the beginning of Winter as we begin the slow trek to Spring.


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