Breast Cancer can affect anybody — you, your mother, your sister, your daughter, or your friend. As we age, our risk of developing this deadly illness increases. On average, one out of every seven women will fall victim to breast cancer in a 90-year life span. What this means is that if you live to be 90, you have a 14% chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer.
There are certain things that will affect your risk, such as smoking, genetics, age, too much estrogen, being overweight, drinking more than two alcoholic beverages per week, and diet, among other risk factors.
To lower your risk, you can focus on the things you can control — we cannot change our gender, nor can we stop aging, but we can manipulate other areas of our lives. There are things that you can do to reduce the risk. Ensure that you receive regular screenings including both your annual check-up and a yearly mammogram.
Also, make sure that you eat a well-balanced diet that is low in fat and high in vitamins and minerals. Exercise, cut out the nicotine, limit your alcohol intake, and keep your stress levels at bay. Also ensure that you are only taking medications that you require.
These are factors that we can and should be controlling. Because of the high numbers of women diagnosed with breast cancer each year, currently there is a lot of research being done on this disease as a result.
Some of the research is promising and has led to treatment options, which have, in turn, made a diagnosis of breast cancer no longer tantamount to a death sentence.
Unfortunately, other treatments are not quite as promising. Based on prior studies on other tumors, researchers attempted to determine whether or not cholesterol-lowering drugs would have an impact on breast cancer. Unfortunately, the drugs did not.
In a study of almost 80,000 nurses, researchers were unable to find a link between the reduction of risk and the statin drug that was being used. That said, it does not increase your risk of developing breast cancer, either — which is beneficial to know for those women taking these types of cholesterol-lowering medications.
Another study was conducted, which was again based on previous research — this time based on another study which showed that married men were more likely to survive head and neck cancer than those men who were single.
Based on this theory, researchers set out to determine whether or not married women were more likely to survive a battle with breast cancer as compared to single women. It turns out that being single does not reduce your rate of survival according to a study of just over 2,000 women.
While support is important, women can find it in a number of areas, such as support groups and friends and family. When it comes to fighting breast cancer, women do not need to rely solely on a spouse for support.
Next Post: Is Your Dog Your Heart’s Best Friend?
Previous Post: Obese People More Likely to Experience Recurring Prostate Cancer
Tags: Breast Cancer, exercise, vitamins
