The everyWoman Blog: 10 Things To Know About Breast Cancer

Taken from here.

October is a great month: It’s when fall truly sets in, Halloween gives us an excuse to indulge in sweet treats and costume parties—and it’s also Breast Cancer Awareness Month. By now, everyone is familiar with the pink ribbons that abound in honor of this deadly cancer among women, and many of us have raced, shopped or donated in honor of people who’ve been affected by the disease. But before you go enjoy the turning of the leaves and pumpkin-carving parties this month, we think it’s a good time to catch up on some essential facts about breast cancer that you might have forgotten.

Beginning Monday, we’ll be honoring Breast Cancer Awareness with Think Pink Week here on Blisstree, but since it’s officially October, here are 10 things you should know about breast cancer to get you started. Share it on Facebook or send it to your friends to help spread awareness:

1. One in 8 women will get invasive breast cancer in her lifetime. Which is more than you may think.

2. But that doesn’t mean your odds of getting breast cancer are 1 in 8. The statistics sound alarming—and you should be aware that it’s a common disease—but they assume that women live until they’re 85, and they don’t take specific risk factors into account. For 40-year-old women, the odds of getting cancer are just one in 69, so don’t freak out… keep reading.

3. Death rates from breast cancer have been decreasing since 1990, and the change is mostly thought to be caused by earlier detection, greater awareness and treatment advances.

4. But for American women, breast cancer death rates are higher than any other cancer besides lung cancer. And more than 1 in 4 cancers in U.S. women are breast cancer.

5. Your risk for breast cancer doubles if you have a first-degree relative who’s been diagnosed with it. Although only 5-10% of breast cancer cases are linked to gene mutations (BRCA1 or BRCA2), having a mother, sister or daughter who’s been diagnosed with it greatly increases your risk. And about 20-30% of women diagnosed with breast cancer have a family history of breast cancer.

6. Several of the known risk factors are preventable. Breast cancer has been linked to smoking, obesity, drinking alcohol and lack of physical exercise. Avoiding cigarettes, drinking moderately and managing weight through exercise and a healthy diet can help keep your odds of developing breast cancer (and many other types) lower.

7. Chemicals in plastics are linked to breast cancer. In particular, exposure to BPA (found in many plastic products, can linings and some receipts) has been linked to increased risk of cancer. BPA is a synthetic estrogen, so it disrupts the body’s hormonal balance and may encourage breast cancer to develop and grow.

8. You can lower your risk by eating well; particularly consuming foods high in phytochemicals and antioxidants. This doesn’t mean you have to buy expensive supplements or exotic superfoods; increasing your consumption of fruits, vegetables and green tea are easy, cheap ways to lower risk and ensure that your immune system is at its best.

9. Breast self-exams help reduce risk of death from breast cancer. Self-exams and clinical exams are as important as mammograms for early detection of breast cancer.

10. Women with dense breasts are four times more likely to develop breast cancer because the tissue in dense breasts grows and changes faster. It’s also more difficult to detect tumors in dense breasts through mammograms or clinical exams; ask your doctor if you have dense breasts, and see if you need MRI scans to check for early signs of cancer.

Photo: sapixie

Related posts: