Breast Cancer kills more women than any other cancer except lung cancer. It is said that one of every eight women can be affected by Breast cancer during their lives.
The cancer can be caused due to genetics, hormones, lifestyle, diet, benign breast diseases or the environment.
Even though it is known why women can get breast cancer, they don’t know why some women will get it and others don’t, while sharing the same risks.
Breast cancer shows no signs of symptoms and due to this there are a few things in place that the doctors use to help detect cancer. Lumps can be detected by a breast examination or a mammogram. Nowadays, they also have special genetic tests that can be done to detect the possibility of having breast cancer. If a lump is detected, they will requests more test, such as an MRI or an Ultrasound. They will also request a biopsy to make sure that the lump is benign.
As any other type of cancer, it can take a toll on a person’s body. There are many survivors of breast cancer but they had to really go through so much. They have had to go through surgeries which removed one or both breast, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and medications. It is an illness that will affect the woman and their family.
Today, researchers have found that women can help reduce their risk of getting breast cancer. This may sound simple but just by dieting, exercising and keeping your stress levels down, can actually help women get a fighting chance of keeping breast cancer away. Below are a few suggestions to help you reduce your risks.
EGGS
In recent studies, woman who had a higher intake of a nutrient found in eggs, choline, reduced their risk of getting cancer by 24%. This is just by eating one egg a day, you can get 146 mg a day. Choline is found in vitamin B complex but women don’t take enough of this vitamin. Other food sources with choline are fish (146 mg per 6 oz) and turkey (116 mg per cup).
SALAD DRESSING
As long as your salad dressing is made with extra virgin olive oil, it will help find and destroy cancer cells on contact. It is an antioxidant that will help you reduce your risk by 25%. This actually helps in inactivating breast cancer genes that one in three women carries. Add two 2tbs of olive oil to your daily diet.
EXERCISE
Researchers suggest working out for three to five hours a week will cut the risk of breast cancer by 50%. This will reduce tumor promoting estrogen in the bloodstream. Try to stay at a healthy weight.
TRANS FAT
Women should avoid trans fat which actually doubles the risk of getting breast cancer. Trans fat will block the enzymes from breaking carcinogens.
STRESS
Reducing the stress in your life will lower the risk of breast cancer. Researchers found that women under the age of 45 who suffered two or more traumatic life events had a higher than average rate of depression and greater chance of breast cancer. It is due to the affects of stress on the body, it affects the nervous, endocrine and immune systems. This weakens the body, leaving you with less resistance against breast cancer.
GREEN TEA
It is one of nature’s richest sources of EGCG, a compound that surrounds and starves the cancerous cells by shutting off their blood supply. Drink green tea at least two times a day to help protect you from breast cancer.
APPLES
The saying is “An apple a day will keep the doctor away”. Well eating three apples a day will reduce breast cancer by over 38%. It reduces the odds of breast tumors by 29%. When eating the apples make sure to wash the skin well and eat the skin, which is where the most helpful antioxidants are found.
There are over a 150,000 new cases a year of breast cancer and 40,000 deaths. When a woman is told they have breast cancer, fear, sadness and despair hits them. How do you react, what do you do, how long do you have, all these thoughts run through your mind. If this is told to someone you love you feel the same feelings.
These are the words that all women dread and never want to hear. However, women have the chance to reduce their risk, as noted above, by just making a few changes to their regular routines. In addition to these changes, there are the yearly mammograms and self breast examinations.
Other ways women can reduce their risk of breast cancer even more is by reducing their alcohol intake, quit smoking, lose weight and just take better care of themselves.
However, it is true, that even those that do everything in their power, they were unable to prevent getting breast cancer. That should not bring a person down or make them give up. On the contrary, by doing many of these changes to their lives, they made themselves a lot strong to fight the cancer. Get it out of their body and be able to go through all the treatments need. At times, these changes actually reduce the amount of treatments they need to fight off cancer.
Everyday new research and studies are performed to find better ways to fight breast cancer. There are more survivors each year. Women should remember one thing, to be around longer with those you love, to fight any illness, to survive, you must first put your health on the top of the list and make sure you do everything you can to prevent any type of illness or disease. Keep yourself healthy, happy and fit.