Avoiding Breast Cancer
Post date: July 15th, 2006Although humanity has been made aware of breast cancer as a disease even since ancient times, science and medicine have yet to find a practical cure, other than surgery. The Egyptians were the first to discover this condition, marking it as “untreatable”. Roughly 3000 years later, we still don’t have an answer to all the questions that are brought up by breast cancer and even surgery has its risks and is a radical method that could have unpleasant side effects, not to mention the fact that it’s not always 100% efficient. So the only surefire way to “treat” breast cancer is to avoid it entirely. The following article will try to shed some light on the subject and we’ll dissect the main factors that are responsible for breast cancer and how to eliminate them.
Let’s start with what we eat. Our diet has a huge part in determining whether or not we risk getting breast cancer. And by diet, I’m not only referring to food, but to drinking and smoking too. Alcohol has been proven to have an encouraging effect for the cancerous cells that produce the breast tumor and studies show that a woman drinking a glass of wine each day will have an increased chance of getting breast cancer than one who doesn’t. The risk goes up with the amount of alcohol that one consumes on a daily basis, heavy drinkers being more prone to developing the cancerous cells than “casual” drinkers. Although the numbers cannot be consistently tested, statistics show that women that drink alcohol have a 10% increased chance of getting breast cancer than those who don’t drink at all. This, of course, does not mean that you can’t have a beer or a glass of wine at dinner every once in a while, just don’t make it a habit.
On the same extent, smoking will grant you a higher chance of getting breast cancer. Smoking, in general, is known to be a major cause for lung cancer, however it’s been proven that it has almost equally negative effects when it comes to breast cancer too. The majority of women suffering from breast cancer are either active or passive smokers, so the link between them is quite obvious, although from a medical point of view, the evidence is not quite as clear. Still, quitting smoking and drinking will give you a good chance of avoiding breast cancer at older ages.
A few other proven causes of the disease include having an abortion (some institutions say that the risk of breast cancer is upped by almost 250% in such a case), taking birth control pills and other hormonal (estrogen) manipulating medications. All these factors are easily avoidable, although you and your partner might have to make a few sacrifices along the way. But considering your own life is at stake, these sacrifices will be well worth it.
This said, it should be noted that breast cancer might appear even though you took all the above mentioned precautions. Sometimes, the cause of breast cancer is simply ageing and there’s little you can do to avoid that. Still, even if quitting smoking, drinking or finding an alternative method to the birth control pill can reduce your chances of getting breast cancer, the effort is well worth it, since the stake is none other than your own personal health and ultimately, your life.
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