This is the final1 part of my series on Breast Cancer prevention as part of Pink for October. I got a bit distracted by Halloween that I didn’t get to finish2 this series in October, but we should all be aware about Breast3 Cancer all year round anyway so I figured it would be ok to continue it now.

If you haven’t already, you should really check out Parts 1, 2 and 3 in this series so that it all makes sense to you.

9. Continuing where Part 3 left off, the next tip is for those who are at high risk of getting breast cancer; they say to consider taking drugs that are ‘anti-estrogen’ such as tamoxifen, though I’m not quite sure what that means. I assume it means it kills the excess estrogen that is being produced by your body to help decrease the chance of cancer.

10. How here’s a kick in the pants4, it is suggested to have your children young and breast feed them. “Young” is before 30 apparently. Well, that means I have 3 years and 4 days to have my first child and I’m sorry… but I’m just not ready. I’m still too much of a child to have one of my own. But its a statistical finding so I’m not going to take the advice with a grain of salt and conclude that its ok to have my first child even in my early 30’s. After all, who knows what variables they ignored while conducting their survey?!

11. This one’s a bit of a no-brainer at this stage, though not necessarily for preventing cancer. Avoiding exposure to pesticides is something that we’ve been trying to avoid for a very long time now. But I’m guessing there’s a reason this is at the bottom of the list, apparently there hasn’t been any conclusive evidence linking exposure to the actual disease.

12. And last but not least (Drum roll please)… I wish I had put this as the number one reason but I didn’t want to mix it up in case I forget the order I did them in: Don’t Smoke! Ok so its only indirectly connected to breast cancer, but its directly linked to lung cancer and that’s one cancer too many to be linked to, so why do it? Just stop. Stop. Just stop. Ok? Ya done? Cool.

And finito! I really hope you guys have enjoyed this series. I’m not so sure how good I am at writing series posts so I won’t be doing them that often. But I know I enjoyed trying it out and I’m glad I finished it5.

Have you learnt something from this series?

1. and very delayed [↩]
2. or write any other posts for that matter [↩]
3. and all sorts of [↩]
4. for me [↩]
5. even if I didn’t finish it on time — I definitely couldn’t work in Journalism [↩]

To continue where we left off…

7. The next tip is one that I’m not sure I can do because I don’t like taking something chemical everyday1 but they are suggesting that taking seven or more aspirin can inhibit oestrogen production in your body2.

8. Here’s one that the guys will certainly love to help out with: Practice breast (self-)examinations. I’m sure I don’t need explain why these are important in preventing breast cancer. But just so we’re clear, its like getting your teeth checked regularly3 or going for your annual physical. The earlier you find something wrong, the easier it will be fight/fix it.

I know this is one thing I need to do more often, its not so much fear of finding a lump but more so that its boring – but I suppose it wouldn’t interfere with that day that much if I add it to my daily shower. I mean I’m in there naked already, and I usually run my hands all along my body while rinsing anyway… I can just take an extra few seconds to rub around the right areas right?

So there’s a tad bit more to think about… You may notice that I’m dragging this out as much as possible. That’s because I find if I don’t read over the information more than once and let it sink in for sometime the information will just fly out of my brain soon as I put it there.

So, what did you learn today?

1. even though I already take allergy meds, and multivitamins everyday [↩]
2. I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that it will limit it to a healthy level [↩]
3. which incidentally, I wouldn’t know anything about since I never go [↩]

I needed a few days to let my last post sink in to my own head, so I decided to take a break before posting this next part up. Also, the next pointer is going to be a real tough one for me so I needed to mentally prepare myself for it!

3. CanadianLiving.com suggest that the #3 thing you should do to lower your chances of getting breast cancer is to limit your alcohol intake. Crap on a stick! Granted, I actually don’t drink that much if you take my average the amount I’ve had over my entire adult1, but I’m pretty sure that limiting alcohol intake would include not binge drinking.

4. Ah, finally a tip that I should have no problem following: Eat more fruits and vegetables. Also, this tip helps counter my failure from tip #3. At least according to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Fruit and vegetables are meant to lower your risk of cancer in general. In particular Carrots, Broccoli, Zucchini, Cabbage2, Peas, Sweet Peppers, Tomatoes, Spinach, Garlic and Onions are your best allies in battling cancer. Now, I just need to work on increasing my daily vegetable intake!

5. The next pointer they give is one that’s always our minds as women, avoid the fat or more accurately eat the right fat. Omega-3 has been pumped into our brains enough by advertising, that I think even I3 knows by now that its good for your heart and overall health, and now I know that it also helps my breast health.

6. This next tip, has my eyes as large as saucers: Women must carefully consider HRT. I first heard about Hormone Replacement Therapy as my Mum went through meopause. I thought that HRT was necessary for women who going through menopause as their bodies no longer go through the menstrual cycle that helps keep the hormones cycling through our bodies as necessary. To find out that it could actually cause cancer?! GAH.

I suppose it makes sense, if you think about it, an increase in hormones in your body would logically increase your chance of getting cancer… but still. GAH.

*sigh* I think I’ll stop here to let these sink in4.

Did you learn something today?

1. and perhaps teenage life [↩]
2. ew [↩]
3. an ignorant, by choice, consumer [↩]
4. and to give me a chance to research this HRT thing further [↩]