Dr. Leon Speroff maintains that heart attack risk increased after the age of 70 for women. He also says a “number of studies indicate estrogen therapy very likely does reduce heart disease in women under 60.”

Furthermore, he says estrogen doesn’t increase the risk of cancer, per se, but makes the growth of a tumor already there to get larger more quickly.

Image: sxc.hu.

Post from: Blisstree

Hormone Therapy for Younger Women

According to one study, an “analysis of 5450 women shows that higher circulating insulin levels lead to twice the likelihood of breast cancer.” In postmenopausal women, higher insulin levels contributed to the risk even among women of a normal weight. This research seems to confirm that a healthy diet (which can keep insulin levels down) is all the more important for women.

Image: sxc.hu.

Post from: Blisstree

Insulin Linked to Breast Cancer

The majority of vitamin D comes from exposure of the skin to sunlight but many women – exposed less in winter and reluctant to bare themselves in summer because of the dangers – are deficient.

There has been anecdotal evidence to suggest that breast cancer is less common among women who live closer to the Equator, where the sunshine is stronger.

But a new study conducted by Creighton University provided evidence that the lower the levels of vitamin D in a woman’s blood-stream, the greater the risk of her developing breast cancer at post-menopausal stage.

“Our findings of decreased all-cancer risk with improved vitamin D status are consistent with a large and still growing body of epidemiologic and observational data showing that cancer risk, cancer mortality, or both are inversely associated with solar exposure, vitamin D status, or both.”

Sunshine is the major source of Vitamin D (where Vitamin D is manufactured in the skin by exposure to sunlight), but it is also present in foods such as milk, eggs, oily fish, green vegetables and fortified margarines.

I remember what one commenter her said…something like you really cannot win: one thing may be bad for something but good for another.

Sunlight is the perfect example. Expose yourself to it, you get skin cancer but not breast cancer -according to this study’s findings.

But I guess you can think of ways to benefit from both. Like if you are brown like me, I should already have a built-in protection from the harmful rays of the sun. Or maybe live in the tropics… or something.

Source: Times Online

Post from: Blisstree

Sunlight Against Breast Cancer

[I had a nausea-free pregnancy you know!]

Such were the findings of University of Buffalo epidemiologists, recently presented at the Society for Epidemiologic Research’s annual meeting in Boston.

According to David Jaworowicz, Jr., first author on the study and a doctoral candidate in the Department of Social Preventive Medicine in UB’s School of Public Health and Health Professions:

“Although the exact mechanism responsible for causing nausea and vomiting during pregnancy has yet to be pinpointed, it likely is a result of changing levels of ovarian and placental hormone production, which may include higher circulating levels of a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin. In vitro studies have shown that this hormone possesses several activities that have potential protective effects against cancer cells.”

The said study was based on data from participants in the Western New York Exposure and Breast Cancer Study – a population-based case-control study of breast cancer conducted in women 35-79 from two Western New York counties between 1996 and 2001.

No cause for alarm though because the researchers admit that these were only preliminary findings: based mainly upon whether women “ever” experienced these conditions vs. “never” during any of their pregnancies.

Find more details from the full report.

Post from: Blisstree

Nausea and Vomiting During Pregnancy Could Mean Lower Risk of Breast Cancer

But don’t we know that already?

However, a University of Leeds research found a striking association in post-menopausal women.

…those with the highest intake of red meat, the equivalent to one portion a day (more than 57 grams) – run a 56 per cent greater risk of breast cancer than those who eat none.

Women who eat the most processed meat, such as bacon, sausages, ham or pies, run a 64 per cent greater risk of breast cancer than those who eat none.

This recent finding was derived from the eating habits and health of 35,000 women for the past seven years (earlier findings showed that pre-menopausal women who have the greatest intake of fibre have cut their risk of breast cancer in half) and published in the British Journal of Cancer.

I guess we ladies should just stay away from red meat and processed meats (these, I admit is too hard to stay away from!).

Source

Post from: Blisstree

Red Meat and Risk of Breast Cancer