While we can’t always prevent cancer, we can do things to help reduce the risk of developing it. Of course, we always hear: eat healthy foods, exercise, don’t smoke. But the message doesn’t seem to be getting through because people still eat junk or high fat foods, still don’t exercise and still smoke.
The Mayo Clinic published 10 tips to reduce cancer risk in their most recent issue of Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource.
Here are the tips and below there’s more explanation:

Stop smoking
Limit alcohol intake – some alcohol is okay, too much is not
Follow recommended intake of fruits and vegetable (daily!)
Decrease the …read more

If you’re wondering what’s wrong with the US Preventive Services Task Force, you’re probably not alone. The task force, composed of 16 health care experts that reviewed medical data, announced earlier this week that women ages 40-49 should perhaps not bother getting a mammogram (CNN: “Task force opposes routine mammograms for women age 40-49″).
Their reasoning is essentially that it doesn’t save enough lives and causes anxiety over false positives and unnecessary biopsies. Only 15% of women in their 40s are diagnosed with breast cancer via mammograms. Isn’t that enough?

Today, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius commented on the controversy …read more

Andrea Ivory knew she was fortunate when she survived breast cancer due to early detection. That made her think of all the women without health insurance who put off getting mammograms and breast exams.

She didn’t just think about it. Andrea started the Florida Breast Health Initiative. Since 2006, Andrea and her team of volunteers have knocked on the doors of around 20,000 homes. And they’ve helped provide more than 500 mammograms to Miami area residents.

Andrea and the Florida Breast Health Initiative volunteers spread the word that “Early detection is the best protection.” They devote the first three Saturdays of each …read more

I have a good collection of cook books that I have accumulated through out the years. Not a lot, but enough to keep me happy. While I “love” them all, I am particularly more enamored with my Better Homes and Garden New Cook Book Pink Ribbon Plaid Cookbook.
It was actually given to me by my dear Mother-In-Law, months before she gave me the 400 Slow Cooker & One-Pot Recipes Cookbook. I*t was quite funny coz I had been waiting for the right time to buy myself a copy. I was always perusing the cookbook everytime we visited the Books A …read more

When a person is going through radiation therapy for cancer treatment, a nasty side effect is often skin toxicity. This can include burns, dry cracking skin, or other uncomfortable skin issues. If the skin toxicity remains fairly mild, then there may not be a problem. But, if the problems get bad, they can have a severe impact on the quality of life and could even bring a woman to the point that she must discontinue treatment.
Interestingly, researchers in Italy discovered that a glass of wine every day could actually help minimize the skin toxicity of radiotherapy. They examined 348 women …read more

My birthday is looming. I’ve never been concerned about my age, but I’ve never been this old before. I still picture myself as a 27-year-old woman and yet, I am so far removed from that age group it is depressing.
I was driving home from my friend Linda’s house (by the way, she is older than me) in this 90-degree heat with my air on 70 (because I don’t like to freeze, especially in summer), when I felt my seat warmer come on. What was so strange about it is that my seat only warms from the seat area, not the …read more

A new wellness program designed especially for cancer patients has been developed in Iowa. The family of Jane Borg Cook, from Cedar Rapids, lost their mother to breast cancer but is helping to turn their grief into a positive thing for others struggling with cancer. They have donated “$75,000 to create the new Jane Borg Cook Wellness Program at St. Luke’s.”

The program will open late in the summer and be free to patients. The center will help cancer patients with “physical, nutritional and psychosocial support” and also help others with chronic conditions.
Image: sxc.hu.

Breast ultrasound examination might eliminate the need for biopsy in many cases of lumps found in a teenager’s breast, researchers at Loyola University Health System recently concluded.

While teenage girls often will undergo an excisional biopsy when a lump is found, that may not be necessary, say the researchers. Breast cancer is rare in adolescents, and most lumps are benign masses related to hormones.
For the study, published in the American Journal of Roentgenology, radiologists performed ultrasound examinations on 20 girls who had lumps in their breasts. The girls were ages 13 to 19. The ultrasounds showed that 15 of the …read more

Breast cancer. After skin cancer, it’s the most common cancer in women in the United States. American women have a one in eight chance of developing some type of breast cancer in their lifetime. The American Cancer Society says that “an estimated 192,370 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed among women in the United States.” But, as shocking at the numbers may be, it’s not new news. We’ve heard it all before.
Imagine now, a 10-year-old girl discovering a lump in her breast tissue – a lump that turns out to be cancer. Not only that, the …read more