Tuesday, October 1, 2013

When You See Pink Everywhere this October....



...please think about all the ladies who have heard, "You have breast cancer," and offer up a prayer. And money is needed for research and treatment, so do consider giving. But please know the group(s) to whom you are giving, or your gift may not have your intended effect.

See, this is not your typical October breast cancer awareness plea, urging indiscriminate giving, screening, or treatment, based on conventional wisdom and methods. Neither is is an angry rant against pink-washing. (Although it is easy to understand such anger when companies "wash" their products in pink in October advertising, sending the messages to unwary customers, "We care and are helping." -Products which, in fact, raise breast cancer risk, and they just keep right on making and selling them.) Nor is it a warning to avoid screenings or treatments which, though perhaps overused and which certainly carry their own risks, have their place and are powerful tools of detection. It is a reminder that treatment and detection have their place, but do not protect us from cancer. This is a plea for awareness that the only thing that does is PREVENTION.
And it's such a simple thing to do.


This October, please be aware that:
-Prevention receives a tiny fraction of funding or attention. 
-Diet, fitness and stress management matter more than anything.
-A woman's chance of getting breast cancer is 1 in 8. But that's in a lifetime, and only if we all live to age 85. Actually, most women are more interested in the risk of being diagnosed at a certain age or over a certain time period (such as ten years) than at some point during their lifetime. According to latest reports, the risk that a woman will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the next ten years, starting at the following ages, is as follows:
Age 30: 0.44% (1 in 227)                Age 50: 2.38 % (1 in 42)              Age 70: 3.82 % (1 in 26)
Age 40: 1.47% (1 in 68)                  Age 60: 3.56 % (1 in 28)

Also, please be aware that:                      
-Breast cancer is not one disease. It is many. About 25% grow slowly and may not be deadly. When these patients survive a long time, it makes it appear that breast cancer death rates go down a lot. But they actually haven't that much.While treatment for deadly disease is improving, we are obviously over-treating many with non-deadly disease. Why? Because non-deadly disease can turn deadly, and we don't yet fully know how or why. We really need to spend more money on predicting disease, and on learning how to keep it from spreading in the body.
-Mammograms save lives, but likely far fewer than we've been told. That is why guidelines are ever-changing. And as they pose their own risk, each patient should carefully personalize their use. 
-Mammograms/MRIs only see cancer, they do not prevent it. This is important. 
-Self-exams only feel cancer, they do not prevent it. -Also important.
This is not to say that we shouldn't screen. It's just far better to act long before that. -We need to prevent the changes in the body which harm DNA and cause tumors to form in the first place.
-If told you need cancer treatment, you can study to know your own individual risk. It may mean that you can avoid standard treatments and their own risks. (Doctors may not let you know that.)

Prevention: the Best by-Product of Awareness

Simple things prevent cancer:
Get good food, water, (moderate) sun and exercise. Breast feed. Limit alcohol, tobacco, sugar, fear, hurt, and stress. Learn more.

Younger women: know your progesterone levels! Progesterone deficiency is implicated in serious, advanced forms of cancer that appear years before screening would even start.

Finally and most important, love, laugh, forgive, and cast off worry and fear. Live in today and tomorrow will take care of itself. Care for others but also care for yourself. Do for others but know when to say, "no." Plan but leave room for the unexpected, and let it roll off your back. Life is to be lived! Breathe deeply and do the things you'd always hoped to do. Why not? And why not now? Freedom in the mind and spirit are critically important to the health of the body, so please do not neglect yourself.

It really doesn't take that much money to get the word out to be healthy, screen smart, and think for ourselves. But we do need to share. If you agree, please pass it on.

My recommendation for giving this year: National Breast Cancer Coalition. I've been vetting them for the past summer and like their not-always-in-lockstep yet always calm, reasonable approach. 

I've learned more about Breast Cancer in the last few months than I'd like. But maybe it can help prevent someone else from ever hearing those words (or help someone who has to have more hope and power.)
Learn and live, sisters (and brothers)! Health, life and peace to you.