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Preventing Breast Cancer
Breast cancer affects mainly women with one out of nine women encountering the risk of developing over her lifetime.
Treatment for has advanced with various drugs and procedures being developed and put into clinical use. One of the more common forms of cancer therapy is to undergo chemotherapy treatment. This used to be a painful and fatigue inducing exercise where the patient has to undergo frequent trips to the hospital. However with the introduction of oral chemotherapy, patients can now undertake the medication from the comfort of their own homes. Known as capecitabine pills, patients are prescribed 12 hourly medications for 2 weeks in a row, with another weekly interval in between for the body to recover.
The risks of getting has also been reduced by the introduction of tamoxifen in 1998. This drug has a reported 50% effectiveness but the side effects made it uncomfortable for many patients which includes hot flashes. Tamoxifen has since then been replaced by raloxifene, which has less side effects but delivered the same degree of effectiveness.
Even though modern medicine has advanced research and treatment options to a new level, our modern lifestyle has been linked to playing an important role in raising the risk levels as well. So in my opinion, modern medicine is only playing catch up.
We can take a proactive role
by doing
some of the following activities, if not all of them, to reduce your risk as well as developing a great healthy lifestyle.
An elevated
estrogen level has been linked to greatly increased risk of breast cancer. We
can help rein in our estrogen levels thorough regular 30 minutes a day exercise,
5 times a week. This should help to keep our weight in control which is also
another factor in maintaining healthy estrogen levels. Any gains over 70 pounds
could possibly double our risk levels.
Stay away from foods high in polyunsaturated
fats such as sunflower oils, switch over to olive oil, which is a tasty and healthy
monounsaturated fat source. Fruits and vegetables that are high in carotenoids,
which are known to have cancer reducing properties, have plenty of these on a
daily basis especially carrots, tomatoes and watermelons.
Have a healthy
lifestyle, stay away from alcohol and smoking, these are both high risk factors which you have absolute control over, and you can avoid.
Brian has been writing articles extensively for his own self subject development.
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