Hey, it's October, which means it is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the time of year when every store will have a million pink things on sale... oh wait, and its also the time of year when you should be thinking about your risk of breast cancer and what you can do to prevent and detect it. With all the pink sales, I almost forgot!
So here's your friendly reminder about what we at the WOW blog have termed National Boob Month. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women, but the good news is that it is now one of the most well understood cancers, and can be one of the most survivable when caught early. In fact, even though it is the most common cancer among women, there are more cancer deaths from lung cancer than breast cancer. That said, no cancer is a picnic, so all women should take steps to prevent it in the first place.
The American Cancer Society recommends three action items everyone can do to reduce their risk of breast cancer -
1. Eat a healthy diet to maintain a healthy weight, or seek help in getting to a healthy weight. If you are naturally slim, you still need to eat healthy foods. If you've struggled with your weight, eating healthy foods and exercising is more important than slimming down quickly or in an unhealthy way. For tips on easy to make healthy meals, try Lifehack's suggestions or Food Network's website. If you're lazy and hate cooking, like me, than get yourself a George Foreman Grill
for $20 and it will help you to make almost anything quickly and without a lot of grease or fat. I also find that if you make time to stop at the grocery store every week on a Monday, you'll be better at loading up on fresh veggies and fruits for the week. Do what works for you, and make it easy and sustainable - starving yourself to loose pounds will only result in yo-yo weight loss and gain, which may actually increase your risk of cancer and other health issues.2. Get at least 30 minutes of physical activity 5 days a week. I know, who has time for this, right? If you're lazy like me (sense a theme here?), try and sign up for an activity that you enjoy that just so happens to be exercise. For me, its swimming - my fellow bloggers here do drumming class and dance class. If you can knock a class out a couple of times a week, then you can cover the other three days by doing things like getting off the train a stop early and walking ten minutes to work, or biking when you do your errands. Even buying an exercise DVD like Punk Yoga
can help. You don't have to spend a lot of money to do this, just do something. Again, be realistic here - it's better to work out twice a week for the next twenty years than to sign up for a six week cardio bootcamp class that you'll never do again in your life.3. Limit your alcohol consumption to no more than one drink per day. This is probably the easiest thing for everyone to do, but if you struggle with addiction you may find this difficult. Alcohol abuse puts you at risk not only for breast cancer but for many other physical and mental health issues as well. If you are finding it hard to limit your alcohol consumption, you can seek free assistance at Alcoholics Anonymous.
In addition to take the steps above to reduce your risk of breast cancer, women over the age of 40 should get yearly mammograms and breast exams. If you have a hard time remembering to schedule your appointment, sign up for the free mammogram reminder service from the American Cancer Society. Take Care of The Girls!
PS - Men can get breast cancer too! Any detection of lumps in a man's chest area should be taken just as seriously as a lumps in a woman's breast, especially if he has a history of breast cancer in his family. Get thee to a doctor!
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