healthy
diet - more fiber, soy, fish, fruits and veggies, and less saturated
fat - is important for breast health, but only if it's followed
from a young age, probably as early as one's teens.
..... Unfortunately, though, if
you start on a healthy diet when most of us seem to start on one
- in late middle age when we suddenly discover that hey! despite
what we believed in our youth, there is indeed a chance we're
going to die one day, a very good chance, in fact - it's probably
too late for a healthy diet to have much impact on your overall
cancer risk.
..... Before all you middle-aged
and older folks read too much into what I just wrote, however,
and you hurriedly abandon the lentil, beans, and herring casserole
you were preparing for dinner, let me quickly add that while starting
a healthier diet later in life may not reduce your risk of cancer
much, it can still lower your risk of all sorts of other health
problems such as heart disease, diabetes, and strokes.
..... Still to do with breast cancer,
an important and very controversial study that went into the OWSS
recently file is the Canadian study that received a ton of publicity
because it determined, according to the screaming headlines, that
doing breast self-examination is a waste of time, although to
be fair, that's not really what the study's authors concluded,
but that's certainly how the findings were publicized in the media.
..... Without debating the validity
of this study's conclusions (doctors argue about the validity
of study findings even more fervently than Alliance Party members
argue about the leadership qualities - an oxymoron, if you ask
me - of not so well-stocked Stockwell Day), I still believe that
any woman who does breast self-examination should continue to
do so, and any woman who does not do BSE, should ask her doctor
(or other qualified health professional, when her doctor is too
busy to take the time to do this job adequately) about how to
do proper BSE, and she should start doing it regularly. And I
really want to stress the word "proper" in that previous admonition
because like many other important things in life, when it comes
to BSE, technique really matters, and unfortunately, it's my belief
that most women have not been taught to do proper BSE, which is
probably a good part of the reason this study found that BSE doesn't
work as well as we'd like it to work.
..... Now for a couple of reports
about breast cancer that didn't make it into the "OWSS" file but
which are important anyway. The first is a huge report from the
(US) Institute of Medicine that concluded that when it comes to
early diagnosis of breast cancer, although there are many promising
technological advances on the horizon, after all is said and done,
mammograms are currently still the most effective tool we have
for picking up breast cancer in its earliest stages. In fact,
the Institute claims, none of the other promising technologies
- especially MRIs and digital |
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