doctor or pharmacist about why you need to be on that drug in the first place, and about what, if any new cautions have been recognized since you last discussed the matter.
.....Anyway, after that long but pertinent aside, the point I really want to make is that in these columns, I concentrate on discussing prevention strategies for particular conditions because, first, prevention strategies are nearly always techniques you can do for yourself and for which you rarely need the intervention of a health professional (as a long-ago Free Clinic doctor, I strongly believe in a do-it-for-yourself approach to health and especially wellness), second, it’s rare to find a study that suddenly condemns a long-advised prevention practice so I know that I won’t have to contradict what I tell you today in another column a few months down the line, and most important, prevention is what I think people who read my articles most want to know.
.....Which – finally – brings me to this month’s main topic, breast cancer, and in line with my usual approach, I will not discuss breast cancer drugs – even though there are several new, promising medications available since I last wrote on this issue but it’s best for you to learn about them from a health professional, as well as other patients who’ve used them, and good web sites dedicated to the issue – but I do want to discuss two “self-help” matters: 1) what we know about preventing breast cancer, and 2), the value – or not - of breast self-examination.
.....Thus, although most women don’t believe they can lower their risk of breast cancer, the truth is that there are several ways to lower those risks including maintaining a healthy weight (obesity, for example is linked to a higher risk of many cancers including cancer of the breast), not smoking (a clear link has recently been established between smoking and breast cancer), limiting the intake of alcohol (several studies have shown that the more alcohol a woman drinks over her lifetime, the higher her risk of breast cancer), and (in my mind) most important, doing exercise regularly, and to that end, a recent study showed that if a woman over the age of 30 does just an hour of two of good exercise a week, she can substantially lower
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