October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Women are marching around the country to bring awareness and to raise money for breast cancer prevention. It’s no wonder. Breast cancer is scary and with good reason. It can be a lethal disease, the treatment can change a woman’s body, and screening is uncomfortable.
But there is good news. The average chance a woman will ever get breast cancer is only 1 in 8 or 12 percent. Seven in eight will never get it unless they have certain genes.
In spite of that fact, breast cancer is the most common cancer in American women, except for skin cancers.
Here are the American Cancer Society (ACS) breast cancer estimates:
Woman checking her breasts
- About 252,710 – number of newly diagnosed cases of invasive breast cancer
- About 63,410 – number of new cases of carcinoma in situ (CIS) (CIS is non-invasive and is the earliest form of breast cancer)
- About 40,610 – number of women who will die from breast cancer
5 Simple Tips for Breast Cancer Prevention
- Maintain a healthy weight. Increased weight increases risk.
- Don’t smoke. It’s bad. It’s bad for your general health, but it’s also increasing your risk of breast cancer. If you do smoke, stop smoking.
- Eat healthy. Stay away from saturated fats, trans fats, and processed foods, and keep your diet rich in vegetables and fruits
- Limit alcohol. If you’re a woman, more than a glass of wine a day is considered more than the optimal. For men, it’s two drinks a day. That may seem like a lot or a little depending on who you are.
- Regular exercise, getting out there and being active, lowers your risk of breast cancer and hereditary breast cancer. It also improves depression, lowers your blood pressure and your risk of heart disease. Wow! Mom was right. Exercise is good for you.
What About Estrogen and Breast Cancer?
Ever since a study 2002 when a called the Women’s Health Initiative or WHI reported (incorrectly) that estrogen for menopause treatment of menopause symptoms increases the risk of breast cancer, millions of women stopped using it and millions more never started using it. They prefer to “Tough it out.”
But new information in my book The Estrogen Fix allows you to Figure it out, so you won’t have to tough it out!
In fact, if you take estrogen alone, and begin in within 10 years of menopause beginning, your risk of breast cancer goes down. And if you do take estrogen combined with synthetic progesterone called Provera, the increased risk is equivalent to drinking small amounts of wine each week, being overweight, or having very dense breasts. In a study reported in September 2017 in JAMA, a reanalysis of the original data showed that taking estrogen only or estrogen plus Provera did not increase the overall chances of dying, even if you got breast cancer.
What About Estrogen And Breast Cancer Prevention If I Have the BRCA or Breast Cancer Gene?
Once again I refer you to a blog post I write last week explaining how estrogen can safely be taken by women who have the BRCA gene mutation and have their ovaries and Fallopian tubes taken out to lower the risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
If you’d like to discover more about estrogen and how it affects your body, including your breasts, you can purchase The Estrogen Fix at EstrogenFixBook.com. It’s the number 1 new release in menopause and will help you “figure it out, so you won’t have to tough it out.” You’ll also get 9 bonus gifts as a thank you for purchasing this breakthrough book.
PS: Enjoy the music video below I wrote and produced on breast cancer and getting a mammogram for breast cancer prevention!
Yours in good health,
Dr. Mache
Author of The Estrogen Fix
