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Sunday, July 20, 2025

Your 2017 breast health guide

by

20170107

Avril Har­ry RN, BSc On­col­o­gy Nurs­ing&nb­sp;Pink Hi­bis­cus Breast Health Spe­cial­ist&nb­sp;

As we start this New Year, I'm most cer­tain that many of us hav­ing made New Year res­o­lu­tion, de­vel­op­ing good health would have like­ly made the first five on your list. In that, a healthy lifestyle has over­all ben­e­fits for your well-be­ing. Fur­ther­more, as a breast spe­cial­ist cen­tre we high­ly rec­om­mend that women ages 20 and over fac­tor in your breast health as part of your New Year's res­o­lu­tions.

The da­ta we have at this time sug­gests that ap­prox­i­mate­ly 85 per cent of all breast can­cer cas­es are caused by fac­tors oth­er than hered­i­ty, such as en­vi­ron­men­tal tox­ins, bad eat­ing habits, and stress. With this im­por­tant sta­tis­tic in mind we all know that our bod­ies change as we get old­er. What might work for a 30 year old might not be as suit­able for a 60 year old and vice ver­sa, hence the im­por­tance of seek­ing an ini­tial as­sess­ment from your breast spe­cial­ist cen­tre to as­cer­tain your in­di­vid­ual needs.

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Women un­der 40

Re­cent stud­ies in­di­cate that the num­ber of un­der 40 year olds di­ag­nosed with ag­gres­sive forms of breast can­cer has been steadi­ly in­creas­ing for the last four decades, and that this rise is large­ly due to pre­ventable fac­tors. In fact, ac­cord­ing to sta­tis­tics pro­vid­ed in a re­cent study, a large ma­jor­i­ty of can­cers are due to bad di­et and the ac­cu­mu­la­tion of tox­ins. We there­fore rec­om­mend that women un­der age 40 de­vel­op healthy eat­ing habits. Even those who may have de­vel­oped some bad habits in your 20s like smok­ing and ex­ces­sive al­co­hol con­sump­tion, this is a good time to make the nec­es­sary ad­just­ments as there are in­nu­mer­able ben­e­fits long term. Some worth­while heath ad­just­ments in­clude but are not lim­it­ed to cut­ting back on sug­ar, in­creased con­sump­tion of green leafy veg­eta­bles and healthy fats, and low­er­ing your con­sump­tion of al­co­hol. Oral con­tra­cep­tive should be used un­der the strict guid­ance of your gy­nae­col­o­gist. Oth­er healthy lifestyle habits that can be adopt­ed in­clude get­ting in­to a self-nur­tur­ing rou­tine that in­cludes stress-re­duc­tion tech­niques such as med­i­ta­tion and some form of ex­er­cise. These prac­tices will help pull your sys­tem out of fight-or-flight mode and in­to a more peace­ful state of mind. It is in­te­gral to com­mence breast self-ex­am­i­na­tions at age 20 and con­tin­ue through­out one's life span.

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Women 40 and over

Most women be­tween 40 and 59 years of age ex­pe­ri­ence sig­nif­i­cant changes in their phys­i­cal body as well as men­tal­ly and emo­tion­al­ly. These changes can some­times be a bit un­set­tling for most women and some­times the men in their lives. Knowl­edge re­al­ly is the key to em­brac­ing the "change of life" that the 40s and 50s rep­re­sent. As a re­sult, it is there­fore im­per­a­tive that you have this knowl­edge and be aware of spe­cif­ic in­for­ma­tion as it re­lates to your unique body sys­tem. At this junc­ture, com­pre­hen­sive breast screen­ing is ad­vised, which con­sists of a clin­i­cal breast ex­am­i­na­tion, dig­i­tal mam­mo­gram and ul­tra­sound. It is al­so sug­gest­ed that you de­vel­op a good re­la­tion­ship with your gy­nae­col­o­gist as your re­pro­duc­tive health does have an im­pact on your breast health as well. As the peri-menopausal phase sets in there is a way to grace­ful­ly tran­si­tion to the next stage of life. For those who find the symp­toms as­so­ci­at­ed with menopause un­bear­able we sug­gest speak­ing with your gy­nae­col­o­gist es­pe­cial­ly if you're con­sid­er­ing the use of hor­mone re­place­ment. Equal­ly im­por­tant, there are some di­et and sup­ple­men­ta­tion ad­just­ments that may al­so be nec­es­sary at this phase, such as an in­crease in cal­ci­um for op­ti­mum bone health. We rec­om­mend you keep phys­i­cal­ly ac­tive.

For women in their 60s and be­yond, it is im­por­tant to note that the ma­jor­i­ty of breast can­cers oc­cur in women over 65. Though an un­pleas­ant sta­tis­tic, com­pre­hen­sive breast screen­ing should con­tin­ue or as stip­u­lat­ed by your breast spe­cial­ist.

Wher­ev­er you are on the path of life, there are spe­cif­ic ac­tions you can do NOW to pre­vent breast can­cer and live a vi­brant, health-filled and bal­anced life. What­ev­er your age...now is the time to make that hap­pen!


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