What a crock!

sweetvickid

I amso tired of seeing this stuff about how women can lower thier chances of breast cancer.  Take my morther for example.  She has never smoked, never had a drink of alcohol in her life, breast fed two babies, weight normal, exercises, eats healthy as in doesn't eat processed foods and she got breast cancer.  I agree with my Dad we have so much more cancer now because of all the pollutants in our air water and food that we don't know about.

RozHopkins

Yup

I agree.  We do what we can but you have to enjoy life too.  Some people have allergies and some don't.  Some have bad genes and some dont.  Stress and depression I feel could be one factor.  Who really knows.  A little bit of what you fancy does no harm and everything in moderation.  Including exercise, I know some addicts to that and ladies who obsess about their weight, and that's an understatement.  I eat better and stopped drinking, exercise more, and enjoy it and feel good.  I still eat a cake and chocolate now and again.  Make my own bread and soups, mountains of vegetables and enjoy them.  I actually crave fruit now but detest for some unknown reason water.  If my cancer comes back so be it, so there............  

disneyfan2008

I TOTALLY agree...I never

I TOTALLY agree...I never have tasted alchol in my  life, never smoke, touched drugs. Same wiht my LIKE A MOM TO me who died after 3 bouts with breast cancer-lived on farm, grew her own veggies etc. She did not drink or smoke etc...

 

Denise

CypressCynthia

Sometimes I feel like some of

Sometimes I feel like some of this is to blame the victim because others are scared it will happen to them.  They say some of these things because they want to believe if they do a, b and c, they will never get cancer.

There are some studies that consistently link breast cancer to certain behaviors: inactivity, obesity, alcohol (probably riskiest if ER+).  Your mother (as am I) are examples of "anecdotal evidence" meaning just because we never did what you mentioned doesn't mean they are not risk factors for many.  Breast cancer has many, many causes and it certainly does appear more frequently in polluted areas.

But like your mom, something else is going on in my family.  In our case there is obviously a genetic predisposition we haven't found because 3 of 4 sisters have had breast cancer, our grandmother and all of her sisters died of breast cancer and on and on.  I just was tested for gene mutations again (it has been 20 years since my first BRCA testing - that was negative). 

Anyway, all of us are pretty fit and active and none obese.  None of us are big drinkers (I quit totally a few years ago), but in our case there appears to be a genetic problem.  Geneticist says chances are not good we will find the gene, but he wants me to try again because there are now many more genes to test.  So I have and now I wait. 

The blame the victim stuff is wearing and aggravates me at times.  I have heard people talking saying things like so-and-so got cancer because they didn't eat right, had too muc stress, etc.  It really makes me want to punch someone sometimes...lol.

 

Double Whammy

CypressCynthia said:

Sometimes I feel like some of

Sometimes I feel like some of this is to blame the victim because others are scared it will happen to them.  They say some of these things because they want to believe if they do a, b and c, they will never get cancer.

There are some studies that consistently link breast cancer to certain behaviors: inactivity, obesity, alcohol (probably riskiest if ER+).  Your mother (as am I) are examples of "anecdotal evidence" meaning just because we never did what you mentioned doesn't mean they are not risk factors for many.  Breast cancer has many, many causes and it certainly does appear more frequently in polluted areas.

But like your mom, something else is going on in my family.  In our case there is obviously a genetic predisposition we haven't found because 3 of 4 sisters have had breast cancer, our grandmother and all of her sisters died of breast cancer and on and on.  I just was tested for gene mutations again (it has been 20 years since my first BRCA testing - that was negative). 

Anyway, all of us are pretty fit and active and none obese.  None of us are big drinkers (I quit totally a few years ago), but in our case there appears to be a genetic problem.  Geneticist says chances are not good we will find the gene, but he wants me to try again because there are now many more genes to test.  So I have and now I wait. 

The blame the victim stuff is wearing and aggravates me at times.  I have heard people talking saying things like so-and-so got cancer because they didn't eat right, had too muc stress, etc.  It really makes me want to punch someone sometimes...lol.

 

Blaming something

I think we all do it whether it is our own health issues or someone else's.  We are looking for the answers to "why me"?  Those of us who are ER+ know estrogen played a role in developing cancer (for me both breast and uterine), yet someone else might have years and years of estrogen and never develop cancer.  Go figure.  I agree with Roz - I do what I'm comfortable with for my general health - a lot of which I didn't do on a regular or consistent basis prior to cancer.  I'm just a lot more aware and I think that is important for my overall health (remember, if our heart stops beating, it doesn't matter if we have a tumor growing anywhere!).   While I agree that my lifestyle may have contributed to cancer being able to thrive in me (I drank lots of wine and was overweight), I don't think it caused it.  My body simply might have done a better job in getting rid of it on its own. And we could drop dead running a marathon . . . .

In summary, I think we should be mindful of what you're doing.  That's really all we can do.  Even good people (that's all of us) eventually get sick and die.  I just want to feel good until I do - and that means having cake with Roz now and then!

Suzanne  

andi44

crock-

I totally agree with all of you...I'm a good example, I've been an 'underweight vegetarian' for most of my life - still am...I've never smoked, drink alcohol and exercise moderately.  Though I have never had kids, I also never took birth control pills which I heard could be another factor...I have no first-degree relatives with breast cancer (just grandmothers) and tested negative for the gene.  I think pollutants do play a large part in our overall health  as well as the hormones and other drugs they inject in livestock...

Life after cancer - I haven't changed my lifestyle at all.  And, if it's my fate to get cancer again, so be it...nothing more I can do to prevent it...as others have said - 'eat more cake' or what ever your vice is...

Thank you for your post...Andi

Marcia527

I've been bad.

I didn't get everything right. Just never thought about it till I got older. And I still eat pizza and ice cream. I was diagnosed in 2003. 

Different Ballgame

There is no answer.

Right now there is no answer as to why so many women are getting breast cancer...it's like an epedemic.  Back in the 1960s too many women were having hysterectomies, then it died down.  You don't hear of that many women today having hysterectomies.

Too many women today are being diagnosed with breast cancer.

Janelle

 

 

cfh1952