Major Cause Of Breast Cancer

Newsletter #337
Lee Euler, Editor

23 October 2013

Don’t Fall For This
Major Cause Of Breast Cancer

These days, we know genetic mutations affect your likelihood of developing breast cancer, especially if you have mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.

But like so many other cancers, diet and lifestyle also play a significant role in whether you’ll develop breast cancer. In fact, diet and lifestyle appear to be the biggest factors overall. Researchers now estimate as much as 73 percent of breast cancer is caused by diet and lifestyle choices, as opposed to genetics. That bottle of cola and that dish of ice cream had better be really good because you may end up paying a terrible price.

But lifestyle means far more than our food and exercise habits. It also includes toxins we’re exposed to, including some prescription drugs we take because doctors tell us they’re “harmless.” Right now I’m thinking of the types of hormones you might be putting in your body that could elevate your risk. As Breast Cancer Awareness Month comes to a close, let’s take a look at some things you can do…

5 “little” lifestyle tips that can help you
Avoid breast cancer

 

    Lifestyle choices can have a profound affect on your health, and on how your body performs at all levels. Doctors rarely spend the time necessary to talk about these things. Be smart today, and implement this “top 5″ list.

1. Smoking and Alcohol. If you smoke, quit as soon as possible. Studies show that women who smoked for 35 years had a 60% greater risk of serious breast health problems. And women who smoked 15 years were 34% more likely to develop abnormal breast cells. As for alcohol, drinking the stuff on a regular basis may fuel estrogen imbalances and abnormal breast cell changes. As the rest of this article will show, high estrogen levels are a major cause of breast cancer and other cancers.
2. Exercise. Even mild or moderate exercise (i.e., 30 minutes of walking) can help move immune cells around your body, support a healthy estrogen balance, and help keep abnormal breast cells from taking root. It also promotes insulin sensitivity and a healthy weight. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Walk a little bit — ten minutes, 15 minutes. DO SOMETHING.
3. Your Weight. Fat cells produce more estrogen. A healthy weight also benefits your cardiovascular, metabolic, and overall health. Yes, I know everyone’s tired of being nagged, but the years this can add to your life are worth all the trouble of tackling this problem.
4. Vegetables. Eat a diet high in organic veggies, especially cruciferous and dark leafy greens. They’re chock full of crucial vitamins, antioxidants, and phytochemicals you’ve probably never heard of. Raw is better than cooked.
5. Thermography and breast exams. Do monthly self-breast exams and an annual thermogram. A thermogram doesn’t directly diagnose cancer, but it can warn you of inflammatory hot spots that can spell trouble, up to ten years in advance of actually having cancer that can be detected. This gives you tons of time to take action.

Meanwhile, beware of this mainstream medical therapy

 

    It’s widely documented that hormone replacement therapy increases the risk of breast cancer. Not so many years ago, doctors promoted this therapy like crazy. Nearly half of all post-menopausal women at least gave it a try — that’s a staggering number of people.

Then a big study revealed that hormone replacement therapy was clearly linked to breast cancer. It turned out it was a really bad idea to blindly trust your doctor — you know, that guy or gal who has all that schooling and knows everything.

Thousands of women promptly quit hormone replacement therapy, and within a few years the breast cancer rate plunged.

It was probably the most dramatic proof ever seen that a lifestyle choice can give you cancer. In this case the choice was a prescription drug that is not essential.

In spite of the warnings, it seems quite a few women still take hormone replacement therapy. If that describes you, take heed — you’re putting your life in danger. And that may be true even if you’re a loyal natural health fan and take “bio-identical” hormone therapy, as I’ll explain in a minute.

What is hormone replacement therapy?

 

    Conventional hormone replacement therapy (HRT) after menopause is a lifestyle choice and it’s something women have been choosing for decades, although far fewer women choose it now. It’s also known as menopausal hormone therapy (HT or MHT), postmenopausal hormones (PMH), or postmenopausal hormone therapy (PHT). Treatments are generally administered through a pill, topical cream, or patch.

Most conventional hormone replacement therapy is made up of progesterone or progestins (synthetic hormones that act like progesterone). In rare cases, androgens (testosterone-like male hormones) are used, along with something called Tibolone, a synthetic hormone drug that acts like estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, depending on which tissue of the body it gets put into to.

Women choose HRT to replace the female hormones in their bodies that are no longer made after menopause (in general, that’s when women have lower estrogen levels). But it’s a choice that can dramatically increase your breast cancer risk as well as your risk of other cancers, even if you use it for as little as two years.

Before the big study linking it to cancer, HRT used to be a standard treatment for any woman who experienced hot flashes or other menopausal symptoms, and was believed to have long-term benefits that protected against illness like heart disease and dementia. Now we know the treatment did more harm than good, especially for older post-menopausal women.

In spite of this finding, HRT is still considered a helpful treatment for certain groups of women, such as those at high risk of heart disease (this is because some studies show estrogen may decrease heart disease risk). But it’s not clear whether the benefits outweigh the risks even for these special groups.

Why the HRT cancer risk is real

 

    As more research on HRT surfaces, more risks are coming to light. For example, women who take estrogen supplements without the right balance of progesterone risk uterine cancer. Breast cancer risk also rises, in part because HRT can cause a breast to look denser on a mammogram, making cancer all but impossible to detect.

Worse still, not only does hormone replacement therapy elevate your risk of breast cancer, but once developed, the cancer might be more aggressive. Meaning the cancer might be more advanced once discovered, thus increasing your risk of dying from the disease.

Doctors caution that if you have a current or past history of breast, ovarian, or endometrial cancer, you should steer clear of HRT—a fact that underscores how much hormone replacement therapy supports the growth of cancer.

Here’s a sampling of some recent negative results from HRT supplementation:

• One study of women taking estrogen-only therapy showed that one in nine women who took the therapy for three years developed a pre-cancerous change in the lining of the uterus.
• In a Women’s Health Initiative study (WHI), those who took estrogen-progestin therapy had a higher risk of breast cancer. And the longer the hormones were used, the higher the risk. In this study, it took three years of halting hormone therapy for risk levels to return to normal.
• In the same WHI study, it was found that women on estrogen-progestin therapy actually had a lower risk of colorectal cancer, but the cancers they did get were more likely to spread to lymph nodes or distant sites.
• Observational studies suggest that estrogen-progestin therapy slightly increases the risk of ovarian cancer.

In general, your risk returns to normal within five years of stopping hormone replacement therapy.

What about natural alternatives to drug-company
hormone replacement therapy?

 

    The first step to getting off hormone replacement therapy is to gradually minimize the amount you take. Use the lowest dose possible to treat your symptoms, and focus on improving other aspects of your health—by following the five tips at the beginning of this article.

Limiting stress is also an effective way to help curb menopausal symptoms. Take up yoga or practice relaxed, deep breathing or meditation. Tai chi and acupuncture may also help.

An alternative is to take bio-identical hormone replacement therapy, which appears to have a higher satisfaction rate. For example, those patients who take bio-identical hormone replacement therapy with progesterone report higher satisfaction than those who take a synthetic progestin. Same case for those taking Estriol, a bio-identical form of estrogen, which reacts within the body differently than estrogens found in conventional hormone replacement therapy. The latter are not exactly the same as the natural hormones your own body manufactures.

It makes sense to me that bio-identical hormones would be safer, but even so this type of therapy remains controversial. Having spent years recommending the man-made hormones, mainstream medicine has now done a complete about face and says ANY estrogen supplement — man-made or bio-identical — may increase cancer risk.

I am anything but an expert, but I do know that exposure to estrogen does raise cancer risk. For this reason, the more pregnancies a woman has, the lower her breast cancer risk, because estrogen levels drop during pregnancy. Breast cancer risk is directly related to the number of monthly cycles a woman has during her lifetime, since estrogen levels peak during a certain part of the cycle. Pregnancy arrests this process and leads to lower cumulative lifetime exposure to estrogen.

I’ve also read (and, again, I’m not an expert) that the symptoms of menopause can be managed by diet and proper food supplements. Doctors who advocate this approach say that the annoying symptoms of modern menopause are largely a product of our bad dietary habits. Like other symptoms of aging including diabetes and heart disease, we’re inflicting this problem on ourselves.

In the end … avoid the risk

 

    Controlled trials are needed before we have more conclusive results about the risks of hormone replacement therapy, but for now, it appears much safer to go with what’s natural. Especially since every time researchers learn more about hormone therapy, the message seems to be that it’s not that great after all.

So as long as there are alternatives, your best bet is to try them first.

 http://www.cancerdefeated.com/dont-fall-for-this-major-cause-of-breast-cancer/1842/

Simple Lifestyle Strategies to Decrease Your Stroke Risk

Are You Using These Simple Lifestyle Strategies to Decrease Your Stroke Risk?

June 24, 2013                    

Story at-a-glance

• Stroke is the number one cause of long-term disability and the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. Fortunately, up to 80 percent of strokes are preventable
• Lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, body mass index, blood sugar levels, blood pressure, and smoking can have a direct bearing on your individual risk
• Reducing your systolic blood pressure by 20 millimeters (regardless of how high your blood pressure currently is) decreases your risk of stroke by 50 percent. Not smoking, or quitting smoking equates to a 40 percent lower risk
• According to recent research, for every seven-grams more fiber you consume on a daily basis, your stroke risk is decreased by seven percent
• There’s also compelling evidence showing that your vitamin D status, grounding, stress, and use of statin drugs and hormone replacement therapy and/or birth control pills play a role

By Dr. Mercola

According to the National Stroke Association,¹ stroke is the number one cause of long-term disability and the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. The most common type of stroke is called "ischemic stroke," which results from an obstruction in a blood vessel supplying blood to your brain. Once you suffer a stroke, the damage, should you survive it, can be absolutely devastating. 

Thankfully, up to 80 percent of strokes are preventable. According to researchers,² lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, body mass index, blood sugar levels, blood pressure, and smoking can have a direct bearing on your individual risk.  

There’s also compelling evidence showing that your vitamin D status, grounding, stress, and use of statin drugs and hormone replacement therapy and/or birth control pills play a role.

Even Small Changes in Habits Can Make a Big Difference

Daniel Lackland, a professor of neuroscience at the Medical University of South Carolina and a spokesman for the American Heart Association, has developed a scale of lifestyle factors that have a bearing on stroke risk, called the “Life’s Simple Seven” scale, ³ which includes:

• Get active
• Control your cholesterol
• Eat better
• Manage your blood pressure
• Lose weight
• Reduce your blood sugar, and
• Stop smoking

The really good news here is that even minor changes can reduce your stroke risk. As reported by the featured NPR article:⁴

“[The] scientists dug into a large study that tracked 30,239 people to see how much improvement it takes to prevent stroke....The good news is it doesn't take much to make a difference.  

Each risk factor for stroke was scored from 0 to 2, with 0 being crummy, 1 kind of OK, and 2 terrific. Even a one-point improvement in the total score across all seven factors significantly reduced stroke risk.  

Each improvement of a point on the 14-point scale meant an 8 percent reduction in stroke. ‘The neat thing of this finding is that anything makes a difference... If you make a small change, you make an improvement," Lackland says. "If you make a bigger change, you make a bigger improvement.’

Some changes can give you a really great payoff. The study showed that reducing your systolic blood pressure by 20 millimeters (regardless of how high your blood pressure currently is) decreases your risk of stroke by 50 percent. Reduce it by another 20 mm, and you cut your individual risk in half yet again. Not smoking, or quitting smoking equated to a 40 percent lower risk.

Beware of Flawed Dietary Recommendations

First, with regards to cholesterol and stroke risk, what we’re looking for is a proper balance. Proper balance between these ratios is best achieved through a healthy diet, as outlined in my Nutrition Plan, and exercise. It’s well worth noting that cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have been found to boost stroke risk.  

Total cholesterol will tell you virtually nothing about your disease risk, unless it's exceptionally elevated (above 330 or so, which would be suggestive of familial hypercholesterolemia, and is, in my view, about the only time a cholesterol-lowering drug would be appropriate). Two ratios that are far better indicators of heart disease risk are:

1. Your HDL/total cholesterol ratio: HDL percentage is a very potent indicator of your heart disease risk. Just divide your HDL level by your total cholesterol. This percentage should ideally be above 24 percent. Below 10 percent, it's a significant indicator of risk for heart disease
2. Your triglyceride/HDL ratios: This percentage should ideally be below2

When it comes to diet, you’d be well advised to scrutinize the standard recommendations,⁵ which include cutting down on saturated fats and dietary cholesterol.

It’s important to understand that cholesterol is in fact essential for your good health, as it carries out essential functions within your cell membranes, and is critical for proper brain function and production of steroid hormones. Vitamin D is also synthesized from a close relative of cholesterol: 7-dehydrocholesterol. In fact, we now have evidence showing that cholesterol deficiency has a detrimental impact on virtually every aspect of your health.  

For example, there's reason to believe that low-fat diets and/or cholesterol-lowering drugs may cause or contribute to Alzheimer's disease, and violent behavior, due to adverse changes in brain chemistry. 

Furthermore, studies have shown that dietary cholesterol has little to do with raising your serum cholesterol. For example, although egg yolks are relatively high in cholesterol, numerous studies have confirmed that eggs have virtually nothing to do with raising your cholesterol. For instance, research published in the International Journal of Cardiology showed that, in healthy adults, eating eggs every day did not produce a negative effect on endothelial function (an aggregate measure of cardiac risk); nor did it increase cholesterol levels.  

But that’s not all. One 2009 study⁶ discovered that proteins in cooked eggs are converted by gastrointestinal enzymes, producing peptides that act as ACE inhibitors—common prescription medications for lowering blood pressure, which would actually lower your stroke risk!

Most Saturated Fats Are Actually Good for You

The same can be said for saturated fats, which provide the building blocks for cell membranes and a variety of hormones and hormone like substances in your body. They also act as carriers for important fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Dietary fats are also needed for the conversion of carotene to vitamin A, for mineral absorption, and for a host of other biological processes. When you eat saturated fats as part of your meal, they also slow down absorption so that you can feel satiated longer.  

It's important though to understand that not all saturated fats are the same. There are subtle differences that have profound health implications, and if you avoid eating all saturated fats, your health will likely suffer. There are in fact more than a dozen different types of saturated fat, but you predominantly consume only three: stearic acid, palmitic acid and lauric acid.  

It's already been well established that stearic acid (found in cocoa and animal fat) has no adverse effects on your cholesterol levels, and actually gets converted in your liver into the monounsaturated fat called oleic acid. The other two, palmitic and lauric acid, do raise total cholesterol. However, since they raise "good" cholesterol as much or more than "bad" cholesterol, you're still actually lowering your risk of heart disease. Sources of healthy fats include: 

Avocados	Butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk	Raw dairy	Organic pastured egg yolks
Coconuts and coconut oil	unheated organic nut oils	Raw nuts, such as almonds or pecans, and seeds	Grass-fed meats

Trans fats, on the other hand, should clearly be avoided. They are known to promote inflammation, which is a hallmark of most chronic and/or serious diseases, not just strokes and heart disease. For example, in one 2010 study,⁷ post-menopausal women who consumed the most daily dietary trans fat had a 30 percent higher incidence of ischemic strokes. So please, understand that while most health journalists and "experts" will lump saturated fats and trans fats together, they have markedly different health impacts, and the vilification of saturated fat, which arose from an unproven hypothesis from the mid-1950s, is a myth that has since been firmly debunked by nutritional science.

Fiber May Also Be Important for Stroke Prevention, Study Shows

In related news,^{8, 9} researchers have found that for every seven-grams more fiber you consume on a daily basis, your stroke risk is decreased by seven percent.¹⁰ This conclusion was drawn based on data from eight observational studies. Fiber is the non-digestible parts of plants, which can be either soluble or non-soluble. Water soluble fiber was found to reduce stroke risk the most. Soluble fiber can also help propel food, sugars, cholesterol and fats cleanly through your digestive tract, and aids in the formation of beneficial bacteria in your gut, which is a critical aspect of optimal health. Healthful sources of soluble fiber include:

• Chia seeds
• Berries
• Vegetables such as broccoli and Brussels sprouts
• Root vegetables and tubers, including onions and sweet potatoes
• Almonds

While conventional recommendations call for 25 grams of fiber daily, I believe most people need upwards of 32 grams a day. Most Americans get nowhere near this amount. According to the New York Times:¹¹

“...the current average fiber intake in the United States is about 13 grams a day for women and 17 for men. Increasing these amounts by seven grams a day would bring them close to the recommended levels of 21 to 25 grams for women and 30 to 38 for men. ‘Seven grams a day increase is an achievable goal,’ Dr. Burley said. ‘You’re talking about... increasing vegetable and fruit by two portions a day.'”

Ideally, your diet will have foods high in both soluble and insoluble fiber, such as:

• Psyllium seed husk, flax and chia seeds
• Green beans
• Cauliflower
• Dried beans
• Peas

Other Stroke-Prevention Guidelines

It's important to realize that the vast majority—up to 80 percent, according to the National Stroke Association—of strokes are preventable, so your lifestyle plays a major role in whether or not you're going to become a statistic here. Exercise is clearly at the top of the list in terms of recommendations, as maintaining a regular fitness program will go a long way toward improving your insulin and leptin receptor signaling.  

I recommend a comprehensive program that includes Peak Fitness exercises along with super slow strength training, Active Isolated Stretching and core work. If you've had a stroke, exercise is also very important, as research shows it can significantly improve both your mental and physical recovery.¹² Besides exercise and the specific dietary factors already discussed above, other lifestyle factors that can have a direct impact on your stroke risk include:

• Processed meats: Certain preservatives, such as sodium nitrate and nitrite found in smoked and processed meats have been shown to damage your blood vessels, which could increase your risk of stroke. I recommend avoiding all forms of processed meats, opting instead for organic, grass-fed or pastured meats
• Diet soda: Research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference in 2011 showed that drinking just one diet soda a day may increase your risk of stroke by 48 percent. Ideally, strive to eliminate all soda from your diet, as just one can of regular soda contains nearly twice my recommended daily allowance for fructose in order to maintain good health and prevent disease.
• Vitamin D deficiency: According to research presented at the American Heart Association's (AHA) Annual Scientific Sessions in 2010,¹³ low levels of vitamin D—the essential nutrient obtained from exposure to sunlight—doubles the risk of stroke in Caucasians. To get your levels into the healthy range of 50-70 ng/ml, appropriate sun exposure is your best bet. If sun exposure is not an option, a safe tanning bed (with electronic ballasts rather than magnetic ballasts, to avoid unnecessary exposure to EMF fields) can be used.
As a last resort, a vitamin D3 supplement can be taken. Research suggests the average adult needs to take 8,000 IU's of vitamin D per day in order to elevate their levels above 40 ng/ml, which is the absolute minimum for disease prevention. If you opt for a supplement, you also need to make sure you’re getting sufficient amounts of vitamin K2, as it works synergistically with vitamin D and activates matrix GLA protein, which inhibits arterial calcification.

• Stress. According to a 2008 study,¹⁴ the more stressed you are, the greater your risk of suffering a stroke. The researchers actually found that for every notch lower a person scored on their well-being scale, their risk of stroke increased by 11 percent. Not surprisingly, the relationship between psychological distress and stroke was most pronounced when the stroke was fatal. My favorite overall tool to manage stress is EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). It's a handy, free tool for unloading emotional baggage quickly and painlessly, and so easy that even children can learn it. Other common stress-reduction tools with a high success rate include prayer, meditation, laughter and yoga, for example. For more tips, see my article 10 Simple Steps to Help De-Stress.
• Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and birth control pills. If you're on one of the hormonal birth control methods (whether it's the pill, patch, vaginal ring or implant), it is important to understand that you are taking synthetic progesterone and synthetic estrogen -- something that is clearly not advantageous if you want to maintain optimal health. These contraceptives contain the same synthetic hormones as those used in hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which has well-documented risks, including an increased risk of blood clots, stroke, heart attack, and breast cancer.
• Statins. Statin drugs are frequently prescribed to reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke. However, research shows that these cholesterol-lowering drugs actually increase your risk of a second stroke if you’ve already had one. There are two reasons why this might happen: the drugs may either lower cholesterol too much, to the point that it increases your risk of brain bleeding, or they may affect clotting factors in your blood, increasing the bleeding risk.
Chances are greater than 100 to 1 that you do not need a statin drug. Seventy-five percent of your cholesterol is produced by your liver, which is influenced by your insulin levels. Therefore, if you optimize your insulin level, you will automatically optimize your cholesterol. For a refresher on how to do this, please see my recent article, Statin Nation: The Great Cholesterol Cover-Up.

• Grounding. Walking barefoot, aka “grounding,” has a potent antioxidant effect that helps alleviate inflammation throughout your body. The human body appears to be finely tuned to "work" with the earth in the sense that there's a constant flow of energy between our bodies and the earth. When you put your feet on the ground, you absorb large amounts of negative electrons through the soles of your feet.
In today's world, this is more important than ever, yet fewer people than ever actually connect with the earth in this way anymore. High-sugar diets, smoking, radiofrequencies and other toxic electromagnetic forces, emotional stress, high cholesterol, and high uric acid levels are examples of factors that make your blood hypercoagulable, meaning it makes it thick and slow-moving, which increases your risk of having a blood clot or stroke.
Grounding helps thin your blood by improving its zeta potential. This gives each blood cell more negative charge which helps them repel each other to keep your blood thin and less likely to clot. This can significantly reduce your risk of stroke. Research has demonstrated it takes about 80 minutes for the free electrons from the earth to reach your blood stream and transform your blood, so make it a point to regularly walk barefoot on grass or on wet sand for about 1.5-2 hours, if possible.

[-] Sources and References

• ¹ National Stroke Association
• ² NPR.com June 6, 2013
• ³ Mylifecheck.com, Life’s Simple Seven
• ⁴ NPR.com June 6, 2013
• ⁵ Mylifecheck.com, Life’s Simple Seven, Dietary Recommendations
• ⁶ Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry 2009, 57 (2); 471–477
• ⁷ Eukalert February 24, 2010
• ⁸ Medical News Today March 29, 2013
• ⁹ New York Times March 28, 2013
• ¹⁰ Stroke March 28, 2013 [Epub ahead of print]
• ¹¹ New York Times March 28, 2013
• ¹² Study presented at the 3rd Canadian Stroke Congress, Calgary, October 1, 2012
• ¹³ Science Daily November 15, 2010
• ¹⁴ Neurology March 4, 2008: 70(10); 788-794

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/06/24/lifestyle-changes-may-decrease-stroke-risk.aspx?

Breast Cancer - the 'check-it-yourself survival' Guide

As experts say screening has failed, the 'check it yourself' breast cancer survival guide

By Angela Epstein
Last updated at 4:00 PM on 20th November 2011

Comments (37)

There is growing disquiet in the medical community. The NHS breast-cancer screening programme, which invites all women to have three-yearly X-rays (mammograms) from the age of 50, has been said by some doctors to ‘do more harm than good’.

This, coupled with the fact that one woman in eight now develops the disease – 5,000 more diagnoses a year than a decade before – and reports that many cases are dismissed by GPs who don’t recognise symptoms, makes for confusing reading.

What all experts agree on is that early diagnosis is key to successful treatment. ‘When a breast cancer is picked up through a routine screening mammogram, it’s often cured,’ says Lester Barr, a consultant breast cancer surgeon at the Christie Hospital in Manchester.

Learn to check yourself for breast cancer

‘When the disease is picked up through discovering a lump, the chances of a cure drop as the cancer is likely to be more advanced.’

Mr Barr admits that screening, which was introduced in 1988, could be improved but women should not be put off having mammograms. ‘There is an argument that screening catches tiny tumours that would never have grown, meaning women go through unnecessary worry and treatment. And perhaps we need to better target women who are at risk.

‘All women need to make sure they are doing enough themselves to ensure early detection. There are still women who know surprisingly little about how a breast should feel and look.’ Here, Britain’s leading experts give their essential guide that every woman should read.

LOOK FOR FAMILY PATTERNS

Breast cancer is hereditary in ten per cent of cases so it is vital for a woman to know her family history, says Professor Gareth Evans, consultant in genetic medicine at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester. ‘Look for any patterns on one side of the family such as a mother, grandmother, aunt and first cousin who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. If there are at least two first-degree relatives – ie a mother and sister – who have had the disease, the risk is greater,’ explains Prof Evans. The younger a woman is diagnosed the more likely it will be that her breast cancer has been caused by an inherited defective gene.

IF THERE IS HISTORY, GET A GENE TEST

The rogue genes, known as BRCA 1, BRCA 2 and P53, can be identified through a blood test. But this can be done only if a woman has a living relative who has had breast cancer and can provide a blood sample. Those who carry the genes have an 85 per cent risk of getting breast cancer. The options for women with a strong family history or who have been identified as carrying the faulty breast-cancer gene include yearly MRI scans and mammograms on the NHS. ‘Together these can pick up 90 to 95 per cent of breast cancers early,’ explains Prof Evans. ‘But some women opt for a pre-emptive strike by having their breasts removed.’

Prof Evans is leading a study into the use of the drug tamoxifen, which may reduce the risk of breast cancer by 40 per cent. ‘Don’t take the contraceptive pill if you have a strong family history as the drug has been linked to an increase in risk,’ says Dr Anne Trigg, a consultant medical oncologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, London.

ALL WOMEN MUST BE BREAST AWARE

Mammograms are not effective for women under the age of 50 as the breast tissue is still too dense. If there have been isolated incidents of breast cancer in the family, you can always consult your GP for an examination. ‘Aside from lumps, they are looking for areas of the breast that feel subtly different from the rest – limpness, a harder area or a breast that feels more granular,’ explains Mr Richard Sainsbury, consultant breast cancer surgeon.

More harm than good: Experts have said that mammogram 
screening has failed and women should also check themselves as a precaution

Unexplained tiredness can be early symptoms of the disease. ‘It’s not necessary to do constant self-examinations,’ says Mr Sainsbury. ‘But be aware of any changes – particularly heaviness, distortions, or a change in size or shape.’

A RED RASH IS A RED ALERT

‘Inflammatory breast cancer, which accounts for between one and five per cent of breast- cancer cases, can make the skin red and swollen, but it is often misdiagnosed as cellulite or a skin infection,’ Dr Trigg says. ‘Look out for a new and itchy rash around the nipple, discharge from the nipple or any difference in shape and size. It could be normal but always get it checked by your GP. And always check armpits for lumps.’

CHECK MONTHLY AFTER YOU HIT 30

Dr Trigg says: ‘From the age of 30, self-examination should be done once a month, midway through the menstrual cycle.’

• Using the pads of the fingers, feel in small circular motions round the breast and then move in smaller concentric circles until you reach the nipples.
• Cover the entire breast from top to bottom, side to side.
• Do this lying down, and then feel your breasts while you are standing or sitting.

‘In the ten years leading up to the menopause, breast tissue begins to turn to fat and this can cause benign cysts,’ adds Mr Sainsbury. ‘Cancer can be ruled out by mammogram or biopsy. See your GP, who will refer you to a specialist.’ Be familiar with the appearance of your breasts, checking that they are their usual shape, size and colour and appear symmetrical.

THE QUESTION: TO HRT OR NOT TO HRT?

At present women of 50 are called for a three-yearly mammogram through the NHS screening programme. But Prof Evans says: ‘A third of breast cancers are picked up in the three years between mammograms.’

Self-examination is vital after the age of 50 when breasts may look different. A loss of volume can cause dimpling in the skin and as this can also be a sign of breast cancer, get it checked.

Prof Evans tells menopausal women with a family history to avoid hormone-replacement therapy as artificially raising hormone levels can increase risk of breast cancer. The hormone oestrogen, which can drive some forms of breast cancer, is produced by fatty tissue. So the fatter you are, the bigger the risk.

AFTER SCREENING STOPS . . .

Screening stops at the age of 70. If women wish to continue, then they can request it, explains Barr. He says: ‘By the age of 80 any lump is likely to be breast cancer. Women should be aware of any changes.’


Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2063606/Breast-cancer-survival-guide-As-experts-say-screening-failed-check-yourself.html