October is International Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The Cancer Association of South Africa (Cansa) encourages South Africans to wear pink clothing or pink items such as brooches, pins and ribbons. They want people to show support for the world-wide campaigns to make people more aware of their responsibilities in the fight against breast cancer.
Cansa and all other cancer-fighting bodies urge all women to look after their health and check their breasts monthly for any form of change. Not as well known is the need for men to do likewise, especially where there is a family history of breast cancer.
In South Africa alone, one in 26 women is diagnosed with breast cancer at some time in her life and more than 3,000 die every year. Yet if detected early, the chances of a full recovery are excellent.
1. Examine your breasts:
• Check your breasts and underarms every month, a week after your period. Check for lumps, swelling, puckering of the skin, sores, pain or a rash. If you have any of these signs, see a health professional immediately. Eight out of ten breast lumps are harmless, but they all need to be checked.
• If you are over 40, request a base-line mammogram. Ask your doctor how often this should be repeated.
• After 50 you need to have one annually. If your doctor doesn’t agree, it’s time to look for another doctor.
• If you are uneasy following a mammogram, request a breast sonar. This is not routine in South Africa unless there is a cause for concern, but sonars have been known to pick up tumours otherwise not found on a routine mammogram.
2. Watch your diet:
• Eat a diet high in fibre. One way of doing this is to add Oat Bran to your morning cereal.
• Include plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. Vary the colour of the fruit and veggies, aiming at some yellow, green and other bright colours such as beetroot, plums or red grapes each day. This not only increases your fibre intake, it adds anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals and trace elements that help to fight cancer and other disease. Read Veggies for Breakfast for further tips on this.
• Limit your consumption of nitrite-cured meats. These include many cold cuts, Vienna sausages, bacon and ham.
• A tough one for South Africans—eat a diet low in animal fat and animal protein.
• Eat plenty of fish, especially deep water species such as tuna and salmon.
• Keep your weight under control. Obesity adds to your risk of cancer and many other life-threatening diseases.
3. Watch those hormones:
• Breastfeed your babies. This is believed to lessen the risk of breast cancer in the years that follow.
• Avoid hormone replacement therapy (HRT) especially any that include oestrogen.
4. Improve your social habits:
• Limit alcohol to one drink a day if at all.
• Do not smoke.
• Try and avoid “passive smoking” by encouraging family members to smoke outside (or better still to give itup). Appreciate the “no smoking” ban at shopping centres and restaurants, and uphold the rules.
• The biggie for South Africans: Watch that braaivleis. If you love your braai (barbeque for the non-South Africans) read Savour the Flavour—Without the Risk for some safety tips.
• Exercise regularly. Do your routine to music, or with friends, to make it fun.
For further helpful hints, go to www.cansa.org.za
©Shirley M. Corder
