October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Are you aware of the breast changes that can take place and what to do?

Regular self-exams and an annual clinical exam from your gynecologist can identify many breast problems when they are in the early stages.

Here are some symptoms to be aware of:

• change in size or shape
• swelling
• lump, hard knot or thickening
• rash
• redness
• skin dimpling or puckering
• nipple discharge
• warmth on the skin

Cancer expert Leena Hilakivi-Clarke, PhD. professor of onocolgy at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. says, "What you eat and how much you get of certain nutrients can play a huge role in lessening the risk of cancer and other breast problems."

In addition to getting lots of servings of fruits and veggies, whole grains in breads and cereals, Hilakivi-Clarke and other experts recommend working these food and supplement choices into your everyday habits. Walnuts, which have omega 3's, antioxidants and phytosterols- have been shown to slow the growth of breast tumors. But then again, you have to watch how many walnuts you eat, they are fattening (the good kind of fat) but balance is the key.

Green tea studies have shown that women who drink green tea regularly, lowered their risk of developing breast cancer by 12 percent. By drinking it over a period of time and drinking it often, the stronger the protection from breast cancer.

This is news to me!

Just one drink of alcohol a day will increase your lifetime risk of breast cancer by 5 percent and it goes up from there. More than a million women were followed over a 7- year period and British researchers say alcohol is the reason for 11 percent of breast cancers. The thinking is that when alcohol increases estrogen in the body, it also increases the risk of breast cancer.

Alcohol causes more folic acid to leave the body through the urine, which plays a big role in producing new cells to replace damaged cells. It also guards against DNA damage which can lead to cancer.

Experts suggest eating more nuts, beans, whole grains, spinach, brussels sprouts, bananas, and oranges (more folic acid-rich foods)  These may offset the increased risk of breast cancer that results from the occasional drink of alcohol.

This information was taken from  Susan G Komen website.

Estrogen is a natural hormone that is produced by the body.  Females begin producing what is called estrogen in the ovaries as their bodies mature from childhood to adulthood.  As the ovaries produce estrogen, a female begins her childbearing years.  She produces an egg each month and if not fertilized, the egg will be flushed from the body along with the lining of the uterus that the body prepared for nurturing a baby.  This is the menstrual cycle that occurs every 28 days (like clockwork for most women).

Once the menstrual cycles begin, they continue uninterrupted,  except for pregnancies,  until the woman's body starts to wind down the cycle of the childbearing years.

As the body ends its decades-long production of estrogen, the ovaries will stop releasing the egg each month, and the body will stop preparing for a pregnancy that is no longer able to happen.  The lack of estrogen is a change that the body will try to adjust to and will in most cases cause symptoms.  As the body makes its adjustments, the symptoms of menopause abate naturally.  The problem is with the symptoms associated with this change, not with menopause itself.

Dr Susan Love's Hormone Book says:  "Only a minority of women have menopausal symptoms that are severe enough to require medical therapy.  Only one of six women experience really bothersome hot flashes, one of eight women rates her night sweats as really bothersome, and fewer than one in thirty rates vaginal dryness as really bothersome.   Half of the women going through menopause have no hot flashes at all. 

So, if you can make changes in your lifestyle, as eating and drinking healthier foods and beverages, and exercising on a consistant basis, that would be a great place to start.

According to a report in the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin, a review was done on Herbal remdedies such as black cohosh, red clover, Dong quai, evening primrose oil, ginseng,wild yam extract, chaste tree, hops, sage and kava kava.
Here is what they concluded:

The findings "raise several issues for women," the Bulletin's chief editor Dr. Ike Iheanacho in London, UK, told Reuters Health.  Potential problems include "quality issues, whether the product is in fact what it says it is on the box, and whether or not it will be the same product in the next box...There is a lack of standardization of product preparation."
Even if these products are safe, there is a lack of evidence showing they relieve symptoms," he added. 

Have you had any experience with any of these herbal products?  I personally know women who have used some of these and they did work helping to alleviate certain symptoms of perimenopause/menopause.

I disagree!  I sure would try these herbal choices before ever resorting to the conventional HRT.  What is your opinion?

Menopause – what is it exactly? For so many years, it has been referred to our symptoms as if menopause is a dis-ease.  It is not!  It is a natural part of life.
I feel we have been conditioned to dread it and think it is going to be very unpleasant for us and everyone around us. If that is what we are expecting, then that is how it will be.

Menopause is the name given to the time in a woman’s life when she stops menstruating. It is the reverse of puberty. The major physical change is that the ovaries slow down in the production of the hormones estrogen and progesterone. This means the ovaries stop releasing eggs, periods stop and she can no longer have children.

Isn't that a blessing when you reach this age? You don't have to worry about getting pregnant, birth control or not being able to be spontaneous.

There is a period of time before menopause starts called perimenopause. This stage usually starts around age 45 and ends around 50 to 52 years of age.
Menopause is when a woman under the age of 50 has no periods for two years, and no periods for one year in a woman over the age of 50.

Post-menopause is the time between the end of fertility and the end of a woman’s life. Of course, these ages are just averages.