International Cancer Day shouldn’t only be in February: Raising Cancer Awareness should be every day

                                    

Cancer affects almost all of us, no matter which country we live in or what age we are. The statistics are frightening.

According to World Cancer Day, 10 million people die each year from cancer. And equally disturbing, figures show that breast cancer is the most common form of cancer.

Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we could bring those figures down?

Have a look at this study based on research for the book 7 Wonders of Olive Oil

 

The Mediterranean Diet Lowers the Risk of Breast Cancer

 

As women get older, their risk of getting breast cancer increases. They also have to put up with menopause, which has a definite influence on breast cancer. And life expectancies in Western countries are also increasing. This means that the proportion of women affected by breast cancer is continually growing.

The study is significant  because it focuses specifically on postmenopausal women, where the need for prevention and control is more vital these days. 

The data in this study was the first randomized trial to research whether a Mediterranean diet could protect women from breast cancer.

 It was a parallel study carried out in conjunction with studies on cardiovascular disease by PREDIMED (Prevención con Dieta Mediterránea).

PREDIMED researchers were primarily concerned with nutrition and heart disease, but the trial was also designed to follow the incidence of five different types of cancer, including breast cancer in older women. Researchers chose older subjects for this study, Spanish women between the ages of sixty and eighty, who were almost all menopausal. None of them had cardiovascular disease, but all had either type 2 diabetes or at least three of the significant cardiovascular risk factors that could bring on the condition; these included smoking, hypertension, or family history of diseases. They all had an average body mass index of 30; in other words, they were obese. This in itself is a known risk for breast cancer.

The researchers divided the 4,282 women into three groups:

·                  1,476 were put on a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil. All the women were given a liter of olive oil every week to ensure they followed the research team's specifications. These Spanish women use the oil anyway: it is what they are used to using --  Spain is the largest producer of olive oil.

·                  1,285 were instructed to follow the Mediterranean diet supplemented with 30 grams of mixed nuts daily. They received weekly supplies of nuts during the research period.

·                  1,392 received dietary training and were asked to follow a low-fat diet. After a follow-up period of about five years, the researchers found that thirty-five women had developed malignant breast cancer.

The results revealed that the women who followed the Mediterranean diet supplemented with olive oil showed a 68% lower risk than those who were on the control diet. 

Those in the second group with nut supplements showed a 40% lower risk of breast cancer than the control group.

The researchers said they hoped to see more people following the Mediterranean diet. They concluded that this was one way to reduce cancer, keep cardiovascular disease at bay, and improve overall health and well-being.

Just think, prevention of breast cancer might very well start in our own kitchens.
 

 

 

Olive Oil Works Effectively to Fight Breast Cancer

It is very hard for women to live with breast cancer. It can happen at any time.

Here is an extract from my book 7 Wonders of  Olive oil

Slim, attractive forty-year-old Joanna answered with a smile when she heard her name called; it was her turn to go to the X-ray room. She had come for her yearly checkup at the busy Symptomatic Breast Clinic. Breast technologists have learned how to be discreet in their work; they know how vital it is to be sensitive to the anxiety of their patients when they come for their follow-up mammogram.

 It was not easy, though, to be discreet with Joanna. As she took her shirt off, you had to look, admire, and take in the stunning work of art running up the right side of her chest. Starting from her slim waist and going up to where her breast should have been was a truly magnificent tattoo: a rose shrub with vibrant green leaves, ending at the top with a magnificent pink rose. It replaced the breast Joanna once had. 

Following my gaze, she explained: “Trees are a symbol of life; this tattoo is sacred to me. After my mastectomy, I needed something to remind me that life must go on. This tattoo is 

what helps me not to be fearful of the future.”

The young patient had been diagnosed with breast cancer three years before. No one in her family had had breast cancer, yet she could not ignore the lump in her breast; it seemed to be getting bigger every day. She eventually saw her general practitioner, who referred her to a diagnostic breast unit. 

She then had to see a surgeon. After she’d had the tests, the surgeon gave her the bad news. He told her, “You have a choice: you can have either a mastectomy or a wide local excision.” Then he explained the difference. 

A mastectomy would remove her entire breast; a wide local excision would remove the cancer and some of the normal tissue around it, “but the cancer could come back,” he warned.

Joanna explained why she made the decision to have a mastectomy. “The choice sounded drastic at the time, but I did not want to leave any doubts. I could not afford to. I had to think of my family; the kids were still young.” Shockingly early to be diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, 

Joanna admits she had to face many challenges—the most important, she confesses, was fear. Women with breast cancer who are being treated, even those that have successfully been treated, all say the same thing—they are always haunted by fear and trepidation. They fear that the cancer will come back. The medical term for this is a “recurrence,” and it can happen five, ten, or even fifteen years after the necessary therapy. 

The treatment itself to remove or destroy the cancer is stressful whether it is done through surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy; they all leave changes to the body, as well as visible scars that make women feel uncomfortable with themselves.

There’s no one single reason women get breast cancer, but it seems that several factors can contribute: genes, lifestyle, environment, and hormones are the chief risk factors, and any combination can trigger the disease.

Women over fifty are more likely to have breast cancer; that is why some countries have a breast cancer program for older women. These screening programs allow women to have mammograms— breast X-rays—either every two or three years (depending on the country) as well as free health treatment if they are diagnosed with the disease. Some women can inherit abnormal genes, which mean that their risk of developing breast cancer is much higher than someone who does not have those genes.