by Lester Lee
Breast cancer is unfortunately something that every person wants to be familiar with and aware of just in case it happens to you. There are a number of different breast cancer causes, which can help you work toward preventing them at all cost. However, some things simply are not preventable.
Certain changes in DNA can cause normal breast cells to become cancerous. Some inherited DNA changes can increase the risk for developing cancer as well as being responsible for cancers that run in families. However, most breast cancer DNA changes happen in single breast cells during a woman's life.
Typically, these acquired changes will happen over the course of a woman's life. Most breast cancers have several of these acquired gene mutations. Unfortunately, the breast cancer causes of man of these mutations that can lead to breast cancer are unknown.
Although it is not exactly known for what causes breast cancer, there are certain risk factors that can be linked to the disease. There are some risk factors that you can control such as your diet, eating habits, drinking habits and anything similar to that. Then there are the uncontrollable risk factors such as age, race and family history. Regardless, risk factors are not a sole determinant.
What these risk factors can do is give you guidance for how to prevent breast cancer and what to look for. If your family has a history of breast cancer, obviously you are going to want to pay closer attention than most people. The second you find a lump or experience a different symptom, you want to get checked.
Any risk factors that you have no control over should put you on alert a little more. Some other risk factors include gender as women are 100 times more likely to get breast cancer, age as women are far more likely to get it over the age of 55, and if you have dense breast tissue.
These are all risk factors you want to pay attention to closely as you have no control over them. As for the risk factors you do have control over, work hard at living a healthy and clean lifestyle. This means having less than one drink per day, exercising for 30 minutes three times a week, and not having children until later in life.
About the Author
While breast cancer causes are unknown, there are a number of risk factors you want to be aware of. Learn more about these risk factors at www.Breast-Cancer.com.
Experts are expecting 178,000 women to be diagnosed with large-scale breast cancer and 62,000 of locally confined cancer. This is the prediction, however do not stand by and wait and see what will happen. No, all precaution must be taken seriously. Know the risk factors; some may appear uncontrollable but others are.
The very first factor of developing breast cancer is being female followed by advancing age. This type of cancer develops in seventy-five percent of women over the age of fifty.
Get to know how your breasts look and feel at a very early age giving the opportunity to notice any changes such as dimpling, skin redness, lumps, or thickening tissue. Any of these changes should be reported to your health care provider immediately. The health care provider will look for these changes clinically about every three years in your twenties and thirties and then annual mammograms after forty.
Although mammography screenings detect the disease in its early stage and reduce the mortality rate, it's not sensitive enough to detect abnormalities in dense breast tissue. For that reason, women over forty years of age with high risk of cancer and those with dense breast tissue should have a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as well as the mammograms.
*This was recommended by the American Cancer Society in March 2007 of women with twenty to twenty-five percent or greater risk of breast cancer or ovarian and other form of cancer.
Now back to the risk factors, two have been named, sex and age. Next is family history. The risk is high if someone in your family was diagnosed with cancer before menopause or age fifty. If that someone is a mother, sister or daughter the risk doubles. But only five to ten percent of breast cancers are linked to inherited changes. These suspected inherited changes are mutations in certain genes which have been linked to breast, ovarian and colon cancers.
Find out about your family history, talk to relatives and if there is a strong family history, genetic testing may be in order. Talk to your health care provider about your family genetic make-up there could be clinical trials or other preventive methods available for high risk women. Studies have shown a fifty percent reduction in chemoprevention. Of course this involves an estrogen inhibiting drug (tamoxifen).
If breast cancer has occurred, the risk is great for reoccurring cancer in other breast tissue. Although some conditions were benign there is still a risk of breast cancer at a later time, such as atypical hyperplasia (an over growth of cells in the breast ducts), and dense breast is a factor as well.
Take charge of your health; be observant of your environment and lifestyle. Stay away from pesticides and hazardous chemicals even household products. Watch your lifestyle, diet, weight, excessive alcohol and other unhealthy habits that maybe a breast cancer risk.
Start in your early twenties and observe your body, notice any changes, read articles concerning breast cancer, know your family history, and talk to your health care provider and asking questions. Be vigilant about breast screening; if you are at high risk ask for a MRI along with your mammograms.
About the author:
Carolyn Bell Smith, committed to helping others improve their health, fight sickness, and build a strong immune system. Author and creator, Healthy LifeStyle and More,
http://www.yourhealthrenewed.com
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