Breast Cancer: Raising Awareness

Every October is commemorated in the World over as a month to raise awareness on breast cancer that is, getting the attention of men and women on breast cancer, its dangers, and how it can be collectively fought. Breast cancer is a global health issue, a type of cancer that affects the breast by causing its cells to grow abnormally. Despite being faced by COVID-19 which has greatly affected and claimed lives around the world, let’s not forget that breast cancer remains a dangerous social scourge in our society which needs to be addressed. Thus, breast cancer awareness is awakening our conscience on the symptoms, risk factors, and preventive measures to reduce the prevalence of this disease which has been tagged as a woman ailment.

Breast cancer symptoms are not universal, they differ from one person to the other. According to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), some common symptoms are:

• New lump in the breast or armpit;
• Swelling of the breast;
• Redness of the breast;
• Nipple discharge other than normal breast milk;
• Breast pains;
• Change in the shape of the breast;

Risk factors

These are factors that are likely to lead to breast cancer. They include:

• Being a woman/man: anyone with breast tissue can get the disease;
• Old age: the more a woman grows older, the more she is likely to have breast cancer;
• Family history of breast cancer. This gene mutation passed through generations of the family. If your family has a history of breast cancer then you could be exposed to it. For example a close family member (mother, sister, aunty);
• Obesity: weight gain prompts breast cancer;
• Early menstruation before 12: women who menstruated before 12 are more likely to have breast cancer;
• Late menopause
• Late delivery, that is giving birth after 30
• Alcohol: the more you take alcohol, the more it may increase your estrogens, hormones whose excess causes breast cancer.

Preventive Measures

As it is always said, prevention is better than treatment, trying to implement some measures to prevent breast cancer is the best treatment you can offer yourself.

• Regular screening is also very important; do mammograms often. Regular breast screening helps early detection; hence, reduction in breast cancer.

• Constantly do a self-exam of your breast, that is, always check your breast by using your fingertips and probing each side to see if there is a strange lump other than the normal one; see image below;

• Keep a healthy diet by eating carrots, drinking lemon: it is commonly believed that carrots are good for the eyes, but it equally has antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial properties. Carrots contain beta carotene which is a phytochemical which reduces the risk of developing breast cancer by up to 60%.

• Regularly do physical exercises

It is believed that sports are good for health, but many still do not understand how magical this works. According to the American breast society, studies show that regular physical exercise regulates hormones such as estrogen and insulin which are the hormones causing breast cancer.  Sports does not only regulate those hormones, but it regulates the immune system making it healthier. Thus, sports is the best way to reduce breast cancer.

• Reduce your alcohol intake or if possible, don’t drink at all.
• A cancer-free society requires us to unite in action and only so can we defeat breast cancer.

                                                      By Yipa Glwadys