What can you do?
Currently, or at any given time, 3.8 million American women have breast cancer.
October is dedicated to awareness for breast cancer, so what can we do to
mitigate the risk of it and support those who have it and their families?
Breast cancer is more common than it should be. 13% of American women will
develop breast cancer at some point in their lives. It’s important that we not only
raise awareness of it, but do what we can to support those who are diagnosed
with it, and take measure to mitigate our own risks.
Mitigating Risk
As it is with any disease, you can’t make yourself be at 0% risk. However, we can adopt a lifestyle that conflicts with the conditions that breast cancer cells thrive in.
Healthy Diet
Clean foods, infrequent eating out and junk food, limit sodas. The gut biome affects nearly all of our basic bodily functions, especially the fueling of cells, good or bad.
Avoid excess drinking of alcohol. Alcohol is a strong accelerator of breast cancer.
Limit postmenopausal hormone therapy. Hormone imbalances can cause
physical stress or hormonal pathways that accelerate cancer cell reproduction.
Be active! You don’t need to go to the gym every day, but stay active. Go for walks, go to the gym, ride your bike instead of driving. Finding small ways to stay active throughout the day goes a long way in mitigating chronic conditions and serious diagnoses.
Altogether, preventing breast cancer is a matter of how healthy your lifestyle is.
Of course, even some people who are extremely active and eat clean will
develop the condition, but the risk is greatly reduced by adopting that lifestyle.
The best awareness we can make for breast cancer is to promote the things that
help prevent it. Encourage others to exercise and eat healthy with you. Get a gym partner, join a cycling club, download a healthy eating app, etc.
Supporting those who are diagnosed
You may know someone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer, or maybe
you or someone in your home have.
Knowing how to support those with any condition is naturally difficult. How do you
know what they need? How do you bring it up? How do you make it feel better?
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
You can’t make it go away. Breast cancer is a condition that needs to be addressed by medical professionals, and treated through intense treatments. You can comfort them, but you can’t make their diagnosis go away.
You aren’t supposed to make it go away. All you can do is to comfort them and assist them with anything they need help with. Be there for them, and help them keep the faith that they can beat it.
So, what do you do?
There’s a billboard recently installed on I-15 in Pleasant Grove that says:
“How to tell if your neighbor is struggling with depression: Just ask.”
If you know someone who has been diagnosed, or who has a friend or family
member that has been diagnosed, the best thing you can do is ask them how
they are handling it and offer your support. Let them know you are there for them.
Many times, people want reassurance when they appear to want answers. In
life’s stressful situations that are out of our control, all we can do is tell them that
we are there for them and offer our unconditional support, and that’s enough.
This October, be there for your friends and family members that may struggle
with their own diagnoses or people close to them that have been diagnosed.
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