Breast cancer awareness

It's never too early to get screened for breast cancer, regardless of whether the disease runs in your family history. Many people don't realize that breast cancer can occur in men too. Cancers are a non-discriminatory disease; they will attack any living tissue. If you feel any sort of abnormality in your chest area or if you have one or more risk factors for breast cancer, consult your doctor about getting screened.

This is especially important because breast self-examinations have not been shown to significantly help in the detection of breast cancer. They're helpful, but not conclusive.

Some lactation counselors encourage women to breastfeed for the nutritional and emotional benefits to the baby. And this is all true. To add to that, another great reason to breastfeed is that it significantly reduces a woman's risk of developing breast cancer. The relative risk of breast cancer was reduced by 4.3 percent for every 12 months of breastfeeding.

Breast cancer is not preventable, at least at this time in history. However, it is good to know the risk factors for breast cancer and how to promote general health.

You are more likely to develop breast cancer if you are female and older than 40, you have a family history of breast cancer, and you engage in post-menopausal hormone therapy for more than four to five years.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle does seem to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer. Everyone can benefit from not smoking, limiting alcohol consumption, staying physically active and maintaining a healthy body weight.

For women in particular, the risk for breast cancer is greatly reduced for those who have their first child in their 20s, who breastfeed for at least six months and who minimize the duration over which they use post-menopausal hormones.