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Breast Cancer
There are a variety of factors that affects your breast cancer risk. Some you can’t chance, such as being a woman, growing older, and inheriting a gene mutation linked to breast cancer. But there are some risk factors that can be changed-such as being overweight, or not exercising regularly, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, or eating unhealthy food-by making healthier lifestyle choices. You have a higher risk of if you have multiple close relative who have had breast cancer.
In some cases, a strong family history of breast cancer is linked to having an abnormal gene associated with the high risk of breast cancer.
Genetic testing can confirm if your family cancer history is linked to a genetic mutation linked to breast cancer. I had the genetic testing, and it was negative even though my father and brother had prostate cancer. I also had two other sisters and first cousins that had breast cancer.
If you have a strong family history or an inherited genetic mutation that puts you at a high risk of breast cancer, you and your doctor can discuss more frequent screening, or several options for reducing your risk.
Regular exercise is an important part of being as healthy as you can be. More and more research is showing that exercise and maintaining a healthy weight can reduce the risk of developing breast cancer.
White women are slightly more likely to develop breast cancer that Black women. But Black women are more likely to develop more aggressive, more advanced-stage breast cancer that is diagnosed at a young age. Black women are more likely to die from breast cancer. Some of these differences in outcome may be due to less access to mammography and lower quality medical care, as well as various lifestyle patterns (eating habits and weight issues for example) that are more common in some ethnic groups. These factors can be changed and improved. Please remember to get your mammogram. October is good month to start. Each year in October you will remember it’s your time.
Written by Sister Pearl M. Porter
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