Don't Have It? Take Care to Not Get It

I have wasted a good deal of time wondering and worrying about what I did to cause this disease. My mistakes, it appears, range from choosing the wrong genes at birth to breathing the wrong air and eating the wrong food. If I look at genetic research, I was destined to get this somehow somewhere, which makes me think I should never have given up chicken-fried steak. Oooohhhhh. Chicken-fried steak…. Anyway, If I look at other research, I know that eating healthy helped me recover quickly and will help reduce my chances of recurrence.

I have long had an image of life as some sort of boogeyman hiding behind a tree; as we walk past, just doing our la-la-la-la thing, life jumps out and says “bogabogaboga!” And why it is behind that tree at that time, who knows?

So, I try not to stew too much about what I cannot change anyway. I got sick and that’s that. I am doing all I can to not get sick again, to not blame myself for the flawed life I led.

Still, for those I love—and even those I barely like—there are things that can reduce the likelihood of getting this form, and perhaps other forms, of cancer.

EAT YOUR FRUITS AND VEGGIES
Get this: If you are postmenopausal, your carrots and blueberries can reduce your chances of getting hormone-negative breast cancer in the first place. (If you’re premenopausal, the effects no doubt are still there, but the docs in this case did not specifically study that.) One serving of vegetables a day can lead to a 6 percent reduction in risk of getting ER-negative cancer; each serving of fruit can give you a 12 percent reduction in risk. That is one serving. So, if you eat a healthy diet with two servings of fruit and three of vegetables a day, you can reduce your risk of getting this form of cancer by 40 percent! (2 servings of fruit [2X12]=24. 3 servings of vegetables [3X6]=18.)

Read More About This At
The Journal of Nutrition, February 2006

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE
Strenuous long-term activity like swimming or jogging for five hours a week can reduce incidence of hormone-negative. The study—the California Teachers Study—surveyed more than 100,000 women of all ages and found a strong link between strenuous activity and reduction in incidence of ER-negative cancer. The influence of moderate activity is not as clear.

Read more about this at
The Archives of Internal Medicine, February 26, 2007

Or on the National Cancer Institute site:
National Cancer Institute