October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Let’s look at three of the most common misunderstandings associated with the disease.
1. Stress
Modern life comes with seemingly constant stress. When I ask my patients with breast cancer what they think caused their disease, they often stress. Work stress, child care stress, marital stress, or financial stress.
To better understand whether the stress of challenging life events is related to breast cancer risk, British researchers conducted a large prospective study, examining over 100,000 women in the United Kingdom. The authors used data from the Breakthrough Generations Study, a study looking at the causes of breast cancer.
Approximately one-third of the women reported frequent or continuous stress, and three-quarters said they had experienced at least one challenging life event in the prior five years.
Publishing in 2016, the scientists showed no consistent evidence for an association of breast cancer risk with perceived stress levels or adverse life events in the preceding five years or loss of parents during childhood and adolescence.
Part of being human is finding ways to deal with the inevitable stresses of life. While there does not appear to be an association between stress and breast cancer risk, most of us can do better at reducing stress to improve our quality of life. I use mindfulness measures such as meditation and visualization. Regular exercise also helps me ease stress.The One Habit That Profoundly Changed My LifeBox breathing makes me calmer and improves my mood.medium.com
2. No one in my family had breast cancer, so I’m safe
I hear this at least once a week: Nobody in my family had breast cancer; I am surprised that I have it. The American Cancer Society offers that “approximately 5 to 10 percent of breast cancer cases are hereditary, meaning that they result directly from gene changes (mutations) passed on from a parent.”
While most women who get breast cancer do not have a family history, women who have close blood relatives with breast cancer have a higher risk. For example, if you have a mother, sister, or daughter with a history of breast cancer, your risk may nearly double. Those with two first-degree relatives have a risk that increases by a factor of three.
Overall, about 15 percent of women with breast cancer have a family member with this disease. I know this doesn’t match the 5 to 10 percent number cited above, but families can have sporadic breast cancer. They also may have had a shared environment.
3. A good lifestyle provides some protection
There is virtually nothing that provides complete protection against breast cancer, including the removal of both breasts. So many of my patients wonder how it is possible that they got breast cancer when they did not smoke, use alcohol to excess, did not have postmenopausal weight gain, have a good diet, etc. While all of these reduce risk, there are no guarantees.
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