Best Natural Measure - Exercise

Physical activity has always been a great source to maintaining a healthy life style and now, studies have also shown benefits for preventing breast cancer. In one research, they conducted an experiment of exercise and diet during chemotherapy for breast cancer patients. In this blog, I will basically summarize this research experiment.

To begin, this research allowed women of ages 18+ at the first stage of breast cancer which is when no tumour is present but the cancer is found by lymph nodes in the under arm as well as a BMI of 20-45 kg/m^2. They also assessed each woman in regards to their height, weight, blood pressure, waist and hip circumference. On top of the assessment, a questionnaire was also presented which asked participants of their age, race/ethnicity, education, household characteristics, health status and medication use. Once the protocols were finished, subjects were randomly assigned to one of two groups, a control arm group or an intervention arm group.

In the control arm group, subjects received the “My Pyramid” plan which was to have “30mins of exercise per day and to also follow the Dietary Guidelines for Americans which included 2 cups of fruits, 2 ½ cups of vegetables, moderate fat intake, 3 servings of whole grains, and 3 servings of low-fat dairy for 2000kcal diet (1).” They were not given professional advice other than a brochure and were allowed to make any changes to their diet and exercise program if chosen to do so.

In the intervention arm group, subjects received professional couseling by telephone that “blended motivational interviewing with social cognitive theory (1),” which is basically a learning what you observe. This group received “pedometers, a Daily Food and Exercise Log, a Fast Tracker, Fast Food Booklet, a Fat gram counter/food exchange list book and example menus at individually appropriate calorie levels (1).”

Of the 77 women who were recruited for this study, 40 women (55%) actually enrolled and only 30 (75%) of the 40 women completed the entire study.

It was found that in the intervention group, there was a significant increase for physical activity and fruit and vegetable intakes. Women who completed the research also had higher blood carotenoids at baseline and decreased their body mass index to less than 30kg/m^2.

A final questionnaire was conducted at the end of the study asking how helpful was the study. The control and intervention group, both said that the program was not stressful at all and was very helpful on some level.

In general, this study concluded that breast cancer patients are willing to receive help for an overall healthier life style during cancer treatment in which they receive benefits in several areas.

What I find interesting about this study is that all these women find it easy and stress-free. Well, if it is so stress-free, why did these women not take these preventative measures to begin with? Could it be that they were lazy, uneducated about the benefits of exercise, had a busy schedule with no time for exercise, etc?

Several other studies have shown that a preventative measure of breast cancer is moderate to vigorous exercise for women in premenopausal, postmenopausal stage, and especially during the adolescence age. Researchers have proposed that physical activity can prevent tumor development of breast cancer by lowering the hormone levels, insulin levels, improving the immune response, and maintaining weight to avoid a high BMI and excess body fat.

This is probably, in my opinion, the best natural way to prevent / improve breast cancer or maintain a healthy way of living in general.

With all these thoughts in mind, are you going to take the initiative and go exercise?

Resources:

1)      http://pubmedcentralcanada.ca/articlerender.cgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=22238561

2)      http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/prevention/physicalactivity#a5

Mammograms - Good or Bad?

For a while now, a major controversy about breast cancer is mammogram screening of whether or not it does more harm than good. Basically, a mammogram is an x-ray picture of the breast for women (or men, but some people argue otherwise) from ages 40-74 to detect breast cancer despite having any signs/symptoms or not (2).

Experiments have proved that mammograms cause several potential harms. These include: 

1)    Mammography screenings can also detect non-lethal cancers which tend to be smaller and grow slower. These cancers are not deadly; however, since the x-rays cannot differentiate lethal from non-lethal cancers, doctors tend to treat them all (2).

2)       Next, mammogram screenings can be incorrect because they can “miss up to 20% of breast cancer that is present at the time of screening (1).” It can cause false negative results which usually occur due to very dense breasts typically at a younger age or false positive results which is usually due to previous breasts biopsies, family history, and younger women (1).

Both of these factors can lead to “over diagnosis and excessive treatment,” which include surgery, radiation, hormonal therapy, chemotherapy, etc. all of which some women could have avoided had the mammogram screening been more accurate and precise.

On the contrary, mammogram screenings would be beneficial because of early detection. This would mean that if breast cancer was present, treatment would be able to begin immediately before the cancerous cells start to spread (1).

There have been eight major scientific studies in regards to mammogram screenings. Some of the studies methods were poorly conducted; however, two of them provided the most reliable data which included the Malmo and Canadian trials. Of these two trials, they found that the death rate of breast cancer patients whether given mammogram screenings or not were the same (2, 3). However, results from randomized clinical trials have shown that mammogram screenings have reduced breast cancer death rates for women of ages 40 to 74, especially after age 50 (1).

A very small proportion, 6%, of women actually knows about “cancers that do not progress or become life-threatening (2),” as they only receive information that mammography saves lives. I believe that if women were more aware of the potential harms, they would be able to make more sound judgements. In my opinion, I think mammogram screenings are needed. How would a person know if they have breast cancer if there is no visible sign or any symptoms? I still believe that women should have these x-rays done and as recommended, 1 to 2 years (1). However, now that we know about the risks, we can take some precautions. This could include waiting until you are at least 40 years old to lower the chances of receiving false results, attending a high quality mammogram facility, and not jumping to conclusions. We know that mammography is not always accurate so take a step back and speak with your doctor or health care provider and see if the x-ray is indeed accurate before beginning treatment. These small tweaks in how we view mammography, I think, would reduce the breast cancer death rate which would support mammogram screenings.

So what do you think? Are mammograms good or bad?

Resources:
1) http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/detection/mammograms

2) http://medicalconsumers.org/2005/09/01/breast-cancer-awareness-month-read-this-before-you-have-a-mammogram/

3) http://www.knowbreastcancer.org/controversies/mammography-screening/

True or False?

Sometimes, being the curious human beings we are, we tend to search up websites to find answers for whichever situation we are going through that we forget to keep in mind which websites are legitimate and which lacks credibility. This blog will be dedicated to help you differentiate the two.

I will be drawing my examples from a news article. This article about how multi-vitamin pills are linked to breast cancer stirs up several problems suggesting why it is an unreliable resource. Here are a few reasons why.

1)       It was written by Clair Weaver, who is neither a doctor nor a scientist, but a journalist. She could have easily reworded or misunderstood what the scientists she retrieved this information from incorrectly.

2)       This article was written in 2010 which is 2 years ago from now, signifying that the information presented is out dated.

3)       It is very difficult to contact this author, Clair Weaver. Just below Clair’s name was a link to the Telegraph webpage which I was able to then click the “Contact Us” button that guided us to a list of contact numbers, as shown to the right. This, however, took several steps to get to just to get in touch with this author.

4)       The author tells us very little about the experiment conducted. Some arguments that should be included is the method of the experiment, the sample of population or area of Australia these women were experimented on, or other factors such as subjects everyday routine, and their physical health, etc. We, as the reader, have little insight on what is actually going on behind the labs which is why this article needs to also present how this experiment was treated with citations or references, etc.

 5)       Advertisements along the side of the webpage can also be misleading because it could be that these ads are sponsoring this website. A credible website would clearly distinguish their advertisements from someone else’s ad. These advertisements cause a problem because it shows that this website is here to make money only rather than to present valid information, even if the information provided was correct.

 

6)       Another reason why this article lacks credibility is that there is a bias to promote natural foods as the source of nutrients rather than vitamin pills. I also believe that eating natural foods is the better resource, but I do not feel that demoting multi-vitamin pills and claiming it is a cause of breast cancer is the way to do it.

The link below is a better example of a credible website: http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/news/archive/cancernews/2012-02-07-Promising-breast-cancer-prevention-drug-weakens-bones. There are several reasons to why this website is more credible than the first one, but here I will only point out the 3 of the main reasons.

 1)       This news article is up to date and was published on February 2012 as opposed to the other article which was published in 2010.

2)       Like the other website, this too is a news article however; this one is properly referenced with scientific evidence supporting their claims which was proved by an experiment. Within the article, the author also included the original link to the experiment.

3)       This link also specifically says that their results is not influenced by the amount of views or comments they receive, and that if these factors did contribute to their conclusions it would be stated.

Both of these websites come from news articles, and reporters can have the possibility of interpreting certain information incorrectly. So with all these facts in mind, I hope you have a better understanding of how to decipher the difference between a legitimate website from another.
Just always remember, be careful with what you read and hear.
You be the judge, is it true or false?

Hope in Motion

Hello fellow blog readers,

This is my first blog of many to come which I would like to dedicate to a major chronic disease, breast cancer.

For those who would like to know who I am a little better, my name is Deana. I am a post-secondary undergraduate student hoping to major in Kinesiology. When I am not in school or working I like spending my spare time by playing volleyball or basketball, knitting, and going out with friends.

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In regards to my topic, I had a grandmother and a great grandmother who passed away from breast cancer, and my mom who is a survivor. It seems to me that there is a trend for this chronic disease in my family, hence why this topic is so dear to me. In a way, I hope that those who are reading my blogs about breast cancer will understand that they are not alone and, perhaps, acquire a few new facts that they do not already know.

For me, because I am at higher risk, I would like to learn mainly about prevention which I believe is the best “treatment.” Like I have always thought, it is always better to try to avoid a disease than to become diagnosed with one and having only a possibility of it being cured. I would also like to learn about how to help cope in these types of situations because when my mom went into treatment, I was worried almost every day and night. It drove my stress levels through the roof, I could not sleep as I was always having those “what if” thoughts, and not to mention, it brought buckets full of tears.

So, with my first blog underway, whether it is you or a loved one fighting cancer, my main message would be to always have hope.

Hope for you.

Hope for your loved ones.

And hopefully one day, hope to find a cure.