Breast Cancer: How to Protect Yourself

The word cancer chills us. Breast cancer reaches deep inside and tears at the very fabric of how we see ourselves. Breast cancer may seem like a hole drawing us into anxiety, depression, and grief. But there are things we can do to protect ourselves and to make the diagnosis of breast cancer, less likely.

I remember, many years ago, when I took the call from my sister. I could tell from the long silences, she was struggling as to what to tell me. What she shared made me swallow with difficulty and my stomach tightened with fear. During a exam, the doctor found a lump on her breast. She was having surgery to check it out. I was thankful when her results came back negative. A few years later I went through much the same frightening dance-fear, anxiety, the question of "what if?". My results also, thankfully, were negative, but I did something important. I did some research and made some life changes.

An important way we women can help protect ourselves from breast cancer is through self-examination of our breasts each month. This posed a problem for me because of my physical limitations. My husband and I solved this problem by making it something we did together. (This had some nice side benefits.) While self examination may be inconvenient, it is a good habit to get into to help protect yourself against breast cancer.

I also changed my diet. While it might not be a problem for everyone, for me, saying no to caffeine made a big difference in the amount of lumps found in my breasts. A well-balance diet light in processed, fatty, foods and heavy on fiber, fruits and veggies helps the body fight breast cancer.

Though we don't like to consider this factor, abortion can play a part in whether or not we have more of a predisposition toward breast cancer. Studies have shown a link between abortion and breast cancer. Future health should be at least one factor to consider when confronted with an unexpected pregnancy and when abortion is a consideration. A positive consideration is that breast feeding does help protect against breast cancer.

Stress is another factor that needs to be considered to protect ourselves from breast cancer. Fear produces stress and can physically harm us. Fear of the unknown can freeze our minds and play havoc with our bodies. We can help conquer fear through information, through forcing ourselves to consider the best and worst scenarios and how to deal with them. Fear destroys more than any diseases, including breast cancer.

Attitude plays a large part in not only our emotional health, but also in our physical health. Hanging onto resentment and anger can, quite literally, harm our bodies as well as our minds. A big factor in protecting ourselves from breast cancer, and other diseases, is forgiveness with a willing heart.

I know. It makes us angry to think about forgiveness as impacting us more than the person or persons who wronged us. Why should we forgive? Forgiveness is an attitude. Forgiveness isn't about letting the wrong-doer off the hook. Forgiveness is about letting our anger go so that the wrong already perpetrated doesn't continue to impact us in negative ways. Forgiveness is letting go so we can move on to mental and physical health. Forgiveness plays a part in protecting us from breast cancer. This includes forgiving ourselves for things we may or may not have done to contribute to the problem.

As I discovered, even the possibility of breast cancer is scary. Anger, fear, anxiety, depression and grief factors into even the possibility of breast cancer, the reality of such a diagnosis even more so. We can make sure our choices help protect ourselves from this deadly, soul-numbing diagnosis. We can choose forgiveness when wronged, commit to monthly self-exams, eat a healthy diet, and when pregnant-chose life for ourselves and our child.

While nothing is foolproof, our choices can give us confidence we're doing all we can not only to protect ourselves against breast cancer, but also to live life to it's fullest.