Diet Basics for Breast Cancer Patients

Feeling frustrated about your daily diet after you've been diagnosed with breast cancer?

Do you need to change your daily diet?

These are the common questions whether you want to stay healthy as breast cancer patients need more time and effort to be curbed. We still need food to survive but once we're eating the 'wrong' food in daily basis - it could worsen your body condition. It's important to educate yourself with the right information about proper food consumption to comfort our body well-beingness. It's a step closer to increase the probablilty of health-recovering - all this matters as long you're willing to make a change!

Basically, vegetables like garlic, broccoli and crucifiers are the main diets for cancer patients.

Garlic - though it has a strong pungent smell that makes people avoid eating it. But consuming garlic in a moderate amount will assist us to battle cancer. Some people prefer have it oudourless as in the form of tablets (supplements) but I strongly suggest that breast cancer patients eat raw garlics. Particullarly, in a chinese restaurant, garlics used as a complementary ingredients especially in stir-fried foods.

Broccoli - Everyone has an eclectic tasted in broccoli - but it has to be raw! If you do not like raw broccoli, you can try to simmer it in boiled water for few minutes. Broccoli is best when it is served with mayonaise or tar-tar sauce.

Crucifiers - such as salads and coleslaws. These are considered as low fat diet and it contains anti-carcinogenic glucosinolates and myrosinase enzymes. It has the ability to boost our ability to detoxify or cleanse harmful compounds and eventually protect us from cancer.

Tomatoes - it contain lycopene which is an antioxidant and it is easily absorbed by the body to inhibit tumour-producing cells once tomatoes are made into juice, paste and sauce. It is also believed that tomatoes are able to prevent us from stroke and heart diseases.

Other than these cancer-fighting vegetables, flax seeds that contain antioxidant compund such as lignan which supplies fibre. It has the great potential to fight cancer especially in the role of prevention of breast cancer. Mostly foods that contain flax seed are bread, cereal and bakery goods. The purpose of including flax seeds in your daily diet is to avoid constipation. A normal and regular excreation will actually detoxify harmful compounds including waste materials from our body.

As we know that having balanced and suitable diet alone is couldn't guarantee breast cancer patients to have full recovery. It must be complementary with healthy lifestyle - avoid smoking and consuming alcohols. Good practice of loving your body and soul boost positive thinking among breast cancer individuals to be more optimistic.

Survivor Tips for Newly Diagnosed Cancer Patients

I've found this information via Western Maryland Health System:

Survivor Tips for Newly Diagnosed Cancer Patients Choosing Wellness During Cancer Treatment

(excerpts from Choosing Wellness During Breast Cancer Treatment, compiled by Donna Walbert MS RN, Breast Cancer Survivor)

Educate and empower yourself. Learn about wellness, which is making positive choices toward a more balanced and healthy lifestyle. Maintain a positive attitude. Attitude is everything! Belief is biology! Humor helps! Lighten-up! Surround yourself with humorous books, movies, videos, and television programs. Laugh every day! Connect with your spirit. Take quiet time for yourself, meditate, and pray. Keep a journal. The rules are date the entries and don't make any other rules. Practice deep focused relaxed breathing. Go outdoors and walk briskly for thirty minutes every day. Use your senses for healing. Find healing through touch and massage. Use wonderful scents to sooth your nerves such as cederwood, patchouli, moss lavender, ylang-ylang and chamomile. These can be found in bath and body products, essential oils and placed in aromatherapy units. Listen to relaxing music. Drink calming teas. Chamomile is especially good. Nurture yourself through intimacy with a loving partner. It is an important part of maintaining wellness so explore acts of love and tenderness. Remember the most important sexual organ of the body is the brain! Enjoy. Poor concentration and memory loss may be a side effect of cancer treatment so know that you are not losing your mind. Be patient with yourself and ask for family and friends to be tolerant. Don't forget the basics of good health. Exercise, drink 8-10 glasses of water per day and eat nourishing, well-balanced meals, rest and stay connected with people. Remember every day is a new beginning. Face each day with a positive outlook. Stop asking "Why me?". Know that the answer is BECAUSE. Words of Wisdom to Consider "Cancer may rob you of that blissful ignorance that once lead you to believe that tomorrow stretched forever. In exchange, you are granted the vision to see each day as precious, a gift to be used wisely and richly. No one can take that away." Anonymous Blessings and Peace on your journey, Donna

Link | Western Maryland Health System

Breast Cancer: Telling Your Kids About It

One of the hardest parts about being diagnosed with breast cancer is how to tell your children about it. Generally speaking, the best thing to do is to be honest with them. If they don't hear it from you now, they're bound to find out some other way - they'll overhear a conversation when you assume they're out of the room, or a friend or neighbor will inadvertently say something. And when they hear it that way, in the form of a terrible secret they were never supposed to know, it will be a lot more horrifying for them. By talking about it openly with them, you can demystify it. In addition, if all goes well your children gain an opportunity to learn about survival after breast cancer. Kids need to know they can trust you - you don't want to do anything to violate that trust. It's a two-way communication; remember also to listen to their fears. If you find it difficult to bring up the subject, there are children's books you can get that can give you a place to begin.

How you tell them about your breast cancer diagnosis, of course, will depend on the ages of your children and their own emotional vulnerability. They must be told very directly that they did not cause the cancer by thoughts, words, anger, dreams, wishes, etc. Your children will also be affected in other ways; you may be gone for a few days in the hospital and will need to rest when you come home; you may be getting daily radiation therapy, which will consume a lot of your time and leave you tired and lethargic afterwards. You may be having chemotherapy treatments that make you violently sick and make you lose your hair as well. Your children need to know that the alteration in your behavior and the decrease in your accessibility to them isn't happening because you don't love them or because they've been bad and this is their punishment.

Some surgeons encourage breast cancer patients to bring young children to the examining room with them. It could be very helpful for a daughter in particular to see her mother being examined. If you are being treated with radiation or chemotherapy in a center where your children are permitted to see the treatment areas, it's a good idea to bring them along once or twice a week. The environments aren't intimidating and a child who doesn't know what's happening to you in the hospital can conjure up awful images of what "those people" are doing to mom.

Breast cancer has particularly complex ramifications for a mother and her daughter. Aside from all the normal fears any child has to deal with, a daughter might worry about whether this will happen to her, too. It's not a wholly unfounded fear, since there is a genetic component to breast cancer. You need to reassure your daughter, explain to her that it is not inevitable but as she gets older she should learn about her breasts and be very conscious of the need for monitoring.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Breast Cancer

Preventing Breast Cancer Recurrence with Green Tea

In recent years, lots of research has been performed on green tea’s ability to prevent and treat breast cancer. The news has been extremely promising; it appears that as we learn more, we’ll eventually determine that green tea is, indeed, one of the simplest things we can do to protect breast health. Since about 13% of all American women will develop breast cancer during their lifetime, breast health is a significant concern for all of us.

One study showed that tea helped to ensure that women had an appropriate level of the sex hormone binding globulin on critical days of their cycle. The level of binding globulin is important because low levels of this hormone in pre-menopausal women have been associated with a higher risk of developing breast cancer.

Another study showed that one group of Chinese women who were at a higher than average risk of developing cancer, due to angiotensin activity in their blood, were able to lower their breast cancer risk by drinking green tea. This study concluded that even women who drank green tea only weekly were at a lower risk than those who drank it only monthly or not at all.

One study also showed that green tea may be able to increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy in breast cancer patients. Green tea was shown to increase the concentration of chemotherapy drugs in the cancer cells, compared to women who received chemotherapy without green tea as an adjunct treatment. Green tea was also shown to slow the growth of cancer cells, suggesting that it may inhibit cancer progression and metastasis.

Green tea’s anti-oxidants are what make it such a powerful health protector. The anti-oxidants in green tea have been shown to be more than 100 times as effective at neutralizing free radicals as vitamin C, and 25 times more powerful than vitamin E, both of which are well recognized as anti-oxidants. In addition, the EGCG in green tea have also been found to be more powerful than BHA, BHT and Resveratol, all of which are considered some of the most potent anti-oxidants around.

And, now there’s a study that’s shown that green tea may prevent breast cancer from recurring, too. This study, reported by the UK Tea Council, examined many databases that contained information about breast cancer patients and their rate of recurrence.

The study concluded that women who consumed more than 5 cups of green tea per day had a slightly lower than average risk of developing breast cancer than women who consumed a smaller amount or who did not drink green tea at all.

In addition, this study showed that women with Stages 1 and 2 breast cancer who drank green tea daily showed a decreased risk of breast cancer recurrence over women who did not drink green tea.

This is very promising news, both for women who are trying to prevent breast cancer and for women who are already battling the disease. It appears that green tea may be an important part of the treatment of breast cancer, in order to lessen the chances that the cancer will recur later.

Each recurrence of breast cancer is more difficult to treat than the previous ones, and each one increases your mortality risk from the disease. So, while prevention is critical in all women – preventing recurrence for those who are already battling the disease is just as critical.

When you combine all the evidence that’s out there, it’s hard to ignore the fact that green tea holds a lot of promise in the fight against breast cancer.

So, if you’re at a higher than average risk for developing breast cancer, it’s wise to consider adding green tea to your diet. Even if it doesn’t prevent you from getting breast cancer, green tea has no side effects, and is considered to be completely safe to consume.

In addition to adding green tea to your diet, you should also take steps to ensure that you’re living an overall healthy life. This means eating a healthy diet, that includes lots of fruits and vegetables (these are high in anti-oxidants just like green tea) and is low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Switch to whole grains and be certain that you’re getting an adequate amount of fiber.

You should also exercise. Exercise helps burn calories and maintain a normal body weight. In addition, exercise helps build muscle and keep your body strong, which comes in handy as we age.

Finally, if you smoke, stop. We’re all aware that smoking increases our risk for lung cancer, but what many people don’t know is that smoking increases your overall risk of cancer. So, smoking may contribute to you having a higher risk of breast cancer, too. Smoking also contributes to heart disease.

We’re learning more and more about the benefits of drinking green tea. It’s likely that in a few years, we’ll truly understand how this popular beverage keeps us healthy. But, in the meantime, you should get a head start on the road to health by having some green tea today and every day!

Jon M. Stout is the Chairman of the Golden Moon Tea Company. Golden Moon Tea carefully selects the finest rare and orthodox teas, which are processed slowly and handcrafted with extreme care. At their website, you can learn more about their current tea offerings, including their exceptional green tea, white tea, black tea, oolong tea (also known as wu-long and wu long tea) and chai. Visit goldenmoontea.com for all details concerning the Golden Moon Tea Company's fine line of teas.

Reduce Your Risk of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in women; the first is lung cancer. There are many risks for breast cancer that can be reduced by making some changes in your diet and lifestyle.

*STOP SMOKING. Not only is smoking a risk factor for breast cancer (especially if smoking began at an early age), it is a primary cause for lung cancer. The nicotine and other poisonous chemicals in tobacco also greatly increase the risk of developing heart disease. Every time you light up, you hurt your lungs and heart. The longer you smoke, the worse the damage becomes.

*DO NOT DRINK ALCOHOL. If you must drink, try to limit your intake to one glass a day. Alcoholic beverages contain calories but few nutrients and are harmful when consumed in excess. Women who have more than one drink per day develop cancer at a significantly higher rate than those who do not drink alcohol.

*EAT A HIGH-FIBER, LOW-FAT DIET. Eat at least 5 servings of fruit and vegetables every day. Eat a diet rich in complex carbohydrates (fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes). Whole grains and legumes are high in fiber and include whole grain breads, pasta, rice, and cereals. Whole grains are an excellent source of fiber. Fiber moves food through the digestive track quickly taking pre-cancerous toxins with it.

A diet low in fat reduces the risk of breast cancer and decreases the risk of obesity. Obesity plays a big part in breast cancer development. Fat tissue contains small amounts of estrogen and estrogen plays a major role in the development of breast cancer.

*EXERCISE. A regular physical fitness regimen, especially aerobic exercise (brisk walking), can reduce your risk for developing breast cancer. It is also a wonderful way to fight obesity and be healthier overall.

*AVOID HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY. Studies have proven there is a link between hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and breast cancer. The estrogen and progesterone contained in HRT increase the risk factor. HRT’s can also cause mammograms to be less effective. If you are considering taking HRT, please consult with your physician to discuss the risks.

*BE AWARE OF YOUR FAMILY HISTORY. If you have a female member of your immediate family who has had or currently has breast cancer, it can increase your risk. Breast cancer can be genetic. However, just because someone in your family has breast cancer, does not mean you will have it. Make sure your physician knows your family history.

*DO A SELF-EXAM EVERY MONTH. Checking your breasts carefully every month does not help prevent breast cancer but it can help detect breast cancer early. The earlier it is found, the better the prognosis.

*HAVE A MAMMOGRAM REGULARLY. Like a self-exam, a mammogram will not prevent the development of breast cancer, but it can detect it early.

Following the guidelines listed above can help you reduce your risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer. It can also help reduce your risk of other diseases and conditions and increase your chances of living a healthier life.

Chris Chenoweth, author of the DO-IT-YOURSELF HOME, HEALTH & MONEY GUIDE, writes articles pertaining to diet, exercise, health, and business.

Breast Cancer in Young Women

Sometimes a cancer is unusual, not in itself, but in the situation which it occurs. Breast cancer is most common in women over 50; there are several cases in women in their 40s. It is far rarer in women under 40, but it does occur. We tend to be particularly shocked when it occurs in a young woman. In this situation it is detected as a lump, since generally, breast cancer screening through mammography is not done in young women.

Very often, a young woman gets misdiagnosed. She detects a lump and she is told it is just lumpy breasts and it is followed for a while until doctors realize it's something serious. Although this can be horrifying, in fact, it's quite understandable, since the vast majority of lumps in women under 35 are totally benign and the risk of cancer is very low. The fact that cancer is not diagnosed immediately doesn't mean that the young patient will die; since most breast cancers have been around 8 to 10 years, and whether it is diagnosed the minute you find it or six months later isn't the critical factor. We're so horrified when a young woman gets breast cancer that there's a disappointing number of lawsuits against doctors failing to find breast cancer in this population, because they're often misdiagnosed and because it's such a gut-wrenching situation. However, in most cases the doctors are not negligent. Still, doctors should be taught that young women can develop breast cancer and that doctors should remain vigilant.

Many doctors believe that breast cancer in a young woman is more aggressive than in older ones. Two studies have recently shed some light on this theory. Both studies showed that the mortality from breast cancer was higher in women who had been pregnant in the past four years. Risk was assessed to be higher right after pregnancy and decreased with each year, going back to normal after four years. Since young women are more likely to have been recently pregnant, they will show more of this effect. This suggests that it may not be the woman's age itself that affects aggressiveness but the changes in her immune system and hormones that go with pregnancy.

Breast cancer in young women is more likely to be hereditary. That makes sense - if you've inherited a gene mutation and you will only need one or two more mutations to get cancer, you're one step closer and you're likely to get there faster, whereas if you "acquire" breast cancer, you still need to get all the genetic mutations. That doesn't work all the time. Like older women, the majority of younger women with breast cancer have no family history. Nevertheless, if you have breast cancer in your family you are more likely to get it at a younger age than if you don't.

Overall, there is no evidence that breast cancer under 35 matched for prognostic features is any more aggressive than a cancer in an older woman. Younger women do, on the other hand, have a higher incidence of poor prognostic features. Still, a young woman and an older woman with the same tumors will have the same general prognosis.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Breast Cancer

What Are The Main Causes of Breast Cancer?

It is an incredibly difficult day in any woman's life if she is found positive for breast cancer. Her family, friends, and anyone else who knows will wonder "why?" Why did this happen to her, and can it happen to me? One shield against such fears is to educate yourself as to the breast cancer causes and what signs to look for. Breast cancer is a disease where cells in your breasts begin dividing uncontrollably, forming the lumps that we are taught to examine ourselves for.

One thing is certain; cancer is a difficult disease to study. It is often difficult or impossible to tell in individual cases what caused breast cancer. However, what doctors do have a better grasp on are some of the things that are common among women (and the occasional men) who get breast cancer.

These are known more appropriately as breast cancer risk factors.

The following are a few breast cancer causes:

* Genetics and family history

* Age

* Early menstruation

* Delayed childbearing

* Presence of cancer or non-cancerous lumps in breasts previously

Genetics and family history are not exactly the same, but they are related. If there is a family history of cancer, you may be more at risk for breast cancer. However, you may be genetically at risk even without a family history of the disease. Mutations can occur in your genes that put you at risk.

If we talk about breast cancer causes, age is one of them, the older you get, the longer you are exposed to environmental factors that may mutate your genes.

Early menstruation and delayed childbearing both increase the amount of time that you are exposed to estrogen. This is one of the risk factors for breast cancer.

Presence of cancer or even non-cancerous lumps in a breast previously means you may be more at risk for breast cancer.

Breast cancer causes are difficult to pinpoint. At one level, it is fairly easy. Breast cancer is caused by a mutation that makes your cells divide uncontrollably. On another level, it is very complex. Excessive weight, radiation exposure, hormone therapy, and smoking are all potential breast cancer causes, in that they could trigger that genetic mutation.

Breast cancer causes are also dependent on environmental influences, such as what chemicals you may have been exposed to, or if someone around you is a smoker. Cancer is a complex disease, and breast cancer is one of the most difficult to pinpoint causes for.

Peter Morgan is the CEO and Founder of JV Members Ltd a new business that enables anyone to earn a living at home by writing short articles. No technical knowledge is required and membership is totally free! Or, if you would like to view more information on Disease and Cancer then please click the link.

Breast Cancer - What are the Signs

Breast Cancer - What are the Signs

Breast Cancer in women is second only to lung cancer deaths and a woman in the United States has a 1 in 8 chance of having breast cancer in her lifetime. That's a startling 13 percent chance that any woman in the U.S. will get breast cancer during her life.

Breast Examination is vital to a woman's health and personal care. There are a number of things you should be aware of when doing a self-examination; obviously any lump or change in the shape of your breast is reason to have further testing performed. If the breast develops dimpling or the nipple area begins to invert itself, or lumps in the underarm area are also symptoms to have checked by your physician.

Most importantly, it is imperative you know that there really are no definite signs of breast cancer, so get tested regularly!

Having a mammogram is not the most comfortable test to have performed, but the opportunity to live a long and healthy life by getting early detection is worth the short-term discomfort. Recently, there have been new breast examination techniques made available whereby the mammogram procedure may be avoided. The age of medicine is always improving and progressing in our abilities to learn more with less personal invasion. This is even more of a reason not to make excuses not to be checked regularly.

As a woman ages her chances of contracting breast cancer increases dramatically. At age 30 the chances are 1 in 2212, and by age 40, the odds greatly increase to 1 in 235. By age 60, the odds are 1 in 23, so if nothing else prompts you to perform constant monthly self-examinations and yearly office exams with your doctor.

Breast cancer respects no one, and there is no assurance that if your family genealogy does not have a history of breast cancer, you won't contract breast cancer. Don't find reasons not to find out about your current health stats. The procedures are covered under wellness provisions in most insurance policies, so again, get tested regularly.

In our age of breast enlargement and plastic surgery, breast cancer examinations at home may be more difficult to detect changes in the breast, so if you have breast implants, please have yourself check with your doctor on a regimented schedule. It's better to protect your investment for the long term if for no other reason. Hopefully you are not the assuming type, whereby you don't feel pain or observe any changes therefore all is well. Breast cancer does not necessarily show any symptoms, but the office tests rarely miss any stages of breast cancer. Should your doctor find any cancer, the earlier the better and with minimal physical changes in your appearance. Just be safe and not sorry for assuming all is okay.

To learn more about breast cancer and other cancers that you can be tested for, take a look at this site for more detailed symptoms, changes, and hidden clues only you would notice;

http://wealthsmith.com/breast-lung-prostate-cancer.htm

Jim is an online write and entrepreneur who delves into topics of high reader interest and his insights and directions on what he has deiscovered is worth the time invested in his articles. Today, he has found that breast cancer awareness is still lacking in it's application and adhering to the testing.

http://wealthsmith.com/breast-lung-prostate-cancer.htm