Semester 4, Week 9, Day 6: Reducing your risk of cancer

My meeting with my teacher went well.  She is having individual meetings with all of her students just to make sure she's clear on what everyone is doing.  I had to send a question off to the librarian because I realized something and needed a bit of advice.  I think I already know the answer but I will wait on that until she responds back.  I still have several books I need to add to my book entry before I switch back and fill the rest with studies.  I only have 2 herbariums done for this site and the list of discussions to go here is getting short so we'll see how much I can get done.  The current school work takes priority over this site but I think it will all work out.  I'm going to stop my rosemary entry at 32 pages which means I only need 10 more. The biggest issue is my literature review has to have all the same sources and be just as long.  With my entry being as long as it is with pictures, this means I need to pad the LR with words.  I'm up for the challenge.  Love and Light!

"Imagine you have been chosen to give a speech on how to prevent or reduce your risk of cancer.  What are some key suggestions you would present?"
 
I feel like I’m coming late to the party here!  This is also a loaded question because what DOESN’T cause cancer these days?  The birth control pill I take daily (because being in my 40s isn’t enough, says my body) causes breast cancer.  In fact, I typed “birth control AND cancer in PubMed and came back with 2476 results AFTER I selected the full free text!  The very first study I pulled up questioned if they were worth the risk.  I’d say NO but my husband can’t take enough time off work to get snipped….  I’m off the damned thing once school is out so I will either end up preggers again or he will get fixed. 

This study was a small one which noticed a correlation between the length of time the woman was on the pill and the risk of developing breast cancer (Bardaweel, et al., 2019).  Prins et al. (2017) talks about how even the minimal exposure to BPA poses a risk of prostate cancer. Belyaev et al (2016) discussed the risk of cancer as a result of all these electromagnetic waves, including cell phones. The only way to reduce your risk of cancer in any way that would have some effect is to move to the mountains and not have wi-fi or a cell phone and make sure your house has clean electric or just not have electric. Even then, the mountains are not immune to pollution.

I LOVED the video lecture for this week.  There was so much information in there I need to watch it about 5 more times to retain everything he said!  Simply put, we cannot avoid everything out there that is going to kill us.  What we can do is recognize the dangers, avoid the ones we can and do our best to mitigate the ones we cannot. I actually have a bracelet on the way that helps with the EMFs out there.  I eat as healthy as I can and try to detox once in a while but that’s hard. I guess the bottom line on this topic is there is no way I could do a 1-hour talk on this topic.  I’d bring sources and I’d need a week. The best suggestions would be to avoid sugar because it feeds cancer and eat plenty of antioxidants.
 
References
Bardaweel, S. K., Akour, A. A., Al-Muhaissen, S., AlSalamat, H. A., and Ammar, K. (2019). Oral contraceptive and breast cancer: do benefits outweigh the risks? A case – control study from Jordan. BMC Women's Health. 19(72). Doi: 10.1186/s12905-019-0770-x.
Prins, G. S., Ye, S. H., Birch, L., Zhang, X., Cheong, A., Lin, H., Calderon-Gierzal, E., and Groen, J. (2017). Prostate Cancer Risk and DNA Methylation Signatures in Aging Rats following Developmental BPA Exposure: A Dose – Response Analysis. Doi: 10.1289/EHP1050
Belyaev, I., Dean, A., Eger, H., Hubmann, G., Jandrisovits, R., Kern, M., Kundi, M., Moshammer, H., Lercher, P., Müller, K., Oberfeld, G., Ohnsorge, P., Pelzmann, P., Scheingraber, C., and Thill, R. (2016). EUROPAEM EMF Guideline 2016 for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of EMF-related health problems and illnesses. Reviews on Environmental Health, 31(3): 363–397. DOI: 10.1515/reveh-2016-0011

Have a Great Day!