It was also believed that shaving under your arms could cause tiny cuts that would allow cancer causing compounds to enter the through the skin into the lymph nodes and into the breast. It was largely believed that because the underarms are close to the breast area that using antiperspirants could cause breast cancer. There was also a belief that men didn’t have as high a risk for breast cancer because they didn’t shave under their arms before using antiperspirants.

There is a lot of misinformation about antiperspirants causing breast cancer. It is believed by some that antiperspirants prevent waste products “from the lymph glands” from coming out in the sweat. The lymph glands are not connected to the sweat glands. Sweat is released by the sweat glands as a way to keep the body cool. You could easily overheat if you did not sweat. Your lymph system carries off the bacteria and viruses out of the body to be filtered through the liver and kidneys. The lymph system acts something like a sewer system to keep the body free of wastes. There is no evidence that antiperspirants negatively affect the lymph nodes in any way.

The American Cancer Society indicates that there isn’t adequate evidence that there is a link between using antiperspirant and having breast cancer. There was a study done in 2003, where questionnaires were given to younger women and older women who had breast cancer. It was reported by the researcher that younger women diagnosed with breast cancer admitted they shaved their underarms and used antiperspirant at a young age. The older women in the study who were diagnosed with breast cancer stated they didn’t shave their underarms as often. The study indicated that the younger women got breast cancer because they shaved their underarms while using antiperspirant. The problem with this study is that there was no control group of women in the study who did not have cancer.

There is also misinformation that men don’t get breast cancer as much as women because men don’t shave under their arms. It is believed that the man’s underarm hair is a barrier between the antiperspirant and the skin. This isn’t true. Men are 100 times less likely to develop breast cancer than women because they have far less breast tissue than women. Breast cancer is more likely to develop in areas of the breast that have the most breast tissue. Women that have the most breast tissue in the upper and outer part of their breasts are more likely to develop cancer in those areas, which tends to lend credence that the use of antiperspirants has nothing to do with where breast cancer develops in a woman’s breasts.

Some women believe that antiperspirants are harmful because they are instructed not to wear it during a mammogram. The reason that you can’t wear antiperspirant during a mammogram is because the ingredients, such as aluminum and minerals can show up on the mammogram as calcifications. You would also not be able to wear talcum powder, for the same reason. The idea that antiperspirant causes breast cancer is a myth that has been circulating through emails, and on certain websites. Though there is no evidence that there is a connection between antiperspirants and breast cancer, there are researchers that are not convinced there is no connection. If you have a fear of using antiperspirant, why not just wear deodorant for your own peace of mind?

The National Breast Cancer Foundation reaches out the women through education. The foundation helps women get the mammograms they need to detect cancer early enough to save lives. The goal of the NBCF is to raise awareness to promote the early detection of breast cancer. One out of every eight or nine women will have breast cancer some time in her lifetime. Women who do not have health insurance may not be able to afford mammograms; the NBCF will provide mammograms to all women who cannot afford to pay for a mammogram.

The National Breast Cancer Foundation is instrumental in educating women of the need to get mammograms. Many women put off having mammograms because they are afraid there may already have breast cancer. Some women justify not getting mammograms because of their work schedules, claiming they are too busy. Another reason women don’t get mammograms is because they don’t have health insurance, or if they do have health insurance, they cannot afford the co-pay. Sometimes women don’t go have a mammogram done because they are afraid it will hurt. Some women think beyond the mammogram and fear that if cancer is found that they will have to have a mastectomy; they are worried about the pain, the scaring, and the loss of femininity.

The National Breast Cancer Foundation helps to educate women about mammograms, and allay their fears of having them. When women find out how many women die each year of breast cancer each year, and that a large percentage of those deaths could have been prevented if their breast cancer was found early enough. Women must have an advocate, such as the NBCF to educate and remind them of how important their breast health is.

You can donate money to the National Breast Cancer Foundation that is set aside for needy women to have mammograms. Many women have died of breast cancer, because they didn’t know there was help for breast cancer screening. The NBCF is a ray of hope to people who may feel hopeless and helpless. You can raise money for the National Breast Cancer Foundation by shopping at the Pink Ribbon Shop.

The NBCF is a foundation that educates women about prevention of breast cancer. Besides assisting with mammograms, the NBCF helps to educate women on the many ways to prevent breast cancer. The foundation teaches women that regular exercise can boost the immune system and lowers the estrogen levels in the body. Since estrogen is a key factor in breast cancer, exercise is a good way to help the body stay in balance to prevent breast cancer.

The NBCF also educates women about eating a healthy diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables and rich in whole grains, because a diet low in fats and high in antioxidants are good cancer fighters, and the healthy diet is essential in preventing breast cancer. The foundation also educates about the necessity of the breast self-exam. Doing breast self-breast exams at the same time every month has saved many lives. You can support the NBCF by donating on their official site. There are other breast cancer organizations to donate to also, such as the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the National Breast Cancer Coalition. These organizations will help women have access to breast cancer screening and breast cancer treatments.

Nothing could make a better statement for breast cancer awareness than the pink stainless steel water bottle. On the outside of the water bottle in big letters, is the word “Believe.” The letter “L” in the word is an upside down breast cancer awareness ribbon. Underneath the word “Believe” are the words “Together we will find a cure.” This water bottle can be purchased online at the Pink Ribbon Shop.

Another beautiful item at the Pink Ribbon Shop is an inspirational silver tone cuff bracelet that just slides onto your wrist. On the Bracelet in fairly large engraved letters are the words “What Cancer Cannot Do.” In smaller engraving, the sentence is finished with all the things that cancer cannot do. You will have to see this bracelet to appreciate it.

At the Warriors in Pink website you can buy many items. Pink Warrior is sponsored by Ford. There is one item than any woman would be proud to wear. The Warrior Cap is a short brimmed cap that has a pink warrior patch on the brim. The hat is very attractive, and when you buy the cap, 100 percent of the money goes to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

There are many pieces of wearing apparel, jewelry, and other items at the Breast Cancer Site online. This store has a stainless steel water bottle that has the words “Live, Laugh and Love” on it; the bottle is a very pretty pink color. If you want to make a statement about breast cancer awareness everywhere you go, this store has pink ribbon magnets to that are perfect to place on your car. You can also put these magnets on your mail box, and on your refrigerator.

You can keep up with the days of the year, for 16 months, with the “Live Love and Laugh” calendar. Each day offers cheerful illustrations with uplifting sayings. The calendar is made of recycled paper, and the pages are glossy and beautiful. At this same online store you can buy beautiful silver toned rings with the words “Believe, Dream and Hope” engraved in them. These rings are a great way to make a statement about breast cancer.

Breast cancer awareness is in the month of October, but awareness will continue throughout every month and every year until there is a cure. There is much promotion for breast cancer awareness, but if you have some other illness, or if you are a man with prostate cancer or some other illness, and you want to make a statement about awareness of your disease, you can buy a purple ribbon, that resembles the breast cancer ribbon. We are used to seeing the pink ribbon, but many of us may not be familiar with ribbons of different colors. Ribbons such as these will be sure to get people’s attention, and then you can speak and bring awareness to other forms of cancer and noncancerous illnesses.

The women who have succeeded in treating their cancer with diet have had to learn a whole new eating lifestyle. The first thing they learned to do was to throw away all the white bread, white rice, and filled their pantries with brown rice, and whole wheat breads, cereals, bagels wheat germ, and crackers. The diet to help fight breast cancer also contains 1 to 2 servings of beans every day. You can eat beans by themselves, or you can add them to salads; you can put beans in almost anything. Beans are good cold or hot. You can cook up a pot of dried pinto beans, black eyed peas, or chick peas. You can also buy canned beans. You may have gas for a while until your intestinal tract gets accustomed to the beans, but the bloating will pass in time. Dried beans are very inexpensive, and they keep well in your pantry. You can cook up a bag and put a little good fat in the pot, like a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, or some other healthy fat.

Brazil nuts and walnuts are some of the best nuts to wage war on breast cancer. Brazil nuts and many other types of nuts contain antioxidants and they are loaded with selenium. Most people avoid nuts because they are considered fattening. Nuts are fattening if you are snacking on them all day long; however, if you add a handful of nuts throughout the day into your meal plan, the nuts will not be fattening, and you will be fighting breast cancer. It is important to get the nuts that have not been processed and salted. If you can deal with cracking nuts ahead of time, this is great; otherwise, try to get the nuts that have not been roasted and salted.

Selenium is an important part of the diet when you are fighting breast cancer, or any other kind of cancer. Studies show that people with low levels of selenium have higher risk of developing cancer. Low selenium, in itself, isn’t believed to be the culprit to cause breast cancer, skin cancer, colon cancer, lung and prostate cancer. However, selenium is part of the body’s “recipe” to make the antioxidant, glutathione. Glutathione helps the body to enhance Vitamin C and Vitamin E in the body, which are essential in detoxifying the body of free radicals.

A diet rich in fruits and vegetables will help the body fight cancer. Our bodies are designed to heal itself in many cases, but we put so many poisons into our bodies. The poisons that we put into our bodies might be cigarette smoke, unhealthy foods, and medications that are designed to treat disease. Many medications that treat an illness will cause an illness somewhere else in the body. Many medications taken for pain will cause liver and kidney damage. It is very important for people with breast cancer and other types of cancer to eat a healthy diet. Many people who treat their cancer with diet eat as many as 9 or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day. If you eat 3 meals per day, you should eat 3 servings per meal. That could be one fruit and two vegetables. If you eat snacks in the day, it is good to add fruit and vegetables for the snacks also. If you are interested in treating breast cancer with a change in diet, ask your health care practitioner for guidance. These healing foods can supplement your cancer treatment.

Breast cancer is the second to lung cancer as the leading cause of death in women. Prostate cancer is second to skin cancer as the leading cause of death in men. Prostate cancer kills approximately 41,000 men each year. Breast cancer kills approximately 41,100 women each year. There’s not too much difference in the mortality rate between the two cancers.

Breast cancer gets a lot of attention because there are a large number of women who are survivors. Women have stepped up and brought their breast health out in the open. News media are showing breast self-exams on television with no censorship. The message is getting out to women all over the United States to educate them on how to examine their breasts. There are programs that fund mobile mammogram vans to go from community to community to offer reduced cost mammograms to women who might not otherwise be able to get one, due to lack of health insurance.

Most communities have free PSA screening for men for prostate health. Some communities have mobile prostate clinics, just like the breast cancer van that goes around. If you are a man and you don’t have health insurance, go to your search engine and type “free prostate screening” in your city or a city near yours, if you live in a small community. Prostate health may not be “in your face” as much as breast health, but that may be partly due to women being more vocal about their breast health. For many years women were not represented. It wasn’t until the 1980s that women’s health issues began to be recognized by the medical community.

Many men are not as public about their prostates as women are about their breasts. Men don’t have a segment on the news showing men how to check their prostates, like women do. Men should be educated on how to check their prostates, because they should do a prostate self-exam six months after having a clinical prostate exam by their doctor. Men can do a self-exam by themselves, or they can have their partner do the exam. Men and their partners should be taught how to be proactive about their breast and prostate health. Men don’t like having this exam done, because it is invasive. The only way to feel the prostate is to go through the rectum. Men should become more willing to check their prostates, or ask for assistance from their partners. If men are squeamish about checking their own prostates, they should ask to have the exam, because some doctors forget to do it as part of a routine exam.

If more men were more open about prostate health, there might be more attention paid to them in the form of fund raisers. You can hardly go a day without seeing or hearing something about breast health, and breast cancer. There does seem to be less attention paid to men’s health and prostate cancer. Most men, if they live long enough, will develop prostate cancer. Most men, by age 80 will have prostate cancer. If men were as vocal about their prostate health as women have become over their breast health, there might be more attention paid to prostate health.

Another way to raise money for breast cancer research is to contact the American Cancer Society in your community. On the ACS website you can find an organization near you. There are events that you can participate in. You may ask how you can have an event in your community. There are many activities already being done, such as breast cancer walks. There are other things you could do; you could have 24 hour activities, such as rocking chair marathons at your church. You could ask people to sponsor you for $5 (or whatever the person agrees to) for every hour that you and other participants rock continuously. You might also think of other fun projects to do to raise money, such as sack races, relay races. You could also have yard sales, and ask everyone in your community to donate items to your community yard sale.

A raffle is a good way to raise funds for breast cancer research. You will need to print up some raffle tickets, and you will need items to raffle off. If you are someone who likes to make hand crafted items, you can get some other friends to join in with you to donate items to raffle. For instance, if you make quilts as a hobby, you can donate a quilt. You can charge $5 or $10 per ticket, and print out 100 or more tickets. Be sure to make sure that you have the names and phone numbers of the people buying the raffle tickets; on the day of the raffle drawing, you can notify the winners. You may have as many items to raffle off as you wish to, or you can raffle off one item at a time. More people might get involved if they feel they have a chance of winning.

Another idea you might do is to get business establishments to agree to give something away free. You can make up coupons with the establishment’s name on them and advertise they get something free. A restaurant might offer a free dessert with a meal. A retail store might offer a buy one get one free deal. The object would be to create a booklet of coupons and sell them for $5 or $10 each. The business establishments would probably benefit from this, even though they are giving something away free. The people that enter the establishments will most likely spend money on other things, so that the company makes money on future business contacts.

Public speaking is another way to raise money. If you are passionate about breast cancer research, talk about it publicly at places like women’s clubs, conferences, support groups, and other venues. If you don’t want to do the public speaking yourself, you might request a public speaker to be the keynote speaker at the venues you choose for charity events. You may be able to find out how to contact a public speaker through your local American Cancer Society. You may call, email, or visit the American Cancer Society. The person you speak to may have literature about how you can create a fund raising event in your community. The ACS may give you some ideas that you hadn’t even thought of.

Staging helps to determine the survival rate for a period of 5 years. Stage 0 has a 100 percent survival rate, and so does Stage I. The survival rate is 86 percent at Stage II, and at Stage III is 57 percent. Finally, the survival rate for Stage IV for 5 years is only 20 percent. The more invasive the cancer is the higher it is staged. Doctors have to do many diagnostic tests to determine the stage of a person’s breast cancer.

The doctor may order X-rays, a mammogram, CT scans, MRI scans, bone scans, and CT guided biopsies to properly diagnose breast cancer into the correct stage. A chest X-ray is done to visualize the lungs. A radiologist can tell if breast cancer has metastasized to the lungs. Your doctor may order a mammogram to identify where the tumors are, and to look for any new areas in the breast that have become cancerous.

Your doctor may order a bone scan to see if the breast cancer has metastasized to anywhere in the bones. A bone scan can show all the bones in your body at once, and is more useful to detect cancer in the bones than X-rays would be. To have a bone scan the technician will give you a low dose of radioisotope into your vein by way of an IV. The scan takes about 30 minutes to complete, while you lie flat on the table; the camera detects the radioactive material and makes a visible scanned image of your bones. The radioactive material will condense more into cancerous areas of the bones, creating an image of the bones and where the hot spots are.

If your doctor orders a CT scan, this is a type of X-ray machine that takes computer images of the area being scanned. The scan will take pictures in slices. A CT scan can show great detail. A doctor may order a CT scan after cancer treatments have been done to see if the cancer has responded to the rounds of cancer treatments. An MRI may also be done to check the body for areas of metastasis. An MRI might be indicated if cancer was found in one breast, and the doctor wants to visualize the other breast to check for tumors.

Diagnostic testing, such as the X-ray, CT, MRI, and bone scan are done to help determine the stage of the breast cancer. In the later stages, breast cancer may spread to the bone, liver, brain or lungs. These diagnostic exams can determine where cancer has spread into the body, and if breast cancer has spread to the bone, the cancer is staged at Stage IV. If there are no cancer cells in any of the organs or the bones, but there are lymph nodes in the chest that are cancerous, the breast cancer will be staged at one of the subcategories of Stage III. If the testing finds there is no distant metastasis, but there are cancer cells in the surrounding tissues and lymph nodes, they doctor can diagnose the cancer as stage II. Obviously, if your doctor finds your breast cancer at Stage 0 or Stage I you have much better chances of recovery.

Though, cysts don’t become cancerous, they should be watched by your doctor. If you should feel other lumps in your breast that feel like the cyst, it is best not to ignore it and assume that it is just another cyst. Cysts don’t normally go away by themselves; your doctor can insert a needle through the breast, into the cyst and aspirate it. Once the cyst is aspirated, it is gone. A doctor may use an ultrasound to help locate cysts that need to be aspirated. If you watch on the ultrasound monitor, you can see the cyst disappear when it is aspirated with a needle.

Why cysts form in the breast isn’t quite understood, but it is believed that there is a connection between your hormones and the formation of cysts in the breasts. If you have one breast cyst, you will probably have more in your lifetime. Women who menstruate and women who take estrogen replacement therapy are more likely to develop breast cysts. Cysts can be so small that you can’t even feel them; breast cysts can be walnut sized or pin head sized.

To decrease the risk of developing breast cysts, you can ask your doctor for advice. Birth control pills and post menopausal hormone replacement medications might actually promote the growth of breast cysts. Some ways to decrease your risk of developing a breast cyst are to lower the fat and carbohydrates in the diet, lowering the meat, and increasing the fish and soy products. It is also advised to increase the fruits and vegetables in your diet; it is good to add healthy fats to the diet, such as extra virgin olive oil and flax seed oil, as well. Some of the best fruits to eat are blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. The best kinds of vegetables to eat are broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. The antioxidants in these fruits and vegetables are good cancer fighting ingredients. Every woman and man should keep these kinds of fruits and vegetables in their daily diet.

Besides breast cysts, there is another growth you might feel in your breast, called a fibroadenoma. Just as with breast cysts, fibroadenomas are benign breast lumps, or tumors; they aren’t cancerous and they won’t turn into cancer later on. These breast lumps are more prevalent win young women, during their reproductive years. Adenomas feel rather rubbery to the touch and you can move them around a bit with your fingers, just like you can a cyst.

If you have a breast lump, your doctor may be quite positive that what you have is a fibroadenoma; however, to be on the safe side, the doctor will most likely take a needle biopsy. However, if you have a breast cyst, your doctor will not likely take a needle biopsy, because cysts are not cancerous. However, the doctor most likely will do a needle aspiration of the cyst to remove it. Always go to your doctor when you feel a lump in your breast. Do not become complacent about your breast health; don’t assume that all is well with your breast. It is always better to make sure your breasts are healthy.

In Stage 0, the cancer has not spread past its place or origin. Most of the time breast cancer starts in the breast duct; this is called ductal carcinoma in situ. If your cancer is in situ, it has not moved. If your cancer is categorized at Stage I, the tumor in your breast has not advanced past 2 centimeters; there is no metastasis at stage I. If you have Stage II (sub-stage A and B) breast cancer your breast tumor is no larger than 5 centimeters, and cancer cells have broken off and traveled to the lymph nodes. This is the starting of metastasis. If your breast cancer advances to Stage III (sub-stage A, B or C) the cancer cells from the tumor may have spread past the lymph nodes into other areas, such as the breast bone, the chest wall and around the collar bone. The breast cancer can advance as far as to the skin on and around the breast. Stage IV is the final stage of breast cancer. If you have Stage IV breast cancer, cancer cells have moved to other organs in your body. Breast cancer can set up in the lungs, liver, bones and brain.

Breast cancer that has metastasized to other organs is still breast cancer. One should not confuse a secondary tumor in the lung as lung cancer. If breast cancer has metastasized to the lung, it is still breast cancer. The cancer cells are breast cells in the lung. The same with metastasis to the bone, liver or brain, a malignancy in one of these areas of the body is composed of cancerous breast cells.

If you are diagnosed with Stage 0 or Stage I, you are likely to be treated and have a full recovery. If your cancer has reached stage II, you still have a good chance of recovery, even though the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. Once your cancer advances to stage III and Stage IV it becomes more difficult to recover. The recovery rate for someone with Stage III breast cancer is 49 to 67 percent, and a 5 recovery rate for Stage IV breast cancer is only 20 percent. Most women, by the time their breast cancer is at Stage IV, must come to the realization that they may only have about 2 to 3 years left to live. Most of the time, doctors don’t like to put a time frame on their life expectancy, because everyone is different. You might beat the odds and live for much longer than 5 years with Stage IV breast cancer.

There are often no signs or symptoms associated with breast cancer in the early stages. You may not see or feel anything different about your breasts if you are not looking for changes, which is why breast self-exams are so important. Even if you are doing monthly breast self-exams, you may not feel anything if the cancer is in the very early stages, which is why women 40 years and older should get a mammogram done once every one to two years. It is also important to have a clinical breast exam done once a year with an annual physical. Sometimes women put off going to the doctor for a routine physical because they don’t have health insurance. It is vitally important that you don’t put off getting breast cancer screening, because if breast cancer is caught early, it is very treatable.

You may have had coverage for years and paid hundreds of dollars a month on personal health insurance, and the insurance company deposited your checks into their account every single month. You may not have been sick and never even used your insurance, and then one day you had a routine physical and found out you had breast cancer. Suddenly you are seeing a doctor regularly. You have to have costly treatments. If you begin costing a personal health insurance company too much money, they may annul your policy.

Some insurance companies will retroactively cancel a contract if the person who is insured comes down with a catastrophic illness, such as breast cancer. If you were to have group health insurance through an employer, your insurance policy would not have been canceled. You, as an individual are part of the group, and not an individual. Once you have insurance coverage through an employer, you are always covered, and no one can yank your insurance coverage out from under you.

If you filled out an application for personal health insurance, you were asked a whole long list of questions. The questions may seem a little ambiguous. If you fill out the application and fudge one little bit on a single question, the insurance company can cancel your health insurance coverage. For instance, if the question asked if you smoke, and you do, but you answered the question with a “No” answer, this could be a reason for the insurance company to dump you at a later date, when you come down with an expensive illness.

The questions for an employer based group insurance policy don’t ask very many questions at all. Many feel that the questions asked on an employer based group policy are limited because there is no need for all the questions. You are part of the group; if one person in the group is accepted, all are accepted. Group health insurance that is employer based cannot “hunt” for a reason to disqualify you from insurance coverage. On the contrary, the questions for an individual policy could ask you a whole “laundry list” of questions. Your answers to these questions can be very useful when the insurance company wants to stop paying your bills, because you are costing them too much money, and remember, insurance companies are in business to make a profit. Always be very truthful when answering questions on an insurance policy. No matter how trivial you think the question is, be honest, because if an issue comes up, and the insurance company can find a discrepancy in your answers, you can be dropped and left to face your breast cancer without insurance coverage. If a question asks you how much you weigh, don’t fudge. If you weigh 200 pounds, be honest. Don’t put a lower weight in the answer because you feel embarrassed for someone to know your weight. Telling a half-truth or fudging the truth on the insurance application could cost you your personal health insurance coverage when you need it the most.