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Although the percentage of women diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of 40 is much lower (only about 7%) than the overall rates of diagnosis, sadly, these cancers are often not found in their early stages and can prove to be much harder to treat.  One reason these early onset cancers are more difficult to diagnosis is because the breast tissue of younger women is generally more dense than that of women over the age of 40.  There is also sometimes a “denial” aspect to the early diagnosis of breast cancer in younger women.  It seems that many younger women ignore some of the early warning signs, unknowingly believing that they are too young to have cancer.  For these reasons, diagnosis is often not made in the early stages of the disease (when treatment is much more likely to be successful), but rather in later stages that often prove to be more difficult to treat successfully.

In recent years the guidelines for when a woman should have their first mammogram has fluctuated quite a bit, making it even more confusing for young women to make informed decisions about their personal breast health.  Below are some guidelines that young women can use in screening for breast cancer.

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Over the last few days, I’ve been noticing a lot more public service announcements about the dangers of smoking (some of them are so graphic I could barely watch).  I’m not a smoker, but I can’t imagine a smoker not being scared to death after seeing some of these.  And today, the Food and Drug Administration announced that new (larger and more graphic) warning labels will be mandatory on all cigarette packaging.  If you haven’t seen them yet, this Associated Press news video shows them…

I actually think this is something that really could work.  I think these images have a lot of potential to increase the number of people who want to quit smoking, and I also think they will serve as a strong deterrent to anyone who might be considering starting.

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Health News:  In the last few days we have been hearing a lot about the possibility of our cell phones actually causing brain cancer.   But how much truth is in such a statement?   Well, the answer is much more complicated than you might think.

I found a video from the Chief Medical Officer of the American Cancer Society, and I think his explanation about this latest study is both informative and easy to understand.

Here is the video from Dr. Otis Brawley the chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society…

Here is another link to information about Cellular Phones from the American Cancer Society

HCG Diet:  Should Starvation Be An Acceptable Weight-Loss Plan?

Have you heard of the hCG diet plan?  It’s been around since the 70’s and is making a comeback in today’s quick-fix society.  With promises of quick weight loss and little hunger, it sounds like the weight loss miracle we’ve all been hoping for.  But SURPRISE!  There is no miracle, just deception.  And much worse, this diet plan will most likely do you more harm than good.

With so many women trying to lose weight in this country, it scares me to think of how many of them may be taking this “diet plan” seriously.  It’s not a diet at all, it’s a dangerous consumer deception.  With a 500 calorie a day limit, this plan is nothing more than a starvation diet combined with a medical gimmick, and no good can ever come from it.

The New York Times — Diet Plan With HCG, a Fertility Hormone, Has Fans and Critics…

Ms. Brown, 35, is not taking hCG to help her bear a child. She believes that by combining the hormone injections with a 500-calorie-a-day diet, she will achieve a kind of weight-loss nirvana: losing fat in all the right places without feeling tired or hungry. “I had a friend who did it before her wedding,” Ms. Brown said. “She looks great.”

Before I even touch on all the problems with hCG injections, let’s look at the daily calorie intake for this “so called” diet.  Are they kidding?  Limiting the amount of calories you consume in one day to 500 is nothing more than starvation.  There is absolutely NO WAY to limit your daily calories to 500 and be healthy, it’s pure insanity.

Women like Ms. Brown are streaming into doctors’ offices and weight-loss clinics all over the country, paying upward of $1,000 a month for a consultation, a supply of the hormone and the syringes needed to deliver it. More than 50 years after a doctor at a Roman clinic began promoting hCG as a dieting aid, it is as popular as ever, even though there is scant evidence that it makes any difference.

Again, are you kidding me?  If you used that $1,000 a month to buy all healthy foods to stock your kitchen with for a month, you would still have more than enough money left for a gym membership.  Not only would you lose weight this way, but you would also lower your risk for heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer — and that’s not a gimmick, that’s a fact.

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Study Finds Drug Resistant Bacteria in US Meat Supply

On Friday I heard a quick mention on the news about a study showing that much of the meats sold in the United States are tainted by drug resistant bacterias.

This is from an article in the Seattle Times — Tests Find Drug-Resistant Bacteria in Meat…

Meat in the United States may be widely contaminated with strains of drug-resistant bacteria, researchers reported Friday after testing 136 samples of beef, chicken, pork and turkey purchased at grocery stores.

Nearly half of the samples — 47 percent — contained strains of Staphylococcus aureus, the type of bacteria that most commonly causes staph infections. Of those bacteria, 52 percent were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics, according to a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

This story reminded me about another article I came across a few weeks ago on Wired.com that talked about the shocking amount of antibiotics being used on farm animals in this country.  Would you believe that 80% of all antibiotics sold in the United States are used on farm animals?  It’s true, and very troubling.

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When it comes to healthy living, don’t sweat the small stuff.

Whether you’ve just begun to adopt a healthy living lifestyle, or you’ve been eating and living healthy for years, there’s no need to put pressure on yourself to be perfect at it.  You don’t have to sweat the small stuff.

Yes, if you go out to dinner with friends, it is possible to order healthy off most menus…

• choose light entrees off the menu
• avoid the bread and butter
• choose vegetables in place of fries or baked potatoes
• say “no” to dessert

But there’s no healthy-living law that says you have to.

Yes, if you are out of town, there are still many ways to fit your regular exercise routine in…

• use the hotel gym or pool
• take the steps rather than the elevator
• take a walk and see the sights

But there’s no healthy-living law that says you have to.

Yes, if you’re having a bad day, there are healthy comfort foods to choose from…

• fat free and sugar free puddings
• low fat and no sugar added ice-cream
• a pasta dish made with whole wheat pasta and a low fat sauce
• light banana cream pie

But there’s no healthy-living law that says you can’t just buy a gallon of ice-cream.

We all know that there are no “real” healthy-living laws, but that doesn’t always stop us from punishing ourselves when we perceive we are breaking them.  That’s all it is though, a perception.  It’s a perception of guilt, and often that negativity leads us to giving up on ourselves.  It doesn’t have to be that way — If we take the little step of not sweating the small stuff, we will see huge results.

• less stress
• less guilt
• increased mental strength
• more acceptance of ourselves

When we don’t sweat the small stuff, we do our body good…And that’s healthy living too.

For the most part, I think I’m making many more healthy choices in my life, and I feel good about that.  But I’ll admit, on a recent four day cruise with my daughter, I ordered cheese cake every night from room service just before I went to bed.  And even though I could have chosen healthy meals and desserts, I only did so when it was something that I really wanted.  I didn’t go out of my way to exercise, but I did take the steps instead of the elevator (sometimes).  Overall, I didn’t sweat the small stuff.  And you know what?  I had a wonderful, guilt free vacation with my daughter.

Do you allow yourself a “guilt free” break from healthy living every now and then?  Is it something you might want to try?  I hope you’ll let us know your thoughts in comments.

Did you know that more women die from heart disease than men in our country?  It’s true.  But when it comes to researching treatments for heart disease, women are being left behind.  So I wasn’t surprised when I read a recent article that highlighted the continued disparities of heart disease treatment between men and women.

From an ABC News article — Heart Device Studies Leave Women Behind…

Cardiovascular device development remains skewed against women, with too few trials adequately addressing gender despite long-standing requirements by the FDA, researchers found.

I contacted Carolyn Thomas of Heart Sisters to ask her if I could get her thoughts on this latest report for BlogHer, and she was kind enough to agree.  Carolyn writes about women and heart disease from a very unique perspective — She is a Mayo Clinic-trained heart attack survivor.   What she has to say about women and heart disease, we ALL need to hear.

My first question was…

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Today the government has issued new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, something they do every five years.  With obesity (and the deadly medical conditions associated with it) at a critical level in this country, they are guidelines that we can’t afford to ignore.

These new guidelines not only address the need to reduce our intake of unhealthy foods (such as high amounts of sodium, saturated fat, and sugar), but they go a step further, and suggest that Americans must begin to eat less.  Eating less may seem like an obvious suggestion, but most Americans have become a custom to extremely large serving sizes (even super-sizing).

But let’s talk about the specifics, this is from the Executive Summary of the New Dietary Guidelines…

Here are the suggestions for foods we should be trying to eat more of:

• Increase vegetable and fruit intake.
• Eat a variety of vegetables, especially dark-green and red and orange vegetables and beans and peas.
• Consume at least half of all grains as whole grains. Increase whole-grain intake by replacing refined grains with whole grains.
• Increase intake of fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products, such as milk, yogurt, cheese, or fortified soy beverages.
• Choose a variety of protein foods, which include seafood, lean meat and poultry, eggs, beans and peas, soy products, and unsalted nuts and seeds.
• Increase the amount and variety of seafood consumed by choosing seafood in place of some meat and poultry.
• Replace protein foods that are higher in solid fats with choices that are lower in solid fats and calories and/or are sources of oils.
• Use oils to replace solid fats where possible.
• Choose foods that provide more potassium, dietary fiber, calcium, and vitamin D, which are nutrients of concern in American diets. These foods include vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and milk and milk products.

Here are the suggestions for foods we should be trying to eat less of…

• Reduce daily sodium intake to less than 2,300 milligrams (mg) and further reduce intake to 1,500 mg among persons who are 51 and older and those of any age who are African American or have hypertension, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease. The 1,500 mg recommendation applies to about half of the U.S. population, including children, and the majority of adults.
• Consume less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fatty acids by replacing them with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids.
• Consume less than 300 mg per day of dietary cholesterol.
• Keep trans fatty acid consumption as low as possible by limiting foods that contain synthetic sources of trans fats, such as partially hydrogenated oils, and by limiting other solid fats.
• Reduce the intake of calories from solid fats and added sugars.
• Limit the consumption of foods that contain refined grains, especially refined grain foods that contain solid fats, added sugars, and sodium.
• If alcohol is consumed, it should be consumed in moderation—up to one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men—and only by adults of legal drinking age.

As important as I believe these new guidelines are, I am disappointed by the lack of acknowledgment about why most Americans make unhealthy food choices in the first place.  The bottom line is, healthy foods are generally more expensive than unhealthy foods, and the super unhealthy foods are down right cheap.

In a time when so many Americans are struggling financially, it’s unrealistic to assume that the reason people are making unhealthy food choices is because they just don’t know any better.   I hope the reason money wasn’t addressed isn’t because the USDA believes that even people who can only afford to eat junk food, are covered by their “eat less” guideline  (as in a post I wrote about Twinkies a few months ago).

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There is a lot of stigma and misinformation surrounding eating disorders, and I imagine the biggest misconception about eating disorders is that it’s somehow the patient’s fault…But that couldn’t be further from the truth.  Since this week is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, I thought I would dedicating this post to providing as much information and facts about this disease as possible.

From NEDAwareness Week…

Mission: Our aim of NEDAwareness Week is to ultimately prevent eating disorders and body image issues while reducing the stigma surrounding eating disorders and improving access to treatment. Eating disorders are serious, life-threatening illnesses — not choices — and it’s important to recognize the pressures, attitudes and behaviors that shape the disorder.

This year, NEDA asked everyone to do just one thing to help raise awareness and provide accurate information about eating disorders.

This is from Manolo for the Big Girl — Myths and Facts About Eating Disorders…

So how do we turn the mass of misinformation around? We educate ourselves. We learn what the latest research has to say and listen to the voices of recovery. We keep our ears, eyes, minds, and hearts open. And once we have educated ourselves, we talk.

Here are some the the facts and statistics about eating disorders.

From Eating Disorder Statistics — Mortality Rates…

• Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness
• A study by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders reported that 5 – 10% of anorexics die within 10 years after contracting the disease; 18-20% of anorexics will be dead after 20 years and only 30 – 40% ever fully recover
• The mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate of ALL causes of death for females 15 – 24 years old.
• 20% of people suffering from anorexia will prematurely die from complications related to their eating disorder, including suicide and heart problems

From FamilyDoctor.org — Warning Signs of an Eating Disorder…

• Unnatural concern about body weight (even if the person is not overweight)
• Obsession with calories, fat grams and food
• Use of any medicines to keep from gaining weight (diet pills, laxatives, water pills)

More serious warning signs may be harder to notice because people who have an eating disorder try to keep it secret.  Watch for these signs:

• Throwing up after meals
• Refusing to eat or lying about how much was eaten
• Fainting
• Overexercising
• Not having periods
• Increased anxiety about weight
• Calluses or scars on the knuckle (from forced throwing up)
• Denying that there is anything wrong

From Psych Central — Eating Disorder Recovery (an in-depth Q&A)…

In honor of NEDA Week, I wanted to talk about the common obstacles on the road to eating disorder recovery and how individuals can overcome these obstacles.

If you’re struggling with an eating disorder, know that you can absolutely recover. It’s normal to experience setbacks and challenges. Everyone does.

Here is a very informative video about the facts about eating Disorders, with Lynn Grefe, CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association…

Sometimes less is more, and in the case of breast cancer surgery this seems to the case.  In a  just released study on women with breast cancer, it turns out that the removal of cancerous lymph nodes may not always be necessary.   The results of this study will facilitate major changes in the way breast cancer is treated, and could be hard for a lot of women to accept at first; since most of us are programmed to want all cancer removed.  But it turns out that about 20% of breast cancer patients who have cancer in their lymph nodes and who would normally have those nodes removed, will not need this aggressive surgery.

The new study concludes that the decision of whether or not to remove the lymph nodes should now be based on what stage the breast cancer is in, rather than the finding of cancer in the  nodes.

This is from the New York Times - Lymph Node Surgery for Breast Cancer Not Always Needed…

The new results do not apply to all patients, only to women whose disease and treatment meet the criteria in the study.

The tumors were early, at clinical stage T1 or T2, meaning less than two inches across. Biopsies of one or two armpit nodes had found cancer, but the nodes were not enlarged enough to be felt during an exam, and the cancer had not spread anywhere else.

So why is this such an important discovery in the treatment of breast cancer?

It’s because in patients where the removal of these nodes do not change the outcome of survival or re-occurrence, the benefits of removal do not outweigh the risks.   Not only is the removal of these lymph nodes very painful to recover from, but the complications (such as infection and lymph edema) can be very serious, even disabling.  So if doctors can eliminate this complication for over 40,000 women a year, that is a very good thing.

Here is a video discussing this latest study…

From the Washington Post – Breast Cancer Study Questions Lymph Node Removal…

The study, involving nearly 900 women who were treated at 115 sites across the country, found that those who did have their lymph nodes removed were no more likely to survive five years after the surgery than those who did not, the researchers reported in a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Even though the cancerous lymph nodes will not be removed during surgery for patients meeting the new criteria, the cancer in those nodes is eradicated when the patient is given chemotherapy after surgery.

More from the New York Times article…

Removing the cancerous lymph nodes proved unnecessary because the women in the study had chemotherapy and radiation, which probably wiped out any disease in the nodes, the researchers said. Those treatments are now standard for women with breast cancer in the lymph nodes, based on the realization that once the disease reaches the nodes, it has the potential to spread to vital organs and cannot be eliminated by surgery alone.

Experts say that the new findings, combined with similar ones from earlier studies, should change medical practice for many patients.

What do you think about this new study and how it will affect the treatment of breast cancer?  Do you agree with the findings of the study?  What would you want to do if you fell into this new criteria, and the recommendation was to not remove the lymph nodes?  Please let us know your thoughts in comments.

(cross-posted to BlogHer)