While Breast Cancer Awareness month is celebrated during the month of October, it is never a bad time to think about risk factors for breast cancer and how we might be able to avoid them. After all, the month of November is all about gratitude. While there are no guarantees in life, and breast cancer especially does not discriminate, we can be thankful for information that gives us the ability to stack the odds in our favor. Who doesn’t like favorable odds?
When it comes to the topic of breast cancer awareness, I find that the discussion directed toward breast cancer risk factors is often overlooked. While research and early detection are of key importance in the battle against breast cancer, understanding risk factors for breast cancer allows us to do our best to prevent it from occurring (or reoccurring) in the first place. The old adage holds true, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
A recent conversation with some of my girlfriends made me realize how many of us may not be aware of some of the risk factors for breast cancer outside of family history. In the slideshow below, we present breast cancer risk factors that you might not be aware of. It is really important to know your risk factors in order to maximize your ability to prevent occurrence or reoccurrence of this disease that affects so many women around the world.
So here we go, this one’s for the girls…literally and figuratively.
Hover over each image below to view the description.
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Being aware of risk factors and addressing them is important in preventing/treating any kind of cancer, not just breast cancer. The cancerous tumor is an end result of a long process that took a long time to get there. Often, the environment and risk factors for breast cancer are still there, even if tumor is gone or treatment is over. It is a good time to determine what may have caused that. By identifying risk factors and treating them, a person has a greater chance of preventing the occurrence and reoccurrence of the cancer.
Image Credit: Steve Snodgrass (Featured) Patrick Knight (Slide 1), CarbonNYC (Slide 2), Wonderlane (Slide 3) Brock Builders (Slide 4), Victor1558 (Slide 5), Pink Sherbet (Slide 6), E-Imagineart.com (Slide 7)
