Zeppa i guess its possible and the worst thing is never knowing. I was told that i have 2 tumours and the larger one was at least 5 and a half cm yet i’m damn sure it wasnt there when i was with my ex. I guess it could have been growing slowly over time and the stress accelerated the growth which made me notice it.
Sian. X
Very good comments, ladies, very interesting ideas coming through. I do get several episodes of stress in the course of each year, I cant really pinpoint mine to anything except that in the 3 months b4 my diagnosis I had a lump appear on the side of my neck and had to have it scanned, and i did get very upset about what that could be, and that period was rather stressful.
Just an update on my physio appt yesterday for this exercise trial— I had to fill in 2 questionnaires, one was quite detailed about the activity I’d done in the last 7 days. Then I had to walk along the corridor between 2 cones for a period of 6 minutes and the physio worked out the distance I’d covered. Well, I was going at my top pace and she said I could improve on that!! Come back in 6 months after doing exercise 5 days a week and she’ll test me again !!! LOL
xxxxxTruddles xxx
Zeppa - well from a scientific point of view, correlation doesn’t mean causation. Because, as you say, there can be other variables causing the correlation. Women in the UK are likely (on average) to have different lifestyles to women in Spain. But it’s not necessarily the level of housework that is reducing the breast cancer in one country compared to the other. It could be all sorts of things from the types of foods available and the way they are produced and packaged to the climate to genetic clusters. I think everyone knows that exercising is generally good for your overall health, but the type of exercise and its impact on the body can also be broken down from low grade general activity to high intensity interval training and plyometrics. Some types of exercise actually significantly increase growth hormones (I know my PT got me to do a lot of those), I wonder if there are any studies of whether this can actually increase cancer ris?. Whilst it’s good to have research done, I just wish it would be presented in a more intelligent (and scientific manner) and not a cultural kneejerk reaction that carries a lot of judgement of women with it (again!)
Keyfeatures, absolutley agree with you. I am often very active, but how do I know if this is classed as exercise or not? 9 holes of golf is 7000 paces on average, but none of them aerobic according to my pace counter. I did over 22,000 at the Olympic park the other day, does that mean I can have the week off !
SM78, completely agree re: sexist comments, I like a tidy house but six hours a day - seems a bit OCD?
There must be a sort of tipping point for the disease to kick off. The two years before my Dx I was very unhappy with my lifestyle and put on far too much weight while working myself into the ground. I was meaning to get round to doing something about it when my Mum died and there was a catastrophic family falling out that was far and away the worst two weeks of my life, and low and behod I found my lump a couple of months later… .
Looking back, I have always been hormone sensitive (e.g. put on 5 stone in 6 months on the first pill I was put on). ALL my father’s siblings and he, died of some sort of soft tissue cancer too. It’s too late for me, but I’m drumming slim fit and active into my daughters, not because it will stop it happening, but because it will give them a better chance. If I had been slim at least I would have found my lump before it got to 57mm !
I don’t know what caused my cancer (too much HRT? wine? genes? no kids? not enough housework?) and since I can’t change it I won’t bother worrying about it. I had a very stessful job and ate and drank too much although I always exercised, then retired, began to eat more healthily and got even fitter, and was diagnosed 5 years later. Who knows? But I would like to help future generations. I’ve been in a longitudinal stress and health study for 30 years and just got my call-up for my next full medical/assessment. So I’ll be hauling myself off to London and having nothing to eat after 8 am for a 13.30 appointment! Diet/mood/activity questionnaires, physical/cognitive/memory tests plus all the usual cholesterol/ECG/bloods etc. Last time I got a bit fixated on food because I was so hungry and when asked to write down as many words begining with S in one minute started with sausages, sandwiches, spaghetti, spangles. What they make of that I don’t know. I also participate in biobank and have just been for my second donation/assessment. My fantasy is that one day a researcher will look at my data and say…eureka, that’s what proves the link - whatever it is.
Foxy
xxxxxx
Here is a link about the increased risk from the pill. They say “slight” but it actually sounds pretty massive to me - certainly greater than the 13 percent they are talking about with the 6 hours of housework. 145 percent increase for some age groups!
Oh, and being anorexic before the age of 25 or being a teen mum also decrease breast cancer risk significantly over lifetime but doesn’t mean these things are adviseable.
Interestingly, at the appointment at which I was diagnosed with BC, I filled in a list of questions one of which was about had I ever been on the pill and how long for? I started taking the pill at 19 and used it fairly consistently until I was in my 40s. I was diagnosed with BC at 47’ about 6 weeks after I’d backpacked the West Highland Way- 90 odd miles. I get sick of articles or research that effectively blame us for our illness.
I stopped taking the pill 10 years before I was diagnosed. However, the 5 years prior to being diagnosed were extremely stressful - my house was flooded and uninhabitable and this took nearly 2 years to put right. I moved back to Scotland to care for my father who had dementia and was here on my own for 14 months whilst my OH was trying to seel the house. Once he’s done this he walked out of his job and ended up at a tribunal for constructive dismissal which collapsed on a legal technicality. Shortly after he moved up here my dad died in care and exactly a year later I found out I had BC.