I’ve also read somewhere that the link between alcohol and bc relates to the sort of bc that is affected by oestrogen. Other types aren’t, so the alcohol ‘ban’ might not apply to them.
Just amazes me that really really basic stuff like this is still almost a complete mystery to the medical profession, despite this being 2011 and the cancer industry having around half a billion a year in funding in this country alone. What do they do with the money??!
Ann x
Ann i wondered about that too.All these links Alcohol ,Dairy ect i felt sure they were all linked to oestragen cancers .So the question looms …What about us who are triple neg??
Sharon xx
Rev, I am sitting here weeing myself at your “2 hands” quip!
I’ve read a lot of the stuff about alcohol being related to oestrogen positive cancers. I asked a relative of mine who was a BC specialist until he retired and he said the link has been known for donkeys years and it’s to do with alcohol making you gain weight, meaning you produce higher levels of oestrogen.
What I don’t get is the link to being post-meno as your oestrogen levels have tailed off, hence no periods. I’ve had the blood tests for being post-meno done twice 2 years apart to confirm this. However, the reports keep saying that post-meno women have a higher chance of hormonal BC and my onc did tell me that you can have one kind of BC that can come back as another. I had no hormone involvement (which my onc said was good), but I was Her2+.
Hello Cherub,
I might be wrong, but it is my understanding (but can’t remember where from!!!) that Oestrogen is stored in body fat so that’s why. Otherwise i don’t underdstand the benefit of Tamoxifen to post menopausal women.
I know i don’t drink too much, but i have pretty much stopped exercising regularly and out on 2 stone. I know i have to get a grip on my exercise and eat less processed food.
Kick up my butt for sorting out my sedentary/ too convenient lifestytle.
xx
Hi Crabbit, it is my understanding too, that post meno women store Oe in body fat. I have also read that alcohol increases the amount of Oe circulating in the body so could even be a double whammy.
I have had a bit of a scare today which has pulled me up short, I am now taking very seriously the issue of alcohol and how much I consume.
Daisy xx
Hi Daisy,
I stopped drinking at all for the first two weeks after dx. Have had 2 glasses of wine and a small beer during my PMS week but I am trying to keep the mindset of being an occasional drinker rather than my previous bottle of wine a week habit. So easy after a crap day at work to pour a comfort glass!
Taking willpower not to comfort eat too lol.
Take care Daisy x
I have drastically reduced my calorie intake in the past year and had a gym programme worked out specifically for weight loss.I also take a 90 minute Dru yoga session on Sundays which involves a lot of movement. Plus I don’t drive so if OH is not around I have to walk to a lot of places. The days I’m not at the gym I fit in yoga or Swiss ball at home. All I have done is yo-yoed between the same 5 to 7lbs. It comes off and really gets me fired up, then 2 weeks later it’s back on again, although yoga is trimming me down in places slowly. I also signed up for 13 weeks Weightwatchers Pro Points online over the summer and gave up after 10 weeks as I gained nearly half a stone with it (their message boards have lots of complaints about this from people saying the same thing as me). If I ate lots of takeaways and ready meals I could understand it, but I don’t as I batch cook for my freezer from fresh and limit my carb intake or anything sweet.
I am totally at a loss as to what is going on and I’ve been wondering all day whether to see my GP in case it could be something underlying like thryroid? I’ve read up on this and apparently you can be in the early stages of hypothyroidism and have little or no symptoms (they refer to it as subliminal hypothyroidism). The symptoms form a very extensive list and I can only cross off about 4 or 5 possibles. I keep putting things down to being post meno, but as I had expected to be at least a size or 2 smaller after a year I’m not so sure.
there is a temperature test for thyroid problems. You can down load it from google. record it every morning before you get up. If its within a certain range it means you have a thyroid problem, no matter what the blood test say. Then you have to persuade the doctor to give you the thyroxine even thought the tests say you are ok. I did this and within 6 weeks my symptoms completely dissapeared.
Ta oal - I’ll have a look at that. Symptoms I’ve got are being very susceptible to feeling the cold (although I’ve never had good circulation), joint pains, swollen feet and ankles. Also dizziness from time to time and double vision which I’ve been putting down to the fact my eye prescription is all over the place at the moment and my eyes are unsettled. I have to have one prescription for contact lenses, another for varifocal glasses and I also need reading glasses for doing close up work like sewing. They can’t get the c/lens script right at the mo so I have one eye slightly out of focus as I can’t cope with any adjustment the optician makes.
back to the original topic. I am going to carry on enjoying my old routine. My whole family drinks and to sit there with a bitter lemon or something would spoil my lifestyle. So my bottle a night (well not every night sometimes its a bit less)
I cannot let worrying about re-occurance stop me being who I am. Especially if i am protecting myself against heart and stroke problems.
I remember when i was anaemic after giving birth to one of the children and the doctor said ’ i could give you tablets or you could just drink a bottle of red wine each night"—how times have changed.
I too stopped completely after dx and then was on anti biotics for ages after mx so didn’t drink. But have drunk a few glasses when I can. And intend to continue although much reduced from what I used to. I think the bottle a week tha someone referred to earlier would be rather less than what I was consuming before!
Although, rev cat, I have only been known to have a glass in each hand only on special occasions!
My tumour was hormone positive, so perhaps that’s why the oncologist was saying not to drink much.
Nobody’s mentioned gin. Anybody got anything to say about the health benefits of a g’ n’ t?
oal, in my late grannies day they used to tell pregnant women to drink stout every day for the iron content!
(Found the temp test btw, thanks for alerting me to that).
Just catching up on this thread, gasp… i have not been advised not to drink alcohol and mine is oestregen positive, i did not realise this was related. I drink loads of wine but have reduced intake since dx as i wanted to be as healthy as poss for the treatments but seriously thinking of cutting out completely now
Hi all
If we listened to everything that was and wasn’t good for us we’d all be insane. It’s not that long ago that when pregnant you shouldn’t drink at all, now it’s ok in moderation. There are an endless list of things that wernt good for you and now are ok. OH joked the other day " That if we live long enough smoking will be good for us."
So as I say to the kids a healthy lifestyle is all things are good in moderation.
So cheers make mine a red wine.
Chinook
Ps When a gynacologist asked me how much I drank she replied.“Gosh arn’t you good. I wish that was all I had!!!”
Well years ago, the did tell people smoking was good for them lol!
My relative who is a retired oncology Professor once told me he probably drank more red wine than was good for him. He has also always been on the porky side, even when he was a med student. Doctors don’t always practice what they preach and that’s a fact.
I have to say that I agree with posts about everything in moderation. I don’t intend to stop drinking altogether but def cutting out a lot of the ‘habitual’ stuff which i definitely don’t need. From caffiene to sat fats etc.
That’s pretty much what I’ve done Crabbit. I was never a big coffee drinker, prefer tea, but I don’t find coffee a bit too diuretic now I’m post meno. One cup and I can happily spend all day running to the loo so I’ve just cut it out completely apart from a very occasional cup if I’m out at dinner.