I am going back to hospital tomorrow for a second wide local excision as following my first op a few weeks ago, a previously unknown area of 7cm of DCIS was found to circle my two grade 2 lumps that we knew about. Not enough clear tissue was found unfortunately.
I would like to know what blood groups some of you come from. I have been reading a book about blood type diet and it seems that alot of women who get breast cancer are blood group A - I am blood group A too! The book goes on to say that if you are from this group, then there are foods that you can eat to help protect yourself from cancer and other illnesses and also ones to avoid. It seems that I should be a vegetarian although I am not. I am thinking seriously to switching as much as I can as I don’t really want my cancer to come back in several years as that is my main worry. I will be having chemo, radio and tamoxifen but Gillian McKeith also seems to think you can eat to avoid various illnesses.
I can’t bear Gillian McKeith, but that aside…I think she is a charlatan quack, so I wouldn’t trust a word she says. I have never heard of a link between breast cancer and blood type. I am O, btw. IMO, eating a good balanced diet is the best thing to do…possibly eating less meat would be a good thing overall for our general health anyway.
Hi !
I also had to have a second op a week ago…not quite as bad as the first as my lymph nodes were left alone this time. Still tired though.
I am also group A, but hadn’t heard about bc being more prevalent.
I agree that there is so much confusing info with regard to diet, and although I like both cooking and eating, and thought my diet was reasonably healthy before all this, I’m now not sure where to start. My bc nurse said the usual healthy eating advice (lots of fruit and veg etc) applies and that that includes the odd glass of wine!
Hope tomorrow goes well
Meg
It’s not a book by Gillian it’s a doctor in America that has been researching this for many years. It just does sound worth looking at. I have always eaten a good diet and exercised too running a 1/2 marathon a month before I was diagnosed. I am obviously aware that cancer just seems to strike anyone, anywhere but there must be an underlying reason which we don’t know about yet. I suppose it’s my way of trying to focus on doing something positive out of all this sadness and disbelief that so many of us have been affected in this way
Well I’m A RH neg and a non smoking hardly ever drinking vegetarian! who breast fed her babies and exercises regularly. I don’t drink water from old plastic bottles that I’ve left in a hot car either!!! but still I developed ILC.
My own personal thoughts is you can do certain things to keep healthy - i.e. eat well balanced diet, not smoke, hardly drink, exercise regularly and be of normal weight (all of which I did)- and the little sod will still come and get ya. If we were to listen to every story about someone researching this and that and recommending not eating this and eating that etc etc etc then we would have to wrap ourselves in a bubble and not live!!!
I don’t remember my blood group but I have been mostly veggie for 20 years (I eat fish which is usually said to be good for you), never smoked, had children (who I breast fed) when I was relatively young and I had an early menopause. And still I got a grade 3, triple positive cancer. I feel guilty at times because the only thing that I could have done something about to lessen my chances was to lose weight, but then I look at all the thin people who get it as well. The only trouble with a vegetarian diet is the tendency, in my case, to rely too heavily on dairy products, which as my cancer is positive for oestrogen isn’t a good idea. I am trying to cut down on dairy and increase pulses and grains. There seems to be a huge debate amongst experts about soya so I am not increasing my soya intake but not eliminating it either. I agree with Fuschia that a well balanced diet is the best thing, (not that I will ever go back to eating meat though) and I have also started to eat organic fruit and veg.
Hi Anne, i personally believe that everybody has cancer cells lurking in them, its wether they attack us or not, like you i have had three kids, breatfed them full time, always had a good diet with plenty of fruit and veg, i think it just happens, and i have never felt that i needed to put a blame on myself or anyone, i just have it, suppose its a bit like winning the lottery, one things for certain, it changes your life completely, but i’m hoping that mines going to change for the better, i really do appreciate so much now, and its like i’ve had a wake up call, i’ve always been so busy with work and family, now i just take my time, and not because of my inability to run the marathon, but because i want to. the scars will heal, the side effects of medication will ease i hope, but now is for me i think
If there is any correlation between blood type and breast cancer, I would suggest this is more to do with racial group than blood type. And there are other factors linked to the racial group that you come from, that can affect your susceptibility to a number of illnesses, syndromes etc. I read a report that stated that there tends to be a lower incidence of BC amongst Japanese women because they naturally have lower levels of oestrogen receptors. This is a racial difference that no diet is going to change, come what may. When it comes to diet, my personal view is that you do your best if you eat a healthy balanced diet. I’ve been a vegetarian for over 20 years, eaten soya til it was coming out of my ears, low fat, 5 a day… you name it, I did it along with a lot of other factors that should have meant I was low risk, and I still got BC. And I did those things because that’s what I wanted to do and how I wanted to eat, not out of fear of some illness or other. The main thing I have learnt since I was diagnosed is that there are a lot of people who are eager to sell you their book, diet plan, whatever, and will try to convince you that they have the answer. They tend to play on peoples fear, and a lot of them make a lot of money out of it. It is appalling that there are people who will state that you won’t get ill if you follow their plan…the last thing any of us need is someone implying that our illness is our own fault. None of us need guilt and more fear on top of what we already have. I would suggest you flog the book on Ebay and spend the money on some nice mineral water and sugar free sucky sweets to help you cope with the chemo.
Re: the Japanese incidence of bc. I’m not disputing that report, but I also thought there was research to show that when migrant Japanese women moved to the west coast of the US post-war, within a generation their incidence of breast cancer was the same as caucasian women living in the same area of the States? This is one of the pieces of research that shows that bc is a product of an affluent, Western society. Of course, it’s swings and roundabouts with cancer anyway as in Japan they have huge rates of stomach cancer, mainly from the amount of sushi they consume.
There’s also lots of research that states that cancer is a disease of deprivation with higher rates in industrialised and poor areas. The Tees Valley, where I live has higher than the national average for a number of cancers. It is heavily industrialised with the highest concentration of steel and chemical manufacturing in Europe, and appalling levels of deprivation and poverty in a number of areas. I’ve read stuff that has stated that BC rates amongst younger women in this country are increasing for reasons that are not fully understood. Personally I think there are probably a number of factors, environmental and otherwise, influencing cancer and whether or not you get it. There is also so much stuff about causes, cures, etc that you can end up not knowing what to believe. Deciding which research to believe is a bit like getting an estimate from a builder…you can ask six builders about the same piece of work and they’ll all quote you something different.