I have found todays news stories about how exercise can reduce BC very annoying. I have done cross country and road running until I was 40 when an injury stopped me, then as I missed the well being and high I then turned into a gym bunny!!! So as a woman who has exercised all her life I was diagnosed at 50 with BC and Liver mets, I have often thought since then that maybe if I had not exercised and pushed my body to its limit I would not be in the position I am in now. Every time the news comes on I can feel myself getting more het up about it. I would go for a run if I was well enough !!!
Lots of us who have BC are/were otherwise very fit, healthy and active (I had just completed along distance footpath the week before I found my lump) and this kind of media reporting is extrememly annoying - I googled and the daily wail seems to suggest it’s my appalling housekeeping (since housework (for six hours a day?!) was a good thing, evidently) that is responsible for my brest cancer, as I was otherwise pretty active. Strange that, I thought I got it because I had breasts: last time I looked that was the biggest single cause…
Annoyed me too as have always exercised since leaving school and was up to 3 or 4 classes per week until I was diagnosed in Feb this year at 46, and as live in old mill I can honestly say the housework was a pretty good workout too…grrrrrr :)))))
Yep, same here…love walking and yoga (hmmm, not at the same time usually) , ate healthily, moderate wine consumption at the weekend, never smoked…and so on, and so forth…little bugger still found me though. These articles can do so much harm, when my son was first diagnosed with diabetes the care team said “don’t google, don’t wikipedia, and don’t believe the papers - they’ll have a cure out every week and something else for you to blame yourself for in between” and that’s very true
I am a regular exerciser. I agree the reporting can actually be counter-productive. Before diagnosis I had an image in my head that people with breast cancer generally had unhealthy lifestyles. I now realise how wrong this is. The message should be that ANYONE can get breast cancer, so check, check, check and take any breast changes seriously (no matter what your age). There is a general sense of blaming people for ill health these days that seems to be moving from public service to something a little less pleasant.
yes I too found it very annoying,remember Jane Tomlinson who ran marathons and still died of bc?you dont get much fitter than Jane.I think these stories can actually make you even more depressed.the last thing you need when battling for your life.xx
Also, why housework? So, so sexist. Can you imagine reading an article on testicular cancer where they suggested doing six hours of housework every day reduced the risk?
I agree with all your posts. I was ignorant about cancer before it found me. I didnt know how it was caused and believed it was due to an unhealthy lifestyle purely because the only things i knew were what is reported in the media… The fact i was in my early 30’s also made me think i was too young for breast cancer. I couldnt have been more wrong! It seems every person i know who has been diagnosed was fit, well and active beforehand. My ex boss was almost a ‘tree hugger’ type. Always ate organic, did yoga and was very fit and active. I dont know anybody more healthy than her yet she was diagnosed 6 years ago and is now in remission. Since my own diagnosis i’ve read several links such as having no children or kids later in life, being overweight, hardly exercising, drinking, smoking etc all of which apply to my younger sister. After turning 30, realising there was a history of heart disease in my family and knowing i’d be next if i didnt do anything about being overwright i went to Slimming World and in less than 2 years i lost 5 stone. I exercised regularly, walked 20 mins each way to work 5 days a week plus i dont smoke and never have yet i’m now the person in my family diagnosed with the disease while my sis maintains her lifestyle completely free. No wonder we ask ‘Why me?’!!
This kind of ‘research’ report helps no-one because they never give any details of how it was carried out.
Cancer Research UK ought not to be feeding half-stories to the likes of the Mail to interpret in such an idiotic way. 
Yopu can find out more about it if you search for EPIC, the name of the study:
http://epic.iarc.fr/about.php
I don’t like these studies where they decide about people’s nutrition and exercise habits by questionnaire, although I suppose they would argue that with half a million people involved they can get a better picture.
I haven’t read much about it - no time - got to start my six hours’ housework.
I find this thread very interesting. I would never say Im an “exercise” person but I have kept fairly active and never been overweight.
My consultant breast surgeon is very hot on exercise reducing the risk of BC recurrence and is running all sorts of trials with her ‘ladies’.
As a matter of fact, I have agreed to take part in a small trial and this afternoon, I am booked in for a ‘simple’ walking test ( whatever that may mean!) with a physiotherapist at the hospital, and then, apparently, I’ll be given lots of info on exercise and left to my own devices for 6 months, after which I’ll be ‘tested’ again!
To be honest I dont think it’ll make any difference to me, but I’m doing it just to be nosey!
A trial last year done by my surgeon seemed much better, where half of the group were given a personal trainer for 6 months, however I didnt qualify for this as i was still having treatment.
It does distress me when I read all these do’s and dont’s in the media, for goodness sake, I had my chilldren in my early 20’s (I’m 40 now and diagnosed aged 38) I breast fed my younger son for 2 YEARS! Ive never smoked, I dont drink much, and I’m still hit by this disease at a youngish age. Actually, although I will NEVER know, I will constantly blame it on hormones and genetics,; I had the contraceptive pill for many years. They say there’s a “small” increased risk of BC with the pill, it would be interesting to find out the exact percentages, nobody at the hospital asked whether i was on contraceptive pill and how long I’d taken it for. If all this info was gathered and collated over the whole country, it well may shift the blame from US and our lifestyles!
Truddles xx
Truddles i was on the pill long term too so who knows. I also wonder if stress may be related heavily as i had a devastating relationship break up just 6 weeks before i found my lump and it definately wasnt there when i was with my ex. Other survivors have mentioned difficult periods in their lives prior to diagnosis too. Anyone else have similar thoughts?
Hmmm, have just checked out the Daily Wail (love that name Revcat!) website and viewed what Caitlin Moran described recently as their “side bar of shame”. Wouldn’t it just be easier if they had a permanent headline reading “Women - everything ever is ALL YOUR FAULT and you’re too fat/thin/young/old”.
Should add that I’m double grumpy today (and that’s saying something) as on day 5 of feeling grotty with post tax/cold combo.
Anyway, I’m back to the side bar of shame - purely for research purposes you understand.
Apparently having dense lumpy breasts increases your risk considerably - and I have those. Also had a significant lump from a teen that was never biopsied and I wonder if that turned nasty (same breast as my cancer and ‘disappeared’ some months prior). Was on the pill for around 5 years and had a miscarriage at the same time as my gran died and I also lost two uncles to cancer (stress /hormones?). Never had kids. And had a very stressful work incident where I ended up quitting a contract early for the first time in my life seven months before finding lump. Then there was the whole Chernobyl thing in the 80s as well as exposure to other environmental toxns. Can’t help speculating but I most likely will never know the real reason. It could be a combination of factors. I seriously doubt that doing six hours of housework a day would have prevented it anyway - unless it had made me slit my wrists first!
SM78…I totally agree with you re: stress I can almost pinpoint the day my lump started to grow according to the surgeon timeline. Was the most stressful day I ever had. But I too, took the pill for a long time.
Keyfeatures…I know we women are supposed to be superhuman…but work8 hours, housework 6 hours, exercise 1 hour , then don’t forget we’re supposed to have at least 10 hours sleep, 4 of which is best before midnight:))))
Zeppa - the link you posted didn’t give me the specific details I was looking for, but thanks anyway.
Truddles - I agree with you that hormones and genetics are the thing to look at and more research needs to be done along these lines.
smc78 - Stress caused by going through difficult periods in our lives has .got to be a very important factor - like you I have seen it time and time again with myself and others. My mother died just a year before I was diagnosed and I was also going through a lot of work-related stress at the time.
I have met so many fit and healthy women that have been struck down the BC so I find the research and comments in the press puzzling. I I had my children young, (5) breastfed, couldn’t afford to drink lol!, Not overweight, homecooked healthy food and homegrown veg and fruit. Plenty of housework too. As Revcat said. I just happen to have breasts and that is the biggest risk factor of all. As for the stress thing, I can time a stressful time at work to the beginning of changes to my body. I was fobbed off by GP and sent home to take evening primrose oil as I was perimenopausal. BC strikes at random though and the only common denominator seems to be breasts!x
Jeniffer, if you just Google for EPIC you should find as much as there is to be found. If this study started in 1992 and is going on ‘until at least 2012’, it sounds like they are squeezing what they can out of it before ending it.
I get the impression there are some areas of Europe that are so traditional that you do get a lot of women doing a lot of housework and getting less cancer, but who is to say whether that is the main reason? Anyway, no harm in exercise, of course.
I don’t really believe the stress thing, at least not if the stress was only a few weeks before the lump was found, because that lump will have been growing for several years. That doesn’t disprove it, of course, just my feeling.
Zeppa, hear what you are saying re stress and lump but my surgeon said my lump grew at approx 1cm per year, lump when removed was9mm which totally coincided with my stresse day xxx