Today on TJD, we have a vital discussion on women’s health. How important is it to be aware of your health? Women carry out many roles and your entire family depends on you for everything! Name anything your husband or children need – you are everything to them! They can’t think of a day without you and that’s why we bring to you something special this Women’s Day 🙂
A healthy family starts with the lady of the house being fit and healthy. Women and men share many similar health problems, but women also have their own health issues, which deserve special consideration.
While we’ve made tremendous progress in women’s access to health care, we still have a long way to go as a country to ensure that every woman, no matter where she lives or how much money she makes, can access the full range of health services.
Breast Cancer is seen very frequently these days in women. Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women in Bengaluru. Breast cancer accounts for 27.3% of all cancers in women in Bengaluru.
A few decades back:
- Almost 65% to 70% of women suffering from breast cancer were above 50 years
- Only 30 to 35% women were below fifty years of age.
However, presently, breast cancer is more common in the younger age group and 53.2% of all women suffering from breast cancer in Bengaluru are below 50 years of age. A significant number of patients are below 30 years. The reason is NOT that few decades back, it was not detected earlier and now it is being detected earlier. The reason is that there has been a very genuine rise in the incidence of breast cancer in younger women. Please understand that breast cancer is increasing even in the older population; it is just that the increase in younger population is more than that in the older population; maybe because of the predominant young population in India.
It can be difficult to get your head around your personal risk of getting breast cancer. You may read news stories about breast cancer risk; however these are often based on limited or questionable research, or involve only a small number of people.
Risk factors
‘Risk factors’ can increase or decrease the likelihood of getting breast cancer. The three main risk factors for developing breast cancer are ones we can’t do anything about:
- gender
- getting older
- significant family history.
There are other factors that can slightly increase or decrease the risk of developing breast cancer. Some examples of factors that can increase your risk are:
- having previously had breast cancer
- period starting before the age of 12
- being overweight (especially after the menopause)
- drinking more alcohol than the recommended daily amount.
Significant family history
For most people, having a relative with breast cancer does not automatically increase their risk. However, a small number of women and men may have an increased risk of developing breast cancer because they have a significant family history.
Reducing your risk
Try not to become worried about risk factors that you cannot change. The three main risk factors are not something we can control. However, some risk factors can be reduced by a change in lifestyle choices and this may also help improve your general health, for example:
- maintaining a healthy weight
- doing regular exercise
- not drinking more alcohol than the recommended daily amount
- limiting your intake of saturated fats.
Sticking to these lifestyle choices may not prevent you from getting breast cancer. Your individual risk is unique and may change over time. So it’s important to remain breast cancer aware throughout your life.
This Women’s Day, we request each woman to Pause, Ponder and Pledge to get themselves checked.
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And guess what? Healthbee is offering a flat 33% discount on Woman’s Special Packages. And specially for our TJD readers, you get an additional discount of Rs.100/- on coupon code HBTJD100 😀 The coupon is valid till 31st March 2015! So make complete use of it!
TJD believes that the most important thing is to stay healthy and fit! So go get yourself a complete body check up done! You might say “Oh, I have no time for a check up”. We say “Get it done because it might mean nothing to you but YOU MEAN THE WORLD TO SOMEONE” 🙂
Happy International Women’s Day to all our gorgeous readers!♥
Breast Cancer Article courtesy – 1 & 2
Bits and parts of the article also have what TJD thinks about it 🙂