Breast Cancer

Admin answers:

The first color ribbon chosen for breast cancer was not pink it was a peach color. Pink was chosen for its marketablity by a cosmetic company and had little to do with feminism.

The colored ribbons cropped up around the time of Desert Storm and were linked to the song, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon round the ole oak tree”. Lotsa people tied yellow ribbons around trees to remember our troops overseas. The ribbon symbol than extended to those people fighting AIDS. People wore a tiny red ribbon in remembrance for those fighting or dying from the disease. At the time women wanted to focus more research for breast cancer.

Pink was not the first color chosen at all, but it had better marketing capabilities. The pink colored ribbon was chosen by a cosmetic company (Estee Lauder) that wanted to sponsor breast cancer awareness. The person who originally came up with the concept of the peach colored ribbon Charlotte Hayley. Estee Lauder Cosmetics wanted to use her ribbon but she thought they were too commercial (which is true). When Hayley rejected the offer Esteen Lauder went ahead with a pink ribbon that became the symbol for breast cancer.

Admin answers:

There are so many, most of which are repeated here on YA regularly

You are right, anti-perspirant and deodorant don’t cause breast cancer:

http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/healthyliving/cancercontroversies/deodorants/

http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/bc_myths/antipersp.jsp

Another rmyth is that blows, bumps or pinches to the breast cause it:

http://www.netwellness.org/question.cfm/11349.htm

http://www.swedish.org/17384.cfm

A link between abortion and breast cancer is a myth; junk science and propaganda from the anti-choice lobby. The broad scientific consensus is that no such link exists.

This excellent article gives the facts:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_2_62/ai_83794478

also

http://www.nci.nih.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/abortion-miscarriage

Frequently on this board there are questions about bras and breast cancer – sleeping in a bra or wearing an ill-fitting, underwired or padded bra are common myths and NOT causes of breast cancer.

There have been recent bogus scares about water in plastic bottles – frozen, left in cars etc – causing bc; all nonsense:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/medical/a/bottled-water.htm

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/petbottles.asp

Someone asked on here yesterday if french fries caused breast cancer!

I often see people saying on here that breast cancer is largely, mainly or entirely genetic. It isn’t; only 5 -10% of breast cancer cases are due to hereditary factors.

There is currently a common belief that dairy products cause breast cancer, mainly because of the book ‘Your Life in Your Hands’ by Jane Plant, which made the claim. There is no real scientific evidence that this is true, and in fact I offer myself as evidence that it isn’t – I had been vegan for over 8 years when i was diagnosed with bc.

In fact, if you are discussing myths about breast cancer you may want to include all claims about diet and lifestyle. There is no evidence that any food contributes to any cancer. Any claim that it does is speculation and reflects the fears and prejudices of the person making the claim. It’s often less scary for someone who hasn’t had cancer to ‘blame the victim’ – put cancer down to avoidable life style factors like diet, stress, lack of exercise etc – than it is for them to accept that cancer is a largely random disease that can strike any of us at any time.

The causes of breast cancer aren’t known; there are known risk factors, but these ARE risk factors not causes – ticking one, some or all these boxes does not mean you will get breast cancer, and many people who are diagnosed with breast cancer have none of these risk factors other than the first and/or second.

The greatest risk factor for breast cancer is being female -over 99% of those diagnosed are women.

The second greatest is getting older – 80% of those diagnosed are over 50.

5-10% of breast cancer cases are due to hereditary factors.

The other known risk factors are:

Having children at an older age or not at all. The more children a woman has may also slightly lower her risk. Breast-feeding helps protect against the disease. The longer a woman breast feeds her children, the more she lowers her risk.

Starting periods at a younger than average age (under 12) or having a late menopause (after 55)

Taking the contraceptive pill or hormone replacement therapy (HRT) causes a small increase in risk. However, the risk gradually returns to normal after you stop taking them.

Being overweight (especially after the menopause).

Regularly drinking more than 1 unit of alcohol per day slightly increases the risk of breast cancer.

Having a previous diagnosis of breast cancer increases the risk of developing a new cancer in the other breast.

Thanks for the interesting question. If I remember any more myths as the day goes on, I’ll add them