chronic disease; breast cancer

Chronic Disease Risk Assessment Essay

There are several types of cancer plaguing our world today, but breast cancer is the most common invasive cancer in females. Breast cancer accounts for 16% of all female cancers and 22.9% of invasive cancers in women. But breast cancer can also affect men. 18.2% of all cancer deaths worldwide, including males and females, are caused by breast cancer. According to the “National Cancer Institute”, 232,340 female breast cancers and 2,240 male breast cancers are reported in the USA each year. Breast cancer is a cancer that develops in the tissue of the breast. There are two types of breast cancer: lobular carcinoma and ductal carcinoma. Lobular carcinoma is breast cancer that starts off in the lobules that supply the breast with milk. Ductal carcinoma is breast cancer that develops in the inner lining of the milk ducts and is the most common breast cancer. Breast cancer is also defined as either invasive or non-invasive. Invasive breast cancer is when the cancer cells break out from inside the lobules or ducts and invade nearby tissue. Non-invasive is when the cancer stays inside its place of origin and has not broken out. There are many risk factors for breast cancer. Some you cannot control while others you can. The factors that you cannot control include your genetics and family history of breast cancer, environmental exposures or behaviors you practiced in the past, having dense breast tissue, and age. The ones you can control are your current and future behaviors which includes your diet and making sure you get adequate exercise, current and future environmental exposures such as being exposed to tobacco smoke or other chemicals, your weight, and alcohol consumption. You may not be able to determine if you will get breast cancer, but by taking care of yourself you will definitely have a leg up on the disease. I learned quite a bit by taking the breast cancer assessment. I learned that my risk for breast cancer is average, which is good to hear. I also found out that genetics really only contributes less than 15% to the risk of developing breast cancer. Your behavior contributes up to 60% of your risk. That really makes someone think about how they are living their life when shown the numbers. There are some recommendations suggested to help me better my chances of not getting not only breast cancer but other cancers and other health problems. I need to lose some weight. This is something I already knew and am working hard to accomplish my goal. I need to eat more vegetables. One suggestion they gave is to eat a salad with dinner every night. Another suggestion is to eat more fish. It says that my risk may not be dramatically altered but studies show that oils from fish may slow the growth of breast malignancies. I need to quit smoking. By quitting I would be helping myself from developing all kinds of health issues. Everyone needs to take care of themselves so they can ensure a long, healthy life.

Resources:
Medicalnewstoday.com