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| The link between breast feeding and breast cancer |
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| Ruqayyah |
| 07/19/02 at 11:00:17 |
| [slm] I was reading yesterday about prophet muhammad [saw] , specifically about his early life and how he was taken out into the country to be suckled by Halimah. And isn't it true that the word for nipple and the name Halimah come from the same root word? Which just goes to show you how divinely wonderful the Arabic language is ;) But anyways, I read about how he was breast fed for 2 years and it seemed that back in the day they put a lot of importance on breast feeding. Which is interesting because of this article that I saw that shows that one of the biggest things you can do to decrease your risk factors for breast cancer is to have children at a younger age and to breast feed them for a longer period of time. Subhanallah it's really amazing how Allah's wisdom shines through every action in life :) ************************************************************ Breast-feeding, childbearing cut breast cancer risk Major study may explain puzzling hike in cancer cases MSNBC NEWS SERVICES July 18 — The number of children women have and the length of time they breast-feed them are the most important factors influencing their chance of developing breast cancer — even more important than genetic factors, major new research shows. THE LANDMARK STUDY, published this week in The Lancet medical journal, found that if women in the industrialized world breast-fed each of their children six months longer, they could reduce their chance of breast cancer by 5 percent, even if they have a strong family history of the disease. Experts said the findings help explain the discrepancy between low rates of breast cancer in developing countries and the rising number of cases in wealthier nations. “In the developed world there have been enormous changes over the last 100 years in childbearing patterns and this illustrates that those changes can explain a great deal of the increase in breast cancer rates,” said Eugina Calle, director of analytic epidemiology at the American Cancer Society. The study involved 200 researchers across the globe examining more than 47 studies that investigated a total of 150,000 women worldwide. The analysis of the pooled information was conducted by epidemiologists at Oxford University in England. NEW EVIDENCE FOR OLD IDEA The idea that childbearing is linked to breast cancer dates to 1743, when an Italian researcher called the disease an occupational hazard of nuns, attributing their relatively high rate of breast cancer to their childlessness. Breast cancer rates really started to climb at the end of the 19th century, and by the 1950s, it was well established that the number of children a woman had was a major factor in breast cancer. In 1970, a study found that the age at which a woman had her first child was key, but that neither the number of children she had nor her breast-feeding habits mattered. “Since that time, almost every study on breast cancer has confirmed that finding on age at first birth, but there’s been a lot of confusion about whether the number of children and breast-feeding had an effect on breast cancer,” said the new study’s leader, Valerie Beral, head of the Oxford epidemiology unit. Confusion has remained, particularly about the role of breast-feeding, because individual studies have been too small to provide answers, she said. STUDY DETAILS The Oxford group started by looking at 20,000 women who had only one child and who had never breast-fed, and compared them with women who did not breast-feed but continued to have children. Advertisement “The risks go down the more children you have. Even if they’d never breast-fed, the risk of breast cancer went down by 7 percent for every additional child,” Beral said. The researchers also found that, regardless of the number of children, the risk of breast cancer dropped by 4.3 percent for every year the women breast-fed. “What we have shown is that prolonging breast-feeding and having more children pushes down breast cancer rates,” Beral said. The magnitude of protection was the same in all women, regardless of other characteristics, such as ethnic origin, drinking habits and age at menopause. In the developed world, women have on average two or three children and breast-feed each for about two or three months. And 50 percent of mothers in the United States, about 25 percent in Europe and about 10 percent in Scandinavia choose not to breast-feed. A century ago — before oral contraception, infant formula, improved infant survival and career opportunities for women — Western women used to have six or seven children and breast-feed each for about two years — a pattern still dominant in many parts of the developing world. BREAST CANCER DIVIDE Today, women in the industrialized world have a 6.3 percent chance of getting breast cancer by age 70, compared with a 2.7 percent chance for their counterparts in poor countries. Part of the reason is that women in poor countries have children earlier, at about 18 or 19, compared with 23 or 24 in the developed world. But that couldn’t explain all the difference in the breast cancer rates. “People have been struggling to fill that gap. Things like diet, alcohol ... all these things have come up in an attempt to explain the difference,” Beral said. “But, it’s prolonging breast-feeding and having lots of children that really pushes breast cancer rates down. “There are obviously other determinants, but they are much smaller. Those two factors account for much of the difference in breast cancer rates between developed and developing countries,” Beral said. Beral calculated that if western reproductive and breast-feeding habits mimicked those in poor countries, a woman’s breast cancer risk by the age of 70 would fall from 6.3 per 100 women to about 2.7. The researchers also calculated what would happen to breast cancer risk if women still had only two or three children but breast-fed each for six months longer than the norm of two or three months. That would translate to a maximum breast-feeding time of nine months per baby. They found that the chances of breast cancer would decrease from 6.3 percent to 6 percent, a 5 percent drop. The National Childbirth Trust, which promotes breast-feeding, said the research clearly shows the benefits for mothers as well as children. “We hope that this important finding — that the longer women breast-feed, the more they are protected from breast cancer — will encourage more women to consider breast-feeding their baby,” said Belinda Phipps, the chief executive of the trust. The scientists are not sure how childbirth and breast-feeding reduce breast cancer risk but they believe the findings could pave the way for better prevention and treatment methods. |
| Re: The link between breast feeding and breast can |
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| UmmAbdulRahman |
| 07/19/02 at 11:30:01 |
| Has anybody heard of the connection between anti-persperant causing breast cancer? |
| Re: The link between breast feeding and breast can |
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| mwishka |
| 07/19/02 at 12:39:06 |
| yeah, sis ruqayyah, i saw this study result posted in a ny times article today, too. well, one of the things i have to say about it is that the results they show are true, but their conclusions are not completely accurate. as to this statement, “People have been struggling to fill that gap. [i]Things like diet, alcohol[/i] ... all these things have come up in an attempt to explain the difference,” Beral said. “But, it’s prolonging breast-feeding and having lots of children that really pushes breast cancer rates down. “There are obviously [i]other determinants[/i], but they are much smaller. all i can say is that most of these kind of studies could be commented on with a "nutty male researchers. they don't even see women as human" comment, but sadly, this is a female researcher who forgot to take into account intrinsic elements of health and well-being of the overall female system which are only indirectly influenced by external factors such as those they're mentioning. and nope, i can't comment on it any further here - it isn't appropriate to um public posting on this board. sis umm ahmad, those studies most likely have to do with the aluminum salts which confer ANTI-perspirant states to our underarms, which is obviously not at all a good thing to do.... (using a deodorant makes sense, but using an antiperspirant does not.) as for aluminum and cancer of the breast, it could be a result of aluminum ions (which carry a three-plus charge) entering the lymph system through the underarm and then going around glomming up as much oxygen as they can get they little prongs on, also a very bad thing to have going on inside your body, resulting in cell damage and death, which could lead to susceptibility to all sorts of disease states - cancer being just one. aluminum is either the first or near the first element on the metal "activity series" meaning "most reactive" wanting to go around messing with other chemical entities, like um oxygen species which are QUITE attractive in their negativity to a triply positive aluminum ion. mwishka |
| 07/19/02 at 20:03:35 |
| mwishka |
| Re: The link between breast feeding and breast can |
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| AyeshaZ |
| 07/22/02 at 13:06:40 |
Asalamu Alykum, Isn't there a connection btw birthcontrol and breastfeeding?? |
| Re: The link between breast feeding and breast can |
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| Kathy |
| 07/22/02 at 19:46:24 |
| [slm] Many women will tell you that breastfeeding is a form of birth control :( This is absolutely not true!!!!!! |
| Re: The link between breast feeding and breast can |
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| Kareema_Abdul-Khab |
| 07/23/02 at 04:52:29 |
| Umm, Well according to this article I looked up at webmd.com, it can be a type of birth control, in some women it can have a long birth control effect, though for others it is far less reliable than other methods:[url]http://my.webmd.com/content/article/3606.220[/url] |
| Re: The link between breast feeding and breast can |
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| Kathy |
| 07/23/02 at 09:30:31 |
| [i]Here is that article: Please note the first sentance under the title.[/i] The Breast as Birth Control It's not true that breastfeeding effectively prevents pregnancy. By Amos Grünebaum , MD Question: I delivered my baby four months ago and I am breastfeeding. Is it true that I cannot get pregnant as long as I breastfeed and I don't have my period yet? Answer: Jan. 8, 2001 -- It's not true that breastfeeding effectively prevents pregnancy. Once you resume sexual relations after delivery, there's a chance you could get pregnant, whether or not you're breastfeeding, and whether or not you've had your first menstrual period. The belief that women who breastfeed cannot get pregnant has lead to many unintended pregnancies. During pregnancy, you can't get pregnant again because you're not ovulating. But the average woman resumes ovulation -- and becomes fertile again -- four to eight weeks after delivery. Breastfeeding women resume ovulating within 10 to 12 weeks after delivery, on average; by six months after delivery, the majority of breastfeeding women will be ovulating again. There are individual variations, however, and you can't predict exactly when you'll start ovulating after delivery. Breastfeeding women have been known to ovulate as early as four weeks, and as late as 18 months, after delivery. To a certain extent, the way you breastfeed affects when you resume ovulation. There's a high risk that you're ovulating and could get pregnant if: You're not breastfeeding completely (going more than four to six hours between feedings); you're supplementing early; your baby is older than 6 months; or if your menstrual periods have resumed. That last one is tricky because many women believe that if they haven't had a period since delivery, they can't get pregnant. Nothing is further from the truth. Ovulation usually occurs before your first period, not afterward. Your menstrual period comes in response to ovulation, not the other way around. So unless you don't mind having another baby close to this one, it's a good idea to use contraception as soon as you start sexual relations. Amos Grünebaum is a practicing obstetrician and gynecologist in New York specializing in high-risk pregnancies. |
| 07/23/02 at 09:32:13 |
| Kathy |
| Re: The link between breast feeding and breast can |
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| Anonymous |
| 07/23/02 at 13:39:38 |
| So we shouldn't use Anti-Perspirant for health reasons? Rather we should use deoderant? More details/suggestions please :) |
| Re: The link between breast feeding and breast can |
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| Fatimah |
| 07/23/02 at 14:55:51 |
| [slm] Here is what I found about the Cancer/Anti-Perspirant issue. Ive never studied about this so Im not sure of all the facts...just something I found on the web. http://www.urbanlegends.com/ulz/cancer.html |
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