"Exposure to Light at Night Increases the Risk of Breast Cancer," HealthFacts, Nov, 2001, reporting on an October 2001 study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Valerie Beal of Oxford University led a study that found a "4.3 percent risk reduction across-the-board [for each year of breastfeeding]." In fact, Beal and her collaborators found that "almost half the difference" between the high breast cancer rates found in industrialized nations and the low rates found in developing nations was due to breastfeeding differences.
We can support each other to breastfeed, and to do it longer. But it's hard to breastfeed more than three months if that's all the paid leave you get from your job (and it's thanks to Bill and Hillary Clinton that Americans get even that). And don't bother to try to change policies at your workplace if you're just one person; you won't find it easy.
Working together, wherever we need to, we can challenge employers to come up to the general world standard of support for nursing moms. In the USA, we can support a bill brought by Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) that would mandate businesses to give breastfeeding mothers longer maternity leaves and routine breaks once she's back at work so she can continue nursing her baby.
Breastfeeding benefits the baby and society as well as protecting mom's breasts from cancer. Some researchers find that formula feeding encourages both diabetes and obesity later in life.
"News on Lower Breast Cancer Risks," Liz Galst, Ms. Magazine, Spring 2003.
Emerging evidence suggests that even moderate use of aspirin can reduce breast cancer risk for post-menopausal women. Those who took seven or more aspirin a week were 28% less likely to develop breast cancer than those who didn't. Once-a-week users were 20% less likely to develop breast cancer. Daily use of aspirin can lead to life-threatening, invisible gastro-intestinal bleeding, so it is risky to prescribe it for yourself; please don't.
TREATMENT NEWS
Complementary medicines for those dancing with cancer and chemo/radiation/surgery are becoming more popular, less threatening to many oncologists. For safety sake, when wise women ingest herbs, we avoid pills and capsules, choosing instead nourishing herbal infusions, tinctures, or vinegars.
