Subject: Breast Cancer and Woman's Day
Dear Lactnetters;
The 9/1/95 issue of Woman's Day has a front page article about "Best Ways to
Prevent Breast Cancer" These are the ten items the article mentions:
1. Get Breast Exams, 2. Schedule regular mammograms, 3. Stay at a healthy
weight, 4. Trim the fat on your plate, 5.Drink moderately if at all, 6. Take
a second look at hormones, 7. Start moving(exercise), 8. Add fruits,
vegetables and whole grains, 9. Know your family history, 10. Be a savvy
medical consumer. You lactnetters may notice that there is no mention of
breastfeeding lowering the risk. If you are so inclined you can write to the
magazine at:
Reader Mail, Woman's Day
1633 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
FAX 212-767-5785 Phone 212-767-6418 Email: [log in to unmask]
What follows the break in this post was my email to them. If all the
lactnetters let them know they missed something in this article we might
convince them to to a feature about BF and decreasing the risk of Breast
Cancer. Lets Try.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Dear Woman's Day,
I am a family physician to trys to scan the waiting room magazines in our
office. Your front page title "Best Ways to Prevent Breast Cancer" caught my
eye. I found that you gave some good information but that you neglected to
report that breastfeeding is associated with lowering women's risk of breast
cancer. In fact there is published data that shows if a female is breastfed
as an INFANT that this too lowers her risk of cancer! I think that your
magazine should do a feature story on this aspect of women's breast health,
as it is a no cost, proactive approach that every mother can take do for
herself and her daughters.
Too many people in our society equate breastmilk and formula as equal, they
are not! Breastmilk is a living substance that has known abilities to
prevent infections (such as otitis media) and disease ( such as SIDS and
diabetes). Recently reported reasearch from Sweden shows that breastmilk
kills cancer cells in the test tube!
The following is a short summary of articles that have demonstrated that
Breast Cancer is lower in women that lactate. You may obtain more
information by contacting the Breastfeeding Database at La Leche League in
Chicago at 1-800-LA LECHE.
Among both premenopausal and postmenopausal women, risk of breast cancer
decrease with increasing duration of lifetime lactation experience although
the effect was consistently stronger for premenopausal women. McTieman, A.,
Evidence of Protective Effect of Lactation on Risk of Breast Cancer in Young
Women." American Journal of Epidemiology, 1986
After controlling for age at first full term pregnancy and other potentially
compounding
factors, parity and duration of breast feeding also had a strong influence on
the risk of
breast cancer. Compared with parous women who never breast fed, women who
had breast fed for 25 months or more had a lower relative risk. Layde, P.M.,
"The Independent Associations of Parity Age at First full Term Pregnancy, and
Duration of Breast Feeding with the Risk of Breast Cancer." Journal of
Clinical Epidemiol, 1989.
If Women who do not breastfeed or who breastfed for less than 3 months were
to do so for 4 to 12 months, breast cancer among parous premenopausal women
could be reduce by 11%; if all women with children lactated for 24 months or
longer, the incidence might be reduced by nearly 25%. Newcomb,P. etal.
"Lactation and reduced risk of premenopausal breast cancer." N Engl J Med
1994; 330(2):81-87.
Thank you very much for your attention on this matter,
Sincerely,
.
Jon Ahrendsen, MD, FAAFP, LLLI Medical Associate
215 13th Ave, SW
Clarion, Iowa, 50525 USA
phone 515-532-2836
Fax 515-532-2523
Email [log in to unmask]
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