Smoking is Linked to Breast Cancer.
After Dr. Ewan discharged me from daily nursing on April 24th and being on such a high from the news, I was watching CBC on Saturday night and heard the following news …
Smoking is linked to breast cancer.
After many years of smoking, I quit in September, 2006, and now can’t stand to be anywhere near it. Yes, I’ve become psycho-anti-smoker, and proud of it.
Christina Applegate is Not The Poster Child for Breast Cancer.
Christina Applegate, even after a bilateral mastectomy less than a year ago, was recently caught smoking in Los Angeles. She apparently said the photo was taken on a rare occasion when she was feeling bad (or depressed). Please Christina, try to have your pity-party in private and try to remember that every time you go out in public, there are lots of young women who want to emulate you.
The report has only been out a few days and already there is controversy amongst the ranks. Why on earth would the research community ever debate whether smoking and breast cancer are linked? Unbelievable, but here is an excerpt:
” … The report is “a sharp dissent” from the common belief among scientists that there is too little consistent evidence to determine whether smoke has a causal role in breast cancer, the Times reports …”
Regarding my own breast cancer, I suspected the link between smoking and breast cancer when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in late 2008. Lung cancer may be the obvious disease for a smoker, but I think there are likely a lot more carcinogens in retail cigarettes that we’ve barely scratched the surface.
It was just a week ago that I said to the primary nurse that, other than smoking, I have lived a fairly clean lifestyle the last 20+ years: even she said she wasn’t aware of any link between smoking and breast cancer …
I don’t do any recreational drugs, no alocohol abuse, I eat fairly well and exercise regularly. My blood pressure was taken yesterday and it was 124/66. Not bad for an old broad if I do say so myself!
I don’t have high cholesterol or am on any medications for any serious conditions.
I have annual check-ups, including mammograms.
I may still be a fat ass (I’ve lost over 20 pounds though), have some allergies and sensitivities, and enjoy some good wine occasionally (add a good man in there …), but nothing I do should alert any doctor hopefully.
Other than being an ex-smoker, I am fairly healthy, or at least was on the right track to becoming very healthy … so the breast cancer diagnosis was a total shock in more ways than one.
If you are a smoker, stop worrying about gaining 5 pounds if you quit smoking … I’m living testimony that 5-10 pounds of weight gain is far easier to get rid than cancer. I would gladly trade more weight to get my tit back.
Various articles and/or information that discusses the link between smoking and specifically breast cancer are:
- 2nd-hand smoke causes breast cancer in younger women, review suggests. CBC News
- Report warns smoking raises risk of breast cancer. CTV News
- … Norwegian scientists have revealed that smoking women have a higher incidence and earlier onset of heart disease in comparison with male smokers. Stop Smoking Steps
- Smoking and breast cancer linked. Lilith News Blog
- May 3, 2009: The Toronto Sun newspaper’s article Study affirms smoking-breast cancer link.
- marketwire’s Health Canada should move quickly to put breast cancer warning on cigarette packages. Want to read the panel’s 83 page PDF report? If so, here is the link to it.
- University of Toronto’s report … “There is now enough scientific evidence to link both active smoking and second-hand smoke to breast cancer …” [April, 2009]
If you’re not going to take the advice to stop smoking from a complete stranger writing a blog online (that would be me), take it from the experts.
You. Yes, you. Stop smoking and live long enough to aggrevate your family.
Twitter
I thought I would check up on our dear friend Christina Applegate to see how she’s doing with quitting smoking … and was dismayed to find photos of her still smoking. Oh well, she’s a big girl and hopefully knows that she’ll likely never be “that 90 year old woman in a nursing home with cute boobs …” because she’ll probably be dead long before then.
Why am I so harsh? She went on national television talking about her personal story of breast cancer and then a few months later, she said she was caught smoking during a “weak moment” [para]. Since she was recently caught smoking again, it’s clearly not true that it was a weak moment; she’s a self-appointed spokesperson for breast cancer and should have much higher standards. Be ashamed, Christina. Be ashamed. Had she not been on national televsion, I and probably thousands of others would never had heard about her or her cancer — it was her decision to be so public about it.
Comment by Blogger Barb — August 23, 2009 @ 6:48 PM