Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Breast Cancer Awareness Month




As I do not watch any TV news channels, and I no longer read newspapers to get my news, I was unaware that someone, somewhere decided that October was Breast Cancer Awareness month...until I watched NFL Football this past weekend and noticed most of the players had hot pink colors as part of their uniforms (Note Brett Favre's shoes in the above picture.)

While my first reaction is to roll my eyes and view this as yet another attempt to interject gyno-centrism in one of the last bastions of pure masculine competition in our culture (why is there no "prostate cancer awareness month?" for which the NFL has all the players sport blue?), I do have to say, I don't really see anything wrong with an effort to "raise awareness" about a disease that does in fact maim and kill so many women nowadays.

But the thing that drives me most insane is that the entire "awareness" campaign is based on pushing for women to go get regular mammograms to screen for cancer.

What about the awareness of the lifestyle factors, dietary choices and other behaviors that make women much more at risk of developing breast cancer in the first place?

Now, of course, much of the debate on dietary causes of cancer (in short, a lifetime diet heavy in sugars, carbohydrates, and Omega-6 fatty acids from vegetable oils), is considered controversial, there is one factor that is a considerable risk elevator that you never hear about in the mainstream media: the ABC connection.

Yes, if we are going to spend an entire month in an effort to "raise awareness" about breast cancer, this is one factor that definitely needs to be exposed and promulgated into mainstream consciousness!

From AbortionBreastCancer.com:

In 1986, government scientists wrote a letter to the British journal Lancet and acknowledged that abortion is a cause of breast cancer. They wrote, "Induced abortion before first term pregnancy increases the risk of breast cancer." (Lancet, 2/22/86, p. 436)




As of 2006, eight medical organizations recognize that abortion raises a woman's risk for breast cancer, independently of the risk of delaying the birth of a first child (a secondary effect that all experts already acknowledge). An additional medical organization, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, issued a statement in 2003 calling on doctors to inform patients about a "highly plausible" relationship between abortion and breast cancer. General counsel for that medical group wrote an article for its journal warning doctors that three women (two Americans, one Australian) successfully sued their abortion providers for neglecting to disclose the risks of breast cancer and emotional harm, although none of the women had developed the disease.


If feminists truly cared about ensuring that women could avoid developing Breast Cancer, you'd think they'd want to make sure women knew about the risks that abortion has for them, now wouldn't they?

I've never heard a feminist or women's activist group...or even a mainstream media news story on Tell-A-Vision ever mention the ABC connection...have you?

13 comments:

Alkibiades said...

meh. My reaction to the NFL pushing breast cancer awareness was: a)it's not going to help ratings, and b) Every year they do something that makes me more inclined not to watch pro football.

Aaron said...

Abortion is the feminists' sacrament. There's absolutely no way they will ever admit any fault in it or any restriction on it.

Chuck said...

damn Dave,

I had a post all lined up for tomorrow on this very topic. oh well, good post.

Matthew said...

My wife once discussed her sister the correlation between refusing motherhood and the various female cancers.

My sister-in-law's response: "It's not fair."

Hestia said...

Along with abortion, opting not to breastfeed can also be a factor in developing certain types of breast cancer for similar hormonal reasons that cause the abortion-breast cancer link. The longer a woman nurses her baby, the more protection she receives against breast cancer. In addition, breastfeeding greatly reduces a child's chance of developing breast cancer later in adulthood as well. This is, of course, one of those other sacred issues that cannot be highlighted when it comes to preventing breast cancer or else somebody's feeeelings might be hurt.

Anonymous said...

I am a 48 year old testicular cancer survivor. I had it when I was 33. Knock on wood it was caught early. I had one testicle removed and had preventative radiation on my lymph nodees. I am fine today and have fathered two daughters since. Testicular cancer is called the young mans cancer because it most commonly occurs in men under 35. Most NFL players are under 35. They probably are grossly ignorant of this fact. The NFL should be educating its players of this fact.

jz said...

Why did you delete my earlier comment?

Keoni Galt said...

??

I didn't.

I've never deleted anyone's comments here...ever.

jfr said...

Advertising dollars are better spent on women.

I know a woman who proudly gets a mammogram every year around her birthday.

There is convincing evidence that the frequent testing increases your chances.

Anonymous said...

I just read some summaries of the research and outside of delaying being a mother (which IS a huge risk factor as you acknowledge), I'm not sure that the link between abortion and breast cancer is clearly established. Some studies look one way and some the other but the biggest studies with the most statistical power seem to show that if it is a factor, it is a fairly small one. Believe me, I'd love to believe that this is yet another clear case of femtards hijacking science but it just doesn't seem to be so.

Keoni Galt said...

Anon, here's what some of the research done indicated, which I had posted in my blog posting last year during Breast Cancer Awareness month:

The explanation for the independent link makes good biological sense. It remains un-refuted and unchallenged by scientists because it is physiologically correct.

A never-pregnant woman has a network of primitive, immature and cancer-vulnerable breast cells which make up her milk glands. It is only in the third trimester of pregnancy - after 32 weeks gestation - that her cells start to mature and are fashioned into milk producing tissue whose cells are cancer resistant.

When a woman becomes pregnant, her breasts enlarge. This occurs because a hormone called estradiol, a type of estrogen, causes both the normal and pre-cancerous cells in the breast to multiply terrifically. This process is called “proliferation.” By 7 to 8 weeks gestation, the estradiol level has increased by 500% over what it was at the time of conception.

If the pregnancy is carried to term, a second process called “differentiation” takes place. Differentiation is the shaping of cells into milk producing tissue. It shuts off the cell multiplication process. This takes place at approximately 32 weeks gestation.

If the pregnancy is aborted, the woman is left with more undifferentiated -- and therefore cancer-vulnerable cells -- than she had before she was pregnant. On the other hand, a full term pregnancy leaves a woman with more milk producing differentiated cells, which means that she has fewer cancer-vulnerable cells in her breasts than she did before the pregnancy.

In contrast, research has shown that most miscarriages do not raise breast cancer risk. This is due to a lack of estrogen overexposure. Miscarriages are frequently precipitated by a decline in the production of progesterone which is needed to maintain a pregnancy. Estrogen is made from progesterone, so the levels of each hormone rise and fall together during pregnancy.

For a thorough biological explanation of the abortion-breast cancer link, see this second website for the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, and click on its online booklet, “Breast Cancer Risks and Prevention.”

Unknown said...

I was thinking since Tim is available.. maybe he could be an assistant Coach Outlet
helping with the quarterbacks and offensive line.. can you imagine coming to Florida and having the best college player being your Coach Madison
.. hanging out with you everyday -- I don't think we have to worry about the prospects still coming to Florida to play football; but to be honest.. Coach Meyer getting his health 'fixed' is the most important.. want to have him around for many years.. even if he's not on the sideline. I've been a Gator fan for 30+ years and have gone through the ups and downs of Coach Luggage
.. Dickey; Pell; Hall; Spurrier and now the best coach anyone could ask for... sorry for rambling.. just a hot topic for me -- hope our Gators will win this one for 'the Gipper' - Coach Hamptons

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