Belly Dancing and Breast Cancer

Each year UND sponsors a Belly Dance Expo. During the event the belly dancing group demonstrates the beauty of the dance - and fundraises for a cause. This year the fundraising efforts went to fight breast cancer. Theresa was asked to talk about breast cancer awareness, but as she's still in the throes of treatment, she declined and asked me to talk for her. We came up with the following and this evening I stood in front of about 75 men and women and spoke. The information, I believe, is important for all of us to hear so I pasted the speech here. Feel free to share the information with any other women friends.

Four months ago a close friend was diagnosed with Stage 2B breast cancer. We were all in shock because we thought surely there should have been signs – like a lump or just a general “not feeling well” vibe. But there were no signs – none at all – as is often the case with breast cancer.

Here are some facts about breast cancer: 1 in 8 American women will develop breast cancer within their lifetime. That’s lifetime – so all the way up to ninety-year-olds. Of the 240,000 women diagnosed each year, close to 40,000 of those women will die.

Thinking about breast care now and what you can do to ensure your health will make a difference. Upon her diagnosis, the first words I said to my friend were, “I can’t believe it – you’re the healthiest person I know.” She’s an adventure racer, a belly dancer, a yoga teacher, and cared about the trans fat in foods long before anyone else. But all that proves is that we can’t take our health for granted and that there are some things we, as women, can do to further ensure our health.

For example,
For all women, but starting with young women, perform a monthly physical exam. If you’re unsure about how to do it there are cards available at your doctor’s office. It’s not enough to rely on your annual doctor’s visit and his/her examination.

Get regular exercise – at least 3 times a week for 30 minutes. Brisk walking is a good example and is enough to lower your chances of getting breast cancer by 18-20 percent.

If you smoke, quit. There are all kinds of reasons to stop, but the possibility of breast cancer just adds one more.

If you drink alcoholic beverages, do it in moderation. Two alcoholic drinks/day greatly increases your chance of breast cancer.

Get a baseline mammogram by the age of 35 unless you’re nursing or pregnant.
Then, at forty, get annual mammograms. Without a mammogram, because my friend had no lump, there wouldn’t have been any detection of her cancer until it had spread much further.

Reduce the stress in your life – activities like yoga and meditation go a long way toward stress reduction.

Finally, maintain a healthy weight. You can do this by eating well with a plant-based diet rich in fruits and whole grains. 10 foods that are known to help with breast health are: almonds, beans, broccoli, soy beans, spinach, salmon, flax seed, garlic, green tea and olive oil. Incorporate these into your diet.

For my friend, she’s got an 82% chance of surviving. But the amount of money and research and support for breast cancer is one of the highest funded areas of research and for that, we’re fortunate. But it’s still up to each of us to maintain our health.