Forum Discussion
Breast cancer myth
It continues to bother me that some well intentioned people perpetuate the myth that 50% of breast cancer could be avoided just by exercising. This notion makes my blood boil!
21 Replies
- I accept your point but want to comment that moderate exercise has been an enormous help to me dealing with side effects from hormone therapy and generally helping me deal emotionally on a daily basis with having had breast cancer and the fear of recurrence.I have never been keen on exercise in the past but I am now.I walk daily for an hour sometimes two and belong to a gentle stretch and balance class which I attend twice weekly.It has added a lot to my wellbeing.
- I overheard a woman remark that the only women who get breast cancer in Italy are nuns because the don't breastfeed ! :#
Unbelievable and just plain stupid!!! Would have loved to set her straight but I may have done something silly :open_mouth: - @"Annie C" :o
- I was once told by my well meaning but slightly uneducated sister in law that I must have knocked my breast to have "caught" cancer. It was said in all sincerity.
- It's a sort of inverse logic. If 100% of the population experiences stress, anger, alcohol, fatigue or potentially carcinogenic material in any quantities at all, and some of them get cancer, demonstrandum est!
- It's a wonder she didn't say if you have ingrown toenail!
- It was said in front of a large group.
I am quite able to hold my tongue. What I am saying inside is another matter 😁. Remarkable restraint, @pattij That one would have provoked me to extended displays of profanity.
She's probably the sort that would also tell you that being angry contributes to 60% of cancer, stressed (but not necessarily angry) 40%, tired 30%, prone to fits of 'uproarious elevation' 22%, eating meat 48%, fluoride 20% etc etc If at the end you escape a 375% chance of the disease you can thank your lack of family history. Phhhffft
- This was from a supposed "professional" specialising in dealing with breast cancer patients.
She wasn't impressed when I told her that what she had said was "rubbish"! Yeah, you wonder where they get that figure. 50%. Not 47%, not 57% but a very specific value. It's worth asking the question where they got the information if you want to engage with that particular (usually victim blaming) conversation.
People, usually, don't mean to be cruel or unhelpful but some of them are remarkably good at it. Sadly, they are just mindlessly parroting nonsense they read on Facebook or in New Idea or some such high value publication. Every once in a while you come across someone who justly deserves to be told to fuck off. I like that bit; it almost makes it worth putting up with the benignly idiotic.
