To avoid the risk of developing breast cancer, women need to start taking more fruits, Dr. Abosede Wellington, Coordinator, Cancer Control Programme, Lagos State Ministry of Health has said.
She stated this during an interview on Channels Television monitored by TNC on breast cancer awareness.
Dr. Wellington said eating more fruits, vegetables, and fibers and then cutting down on refined foods and sugars helps to mitigate the risks of breast cancer.
She revealed that men are also at risk of cancer since they also have breasts. She however said the incidents of the disease are more in women than men.
She also advised people to be mindful of the habits or lifestyles that they keep, like drinking and smoking amongst others.
The Coordinator Cancer Control Programme, Lagos State Ministry of Health, called on people, women particularly to check their breasts regularly.
One of the predisposing factors of breast cancer, Dr. Wellington revealed, is age, adding that women who have reached the age of 40 should do yearly x-ray of their breasts to see if there is any abnormal growth, or any cancer cells so it can be treated early.
She also revealed that other predisposing factors to breast lump which eventually lead to breast cancer included genetics, family history, and lifestyle.
“Well, actually we can’t say specifically that it is caused by one thing or the other, but we have what we call predisposing factors,” Dr. Wellington said.
“We talk about genetics, talk about family history, we talk about lifestyle, we talk about factors that predispose one to cancer like cigarette smoking, taking alcohol. These things majorly what they do, cause a kind of abnormal growth of the cells in the breast.
“Now when this abnormal growth continues, without any form of caution, removal or stoppage, then it forms what we call breasts lump.
“They are cells of the breast, but they grow abnormally and they affect other cells that are trying to perform their normal functions. They kill those cells and they start destroying other cells.
“And then if you still leave them untreated, unchecked, it will go as far as other organs of the body and destroy these organs.
“You know, like, we say, early detection is the key which is why we advise our women, our girls, our ladies even men too. Men too can have breast cancer. Anybody that has breasts, but not as many as the women, and then we don’t have the incident of cancer as much as we have in the women. Men too do have breast cancer. So we advise everybody to check their breasts regularly. Examine your breasts regularly. As you know if anything is wrong in your body you will be the first to know. So if you notice anything unusual, abnormal in your breasts, you feel your breasts, you feel a tiny lump, as a seedlike thing, small round thing, whether it’s movable, whether it is painful, whether it is attached or not attached, you report to your health professional immediately, you go to the nearest health facility and get a proper check.
“Now we do the self-breast examination that can be done at home. We always advise our women once you reach the age of 40, because one of the predisposing factors for breast cancer is age. Between the age of 40, 45 we advise you do an x-ray of the breasts every year and gives us a clearer view of what is happening in your breasts and that is, if there is any abnormal growth, any cancer cells there, it is picked up and it can be treated early.”
According to her, “Like I did mention early on, lifestyle activities, the kind of food that we eat, habits that we keep. Now you will agree with me that there is a lot more exposure to injection of refined foods and refined sugars. In every corner of Nigeria now, you find fast food joints everywhere, you find refined meat in burgers, hot dogs, and all sorts of things. These things were not so common before, but now we have them all over the place. Now the danger to consuming refined food of course is that it increases the risk of developing cancer and breast cancer is also one of those things that we’re talking about.
“Besides that, how many of us get to eat very healthy vegetables, very healthy fruits regularly? These were things that we used to do a lot in the past. Even now, people say that it is very expensive to eat healthily and it’s cheaper to eat unhealthily. We need to be much more conscious of the way we live because at the end of the day we are the ones that will reap the benefits, the negative benefits, and of course the kind of lifestyle that we keep. Now the kind of foods that we eat, we need to improve. That’s why we say we need to eat healthily. We need to eat more fruits, vegetables, of fiber. We need to cut down on refined foods and sugars. I mean a lot of studies and research have shown that these predispose to cancer. Talk about smoking, talk about taking alcohol, look at what is happening to the youths nowadays, all the addiction, all sorts of drugs all over the place, the exposure.”
