Most of the news we hear about breast cancer deals with addressing the disease after it's already been diagnosed. The best treatment for any disease, is through prevention. Here are 10 ways to lower your breast cancer risk.

1. Exercise and be consistant about it. Moderate physical activity, like brisk walking, 3 times a week can reduce a young woman's risk of developing breast cancer by 33%, and the risk of breast cancer after menopause by 26%.

2. If you smoke, quit now. The sooner, the better. (Read more about 10 Ways to Lower Your Risk of Breast Cancer)

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“Over like 20 hours a day. I am on it all the time.” “When my battery dies I feel like I am stranded on an island.” “I do feel lost without my cell phone!”
What was life like before cell phones? For millions of Americans, cell phones have become remote lifelines for both business and leisure…for some it’s an addiction. (Read more about CELL PHONE USE AND TUMORS)

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Dr. Valentin Fuster discusses the Polypill. The Polypill is being developed in response to an important reality surrounding cardiovascular disease. There are three important drugs that can help prevent heart disease (statins, ACE inhibitors, and aspirin). These drugs are not taken for two major reasons. First, the drugs are simply too expensive for much of the world, including countries as developed as Russia. And secondly, in developed nations where the drugs are affordable patients too often fail to comply - after three years 70% of patients do not take the medications as prescribed. (Read more about What is the Polypill?)

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A recent study by Kaiser Permanente Researchers has found that the effects of alcohol on breast cancer are the same, regardless of whether a woman drinks wine, beer, or liquor. The ethyl alcohol found in those drinks and the quantity consumed are the factors that weigh heavily on breast cancer risk. Researchers believe the increased risk from three or more drinks a day is similar to the increased breast cancer risk from smoking a pack of cigarettes a day or more. They claim that "Population studies have consistently linked drinking alcohol to an increased risk of female breast cancer, but until now there has been little data, most of it conflicting, about an independant role played by the choice of beverage type." (Read more about All Types of Alcohol Linked to Breast Cancer Risk)

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The cervical cancer vaccine that was approved Thursday called Gardisil also appears to protect women against vulvar and vaginal cancers.

HPV, or human papillomavirus, is present in 80 percent of the 6,000 cases of vaginal and vulvar cancers diagnosed in the United States each year.

The Gardasil vaccine was 100 percent effective against vulvar and vaginal pre-cancerous lesions caused by HPV types 16 and 18, and 81 percent effective against all hpv types.

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The power of persuasion might be found in a cup of coffee.
New research shows caffeine makes us more likely to say yes.

Australian scientists found it was easier to change the opinions of volunteers who drank orange juice laced with caffeine compared to those who drank straight orange juice without caffeine.

Positive mood is associated with more agreeability.

This might be particularly useful if you’re trying to get someone to like you…so a cup of coffee might be a great first date. (Read more about Health Wrap - Week of June 5th)

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College professor, 61 year old Karin Wexler, wasted no time when she first felt a lump on her breast three years ago. “Within 3 minutes, I had called my doctor and went for a mammogram and sonogram right away and nothing showed up on the mammogram even though the radiologist could feel it herself with her hand, we couldn’t pick it up on the mammogram,” says Karin.

Doctors performed a lumpectomy and discovered that Karin did indeed have stage one breast cancer. For many women like Karin, mammography, while still the first-line screening tool for breast cancer, can miss abnormalities. Dense tissue and cancers can have a similar appearance on mammography, making it difficult to identify cancers…this can result in false negative mammograms and in addition lead to unnecessary biopsies.

But now, thanks to breast specific gamma imaging, cancerous tissue can be identified that may go undetected by mammography. “This is different than traditional breast imaging like mammography or sonography or even MRI in that it is not anatomical imaging but it is more what we call functional imaging so in other words we are picking up areas where the cells are beginning to be more active like cancer cells can and allows us to identify these cells at a much earlier stage before we might be able to see an abnormality on a mammogram a sonogram or even an MRI so it is very, very exciting,” says Dr. Sheldon Marc Feldman of Beth Israel Medical Center. (Read more about New Breast Cancer Diagnostic)

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A mammogram is a special type of X-Ray that allows doctors to visualize the breast tissue. The mammography machine compresses the breast and this will cause some discomfort. (Read more about Mammogram)

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By Dr. Chitti Moorthy -Director, Departments of Radiation Medicine and Radiology,
New York Medical College, Valhalla , NY

The cause of cancer lies deep within the building blocks of a person's cells (genes and DNA). If these blocks become disorganized, cancer may develop. (Read more about What is Cancer?)

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By Dr. Chitti Moorthy

In recent years, Radiation Oncology has made great strides in cancer treatment. Alone or in combination with other treatments, radiation therapy is dramatically raising cancer cure rates. Leading medical centers provide state-of-the-art radiation therapy in a comfortable and caring environment. (Read more about Radiation Oncology)

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Cancer is a term used to describe a group of illnesses all having certain common characteristics. There are over 200 different types of cancer and all have a specific name, treatment and a chance of being cured. The human body is made of organs, such as the brain, liver and heart. And each of these organs is made up tissues, such as fat, blood vessels and muscles. (Read more about What is Cancer and How it is Caused)

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