according to some statistics a woman's chance to develop breast cancer in her lifetime is one out of eight or 12.5%. In the "Journal of the National Cancer Institute" in May of 1995 that women overestimated their chances for dying from breast cancer by twenty times. While that journal reported in 1995 that the chances of getting breast cancer were only 1 in 17 before the age of 65, but it also said that the number of breast cancer cases has increased 30% in the past twenty-five years. Although breast cancer is the most common cancer in American women, over 80% of cancer occurs in postmenopausal women. While epidemiologists know that breast cancer is often the associated with age and genes, now speculation is arising that the earlier a woman has her first menstrual period the more at risk she is. The Institute's environmental studies division says that a large part of the problem is that one half of women have environmental risk factors. The disease is also often perceived as a white woman's disease. Such white culture icons as Nancy Reagan, Shirley Temple Black, Linda Ellerbee, Ann Jillian and Betty Ford have had breast cancer. However, cancer statistics show that the disease is especially prevalent in uneducated blacks who don't bother with or don't know about regular breast exams. Japanese women have 17% mortality rate when compared to American women. But, when Japanese women move to the United States, their breast cancer rates gradually move up as their bodies respond to the new environment. Even so, the myth of it being a white-only disease still lives on (Perceptions of Breast Cancer Risk and Screening Effectiveness in Women Younger Than 50 Years of Age).A number of doctors simply take the common sense approach to preventing breast cancer, which is exercising and getting your proper nutrients. Dr. Leslie Bernstein, a professor of preventative medicine at the University of Southern California, proposes one leading hypothesis on how ...
