Did you stop alcohol drinking?
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I agree with Lilacblue, knowing when is enough can be difficult and people can definitely lose sight of that. The fact is if you are a survivor and you had ER+ and you continue to drink you are putting yourself at increased risk of recurrence. The science is there..it's your choice.
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Yup - it is a choice. I've already had a recurrence. I choose not to narrow my life down to the point that I can't do anything that I enjoy. I've already got CIPN and so have dead feet. And I've got mild LE. For me, quality of life is paramount - not how long I last.
Ergo - I eat popcorn w/lots of butter & salt, I exercise 5 or 6 times a week, I have a drink or a glass of wine every evening before my dinner, I don't eat much red meat, I try to get 8 hrs of sleep every night, I eat a piece of dessert at least 3x a week, I wear a sleeve & gauntlet when flying ... Moderation for me.
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MinusTwo, I like it that you have a plan that appears to be working for you. QOL tempered by moderation. Perfect.
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Minus you go girl. I love popcorn esp with butter! We eat a lot of chicken but we also indulge in hamburgers and steak.
There is a lady in our support group at church who did everything "right" and had a recurrence last year. Obviously she was devastated and we were stunned. She will be taking chemo pills for the rest of her life.
Quality of life is important. We all know what our limits are and should be.
Diane
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I think people are fooling themselves if they think they can prevent recurrence or not. Healthy is always the better choice but when it comes to cancer that is an entirely different animal.
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Fact filled pdf by top UK BC charity, Breast Cancer Now: http://breastcancernow.org/sites/default/files/public/alcohol-and-breast-cancer-risk.pdf
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I read Breast Cancer Now's article. It says even if you do NOT drink at all you still have an 11 out of 100 chance of getting BC. If you drink one glass of wine per day, it goes up to 14 out of 100. That's only a mere 3% increase. (On the bright side, you have an 86% chance of NOT getting cancer at all.)
So, a 3% increase is not worth me giving up drinking a glass or two of wine a couple times a week....Oops! I forgot...I already HAVE cancer.
Well, as they say when toasting, "A short life and a merry one!" Guess that'll have to do for me 😂😛🙄
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Yes, completely correct Lita57 it does state the stats you quoted. Having a 86% of not having cancer is absolutely terrific. For me, the 1.5% increase that taking letrozole offered me, was not worth the extreme side effects and reduced quality of life. We (hopefully) have the freedom to make choices.
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My drinking history: ages 18-25: the occasional glass of wine, Kahlua and milk, baileys, or rum and coke. Less than one drink per month. 26-33: pregnant or breastfeeding, so rarely had alcohol. 33-35: decided I liked wine, so started buying a case of 12 or 15 bottles at a time, twice a year, and my husband drank some of this. Rarely drink any other alcohol.
35: diagnosed with breast cancer. I don't believe the amount of alcohol I drank in the preceding 17 years is related, so I am happy to still drink wine because I enjoy it.
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I drank wine, one or two glasses per day most days of the week, but not every one. A skinny margarita once a week. Before I started chemo last December, I stopped all alcohol, cold turkey. I figure that my quality of life will be far more impacted by a possible recurrence than by the absence of of my glass of wine. I don't need the calories, anyway. Different strokes for different folks. I don't judge...
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BTW - I asked my MO about drinking. He told me a story about a fellow doctor who brought a gin & tonic with him to the infusion center so he didn't have to wait (and of course he got away with it because he was a doc). My MO's advice was - maybe don't drink during the infusion. True story but LOL.
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What caused my breast cancer? Starting my periods at age 10. Taking birth control (even when still a virgin to regulate my periods and treat extreme dysmenorrhea) for 20+ years. Not getting pregnant till age 32, having only one out of four pregnancies that led to a live birth, rather than a blighted-ovum miscarriage (one before and two after giving birth). Bearing my first & only child at 33, and being unable to breastfeed him when I had to go on antidepressants for PPD after only two months. And not becoming menopausal until 55. From puberty to menopause, I was a walking blob of estrogen.
Oh, yeah—and the fact that I have breasts. An average of a glass of wine a day? Doubt it.
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http://www.aicr.org/press/press-releases/2017/new-...
This came out last month.
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Kira, i think your post is the reason this thread was started. I don't believe that article makes much comment regarding AFTER diagnosis, which is why the begging question is...do women or should women stop AFTER already letting the horse out of the barn, as it were.
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I'm stage 4, and I plan to have a glass of the most delightful, buttery Chardonnay in my hand when I'm on my transition bed (that's 'death' bed...I've decided to re-market the term to make it less scary).
No, I don't drink when I'm on cycles, but I do have a glass or two during my 'off' week. I figure, hey, the damage is already done
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I agree Lita the occasional drink I'm not fretting. Monday is our 41st wedding anniversary and I'll be enjoying a toast.
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i am a very slim , physicallly active, never smoker , vegeterian for 20 years( wasnt vegan --loved my milk with coffee too much ) and got protein through yogurt, barely alcohol drinking person who got BC --who knows why it happens? I spent many hours wondering if it was somehting i did or didnt do --as someone said, only women do this to themselves. I told myself it was maybe the dairy --but i think it was maybe my extremely dense breasts. After all we all go trhough, we deserve to enjoy life --and if the occasional glass of wine is something we enjoy, then why not?
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A cell flipped a switch or went rogue or there's an unknown genetic component since my mother and her sister both have BC but mom and I tested negative for mutations. I doubt anything I did or didn't do directly led to this, however, once diagnosed I gave up a lot and hardly drank at all during chemo to be kind to my liver since it was busy processing poison, lol. When the day comes that I have just weeks left with no hope of recovery, I'll be unapologetically enjoying wine, cigarettes and coffee with real sugar but in the meantime, it's moderation for me.
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Interesting article below that came out this week. Their study shows 50% of breast cancer is due to environmental causes. if memory serves me 5% are genetic so that means 45% are random dna misfires. They do show alcohol as an environmental contributor but we already knew that now didn't we? I have mostly stopped drinking to add one more thing to my list of things that may prevent reoccurrence but also alcohol doesn't really agree with me these days.
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If I skimmed this correctly, the study is only an ESTIMATE.
We are at risk mostly because we are women & we have breasts. It is my personal belief that a couple of glasses of wine a week did not and will not make any difference.
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brigid, I think the Alberta study you linked is really questionable. I also think that in saying "50% of breast cancer is due to environmental causes", the details really matter.
Of the 49.7% of breast cancer cases that are estimated by this study to be caused by lifestyle and environmental factors, fully 27.5% are attributed to hormone replacement therapy. So they are saying that over 1/4 of all breast cancer cases are caused by HRT. Really?
Without question HRT use does increase breast cancer risk. From my understanding, even short term use (2-3 years) of combination HRT (estrogen + progesterone) increases breast cancer risk. However it takes long-term (10 years or more) use of estrogen-only HRT to increase risk. If I recall correctly, within 2 - 3 years of stopping HRT usage, risk levels go back down to normal.
So how does this add up to 12% of breast cancer cases being caused by "current hormone replacement therapy use" and an additional 15.5% being caused by "ever hormone replacement therapy use"? Are that many women taking that much HRT for so many years? If all the other studies are correct in suggesting that risk levels go back down within 2-3 years, the 15.5% figure for "ever used" in particular seems really out of line.
By way of comparison, here is what the American Cancer Society says: "To put the risk into numbers, if 10,000 women took EPT (Estrogen-progestin therapy) for a year, it would result in up to about 8 more cases of breast cancer per year than if they had not taken hormone therapy (HT)." And here's what they say about Estrogen-only therapy: "ET is not linked to a higher risk of breast cancer. In fact, certain groups of women taking ET, such as women who had no family history of breast cancer and those who had no history of benign breast disease, had a slightly lower risk of breast cancer." Not sure I buy that, but it certainly contradicts the Alberta study.
The Alberta study also suggests that an additional 6.4% of breast cancer cases are caused by oral contraceptive use. Any study I've seen indicates that oral contraceptives only slightly increase risk. I don't know what percent "slightly" translates to, but 6.4% seems high.
So if you separate out HRT and oral contraceptives, this report is saying that 15.8% of breast cancers are caused by all other environmental and lifestyle factors combined. Most of that 15.8% is "physical inactivity" and "excess body fat".
As for alcohol, which is the subject of this thread, the study attributes 3% of breast cancer cases to alcohol. This too is higher than many other studies I've seen, but if it's correct, it means that of the 124 women out of every 1000 women who will develop breast cancer, 4 of those women will have developed breast cancer because of alcohol consumption.
I think I'll take my chances and continue to enjoy my glass of wine with dinner!
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Me, too, when I'm off chemo cycles.
Sadly, I'll be on chemo until they declare me ready for hospice, so I only have a glass of wine 2 or 3 times a month. When i do go on hospice, I'll be knocking it back every night, unless it no longer agrees with me or gives me painful ascites.
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Obviously, to each their own but thanks Bessie for breaking it down for us. Cheers!🍷
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lol believe me I am not challenging anyones right to drink. I am aware it has its limitations and is a snapshot of a single year in a limited geography. I thought it was an interesting study and might add to the conversation. Be well.
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Divide Beesie's stats on women by 100 and there'll be a stat for me! Actually, with hardly any research at all on men with this disease, I'm thinking stats on men, drinking, and bc will be a ways away. Meanwhile I'll continue in the cohort that consumes a glass of wine with dinner nightly.
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Hi everyone...IMO it's important to differentiate between preventing BC and reducing recurrence rates once you have it. Once you have been diagnosed wit BC you are obviously then at risk for a recurrence. Alcohol has been shown to increase that risk in hormone positive BC. Yes, we all have to make our own informed decisions. Good luck to all.
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At least a decade ago I decided that the trickle of reports about the association of alcohol and breast cancer were unsettling enough that it made it smart to avoid alcohol until further notice. Obviously, I still got breast cancer but in the meantime I've felt better, completely eliminated the snacking that tends to go along with that evening glass of wine, and improved my body composition. That decision clearly wouldn't appeal to every one but I feel much better of for making that choice. Frankly, kicking the nighttime nibbling habit was the biggest unexpected benefit - I thought I'd need a 12-step program for that one! Instead, it just went away without ANY struggle. Now that was a gift!
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I have 3 drinking "occassions" per year I allow myself - I strive for 2 but it's been 3 this last year. My husband's aunt has a long term boyfriend who actually makes good, really good wine. They have a party every fall and I don't miss it. Then I allow myself one holiday (usually when my inlaws are annoying the sh!! out of me) and one other summer evening on the patio at my favorite restaurant.
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http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2016/07...
Coupled with existing evidence, alcohol consumption is unlikely to have a substantial impact on mortality among breast cancer patients. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 1–6. ©2016 AACR.
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