Breast cancer: Maintaining a healthy lifestyle
CANCER is no respecter of age, class, identity or race and in leading a healthy lifestyle and being breast smart there are things women must never forget.
One such thing is to remain in good shape so that in the event you are diagnosed, your body will be able to fight the disease. In ensuring your body is ready for such a journey, Executive Director of the Jamaica Cancer Society Yulit Gordon said you need to do the following:
Eat healthy
Ensure you are getting your full amount of fruits and vegetables and cut back on processed foods that are high in salt and sugar. It is said that cancer cells thrive on sugar. Ensure you’re not putting yourself at a greater risk.
Exercise
Be sure to exercise, keep fit and burn fat cells. Your body has to be surgery-ready and you can’t have a fatty liver.
Manage your stress levels
Another part of being surgery-ready is ensuring that your blood pressure levels aren’t high. In the event you are diagnosed, you want to begin treatment as early as possible and these things will hinder the process.
Don’t smoke and be very careful about the level of alcohol consumption
These things will affect your organs and in turn affect you in your fight if you are diagnosed.
“The Jamaica Cancer Society is a very strong advocate for a healthy lifestyle approach. To benefit from a healthy lifestyle, maintain a low-fat diet, eat fruits high in fibre, don’t allow yourself to go over your body mass index, which is based on your age and height and other components. Also, never ignore a lump,” Gordon said.
