If you are a Female and reached 50 years of age or about to reach that milestone then this blog is for you. I want to talk about "Breast Cancer" in this blog since I see lots of campaigns in the month of October for Breast Cancer all over the globe. In the name of "Pinkathon" every year in the month of October several Non profit organizations conduct Walks, Marathon events, seminars, campaigns emphasizing how we can detect and treat Breast Cancer at the early stage.
Before getting into the actual topic let me pull out two examples from our Indian Kitchen.
Turmeric Powder: It is a widely used powder in most of the Indian Kitchens due to its antioxidant properties. Apart from boosting your immune system it relieves joint pains and fights inflammation. 'Curcumin' is the active ingredient in Turmeric powder and higher the curcumin better it is. Erode is famous for Turmeric in Tamil Nadu and Curcumin levels range from 2 to 4 in Erode Turmeric. If you can find a Turmeric with Curcumin level as 4 then that is a top notch quality. In India Shillong (Meghalaya) produces best Turmeric where Curcumin levels goes upto 11 which is considered nothing short of extra ordinary. Farmers in order to protect turmeric bulbs keep chemical tablets inside the soil in order to protect turmeric from pests. They keep these tablets at regular intervals inside the soil next to turmeric bulbs. These so called chemical tablets if you keep them in your armpit for 30 minutes they have the power to suck all of your blood and you can be declared dead in few minutes. Farmers when they harvest Turmeric they wash the mud and in order to reduce the harm the chemical tablets did to the bulbs they use chemical sprays which brings down the efficacy of the tablets to some extent. This is like in order to stop smoking you started drinking. To bring down efficacy of chemical tablets you use chemical sprays which once again doesn't serve the purpose. Two of the biggest masala companies in Tamil Nadu extract Curcumin from turmeric and export the ingredient for fancy prices thereby giving you a yellow color powder where curcumin levels are as low as 1.5 to 2; People use the so called turmeric powder in milk and are under the assumption they are following healthy practices. Now either Curcumin levels are very low which discounts the consumption of Turmeric powder or we have a good powder but fully prone to chemicals thereby negating all the benefits turmeric has to provide.
Chilly powder: If a family consumes 200 grams of Turmeric powder per month then we can easily say they may consume 500 grams of Chilly powder per month. Some of the best known Chillies are Sannam (long one from Virudhu nagar), Gundu (as the name suggests it is short and fat and also very cute from Ramnad district), Teja chilly (as the name suggests it is from Guntur district) and also the famous Byadagi type (from Karnataka). The spiceness of the chillies depends on the seeds and the red body gives color to the powder. Karnataka's Byadagi is very famous for its color and is very much in demand. We have Traders all round the country and some influential people trade from every place. In fact Kashmiri chilly is most sought after but not everyone can afford it as it is very expensive due to the logictics involved in sourcing it from Kasmir. This is where Traders press the wrong button by introducing artificial dyes in Chilly powder to get that color. Rhodamine B is a famous chemical mixed in Chilly powder and it is nothing but a textile dye. Now you know what risks we are having by consuming this on daily basis.
Well my two examples is just to show how in the world Cancer kicks into our body in the first place. It is very important ladies who hit 50 get screened for Mammogram every year. You have to be disciplined to first take this simple test. This is the very first step you take and depending on the results Doctor can advise you on the next steps like Biospy etc., Mamograms uses an X ray machine that's designed to only look at breast tissue.
Radiologists and Health care providers use a standard system in reporting in order to describe screening and diagnostic mamogram findings. It is categorized from 0 to 6 as follows:
0[Incomplete]: Radiologist needs more images to find like ultrasound in order to evaluate further.
1[Negative]: Radiologist didn't find a significany abnormality (meaning no masses or distorted structures)
2[Benign]: Radiologist found a nancancerous structure such as lymph nodes but you are all good
3[Proabably Benign]: Radiologist found there is > 98% chance of Non cancerous but not 100% so you may need to come for a mamaogram again in few months time.
4[Suspicious abnormality]: Radiologist suspects unusual growth and sends you for a Biospy
5[Highly suggestive of Malignant]: Radiologist finds cancerous sells and send you for a Biospy test and there is 95% chance that it could be cancerous.
6[Known Biospy proven Malignant]: Radiologist suggests this only for patients who is already been diagnosed as cancer and they monitor the patients to see how well cancer is responding to treatment.
Last but not the least if one is diagnosed with Cancer that's not the end of the road and we have one great example - Yuvraj singh who is a cancer survivor. It is very natural for one to panic but keeping you cool and surrounding yourself with good company can help you fight this disease. Medications do work wonders but trust me only when you are mentally strong efficacy of the medication actually kick in.
Next Blog: Man of Humility
