Weekly Health Minute: Get the Facts on Breast Cancer

This is the month where a lot of people are adding pink to their wardrobe because it's breast cancer awareness month. Saw near my neighborhood, there's, like, hundreds of flags remembering people. And so we want you to have the facts on breast cancer. That's why we're doing it on the health minute here on WGTS ninety one point nine with Jerry and Summer.

And so we have doctor Courtney Ackerman. She's a medical oncologist at White Oak Cancer Center. She's here to help us dispel some of these myths. So doctor Ackerman, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna play a little game called myth or fact.

We'll read a statement, and you have to tell us if it's a myth or a fact. Okay? Alright. Number one, finding a lump automatically means that you have breast cancer.

So that's a myth. While finding a lump can be concerning, it does not guarantee that you have breast cancer. There are various types of lumps that can be benign, which is why routine screening is important to help identify these varying lumps and understand what is and is not cancerous.

Okay, Doctor Ackerman, myth or fact mammograms help define breast cancer early.

Fact. Routine mammogram screenings can help to find, diagnose, and treat breast cancer in its early stages when it's most treatable. Women of average risk should begin screening at age forty and every year after. For women who are at higher risk, talk to your doctor about when you should begin screening for breast cancer.

Okay. Okay. Myth or fact, living a healthy lifestyle can lower your risk for breast cancer.

Fact. While you can never eliminate your risk for breast cancer, you can lower your risk by eating well, exercising, and having routine mammogram screenings.

Okay. Okay. Myth of fact, I don't have a family history of breast cancer, so I don't need a mammogram.

That's a myth. Only about ten percent of women who develop breast cancer have a family history of breast cancer. There are various factors that put some women at higher risk for breast cancer, and these need to be considered as well.

And finally, myth or fact: is a correlation between breast cancer and prostate cancer.

That's a fact. Certain types of breast cancer can increase a man's risk of developing prostate cancer and vice versa. The cause of it is due to inherited gene mutations like BRCA one and BRCA two. If your father, brother, uncle, or grandfather has had prostate cancer, especially at a young age, you have an increased risk of developing breast cancer.

Thanks so much, doctor Ackerman. Oh, you're the best. Alright. So if you want to hear this full interview, you can find it at our website, w g t s at nine one nine dot com, along with all kinds of other health minutes.

And, of course, we wanna say thank you to Adventist HealthCare as always for sponsoring this Health Minute.