7 Ways To Keep Your Breasts Healthy

 When it comes to young women and breast cancer, there's good news and bad news. The good: Their chances of having the disease are much lower than an older woman's. The bad: If cancer does strike, it can be more aggressive, says Debra Mangino, M.D., of New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

But a healthy lifestyle can help protect your breasts. These are the changes and early-detection methods experts say are key:

Stay at a Healthy Weight: 

Being heavy can increase your risk of developing the disease as well as reduce your risk of surviving it, says Harold Freeman, M.D., president and founder of the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer and Prevention in New York City. 

Break a Sweat:

Aim to exercise for 45 minutes to an hour five days a week. Regular fitness workouts may help prevent the disease by boosting immune function, warding off obesity, and lowering levels of estrogen and insulin.

Avoid Alcohol:

Research has shown that two drinks a day could increase breast cancer risk by 21 percent. Instead, try swapping wine for fresh grapes. Resveratrol, found in the skin of grapes, may help reduce your estrogen levels, which in turn may reduce your risk.

Eat Your Vegetable: 

A low-fat diet can do a lot to reduce your risk, but for even more protection, add some cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli and kale, to your plate. They contain sulforaphane, which is believed to help prevent cancer cells from multiplying. For an extra dose of cancer-fighting power, eat them raw.

Know Your Family History:

"In about 15 percent of breast cancer cases, there is a family history of the disease," Freeman says. If you have one first-degree relative who had breast cancer, your lifetime risk doubles, and if you have two your risk increases five-fold.

Get Checked: 

All women should have a clinical breast exam at least every three years and annual exams and mammograms starting at age 40. Women with a family history should begin screening 10 years prior to the family member's age of diagnosis. 

Ask if the facility offers digital mammography--it allows for adjustments in contrast so the image can be easier to see. Young women at increased risk may also want to ask for either an MRI or a sonogram in addition to the mammogram.

Consider Genetic Testing:

"When cancer strikes young women, it's more likely to be connected to a BRCA mutation," Mangino says. Two red flags for being a BRCA carrier: being of Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jewish descent or having a family history of both breast and ovarian cancer. "If you have either of these factors, see a genetic counselor to talk about getting tested," she says.

How Couples Can Enter The New Year As A Team

I guess you and your spouse wishes to begin the New Year on a sound footing? But wishes alone or late night kisses just won’t do!

Beginning from now, you can and should join hands and pull together to ensure you finish the year as a tag-team. This is how to run the race:

1.         Don’t Be Tied To Last Year

There might have been several issues that troubled you and your spouse - from finances to children upkeep.

But you can both move on into the New Year pulling together afresh. Perhaps last year was rough on your marriage as a result of financial issues, health challenges, or relational struggles. Yes, you might face some of these issues again in the coming year, but be determine to make peace with last year’s events.

What this means is: Decide together to see these challenges not just as annoyances, but as opportunities for growth, both individually and as a couple. How can you achieve this?

·        Sit down together and reflect.

·        Talk about how the struggles you faced wore on you, and also how they made you stronger.

·        Consider times when you let them divide you rather than unite you and discuss how you could do better next time.

·        Resolve that in the coming year, you’ll try to face difficulties with an “us vs. the problem” attitude instead of a “me vs. you” mentality.

2.         Lighten Your Heart More

Don’t let life way you down or get you discouraged to the extent of picking on your spouse. When such feelings come, go watch a movie or find a way to relax together and drive away frustration.

Decide together to approach the coming year with a sense of lightheartedness. While this point to the ability to laugh together at things like colds and coughs, don’t stop there.

Also don’t allow your heart to be weighed down by grudges towards one another.

If you’ve kept a record of the several ways your spouse has perhaps failed, disappointed, or hurt you in the past, determine to let these things go – either personally or, if they are deeper issues, through the help of a trusted counselor or prayer, determine that this year you won’t keep a “record of wrongs.”

Rather, make up your mind:

§    That you will strive to not be so easily offended

§    to do your best to overlook offenses

§    To seek to be a team instead of a lone ranger

 

3.         Get on the Same Page with your spouse

As the year begins, some many people make resolutions and plans to move forward or achieve something. Some plan to pay off their debts and to be more purposeful in life and even concerning romance in their marriage.

What about you? Are you and your spouse on the same page when it comes to your hopes and dreams for the next twelve months? Have you agreed about what you want to achieve?

A sure way to get on the same page is to brainstorm together. Sit down together to make a list. Jot down what you desire the new year to hold for you as an individual and as a couple.

It is best to make your own list first as an individual before you jointly make one. Be honest about it and indicate your personal hopes and desires.

After your own list, come together and discuss the both or more lists. Identify:

§    What items are common?

§    Which ones are unique?

§    And what are some practical ways you can work together to accomplish these things?

As a couple, make up your mind that this year, no matter what challenges come your way, you would face them together as one.  Decide that in your marriage, this is a year of “Team Us; Together We Stand!”

Nigerian women are the world’s most unfaithful - Do You Agree?

A recently released survey report that sampled marital infidelity has revealed that Nigerian women are the most unfaithful in the world. The survey conducted by condom manufacturer, Durex, interviewed 29,000 people in 36 countries had Nigerian women topping the list and beating 35 other countries, including Western countries. Can this ever be true?

Controversy has since continued to trail that judgment, with Nigerian women crying foul. This outcry is understandable though, as these are women popularly reputed for their solemn reverence for religion, more than their counterparts in any part of the world.

“We have more Nigerian women that are faithful to their marriages than other nations. Ours can be attributed to various factors like religion, which has become the standard for most of us, and then tradition.

“Despite our exposure and enlightenment, a typical Nigerian woman still holds firm to the dictates of tradition, either of her background or that of her husband’s. That aside, our men are even too egocentric to allow their wives that liberty. A man can kill any woman suspected of infidelity, whether true or not. It’s seen as a slap on the man’s face and not an emotional slip,” Rosemary Duamlong, an entrepreneur and mother of two argued firmly in defence of Nigerian women when presented with the outcome of Durex’s survey.

The survey claims that regardless of marital status, sexual orientation, or a committed relationship, Nigerian women still in the real sense tend to be unfaithful, giving a 62% prevalence of unfaithfulness, with Thailand following.

Admitting though that some women could be extremely unfaithful, some male folks debunked the percentage put forward by the survey.

“I have been married for 20 years and my wife has not cheated on me. In every way, she has been very faithful even despite my unfaithfulness,” a middle-aged Nigerian who simply identified himself as Monye said.

Another man said of his wife: “While we were still dating, I could say she kept other men, but as soon as she became certain that I was serious about her, she personally dropped them and has since then been more than faithful to me.”

Nigeria is not a society where adultery is treated with impunity, unlike places like Britain where married couples jointly patronize so-called ‘Elite Sex Clubs’ where they have sex with other men and women. Here, family values are cherished and women who cheat do so mostly in secret. Hence, it remains a puzzle how the country managed to top the list of unfaithful wives.

“Nigerian women are generally family-centred and conscious of society approval. Only a few would therefore risk rubbishing the integrity of their families, especially that of their children, for a moment of pleasure. Our society is yet to liberate women to the level of equal rights with men. Thus, no Nigerian woman will be applauded for cheating on her husband socially. To this end, the stigma it attracts is a deterrent. Besides, what a man can do and get away with in Nigeria, a woman cannot try it and get away and this includes being unfaithful in marriage,” said a lady who’s been married for nine years.

“We’ve had instances where women commit adultery with no sense of secrecy but the percentage cannot be said to be as high as claimed by Durex’s survey. We’ve also had women getting pregnant for other men in their husband’s house but yet, the percentage is minute, compared to what obtains in other countries.

If Durex’s claims were true, why do most Nigerian men in diaspora come back home to Nigeria to pick a wife? If you ask them, they will tell you our women are more faithful in marriage than their counterparts abroad. They have lived both in Nigeria and abroad but still prefer our women.

Funny enough, foreigners are not exempted in this search for Nigerian wives. Just last year, a friend’s daughter had an Italian coming to seek her hand in marriage. They both met in Italy but this young man in his early thirties came down here with this girl to marry her traditionally and legally. I learned the man had vowed not to marry from his country because of the high rate of infidelity amongst their women,” argued another woman in her fifties.

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Can You Divorce Your Husband Because He Got Big Belly?

 Perhaps divorce has become so commonplace that a Kuwait woman divorced her husband because of his big belly. According to her, his big belly obstructs him from performing his marital duty.

The woman told court that she had repeatedly asked her husband to follow a diet to bring his weight down but he would not listen.

“The woman told court that her husband cannot perform his martial duties properly because of his big belly,” Al Rai Al-Am daily said.

“She said that she had asked him to divorce her but he refused, prompting her to come to court”.

According to reports, the court granted her a divorce after several sessions.

Very soon we may hear of divorce based on a snoring spouse. I wonder where we are heading to!