My good friend Tracie Metzger was chosen to be one of the top three women in her hometown for the People All Stars contest. The winner will receive a trip to Anaheim to be honored. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 30 and today she has dedicated her life to help other survivors through her non-profit organization, Pink Ribbon Girls.
Please vote for her at: http://www.mlb.com/peopleallstarsamongus/. Click on Cincinnati Reds and you will see her name and picture. Help support her cause. Pink Ribbon Girls provide meals, housecleaning, and other services to women while battling with breast cancer. This is an important service to women. You can visit her organization and donate to her cause at www.pinkribbongirls.org.
We are excited to announce the four winners of our April Giveaway! Each winner will receive a Save R Boobies shirt of their choice from our online breast cancer store. Congratulations to Joannie G. from Akron, Ohio; Cindy R. from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada; Ann G. from Sacramento, California; and Martha Tabujara from Elk Grove, California!
Thank you to all who have entered in our monthly giveaway contest and help us raise breast cancer awareness. Click here to find out about this month’s new giveaway!
If you have a little girl in your life, this is the gift for her. This month’s giveaway is a beautiful basket of girls’ headbands, bows, and crochet hats, donated and personally handcrafted by Erika from Phat Elephant Hair Bows.
The basket includes: 3 Interchangeable Kufi Hats, 6 Interchangeable Crochet Headbands, 11 Plain Color Small Hair Bows, 2 Medium Pattern Hair Bows, 1 Fabric Flower, 2 Flowers, and the Zebra Hair Bow Holder, for a total of about $115.00 worth of products. All the hair bows and flowers can intermix in the headbands and kufi hats.
Enter to win by simply signing up for our updates and emailing a brief description of the girl who would receive this gift basket, such as her age and hobbies, to: giveways@saverboobies.com (please use the same email address you used to sign up for our monthly updates so we can confirm you have signed up). You have until June 18th to enter. The winner will be announced in late June. Who is that special little girl in your life?
I love the sunny weather we’ve had recently! It was perfect for an afternoon photo shoot, featuring my son, Ayden, and the little sister of one of my Communication Assistants. Ayden and Janelle are both four years old and looked so cute together! They had fun posing in front of the camera, modeling the new headbands from Phat Elephant Hair Bows that will soon be featured under our Recommended Products.
These are some of my favorite photos from that day:
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in American women. In 2009, approximately 194,280 patients were estimated to be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, and 62,280 with carcinoma in situ. An estimated 40,610 would have died of this disease. For a woman of average risk, the lifetime incidence of breast cancer is one in eight.
In November 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) published its recommendations: 1) against routine screening mammography in women aged 40 to 49 years, and 2) for every other year screening mammography for women between the ages of 50 and 74 years. The USPSTF states that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the benefits of mammography in women 75 years or older.
These new recommendations sent shockwaves throughout the country. All major cancer organizations including the American Cancer Society voiced their disagreements with these new government guidelines. It is a well known fact that screening of asymptomatic women has been accredited for the decline in mortality of breast cancer. This is particularly true for young women, the group less than 50 years old. Even the USPSTF agrees that among women between 39 and 49 years of age, screening mammography results in a 15% reduction in the risk of death from breast cancer. However, 1,904 such women need to have mammograms to prevent one single death. For women aged 50 to 59 years, the number needed is 1,339; and the risk reduction is 14%. One possible interpretation is that it is acceptable to waste 1,338 screenings (1,339 1) but unacceptable to waste 1,903 (1,904 – 1). If you are between 39 and 49 years of age, is your life worth making 1,903 other women have mammograms? Conversely, would you be willing to get a mammogram so that one life out of 1,904 be saved?
The harms of mammogram stem from false-positives, meaning an abnormality on mammogram that turns out to not be cancer. The USPSTF lists pain, anxiety, return doctor visit, and unwarranted imaging and biopsy. Furthermore, overdiagnosis can happen, meaning that detecting and treating that breast cancer would not make a difference in the womans lifespan. According to the USPSTF report, because the likelihood that DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ, a form of early breast cancer) will progress to invasive cancer is unknown, surgical removal with or without adjuvant treatment may represent overdiagnosis or overtreatment. We know that in situ cancer can become invasive cancer that is potentially lethal; we just dont know when and in whom. So if its you, would you like to leave the DCIS in your breast and watch it grow?
Thanks to the outcry from doctors and patients alike, the USPSTF statement is not being used to deny insurance coverage for mammogram in women aged 40 to 49 years. The current recommendation still stands, and it is annual screening mammogram starting at age 40. The age at which screening is stopped should be individualized by considering the potential risks and benefits of screening in the context of the womans overall health status and longevity.
As we celebrate the launch of our new site, we’re giving you an opportunity to win one of our shirts! Four winners will be randomly selected to receive one of the four shirt designs. Here’s how you can enter:
Sign up for our free newsletter
Email an interesting topic you’d like us to blog about to giveaways@saverboobies.com, using “SHIRT” in the subject line, along with a contact name and phone number
Please help us spread the word through:
Twitter: follow Save_R_Boobies and tweet, “I just entered to win a free shirt @ www.saverboobies.com”
Facebook: become a SaveRBoobies Facebook Fan and share, “I just entered to win a free shirt @ www.saverboobies.com”
Contest ends April 30, 2010 and winners will be announced in early May. Thank you for your support! Check back with us monthly for new giveaways!
Flax seed contain high volumes of fiber and lignan. Fiber is important in fighting cancer, such as colon and breast cancer, as is usually attained from fruits and vegetables. Lignan is a plant chemical inside the flax seed and is viewed as the main component that fights hormone-dependent cancers. Hormones produced in the body stimulate cancerous cells to grow, but lignans do the opposite. There are 75-800 times more lignans in flax seeds than vegetables or other grain foods. Healthy benefits, like reducing the risk of cancer and healthy weight management, can be acquired by simply adding 1/8 – 1/4 cup to your daily meals.
It is important in hormone-related cancer prevention to maintain a balance between unsaturated fats. There are two categories, called omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. Often times, omega-6 fatty acids are acquired excessively from a mass use of vegetable oils. Flax seed oil provides a natural and concentrated level of omega-3 fatty acids, but is expensive and rather short life span, so it is recommended to add whole or ground flax seeds to your diet. Breast and prostate tissue are particularly sensitive to fatty acid imbalances. When omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids are at healthy levels, they work together to maintain the stability of the body. Studies have also shown that high levels of omega-3 fatty with low levels of omega-6 can reduce the risk of developing breast cancer.
NBC News featured a story about how aspirin can help reduce the reoccurence of breast cancer by taking aspirin daily. View the video for full news coverage.
