When I think about all the things I’m hoarding, the ones I think are the worst for me are the beliefs and emotions in my head.

I tend to find it hard for me to let go of negative feelings and this emotional clutter is interfering with my life. That’s why I need to put an end to it NOW.

I just recently discovered certain things about myself. I hoard certain beliefs. I am very attached to wanting the people I love interact with me in specific ways. When they don’t act the way I want them to, even if they are showing their love in other ways, I withhold my expressions of love, or get angry and frustrated.

I had to clean out my own emotional “closet” to make room for the idea that everyone is different and people don’t have to express their love YOUR way to make it real/meaningful. Every day, I need to remind myself of this so my emotions don’t control me – I control my emotions.

One of the problems with hoarding is that it doesn’t create the space for anything new to come into your life. It doesn’t matter if what you’re hoarding is physical or emotional. If you don’t have room for new things or new experiences, you’ll just keep recycling the same old stuff and eventually drown in your sea of stuff.

What are some of the beliefs or emotions you hoard? Are you willing to release your hoarder’s grip on those beliefs to create room for something new and different?

Hoover has upped their contribution to Clean For A Reason from $1 to $2 when you add a Twibbon to your twitter site! Go here to do that and ask your supporters for their help as well.

Cleaning For A Reason is a nonprofit organization that recruits local, professional cleaning services to provide free home cleanings for women undergoing cancer treatment. They connect the patient applicant to the cleaning service partners.

For more information on Clean For A Reason, go here. To learn about Hoover’s campaign to raise $25,000 for this cause, go to our post here.

Please help this worthy cause – it only take a minute and you can help improve the life of a woman undergoing cancer treatment!

Cleaning For A Reason Week!

Nothing makes me feel better as when my home is clean and shiny. I’m pretty sure most, if not all women would feel the same way. But when you are ill, undergoing cancer treatment, let’s face it, the focus is on getting through the treatments and getting better – not on cleaning.

That’s where Cleaning For A Reason week – April 18-April 24 – comes in.

Cleaning For A Reason is a nonprofit organization that recruits local, professional cleaning services to provide free home cleanings for women undergoing cancer treatment. They connect the patient applicant to the cleaning service partners. Women undergoing cancer treatment need to feel as good as possible and this organization is a great help!

Founded in Texas in 2005 it is rapidly expanding to cover all 50 states. For more information and a list of participating cleaning services in your area, visit http://www.cleaningforareason.org/maidservice.php

Wish you could help? Well you can!

Hoover (as in Hoover vacuums and carpet cleaners) plans to donate 700 vacuums throughout the year to participating cleaning services, and has been a charity partner with Cleaning For A Reason for the past two years. Hoover will donate $1 to the cause for every new Hoover Facebook “like” and new Twitter follower, up to $25,000.

Pretty easy way to help this worthy organization isn’t it? Simply visit www.facebook.com/Hoover or www.twitter.com/hooverclean and help Hoover reach their goal!

Please Tweet and Like Hoover today!

Eating Pure with Pure Bar Plus a Coupon & Sweepstakes!

If your New Year’s resolution was to eat healthier, and eat foods that use only real ingredients, organic fruits and healthy nuts untouched by harmful herbicides and pesticides, then you know that what you want is hard to find – at least anything tasty. Until now that is! Pure™ Bar has only real ingredients, no refined sugars, no chemicals, no genetically-modified stuff.

How do I know? I was asked by Pure to try their organic bars and let you know what I thought.

I was slightly hesitant because, like you probably, I am used to bars that are like eating dried mud with stones and twigs in it. They are so dry you have to have water or a cup of coffee with them just to get them down. Or else they look and taste like a candy bar and the contents aren’t much better either!

But I found Pure Bars to be moist, sweet, chewy and really, REALLY good! I am not a big Orange lover unless it’s the actual fruit. Too often it tastes like “Tang” – manufactured and processed. However, when I opened the Cranberry Orange bar I could actually smell the oranges! And the taste! OMG! Awesome. Same with the Wild Blueberry, and Cherry Cashew and Apple Cinnamon – well – all of them really! (Although I was not crazy about the Chocolate Brownie – I would eat it if the others were not available and others in the household LOVED it!)

I was pleasantly surprised and I am a convert! These bars appear small, but they are filling. I also liked that they can be easily thrown in a backpack, purse, glove box, pocket or cookie jar without any guilt!

There are six different bars to choose from and they are hardy little things sure to please the palette as well as the body’s nutritional needs. I liked that the ingredients are smack dab on the front of every bar – like they are wearing the ingredients proudly.

I ate one a day for six days and then started all over again! If you know of anyone with special dietary needs, these bars may help supplement their diet.

Coupon!

But don’t take my word for it! Get a buy-one get-one free coupon on the pure bar website that you can print and bring into stores. So give it a try today!

The Pure Bars:

Apple Cinnamon Pure Bar INGREDIENTS: Organic Dates, organic apples, organic agave nectar, organic walnuts, organic cashews, organic almonds, organic rice protein concentrate, organic cinnamon. That’s all!

Cherry Cashew Pure Bar INGREDIENTS: Organic dates, organic cherries, organic walnuts, organic agave nectar, organic almonds, organic cashews, organic brown rice protein. That’s all!

Chocolate Brownie Pure Bar INGREDIENTS: Organic dates, organic walnuts, organic agave nectar, organic almonds, organic cashews, organic brown rice protein, organic cocoa. That’s all!

Cranberry Orange Pure Bar INGREDIENTS: Organic dates, organic cranberries (with organic apple juice concentrate and organic sunflower oil), organic walnuts, organic cashews, organic brown rice protein organic almonds, organic agave nectar, organic orange peel, organic orange oil. That’s all!

Trail Mix Pure Bar INGREDIENTS: Organic dates, organic agave nectar, organic cashews, organic apples, organic raisins, organic almonds, organic sunflower seeds, organic cacao nibs, organic walnuts, organic rice protein concentrate. That’s all!

Wild Blueberry Pure Bar INGREDIENTS: Organic dates, organic wild blueberries, (with organic apple juice concentrate and organic canola oil), organic cashews, organic agave nectar, organic walnuts, organic brown rice Protein, organic almonds, organic unsweetened lemon juice concentrate. That’s all!

Facebook Sweepstakes

Plus if you become a fan on Facebook you will see the sweepstakes currently running! You could win a five-day, four-night trip for two to Costa Rica! To enter just submit a tip about your Pure lifestyle! The Grand Prize winner will win a Pure Eco Resort Trip for two people to Costa Rica and a one-year supply of Pure Bars. Plus there are weekly prizes too! They will also select weekly winners. If you’re a lucky weekly winner, you will receive a supply of Pure Bars, and will also choose one of three organizations for Pure to donate $100 on your behalf. The winner will be chosen on February 21st!

Disclosure: This is sponsored content and we have been paid to do this post. That being said, we do not blog about anything we do not believe in and Pure did not edit our post or direct our content in any way.

One Stop Health Organization

When was your last checkup? If it’s been 18 months since you went to the doctor, stop putting it off! It’s easy to let “busy-ness” be the excuse for falling behind on your routine healthcare visits. But it’s also a pretty lame excuse for not taking care of the most important thing you have: your health. It’s the start of a new year, and the perfect opportunity to turn over a new leaf. Take a moment now for you and organize a few visits that will safeguard your own well being.

Sarah on “Take Care of Everyone at Once”

Alicia on “one week a year”

What doctors do I need to visit on an annual basis? We’ve mapped it out for you, and if you need it, your whole family too. Go through the list today and make relevant appointments before the day gets away from you. If you’re under water with work right now, schedule visits for the summer months, when schedules tend to be a little less hectic. The good news – when you schedule your appointments far enough in advance, you will usually be able to get the coveted first appointment, before the doctor is running late.

List of appointments:

For You:

For Him:

For Kids:

The Trick to Avoiding Unwanted Holiday Pounds: Get Organized

It’s the mother of all hangovers – the holiday weight gain. The average person gains between 2-5 pounds over the holiday season, so while it’s may not shock you to learn on January 2rd that you’ve creeped up a bit, it’s definitely disheartening. It’s so hard to resist the cookies and cakes and extra helpings of mashed potatoes…and it’s only once a year, right? Take heart in knowing that you can enjoy yourself this holiday season without getting smacked in the face come January. It just takes a little organization now to save yourself later.

Sarah on “not getting swept up in the moment”

Alicia on “keeping my schedule sacred”

Three Tips for Getting Organized & Trimming the Fat from Your Holiday Season:

1. Keep Track!

2. Be Accountable.

3. Eat Well When You Can.

Ethnic Gaps in Breast Cancer Linked to Hormones

In our efforts to bring you news about Breast Cancer and its available treatments and causes, below please find an article regarding on a recent study that looked at hormone levels as one explanation of the difference in rates of Breast Cancer occurrence in different ethnicities. We have duplicated the full article with a ‘translation’ of the study from BreastCancer.org. We hope this information is helpful to you and your loved ones. – Buttoned Up

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Differences in estrogen levels may partially explain the ethnic disparities in breast cancer rates among U.S. women, new research suggests.

In a study of more than 700 postmenopausal women, researchers found that participants’ blood levels of estrogen and “male” hormones, called androgens, varied by race and ethnicity. And the differences in estrogen, which fuels breast tumor growth, often paralleled ethnic differences in breast cancer risk.

Native Hawaiians, for example, had the highest levels of estrogen and androgen, and the highest rate of breast cancer. On average, their estrogen levels were about one-quarter higher than those of white women, according to findings published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

Similarly, the study found, women of Japanese descent had higher estrogen levels than white women did, and their breast cancer rate followed suit.

These findings fit the theory that racial or ethnic differences in estrogen levels account for some of the differences seen in breast cancer rates, according to study leader Dr. Veronica Wendy Setiawan of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

An exception, she told Reuters Health, was the finding that African-American women had lower rates of breast cancer than white women did, despite having higher estrogen levels.

“We can’t explain that yet,” Setiawan said. It’s known that before menopause, black women have a higher risk of breast cancer than white women, she noted. So it’s a puzzle as to why their risk doesn’t remain elevated after menopause, even though their estrogen levels remain relatively high.

Another finding with no clear explanation is the fact that Japanese-American women had higher estrogen levels and a higher rate of breast cancer than white women did — a stark reversal of what’s been previously observed.

This rise in estrogen levels among Japanese Americans may be driving the rise in breast cancer, according to Setiawan, but no one knows what factors — such as diet or other lifestyle changes — are affecting estrogen levels in these women.

Excess body fat raises estrogen levels, but Japanese Americans in the study were generally thinner than other women.

The findings are based on 739 women who are part of a larger study that has followed an ethnically diverse group of adults from California and Hawaii for more than a decade.

Setiawan notes that more research is needed to figure out why black women differ from other women when it comes to the relationship between estrogen levels and breast cancer — and why estrogen levels appear to be changing among Japanese women.

SOURCE: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, October 2006.

WHAT BREASTCANCER.ORG SAYS:

Ethnic gaps in breast cancer linked to hormones

Research has shown that breast cancer is diagnosed more or less frequently in different ethnic groups in the United States. But scientists aren’t sure why these differences happen. Differences in genetics might be part of the explanation. External factors, such as diet and lifestyle choices, also probably contribute to these differences.

The study reviewed here looked at whether differences in hormone levels could help explain differences in breast cancer rates. While the results don’t provide all the answers, they do offer more information. For example, Japanese American women and native Hawaiian women have a higher than average risk of breast cancer and their estrogen levels were found to be higher than average. On the other hand, African American women have a lower risk of breast cancer than white women, but in this study, African American women had higher estrogen levels than white women.

The study also showed that average estrogen levels of Japanese American women have been rising over time. The reason for this is unclear, and it is not clear that an increase in breast cancer risk will follow.

Stay tuned to Breastcancer.org for the latest updates on this important area.

Buttoned Up is presenting this material as an alternative method for detecting breast cancer. We feel it is important for women to learn about new detection methods and theories to help them be more educated on the subject of Breast Cancer. Always consult your health care professional with any questions regarding your personal health.

Revolutionary and Safe Diagnostic Tool Detects Hidden Inflammation: Thermography

By Dr. Mercola www.http://naturalhealthcenter.mercola.com/

You might not realize that cancer is now the disease most likely to lead to your death. It passed heart disease as the #1 killer a number of years ago.

And if you are a woman, breast cancer is the type of cancer you are most likely to get.

There are many approaches you can take to prevent breast cancer (or any cancer), including the dietary changes and lifestyle modifications I recommend on my site.

However, if you already have breast cancer — even in the early hidden stages — you need a radically different strategy, since the cancer could kill you before your dietary and other changes take effect.

Let me say this about mammograms: you may think they are the ideal screening tool to give you a warning stage before the cancer becomes far more difficult to treat. Unfortunately…

Mammograms Can Actually INCREASE Your Risk of Breast Cancer

That’s why I don’t recommend mammograms, despite what you may hear from other medical sources. They expose your body to radiation that can be 1,000 times greater than that from a chest x-ray — this makes you vulnerable unnecessarily to further risks of radiation-induced cancer.

Additionally, mammography compresses the breasts tightly (and often painfully), which could lead to a lethal spread of any existing malignant cells.

And there is no solid evidence that mammograms save lives. In fact, research demonstrates that adding an annual mammogram to a careful physical examination of the breasts does not improve breast cancer survival rates over getting the examination alone.

The Newest Safe Cancer Screening Tool

Fortunately, you now have some very effective options based on finding inflammation — the precursor to many of these types of cancers.

For the longest time, it wasn’t well-known that inflammation was the culprit responsible for many chronic diseases. However, many physicians like me now recognize that inflammation is a precursor to many diseases, such as cancer, arthritis, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and high blood pressure.
And here’s some good news: early detection of inflammation may help you prevent many negative health conditions from developing.

And while you can reduce inflammation with dietary changes, nutritional supplements, antioxidants, detoxification, stress reduction, and more…

Here’s my diagnostic recommendation:

Find Out If You Have Inflammation Before it Becomes a Major Problem

Although this information is of particular interest to you if you’re a woman, men will also find it extremely helpful.

There’s a new diagnostic high-tech tool that I’ve recently welcomed to my clinic, The Natural Health Center, and it specifically measures inflammation.

It’s called thermal imaging, or thermography. In a nutshell, this tool creates a digital map of your body that illustrates heat patterns — patterns that may detect some condition or abnormality. It uses a scanning-type infrared camera that measures your body surface temperature, presenting the information as a digitized image.

These thermal images (called thermograms) are analyzed for abnormalities that may be signs of disease in your body. Additionally, since your body is thermally symmetrical if normal, thermal asymmetries can indicate problems.

I recommend this tool (you’ll have to call the Thermography Diagnostics Center at 847-252-4311 to get it) because measuring inflammation through thermal imaging is a proactive, preventative method you can use for detecting disease, which significantly improves your chances for longevity and good health.

Additionally, thermograms provide:

• Reliable and accurate information for diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis…

• Precise and objective data from accurate measurements of thermal information…

• Considerable financial savings over conventional investigations…

In fact…

Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging Offers You a Higher Level of Prevention

And unlike most diagnostic tests, thermal imaging is:

• Not painful…

• Non-invasive…

• Quick – your multi-image exams usually take less than 15 minutes…

Plus, it:

• Makes no contact with your body — with no body part compression (such as what you experience with mammograms)

• Emits absolutely NO radiation

So that leads you to wonder…

“How Can Thermography Really Help Me?”

If you’re wondering how this new diagnostic system will specifically help you better achieve your health goals, let me reassure you:

There are a number of areas in which thermography will help you better understand your body. But it specializes in:

• Breast Imaging

• Early-Stage Disease Detection

Yes, it’s true. Thermograms provide you with early diagnosis and treatment assistance in such problems as cancer, inflammatory processes, neurological and vascular dysfunction, and musculoskeletal injury

To get into a bit more detail, here’s…

How Thermography Assists You in Breast Cancer Prevention

Thermography can detect irregular patterns in the breast, conditions that occur before a noticeable lump is formed.

In some cases, such as inflammatory cancer, there are no lumps to be detected by self-exam or mammogram. That’s why adding thermography to your annual routine can help with early detection.

You’ll increase your chances of detecting breast cancer in its earliest stages.

“But How are Thermographs Different From Mammograms?”

Mammograms look at anatomical changes in the breast, as they detect masses or lumps in the breast tissue. On the other hand, thermograms look at vascular changes in the breast, as they detect blood flow patterns, inflammation and asymmetries.

Thermograms benefit all women. They may be particularly useful for young women who want to monitor their breast health before the recommended age of 40. Actually, your breast cancer prevention should start as early as possible.

If you are a woman, you need to take your breast health seriously…

One in Eight Women Will Get Breast Cancerat Some Point in Their Life

Proper breast self-exams, physician exams, and now thermography together provide you with the earliest detection system available.

The benefit of this new technology — digital infrared thermal imaging — is that it offers you the opportunity of earlier detection of breast disease than has been possible through breast self examination, doctor examination, or mammography alone.

Thermal imaging detects the subtle physiologic changes that accompany breast pathology, whether it is cancer, fibrocystic disease, an infection or a vascular disease.

The first session provides the baseline of your “thermal signature”.

And annual thermograms allow you to map changes in your body’s heat patterns over time. They can alert you to any deviations from your norm. Mapping your health annually helps you detect changes, often before disease develops

Yet breast imaging is only one benefit of thermograms. Another area that can be of benefit to both sexes is pain diagnosis…

Thermography — the Only Method Available for “Visualizing” Your Pain

Whether your pain is acute or chronic, thermography can help provide answers to your pain issue.
In fact, thermography:

• Remains the only method available for visualizing your pain and pathology…

• Can assess pain and pathology anywhere in your body….

• Is a very useful adjunctive procedure to other diagnostic tools, such as x-ray, bone scans, and ultrasound…

• Is very cost effective, risk free, and provides you with instant images…

• Fills in the gap in clinical diagnosis…

While x-rays, CT scans, ultrasound, and MRI scans are all tests of “anatomy” that measure structures of your body, thermography is unique in its ability to measure your physiological changes and metabolic processes.

What Else Can Thermography Help Detect in Your Body?

Early stage disease detection is another area in which thermography excels. For instance, let’s take heart disease prevention.
Thermography screenings can assess heart function and detect inflammation in the carotid arteries (which may be a precursor to stroke and blood clots). When inflammation and/or occlusion of the carotid is visible, your doctor may do additional testing. Earlier detection of a heart problem may save your life.

And here are some other examples:

Arthritis
• Arthritis: Thermography can help you detect early signs of arthritis — and differentiate between osteoarthritis and more severe forms like rheumatoid. Effective early treatment strategies can then be implemented, before you experience further degeneration.

• Neck and Back Pain: Thermal pain patterns ‘light up’ white and red hot on a scan in the involved area. You can get relief faster and begin restorative care that more precisely targets the correct area.

• Dental Issues: If you have TMJ, gum disease, or an infected tooth, this will show up on a thermal scan as white or red hot.

• Sinus Issues & Headaches: Significant heat in your forehead or sinus region revealed on a thermal scan is an indicator that these systems in your body are not functioning properly.

• Immune Dysfunction, Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue: The immune system correlates to the T1 andT2 areas of your spine — high levels of heat in that region can indicate immune dysfunction. On the other hand, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and aching joints are just a few complaints that correlate to cool patterns seen at this area.

• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) : This condition is often misdiagnosed. For instance, you may think you have CTS, yet the scan shows your neck is referring pain from a different affected area. This will help you get the most appropriate treatment.

• Digestive Disorders: Irritable bowel syndrome, diverticulitis and Crohn’s disease are often visible with thermography. If you’re able to address these conditions early on, you’ll find that health restoration is much more likely.

• Other Conditions: Including bursitis, herniated discs, ligament or muscle tear, lupus, nerve problems, whiplash, stroke screening, cancer, and many, many others.
With all the great benefits of thermography, it may sound complicated — but it’s not!

Here’s What Happens When You Get a Thermogram

Here are the simple steps you’ll follow when you get a thermogram:

Step 1: You sit in a temperature-controlled room to allow your body to cool from any external conditions. At that time, you’ll complete some simple paperwork, including a health survey.

Step 2: You’re positioned in front of a Thermal Imaging Camera, and the technician takes digital pictures (5-15 minutes). You will be able to see yourself “live” on the computer screen, which can help give you a better understanding of your body.

Step 3: Your pictures are sent out to a certified physician for analysis of 1) the amount of heat and 2) the symmetry of the heat patterns. Heat patterns may indicate inflammation, infection, or a variance from your body’s norm.

Step 4: You’ll receive a report of findings in your mail shortly thereafter. This will help you and your doctor determine any next steps. We also provide recommendations for ways to reduce inflammation, if present, and provide personal health coaching programs if desired.

Step 5: We recommend you return for thermograms annually to monitor your health and watch for changes. Since everybody’s body is different, the best way to detect problems is to measure changes from your own body’s norm.

Not Just Some Experimental Tool

If you’ve never heard of thermography, you may wonder how credible it is. Let me assure you that the manufacturer of the Meditherm Med2000® is well established as the market leader in clinical thermography –with the largest network of thermography systems installed in the world.

Your scans are actually analyzed and reviewed by certified physicians who’ve specialized in thermography.

And the machine used at the Thermography Diagnostics Center delivers a higher degree of sensitivity and specificity than other thermography systems on the market.

Plus, when it comes to credibility, Meditherm sponsors major research programs at Duke University. Other research institutions using Meditherm equipment in clinical trials include UCLA, VA Hospital Durham, and a number of other institutions internationally.

So you can rest assured this is a legitimate tool for helping you gain your best health possible.

Take Your Next Step to Prevent Disease from Gaining a Foothold!

It’s been my nature not to over-prescribe too many diagnostic tools, tests, and procedures, because many of them do nothing to help you prevent disease and enhance your health.

So you know that when I endorse thermography, I’ve looked long and hard at the benefits to you — and ound them significant. Even if you’re feeling OK today, it’s good to have a baseline thermogram done now, so you’ll have something to compare to if anything ever pops up down the road.

Please avoid the following on the day of your thermogram: heavy exercise, deodorant, spicy foods, hot beverages, body creams and lotions, gum chewing, and tight-fitting clothing.

And if you’re female, please don’t go the mammogram route. Consider thermography part of your annual health prevention regimen.

For more information from Dr. Mercola on any subject, please visit his website and sign up for his informative newsletter.

Preventive Surgery Works for BRCA Mutation Carriers

“(MedPage Today) — Prophylactic surgery can reduce the high risk of breast and ovarian cancer among BRCA mutation carriers and actually improve survival, researchers affirmed.

All-cause mortality dropped from 10% without salpingo-oophorectomy to 3% with it (hazard ratio 0.40, 95% confidence interval 0.26 to 0.61), found Timothy R. Rebbeck, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and colleagues.

The risk-reducing surgery also cut breast cancer-specific and ovarian cancer-specific mortality significantly, they reported in the Sept. 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Prophylactic mastectomy also reduced the risk of breast cancer but without an impact on survival in the prospective cohort study of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers.” To read the rest of the study results and interviews, go HERE.

BREASTCANCER.ORG SAYS:

You may wonder why removing the ovaries reduces breast cancer risk. Most of the estrogen in women’s bodies is made by the ovaries. Estrogen can promote the development, growth, and spread of breast cancer. One drawback of prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy is that puts premenopausal women into menopause because of the abrupt and permanent drop in estrogen levels.

The study reviewed here found that women with an abnormal breast cancer gene who had prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy:

• lowered their risk of both ovarian cancer and breast cancer

• improved their chances of living longer, even if they eventually were diagnosed with ovarian or breast cancer

Women with an abnormal breast cancer gene who had prophylactic mastectomy lowered their risk of breast cancer.

Most inherited cases of breast cancer are associated with one of two abnormal breast cancer genes: BRCA1 (BReast CAncer gene one) and BRCA2 (BReast CAncer gene two). Women with an abnormal BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene have up to an 85% risk of developing breast cancer by age 70. Women with an abnormal BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene who already have been diagnosed with breast cancer also have a higher risk of developing a new, second breast cancer compared to women who don’t have an abnormal breast cancer gene. Women with an abnormal BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene also have a higher-than-average risk of ovarian cancer.

The study involved 2,482 women with an abnormal BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene that was diagnosed between 1974 and 2008. Some of the women already had been diagnosed with breast cancer, which is why they had genetic testing.

• 38% of the women had prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy

• 10% of the women had prophylactic mastectomy

The women were followed for 3 years after prophylactic surgery. Their health was compared to the health of the women who didn’t have prophylactic surgery.

The women who had prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy reduced their risk of dying from any cause during the 3 years of follow-up and substantially reduced their risk of ovarian cancer and breast cancer.

• 3% of women who had prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy died compared to 10% of women who didn’t have the surgery

• 1% of women previously diagnosed with breast cancer who had prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy were diagnosed with ovarian cancer compared to 6% of women previously diagnosed with breast cancer who didn’t have the surgery

• 2% of women who weren’t previously diagnosed with breast cancer who had prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy were diagnosed with ovarian cancer compared to 6% of women who weren’t previously diagnosed with breast cancer who didn’t have the surgery

• 14% of women with an abnormal BRCA1 gene who had prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy were diagnosed with breast cancer compared to 20% of women with an abnormal BRCA1 gene who didn’t have the surgery

• 7% of women with an abnormal BRCA2 gene who had prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy were diagnosed with breast cancer compared to 23% of women with an abnormal BRCA2 gene who didn’t have the surgery

Women who had prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy were less likely to die of cancer if they were later diagnosed with either ovarian or breast cancer.

• the risk of dying after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer was 56% lower

• the risk of dying after being diagnosed with breast cancer was 79% lower

Women with either abnormal breast cancer gene who had prophylactic mastectomy had a lower risk of breast cancer.

It’s understandable that thinking about getting tested for an abnormal BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene may make you anxious. An abnormal breast cancer gene substantially increases your risk of both ovarian and breast cancer. Still, if your personal or family health history suggests that you might have one of these abnormal genes or your doctor recommends genetic testing, it makes sense to consider being tested. Knowing that you don’t have an abnormal gene likely will be reassuring. If the results show that you have an abnormal gene, it may be scary, but it will allow you and your doctor to talk about all your options to reduce your cancer risk.

If you do have an abnormal breast cancer gene, prophylactic removal of your ovaries and fallopian tubes is an option that can reduce your risk of both ovarian and breast cancer. Prophylactic mastectomy also can reduce your breast cancer risk.

Decisions about prophylactic surgery require a great deal of thought, patience, and discussion with your doctors, genetic counselors, and family — plus a tremendous amount of courage. Take as much time as you need to consider these options and make decisions that you’re comfortable with and are the best for your unique situation.

For more information, please visit the BreastCancer.org site.

The Making of Nowhere Hair by Sue Glader

Sue Glader is a writer, mother and breast cancer survivor living in Mill Valley, California. She is the author of Nowhere Hair, a children’s book that gently and also playfully explains life during chemo and addresses the biggest concerns of children ages 3-7. See inside the book (and also order copies) at www.NowhereHair.com. Her blog, Poking Around Life, can be found at www.SueGlader.wordpress.com. Join Nowhere Hair’s Beautifully Bald Initiative at www.facebook.com/NowhereHair, and pass on the message that being bald (whether from aelopecia, chemotherapy, or just bald and open due to a difficult personal experience) is a time for being bold, beautiful, and brave. Help spread this message to all 50 states in 50 days. When you join, put up a message on the wall and tell us where in the world you live.
Below is a video that will give you a glimpse into her world, and the book. Please feel free to pass it along, as the word of mouth of girlfriends to girlfriends is what will put Nowhere Hair ultimately in the hands of women who need it.

Sue has also written a post for Buttoned Up entitled, “How in the world will I tell my kids?” Be sure to read it as it has great advice.