I’m Declaring 2013 the Year of the Breasts

I just read some pretty startling news regarding breast cancer, and it’s not good. As a health professional and a woman, I am very concerned about the health issues facing us regarding breast health and breast cancer. I have been touched by this illness personally, as many of you have, too.

When I first opened my practice almost 20 years ago, breast cancer diagnosis was relatively rare. Now the American Cancer Society estimates that almost 233,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women and of those women, 40,000 will die. That is, 1 in 8 women will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime.  Here are some more statistics

• 1 out of 8 of these invasive breast cancers will be found in women younger than 45 and about
• 2 out of 3 invasive breast cancers are found in women age 55 or older.
• The incidence of breast cancer in the U.S. rose 24% between 1973 and 1991.
• Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, exceeded only by lung cancer.
• A woman in 1940 had a 1 in 20 chance of contracting breast cancer. Now our risk is 1 in 8.

I don’t know about you but that is pretty scary information to me. Watch the video below to see how you can reduce your risk of ever getting breast cancer in the first place.