From womenshealthmag.com
By Hannah Bradfield
‘Over the years I’ve seen how little any of us are taught about our own breast cancer risk'
Surgeon and breast health expert Dr Christine Lai is on a mission to educate people about how to manage their breast cancer risk.
‘Over the years I’ve seen how little any of us are taught about our own breast cancer risk. It isn’t on the school curriculum, and few workplaces ever cover it. I want to change that,’ she wrote on Instagram recently.
As part of that mission, Dr Lai regularly posts health content on social media. And in a recent post, she shared the eight things she would tell her daughter about breast cancer risk.
‘She makes her own choices. These are just the things I’d steer her on,’ she noted.
When new breast cancer cases in women are predicted to increase by a third globally over the next few decades – from 2.3 million in 2023 to over 3.5 million in 2050 – it’s important to know what we can do.
Indeed, in a recent study published in The Lancet Oncology, researchers estimated that more than a quarter (28%) of the global breast cancer burden (healthy years lost to the disease) is linked to six potentially modifiable risk factors: high alcohol use, obesity, high blood sugar, smoking, low physical activity and high red meat intake.
For Dr Lai, ‘the goal is informed action, not control.'
‘I’ve been a surgeon for more than two decades, and people assume my list of rules for my family is long and terrifying. It’s not,’ she wrote.
1. ‘I won’t let her blame her deodorant’
‘It doesn’t cause breast cancer,' Dr Lai explained. 'Cancer starts in the breast and spreads to the lymph nodes, not the reverse.’
2. ‘I won’t let her treat alcohol as harmless’
‘There’s no safe amount,' she said. 'It raises oestrogen and damages DNA, and binge drinking is the worst of it.’
3. ‘I won’t ban grilled or smoked meat’
‘But I’ll limit the charred bits,' she added. 'Charring forms HCAs and PAHs, chemicals linked to higher cancer risk.'
4. ‘I won’t make her give up hair dye’
‘The evidence is mixed, and the WHO’s cancer agency doesn’t class personal use as a cause,' she pointed out. 'To be cautious, semi-permanent and temporary dyes show little to no signal.’
5. ‘I won’t let her panic about plastics’
‘BPA is a hormone disruptor that can leach out when heated, but the human breast cancer evidence isn’t settled,' she explained. 'Switch to glass or steel because it’s easy, not out of fear.’
6. ‘I won’t let her think healthy means perfect’
‘Lowering risk isn’t erasing it,' she said. 'Some women do everything right and still get breast cancer, others have every risk factor and never do. The goal is informed action, not control.’
7. ‘I won’t let her assume “no family history” means “no risk”’
‘Most women diagnosed have none,' she explained. 'Family history matters, but its absence isn’t a free pass.’
8. ‘I won’t let her treat sleep as optional’
‘Long-term circadian disruption is something the WHO’s cancer agency takes seriously, and the habits she builds now are the ones she’ll carry,' Dr Lai said. 'Protect the body clock early.’
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/health/conditions/a73362945/surgeon-breast-cancer-advice/
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