‘Exercise reduces breast cancer risk’

A CANCER support group in Davao City has intensified its campaign against breast cancer patients through a healthy lifestyle, saying that regular exercise can reduce the risk of breast cancer among women.

Dr. Geoffrey Lei, secretary of the Philippine College of Surgeons-Davao Southern Mindanao Chapter, cited many risk factors leading to the occurrence of breast cancer among women, being both external and internal factors.

He said internal factor is mostly the increase of estrogen level in the body of the women, which will also increase the risk of women developing a breast cancer.

He added the cause of breast cancer can also be attributable to the genes or heredity, meaning if the patient has a relative once diagnosed with cancer, the risk of getting breast cancer is also very high.

"That's inevitable," he said, referring to the internal factors.

External factors include mostly of the diet and the sedentary lifestyle of the individuals.

"We consider fastfoods as the most convenient alternative," he added.
Stressful lifestyle is also cited as the reason for higher risk of developing such cancer.

Dr. Mario Magnaye, member of the PCS-Davao Southern Mindanao Chapter, said they encourage women to do self-examination to find out if they have the breast mass.

Magnaye added that Dabawenyos must have daily exercise at least 45 minutes a day to reduce the risk of developing cancer by 30 percent.

Although Lei cannot account how many breast cancer patients are in the country and in Davao City, he said breast cancer is number one in terms of mortality and morbidity among Filipino women, surpassing lung cancer.

He said they continue to advocate for awareness among Dabawenyos to choose better and healthier lifestyle.

In fact, Davao Cancer Society and PCS-Davao Southern Mindanao have organized Pink Run: D'Feeting Breast Cancer on October 14, this month, in which the objective is to raise awareness about the breast cancer.

He said they are trying to eradicate the mindset of the people in seeking the help of medical specialists in fear of being diagnosed with breast cancer.

"The main problem of the Filipinos is the taboo on examining. The strategy in decreasing the number is early detection," Lei added.