Childless athlete from a healthy family got BC at 65

bigsky2

I am not bragging about my health before my cancer. I just wanted to share my experience here since there might be risks in my life style.

I am from a very healthy family with no cancer history. Both my parents and their family members live past 85. I have a healthy diet - mainly home-prepared meals high in vegetables and low in meat, fat and sodium. I work out 70 minutes a day, six days a week. I don't smoke or take drugs. I only drink one or two glasses of wine a month. All my life I was almost never sick. I never filed for a claim against my health insurance, and I only visited my doctor once a year for physical - UNTIL, I was diagnosed with BC last year!!

I am done with my treatment, and am waiting for the recurrence. I feel pessimistic. How can I not after I did just about everything right?

OK. I admit. I did not do EVERYTHING right. Here are my sins. And maybe some of them have caused my cancer:

1) I am childless

2) I like to stay up late - often till 5 am, then I sleep in the morning. I do take a nap from midnight to 1 am.

3) I don't get enough sun. I work from home. I only go to the gym in the evenings.

4) I don't take vitamins since I was very confident about my healthy diet.

5) I eat a lot of dairy food, e.g., two or three servings of cheese/yogurt a day.

6) I eat four or five servings of fruits a day since I love sweets yet I don't want to eat pastries or candy. I do not drink juice though.

7) I overeat maybe once a week. I might be a bit overweight, with a BMI of 24. I am small on the midriff though.

I am trying to modify my life style, e.g., eat less dairy food and fruits, become a teetotaler, take multi-vitamins. I can't have a child now. And I still stay up late because I cannot stop taking my nap at midnight. I still don't get enough sun. With a demanding job, it's hard to get out during the day. And it's too hot to walk out in the summer anyway. I still work out seven hours a week because I enjoy it, and because it keeps my weigh down. But who knows if strenuous exercise is what cause my cancer? I have extremely dense breasts, which probably are from running and pulling the elliptical machine.

As I said, I just wanted to share my experience here. Hopefully it can help others.

Moderators

Hi bigsky, and welcome to Breastcancer.org! We're sorry that you have to be here for this reason but glad you've found us and decided to post.

If you want to learn more on protective steps you can take to help keep your risk as low as possible, you may want to check out the following article from our main site: Breast Cancer Risk Factors

Hope this helps! And again, welcome to our Community!

The Mods

cive

Bigsky2, you can do everything right and still get cancer!  It's not like you deserved it or something because you did or didn't do something in your life.  It's a C**p shoot.  Some people do everything "wrong" and don't get it.

muska

Bigsky2, my parents are 94 and 90 respectively, no breast cancer in my family, I have two kids, I am not overweight, etc.. Don't get the wrong impression that healthy lifestyle prevents cancer because it doesn't. Dairy does not cause breast cancer nor do sweets. Dense breasts are not the result of exercise.

The mechanisms of this disease are very complex and the main contributing factor in post-menopausal women might be the aging process. You can't stop aging by dieting or exercising.

I am not sure why you are waiting for reocurrence - you didn't post your stats - and I hope it won't happen!

illimae

There are runners, vegetarians and generally healthy people here, all blindsided by their diagnosis. I agree with the previous posters, you did nothing wrong, some cell just went rogue. It sucks and it can happen to anyone.

ElaineTherese

Yep, cancer's just a crapshoot. And, not having children is not a sin!

I think what was surprising to me when I was diagnosed was finding out that many breast cancer patients don't have cancer in the family. I think that the media focuses so much on heritable cancer that those of us who come from cancer-free families feel "safe." ((HUGS))

gb2115

Seriously don't beat yourself up. It does no good. Without knowing 100% what "caused" your cancer (impossible to figure out), there is no way to know if you did anything wrong to cause it. And until they figure out what causes breast cancer, there's not a lot anyone can do to avoid it. They are obviously not close to figuring it out, because "healthy" people continue to be blindsided by cancer--so clearly lifestyle choices do not give us ultimate control. Also, there is disease in our world---eventually everyone's body is going to have some sort of problem. You live long enough, it will happen. This really can't be avoided.

So, if you don't want to drive yourself completely crazy, you might start trying to think along the lines of "it is what it is" and just do your best to take care of yourself.

peaches1

I just had to post here, even though I do not visit the site as much as I used to. I was diagnosed 14 months ago with stage 2 IDC cancer. I have lots of various cancer on my fathers side of the family. My mother also had breast cancer twice, and one of my sisters got diagnosed in her 50's 4 years ago. I do eat healthy, and I do try to exercise although I don't exercise as much as you. I never had any children either, and my sister did not either. I also did not go through menopause until I was 57. A BMI of 24 is not overweight. Anything below 25 is supposed to be normal. I have been attending a weight loss group at the Cancer Wellness center in Northbrook outside Chicago. I have lost 15 pounds so far, but the class just ended a month ago, and there is a maintenance group that meets once a month that I am involved in, but you don't get weighed in the maintenance class, and I haven't lost any more weight since the weigh ins ended. I haven't gained any weight though either. I need to start exercising more like I was when I took the class My BMI is approximately 25.7. I would like to lose at least another five pounds so I can finally fit in my size 10 clothes that I used to be able to fit in. 20 pounds would be even better. There were a few people in the class that had way more weight to lose than I did though, and we started out with 18 people, and at the end of 5 months we only had 7 participants.

I have been through chemo and radiation, but I had a mammogram and saw the surgeon last month, and no cancer showed up, and so the surgeon was really happy for me. I don't think about the cancer all the time like I did when I was diagnosed and going through treatment. I hope it does not come back, but if it does I will deal with it then. I am eating healthy, exercising and taking my femera in hopes that it does not return. I also only consume wine once a month tops. I don't think you have to give up wine. You just don't want to consume it every day. Eating lots of fruit is not going to cause cancer either. If you consume mostly low fat dairy you should be okay. I consume some cheese, but I often only add 2 tablespoons of Parmesan to a dish. I do sometimes go through a half a pound of lower fat mozzarella or cheddar. in a week. I do not eat much red meat because I have a really strong family history of colon cancer, but I do have salmon several times a week, and I will buy a rotisserie chicken occasionally at Whole Foods. On Tuesdays they have it for $7, and I love their rotisserie chicken. They have a curry flavored one right now that is delish.

Meow13

Breast cancer seems to like healthy bodies.

Racy

Bigsky, you can take vitamin D tablets as an alternative to spending time in the sun. You should ask your doctor for a blood test of your D level so you know if you have a deficiency, but take one pill per day anyway.