Now this part will come as no surprise as it looks at diet, physical activity, and alcohol (intake before birth- not that part is interesting). We talk about screening and awareness but our focus has not been primarily looking at prevention. This article specifically talks about the influence in childhood for a women's lifetime risk of breast cancer. Now we can't just isolate that to breast cancer totally as these factors influence diabetes and other diseases. We also know that obesity and alcohol have a link but how seriously do we take this information? What are we doing about this? It is not only important issues after menopause but important in childhood and adolescence and beyond.
Breast feeding has always been promoted as a healthy application to your beginning life but we also know that avoiding drinking gallons of milk can cause later issues. Who actually can impact these children the most? That answer is easy.... PARENTS. What are you eating and doing and how are you handling the stressors in your life? Your kids are like sponges watching every minute and every action and word. We have to improve ourselves in order to improve our kids life. Not withstanding peer pressure, we can have an impact. Weight is a huge issue in our society on both sides of the coin- obesity or underweight with other issues. Learning to balance food intake and type of food intake and activity needs further consideration. In addition to all this , make that family tree, look at the family history and be aware of what things are showing up in your family health history. I always had my students make a family tree and look at the health of each family member with all those factors including age, mortality, health concerns, including drinking and smoking. It is quite an eye opening experience. We put cars on machines for diagnositics, why don't we take a moment and do our own diagnosis? Looks like as the day progresses that a nice salad and some games and a good night sleep is waiting for Pa and I, with that -Make it a great new year! S