Category Archives: disease

Exposing the Reality of Breast Cancer

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photo of woman giving self breast exam pictures

Though the Christmas and New Year holidays are almost definitely clouding most people’s ability to think beyond the next week or so, I’m sure you guys remember that October 2010 was breast cancer awareness month. We raised awareness here on Zelda Lily and, here in the UK, fundraising events took place and pink ribbons were abundantly in evidence. But, over in New York City, black-and-white posters advertising the SCAR Project were presenting an altogether more honest and authentic picture of breast cancer. The posters featured a pregnant woman with a large surgical scar over the right half of her chest – the place where her right breast would once have been. The copy underneath the image read ‘Breast Cancer is Not a Pink Ribbon.’ The poster, even as I …

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Well-Educated Moms Have Healthier Kids, and Other Obvious Findings

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photo of kip from napoleon dynamite your mom goes to college on couch sofa pictures

As The Washington Post reports, a new study indicates that mothers with better education typically have healthier kids. Half the reduction in child mortality over the past 40 years can be attributed to the better education of women, according to the analysis published in the journal Lancet.

For every one-year increase in the average education of reproductive-age women, a country experienced a 9.5 percent decrease in child deaths.  And for a variety of reasons:

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New Hampshire Firefighter Sarah Fox Not Alone in Breast Cancer Battle

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Sometimes the most tragic of circumstances can bring out the absolute best in people. So it is with a New Hampshire firefighter who has fought valiantly against cancer … and the family, friends, co-workers, and community members far and wide that have joined in her struggle.

It’s really easy to lose sight of what’s really important sometimes, and honestly it’s even easier to get caught up in life’s unpleasantries. Taking the time to say, “Wow, how amazing is it that this community joined together to support a comparatively young woman stricken with a horrible disease?” sadly takes a backseat to discussions on the Ground Zero Mosque or Guinness Book of World Records-worthy horses or athletes behaving badly or whatever.

I was truly touched to learn of the support offered to Portsmouth firefighter Sarah Fox by her brave co-workers. The Portsmouth Fire Fighters Charitable Organization does many great things, but their pinnacle as far as I’m concerned is their work on the Sarah Fox Cancer Fund.

From their website:

Portsmouth Firefighter Sarah Fox was diagnosed with breast cancer on October 9, 2007. At the time she was also 36 ½ weeks pregnant with twins. Twelve hours after her diagnosis the twins were born making a family of seven. While it wasn’t easy, Sarah fought through the many challenges and treatments that cancer brings and beat the odds returning to work in January 2009.

Just over a year later Sarah developed a pain in her hip which was discovered to be cancer. Sarah, her husband Matt, and their 5 children and extended family are faced with the fight against cancer once again.

Wow. At what should have been one of the happiest times of her life, Sarah Fox found out that she faced a potentially terminal illness. She fought the disease aggressively, appeared to win the battle, only to find out that her body’s war with this horrible disease had only begun.

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Japanese Women Toast Their Own Health: Life Expectancy Increases Again

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Japanese women have enjoyed the longest life expectancy in the world for more than two decades, according to newly-released government figures. In 2009, women in Japan could expect to live to a record average of 86.4 years – up almost five months from the previous year.

Experts attribute the extraordinary longevity of Japanese women to a traditional low-fat diet of fish, rice, simmered vegetables and soy products, easy access to healthcare and a comparatively high standard of living in old age. Eriko Maeda, a Japanese woman of 69, echoes these sentiments, accrediting her health in old age to her lifestyle and saying that:

‘I never eat meat and I avoid fried food… with the occasional exception. I eat lots of oily fish, like mackerel and sardines, I’ve never smoked and I hardly ever drink.’

Maeda can expect to live for another two decades and, if she is typical, Japanese women will continue to outlive the rest of us. Diet aside, there is no shortage of possibilities to explain the life expectancy rates in Japan. The Japanese Health Ministry cites improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, cardiac disorders and strokes, the country’s biggest killers, as part explanation of the upward trend. Universal health insurance, achieved …

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