Besides perfume, I also have a pretty extensive wine collection which me and Sean keep in the basement and like to refer to as our very own "wine cellar," whether it is one or not. Wine is my favorite alcoholic beverage, and even falls into the #3 slot in my favorite beverages master list. Water is probably first, followed by black coffee, and then a nice red, dry wine, like Merlot. mmm. I know there's no known reason I got breast cancer, but I have been doing a lot of reading, and recent studies say drinking alcohol (even a few glasses a day) significantly increases a woman's risk of getting breast cancer.
Risks don't equal causes, nor do we know what caused mine, or if those who've already had breast cancer should drink less or not at all to reduce the risk of recurrence. We don't know. It's hard to not know what causes breast cancer. And because we don't know, I feel like I should be doing everything in my power to stay as healthy as possible. I don't drink a lot, and after reading articles like these over the past few weeks, I have limited my wine to one glass a week (before I was drinking 1-3 glasses on weekends.) I know I can't believe and practice everything I read, but I think it's normal to be "scared" after reading stuff like this. I feel like I do everything else good for my health (healthy eating and exercise, and I maintain a healthy weight), so shouldn't I do this, too? I would give up my favorite (okay, #3 favorite) drink if it never meant getting breast cancer again. I could drink 45 glasses of wine a day and never get breast cancer, or never touch alcohol again and get breast cancer. We don't know. So where is the line drawn between living in fear and taking control of one's health?
No comments:
Post a Comment