Tag: breast

"Our two greatest challenges are figuring out better treatments for the 40,000 women who die of breast cancer every year, and at same time, figure out who, on the other end of the spectrum, is getting exposed to needless toxicity." ~ Dr. Eric Winer

The human breast is a beautiful adaptation, which is singular in the animal world. While other mammals only have enlarged breasts during nursing, humans have breasts that are large throughout life; they have become increasingly larger at increasingly younger ages.

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

We believe we are making it better by shielding ourselves from our own pain. This is a fool’s errand, for the pain we refuse to feel and acknowledge doesn’t dissipate from our lacking attention, but rather collects in our heart center with a weightiness we often cannot name or discern. So fearful are we of the potential of a broken heart that we inadvertently refuse to open our hearts at all.

It was only a couple of weeks ago when I was sitting in the waiting room, having been called back for another magnified view of my mammogram and an ultrasound for some suspicious lumps in my left breast. Something similar had happened several years before when I first began the yearly mammogram rite of passage, so I tried to assuage my fear that it was probably nothing. This is true for many women, getting called back in and frequently it is a false alarm—but, not always. The rate of illness in this part of the body is mind-boggling. Breast cancer affects one in eight and heart disease kills one in four women.