When it comes to our health nobody can deny that it starts in childhood. Our habits, either ingrained by our parents or learnt along the way, contribute to our health in later years for good or bad. However, it's never too late to start looking after ourselves, or to take out health insurance to cover the unexpected. For parents, it's a good idea to take a look at our own habits and whether or not we are passing these on to our children.
The European Cancer Preventions Organisation have recently conducted a study entitled Nutrition in Children and Breast Cancer Childhood. The study indicates that diet and exercise in our younger years can impact on our chances of contracting breast cancer in adult life.
The study followed girls from birth to the age of 13 and found a link between obesity and breast cancer. Obesity is caused, in the main, by bad eating habits and a lack of exercise. Long term, this lifestyle can cause deficiencies in the body that mean we don't work at our optimum level, our immune systems are not what they should be and we can leave ourselves open to the possibility of developing this disease in later life.
Of course, this isn't entirely new information.
Medical authorities have been warning us for some time about the link between obesity and cancer - not least because being obese can mask lumps that would be found in someone slimmer.
With breast cancer, the link is more developed as early puberty and breast development, common in obese children can encourage breast cancer to develop. Breasts are at their most vulnerable during the onset of development. Early puberty can be triggered by the hormone, leptin, which is produced by fat tissue so it stands to reason that the more fat we have, the higher the risk of early puberty.
The best thing we can do for our children is to not only encourage them in a healthy lifestyle but show them the way by example. Children will always pick up habits they see quicker than simply being told to do something. Regular exercise and a healthy, balanced diet should be the norm in any family. It encourages good health now and in the future.
When it comes to puberty, how early is too early? In the US it has been found that girls who are overweight at the age of three risk reaching puberty as early as nine years of age. One hundred years ago, girls didn't reach puberty until their late teens. This has reduced to early teens over the years but below the age of ten is putting our children at huge risks of health problems.
In the UK alone, 44,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. This will only increase if we as parents don't take our children's health seriously enough to say no to that second biscuit or sweet and start teaching sound habits.
Further studies due to be carried out on cancer risks and preventions include a study to see if there has been any link between hormones fed to cows, passed to humans through beef and also whether or not green tea will help reduce the risk of developing cancer so watch this space.
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