Myths debunked
AS with any other disease, there are numerous myths and misconceptions about breast cancer.
Here are the more common ones, and the actual facts that debunk them.
Breast cancer is very painful. There is actually no pain from the cancer itself, which is why people do not realise they have a cancerous lump in their breast.
“People do not do anything about the lump they find though it gets big and nasty because there’s no pain and they think it’s not anything dangerous or they can delay seeing a doctor,” says Dr Patricia Gomez, consultant breast surgeon at Pantai Hosptial Kuala Lumpur.
The best course of action if you find a lump or any other anomaly on your breast is to seek medical advice immediately, whether there is pain or not.
Myth: Fact:
You cannot eat certain foods when you have or are recovering from cancer.
All healthy food is acceptable in moderation.
There are various traditional beliefs among Malaysians that certain foods should not be consumed when you are ill.
Sometimes, people omit foods from their diets or change their diets completely ( such as switching to a vegetarian or raw food diet) because of something someone told them or that they have read.
Myth:
Fact:
“It is important to have a healthy, balanced diet, especially when you are ill, going through treatment or recovering from surgery as this is when you need as much nutrition as possible. Do not avoid protein or nutritious food when you need it most,” advises Dr Chong Kwang Jeat, resident radiotherapy and oncology consultant at Mahkota Medical Centre.
Chemotherapy kills you. Simply put, chemotherapy targets the cells in the body that are in the process of splitting. Cancer cells keep dividing until there is a mass of them and a tumour forms. Chemotherapy drugs work by damaging and destroying these cells as they divide.
These drugs also affect the healthy cells that are constantly growing and dividing, such as skin cells, hair follicles and the lining of the digestive system. This is why chemotherapy causes side effects and people think that it makes you more ill than before and even kills you.
The truth is that chemotherapy drugs work extremely well against the cancers they treat. Nowadays, there are advanced drugs to combat the side effects of chemotherapy, so going through this treatment is quite tolerable.
Myth: Fact: