Ovarian Cancer

Harvard Medical School has derived a number of healthy practices for all of us to emulate. The following article will try to paraphrase the critical points on exercise, and why all of us should do it. And, for the ones who do it, perhaps they need to do more!

The Benefit of Fitness

Probably by now, everyone acknowledges the health benefits of exercise. Everyone should get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily. Daily is not too much, as human beings we were designed to get a lot more exercise than just daily for 30 minutes. Benefits accrue quickly. Among them are:

The Ovaries

The ovaries are part of a woman's reproductive system. They are in the pelvis. Each ovary is about the size of an almond.

The ovaries make the female hormones - estrogen and progesterone. They also release eggs. An egg travels from an ovary through a fallopian tube to the womb (uterus).

When a woman goes through her "change of life" (menopause), her ovaries stop releasing eggs and make far lower levels of hormones.

Menopausal Hormone Therapy and Ovarian Cancer Risk in the National Institutes of Health - AARP Diet and Health Study Cohort

This investigation of the relationship between estrogen therapy - by itself or in combination with progestin - and the risk of developing ovarian cancer finds that the degree of risk depends on the duration of use.

Taking Vitamin D supplementation  (1000 IU-2000 IU)  by Black and white Americans would likely reduce overall cancer incidence rates by 30% for Black Americans and 10% for white Americans and increase cancer survival rates by 20-30%.

There are seven diseases that have subtle or confusing symptoms and are frequently missed by women and their doctors. By learning the risk factors, symptoms, and treatment, you can better protect yourself against some of life's nastier surprises.

A study concerning Vitamin D appears in the current online edition of the American Journal of Public Health, and will appear in the February 2006 print edition, citing a possible link between cancers and insufficient Vitamin D.