The Four Forms of Sexual Dysfunction

Jasmine Starr, Yahoo! Contributor Network

Sexual dysfunctions is the inability or impaired ability to give or experience sexual gratification. Sexual dysfunctions affect both men and women. Many of us will experience some type of sexual dysfunction at one point or another, but there is a large number of men and women who are severely troubled with sexual dysfunctions. Sexual dysfunctions can be treated through behavioral or biological therapy. Sexual dysfunction is grouped into four main categories. They are Sexual desire disorders, sexual arousal disorders, orgasmic disorders, and sexual pain disorders.

Hormones and lovemaking during pregnancy

It's perfectly safe to enjoy lovemaking during your pregnancy, unless there are medical reasons why you should abstain for a while. Every pregnant woman has the potential to enjoy sex - and some enjoy it more than they've ever done before.

© Jupiter

How much you want and enjoy sex can vary during pregnancy, not only from one woman to another, but also in the same woman at different times throughout the 40 weeks. Most women feel less interested in lovemaking during the first trimester (especially if suffering from tiredness and nausea). Desire generally increases in the second trimester and declines again in the third.

Postpartum Hair Loss: It's Normal

By Parentables | Parenting

This post was written by Jessica McFadden. Photo credit: iStock Photography

A few months after a woman has had a baby is usually not a gal's hottest time. She is sleep deprived, has loose skin and extra pounds hanging around her midsection, and if she is nursing she is serving as a walking milk truck. But at least she still has that thick, lustrous hair leftover from pregnancy, right?

Wrong. In fact, her hair very likely is falling out...sometimes in clumps.

Is this a dirty trick of Mother Nature? A sick joke? The side effect of all those salads you're consuming to slim down to your pre-pregnancy dress size, or those deliciously deserved glasses of wine after baby finally goes to sleep?

Nope, it's totally normal. Technically, your hair is just going back to its normal, pre-pregnancy state. During pregnancy the extra estrogen in your system is responsible for less strands ending up in your brush and down the shower drain. The average non-pregnant woman loses about 100 strands a day, but while you are pregnant you retain more of those precious hairs.

Enhancing Postpartum Sex

If you're leery about having postpartum sex, you're not alone. Most women have fears about resuming their sex lives after delivering a baby. Perhaps the main thing to understand is that your body has changed, so it is natural that sex too will change and be a different experience. Here follows some tips and tricks for easing your way back into your love life.

* Take your time. Your partner may be anxious to make love, but he will need to take a deep breath and be patient. You mustn't have sex until you are ready in both body and mind. Otherwise, you may do irreparable damage to your relationship.

*Be creative. Perhaps you can try taking a bath or shower together. This will inject some fun and excitement into your love life, making it new and irresistible.

*Use contraception. Don't count on nursing or just having delivered as factors that can protect you against another pregnancy. Don't look back with regret because you took a risk.

Alone Time

Penis Size: It May Be Written in the Length of His Fingers

By MAIA SZALAVITZ | @maiasz

The ratio of the length of a man’s index finger to that of his ring finger may seem like a strange thing to measure, but new research suggests that it’s linked with penis size. The lower the ratio, the longer the penis.

The new study was conducted on 144 Korean men who were hospitalized for urological surgery. A researcher measured the patients’ penile length — flaccid and stretched — just after they went under anesthesia for their operations. A different researcher measured the men’s finger lengths, in order to prevent knowledge of one measurement unconsciously affecting the other.

They data suggested that those with a lower ratio, whose index finger (or second finger, 2D) was shorter than the ring finger (or fourth finger, 4D), had a longer stretched penis length, which is well correlated with erect size.

The Cleavage Countdown: 8 Facts About Breasts

Stephanie Pappas and Jeanna Bryner

Credit: Dreamstime

Boob Basics

The quintessential embodiment of female sexuality, breasts have fascinated and mystified since the beginning of time. From the biology that makes breasts, and breast-feeding, possible, and the odd boob changes that occur with motherhood to historical perceptions of the hourglass shape, LiveScience the art and science of breasts.

The First Bra

Women have strapped down their breasts with fabric bands or boosted their cleavage with body-shaping corsets for centuries, depending on current fashions. But the precursors to modern bras began to appear in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The magazine “Vogue” first used the term brassiere in 1907. In 1914, American Mary Phelps-Jacobs patented the first bra design, which consisted of two handkerchiefs sewn together with baby ribbon used as straps.
The first push-up bra came on the scene in 1948, introduced by Frederick Mellinger of Frederick's of Hollywood fame. According to Redbook magazine, the average woman today owns nine bras.

Sniffing Saffron

Jacob Schor, ND, FABNO

A particularly curious paper was published in the June 2011 issue of Phytomedicine.  In it, H. Fukui and colleagues tell us that sniffing at saffron is stimulus enough to trigger hormonal changes in young women. 

This was a double-blinded, placebo-controlled study involving just a short period of exposure ( 20 minutes) to the saffron.

Forty-seven female college students took part in the study.  Of these, 36 were randomly assigned to a saffron group and 11 assigned to a control group. Each sniffed at either a dilute solution of saffron or a for 20 minutes. 

The experimental solutions of saffron were diluted in to such a degree that the smell of saffron could not be sensed. The control was 76% ethanol only.

Sex After Menopause - The Difficulties And The Delights

So what is sex after menopause really all about? The following report includes some fascinating information about sex after menopause--info you can use, not just the old stuff they used to tell you.


The information about sex after menopause presented here will do one of two things: either it will reinforce what you know about sex after menopause or it will teach you something new. Both are good outcomes.


Whatever your sex life was like before the onset of menopause, you can guarantee that the physical and emotional changes you go through at this time will have some sort of impact. While some women find that menopause causes their libido to drop so that they can't bear the thought of having sex, some find their new situation sexually liberating.

Why your sex drive won't decline with age

Research suggests women feel less sexy the longer they stay in a relationship - I don't believe it

• 
• By Miriam Stoppard

Commentators would have us believe that a woman’s sex drive declines faster than a man’s.

Or, put another way, a woman’s sex drive dwindles over time whereas a man’s stays on the up and up.

I don’t believe a word of it. Research from the University of Guelph in Canada suggests the theory that women feel less sexy the longer they stay in a relationship. But that doesn’t mean that her basic sexual urges are declining.

Heavy men more likely to have sperm issues: study

A man sits on a bench in central London, September 23, 2009. REUTERS

REUTERS - Heavy men are more likely than their peers with more normal weights to have low sperm counts or no sperm production at all, a key way to measure fertility, according to an international study.

But the review of past studies, which covered a combined total of 10,000 men and appeared in the Archives of Internal Medicine, can't prove that overweight or obese men will have more trouble fathering a child.

"In general you expect that men with lower sperm counts will have a greater frequency of difficulty conceiving than men with higher sperm counts, but it's not completely straightforward," said Jorge Chavarro at the Harvard School of Public Health, part of the collaborative group that put out the study.

How well sperm move, their shape and the quality of DNA they carry matter too, Chavarro said -- but previous studies have suggested some of those measures of sperm quality may be affected by obesity as well.

For the new analysis, French researchers combined data from 14 studies that compared sperm count in samples from normal weight, overweight and obese men, as well as data from their own infertility center.

About one-quarter of the combined 10,000 men had a low sperm count. In another analysis, just over 250 of almost 7,000 men had no sperm in their ejaculate at all.

Overweight men were 11 percent more likely to have a low sperm count and 39 percent more likely to have no sperm than their normal-weight peers, according to calculations by Sebastien Czernichow and colleagues at the Ambrose Pare Hospital, Boulogne-Billancourt.

Obese men, on the other hand, were 42 percent more likely to have a low sperm count than their normal-weight peers and 81 percent more likely to have sperm-free ejaculate.

The researchers proposed a number of different theories for the findings including that male hormones may be converted into estrogen in fat tissue, affecting sperm-making, or that more fat in the hips and stomach could make the scrotum too hot.

The results don't prove that overweight and obese men will have more fertility troubles, although you wouldn't expect men who have no sperm at all to be fertile, Chavorro said.

It's possible that obesity itself isn't to blame. It could be that in some men an underlying health condition causes them to gain weight and affects their sperm, said Stephen Winters, professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes at the University of Louisville.

Because of that, researchers can't say for sure whether heavy men could boost their sperm production by losing weight.

Czernichow told Reuters Health in an email that losing weight improves fertility in women, but that there's not much data in men - though small case reports have suggested weight-loss surgery may actually have a negative effect on sperm.

A study late last year found that being overweight was tied to a lower sperm concentration and lower motility.

The current report is not conclusive and the risks are "not huge," said Winters, who wasn't involved in the study. But he added that fertility trouble is one of the health risks of obesity.

"This appears to be yet another health outcome for which maintaining a healthy weight appears to be important," Chavarro told Reuters Health.

"It's not only about your cardiovascular disease risk, it's not only about diabetes and some forms of cancer. Obesity also seems to affect outcomes that may be manifested in younger men." SOURCE: http://bit.ly/yEePM4

(Reporting from New York by Genevra Pittman at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies and Bob Tourtellotte)

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/heavy-men-more-likely-sperm-issues-study-013058353.html

Postpartum Hair Loss: It's Normal

By Parentables | Parenting

This post was written by Jessica McFadden. Photo credit: iStock Photography

A few months after a woman has had a baby is usually not a gal's hottest time. She is sleep deprived, has loose skin and extra pounds hanging around her midsection, and if she is nursing she is serving as a walking milk truck. But at least she still has that thick, lustrous hair leftover from pregnancy, right?

Wrong. In fact, her hair very likely is falling out...sometimes in clumps.

Is this a dirty trick of Mother Nature? A sick joke? The side effect of all those salads you're consuming to slim down to your pre-pregnancy dress size, or those deliciously deserved glasses of wine after baby finally goes to sleep?

Nope, it's totally normal. Technically, your hair is just going back to its normal, pre-pregnancy state. During pregnancy the extra estrogen in your system is responsible for less strands ending up in your brush and down the shower drain. The average non-pregnant woman loses about 100 strands a day, but while you are pregnant you retain more of those precious hairs.

Dense breasts can increase risk of cancer recurrence by almost 2-fold

By ANI | ANI

Washington, March 22 (ANI): Swedish researchers have found that women aged 50 and over with denser breasts - having high percentage of dense tissue - had nearly double the risk of their cancer recurring, either in the same breast or in the surrounding lymph nodes, than women with less dense breasts.

Dr Louise Eriksson and her colleagues from the Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm, Sweden) warn that doctors should take breast density into account when making decisions about treatment and follow-up for these women.

When a woman has a mammogram, the resulting scan gives an image of the breast that shows areas of white and black. The white areas represent the dense tissue, made up of the epithelium and stroma. The black areas are made up of fatty tissue, which is not dense. The percentage density (PD) of the breast is calculated by dividing the dense area by the area of the whole breast (dense and non-dense tissue included).

Breast density varies from woman to woman, and it also decreases with age.Density can vary greatly, even between postmenopausal women. In the group of women I studied, those with the lowest percentage density had breasts that were less than one percent dense, whereas those with highest PD had 75-80 percent dense breasts," Dr Eriksson explained.

"The mean average PD was 18 percent. However, density does decrease with age. Studies have shown a decrease by approximately two percent per year. The largest decrease is seen at menopause when PD decreases by approximately 10 percent," she stated.

The researchers studied the mammograms and outcomes for 1,774 post-menopausal women who were aged 50-74 and who were part of a larger study of all women with breast cancer diagnosed between 1993-1995 in Sweden.

"We found that if you have a PD at diagnosis of 25 percent or more, you have an almost two-fold increased risk of local recurrence in the breast and surrounding lymph nodes than women with a PD of less than 25 percent," said Dr Eriksson, who is a PhD student at the Karolinska, as well as a physician at the Stockholm South General Hospital.

"However, density does not increase the risk of distant metastasis and has no effect on survival. We also see that although mammographic density is one of the strongest risk factors for breast cancer it doesn't seem to influence tumour development in any specific way; for instance, it isn't more associated with oestrogen receptor positive tumours than oestrogen receptor negative tumours, but seems to act as a general stimulator of tumour development," she noted.

Cancer researchers do not know why breast density is a risk factor for breast cancer.

"It could simply be due to higher density being associated with more cells, which means that more cells are at risk of developing cancer," Dr Eriksson said.

"Another hypothesis is that it is the relationship between mammographic density and the stroma (which has been shown to be the main compound of mammographic density) that is central to the increase in risk.

"There is no leading hypothesis on why an increased amount of stroma would increase breast cancer risk, but it is known that the interaction between the epithelial cells and the stroma is crucial to the development of breast cancer.

"Based on the results from our study, we propose that mammographic density creates a beneficial environment for epithelial cells to transform into cancer cells; much like fertile soil giving a planted seed the needed nutrients to grow and develop," she added.

The results were presented at the eighth European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-8) in Vienna. (ANI)

http://ph.she.yahoo.com/dense-breasts-increase-risk-cancer-recurrence-almost-2-045829740.html

Gravity and Its Effects on Women

By Amy S. D. Lee, MS, WHCRNP, Nurse Practitioner

When I start thinking about how the force of gravity tugs and pulls on the female body, I usually reflect on the various parts of me that I can see have begun to sag!

Unfortunately, gravity can cause some of our organs, such as the uterus, to fall down or slip out of place. But there are ways to handle this condition, which we in medicine commonly refer to by the catchall term, prolapse. Prolapse literally means "to fall out of place," and it affects the vagina and the bladder as well.

What is prolapse?

Prolapse is a condition in which the pelvic organs begin to sag into, and even out of, the vagina. There are varying degrees of severity of prolapse, and the severity of the symptoms a woman will experience are usually related to the degree or extent of the prolapse.

Women who have never had children may have prolapse, but it's more common in women who have had vaginal deliveries. Other factors contributing to prolapse include

• older age
• heavier weight
• constipation
• prolonged cough
• pelvic tumors (like heavy uterine fibroids)
• perhaps a genetic predisposition

Common Symptoms of Prolapse

• pelvic pressure
• feeling of vaginal fullness
• leakage of urine
• pain with sex
• constipation (both a cause and a symptom)

Diagnosis

Diagnosis of mild prolapse can be made during a pelvic exam at your GYN visit. A more severe prolapse sometimes will become evident when the pelvic organs can be seen or felt protruding from the vagina. Your healthcare provider should then confirm the diagnosis with a pelvic exam.

While it can be quite alarming to discover that you have prolapse, it’s usually a pretty benign condition that can be corrected.

Treatment

Treatment of a prolapse often depends on the severity of both the prolapse and the symptoms. Mild prolapse can often be treated with vaginal topical estrogen andvaginal exercises (Kegel exercises), both of which strengthen the vaginal walls. Other tactics for treating milder prolapses include avoiding heavy lifting and avoiding caffeine (which acts as a diuretic).

More severe prolapse can be treated with a device called a pessary. Pessaries come in a variety of designs and are fitted by your healthcare provider. They stay in the vagina and lift the organs back into normal position. (No, you can't feel them.)

Last, the most severe cases of prolapse can be addressed with surgery. Severe uterine prolapse may require a hysterectomy, followed by repair of the vaginal muscles to lift the bladder back into position. There are also surgical procedures that can be done to suspend the bladder to or from other parts of the abdomen. Women who do not plan to ever be sexually active again may choose to have a procedure that closes the vagina, thereby lifting the organs into place and preventing them from falling back down.

What if you think you have prolapse?

The first thing ALL women should be doing--whether they have a prolapse condition or not--is the Kegel exercises. We should start doing them early (even as teens and young adults) to keep the vaginal muscles strong. Practice by squeezing the vaginal muscles (like starting and stopping the stream of urine) 10 times at least 10 times per day. If you are concerned that you have prolapse, or are at risk of prolapse, discuss your situation with your healthcare provider. Early intervention is an important part of prevention.

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/womentoday/gravity-and-its-effects-women

15 Ways to Fight Breast Cancer

Reviewed by QualityHealth's Medical Advisory Board

An estimated one in eight women will be afflicted with breast cancer in her lifetime. Although there is no guaranteed protection against the disease, there are things you can do lower your risk. Follow these tips to prevent breast cancer and to support finding a cure:

• Maintain a healthy weight.

  There is a strong link between obesity and breast cancer, particularly if extra weight is added after menopause.

• Schedule an annual mammogram.

  This is vital after age 40, as mammograms may help detect early signs of breast cancer, sometimes up to several years before a lump can be felt.

• Eat foods high in fiber.

  Try to consume 20 to 30 grams of fiber daily. Among its many health benefits, fiber may help reduce the amount of circulating estrogen in the body. Foods high in fiber include whole grains and beans.

• Avoid long-term hormone therapy.

  The link between postmenopausal hormone therapy and breast cancer has been a subject of debate for years, and research results have been mixed. For women approaching menopause and having frequent symptoms, experts believe it's probably safe to take hormones for as long as four to five years any longer increases breast cancer risk, without conferring any clear benefits.

• Enjoy soy.

  Isoflavones in soy foods are weak estrogen-like compounds that block the action of estrogen, which may contribute to breast cancer. Use soy flour in recipes, add tofu to soups or main dishes, eat green soybeans, or drink soy milk.

• Limit alcohol consumption.

  Drinking alcoholic beverages is linked to breast cancer, and the type of alcohol doesn't seem to matter. Consume less than one alcoholic beverage per day, or better yet, avoid it entirely.

• Stay physically active.

  Aim for a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise on most days. Try to include weight-bearing exercises, such as walking, jogging, or dancing, which have the added benefit of keeping bones strong.

• Eat good fats.

  Certain types of fats seem to increase estrogen levels, which, in turn, raise breast cancer risk. Opt for monounsaturated oils like olive and canola and omega-3 fatty acids, found in salmon, sardines, and herring. Avoid trans fats, found in stick margarine, packaged baked goods, and snack foods, and the polyunsaturated fats featured in corn, sunflower, and safflower oils.

• Consider aspirin therapy.

  Taking an aspirin just once a week may help protect against breast cancer, but be sure to consult a doctor before starting an aspirin regimen. When used for long periods of time, aspirin can cause stomach irritation, bleeding, and ulcers.

• Avoid additives.

  When possible, buy hormone-free organic meats, poultry, and dairy foods. Be sure to wash fresh produce and remove peels to get rid of pesticide residue.

• Try vitamin E.

  In a small study at State University of New York at Buffalo, participants with a family history of breast cancer had an 80 percent lower risk for developing breast cancer if their diets contained 10 or more IU per day of vitamin E.

• Eat more fruits and vegetables.

  In particular, get enough cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower, which can boost cancer-fighting enzymes.

• Perform monthly breast self-exams.

  Women can detect lumps or changes in their breasts by performing exams every month. The best time to do a self-exam is a week after the start of your period, when breasts are less likely to be tender or swollen.

• Breastfeed if possible.

  Some studies have shown that breastfeeding may decrease the risk of breast cancer later in life.

• Participate in the fight against breast cancer.

  There are numerous ways to get involved in raising awareness and money for breast cancer research, so do your research and get started today.

http://www.qualityhealth.com/cancer-articles/15-ways-fight-breast-cancer

All Slideshows » The Real Causes of Breast Cancer

The Real Causes of Breast Cancer

11
• 
  Alcohol
  Theory: Many studies have shown that alcohol consumption can lead to a higher risk of breast cancer, even at moderate amounts. Women who have more than two drinks a day increase their risk one and half times that of a woman who drinks less.
  Comment: The evidence shows that the link between breast cancer and alcohol is strong. Dr. Moffat says, Even small amounts can have an impact. Cutting back on alcohol intake is one of the best ways of reducing your risk.
  Conclusion: Strong Link
  http://www.thirdage.com/breast-cancer/real-causes-breast-cancer
• Alcohol
  

  Theory: Many studies have shown that alcohol consumption can lead to a higher risk of breast cancer, even at moderate amounts. Women who have more than two drinks a day increase their risk one and half times that of a woman who drinks less.

  Comment: The evidence shows that the link between breast cancer and alcohol is strong. Dr. Moffat says, Even small amounts can have an impact. Cutting back on alcohol intake is one of the best ways of reducing your risk.

  Conclusion: Strong Link
• Stress
  

  Theory: An Israeli study claimed that women who experience more than one stressful event throughout their lifetime are at greater risk of developing breast cancer.

  Comment: Dr. Moffat says that evidence proving a link between stress and breast cancer is weak. She added, The problem is that its very hard to measure or even define stress. And stressful situations can make some people more likely to take up unhealthy behaviors such as smoking or heavy drinking.

  Conclusion: Weak Link
• Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)
  

  Theory: Evidence shows that combined hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which uses estrogen and progesterone, can increase the risk of breast cancer, especially if used over longer periods of time.

  Comment: According to Dr. Moffat, HRT is still an effective short-term treatment for menopausal symptoms. Using HRT for a few years doesnt greatly increase your risk, but the longer you stay on it, the higher your risk becomes. Only five years after stopping will your risk return to that of a woman who has never used HRT.

  Conclusion: Strong Link
• Trauma to Breasts
  

  Theory: Physical trauma to the breast can lead to the development of breast cancer.

  Comment: There is no strong evidence to suggest this. Dr. Moffat says that Cancers are fundamentally caused by faulty or damaged genes and take a very long time to develop. Rather, recent injuries to the breast will lead physicians to examine it more carefully, drawing attention to tumors that were already there.

  Conclusion: Weak Link
• Weight Gain
  

  Theory: The chance of getting breast cancer after menopause increases if you gain weight. A woman who puts on around thirty pounds throughout her adult life before going through menopause doubles her risk for getting the disease.

  Comment: The link between weight gain and breast cancer is strong. Maintaining a healthy body weight can reduce your risk of getting the disease. Dr. Moffat notes that Fat is not inactive its actually pumping out hormones and other chemicals that can affect your risk of disease.

  Conclusion: Strong Link
• Household Cleaning Products
  

  Theory: Some believe that household cleaning products lead to a higher risk of breast cancer, particularly after a recent US study found that women who used air freshener sprays were twenty percent more likely to develop the disease.

  Comment: There is no strong evidence that links cleaning products to breast cancer. Dr. Moffat notes that the studys subjects may have had recall bias, in which their memories were affected by their beliefs of what is true. This may be the case in this study especially because women were asked to recall insignificant behavior from years before.

  Conclusion: Weak Link
• Using the Pill
  

  Theory: Taking the Pill, which contains both estrogen and progesterone, will increase your risk of breast cancer. It can take ten years of being off the Pill to bring your risk back down to levels as if you had never taken it.

  Comment: While there is strong evidence suggesting that the Pill slightly increases your risk of developing breast cancer, Dr. Moffat also points to the fact that the Pill can also protect against other cancers. She notes, It halves a womans risk of ovarian and womb cancers, and this protective effect continues for about 15-20 years after stopping.

  Conclusion: Strong Link
• Underwire Bras
  

  Theory: It had been suggested that wearing an underwire bra will obstruct lymph flow and put pressure on lymph nodes in the armpit.

  Comment: There is no strong evidence linking underwire bras to breast cancer. Rather, it has been theorized that women who dont wear bras regularly tend to be thinner, which is the actual reason for their lower risk of getting breast cancer.

  Conclusion: Weak Link
• Smoking
  

  Theory: A study from the California Environmental Protection Agency found that secondhand smoke and breast cancer have a causal association amongst pre-menopausal women. Additionally, exposure to smoking during childhood and puberty may also lead to breast cancer.

  Comment: According to Dr. Moffat, even though there is no definite link between smoking and breast cancer, we do know that the chemicals in cigarette smoke can cause at least a dozen different types of cancer around the body, so theres still every reason to try to be a non-smoker and avoid passive smoke when you can.

  Conclusion: Strong Link
• Not Breast Feeding
  

  Theory: Research has suggested that women who breast feed their babies longer have a lower risk for developing breast cancer. It could be because breast feeding reduces a womans number of menstrual cycles, lowering her exposure to estrogen and progesterone.

  Comment: Dr. Moffat agrees with the research: the longer a woman breastfeeds, the lower her risk of cancer.

  Conclusion: Strong Link
• Anti-Perspirants
  

  Theory: It was originally theorized that wearing deodorant prevents toxins from leaving the body through sweat, and because those toxins occur around the breast, breast cells can become cancerous. However, no major studies have proven this theory.

  Comment: The evidence for a link between antiperspirants and breast cancer is weak. According to Dr. Moffat, Concerns about deodorants and breast cancer started with an email hoax, and there are no facts behind this claim.

  Conclusion: Weak Link
• 
  

  From Our Partners
  	Beauty Myths Debunked The truth behind 18 commonly held beauty beliefs. View more
  	Good for Your Heart Vitamins are healthy, sure―but there is a risk of overloading. Here's what you need to know. View more
  	Simplify Your Beauty Routine Nine women in their 20s, 40s, and 60s polish their looks with new haircuts and hair colors. View more
  	How to Find a Cheap Gym Membership She was a true kindred spirit―until she revealed your secrets to a roomful of people or “forgot” to invite you to her birthday dinner. Experts advise on what to do when a friend’s behavior turns foul. View more

• Alcohol
  

  Theory: Many studies have shown that alcohol consumption can lead to a higher risk of breast cancer, even at moderate amounts. Women who have more than two drinks a day increase their risk one and half times that of a woman who drinks less.

  Comment: The evidence shows that the link between breast cancer and alcohol is strong. Dr. Moffat says, Even small amounts can have an impact. Cutting back on alcohol intake is one of the best ways of reducing your risk.

  Conclusion: Strong Link

PREVIOUS

NEXT