Hello Ladies, Autumn Equinox and full moon blessings! Yesterday was full moon in Aries; during the Aries full moon we can tap into the child within - the part of us that lives from a place of love and innocence, that part of us that has unquestioning faith and belief that everything is, and will be, ok. The determination of the moon in Aries encourages us to tap into a powerful source of courage and stamina to rise again from any setbacks we may face. During the harvest of this full moon we can release our ego, sift through the elements of self, both long-standing and newly acquired and retain that which serves purpose while leaving the rest behind. These is a good time to spiritually and physically cleanse ourselves of all those elements in our life which no longer work for us and to use the pioneering, and ambitious energies of Aries to take those leaps of faith and re-create our lives in a way which is more beneficial for us. To read more see http://littlegreenblog.com/mind-and-spirit/moon-astrology/happy-full-moon-in-aries/And while we are on the topic of the moon…I was shocked this week to read the moon is being bombed with a rocket on the 9th October in search of evidence of water! The official site says it will be 66ft wide, and other sites say up to 5 miles wide, so lets pray for the former. How our Grandmother Moon will feel about this who really knows, I am calling for people everywhere to get together and send the moon love in all the wonderful and whacky ways we all do it....... the story on line http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/17/MNJ41887O2.DTL 31 Oct is wear it pink day! Our Pink Pads raise money for the Penny Brohn Cancer Care Centre- support their good work by wearing a pink pad on Wear it Pink Day! pink pads http://www.moontimes.co.uk/shop/pads-for-charity/moon-times-pink-pads/ So what’s new at Moon Times? Small Moon Sponges These sponges are a smaller size for light flow days, young women or pre birth, pack includes 4 sponges. small sponges http://www.moontimes.co.uk/shop/new/moon-sponge-small-sizemoon-sponge-small-size I’ve got some lovely Lakota Sage smudge sticks…which are on an Oct special of £6.00 instead of £10! These are the biggest smudge sticks I’ve ever seen (12 inches!) and may come in handy for any Samhain gatherings you might be planning at the end of the month! sage http://www.moontimes.co.uk/shop/accessories/magic/lakota-sage/ We have many more poppered pads and panty liners now in stock- feed back has been great press stud pads http://www.moontimes.co.uk/shop/cloth-pads/patterned-pads/patterned-cloth-pads-press-stud/ And a quick plug….Look out for Juno Magazine- a lovely natural parenting magazine who is featuring some of my articles in the next few issues. I love it! Juno http://www.junomagazine.com/ Also …a couple of great websites to share with you …. Some very creative cloth pad art: pad art http://www.lathoriel.com/html/fashion5.html There is an amazing new Menstrual Health DVD out- The Moon Inside You- thoroughly recommended!! The website for the movie is see trailer www.themooninsideyou.com and keep an eye for the UK version on release soon. Take care, and have a great Samhain, much love Rachael and the Moon Times Team xxx |
Can Breast Cancer be Prevented?
Excerpt from: Breast Cancer? Breast Health! the Wise Woman Way by Susun S. Weed Sometimes it seems that every magazine, newspaper, radio show, and piece of mail has a headline declaring that every woman’s risk of developing breast cancer is increasing. There is a numbing feeling of inevitability in these pronouncements. More and more women think about breast cancer as a when rather than an if.
It’s true that there’s more breast cancer now than ever before, that between 1979 and 1986 the incidence of invasive breast cancer in the United States increased 29 percent among white women and 41 percent among black women, and incidence of all breast cancers doubled. It’s true that the percentage of women dying from breast cancer has remained virtually unchanged over the past 50 years, and that every 12 minutes throughout the last half of the twentieth century another woman died of breast cancer. And it’s true that breast cancer is the disease that women fear more than any other, that breast cancer is the biggest killer of all women aged 35 to 54, and that of the 2.5 million women currently diagnosed with breast cancer, half will be dead within ten years.
These facts frighten me, and they also make me angry. My studies spanning 25 years and many disciplines have convinced me that the majority of breast cancers are causally related to the high levels of radiation and chemicals released into our air, water, soil, and food over the past 50 years. United States government researchers estimate that 80 percent of all cancers are environmentally linked.
What can be done? The answer isn’t as simple as a yearly mammogram. That may help detect breast cancer, but it won’t prevent it. To prevent breast cancer we need to take individual and collective action.
Effective action requires understanding the causes of breast cancer and what decreases breast cancer risk. But there are few conclusive answers to these queries, partly because most research focuses on eliminating breast cancer after—not before—it occurs. Science has validated so few risk factors for breast cancer that 70 percent of the women diagnosed with breast cancer have “no identifiable risk factors.” Scientifically accepted risk factors for breast cancer 1. Sex (Women get a lot more breast cancer than men.) 2. Age (Seventy-five percent occurs in women over 50.) 3. Lifetime exposure to estrogen (Early menarche, no pregnancies, late menopause, hormone pills increase risk.) 4. Family history (Two close relatives with premenopausal breast cancer increases risk.) 5. Lifetime exposure to radiation (The greater the exposure, up to a threshold, the greater the risk.) 6. Race and culture (White, European-extraction women are at greater risk than other women.) 7. Height and weight (Larger women are at greater risk.) Unfortunately, our sex, age, reproductive history, family history, exposure to radiation (such as fallout from above-ground atomic bomb tests), race, culture, and height are beyond our control. When we’re told these are the only risk factors, we can be left with feelings of hopelessness and panic.
But when we include risk factors that are considered “not well substantiated”—but which are clearly contributing to breast cancer incidence—including ingestion of and exposure to prescription hormones, hormone mimicking organochlorines, prescription drugs, petrochemicals, and electromagnetic fields, as well as unwise lifestyle choices such as smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol immoderately, wearing a bra, or not exercising, then we can find many ways to lower breast cancer risk. No need to panic. Not accepted, but likely, risk factors for breast cancer 8. Organochlorines (Exposure increases risk.) 9. Electromagnetic fields (Exposure increases risk.) 10. Tobacco smoke (Exposure increases risk.) 11. Alcohol (Greater use increases risk.) Excerpt from: Breast Cancer? Breast Health! the Wise Woman Way by Susun S. Weed |