{"id":1313,"date":"2011-10-16T22:33:17","date_gmt":"2011-10-16T22:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janinajacobs.com\/?p=1313"},"modified":"2011-10-16T22:33:17","modified_gmt":"2011-10-16T22:33:17","slug":"heather-farr-the-real-ms-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/golf\/1313\/heather-farr-the-real-ms-october","title":{"rendered":"Heather Farr, the Real Ms. October"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Farr in action, during her short-lived LPGA Tour career.<\/p><\/div>\n

Heather Farr would have loved this.\u00a0 Not that anyone would wish to be famous for dealing with breast cancer but that her heroic fight was not lost, not now, almost 20 years later.\u00a0 If she were alive, she’d be leading the\u00a0battle with pink ribbons, pink golf gloves, pink everything.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unless you’ve been on a desert island, you\u2019ll know that this month has been dedicated to breast cancer awareness.<\/strong>\u00a0 Marches, walks, programs, and sporting events are all trying to bring attention to a very devastating disease which has hit our\u00a0country as much as anywhere else.\u00a0 Ms. Farr was only 24 years old when she received the bad news and staved off paying the ultimate price for four years, at age 28.\u00a0 In her short career, the Arizona State Universty Sun Devil won the U.S. Girls Junior, the USGA Women’s Amateur Public Links, was a Curtis Cup team member and played on the LPGA Tour from 1986 until she passed away in 1993.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

All of us have been touched by this dreaded malady and every woman is in great fear of contracting it, me included.\u00a0 Just a few weeks ago I did go in for my mammogram.\u00a0 Maybe you gentlemen don\u2019t know what that entails, but it can be very painful for women when their breasts are compressed by a\u00a0square\u00a0plastic plate\u00a0to the thickness of pancakes in order to get a better X-Ray.\u00a0 I suppose I could tell you to imagine your personal parts being squished beyond recognition and you may begin to get the point.\u00a0 However, now there is digital imagery and the procedure is faster, much less invasive, and less painful.\u00a0 Plus, I could actually see the images as they came onscreen and even though my eye is untrained, everything\u00a0appeared to be OK.\u00a0 I received my All-Clear within two weeks\u00a0and was relieved.<\/p>\n

Regarding the controversy as to when women should be getting mammograms, the jury is still out.\u00a0 Generally, it is around age 40;\u00a0 but consider this:\u00a0 mammograms save more lives than originally thought.\u00a0 New research out of Sweden following 100,000 women over 30 years shows that the risk of dying of cancer was cut by 30% by those who received regular mammograms, which translated into 15,000 \u2013 20,000 lives saved each year.\u00a0\u00a0 Heather Farr’s case was unusual because she was so young and likely would not have had a mamogram at such a young age; unfortunately there is no more\u00a0‘usual’ as the age at which people contract cancer seems to\u00a0decrease.<\/p>\n

Cancer knows no boundaries and no one is exempt.\u00a0 It can strike people who practice healthy lifestyles just as easily as those who abuse their bodies.\u00a0 Although there is no foolproof way to prevent cancer, there certainly are ways to lessen your chances of getting it.\u00a0 For women, it is VERY important to maintain a proper weight because as you age and approach or pass menopause, most of the hormone estrogen comes from fat cells and not the ovaries.\u00a0 Excess estrogen can spur the growth of tumors, especially in the breast, since it is made up of a lot of fatty tissue.\u00a0 If you practice hormone replacement, please make sure you are doing it under a licensed professional and not indiscriminately taking estrogen compounds without balancing them with progesterone.\u00a0 Hormone replacement is risky business and should be practiced very carefully with low dosages and minimal years of use.\u00a0 Remember that many soy products contain plant-based versions of estrogen and will count toward overall estrogen levels.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The following\u00a0suggestions apply to men and women alike:<\/p>\n

If you smoke and drink alcoholic beverages to excess, STOP IT NOW.\u00a0 The combination is very deadly.\u00a0 In addition to the possibility of breast cancer, throat, tongue, and lung cancer can often result from that duo; and, the more you drink, the higher your risk.\u00a0\u00a0 I have never smoked and do have an occasional adult beverage, which by all indications is actually good for you.\u00a0 As an honorary pirate, rum is for me…..but not too much.<\/p>\n

Stay active because exercise is believed to\u00a0lower cancer risk.\u00a0 Try for 45-60 minutes a day at least 5 times a week.\u00a0 Personally I try to walk 4-6 miles 7 days a week\u2026.and I try to walk and carry my clubs when I play golf.<\/p>\n

Know your family history.\u00a0 If someone in your family has cancer, you may be at risk as well.<\/p>\n

Eat a balanced diet with a lot of fruits and vegetables – organic and clean if possible – and get your proper nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.\u00a0 There has been no diet proven to prevent cancer but there’s no need to tempt fate by eating carcinogenic foods you know are full of chemicals, additives, and preservatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heather Farr would have loved this.\u00a0 Not that anyone would wish to be famous for dealing with breast cancer but… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":1320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1496,6569,18],"tags":[113417,113414,113415,113416],"class_list":["post-1313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-food-fun-and-fitness","category-azga","category-lifestyle","tag-mammogram","tag-breast-cancer-prevention","tag-heather-farr","tag-pink-ribbon-campaign"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2011\/10\/Breast-Cancer-pink-hat.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1313"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1330,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313\/revisions\/1330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}