If you hadn’t noticed all the pink products on the shelf and if you didn’t already know, October is The National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Celebrating it’s 25th year, The National Breast Cancer Awareness Month Organization continues its mission “to promote breast cancer awareness, share information on the disease, and provide greater access to screening services.”

This is a good time to remember to schedule your annual mammogram especially if you’re a woman over 40 just like me. If you have a high risk for breast cancer, as in having immediate family who have been diagnosed with it, it is recommended that you be start screening earlier. While the prognosis has gotten better, it’s no longer a death sentence to have breast cancer, there are still thousands of women who die every year from this disease. Through education and awareness maybe the number of deaths will keep going down and the number of survivals will keep going up.

One of the pink products you may have seen on the shelves is Orbit Gum. I received some sample Bubblemint Orbit Big-E-Paks featuring the Bright Pink packaging as well the Bright Pink “Little Bright Book,” a guide to breast and ovarian cancer risk and how to be proactive with your health, via The Buzz Cooperative and Dig Communication. They are spreading the word that Orbit White gum has partnered with the charity Bright Pink during September and October to support Breast Cancer Awareness month. Bright Pink is a national nonprofit with an exclusive focus on breast and ovarian cancer prevention and early detection in high risk young women. Ten percent of the sales generated by the purchase of each Bubblemint Orbit White gum pack during September and October will be donated to support Bright Pink’s mission to help women proactively take control of their health via education, support and community development for those at risk. You can check out this cause at BeBrightPink.org.

So while you’re out and about doing your daily errands and shopping, keep an eye out for the pink products. It is the support from companies and all the support from concerned people like you and me that has enabled the research and ground breaking treatments for breast cancer to develop. Until there is not one woman dying from breast cancer, the fight will not be over so keep up the good fight!

If you’re a blogger, you can help by joining the Blogs Against Breast Cancer 2009 campaign. All you have to do is display the badge on your blog and Diets in Review will donate $5 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation in honor of your site. Click here to join Blogs Against Breast Cancer.

Here’s a few things you can do starting this month if you haven’t already:

Perform breast self exams regularly and get a mammogram.

From Diets in Review:

Start taking steps to prevent breast cancer in yourself by incorporating positive nutrition and fitness practices in your life:

• Breast Cancer Survivors Benefit from Weight Lifting
• Yoga Eases Pain of Breast Cancer
• 5 Things You Must Know About Breast Cancer Prevention, but Probably Don’t
• Alcohol Increases Risk of Breast Cancer in Women
• 7 Healthy Strategies for Fighting Breast Cancer

Senator Edward M. Kennedy died yesterday, as most of you have probably heard already. Like most people, famous or not, rich or poor, there people who didn’t like him or didn’t think much of his accomplishments. However, there are more who see his accomplishments as being worthy of recognition and admiration.

I, for one, have always admired his advocacy of ‘regular people’s’ causes like health care, gay rights and environmental protection. You will see various tributes to the senator online today and let me share this one because health care is something that holds great interest and concern for me. In this video, he talks about his personal experience with the health care system in this country and how important it is that everyone should have the right to to quality health care.

This is the cause of my life. It is a key reason that I defied my illness last summer to speak at the Democratic convention in Denver—to support Barack Obama, but also to make sure, as I said, “that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American…will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a privilege.” For four decades I have carried this cause—from the floor of the United States Senate to every part of this country. It has never been merely a question of policy; it goes to the heart of my belief in a just society. Now the issue has more meaning for me—and more urgency—than ever before. But it’s always been deeply personal, because the importance of health care has been a recurrent lesson throughout most of my 77 years.

— Ted Kennedy

Source: MoveOn.org

If you’re keeping half an ear open to the health care debate, here’s another article: Health Care Reform Protesters Have Their Head in the Sand.

Protesters to the health care reform bill have been quite vocal and nasty in their attacks, I think. Why don’t they realize, that the new bill is not going to take what they already have. If they are happy with the crappy system already in place, they can keep it. No one said that everyone has to go on the public health plan. At least as I understand it, right? Let me know if I’m wrong about this.

I think the Obama administration has tried to please both sides with their plan; as the side that are already happy with the way things are can keep what they have, why are they so against allowing the ones who are drowning in the present system the option to go on the public plan?

I saw one comment that said that they didn’t “know why we even need health care reform. 85% of Americans are insured. Since when does the need of the few outweigh the needs of the many?” I don’t know if the percentage quoted is right or wrong or where they got the numbers from, but I really think that there are far more than 15% of the population who are in need of health care reform whether they have insurance or not.

I have insurance so I guess I am in the majority of Americans. But the thing is, my insurance sucks! It costs too much and we are not getting the care we pay for or deserve for living in a first world country. While we put the kid’s health first, my husband and I have skipped on our own health care because we know we can’t afford to pay for the additional fees not covered by our insurance. I know we’re gambling with our health. We’re taking the risk that we’ll stay healthy because we can’t afford to go to the doctor every time we have a new ache or pain. We chuck it to getting older.

I don’t think we are unique. There are a lot of people out there. Working, productive people who skimp on their health care because it just costs too much, even with insurance. I’ve heard of people skipping their medication or halving their pills in half because it costs too much! Why can’t the people who have see that? I think there are a lot of people who need to open their eyes and look beyond their cushy and comfortable lives. There really are people out here who have to make risky choices regarding their lives and would appreciate some support wherever they can get it. If the Obama administration is giving that hope, then we’re hopping on the wagon.

And for those who insist on this being a party issue, they really need to get beyond that. As much as I didn’t like George Bush, if he had come up with a plan to ease this burden from our family and most working class families, I would have been on his wagon too.

You have to be living under a rock if you hadn’t been privvy to the Health Care debate that has been sweeping the nation ever since the Obama administration started pushing for the much needed reforms. Even if the issue doesn’t interest you, I’m sure you’ve heard the talk on the news and among your friends. It is of great interest to me.

I think it is a shame that we who are living in supposedly one of the richest, most advanced and most innovative country in the world still cannot get a decent health care. Heck, there are many who don’t have access to ANY kind of health care.

Then there’s us, who are on the fringe. We do have insurance from my job but it’s never enough to cover what the doctors and hospitals charge so we end up paying more money out of pocket on top of our insurance premiums. And really, it’s nice to know that that are people in this country who can afford to pay for their own insurance and all the expenses that goes with decent health care. Hurrah! for you all. It’s really great that you want to be able to keep doing that. Keep paying for the kind of health care you want, where you want to get it and how you want your care delivered. That’s really awesome for you and I don’t blame you for not wanting to lose it.
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