housework and breast cancer.....

[mzteris]

oh boy. :eyes:

Cooking, Cleaning And Washing Helps You Ward Off Breast Cancer

A study of 200,000 European women has found that doing housework is more likely to protect you against breast cancer than job- or leisure-based physical activity. . . The results suggest that total physical activity reduces risk of breast cancer only in postmenopausal women. However, and perhaps more surprisingly, housework on its own reduces breast cancer risk in both pre- and postmenopausal women - the former by 19 per cent and the latter by 29 per cent. The study found no significant link between reduced breast cancer risk and either leisure or work-related physical activity.

The women spent an average of 16 to 17 hours a week on household chores such as washing, cooking and cleaning.

The researchers mention in the study that their findings on housework and reduced breast cancer risk are in line with other research, but point to the low numbers of women in the study who were classed as "active" in job-related activity as to the possible reason why no link was found in that area.

MORE


http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=59874

[lukasahero]

1. Lovely

I would think anyone with an ounce of sense would be looking at what else the women doing chores was doing to reduce her risk since there is simply nothing inherent about washing dishes that will reduce that risk. There just isn't.

I can't f'in believe we are going to end up having to fight this BS off.

[Warpy]

2. OK, I'm DOOMED

I hate all that cleaning and fussing.

[mzteris]

3. not to mention

I'm allergic to dust and mold and have asthma that's triggered by exertion, too.

AND with osteoporosis, vacuuming, moping, scrubbing, etc - does a number on my back that hurts for days.


(Hubby doesn't get that. He thought the article was "pretty good"; although, I'm not a high-risk candidate for breast cancer.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

4. Junk Science Used To Perpetuate Gender Stereotypes Yet Again

Film at 11...

Sheesh :eyes:

[Branjor]

5. How pathetic can they get?

n/t

[mzteris]

6. Shake Rattle & Roll

Shake Rattle & Roll
As Performed by Bill Haley and His Comets
Written by Charles Calhoun

Get out from that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans,
Get out from that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans.
Well, roll my breakfast, 'cause I'm a hungry man.

I said Shake rattle and roll,
I said Shake rattle and roll,
I said Shake rattle and roll,
I said Shake rattle and roll;
Well you never do nothin' to save your doggone soul.


Wearin' those dresses, your hair done up so right
Wearin' those dresses, your hair done up so right;
You look so warm, but your heart is cold as ice.

I said Shake rattle and roll,
I said Shake rattle and roll,
I said Shake rattle and roll,
I said Shake rattle and roll,
Well you never do nothin' to save your doggone soul.

I'm like a one-eyed cat, peepin' in a sea-food store,
I'm like a one-eyed cat, peepin' in a sea-food store;
I can look at you, till you don't love me no more.

I believe you're doin' me wrong and now I know,
I believe you're doin' me wrong and now I know;
The more I work, the faster my money goes.

I said Shake rattle and roll,
I said Shake rattle and roll,
I said Shake rattle and roll,
I said Shake rattle and roll,

Well you never do nothin' to save your doggone soul.
Shake rattle and rolllllllllllllllllllll

[ThomCat]

7. It's probably the combination

of increased activity and a clean environment. So how about the husbands clean the house while the women get some excercise at the gym? Wouldn't that have the same benefit?
:P

[BlueIris]

9. Hee. That is an excellent point, Thom.

Which would be even more excellent if I believed this b.s.-filled "study" at all, which, well, don't get me started on the methodology...even my doctor roommate ripped it to shreds and as a critical reviewer of scientific research literature for thirty+ years, he has generous standards for what constitutes methodological validity.

[atommom]

8. Correlation does not equal causation...

at least I hope it doesn't, or I am probably doomed. I've never been a big fan of housework.

[Katherine Brengle]

11. No, you're right -

it's more likely that those women doing loads of housework are also mothers, and having children and breastfeeding children reduces your risk significantly.

I am extremely doubtful that the human body knows housework from exercise, honestly.

[atommom]

10. Just ran across a blog post about this. The blogger doesn't believe it either.

But he posts some interesting reactions from others, and some comments of his own.

Of course, none of these bloggers seem to have actually read the study (or at least the abstract, which is understandable to most lay people). But where would the fun be in that? It's far easier simply to use press reports of the study as a means of confirming your prejudicies. As Erica Barnett put it:

The funniest/saddest/most ridiculous thing about this study "proving" that housework "cuts the risk of breast cancer" by 20 to 30 percent: The researchers' actual conclusion, buried in the 12th paragraph of this BBC story, was that "moderate physical activity" of any kind--walking, riding a bike, masturbating--reduces the risk of breast cancer. So what did the BBC and other media focus on? What else--domestic servitude.

Even more interestingly, as pointed out on Our Bodies Our Blog, a similar study looking at risk factors for endometrial cancer concluded the same thing (that moderate exercise is protective) about two years ago and was spun the same way. Not surprisingly, anti-feminist bloggers like Vox, Heretic, and Eternal Bachelor were all too eager to take such spin to ever more crude and obnoxious levels.

Although I'm not as "unconvinced" as Medpundit, I do agree that there are problems with this study and that it probably does not mean that housework in and of itself protects against breast cancer any more than other moderate activity. However, I do still have to note that certain aspects of the data seem inconsistent. One observation that leapt out at me was that a 28% higher fraction of the "noncases" (women who didn't develop breast cancer) were nulliparous (they never had children). This is inconsistent with numerous previous studies that demonstrate that nulliparity is a risk factor for the development of breast cancer. Similarly, the fraction of noncases whose age at first pregnancy was under 20 was 36% higher than among cases, again not entirely consistent with decades worth of studies that show that a young age at first pregnancy reduces the risk of breast cancer. True, taken as a whole, there was a tendency towards a younger age at first pregnancy, but the authors never stated whether any of these differences between case and noncase groups was statistically significnat; indeed, other than the trend towards a lower age at first pregnancy, these differences weren't mentioned at all. On the other hand, as one would expect, the cases tended to be older by a few years and in the postmenopausal women, 53% more cases used hormone replacement therapy, consistent with HRT as a (now) known risk factor for breast cancer.

In other words, the characteristics of the group seem to be all over the map, which makes me wonder about how valid the correlation that they found is in actuality. I wouldn't go so far as one wag did and suggest that, because housework was the most common activity among the women in the study that the results are like finding a correlation among breast cancers and wearing bras and trying to blame the bras, but that's a good way of putting the results in perspective. That's why my perspective, all can be concluded from this study is that there may be some sort of "sweet spot" for physical activity as far as producing a protective effect against breast cancer, with moderate physical activity being best. It is also possible that, as the authors speculate, that more regular moderate physical activity may be better than less frequent but more strenuous activity as far as protection from cancer. It is not clear whether one, both, or neither of these hypotheses explain this study's results. What is clear, however, is that all too many men are so hostile to feminism and women's taking on roles outside of that of wife and mother that they'll leap at anything to justify their bigotry, even to the point of using gruel as thin as the results of this study.

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2007/01/obviously_a_male_conspiracy_is_at_work.php

[SemperEadem]

12. one exerts more energy lifting weights than

cleaning their home. If the conclusion is physical exercise promotes healthier women all around, then what does a clean house have to do with anything, but another reason to lower the glass ceiling for women's careers and scare them back into the home by saying 'keeping a clean house reduces your chances of developing breast cancer'?