My mother used to tell me if I ate at least one egg a day my breasts would grow and I would finally be able to fill a AA cup. I believed her until I read that eating too many eggs would give me high-cholesterol, which was about the same time that I finally asked my doctor about the connection between eating eggs and growing breasts. You know the answer to that.
It took me well into my early 20’s to find out that my mother’s words were wrong, but thankfully that message did little harm to my body, except turn me off eating eggs for about 28 years.
It’s one thing to learn that some of the bubbameisters (old wive’s tales), I learned from my mother growing up were untrue –eating eggs will not grow my breasts and eating greens will not make my hair curly. It’s another to learn, as recent as last week that the screening and health guidelines we (both men and women), have all been using for years — that were handed down from the US Preventive Task Force and American Cancer Society — have been contradicting each other for years. If the government and medical communities are having trouble figuring it out, what are we to do and who are we to believe?
In this case, believe it or not, I know the answer to these questions and you and I are it. This is one of the most important reasons why I started Self chec, (www.selfchec.org), eleven years ago and why I have decided to blog now. About the subject at hand, here’s what we’ve been saying for the past 11 years…
Err on the side of caution when you are deciding what to do about early detection screenings and your health– talk to your personal healthcare professional and decide together what’s best for you. Do the thing that is safe instead of taking a risk, because until they get it right, we are all being forced to take life-saving risks.
Until each of us learns to overcome the fear, denial and complacency we have all carried through the generations of our families about the importance of taking better care of our own health care and wellness through self-empowerment prevention and early detection screenings, we will leave ourselves open to the confusion that our broken health care system perpetuates
Please let me know your thoughts about the above and how you would try to get our friends and family to be more open to practicing health self-empowerment and prevention. Please share our first blog post with others. Also, have you heard any good “bubbameisters” growing up, or lately—would love to hear them.
Joan Peckolick New Year’s Eve, 2010
