Good Health Fairy Photo © Pam Stephan

There she was, floating in a pink cloud of chiffon and feathers, wearing her official tiara and sneakers. Wait - do fairies wear sneakers? Well, René Bowditch, also known as the Good Health Fairy of Beyond Boobs, gets around a lot, so sneakers are de rigueur. Where do you find the Good Health Fairy? Well, I met her at the 32nd Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS). Wand in hand and a magical smile on her radiant face, she attracted smiles from everyone around.

René Bowditch is a seven-year breast cancer survivor, patient advocate, instructor at the William and Mary Law School, and co-founder of Beyond Boobs. She was in the role of Good Health Fairy when she met Mary Beth Gibson at a retreat for breast cancer survivors. Together, they started a support group for premenopausal women - gals who had been told they were "too young to have breast cancer" and some of whom had delayed diagnoses.

While breast cancer is a serious subject, Beyond Boobs uses humor and counter-cultural attitudes to heal and create support for each other. Young women are dealing with issues of possible fertility loss, babysitting needs, body image, and family expectations, as well as the loss of their breasts. Your average 30-something isn't dealing with all these things, so getting your peers to understand you is almost impossible. That's where Beyond Boobs comes in. They offer support groups tailored just for young women.

René Bowditch and Mary Beth Gibson have two main goals for this non-profit. First, to educate women and save lives by teaching them how to be responsible for their own breast health. Second, to support and encourage young women who have breast cancer. They would like to reach beyond Virginia, where they are based, to anywhere in the country or the world where women may need to learn about early detection or to offer support where it is needed. That's the reason for the high top sneakers - René told me that they are available to speak to groups just about anywhere, and they are willing to travel! The Good Health Fairy will don her wings, take up her wand, and slip on her sneakers for The Cause!

Dr. Dennis Slamon Photo Courtesy © SABCS/Todd Buchanan 2009

Even if you haven't dealt with HER2 positive breast cancer, you've probably heard of the drug Herceptin or the movie "Living Proof" about Dr. Dennis Slamon and his work with breast cancer patients. Dr. Slamon is one of the rock stars of breast cancer research. Herceptin, a targeted biological therapy, was developed by Dr. Slamon and a team of researchers, and was tested on women with HER2 breast cancer in clinical trials. I watched as he presented his latest research at the 2009 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, in a vast hall with his image projected on a dozen huge screens that were viewed by a standing-room-only crowd.

Herceptin was FDA approved for treatment of HER2 positive breast cancer in 1998, and has saved and extended the lives the hundreds of thousands of patients. It has been used in conjunction with chemotherapy drugs such as Adriamycin and Avastin. Adriamycin is a powerful drug that is used to treat a variety of cancers, and can be hard on your heart. When Adriamycin and Herceptin have been used together, heart damage can occur. Dr. Slamon says that his study shows that when Herceptin is used without Adriamycin, the results are just as good. Members of the audience challenged his findings after he presented his research, but he stood by his results.

That is wonderful - but here's what really impressed me about Dr. Slamon. When he finished presenting his data, he started thanking people that had helped with the clinical trials. He had plenty of people to choose from - including over 300 researchers in many locations with impeccable credentials and bucketloads of experience. But here's what he did: he began by thanking all the patients who participated in the clinical trials - people who actually helped test the drug with their own lives. He did this rather humbly and with great sincerity. I love it when a doctor puts his patients first. Surely that kind of attitude leads to research that focuses on a cure, as well as patient well-being and quality of life.

Rock on, Dr. Slamon! HER2 positive breast cancer patients all over the world are thanking you.

Margarita Photo © Microsoft

Watch what you drink at those holiday parties! New research has found a link between having three or more drinks a week and breast cancer recurrence. While three or four drinks a week may sound fairly tame, the Life After Cancer Epidemiology (LACE) Study found that for women who were breast cancer survivors, the risk of recurrence jumped to 34% with only modest drinking.

The study, led by Marilyn Kwan, was funded by the National Cancer Institute, and presented at the 31st annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The LACE Study also determined that women who had been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer and were postmenopausal, overweight, or obese had an even greater risk of recurrence if they drank three or more servings of alcohol each week. Beer, wine, and liquor contains calories that can pack on extra pounds, another risk factor you can control. Kwan's study followed 1,897 women for six years. Of the group studied, all had been diagnosed with breast cancer, half of them were considered drinkers (>0.5 g of alcohol per day), with wine being the alcohol most women consumed.

Alcohol also causes changes in the levels of female hormones in your body, so keep in mind that 80% of all breast cancers are fueled by estrogen and progesterone. "More research should be done, but there is a growing body of evidence which suggests that women previously diagnosed with breast cancer should speak with their doctor about possibly limiting their consumption of alcohol," says Dr. Kwan, Ph.D., a staff scientist at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California.

As for me, I'm on the wagon. My drinking was limited to 2 drinks a year, but I really hate breast cancer as well as the standard treatments for it. Anything I can do to reduce my risk of ever being diagnosed and put through chemo again - well, I'll do it! Try it this coming year - get help if you need it - stop drinking alcohol and see how you feel. You'll be healthier and more in control of your risk for developing breast cancer or having a recurrence.

Have you already stopped drinking alcohol? Leave a comment about how it affected you and your health.

Lonely Woman Photo © Microsoft

Loneliness and social isolation aren't good for you, for many reasons. But recent research shows that coupled with stress, it may triple your risk of breast cancer.

Picture yourself living in an inner-city neighborhood with frequent crime, sirens wailing on a regular basis, and fatal shootings happening to young people just two doors down. You might not get out often, and when you do, you're on guard all the time. Here's a different picture: you're at home full-time, caring for children, elderly people, or a disabled person. You have few options for respite, and no time for friends (or yourself!) Perhaps you live on silk stocking row in the nicest house on the block, but because you're new in town, you don't yet have any friends or social circle. All three situations describe social isolation and various levels of stress that may result from being too much alone.

Research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that social isolation and environmental stress can lead to early development of breast cancer - and that African American women in high-crime neighborhoods appear to be more susceptible. The research was done with lab rats, and researchers observed that isolated and chronically stressed rats had higher levels of corticosterone, the stress hormone. When the corticosterone got into mammary tumor cells, it disrupted the regulation of genes. This may have prompted the development of breast cancer, perhaps more so that estrogen and progesterone.

In a related study, researchers observed rats that lived in communities. These animals are outgoing, interact with each other frequently, and even appear to protect and support each other. One rat will serve as sentry for the community, alerting the group to danger, and rats even share babysitting chores. Well-connected social rats lived longer, healthier lives and had fewer mammary tumors. Even though these rats lived under some daily stress, their corticosterone levels did not spike, so they had better metabolism and less inflammation than the rats that lived in isolation.

So what might these lab rat studies be telling us? We need social interaction, mutual support networks, protection from threats, and ways of dealing with stress that keeps us holistically healthy. True, dealing with other people can be challenging and while some folks may tend to give you a headache, we need to reach out and keep in relationships that blend giving and receiving. This isn't just for the holiday season (though it is upon us!) but this is about complete health - balancing independence with mutual support, privacy with group interactions, and self-protection with the greater good of the community in which we live. When we find ways to live in balance, we can lower our stress levels and live healthier from the inside out. If that means reducing my risk of breast cancer, I'm all for it!