In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness month, take a few steps to protect yourself...

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month...

Self-exams, mammograms and knowing your risks are all very important and there are some other steps you can take to protect yourself. Discovery Health has the expert advice:

• Plan to breastfeed your baby. Breastfeeding may help breast cells become fully mature and thus less prone to mutations that can turn cancerous.

• Choose non-alcoholic drinks. Alcohol reduces the liver's ability to metabolize estrogen.

• Don't sit there, move! Women with desk jobs during their reproductive years and who lack leisure-time physical activity have three times the risk of breast cancer. 

• Watch your weight: Extra weight, especially around the waistline, is associated with increased risk.

• Switch to olive oil. Women who consumed 3/4 of a tablespoon of monounsaturated fat could cut their breast cancer risk in half.

Click below for the mobile mammography schedule in Fairfield County, CT.  

Free and Low-cost community-based (mobile) mammography screenings to those who qualify.
Thanks to funds raised by St. Vincent's SWIM Across the Sound, the SWIM Women's Imaging Center’s Mobile Mammography Program offers mammography screenings at various locations such as, community centers, churches, nursing homes, corporations, health fairs and local government facilities throughout Fairfield County.