Central California Alliance for Health | Living Healthy | September 2018

5 HEALTHY A good time to consider breast health As of yet, there is no sure way to prevent breast cancer. Even so, there are steps you can take to lower your risk. One key step? Stay at a healthy body weight. This is even more important in midlife and later. Here’s why: After a woman’s periods stop, most of her estrogen comes from fat cells. Estrogen can spur the growth of many breast tumors. That’s why too many pounds later in life could raise breast cancer risk. This seems to be especially true if those pounds end up on your waist. There are a number of other steps you can take to help prevent breast cancer. These include: Avoid alcohol. Drinking can raise your risk of getting breast cancer. In fact, your risk goes up the more you drink. Move more. Exercise may be able to help lower your risk. Try to get 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week. Know the risks of hormone therapy. There are risks and benefits of taking hormone therapy. Talk to your doctor to learn more. Finding breast cancer early Breast cancer can still develop even with the above safeguards. So be sure to talk to your doctor about when to have mammograms. Regular mammograms can help find cancer in its early stages. Finding cancer early can help give you a head start on treatment. Some women may have certain risk factors. So you may need to talk with your doctor about additional screening tests, such as an MRI scan. Source: American Cancer Society Do you have your new glucose meter? The Alliance has changed the preferred diabetes products. Now members are covered for a OneTouch Verio Flex® glucose meter. Alliance members with diabetes should have been given a prescription by their Primary Care Provider (PCP) for a new glucose meter and test strips. If you do not have the new meter and test strips yet, you can: ●  ● Talk to your PCP to get a new prescription and take it in to your pharmacy. ●  ● Call to ask for a free meter to be shipped to your home at 1-855-544-4119 (code: 750CCA01; insurance company: Alliance). Please note: To get test strips, you will need a prescription from your PCP. Why do we have a new glucose meter? The OneTouch Verio Flex® meter comes with Bluetooth® Smart technology. This allows you to send your readings to a mobile device, such as a smartphone or a tablet. You will be able to review your readings and monitor your glucose levels over time. The meter also allows you to modify the setting so you will know if your readings are within the range limits recommended by your PCP. Follow the steps in the Quick Start Guide, which will come with your new meter, to get started. For more information, you can visit onetouch.com/ products/glucose- meters/onetouch- verio-flex .