Basic Breast Cancer Prevention Tips
I originally wrote this post for my Facebook community, The Joyous Beauty, on October 13, 2020. I've kept it pretty much the same and hope you will find it valuable.
Note: Not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or in any way provide medical advice. Please do your own research and talk with your care provider(s) for additional counsel and course of action that will best suit your health needs.
Years ago, before talk about breast cancer being mainly environmental became the center of discussion with doctors and scientists, my grandmother told me that Red 40, a common petroleum-derived food dye, was carcinogenic.
She worked in a hospital setting, in a surgical ward, and she was pretty on top of the literature that was out there because of her daily interactions with the doctors and surgeons she supported. Out went the amazing red cinnamon candies she'd always had in her house for as long as I can recall (I bet you know the ones!)
...and in came her first breast cancer battle shortly thereafter!
Friend, I'm here to say that the whole conversation surrounding cancer - especially cancers that are more easily "cured" - has changed. With 1 in 8 women expected to get diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, compared to 1 in 100 at the turn of the 20th Century, it's high time we stop being aware and start doing something about it.
Did you know that scientists now say that approximately 90-95% of breast cancer is caused by environmental factors? That means that not only do genetics play a 5-10% role, but you have a lot of influence over the way your genes express themselves – and that's empowering!
Here are some of the most basic, common prevention tips that are a starting place to improve overall health and well being. We are going to go more in-depth into all of these in future posts, and I'd love to hear your thoughts and questions in the comments.
Lower and control our weight: Overweight and obesity can cause an increased risk of breast cancer. This is a huge challenge for us in today's society – and I'm not sure it's from lack of trying. Many people I know practically kill themselves with diets and exercise. I think this requires a multi-faceted approach to better health that includes a whole-person approach to diet, exercise, sun exposure, swapping out products, and more; but it is totally possible to reduce our body mass index (BMI) and scale numbers without obsessing over our weight.
Stay physically active: Move around more throughout the day in addition to a minimum of 150-300 minutes of exercise per week is vital. Plus avoiding a chair as much as you can. The reality is that it doesn't do us any good to go workout for 30-60 minutes and then sit the rest of the day.
Eat a richly colored plate of food: Tasting the rainbow has never been so good - and I don't mean Skittles. A diet rich in fiber, highly colorful with every color on your plate, and incorporating whole foods can lower your risks of breast cancer. A lot of people talk about plant-based diet and its effects on cancer, so keep in mind this one statistic I heard: To reap the benefits of a plant-based diet, about 90% or more of your food needs to come from plants.
Breastfeed: Some studies have suggested that breastfeeding at least one baby for at least a year lowers the risks of breast cancer, plus it has huge benefits for baby too.
Avoid hormone manipulation: Whether birth control or hormone replacement therapy post-menopause, artificially manipulating your hormones may be a risk factor associated with breast cancer.
Avoiding radiation and environmental pollution: Medical-imaging methods, such as computerized tomography, use high doses of radiation, which some studies suggest may contribute to increased risks of breast cancer with cumulative exposure. (Search Thermography for some alterative early breast cancer detection methods.)Those seem to be the basic suggestions made by many cancer organizations, but I would like to offer a couple additional ones:
Get adequate sleep: Sleep helps the body detoxify, rebuild, and rejuvenate, and the recommended number of hours is between 7-9 hours per night, with some studies suggesting 7-8 hours being the sweet spot. Body detoxification allows the immune system to respond better to attack against invaders like cancer, and the better our sleeping patterns, the better our cells rebuild our tissues.
Cut out smoking: I think we've all heard that smoking increases risks for multiple types of cancer, and it makes sense when you think about the fact that every time you take a puff (or a vape), you're actually pulling more toxins into your respiratory system, which has direct access to your circulatory system. Respiration is a primary detoxification pathway too, so smoking further reduces our body's capabilities of ridding ourselves of toxins, viruses, etc. If this is an area where you struggle, I recommend seeking out advise from your primary care provider.
Actively destress: Our society is in a constant state of stress response these days, so take the time to actively give the body time to rest by doing some or all of the following...
- Unplug - Try not to look at your phone for the first 30 minutes after waking up and at least 30-60 minutes before bed. Consider turning off notifications and dumping apps that cause a lot of distractions. (You might even choose to downgrade to a "dumb" phone.)
- Breathe - This is the quickest way to tap into the body's parasympathetic system, also known as the rest and digest system. 3-5 minutes of deep breathing helps the body to relax, the mind to concentrate, any emotions to regulate so that we can deal with our current situation.
- Get Out - Take a break from everything a go take a walk, rain or shine. Nature is one of the best things we can do to reset. In fact, studies say that if you camp out for a week in nature without electronics, you can completely reset your circadian rhythm!
Switch out old personal care and household products for clean(er) alternatives: The more I research, the more I realize how much our household environment causes so much of our toxic body burden. Switching out out our conventional products for clean alternatives can drastically help reduce the buildup of toxins inside our bodies and, therefore, risk of developing diseases like breast cancer.
For me, the lightbulb went off when I learned that my family had been exposed to high levels of forever chemicals and fire retardants. That was when I realized that environmental factors, like my favorite perfume, was causing me more harm than good, and that's when I started educating myself to be an informed consumer so that I could take back my health and the health of my family. And that's how The Joyous Beauty came to be!
A lot of us have been touched by breast cancer, either personally or via someone we know. What are some of your prevention tips or questions?
Additional Reading:
1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2515569/
2) https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/why-is-breast-cancer-so-common#why-it-is-common
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