While there is so much that you can do to help prevent breast cancer, here are 5 steps that I feel are important for in breast cancer prevention (based on my personal experience) and to improve your overall health at the same time. I'll be writing more details on each step and even the different components of each step in future posts. Pick something that speaks to you and start with small changes, one at a time. As you find success with one new habit, then choose another. Just taking the first step and creating a few simple improvements can make a difference. To quote Will Smith, "The First Step Is You Have To Say You Can" So say it, believe it, think it, and you will find your steps for making changes.
1) Detoxify-This can be helpful in so many ways and there are so many places to begin. From your food sources (especially non-plant based protein sources) to laundry and cleaning products, toiletries, makeup, and even water. Look to the Environmental Working Group's lists, The Clean 15 and The Dirty Dozen to help you choose organic vegetables and fruits where it counts. You are what you eat! And......what it eats.
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As to what you put on your body, it matters because some ingredients can be absorbed directly into your bloodstream and unlike your food, actually bypass your liver's detoxification process. Keep this in mind in choosing your deodorant and other products ( I prefer deodorants over antiperspirants) since your armpit is a concentrated lymphatic area near your breasts). And, consider an infrared sauna, which is often recommended as one of the best ways to detox your body by many, so think about adding that step. The list sounds daunting, doesn't it? Even more daunting is that we may need it more than we realize! But, so much can be done....step by step. Start with a just a few changes, keep adding more as you can, and see how you feel.
2) Movement-This doesn't have to be that hard. Just move! It really is part of #1 since it helps with detoxification. Your Lymphatic System doesn't have a pump to move its fluid (whereas your heart pumps to move your blood), so you have to move to get the lymphatic fluid going. The Lymphatic System is part of the Immune System, so it is important to keep it working properly. Of course, there are many other benefits for moving, but the focus is breast cancer prevention today.
Walk, lift weights, dance, play tennis, swim, jump rope, or take a yoga or pilates class. Just find out what you enjoy doing and do it. Try mixing it up for variety if you get bored easily. Rebounding is an excellent way to get your lymphatics moving. But, some of the other forms of movement will give you multiple benefits AND increase your lymphatic flow. There are videos on YouTube to learn how to use your body to exercise, so you really don't have to invest a lot of money. Turn up the music and dance around your house. Stay motivated by including a friend or neighbor to meet you to walk and if the weather's bad outside, then find a mall or other place to walk. Just get moving!
3) Reducing Stress and Increasing Positivity-These two can go hand in hand since often as you reduce one, you increase the other. For example, changing the way you eat can reduce stress since that can help you feel better and have more energy. That is true of movement, since it may give you more overall energy, help you sleep better, improve your breathing, and take your focus off what's stressing you out. There are many other ways to decrease stress. Why is it important to avoid stress?
Stress can engage the Sympathetic Nervous System (known as Flight or Fight Response) and that is what we want to avoid.....unless you're truly running for your life! This is said to increase certain hormones in your body, affect your digestion (especially if you try to eat while upset), disturb your Circadian Rhythm (your wake and sleep cycles), increase your weight, and many other things. It can feed blood vessels that in turn feed tumor growth, inhibit your DNA repair, and decrease your immune function. So, definitely not helpful on our Breast Cancer Prevention list.
Positivity and increasing it can be accomplished many ways. Spending time with people you love. Time spent meditating or in prayer. Reading positive books, website, movies or videos, listening to uplifting or calming music and avoid those that trigger the stress response. Focus on your thoughts and how you can reframe them positively, even if you don't quite feel that way...yet. Smile! You'll probably get a smile right back. Help someone or do something nice for someone else. You'll be surprised how you end up with benefits from doing for others. Try to spend some time outdoors and enjoy nature. Surround yourself (and your thoughts) with what you want and not what you don't want (and that includes people) and you will crowd out the stress!
4) Stop Smoking-If you're a smoker, then this is felt by many to be the most important step to reduce almost any type of disease. I've never smoked, but know some people can stop "cold turkey" and others need assistance. Check with your doctor if you feel you need some help. Keeping busy, avoiding people who smoke, or situations where you might be triggered to smoke. This can be really helpful in the beginning. Writing down all the reasons to stop or your benefits from stopping smoking could help you stay motivated. There are many varied things such as nicotine patches and even Facebook Groups to help support you in your efforts. Some say you experience a drop in blood sugar when the nicotine is reduced, so consider some healthy foods for snacks to help avoid that. Readers' Digest has a helpful list, check it out here.
5) Preventive Screenings-While I am not personally a fan of mammograms, I do believe in screening processes. Other options are Ultrasounds or Thermography. These two are alternatives for women with dense breast tissue that mammograms cannot view (are you one of them??) or for women with breast implants. While you may have heard of Ultrasounds; thermography could be new to you. Thermography uses a special infrared camera to take color photos of the breasts to measure heat patterns from the skin. Higher heat patterns are thought to indicate trauma, infection, or inflammation. The grayscale photos indicate changes or increases in vascular patterns in the breast. The reason to measure this is because additional blood vessels can develop even when cancer tumors are quite small in order to feed them. This is why Thermography is thought to be a tool to measure before the patterns become a structure such as a tumor. I've heard one person describe it as "mammograms measure structure and thermography measure the heat and vascular patterns that exist before a structure develops". Please research and see what you think is best for you and then review with your doctor. Perhaps, a combination of these might be a good fit.
If you would like assistance in moving through these steps and other changes, contact me. I have a 3 month and a 6 month program to help you with these changes. The first 45 minute session is free, so think about reaching out since this is a session to see if we are a fit. What do you have to lose?? More importantly, what do you have to gain!