Discover Ways to Prevent Breast Cancer

Discover Ways to Prevent Breast Cancer - Taking care of yourself as a woman is a very important aspect of life. These days there are many health dangers that can threaten our lives. Breast cancer in women is something that is constantly being studied. Believe it or not, there are ways to prevent cancer, and you can start now using these top methods!

Animal fat and dairy products should be consumed a lot more than foods containing a high level of vegetable oil. Many women have shown great results when eating foods such as yogurt, milk, butter and cheese. Olive oil is also a great substitute to use over vegetable oil.

Discover Ways to Prevent Breast Cancer

Women who exercise on a daily basis are also less likely to have issues with cancer. If you can get out for at least 45 minutes a few times a week then you should see a difference. This should also go in conjunction with your healthy diet.

 Antioxidants have shown signs of preventing cancer. Many people take vitamins and all natural supplements in order to keep their immune systems running strong. If you can put yourself on the right supplement schedule, you can easily utilize antioxidants to keep toxins and waste out of your body.

Getting your regular check ups with your doctor is also going to help you breast cancer. Women who do not see their doctor to get a breast exam at least once a year, are at high risk. Take the time to talk to your doctor about this cancer and how you can examine yourself.

As you can see you have great ways to prevent breast cancer. Women who are getting older in age do need to keep a close eye on their breasts. Get regular check ups and make sure to see your doctor if anything unusual occurs.

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Preventing Breast Cancer - How to Reduce Your Risk

An ad in my local newspaper read, "You Can't Prevent Breast Cancer." Reading this, I was upset when I thought about the thoughts of the women who read the ad: that they can only hope for the best. Preventing breast cancer has been made out to be a long shot, it seems.

This message is reinforced in subtle ways repeatedly in our medically dependent society. In grocery stores, PSA's printed on shopping bags and at checkouts say "Early Detection: Your Best Protection." A grocery store would be one of the best places to say, "Great Food Choices Available in the Produce Section, Scientifically Supported Real Prevention."

Please understand that preventing breast cancer is not 100% possible. But you can reduce your risk, and the biggest achievable piece of that reduction is in your choices of foods.

The other good news: eating to reduce breast cancer risk is also really good prevention for heart disease (the leading killer of women), and similarly reduces the risk of prostate cancer (men), and other cancers. This is another great example of the holistic medicine approach, using one natural approach to health (in this case a cancer prevention diet) that benefits multiple outcomes at the same time.

A few things you can do to prevent breast cancer are:

1) Keep a sufficient daily intake of a wide variety of fresh vegetables and fruits

2) Keep your body weight normal and stay active throughout your life

3) Carefully choose the fats and oils you eat

4) Choose whole grains instead of refined sugars and flours

5) Avoid environmental toxins (including alcohol and charred meats)

6) Breast feed your baby

7) Supplement your diet with antioxidants like green tea

Monthly self breast exams and mammograms are also important. I say this because detecting breast cancer early means that as a result, you have ample time to start treating it.

One of the things I love about studying the healing properties of foods, whole foods specifically, is their multi-potent qualities. A single whole food rarely can be found which protects against only one disease, or promotes health in only one area.

And so it is with Rainbow Chard: we know because of its high levels of natural carotenoids (Vitamin A) that it contributes strongly to reduction in breast cancer risk. Rainbow Chard is a spectacular source of Vitamin A (as natural mixed carotenoids), providing over 5000 IU per ½ cup cooked serving. It is also a very generous source of vitamin K for strong bones (4 times your daily requirement in that ½ cup!), and provides a good dose of vitamin C and magnesium. That vitamin A protects the respiratory system, improves skin health, and along with other antioxidants protects the heart. Vitamin C serves of course as a very important antioxidant and is critical for wound healing and repair of the connective tissues that keep our bodies intact.

I am specifically emphasizing Rainbow Chard in this article for the very reason that it displays that splash of several bright colors. The research on phytonutrients is in its infancy, so we probably do not fully appreciate the disease preventing (including preventing breast cancer) value of all those natural pigments in Chard which show up as red, purple, and yellow stems in the middle of those deep green leaves. What we do know, especially from the research of Dr. David Heber (What Color is Your Diet?) is that purposely eating a rainbow of colors every day as fresh produce prevents many diseases, from cancers to heart disease and more.

Fall is a good time to look for chard in your local markets, because like many greens it grows well as a cool weather crop. So it may be that your local farmers are bringing it to market now, and that would be the best to get, a bunch that didn't have to travel far to your table. But even in a large supermarket, this delicious a nutritious vegetable is a great choice; enjoy it now and commit to a healthier you with a rainbow of vegetable and fruit colors on your plate.

Rainbow Chard with Sundried Tomatoes

First clean the large leaves by immersing in a sink-full of clean cold water, this gets any dirt or sand out of the curly leaves better than rinsing. Then cut off just the very bottom inch of the tough stem with a knife. Fold the leaf longways (like a paper airplane) and lay flat on a cutting board to cut slices across the leaf and the stem. The large pieces of stem below the leaf can be cut as well into short segments similar to celery. Definitely use these stem pieces, but they have to be cooked longer.

 Take a large flat bottom pan on the stove, heat 3 tbsp olive oil in the bottom, then sauté only the stem pieces with a clove of crushed garlic about 5 minutes. Then add 1/3 cup chopped sundried tomatoes and stir until hot. Place all the leaves in the pot, stir for one minute or until they start to wilt, then turn the heat down and cover the pot with a lid for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, and stir again to make sure it is ready to serve. Do not overcook, as it may become bitter. This makes a delicious side dish especially for a pasta or fish meal.

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5 Easy Things You Can Do Now to Help Prevent Breast Cancer

Rather than focusing on breast cancer, Wise Women choose to concentrate on keeping our breasts healthy through wise lifestyle and dietary choices.

The following tips may amaze you, since the actions and foods they suggest run counter to many alternative views of cancer prevention. They are supported with strong research, however - from the lab, with animals, and in long-term human studies. Thus, each of these tips has a solid scientific basis, unlike the assertions made by those intent on selling you their opinions and products.

Embarking on even one of these suggestions will definitely lower your risk of breast cancer. Using them all is even better.

Definitely lower your risk of breast cancer

1. Be more active

Evidence continues to accumulate that a vigorous lifestyle is one of the best ways to cut breast cancer risk. A study of 20,624 Norwegian women found those who exercised or worked out regularly cut their breast cancer risk by 72%. (NEJM, 5/1/1997)

For breast health I walk every day, take a weekly yoga class, and do tai chi twice a week.

2. Eat more unrefined seed foods

All seeds provide phytoestrogens. Women who eat the most phytoestrogenic foods are four times less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than those who eat the least. "No study has shown a degree of risk reduction similar to that found for phytoestrogens..." (Lancet, 10/4/1997)

Whole grains such as wheat, rice, corn, kasha, millet, and quinoa are unrefined seed foods. Beans such as lentils, black beans, pinto beans, lima beans, and chickpeas are unrefined seed foods. Nuts including peanuts, walnuts, almonds, and pecans are unrefined seed foods. And edible seeds such as sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin are unrefined seed foods. Fruits and vegetables that are eaten with their seeds - such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, kiwi fruit, summer squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers - count as unrefined seed foods. Even seeds used as seasonings count, such as cumin, coriander, caraway, anise, and dill seeds.

For breast health, I have replaced all refined carbohydrates - including white rice and white/unbleached flour products such as pasta, bread, cookies, crackers, pretzels, bagels, donuts, and cakes - with whole grain products.

3. Eat less vegetable oil; increase animal fat, especially from dairy products

"Diets high in corn oil leave animals especially vulnerable to chemically induced cancers" say researchers. (Science News, 6/24/89; 10/2/99) Frightening as this statement is, it is not true only of corn oil but of all vegetable (or seed) oils including those made from soy, sesame, sunflower, cottonseed, flax, and hemp.

If you are dubious about eating more animal fat and dairy products to reduce breast cancer risk, consider this landmark study reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine (1/12/1998). To determine if food affected breast cancer risk. The diets of 61,000 Swedish women between the ages of 40-76 were followed for four years. The results? For every 5 grams (about a teaspoonful) of vegetable oil consumed per day, breast cancer risk increased by 70%. In contrast, for each 10 grams of fat from meat and dairy products in the daily diet, breast cancer risk was decreased by 55%.

Another study, begun in the early 1970s, followed 4,000 Finnish women's diets for 25 years. Results recently released found that those who "drank the most milk had only half the breast cancer risk of those who drank the least."

American researchers agree. According to a report in International Journal of Cancer (2001), women who drank milk as children and continued drinking it as adults had half the rate of breast cancer of non-milk drinkers. (Yes, I do buy organic milk, but the studies used regular supermarket milk.)

Why? Galactose, the primary sugar in milk, slows ovarian production of estradiol, a cancer-promoting hormone. Additionally, milk is rich in CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), a fat known to suppress breast tumors in animals.

For breast health I use yogurt, cheese, milk, butter, and olive oil daily, and eat meat occasionally.

Remember that olive oil is pressed from a fruit, not a seed. Women whose diets are high in olive oil, and who eat meat and dairy products regularly, have the lowest rates of breast cancer in the world. (Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 1/18/1995)

4. Eat less tofu and soy beverage; eat more miso and tamari

While it is true that if you begin eating soy foods as a child and continue throughout puberty the breast tissues you create during your adolescence will be highly resistant to cancer until after menopause. However, if you begin eating unfermented soy (tofu, soy milk, and the like) after puberty, your risk of breast cancer increases. (Science News, 4/24/1999)

The active ingredient in soy - isoflavone - when given to breast cancer cells in petri dishes causes them to grow rapidly. (Extracts of dong quai and licorice have a similar effect.)

Miso and tamari - fermented soy foods - are the exceptions. Both are strongly cancer preventative, no matter when you start eating them. Animal studies have found both miso and tamari highly effective in preventing cancer, even in mice genetically programmed to get breast cancer. And the more you eat, the more you lower your risk of cancer.

For breast health, I use miso and/or tamari every day. I occasionally eat tofu or edemame. I drink no soy milk, and eat no other soy products of any kind.

5. Eat foods rich in antioxidants; avoid supplements of vitamins C and E

A diet that contains plenty of foods rich in antioxidants definitely lowers breast cancer risk. But supplements seem to do the opposite.

Doctors in Stockholm observed that, among breast cancer patients, treatment failures were higher for women taking vitamin E supplements - and the failure rate increased with dose. Studying this effect, researchers found that the anti-cancer benefits of fish oils "disappeared when [we] gave... antioxidant vitamins". In fact, when mice with breast cancer were given vitamin E supplements "the more we gave them, the bigger their tumors grew." The authors conclude that vitamin E supplements "preferentially protect a cancer and even aid its spread." (Science News, 4/29/1995 and 7/15/1995)

Supplements of vitamin C (synthetic ascorbic acid) are poorly used by body tissues. But cancer cells seem to thrive on it. (Cancer Research, 9/15/1999) One new "chemotherapy" links a lethal form of zinc to an ascorbic acid molecule; when the cancer eats the ascorbic acid, the zinc is set free to kill the cancer cell.

For breast health I eat 5-7 servings of dark green and bright red/orange foods daily.

Besides being active, choosing a diet high in phytoestrogens, eating one or more servings of dairy products daily, using miso and tamari regularly, and avoiding vitamin supplements, here are three more things you can do to help prevent breast cancer:

6. Sleep in the dark

Exposure to light at night increases the risk of breast cancer. The Journal of the National Cancer Institute (8/17/2001) reports that chronic suppression of melatonin - an anti-cancer hormone made only in the dark - increases breast cancer risk by at least 36%.

For breast health, be certain there is no light (except from the moon) in the room where you sleep. Not even a night-light. Not the light from a clock. Not the little lights on electronics.

7. Drink red clover blossom infusion

Red clover is a potent anti-cancer herb. It contains ten times more phytoestrogens than soy, and in a more complete form. I have seen it clear in situ cancers and pre-cancerous polyps hundreds of times. Since many breast cancers take 7-10 years to become big enough to be seen on a mammogram, I drink a quart of red clover infusion every week and skip the mammogram.

To prepare the infusion:

Place one ounce, by weight (about a cup by volume), of dried red clover in a quart canning jar.

Fill the jar to the top with boiling water and lid tightly.

Let steep for four hours or overnight.

Strain and drink.

Refrigerate excess and drink within 24-36 hours.

For breast health, I drink red clover infusion regularly.

8. Eat seaweed as a vegetable

If the long-lived and cancer-free Japanese have a secret, it is seaweed, not soy. A sprinkling of kelp as a seasoning is nice, and so are nori rolls - but neither does much to prevent cancer. For that we must eat seaweed as a vegetable - at least a half-cup serving per week. Wakame, kombu, kelp, and alaria are especially effective, but sea palm fronds, hijiki, nori, and dulse may be used on occasion.

There is a rich variety of seaweeds available in Chinese grocery stores, health food stores, and by mail.

These eight tips - five easy ones and three more difficult ones - will vastly increase your chances of living to be a wild, wise old woman with healthy breasts. That's the Wise Woman Way the world round.

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