Up to a third of breast cancer cases in Western countries could be avoided if women ate less and exercised more, researchers at a breast cancer conference said. Experts said the focus should shift to changing behaviors like diet and physical activity. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. A woman's lifetime chance of getting breast cancer is about one in eight. Obese women are up to 60 percent more likely to develop any type of cancer. Many breast cancers are fueled by estrogen, a hormone produced in fat tissue. Experts suspect that the heavier a woman is, the more estrogen she's likely to produce, which could in turn spark breast cancer. Even in slim women, exercise can help reduce the cancer risk by converting more of the body's fat into muscle.
About 13 percent of U.S. women will develop breast cancer during her lifetime. This is far too many. Last year in the largest review of research into lifestyle and breast cancer, the American Institute of Cancer Research estimated that about 40 percent of U.S. breast cancer cases, or about 70,000 cases every year could be prevented by making lifestyle changes. It is my belief that these estimates are low, and it is more likely that at least 70-90 percent of breast cancers can be avoided by rigidly applying the recommendations I will review below.
Is Breast Cancer Your Genes’ Fault?
Your risk of breast cancer is said to increase significantly if you have a family history of the disease, but according to statistics only about 20-30 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer actually have a family history. The truth is, you are NOT a captive to your genes. The KEY to remember here is that it is NOT your genes that dictate your health but rather the expression of your genes. You have the ability to easily turn genes on and off with your lifestyle and emotional state. For some of you reading this, this may be a weight lifted off your shoulders. If your mother or sister suffered from breast cancer, it does not mean that you are destined to have that same fate.
As proven through the massive genetic study, the Genome Project, each one of your genes can create up to 30,000 proteins, any and all of which can create a different outcome. So the fact that you may have a genetic “predisposition” for a certain illness does not mean that you are doomed to develop it. Rather, there is something that either activates or suppresses your genes, and that “something” is usually lifestyle-related. If you are constantly stressed you will likely have a different genetic expression than if you focus your thoughts in a positive direction. Likewise, if you eat healthy, fresh, whole foods you will have a different genetic expression than if you rely on sugar and fast foods. For instance, omega-3 fats like those in krill oil have been found to influence these genes in a positive way. Ultimately, what this means is you can make the choice to help your genes express themselves in a positive, disease-fighting way. So what are some of the first positive choices you should make?
Optimizing Your Vitamin D: Cancer Fighter #1
Vitamin D is easily one of nature’s most potent cancer fighters. Receptors that respond to vitamin D have been found in nearly every type of human cell, from your bones to your brain. Your liver, kidney and other tissues can convert the vitamin D in your bloodstream into calcitriol, which is the hormonal or activated version of vitamin D. Your organs then use it to repair damage, including that from cancer cells. Vitamin D is actually able to enter cancer cells and trigger apoptosis or cancer cell death. When JoEllen Welsh, a researcher with the State University of New York at Albany, injected a potent form of vitamin D into human breast cancer cells, half of them shriveled up and died within days! The vitamin D worked as well at killing cancer cells as the toxic breast cancer drug Tamoxifen, without any of the detrimental side effects and at a tiny fraction of the cost. Vitamin D works synergistically with every cancer treatment I am aware of and has no adverse effects. According to one landmark study, some 600,000 cases of breast and colorectal cancers could be prevented each year if vitamin D levels among populations worldwide were increased. And that’s just counting the death toll for two types of cancer (it actually works against at least 16 different types)!
Breast Cancer Prevention Musts:
Improve Your Insulin Receptor Sensivity. The best way to do this is make sure you have an optimized exercise program. Most of us need about five to eight hours of exercise every week to optimize our insulin receptors. Make sure you just don’t do cardio. Although I did not mention stretching and flexibility work, such as yoga, it is a very important part of your exercise program. It will not affect insulin receptors but it will help prevent you from getting injured and stopping your other exercise.
Maintain a healthy body weight. This will come naturally when you begin eating right for your nutritional type and exercising. It’s important to lose excess weight because estrogen, a hormone produced in fat tissue, may trigger breast cancer.
Get plenty of high quality omega-3 fats. Omega-3 deficiency is a common underlying factor for cancer.
Avoid drinking alcohol, or limit your drinks to one a day.
Breastfeed exclusively for up to six months. Research shows this will reduce your breast cancer risk.
What about Safe Breast Cancer Screening?
Most physicians recommend mammograms to women as the go-to method of breast cancer screening. However, there is no solid evidence that mammograms save lives. In fact, research demonstrates that adding an annual mammogram to a careful physical examination of the breasts does not improve breast cancer survival rates over getting the examination alone. Meanwhile, as I’ve written about extensively in the past, the health hazards of mammography have been well established. The option for breast screening that I most highly recommend is called thermography.
Thermography scans are absolutely painless and risk-free. They involve no compression of tissue, are non-invasive, and emit no radiation. Thermography uses an infrared camera to graphically illustrate skin temperature by way of a color image. On the image, degrees of heat appear as different colors. Standard diagnostic tests such as mammograms, x-rays, MRI’s, ultrasounds and CAT scans are designed to test your anatomy. By contrast, thermography tests for physiological change and metabolic processes. Think of thermography as preventive medicine, which can be used to detect, control and even prevent serious illness or disease that otherwise would not be diagnosed until it is well-advanced. Thermography allows you to detect the beginnings of disease sooner, so you’re able to take appropriate treatment steps to get your body healing right away.
Sources:
Dr. Mercola April 13 2010; USA Today March 25, 2010; 7th European Breast Cancer Conference March 24-27, 2010, Barcelona, Spain
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