Breast cancer affects 1 in 8 women. In spite of all the money spent on research and drugs, the odds have remained the same. Many studies show that environmental factors and lifestyle are the major culprits to developing breast cancer. A 5 to 10 percentage of breast cancer can be inherited. Research has shown that making small lifestyle changes can cut your risk for breast cancer by 50% or higher. Here are a few ways to cut your risk:
- Incorporating turmeric into your diet can cut your risk in half
- Optimizing your Vitamin D levels can cut your risk by 77% in 4 years. Vitamin D is a near-regulatory steroid with epigenetic influence on over 2000 genes in the body. More than 830 peer-reviewed studies document the effectiveness of Vitamin in preventing & treating cancer. Vitamin D levels should be about 70-100ng/ml.
- Maintain healthy weight, stay active through physical activity & exercise
- Make sure to get at least 6 to 8 hours of sleep a night
- Minimize your alcohol intake
- Minimize processed foods and sugar in the diet and incorporate more fruits & vegetables. Cancer thrives on sugar in the body.
- Drink a pint of organic green vegetable juice daily
- Flax seeds contain 100 more lignin than any other food and has shown in multiple studies to not only prevent breast cancer but shrank estrogen-positive breast tumors in every woman given flax seeds for 3 weeks
- Get plenty of animal-based high quality Omega 3s ( you can take a high quality fish oil supplement)
- If you have children, breast feed for at least 6 months
- If you are post-menopausal, have your iron levels checked and if they are too high, donating blood can lower it. High iron is linked to increased free radicals in the body.
Thermography is a safe and effective way that can be used to track early physiological changes in breast tissue and look for areas of inflammation in the body. Women under 40 and breast tissue that is more sensitive to radiation that is received by mammography. Thermography does not use mechanical compression or ionizing radiation and can detect signs of physiological changes due to inflammation and/or increased tumor related blood flow about 8 to 10 years earlier than mammography or a physical exam. Thermography is a safe and non-invasive procedure that can tell you if something is wrong. Incorporate all of these recommendations or just a few and reduce your risk by at least 50%!