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June 10, 2004 |
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Breast Health Change Your Lifestyle, Change Your Family’s Breast Cancer History After my grandmother’s death, I began to appreciate the connection between lifestyle and health, and was finding my own natural healing program. I compared my grandmother to my mother, who was in excellent health past the age where her father had died of heart disease and where several blood relatives had already developed cancer. What I saw helped me understand that the way to keep breast cancer and other “family diseases” out of the next chapter of our family historymy lifewas to model my lifestyle after my mother’s, not my grandmother’s. The four most important lessons my family taught me about lifestyle and breast cancer prevention with you. Limit the fat on your plate (especially animal fats) and on your body Numerous studies have examined the possible relationship between dietary fat and breast cancer. The results are quite mixed: some show a relationship, but this is not surprising. Not all fats behave the same way (for example, the metabolic fate of the essential fatty acids found in flaxseed is quite different from the fate of the saturated fats found in beef and butter). But saturated fats found in beef, pork, chicken skin and dairy products will some day will be solidly linked to increased breast cancer risk. We already know enough about how they behave to know that they prevent the body’s cells, organs and systems from operating at peak level. Excessively fatty diets encourage breast cancer by encouraging obesity. Researchers have documented a higher incidence of breast cancer among obese postmenopausal women. Since body fat produces estrogen (elevating an obese woman’s estrogen levels by 50 to 100 percent), the most likely explanation is that obesity increases breast cancer risk the same way that conventional HRT does: by bathing a woman’s breast cells in estrogen. Limit or avoid alcoholic beverages Although alcohol can help a woman relax, a definite plus at a time when our lives are getting more hectic by the minute, it has a distinct down side. Among other things, it has repeatedly been shown to increase a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer. One ambitious project at the Harvard School of Public Health followed 89,538 nurses aged 34 to 59 for four years. Among those who consumed three to nine drinks each week, the elevation in breast cancer risk was 30 percent; among those who consumed ten or more drinks per week, the risk elevation was 60 percent. Why does alcohol promote breast cancer? Alcohol compromises deactivation and clearance of estrogen by your liver. The more active, circulating estrogen you have in your body, the more likely you are to develop breast cancer. In addition, alcohol makes it harder for your liver to clear environmental toxins and other substances that can start a cell’s transition from normal to cancerous, or push it farther along the path. If you’re trying to prevent a recurrence of breast cancer or are very high risk of developing it, I urge you to consider avoiding alcohol completely. Eat plenty of plant foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes (beans, soy foods and peas) Plant foods are treasure troves of cancer-fighting nutrients, including lycopene (found primarily in tomatoes), d-limonene, indoles (found in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts), certain sulfur-containing compounds (found in garlic and onions), antioxidant vitamins, flavonoids, lignans, and isoflavones. These compounds have a host of actions that help protect a woman from breast cancer. For example:
And remember: Your diet is a legacy that you pass on to your children and grandchildren; your choices today will affect them from an earlier age. Given my choice as a child, I wouldn’t have opted for the plant-based diet my parents followed. Yet, I eventually came to see the wisdom of my parents’ waysand am eternally grateful that by changing their diets as adults, they got me started on the right foot. Get regular exercise Researchers have found a direct correlation between frequent moderate to vigorous exercise and a reduced risk of breast cancer. Investigators at the Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health examined data from a long-term study of 166,388 women. They found that women who engaged in moderate or vigorous activity for at least seven hours a week had a nearly 20 percent lower rate of breast cancer than women who exercised at the same intensity, but for less than one hour a week. What can you do to work seven hours of moderate physical activity into your life every week? Try walking briskly, swimming, bicycling, dancing, playing tennis, rollerblading or anything else you enjoy.
Read More on Breast Health: Getting Started Risk Factors for Breast Cancer Keep it SIMPLE tip Exercise Lowers Breast Cancer Risk
Nutritional Therapies Complementary Therapies
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