This October, BodyLogicMD is going pink to honor National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The nation-wide campaign is designed to increase awareness about breast cancer prevention and how the early detection of breast cancer, followed by prompt treatment, can save lives.
Although some of the contributing risk factors are beyond our control, such as genetics, there are many lifestyle changes that women can choose to make in order to prevent breast cancer.
Synthetic HRT – It’s very important to avoid all synthetic forms of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Studies have found that synthetic HRT significantly increases a woman’s risk of breast cancer. There are safe and natural alternative treatments for relieving the symptoms of hormonal imbalance such as bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT). Unlike traditional, synthetic hormone therapies, bioidentical hormones are molecularly “identical” in structure to the hormones that our body naturally produces, making them more effective and more importantly, more compatible with our bodies.
Alcohol – Studies prove that women who consume alcoholic beverages develop cancer at a higher rate. I’m sure you’ve heard that drinking a glass of wine a day is actually good for the heart, but how much is too much? Recent studies revealed that women, who drink 2 to 5 drinks per day, are 1 ½ times more at risk of developing cancer than women who don’t consume alcohol.
Tobacco – While there isn’t a direct link between the use of tobacco products and breast cancer, many studies suggest that women who begin smoking at an early age are at a greater risk of developing other forms of cancer. Most forms of tobacco such as cigarettes contain over 4,800 different chemicals, 69 of which are known to cause cancer.
Fitness – Studies conducted by the Women’s Health Initiative found that women who walked “briskly” for 1.5 to 2.5 hours per week greatly reduced their risk of developing breast cancer. Physical activity has an endless spectrum of benefits for both your body and mind. In addition to reducing the risk of cancer, regular exercise decreases the risk of developing other life-threatening conditions such as atherosclerosis, obesity and coronary disease.
Nutrition – Eating a low-fat diet not only reduces your risk of breast cancer, but it also decreases your risk of other serious diseases such as obesity and cardiovascular disease. As you’re probably well aware, estrogen plays an integral role in the development of breast cancer – but did you know that fat actually contains small amounts of estrogen and that being overweight or obese can increase your risk by 30 percent?
Family History – Unfortunately, studies have found breast cancer to be genetic. Now, this isn’t to say that if your mother or sister were diagnosed with breast cancer, that you would definitely develop the disease yourself. It would just be wise to fill your doctor in on your family’s history of disease, so that your doctor can treat you accordingly.
Although these important lifestyle changes can indeed help lower your risk of developing breast cancer, it is just as important to also take proactive steps to the early detection of lumps or irregularities within or around the breasts. Mammograms and “self-check breast exams” may not necessarily reduce your risk of breast cancer but they will increase your chances of early detection and the earlier that the cancer is discovered, the less aggressive the treatment.
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What is very important for women to know is that there are some early detection devices that are not yet mainstream but very effective and offer a good deal of hope to women with strong family histories of breaast and other estrogen positive cancers. Breast themography reads heat signatures in the body. This is an earlier detection device then mamograms as cancer needs early improved blood supplies to grow (hence heat signatures). Not to mention mamograms have increased radiation exposures while breast therm. doesn’t. Hopefully in the future conventional medicinewill consider this useful/important early diagnostic.