Prevent Breast Cancer

Bonnie Camo MD    Natural Medicine & Homeopathy      Trebisacce, Italy

                       

                                    Breast Cancer Can Be Prevented

 

Angelina Jolie's recent decision to undergo a 'prophylactic' double mastectomy due to her BRCA status, was her choice, but those who may wish to follow in her footsteps should be aware that there are other options.

 

According to breast surgeon Susan Love of UCLA, at least 30 percent of tumors found on mammograms would go away if you did absolutely nothing.   These tumors appear to be destined to stop growing on their own, shrink, and even go away completely.  Your immune system is always on the alert, removing most cancer cells that develop before they are able to multiply. One way to strengthen your immune system is to minimize your exposure to mammograms and other sources of ionizing radiation.

 

You can strengthen your immune system by good diet and lifestyle choices. First optimize your vitamin D3 level.  Vitamin D is actually able to enter cancer cells and trigger apoptosis, or cancer cell death. JoEllen Welsh, a researcher with the State University of New York at Albany, injected vitamin D into human breast cancer cells, killing half of them within days.  Vitamin D was as effective as breast cancer drugs like Tamoxifen, without the side effects and at a cost of pennies.  If you’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer you should have your D level checked and maintain a level of at least 70 ng/ml.

 

Vitamin A also plays a role in preventing breast cancer; your best sources are organic egg yolks, raw milk and butter, and beef and chicken liver from organically raised, grass pastured animals.  However, commercial red meat may be a serious risk factor for breast cancer.  When animal protein is cooked, especially at high heat, like frying, carcinogens are formed.  Saturated animal fat is converted into a carcinogen by bacteria in your large intestine.  Animal fat is also the storage site for all the pesticides on the food the animal ate, as well as the antibiotics, hormones, and growth stimulants the animals were given.  Grilling meat adds additional carcinogens. 

Fruits and vegetables are “virtual anticancer pharmacies.”  Phytochemicals in plants have many ways of protecting you from cancer.  Carotenoids which give color to red, orange and yellow fruits and vegetables are potent antioxidants and block different steps in development of cancer.  All cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli, cabbage and kale, contain indole-3 carbinole, which stops breast cancer cells from growing, and converts estrogen into a non-cancer-promoting form.  Broccoli also contains sulforaphane, which promotes liver enzymes which destroy carcinogens and move them out of the body.  Of course, all these fruits and vegetables should be organic, so you are not introducing more carcinogenic pesticides into your body. 

 

A powerful anticancer spice is turmeric, the brilliant yellow-orange root used in curries and in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine for over five thousand years.   Turmeric is one of the most potent tumor-inhibiting foods,  

destroys toxins in the liver, is a powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, and prevents DNA mutations that lead to cancer. 

 

Herbs like black cohosh, artemisinin, and kelp have anticancer properties.  Green tea is the number one anticancer beverage, full of anti-inflammatories and antioxidants, such as polyphenols like ECGC.  Raw cannabis and “hemp oil” (not to be confused with hempseed oil, which is highly nutritious, but not known to be a cancer cure) both look very promising, for those who live in places where they are legal.

 

Avoid all forms of sugar, cancer’s favorite food, as well as artificial sweeteners.  Stevia is a safe sweetener.

Good sleep is essential to good health.  During sleep the mind/body is repaired and purified.  In darkness the pineal gland produces melatonin, which promotes natural sleep and is a powerful cancer preventer.  The best melatonin production occurs when you go to bed by 10 pm and get up by 6 am.

 

Exercise lowers your risk of breast cancer, in part by helping prevent obesity which increases your risk.  Aerobic exercise causes the brain to produce healing neuropeptides which reduce stress and prevent depression. 

 

The list of natural prevention methods should include not wearing bras. There's lots of evidence for bras impeding the blood and lymph flow that keeps tissues healthy, as documented in Dressed to Kill by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer.