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Breast Cancer Prevention
What is breast cancer?
For many women, breast cancer is the disease they fear most. The frightening statistic is that, about one in seven or eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. Fortunately, there are many effective strategies that can help reduce your risk. One is to know the factors that can contribute to the disease. Of course, lifestyle and diet are among the biggest factors that determine your risk of breast cancer.
What causes breast cancer?
There are many risk factors associated with breast cancer. The goal is to reduce as many risk factors as possible while simultaneously utilizing those dietary and lifestyle factors associated with breast cancer prevention. Here is a brief overview of the risk factors for breast cancer:
Age: The risk of breast cancer increases as a woman gets older. Breast cancer is uncommon in women under age 35. Most breast cancers occur in women over the age of 50, and the risk is especially high for women over 60.
Race: Breast cancer occurs more often in white women than among blacks, Hispanics, or Asian women.
Family history: A woman's risk for developing breast cancer increases if her mother, sister, or daughter had breast cancer, especially at a young age.
Genetics: The presence of certain genes increases the risk of breast cancer, although this is mainly true if most or all of the women in your family have actually developed breast or ovarian cancer. Women of Ashkenazi (Central and Eastern European) Jewish ancestry tend to have a higher rate of breast cancer than average.
Estrogen: The female hormone estrogen stimulates breast cells. The longer a woman is exposed to estrogen in any form (made by the body, taken as a drug, or delivered by a patch), the more likely she is to develop breast cancer. For example, risk is higher among women who began menstruation at an early age (before age 12), experienced menopause late (after age 55), never had children, or took hormone replacement therapy for long periods of time.
Later childbearing: Women who have their first child after about age 30 have a greater chance of developing breast cancer than women who have a child at a younger age. The most protection comes from childbirth followed by breast-feeding enough to suppress return of ovulation.
Breast density: Breast cancers nearly always develop in dense tissue (lobes and ducts), not in fatty tissue. That's why cancer is more likely to occur in women who have "dense" breasts than in those with "fatty" ones. Complicating the picture is that abnormal areas in dense breasts are harder to detect on a mammogram.
Environmental factors: Among the factors that have been linked to breast cancer in varying degrees are exposure to xenoestrogens (synthetic compounds that mimic estrogen), second-hand smoke, pesticides, herbicides, power lines, electric blankets, radiation, and lack of exposure to sunlight.
Exercise: Taking into account other established risk factors for breast cancer, women who regularly exercise have up to a 60 percent reduction in the risk of breast cancer compared with women with low levels of activity.
Alcohol consumption: Women who drink one drink a day have a 10 percent greater risk; those who drink two drinks have a 20 percent increased risk, and so on.
Smoking: Like most other cancers, cigarette smoking increases the risk of developing breast cancer.
Dietary factors: Important dietary factors include body weight (the more overweight you are, the greater the risk); increased intake of saturated fat; and decreased intakes of antioxidants, dietary fiber, omega-3 fatty acids (particularly alpha-linolenic acid), and dietary phytoestrogens (estrogen-like compounds found in foods such as legumes, nuts, and seeds).
What dietary factors can prevent breast cancer?
Dietary is one of the critical aspects in the prevention of breast cancer. The research on diet and breast cancer is a bit muddy because investigators often look only to dietary factors in the United States. For example, let's take a look at the research on saturated fats and breast cancer. It is difficult to determine true risk when looking at women in the United States because the lowest percentile for saturated fat intake in the United States often translates to the highest percentile in other countries. To gauge all dietary risk factors in breast cancer it is extremely important to examine data from a global perspective. In an extensive multinational population study, investigators explored diets from around the world to determine the components that most affect breast cancer risk. The data collected provides much more valuable insight into dietary factors and breast cancer. Table 1 lists these factors in order of importance.
Table 1. Dietary factors in breast cancer
Factors that may increase risk |
Factors that may lower risk |
Meats |
Fish |
Total fat |
Whole grains |
Saturated fats |
Soy and other legumes |
Dairy |
Cabbage |
Refined sugar |
Vegetables |
Total calories |
Nuts |
Alcohol |
Fruits |
The most important foods to avoid are meats grilled or broiled at high temperatures. It may not be simply that meat intake is associated with breast cancer, what may eventually be shown is that the manner in which the meat is prepared determines whether it is carcinogenic. When broiled or grilled at high temperatures, meat forms many potent carcinogens including toxic lipid peroxides (especially those from alpha-linolenic acid) and heterocyclic amines. These compounds are extremely harmful to breast tissue.
Researchers from the University of South Carolina gave questionnaires to 273 women who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1992 and 1994 as well as 657 women who were cancer-free. They found women who routinely ate three meats -- hamburger, beefsteak and bacon -- very well done had a 462 percent greater chance of developing breast cancer. Women who regularly consumed these meats individually had lower increases in risk for breast cancer. The risk for very well done vs. rare or medium was 50 to 70 percent greater for hamburger and bacon, and 220 percent greater for beefsteak. These results coupled with other evidence suggest that avoiding well-done meats can dramatically reduce breast cancer risk.
Population studies have consistently found that soy consumption may help reduce a woman's risk of developing breast cancer. Clinical and experimental studies further support the benefits of soy. Such studies show, for instance, that when healthy women add soy products their diets their levels of estrogen and other hormones fall. They also have lower levels compared with women who do not eat soy.
In recent years growing evidence suggests that two isoflavones found in soy-daidzein and genistein-are the source of soy's benefits. That's because these substances act as phytoestrogens, naturally occurring plant compounds that bind to estrogen receptor sites in humans cells, including breast cells. By blocking these receptors, they reduce the effects of estrogen.
The amount of soy found to be protective against the development of breast cancer delivers 25 to 100 mg per day of isoflavones. We strongly recommend getting this amount from foods, rather than from dietary supplements of purified isoflavones. Many soy foods now state the level of isoflavones per serving. As you can see from Table 4-2, you do not need to eat huge amounts of soy foods to meet the recommended levels.
Table 2. Soy Foods and Isoflavone Content
|
Product |
Serving size |
Approximate isoflavone content
(milligrams) |
Cooked soybeans |
1/2 cup |
40 |
Roasted soybeans (soy nuts) |
1/2 cup |
40 |
Tempeh |
4 ounces |
40 |
Tofu |
4 ounces |
40 |
Soy protein |
1/2 cup |
35 |
Soymilk |
1 cup |
40 |
What supplements do you recommend for breast cancer prevention?
Foundation Supplements. There are three products from Natural Factors that I think are critical in supporting good health:
- MultiStart (age and gender specific multiple vitamin and mineral formulas). Follow label instructions.
- Enriching Greens - a great tasting "greens drink" containing highly concentrated "greens" like chlorella, spirulina, wheat grass juice, barley grass juice, etc., and herbal extracts. Take one serving (one tablespoon) in 8 ounces of water daily.
- RxOmega-3 Factors - A true pharmaceutical grade fish oil supplement. Take two capsules daily.
FortiFlax from Barlean's Organic Oils provides special fiber compounds known as lignans. These components are fiber compounds that can bind to estrogen receptors and interfere with the cancer-promoting effects of estrogen on breast tissue. Lignans also increase the production of a compound known as sex hormone binding globulin, or SHBG. This protein regulates estrogen levels by escorting excess estrogen from the body. FortiFlax contains ground flaxseeds in a special nitrogen-flushed container for maximum freshness. Grinding makes flaxseed lignans more bioavailable. I recommend one or two tablespoons daily added to foods such as hot cereals, salads, or smoothies.
EstroSense - EstroSense is a complex formula designed to promote proper hormonal balance. It supports the elimination of xenoestrogens (pronounced zeno) estrogen mimickers found in plastics, feminine hygiene products and pesticides as well as promotes the proper detoxification of the body's own estrogen. EstroSense provides the equivalent cancer protecting plant nutrients as eating 2 pounds of cabbage family vegetables. Take 2 capsules twice daily.
Estrosense provides a number of compounds that have been shown to be beneficial in helping to detoxify and eliminate excess estrogens including:
- Indole-3-carbinol (I3C), di-indoylmethane (DIM), and sulfurophane - anti-cancer phytonutrients found in cruciferous vegetables. Research has shown that these compounds helps to breakdown cancer-causing estrogens to non-toxic forms.
- Calcium D-glucarate - prevents the reabsorption of excreted estrogens.
- Green tea polyphenols - block the negative effects of estrogen and have been shown to be protective against estrogen-related cancers.
Green tea extract can provide the protective actions against breast cancer without the caffeine. Studies have suggested that breast cancer rates are lower in Japan in part because people there typically drink about 3 cups of green tea daily. At this rate they consume about 3 grams of soluble components, which yields a daily dose of roughly 240 to 320 milligrams of polyphenols. To achieve the same degree of protection from pills containing green tea extract standardized for 80 percent total polyphenol content would mean taking a daily dose of 300 to 400 milligrams.
How do I know if the program is working?
Early detection of breast cancer improves the likelihood of preventing it from progressing to a life-threatening condition. The earlier it can be detected, the better. Monthly breast self-exams are important steps toward this goal. However, mammography (a special type of breast x-ray) can detect breast cancer long before it can be felt. Most medical doctors as well as the National Cancer Institute recommended that women age forty and older have mammograms every 1 to 2 years.
Recently, however, this practice of routine mammography has come under fire. An increasing number of studies suggest that, for women under 50 who have not yet gone through menopause, screening mammograms may not be necessary. According to many experts in the field, screening mammograms don't work very well for these women because:
- They have a high rate of false negatives (results that show no cancer when in fact cancer is present). The dense, healthy breast tissue of younger women can resemble or obscure tumors. Routine mammograms miss approximately 40 percent of the breast cancers that develop among women aged 40 to 49.
- Mammograms expose women to radiation that may cause breast cancer. With modern mammography equipment the risk is small (no more than 1 in 2,700). On the downside, the risk is cumulative, meaning that the chances increase with each subsequent mammogram.
- Screening mammography has not always been shown to increase the chances that premenopausal women will survive breast cancer, even though it's been detected.
- In women over the age of 50 it appears that mammography is best used to evaluate suspicious lumps, rather than screen for cancer (that is, to look for cancers when there is no sign the woman might have the disease). Results from a major study, The Canadian National Breast Screening Study-2, involving nearly 40,000 women, showed that yearly mammograms in women 50-59 years old did not lower breast cancer mortality compared with yearly physical examination alone. The authors of the study concluded that for women older than 50 years, thorough annual physical breast examinations, plus teaching of breast self-examination, may be a valid alternative to yearly mammography.
All of this information may be a bit confusing, that is because there is not an easy answer as there are a lot of conflicting studies. My recommendation is to get a baseline mammography after the age of 40, perform regular self breast exam, get a yearly physical that includes a breast exam, and discuss the appropriateness of regular mammography with your physician.
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Condition Center Caution:
- Dr. Murray’s recommendations and protocols for nutritional support are not intended as a substitute for appropriate medical care.
- The products and the claims made about specific products on or through this site have not been evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration and are not approved to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease.
- If you have a medical condition or disease, please talk to your doctor prior to using the recommendations given.
- Do not self-diagnose. Proper medical care is critical to good health. If you have a health concern or undiagnosed sign or symptom, please consult a physician, preferably a naturopathic doctor (N.D.), nutritionally oriented medical doctor (M.D. or (D.O.), or other health care specialist. Please go to www.naturopathic.org to find a qualified naturopathic doctor (N.D.) in your area to help you.
- Make your physician aware of all the nutritional supplements or herbal products you are currently taking to avoid any negative interactions with any drugs you are taking.
- If you are currently taking a prescription medication, you absolutely must work with your doctor before discontinuing any drug or altering any drug regimen.
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