In the largest review of research into lifestyle and breast cancer, the American Institute of Cancer Research estimated that about 40 percent of U.S. breast cancer cases could be prevented if people made wiser lifestyle choices.
Preventing breast cancer is far more important and powerful than simply trying to detect it after it has already formed. Our breast might be likened to a canary in the coalmine as they reflect the environmental toxins, estrogen mimickers and nutritional deficiencies that define the toxic times we live in.
The study in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health entitled: “State of the Evidence –The Connection Between Breast Cancer and the Environment” (Jeanne Rizzo) makes a persuasive case that the industrialized worlds’ increasing reliance on various chemicals in our environment is linked to the current rates of breast cancer incidence.
It is up to you to arm yourself with information so you can control your health. We know of the 40% of what to do, and what not to do’s. Avoid toxic beauty care products, high fat diets, consume organic whole foods, exercise daily, stop smoking, lose weight and eliminate sugar. Avoiding toxic deodorants, underwire bras, charred meats and unfermented soy also support breast health. What are missing are the three big players in breast cancer prevention that your doctor may not be telling you: thermography, iodine and vitamin D.
Thermography.
This underutilized radiation-free breast health and cancer screening can inform a woman of the health of her breast and the environmental toxic load they carry. Of the 800 published studies in peer-reviewed journals about thermography of the breast alone, show the success rate of breast thermography greater than 90%. The most promising aspect of thermography is its ability to spot anomalies years before mammography.
Since thermal imaging detects changes at the cellular level, studies suggest that this test can detect activity 8 to 10 years before any other test. This makes it unique in that it affords us the opportunity to view changes before the actual formation of the tumor. Mammographic cancer screening is not to be misconstrued as a form of cancer prevention.
Iodine.
Say the word iodine and physicians automatically think thyroid. While the thyroid is an unquestionable sponge of iodine, and iodine is a key constituent of the thyroid hormone. It has other important physiologic effects, among them maintenance of healthy breast and ovarian tissue and fostering optimal neurocognitive development in babies.
Iodine is a chemical element. The body needs iodine but cannot make it. The needed iodine must come from the diet, yet there is very little iodine in food, unless it has been added during processing, which is now the case with salt. Most of the world’s iodine is found in the ocean, where it is concentrated by sea life, especially seaweed. Know where your seaweed is grown due to radiation exposure and heavy metals.
Iodine consumption has dropped in the US by 50% since the 1970’s as breast cancer rates have risen in the US Goiter Belt. Since the 70’s iodine blocking bromides have been added into our environment exacerbating iodine deficiency.
Bromide is also a flame retardant used in carpeting, furniture, mattresses, clothing, computers, iPhones, and automobiles – just to name a few. Food sources can include items like baked goods that contain brominated flour or vegetable oil as well as soft drinks like Mountain Dew and other citrus based sodas
Fluoride in drinking water also depletes iodine absorption. As women consume less iodine and excrete more due to toxic elements, our risk for breast cancer grows.
“Since the 1960’s” says Dr. Tenpenny, “We’ve known iodine deficiency was related to breast disease including breast cancer. Carcinomas are most likely to develop in the ductal tissues that should normally be concentrating iodine.” There is no way to prove a causal relationship but interesting to note that the growing prevalence of iodine deficiency in the US over the last few decades tracks strongly with the rise in breast cancer.” says Dr. Tenpenny.
Dr. David Brownstein could be called Dr. Iodine for all he’s done to inform others of the importance of iodine through interviews and his book Iodine: Why You Need It; Why You Can’t Live Without It.
“Big Pharma has no financial interest in looking at any natural product, including iodine. Does iodine deficiency cause breast cancer? Breast cancer is a multi-factorial illness. However, the evidence linking iodine deficiency to breast cancer is overwhelming. Iodine deficiency may not be the sole cause of the epidemic of breast cancer that is plaguing us today, but, it plays a very large role in this illness,” states Dr. Brownstein
The link between iodine consumption and breast cancer is most evident when you compare the Japanese and Western diets against cancer incidence. Japanese women consume a diet high in iodine-rich seaweed, which provides them with an iodine intake 25 times higher than the average American woman. Japanese women also have breast cancer rates roughly one-third of those found in American women, a difference that disappears in Japanese women who immigrate to the US, where they consume considerably less seaweed.
In addition to its obvious role in preventing breast cancer, increased iodine intake may be important in mitigating another common, breast disorder—fibrocystic breast disease or FBD.
Fibrocystic breast disease is extremely common and some in the medical field think harmless. It is found in at least 9% of all women who undergo biopsies, though the actual rate is probably much higher. Animal studies have shown that depriving breast tissue of iodine can induce fibrocystic breast disease. From a thermographic standpoint, fibrocystic breast presents with varying degrees of inflammation that can be quantified with an infrared thermal camera.
Fibrocystic breast affects 30-60% of women and 50% of women of childbearing age. Fibrocystic disease has been associated with estrogen dominance. There are many kinds of estrogen that are not tested in routine hormone profiles. Environmental contaminants known as xeno-estrogens and Bispenol-A (S) attach to receptor sites and mimic biological estrogens that will show up thermographically in this process. As toxins and excessive hormones create heat in the breast, monitoring these heat patterns is an excellent way to promote wellness and see the response to various health approaches and treatments.
Iodine has been shown to improve fibrocystic disease.
Iodine desensitizes estrogen receptors in the breast and triggers apoptosis in human breast cancer cells or natural cell death, and slows down cell division and reduces blood vessel growth to tumors.
The cancer industry’s willful denial of iodine for breast cancer is not because it’s ineffective and dangerous. It’s because supplemental iodine cannot be patented.
Vitamin D.
Optimize your vitamin D, bottom line. Vitamin D influences virtually every cell in your body and is one of natures most potent cancer fighters. Vitamin D is also able to enter cancer cells and trigger natural cell death.
Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington DC discovered a connection between high vitamin D intake and a reduced risk of breast cancer. These findings presented at the American Association for Cancer Research, revealed that increased dosage of the sunshine vitamin were linked to 75% reduction in overall cancer growth and 50% reduction in tumor cases among those already having the disease. Vitamin D supplementation helped control the development and growth of breast cancer, especially with estrogen – sensitive breast cancer.
Rochester Medical Center examined vitamin D levels in 155 breast cancer patients in the months before and after surgery. They found suboptimal levels to be highly predictive of the biological markers associated with more aggressive tumors.
Remember, if you take high doses of oral vitamin D3 supplements, you also need to increase your vitamin K2 intake, as vitamin D increases the need for K2 to function properly.
“Unless you live 20 minutes south of Atlanta, and you are outside totally naked for 15 minutes a day in the sun, you need vitamin D.” says Dr. Mark Hyman, a leader in Functional Medicine.
Here’s to happy, healthy breasts that you want to keep them the rest of your life!
Patricia Bowden-Luccardi, CTT,LMT, CNMT
Medical Thermography for Health
518 929-7579
info@patricialuccardi@gmail.com