A Natural Approach to Breast Health
In our busy lives how many of us think about keeping our breasts healthy?
Dr. Christine Horner, who claims her advice is backed by scientific research, emphasizes the importance of lifestyle in the prevention of breast cancer. In her book, Waking the Warrior Goddess: Dr. Christine Horner’s Program to Protect Against and Fight Against Breast Cancer, she says the most important factors are nutrition, exercise, sleep and managing stress. She believes that a high percentage of breast cancer is related to vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D influences over 2,000 genes in our body. Keeping optimal levels of vitamin D, including exposure to sunlight, is of major importance in the prevention of breast cancer. She says that a deficiency in omega-3 fats is also connected with breast cancer and recommends that we supplement our diets with omega-3 as well as vitamin D3.
Dr. Horner encourages us to avoid processed food and return to a diet of native, whole foods. Maintaining a healthy body weight is important because estrogen is produced in fat cells and estrogen dominance is a factor in the development of breast cancer. Intermittent fasting for 16 hours at a time helps protect against both body fat and breast cancer. Other dietary recommendations are drinking a quart of organic green vegetable juice daily, avoiding alcohol and watching out for excessive iron levels.
The exercise she recommends is high-intensity, burst-type activities. Getting proper sleep is essential because important regulation of our hormones occurs during this time. She also encourages breast feeding to decrease the risk of breast cancer.
Dr. Stephen Sinatra recommends raw vegetable juicing, adding garlic and ginger to foods, eating cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower, drinking green tea, eating flax and taking vitamins A, C, D and E and CoQ 10. He says we should avoid eating hormone-fed animals, burned or charred meat, and the use of chemical pesticides and insecticides.
Dr. Christiane Northrup, OB/GN specialist and author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing, gives 10 health tips for women who want to stay healthy: exercising regularly, taking Epson salts baths (magnesium), breathing properly, optimizing vitamin D levels, getting enough sleep, meditating, beginning your day with positive affirmations, practicing self-love and self-acceptance, cultivating a social life and keeping a gratitude journal.
She says that taking control of our health is the best prevention.
“We think women’s health is disease screening,” says Northrup. “But that’s not feeding the cells nutrients, the thoughts, the emotions that they need in order to continue to reproduce themselves in a healthy way.”
In whatever ways we choose to take care of ourselves, our bodies feel it and will respond by loving us back and by being healthy. That includes our ta-tas!
“We think women’s health is disease screening…that’s not feeding the cells nutrients, the thoughts, the emotions that they need in order to continue to reproduce themselves in a healthy way.” — Dr. Christiane Northrup