CLICK HERE FOR A PRINT FRIENDLY PAGE

Top Ten Ways to Lower Your Risk
for Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is at an all time high in the twenty-first century, especially for women. Listed below are ten preventable causes for breast cancer along with methods to help you reduce your risk.

1. Avoid exposure to carcinogenic radiation (x-rays). If you must be x-rayed, either by a dentist or other healthcare providers, be sure to use a lead plate on areas not being x-rayed.

2. Avoid all types of synthetic hormones: Hormone Replacement Therapy, fertility drugs, birth control pills, and hormones in meat, eggs and dairy. Synthetic hormones store in our body's fat cells. This causes abnormal cell growth, and neo-angeogenisis (the blood supply that develops around malignant tumors).

3. You should avoid toxic environmental pollution in the water, air, soil and food. Eat organic food and drink pure water, when available. Purified water cleanses the kidneys and lymphatic system and aids the immune function of your body.

4. Avoid carcinogenic chemicals found in household cleaning products and cosmetics. The most common toxic ingredients are ammonia, isopropyl alcohol, fluoride, petroleum, chlorine and aluminum. Find healthy substitutes in Samuel Epstein's book, Safe Shoppers Bible.

5. Avoid prolonged exposure to electrical magnetic fields, power plants and electrical appliances. Move electric clocks away from your head at night. Spend as little prolonged time as possible in front of your computer screen. Take frequent breaks away from your computer and turn off appliances when not in use.

6. For women, avoid wearing your bra for more than eighteen consecutive hours. Prolonged wear restricts lymphatic flow. Wear all cotton bras instead of underwire bras and massage your breasts after removing your bra.

7. Lymphatic or dry brush massage will increase circulation and help keep your breasts healthy.

8. Some of your favorites have to go or used sparingly: alcohol, coffee, chocolate and other products with caffeine. Read all your food labels. A good method is to not consume any chemical with names you cannot pronounce!

9. Reduce stress as much as you can. Distress affects your immune system, so take it easy and walk in nature or practice yoga or deep breathing and get eight hours of sleep each night!

10. Substitute Thermography for your annual breast exam. Thermography eliminates carcinogenic radiation and pain and damage from compression of the breast. The error rate for Thermography is nine percent; with mammograms it is forty percent.