Boo-b - Breast Cancer screening and prevention
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month a good reminder to schedule your mammogram and sonogram and freshen up on your monthly self-checks. ( Find a tutorial click here.)
This brings me back to the beginning of my breast cancer journey in November 2019.
I ran into a dear friend at a party who was just back from a year abroad. She told me, to my horror, that she had found a lump in her breast. This news shook me to the core, as it does when we hear that someone we love has fallen ill unexpectedly. Shortly after I had dinner with a beloved childhood friend, a radiologist at MSK Cancer Center. I was 43, lived a healthy life, and hadn’t had a mammogram in 2.5 years since that first one at age 40. I felt like I didn’t need to do it every year, why would I, I was so healthy, plus I didn’t want to subject my precious boobs to all this radiation.
I have no family history of breast cancer and had nursed my sons for 18 months each, surely that would protect me for all eternity, right?
Wrong!
I asked my radiologist friend whether he thought I should do a mammogram. Not only did he think I most definitely should, but he also made the nurses at MSK call me until I finally got my butt in the car and trekked to the city. Almost three months had passed from when I first started considering getting it done! I walked into the hospital with a confident swagger and walked out with an immediate follow-up appointment for a biopsy and tears streaming down my face. The type of cancer my right breast was filled with was fast-growing and aggressive, it would have most likely been impossible to detect a year earlier and I hate to think about where I would be now should I have waited another six months.
Early detection is key so make sure to never skip a year! If you live in a country like the UK where regular mammograms are not recommended until the age of 50. As someone who was diagnosed at 43 years young I can only encourage you to insist!
A few things to be aware of:
If you have dense breasts you have a higher risk of breast cancer!
Dense breasts make it harder for radiologists to detect breast cancer when they read a mammogram. Cancers typically show up as small white spots or masses on a mammogram. Dense breast tissue also appears white on a mammogram. Small areas of cancer can hide behind the dense tissue, and it’s challenging to tell the difference between normal, healthy tissue and abnormal growths. The organization DenseBreast-info.org compares it to “trying to see a snowman in a blizzard.” Because of this I highly recommend having your breast cancer screening done at a reputable hospital and if you have dense breasts insist on a sonogram as well as a mammogram. Women with dense breasts are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer within the year after receiving a normal mammogram result, usually based on symptoms such as a lump or other breast changes.
Cancers develop in glandular tissue: the more glandular tissue there is, the greater the risk. Fibrous tissue may also produce growth factors that cause glandular tissue cells to divide and reproduce more than cells in fatty tissue do. Every time a cell divides, there is an opportunity for a “mistake” in the DNA to occur in the new cells — and multiple mistakes can eventually result in cancer. (This information is provided by Breastcancer.org.)
When you have dense breasts It is also harder to feel lumps while doing a self-exam.
I wish that in all the years my OBGYNs told me that I had dense breasts they would have also told me that this may potentially raise my breast cancer risk.
Another thing I recently learned is that a recent study published in the Journal of Gynecological Oncology determined that the risk of breast cancer was higher among women with uterine fibroids. The researchers used the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan and compared 22,001 women with newly diagnosed fibroids to 85,356 women without fibroids. The study found that women with a history of fibroids had a 35 percent higher rate of developing breast cancer than women without uterine fibroids.
Some more risk factors for both uterine fibroids and breast cancer:
Increased body mass index
Oral Birth Control
A family history of breast cancer
Environmental factors
Regular alcohol consumption, as in more than a couple of glasses of wine per WEEK!
Lack of physical activity
Estrogen dominance, re. difficulty metabolizing your hormones resulting in tender, painful breasts before your period and PMS
Here is a link to an article discussing breast cancer risk factors by MSKCC.
This is all important information to be aware of but what can we do to take care of our breast health? Believe it or not, there is A TON you can do proactively:
How to Boost Breast Health:
Eat a healthy diet composed of whole foods and if possible organic vegetables.. Avoid processed foods like grains, sugars, and processed seed oils.
Eat plenty of fiber, ideally, even add a couple of tablespoons of freshly ground flax seeds into your meals daily.
Remove toxic household cleaners, detergents, and beauty products from your home and life and replace them with natural options.
Drink filtered water and herbal teas like green tea.
Consider supplements like omega-3 oil and Vitamin D especially if you have a known deficiency. Make sure your doctor checks your Vitamin D levels every time you go for a check-up, your levels should be 40-70 mg/nl.
Get a comfy and non-restrictive bra to encourage lymphatic flow.
Carefully research any medications that can impact hormone levels, ESPECIALLY birth control pills, and consider natural options.
Exercise regularly, preferably with an exercise regimen that supports lymph health like rebounding on a trampoline.
Keep stress at a minimum with yoga, meditation, breathwork, or lots of time in nature.
Get plenty of sleep at night, 7-8hrs minimum.
Conduct regular breast self-exams.
Massage your breasts and lymph area daily, more about that in my next post.