Has your doctor ever discussed how to keep your breasts healthy?
Considering breast cancer is at epidemic levels, isn't it surprising that most likely they haven't?
I mean if you’ve had a heart attack, then wouldn’t they have a discussion with you and give you tips on how to keep your health healthy?
So let me be the first to speak out about breast health during this breast cancer awareness month.
The foundation to healthy breasts is METABOLIC health.
To some of you this may be surprising…..
To some of you, you might be feeling skeptical, especially if you have been identified as having breast cancer genes.
Yes, there are genes for breast cancer which makes some people (me included) susceptible to breast and other cancers. But remember the key word is "susceptible".
Genes like BRCA1 and BRCA2 are tumour suppressor genes - in layman's terms, those who have a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation don't repair DNA mutations as well as those without the mutation.
Other inherited gene mutations have also been linked to breast cancer.
PALB2
CHEK2
ATM
NBN
STK11
These are just a few that needs to be checked in the context of genetic testing, especially if you have been diagnosed with breast cancer at a young age or you have a strong family history of breast cancer.
But the real question is, what's driving those mutations in the first place?
So before blaming your "bad genes" for giving you cancer, consider the fact that researchers have been looking at gene mutations as the cause of cancer for a long time and billions of dollars in research hasn't come up with a cure.
This line of thinking - called the Somatic Theory of Cancer hasn't gotten us closer to the holy grail of eliminating cancer.
The question is why does ONE breast cell turn into cancer?
And why doesn’t ALL of our breast cells turn into cancer?
The answer lies in the environment that the cell is in. If the "soil" is rich then the "seed" will grow.
Breast cancer cells respond to hormone changes like oestrogen.
So it’s quite straight forward that hormonal health is key to breast health. (Remember that even cancers like triple negative breast cancer that doesn’t rely on oestrogen to drive its growth was once a normal breast cell that responds to hormones).
If you’re a woman who wants to protect the health of her breasts, you must be extremely conservative when it comes to external sources of hormones eg. the pill, HRT, IVF, xenoestrogens.
Mother nature has given us a body that is in balance. You can think of oestrogen as the accelerator of breast cell growth and progesterone as the brakes. If any additional sources of hormones are introduced in the body, it can tip the delicate balance of breast cell proliferation and senescence.
Many of us are oestrogen dominant. And this environment has make it easy for breast cells to grow and grow and grow, tipping the balance of cell replication and gene mutations.
So other than external sources of synthetic hormones, our hormone health is also determined internally by our metabolic health.
Why do your think that being overweight is a risk factor for breast cancer?
We all know that thin women can get breast cancer too.
Heck, I had always been underweight and I still got breast cancer at 29.
So how can we explain this?
Skinny girls like me can be "overweight" on the inside.
I always thought that I was blessed with skinny genes, which meant I can get away with eating crap and not exercising. And this was a huge mistake because I may not look obese on the outside, but my bloods don't lie and they reveal disease waiting to happen eg. fatty liver, high cholesterol.
So it's important for every woman to have great metabolic health and not just take into account weight as the measure for metabolic health.
Another crucial thing to note which no one is talking about is the effect of chronic stress on our metabolic health. The stress response or the fight or flight response is exactly just that…
It's a metabolic response to danger.
Every time we get stressed our body releases glucose into the blood stream to either "fight" or run like mad. Imagine getting glucose spikes for hours everyday for months on end.
This is the way stress creates the perfect environment for cancer cells to grow.
Stress also dampens our immune system GREATLY, which is part of our innate ability to keep cancer cells at bay.
Is it any wonder that most women with breast cancer have reported they were in great emotional stress prior to their diagnosis?
As you can see, all roads point to metabolic health as the tool to maintain breast health. Even doctors can't deny the mounting evidence that exercise can prevent a recurrence. Because again exercise greatly affects your global metabolic health.
Make sure to SHARE this blog post to loved ones, because raising awareness for breast cancer doesn't just mean raising awareness to check for lumps. We all need to play a part in raising awareness for breast health in order to PREVENT breast cancer and curb this epidemic.
And we can start doing this by educating our daughters, our sisters, our mothers, our aunts and our friends how to keep their breasts healthy. Because perpetuating the myth that breast cancer is bad luck keeps us in denial over how to combat this disease.
XOXO Trifina