Reducing Your Risk of Breast Cancer

Some factors in cancer are a lot like life: Choices can make a difference. "Most people who get breast cancer get it because of the environment or lifestyle, and those are things that can be changed," said Dr. Anne McTiernan of the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center. Dr. Russell Blaylock lists dozens of ways to keep it dormant - or non-existent - in the breast cancer issue of his health newsletter. For instance, yellow and green vegetables definitely reduce the risk of breast cancer. They even help anti-cancer supplements such as vitamin D to work better. The Benefits of Vitamin D By itself, vitamin D supplements of 1,000 to 2,000 units a day may reduce breast cancer by more than half - even as much as 75 percent. "Vitamin D actually helps to put the breaks on cancer cell growth or on cell growth in particular. So we're finding now that vitamin D helps to, may help to prevent prostate cancer, breast cancer and even colon cancer," Dr. Don Colbert said. That's potentially the greatest single factor against breast cancer. Keep Your Diet in Check It's important to limit the consumption of sugar, alcohol, meats cooked at high temperature, most cooking oils besides olive oil, and common flavor enhancers known as MSG or glutamate. "The total picture is -- if you're consuming a diet with glutamate in it, particularly high levels, you're making your cancer grow very quickly. I refer to it as cancer fertilizer," Blaylock said. As women go into menopause, iron builds up in their bodies. That iron acts like rust and encourages cancer. A rice bran extract known as IP6 reduces that damaging accumulation. Some doctors are even using IP6 to treat active breast cancers. And there are now drugs to limit aromatase, an enzyme in the body that helps breast cancer spread. But a substance in celery and the plant extract quercetin are about ten times better than those drugs. Factors You Can't Control But there are still some cancer producing factors that women can do little or nothing to avoid. For example, genetic mutations passed from generation to generation can increase the risk of breast cancer. A woman may inherit faulty genes from either her father or mother, so it may be hard to tell if a woman carries the gene. "What we showed was if you had a limited family structure -- not enough women in the family to help see the trait -- that you were three times more likely to be a carrier," Dr. Jeffrey Weitzel of City of Hope said. Also, women with dense breast tissue are at a higher risk of being diagnosed. "If you know your breast density -- and you know it's very high -- that is a stronger risk than having a mother who had breast cancer," Dr. Steven Cummings of California Pacific Medical Center said. Another factor women can't control is age. There are two age factors, the being a woman's child bearing years. Women with no children or who have their first child after 30 have a slightly higher risk of breast cancer. Conversely, having children at a younger age reduces a woman's risk. Breast feeding helps, too. As women get older, there's more risk. By age 50, nearly half of women have dormant breast cancer. The result is that 80 percent of active breast cancers occur in women over age 50. That means millions of women have undetectable breast cancer starting in their thirties and forties. Get a Mammogram! No matter what your risk factors are, doctors strongly encourage women to get annual mammograms. "Women who undergo annual screening with mammography are up to 60 percent less likely to die of breast cancer than those who do not," Dr. David Dershaw of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center said. Even that requires some finesse. The most common mammograms use X-rays. That increases the risk of breast cancer 1 to 3 percent with each exposure to the radiation - as much as 30 percent for ten years of mammograms. To be safe, choose a thermogram, MRI, or ultrasound of the breast. Blaylock recommends women who still choose the X-ray should take turmeric extract for the ten days leading up to the mammogram. It protects breast tissue against radiation. Don't Forget to Exercise "Exercise is one of the best things women can do to reduce the risk of breast cancer. And there's new evidence that women who have breast cancer may have a better prognosis if they stay active," McTiernan said. Also, exercise, a nutritious diet, and appropriate supplements all help reduce a person's belly fat. Fat causes inflammation - a leading cause of all cancers. So with that better lifestyle, breast cancer could move from a high-risk to a low-risk disease.