Women’s Health: Part 1
Be empowered and take control of your breast health. An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure. According to the National Cancer Institute, the lifetime risk of breast cancer for women is 12.8%. Women are rarely informed that the risk can be greatly diminished. There are a number of things a woman can do to preserve her health and avoid the dreaded diagnosis of breast cancer. Knowing these not only empowers you but enables you to empower other women that you know.
Here are some empowerments:
Vitamin D: There is a powerful correlation between cancer risk and vitamin D as shown I this graph from a Mercola.com article. If the vitamin D level is low enough, the risk of cancer approaches 100% whereas if the vitamin D level is high enough, the risk approaches 0%. When taking vitamin D, it is important to monitor vitamin D levels. A simple blood test can do this but remember to stop the intake of vitamin D at least 3 days prior to the blood test. We don’t want to test the pill. I often find it necessary to use between 5,000U and 10,000U daily to maintain a desired blood level. Additional important factors include taking vitamin K2 (MK7). A typical dose is 150mcg to 200mcg daily. This helps the vitamin D find its way to bones rather than to joints and blood vessels. Another point to remember is to counterbalance the vitamin D with vitamin A. The two can compete with each other. Too much of one can diminish the presence of the other. I therefore use vitamin A (not beta carotene) as a once weekly capsule. The oil soluble vitamins store in the body and don’t need to be taken on a daily basis
Self-breast exam (SBE). Of all the cancers found on manual exam, 90% are found by the woman, not the doctor. Given this statistic, it’s amazing that most women are not taught this by their gynecologists. For now, I can suggest the following approach. The best time to examine the breast is in the shower when the skin is slippery. This enables the palpating hand/fingers to have a much higher tactile resolution. Much smaller lumps and bumps can be picked up with a slippery surface. I find there is an easy and effective method that differs from what is traditionally taught. We start with palpating the entire breast not just one area. Start by feeling it the way a child would when exploring something new. Your mind will immediately identify areas that feel different. Most of the time, the different textures, small lumps and bumps are normal. Learn to recognize normal so that if something different appears, you would recognize it more easily. Use 3-D palpation. Rather that just placing the hand over the breast as you did at the beginning of the exam, now support the breast from below with your hand and stroking the surface with your thumb. This gives a strong perception of depth and the mind forms a 3-D impression of the breast tissue. Sometimes you’ll find lumps. The soft to firm ones are typically ok, especially if the doctor checked and said these are OK. The hard ones are typically higher risk and should be evaluated. Another type if important lump to find is a round flat one, the shape of a plump little hamburger. These are typically felt by placing the lump between the thumb and index finger. Imagine somebody hid a 1” to 1.5” plump little burger about an inch deep into a pillow. You might try to feel it by gently pinching around it with the index finger and thumb until you feel it between your fingers (like grabbing a coin by the edges). Try to assess the size. See if your doctor can help you discover what (hopefully) a healthy breast feels like and what to look for.
Daily lymphatic drainage:
a. In the shower: This is little more that washing your chest differently than you are used to doing. When skin is wet and soapy, think of the nipple as the center hub, like a bicycle wheel with the spokes radiating out from the center. With the palm/fingers of the right hand, gently (never hard or firm) stroke or sweep the skin of the left breast starting near the nipple and moving away from the center outward. Like the numbers on a clock, sweep toward 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12. This is slow and gentle because lymphatics like slow and gentle. You may need to lift the front of the breast to sweep under it. After completing the six strokes, move to the right breast using the left hand. You can repeat each breast once more but not more since we don’t want to inflame or irritate the delicate lymphatic vessels.
b. Dry support: Iodine application to the breasts can be accomplished by starting with Lugol’s (iodine) solution, typically 2% concentration. Dilute with some with an equal amount of water (1:1 mixture) to get a 1% solution. This can be sprayed (using a small clean spray bottle) or sprinkled over the breast and gently rubbed on. Typically, this leaves a light brownish coating that equals approximately 2-3 mg. Don’t use this if you have hyperthyroid as a low amount of iodine can stimulate the thyroid (desirable if you’re trying to support thyroid function). The iodine helps the lymphatic drainage as well as supports healthier breast tissue. Breast tissue loves iodine almost as much as thyroid tissue does.
Breast Thermography: A properly done and analyzed thermogram has extraordinary value in enabling a woman to know she is moving towards a cancer or detect the risk of a cancer already in existence, even if too small to be seen by a mammogram. The thermal patterns on the (breast) skin tend to correspond to certain medical conditions including letting a woman know that she is at very high risk of developing a cancer. The empowerment comes when the woman and her physician work on reducing the risk by improving breast health. This can be done through diet, supplements, hormonal balancing, improved lymphatic drainage and lifestyle changes.
Rib cage maintenance: The breasts don’t have muscles to pump the lymphatics. They rely solely on external motion such as we get from walking or movement and rib cage motion while breathing and bending. I find that if a rib is not moving well (on osteopathic or chiropractic exam), I can often predict where a breast thickening or lump is likely to develop based on the lymphatic backup or congestion related to that rib. Correction of the rib motion problem allows good lymphatic flow to take place again.
Improve your bra: What if I told you that you can still wear wired bras and not increase your risk. The wires are under the breast and only block a small part of the lymphatic system. In working with rib cage motion and breast health, I discovered that one of the main problems that the wires cause is to irritate the lateral intercostal muscles (in English, that means the muscles between the ribs, located at the sides of the chest). They do this when the tip of the wire pokes into the muscle and irritates it. The muscle contracts defensively and impedes the movement of the attached rib(s). slightly bending the wire tip outward minimizes the irritation and usually allows the rib motion to become normal. This allows for better lymphatic flow and minimizes the chance of a thickening (eventually lump) formation in the breast which typically occurs above the underwire.
Footnotes
1. https://www.cancer.gov/types/breast/risk-fact-sheet
2. https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/04/18/raising-vitamin-d-level.aspx