Breasts: An Owner’s Manual: Every Woman’s Guide to Reducing Cancer Risk, Making Treatment Choices and Optimising Outcomes. Kristi Funk

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СКАЧАТЬ drive fast backwards while also texting on a dark road in the rain combines multiple risk factors for a collision, but the actual cause would still be the undeniable imprint of that tree trunk smashed into your car trunk.

      So how do you avoid colliding with breast cancer? Know your breasts, understand what they’re about, and take good care of them. This last point includes making the strategic and rather simple dietary and lifestyle improvements I outline in this book. After all, as I mentioned in my intro, researchers find that among women who, prior to menopause, (1) exercise, (2) don’t drink alcohol, (3) don’t smoke, and (4) shift their diet away from meat and dairy toward whole food, plant-based eating slash their odds of getting breast cancer in half. And postmenopausal women’s odds are sliced by 80 percent. In the medical world, this represents an incredible triumph when you consider that women endure chemotherapy for a mere 10 percent average improvement in survival over those skipping chemo.

      How has all this powerful information eluded you so far? It’s hardly your fault. Evidence-based advice on breast health, particularly when it comes to cancer prevention, is publicly doled out in drips and drabs—a magazine article here, a brief morning show segment there. And when we do hear a tip, it’s often in isolation and gets lost in the shuffle of everyday life. So you might find out that consuming cinnamon improves breast health, but who, with so many spinning plates, remembers to make this part of her daily diet—and without guidance, who actually knows how? Our daily habits are set in stone or bring us comfort, so it’s hard to make changes to an established routine. But I will show you how.

      I also need to point a manicured finger at our flawed educational system. During my four years of undergrad, four years of med school, five years of general surgery training, and my surgical breast fellowship, nutrition was a fleeting mention in the form of the Krebs cycle in the middle of one lecture—and for many of us physicians, that was twenty to forty years ago. Most doctors do not explore the science of eating or the impact of lifestyle choices to the degree that knowledge affects their own behavior, let alone yours. I know this is true because when I shared some of this book’s content with my cancer patients, countless times I heard, “Wow, I had no idea. You know, I asked my doctors what I should do and eat now that treatment has ended, and they just told me, ‘You did everything you were supposed to do. You’re fine; don’t worry about it. Live your life.’” Not so, my friend. You’re not done yet.

      Even when doctors do recognize the nutrition–illness connection, part of the reason they don’t tell you much is a reimbursement issue. Just as insurance companies don’t pay for your gym membership, weight-loss program, or stress management course, they don’t reimburse us doctors to spend time detailing preventive strategies. Doctors already need to stay up-to-date on what you expect from them, like screening guidelines and the best treatments for all the diseases they handle, which leaves no time for researching and dispensing extra freebies like, “Hey, did you know that three cups of green tea a day cuts breast cancer risk in half?” (By the way, did you?)

      So when you put all that together, the question isn’t how did you not know this—but how could you have possibly known at all? Nobody’s taught you to connect food and lifestyle to breast health the same way you might relate it to, say, the strength of your heart or brain. Which is funny, because your breasts coexist with the same body as these vital organs. The good news is that food science matters now more than ever, as the global health outlook becomes increasingly dismal. Both patients and doctors are becoming more interested in how nutrition and lifestyle affect risk reduction, causation, and reversal of disease processes.

      Of course, my central concern right now is your breasts (well, and your heart, since the number-one killer of women is heart disease; lucky you, my advice helps both problems). Up to 90 percent of the risk factors that determine optimal breast health lie entirely in your hands—so you are in control of you. Not your doctors, genes, or fate. You are with your breasts all day long, every single day. If you spent that much time with anything or anyone—a child, a spouse, a pet, even a car—you’d make sure they were in good shape.

      Why treat your breasts any differently?

      TRUE, THAT’S FALSE

      In coming chapters, we’ll discuss how to keep your breasts and body as healthy as they can be, but first let’s set the record straight on what does not cause breast cancer. Myths abound out there that puzzle my patients and the public, and they don’t hold up in studies. (Quoting studies is a theme you’ll find throughout this book because the pervasiveness of myths is such a peeve of mine.) If you’re aiming for optimal breast health, there’s no room for bogus claims.

CHAPTER 2

       Debunking Breast Cancer Myths

      In this book, we’ll talk at length about how to eat, drink, exercise, and behave in ways that optimize breast health and reduce your risk of cancer—all supported by credible, exciting research. But for as much useful information that’s out there, way too many myths persist that confuse and distract us from what we need to know. I can’t tell you how often patients come to me paralyzed with fear because they’ve read or heard that something they’ve done in the past—or currently do—will ruin their health. Genetic myths, hormone-related myths, dietary myths, environmental myths: I could play volleyball all day with all the false ideas flying around—set up, smash, repeat.

       I know, I shouldn’t be carrying my cell phone in my shirt pocket . . .

       My nutritionist said to eat grass-fed beef. That reduces cancer, right?

       Did my IVF drugs give me this breast lump?

      Oh, ladies. Let’s let go of the anxiety and misinformation you’ve unwittingly come to trust and start implementing the meaningful changes that science shows will help you live a longer and more vibrant life. It’s time to debunk the most common breast myths that have kept your armpits smelling and your cell phone ten feet from your wireless bra.

      THE TRUTH ABOUT GENES, GENDER, AND DESTINY

      As I’ve mentioned, genetics play a less important role than you probably think. Consider this fact: the identical twin sister of a woman with breast cancer has only a 20 percent chance of getting breast cancer one day—which, by the way, is the same risk as anyone with an affected sister.¹ Since these twins share the exact same DNA, if genetics called all the cancer shots, risk should approach 100 percent—but it doesn’t, because genes aren’t the be-all end-all many people think they are.

      Patient after patient tells me that there isn’t any breast cancer in her family, so she’s not really at risk. Yet 87 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer do not have a single first-degree relative with breast cancer. In fact, only 5 to 10 percent of breast cancers currently prove to be hereditary, meaning that they occur because abnormal gene mutations pass from parent to child.

      Of course, a vitally important part of assessing your risk includes genetic screening and family history, and I encourage every woman to use the free test on our website to see whether further testing would be warranted (pinklotus.com/genequiz). But if we can only blame our parents’ DNA 10 percent of the time, then factors outside of inherited genetics cause breast cancer 90 percent of the time. A major goal of this book is to teach you how to proactively make daily choices that reduce nongenetic cancer risk. Why passively await a breast cancer diagnosis when you can get actively involved in deterring it?

      Patients also think their mother’s family history of breast cancer matters much more than their СКАЧАТЬ