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Can you lower your risk of developing Breast Cancer?
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Are you aware of the ways you can lower your breast cancer risk?
If we look on the Cancer Society’s website for breast cancer risks (which there are many) unfortunately we see that genetics does play a role as a breast cancer risk. Meaning the genetic “cards we are dealt” can influence our risks on developing breast cancer. (But keep reading and you’ll see its not the only risk.)
Non-Modifiable Risk Factors
These types of risks are called “non-modifiable risks”. Meaning they are what they are and we can’t change them.
For breast cancer these non-modifiable risk factors include (among others)
- BRCA gene mutations
- Family history of breast cancer
- Ashkenazi jewish ancestry
- Early menarche (means you started menstruating at 11 years old or younger)*
- Late menopause (they consider it to be reaching menopause at 55 years or older)*
- No pregnancies or late age of pregnancy* (This is non-modifiable unless you have a time machine. And I haven’t seen a flying DeLorean around Summerland yet.)
* The reason I have put an asterisk besides these is because they are all related to the number of years your tissues are exposed to your own cycling hormone fluctuations. Estrogen is the hormone primarily associated with breast cancer because of its stimulatory effects on the breast tissue: so the longer you are exposed to your own increased estrogen levels during your reproductive years equals an increased risk of breast cancer.
So an early period and late menopause means more years in the reproductive phase of your life. This means you’d be exposed to a greater number of periods and associated hormone fluctuations. And being pregnant and then breastfeeding creates a hiatus from periods therefore decreasing the number of years exposed to the cycling hormone fluctuations.
Modifiable Risk Factors
BUT….there are breast cancer risks that you can modify. Meaning you can try and address these issues in order to lower your risk of breast cancer.
According to the Cancer Society these modifiable risk factors include Alcohol and obesity.
They claim that consuming just over one drink of alcohol per day puts a woman at increased risk of breast cancer. If you are drinking every day please realize it may be having a detrimental effect on your breasts.
Obesity
According to the Canadian Cancer society having a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 31.1 or higher puts a woman at 2.5 times the risk of developing breast cancer versus a BMI of 22.6 or lower.
Why might this be?
Well remember above when I had the asterisk, and mentioned the longer you are exposed to higher levels of the hormone Estrogen, the greater the risk of breast cancer. Well, this comes into play here as well.
During the reproductive years it is mostly the ovaries churning out Estrogen, but after menopause the Adipose tissue (fat tissue) becomes a more important Estrogen producer.
So they believe the more fat we have the more Estrogen we make. Hence, higher levels of Estrogen.
Is losing weight a goal of yours?
One way you may be able help lose weight is by going on the Ideal Protein Protocol offered by Pharmasave Summerland.
It is based on the principle of Low carbohydrate and moderate protein intake.
It makes your body shift its energy production from all the carbs we eat to the fat we have stored.
Since we won’t be eating carbs our body needs another energy source, and we get it from the fat we are packing around.
Its like the Captain of the ship yelling down to the boiler room, “We’ve run out of sugar. Start shoveling the fat into the fire ladies we got to keep this ship going.”
So if you are trying to find a weight loss center in Summerland come down to Pharmasave to talk to Dan or Char-Lynn about the Ideal Protein Protocol. The first few people to start the program have had great results already.
Come down to check out the before and after photos. Pretty amazing.