The High-Five Plan for Breast Cancer Prevention

October is internationally designated as breast cancer awareness month so I wanted to take this chance to share a catchy way to remember 5 important steps you can take every day to optimize your health and prevent breast cancer.

1. Thumbs Up For a Healthier You: Prioritize Wellness

Wellness is a holistic approach to health which focuses on preserving and enhancing your well-being physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It’s preventing health issues and being proactive in nutruring your being, building resilience to face life’s challenges, and finding tools to manage stress and stay centered and calm even in the face of life’s stressors. It’s truly self-care. When we manage our wellness and make healthy lifestyle choices, we bolster our body's innate systems of healing and cancer prevention.

• Action: Take a daily mindful pause through meditation, yoga, hobbies, and do something everyday that brings you join. Express gratitude for what's good in life by embracing positive emotions while you releasing the negative ones.

• Research: Mindfulness can decrease stress, anxiety, and pain and promote relaxation, immune function, and sleep. Embracing positive emotions boosts the body’s immune system and parasympathetic (resting and relaxing) nervous system.

2. Point to a Diet with Power: Pick Plants!

Your diet is a powerful tool in cancer prevention. Colorful, plant-based food provides antioxidants and other nutrients that support your immune system and boost overall health.

• Action: Aim for a whole food, plant based diet that is low in saturated fat, high in fiber, and nutrient dense. Think "eat the rainbow” by loading up your plate with a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables. Avoid processed foods, meat, sugary drinks, and dairy.

• Research: Women who eat a plant-based diet have a 15% reduced risk of breast cancer and women who ate 25 or more servings of veggies a week, lowered their breast cancer risk by 37% compared to those that only eat 9 servings of veggies a week.

3. Give Toxins the Bird: Limit Harmful Exposures and Ingestions

Alcohol consumption and smoking are clear risk factors for breast cancer. Even small amounts can increase your risk, and that risk increases with the amount you consume. Environmental toxins in your water, air, workplace, home, and personal care products can increase your risk of cancer.

• Action: If you drink, do so in moderation. The recommendation for women is no more than one drink per day and for men is no more than two drinks per day. Try a "dry month" challenge or explore fun mocktail recipes, adaptogen drinks, or non-alcoholic seltzers. Ventilate your home, use air filters, remove shoes at the door, avoid pesticides, reduce plastic, check your personal products through the EWG Healthy Living App, Clearya App, or Think Dirty App to avoid endocrine disrupting chemicals and known carcinogens.   

• Research: Regularly consuming alcohol (1-2 drinks a day) may increase breast cancer risk by 30-50% while smoking for 10 or more years increases risk by 10%. Remember that second hand smoke can also increase the risk of breast cancer. A recent study found more than 900 chemicals that could promote the development of breast cancer, and many of them we may come in contact with everyday.

4. Connect with Your Ring: Screen and Support

Early detection is key to successful treatment and survival. Regular screenings, like mammograms, can find breast cancer early when it's most treatable. The "ring" finger reminds us to think of our whole community—our family and friends—and ensure everyone gets screened. Don’t forget to discuss family history of breast cancer and other cancers that may be part of a familial cancer syndrome like prostate, ovarian, and melanoma. Be a part of a community. Having social support increases longevity and decreases your risk of getting cancer and dying from cancer.

• Action: Talk to your healthcare provider about a screening schedule that's right for you based on your age, risk factors, and family history. Ask your family members about cancer history and any hereditary cancer syndromes from gene mutations. Take an online screening test to assess your risk of breast cancer (if you answered YES to any of the 7 questions in the screening tool, ask your doctor for a referral to a genetic counselor for possible genetic testing) You can even get yourself tested for known cancer causing gene mutations. Perform monthly self-exams and report any changes to a doctor. You know your body best and you are your strongest advocate.

• Research: People who are more connected in a community, live longer and have a lower risk of getting cancer, regardless of other lifestyle factors. Feel-good, cancer fighting hormones like dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, and oxytocin are released with connection, hugs, and laughter. Embrace your community!

5. Make a Pinky Promise to Move Everyday

Regular exercise helps to regulate hormones, strengthen muscles and bones, and maintain a healthy weight, all of which lower your risk. Plus it helps to release the positive exercise endorphins! You don't have to train for a marathon—even a 30-minute brisk walk five days a week can make a difference.

• Action: Find a type of exercise you love and stick with it. Whether it's dancing, swimming, or walking your dog, consistency is more important than intensity. Try to incorporate cardio, weights, balance, and stretching into your workouts.

• Research: Balance what you eat with regular physical activity to keep your body weight at a healthy level for you. Excess body fat can increase increase estrogen levels, which are linked to a higher breast cancer risk. Replacing fat with muscle mass decreases that risk. Not only does exercise decrease estrogen levels, but it also reduces inflammation, improves insulin regulation, boost immune function, and directs the body to kill tumor cells.

  
  

Conclusion: A high-five for a healthier future

Taking steps to lower your breast cancer risk is one of the most empowering things you can do for yourself. And I’m proud of you for choosing your health!  Share this high-five plan with the people you love so we can all stay centered, eat well, avoid toxins, know our risk, get screened, move our bodies, and raise a hand to a healthier future.