October is breast cancer awareness month, so it’s only appropriate to kick it off with some important information about this deadly disease. I’m not going to talk about all of the horrid statistics, because I think the numbers are startling enough to cause fear and paranoia, and I don’t think that serves us. If you read my Mind Body Medicine interview with Dr. Jacobs, you know that my theory is that by focusing too much on things that make us think the disease is inevitable, it will program our brains to contract it.

Dr. Jacobs says the fear and anxiety around thoughts of getting a disease can weaken our immune system. Because of that, I’d rather focus on the positive. The things we have control over. I’m a huge believer in the old saying our moms and grandmas said – “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

When I look at the list of the breast cancer risks that we can control, it brought to mind my philosophy towards all things health. It’s what I call the cave woman test. I think it’s what our grandparents would have called common sense, but either way, here’s how it works. Whenever I am having an internal debate about what I want to consume to best care for my body, I think about how closely the choice resembles something people would do in cave man days, when they had no choice but to live more in line with nature.

Here’s an example of the test in action:

When I think about devouring a Heath candy bar, which is pretty much every month right before my period, I ask myself, “would cave women have been more likely to be munching down a factory manufactured sugary confection, or some of any of these: nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, freshly caught fish, meat from a wild animal?”

And then I remind myself that chocolate is derived from the cacao plant and that’s from nature, so I devour not only the Heath bar, but also a Hershey’s with almonds, and maybe even a small box of See’s candy. In that scenario I know the real answer, but in action, I fail every time. But outside of PMS, in my sane moments, the cave woman test, when applied in this example, is enough to cause me to change course and eat something from the nature food list.  

So, my belief is that if we all just lived by this test, we’d naturally be avoiding some of the things that cause cancer. Let’s put the “cave woman test” to the test relative to behavioral breast cancer risks.

1. Fact: There is a strong link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer, regardless of the type of alcohol. Yes, red wine has health benefits for your heart, but it doesn’t get a free pass where breast cancer is concerned. Experts agree that you should not consume more than one alcoholic beverage a day, no matter what kind it is. 

Apply The Cave Woman Test: Would it be more likely that a woman from cave man days would be sipping on a vodka martini or consuming either water or juice from a fruit?

2. Fact: There is a strong link between breast cancer and being overweight, as fat creates more estrogen to circulate through your body, and excess estrogen over a lifetime can lead to tumors. Exercise has been shown to decrease the risk of breast cancer, and this could be due to reducing this extra fat that can cause more estrogen.

Apply The Cave Woman Test: Would it be more likely that women from cave man days would be sitting around with excess weight on, getting heavy and being sedentary, or would they be staying lean from walking to gather the aforementioned water and fruit? 

3. Fact: There is a definite link between breast cancer and synthetic hormone replacement therapy in menopausal women. Prempro, a common HRT drug given to menopausal women has been shown to increase a woman’s chances of getting breast cancer.

Apply The Cave Woman Test: Would it be more likely that our cave woman soul sisters would have relieved their menopausal symptoms by popping a pill made in a laboratory that contains man made chemicals, or would she have rubbed medicinal plants on her skin and eaten medicinal herbs to relieve uncomfortable symptoms?

4. Fact: birth control pills have been shown to increase a woman’s risk of pre-menopausal breast cancer when taken for more than 4 years prior to giving birth to a first child. Some still debate this issue, though leading anti-aging doctors who focus more on preventative medicine, tend to agree that they are bad for women. 

Apply The Cave Woman Test:  Would it be more likely that cave women would have consumed little pills in pre-made blister packs numbered for days of the month, all of which pump excess synthetic hormones into her system that prevent her from ovulating as nature intended, or would she use a method that either avoids altering her body chemistry, and/or alters it only with substances in plants? (Buy Suzanne Somer’s book Ageless, for more on this topic.)

Fact: Women with elevated levels of pesticides in breast tissue have a greater risk of breast cancer, and excess antibiotics may increase breast cancer risk.

Apply The Cave Woman Test: Would cave women have consumed fruits and vegetables from plants grown with pesticides or without? Would they have treated illness with antibiotic pills or with medicinal plants?

See what I mean? The cave woman test rarely steers you wrong, and always puts things in perspective.  

Here are some other things you can do to reduce your risk for breast cancer:

1.     Consume flaxseed – it decreases circulating estrogen

2.     Consume foods that contain Vitamin A – Retinoids may impair growth of tumors

3.     Give yourself monthly breast exams and report any lumps to your doctor

4.     Get a baseline mammogram at 35 years of age, and starting at 40 get one every year.

5.     Reduce stress in your life. Practice yoga, meditate, laugh, don’t sweat the small stuff.

6.     Get adequate sleep every night. Not doing so wreaks havoc on hormonal balance and your immune             system.

To read more about lowering your risk, check out Breastcancer.org

*Please note that the comments in this article are not meant to insinuate that women who get breast cancer lack common sense. Additionally, it is not lost on anyone at Fit After Thirty that sometimes even those women who treat their body like a temple and have none of the above behavioral risk factors still get breast cancer. That is why it is important that all of us be diligent in the fight. Educate yourselves. Educate others. And do your self exams! Early detection has the best outcomes!