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Is there a viable alternative for minimizing breast cancer risk to popping up pills like Tamoxifen, Raloxifene or alike, that "should" help, but can also make it worse? There sure is. Very simply and obvious, it is a step toward

eliminating or minimizing all known risk factors.

And there is two distinct kinds: those that originate externally, and other that are internal body weaknesses, capable of many times magnifying the risk for given exposure to the external factors. For that reason, no risk factor, no matter how low it may be statistically (i.e. for the "average women") should be neglected.

Some of them can be eliminated, some reduced to a degree, often significantly, and some - like genetic predispositions - can be influenced little, or not at all. Still, being aware of even those risk factors that can't be changed is equally important, necessary to grasp the extent of your individual risk, and act accordingly.

Table bellow summarizes breast cancer risk (BC) factors based on their overview earlier. It certainly isn't complete, but it is certainly a good place to start. Most of these risk factors can be reduced, minimized or eliminated. "Some" implies that the risk can be reduced by some women, but not all. "Yes" implies that it can be reduced or eliminated by all, although the degree to which it can be done may vary significantly from one women to another.

No attempt was made to list factors in order of their importance, since breast cancer always results from the combined effect of a multitude of factors, and it all varies individually. It is safe to say that ionizing radiation and/or chemical carcinogens are what initiates most breast cancers, and that hormonal factors - in particular ovarian hormones - are probably its most potent promoting factors. But a number of other factors - such as dietary, having a major impact of how efficient are body functions - is always important as well.
 

How to go about minimizing these risk factors? Much of it is a part of healthy lifestyle, but there are certainly other aspects that can be addressed. Glance at the above list of risk factors tells that only a few of them cannot be influenced. Several may be modifiable only by some women, not others, but majority of them can be minimized by all women. And that is, at present, the best bet against breast cancer.

 A ________MINIMIZE DIET/NUTRITION-RELATED RISKS________

It is all but certain that diet and the directly related nutritional status are important factors at all stages: before cancer initiation, during differentiation and during its possible growth. Never mind the negative results that incompetent studies are coming up with. The body needs nutrients in order to function properly. Poor diet will not only deprive it from needed nutrients - either by inducing plain deficiency, or gross imbalances - but will also burden it with toxic and inhibitory compounds inflicting more damage to the already weakened body. 

High-caloric diet (not necessarily resulting in overweight or obesity) during childhood and adolescence stimulates growth hormones, hence cellular proliferation. Hormonal production and activity, in general, remains higher in the adulthood, increasing cancer risk. However, as already mentioned, it is not realistic to expect that this risk factor can be significantly influenced, although some reasonable diet modifications during childhood and adolescence in this respect could have a risk-reducing effect.

High-sugar diet increases cancer risk through multiple mechanisms: depletion of nutrients, immune system suppression, elevating inflammatory prostaglandins, elevating glucose/insulin levels, and changing cellular environment toward cancer-promoting high-glucose acidic one.

Elevated insulin - with or without diabetic condition - promotes cell proliferation. It can be caused not only by excessive consumption of high-glycemic-index foods, but also by other factors, such as overweight/obesity, physical inactivity, poor overall diet or smoking.

Identifying and minimizing/eliminating these major offending diet-related factors is the easy part. It is more, or much more involved to make the final step and find out what type of diet is optimal for given individual, at a given point in time. But it is worth the time and effort.

 B ________MINIMIZE LIFESTYLE-RELATED RISKS________

There is a variety of known lifestyle-related breast cancer risks, and nearly all can be minimized or eliminated: regular alcohol consumption, smoking, overweight/obesity, weight gain (statistically, postmenopausal), underweight, wearing bra habitually, physical inactivity, chronic stress or psychological trauma, negative self-image, low melatonin... 

As already mentioned, more than once, most of these factors are both, predisposing for, and promoting breast cancer by weakening body's regulatory, regenerative and protective functions.

Underweight may be indicative of a correctable metabolic disorder, or the consequence of self-imposed longer-term caloric restriction. In either case it can be corrected. However, if it is due to a metabolic disorder caused by genetic aberration, chances are, there is little that can be done about it.

 C ________DETOXIFY AND STRENGTHEN IMMUNITY _________

Just by minimizing diet- and lifestyle-related risks much is done to promote proper function of the detox and immune systems. General detox routines will help the body get rid of accumulated toxins, and specialized routines to free it of hard to eliminate toxins, like heavy metals. For the efficient immune system, proper intestinal function is critical, as well as the absence of hidden internal infections, particularly tooth-related. And so is creating an oasis of stress-free, positive-thinking environment (these days, a few can succeed in leaving in such environment all the time).

 D ________MINIMIZE EXPOSURE TO CARCINOGENS_________

Ionizing radiation can initiate nearly any cancer, and it is well documented that the average female exposure to it - primarily from medical imaging procedures, but also from radiation treatments - is high enough, according to the accepted international cancer hazard standards, to be probably the leading causative breast cancer factor. That considered, it is nothing short of scandalous that it is effectively brushed aside and concealed as such.

Since exposure to medical radiation for many a woman started in early years - for some already in mother's womb - most of the damage for the majority of women is already done. More so knowing that early exposures - particularly before the age of 20 - are the riskiest. Still, minimizing the adult-life exposure can be meaningful, especially if it is relatively high.

More importantly, parents can significantly reduce their children's exposure to medical radiation by informed, judicious use of medical services.

Toxic chemicals - including carcinogens - are in our air, water, food, building materials, personal care and household products, toys, medications... everywhere. Those that are known carcinogens are relatively few, but there is certainly more chemical carcinogens than what we know. Even those that are not directly initiating cancer, can promote its growth by inhibiting protective body mechanisms, or simply by compromising its vital functions.

Clearly, use of good water filter, air filtration, and adhering to chemical and chemical-additives-free foods will take many of these chemical threats out. It could make a difference between having your detox system clogged and overwhelmed, unable to neutralize potentially carcinogenic toxins, and havinig it taken care of them. Not being able to detoxify is only the first step in the downward spiral, because a body with toxic overload will be compromised - hence vulnerable - in many ways.

Viral carcinogens - this one is not easy. For one, among the potential viral carcinogens implicated in breast cancer are the endogenous HERV families, which are integrated in our genome for millions of years. Some others, like Epstein-Barr or human papilloma virus, are easily transmitted hence infecting nearly entire human population. Once infected, it is only matter of luck, whether the virus will be harmless in the particular individual environment, or harmful. Still, something can be done to minimize the risk of getting infected, from maintaining personal and household cleanliness to modifying favorably close and physical - including sexual - contacts with other persons.

More details about reducing the risk of viral infection can be found on the above link, listing the viruses associated with breast cancer with basic information, including the common ways of their transmission to, or among humans.

 E ______MINIMIZE EXPOSURE TO FEMALE HORMONES________

Female hormones are probably the best known breast cancer factor, although not all sources of exposure are being paid equal attention to. In the spotlight are hormones that are part of woman's reproductive cycle - particularly estrogens - while woman's growth hormones get less, and those acquired from environment the least amount of attention.

It is well known that all factors elevating lifetime exposure to endogenous estrogens - early menarche, late first childbirth, late or no childbirths, little or no breastfeeding, and late menopause - significantly increase breast cancer risk. Childbirths and breastfeeding are, at least to some extent, two factors that can be positively influenced by most young women.

What adds to the exposure to female hormones - possibly significantly - is exposure to exogenous estrogens. Those are substances that enter the body from the environment, with the chemical structure enabling them to mimic estrogens. They include pesticides, plasticizers, hormonal therapies and estrogenic plant substances (phytoestrogens). They are many channels of exposure here, and most of them can be minimized or eliminated.

Hormonal medical treatments and birth control pills are on the list of risk factors.

Body height as a risk factor is a consequence of the activity of growth hormones. In turn, there is a definite positive association between it and the volume - caloric and overall - of food intake during childhood and early adolescence. While limiting food intake would likely reduce the activity of growth hormones and delay the onset of menarche, it is not what many a parent would opt for.

SCREEN FOR BREAST CANCER ADEQUATELY AND SAFELY

By delaying therapeutic action, neglecting checkups effectively promotes breast cancer growth. While it may not matter much whether it is detected at the earliest possible stage, or just early enough, once it spreads pest a certain point - and definitely past stage 2 - it is much harder to treat successfully.

It is not questionable that women need to do regular checkups after the fourth decade of life (or before, if at higher than average risk). Things get really complicated when we come to the subject of how these checkups should be done.

For the past few decades, there was little hesitation as to which test is the best for breast cancer screening. The near unanimous choice for both, medical profession and women, was X-ray mammography. This despite the fact that, since the very beginning, serious objections have been raised by qualified and/or well informed individuals with respect to both, its safety and efficacy. But the critics, as well as all "unfit" evidence, were effectively sidelined.

For a while, near everyone believed that mammography is the next best thing to the sliced bread when it comes to early breast cancer detection, saving many a life, while doing little or no harm.

Good old times... or were they? Within the past decade, more evidence emerged questioning reliability of the trials supporting the view that public mammography screenings are significantly reducing breast cancer mortality.

At the same time, the harms and negatives of such screenings are in the process of changing from "very low" and "negligible" to unacceptable.

These two tendencies have brought mammography screening to the point where its benefits are uncertain, and minimal at best, while its risks and negatives are, all of a sudden, both

certain and significant.

This turnaround in presenting the facts about mammography screening was accelerated by the commercial interest, sensing a huge market opening and, attempting to sell their alternative screening techniques (still generally ionizing-radiation-based), and beginning to expose what is not so good - or not good at all - about standard mammography.

It started, quite inconspicuously, with the introduction of digital mammography, but took a fool swing with the emerging new testing techniques such as dedicated breast CT, and breast tomosynthesis. Although the proponents of new testing techniques were careful not to pronounce mammography unsuitable and obsolete - they know very well what they are up against - it is becoming increasingly and irreversibly dethroned as the best alternative in the very field that was giving to it the fiercest support - medical radiology.

At the same time, unfavorable findings about its benefit-to-harm ratio kept coming in from the research arena.

Even the mammography conglomerate - the industry, official medicine, particularly radiology, government, which are all partners in the mammography screening scheme, and even want-to-believe women and their organizations - as powerful as it is, wasn't able to prevent this.

Now we don't have anymore what we only thought we had - the shiny mammography myth - and that is good. From now on, more and more women will be looking for the alternatives. Other tests for breast cancer detection do exist and, as with our health care system in general, the main reason why they are not more advanced, or why their use is not more widespread, is the decades long untouchable mythical status of X-ray mammography.

It is all changing now.

Business, political or professional-preference aspects of it are, of course, irrelevant to those in need of best testing procedure, or procedures, for breast cancer detection. While the newest X-ray test like breast CT or breast tomography, are in most aspects somewhat better than conventional (film or digital) mammography, it is not by very much, and they still carry the risk of radiation. Safer - and at least as efficient - is ultrasound test, which can be combined with judicious use of thermography and AMAS test. And, of course, at your disposal is still the good old physical breast exam, either clinical or self exam, which were undeservedly labeled as "useless but harmful" in the attempt to salvage the sinking ship of the X-ray screening mammography.

Conclusion

Looking at this really incredibly complex list of breast cancer factors, is it realistic to expect that a single pill, be it tamoxifen  or raloxifene, can effectively neutralize all these, and other, some still unknown, breast cancer risk factors? That is a good question. Common sense suggests that even those who opt for the pill, still need to take all other precautionary measures. Those other measures, combined, could easily have more of a protective effect than the pill. And unlike the pill, they could only benefit, not hurt, and would have wider health promoting and protective effect.

The more of these protective choices you follow, the better. But if for any reason you can only follow two or three, by all means, do it. There seems to be sufficient evidence indicating that the relative effectiveness of healthy lifestyle habits in reducing the incidence of degenerative diseases is the greatest with only one or two of them exercised. As an illustration, if the benefit of sticking to 10 major healthy lifestyle habits is 100%, following only one of them will reward you with

significantly more than 10% of the total benefit,

respectively.

Adding more healthy habits keeps increasing the overall protective gain, but at a slower rate. Hence, it is better strategy to exercise only a few, but thoroughly, than to try to pile up as many healthy habits as possible at a price of not been able to do it properly.

Of course, breast cancer risk can be only minimized, not eliminated. Consequently, regularly testing for breast cancer presence has to be one of those protective habits. The purpose of it, obviously, is not to prevent the cancer from developing, rather to

find out it's there while it is in its early stage,

easier or much easier to treat, with generally less invasive treatments.

*  *  *

A simple DO and DON'T list for minimizing breast cancer risk, as well as the risk from other degenerative diseases, could look like this:

Of course, this list does not pretend to be all-inclusive; just to give an outline incorporating some of the most important factors.

In the end, it is not so much sticking to the list of do-s and don't-s, as it is having the big picture: your best bet for staying breast cancer free - or to recover from it - is to put good foods into healthy intestines, get rid of toxins poisoning your body, and make sure your immunity is strong. Of course, that includes minimizing your toxic exposure, just as you want to minimize your exposure to pathogens. Have a regular exercise, and be a happy camper - think positive and focus on the bright side of life. Live healthy - live smart. Your body will take care of the rest - trust it.

That is the best breast cancer prevention treatment you'll ever get.

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