breast health | Health Topics | NutritionFacts.org

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Topic summary contributed by volunteer(s): Sue

Plant-based diets may help prevent breast cancer and prolong survival, thanks to phytonutrients in flax, broccoli, and soy, and the avoidance of animal products such as meat and dairy. One should eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and get a enough exercise and sleep. Some foods may be especially helpful include: dark-green leafy vegetables, coffee, Indian gooseberries, avocados, spinach, garlic, onions, cinnamon, apples, strawberries, herbal teas, green tea, and white-button mushrooms. Those at high risk should consider reducing their consumption of meat, dairy (see also here), trans fat, saturated fat, Kimchi, folic-acid supplements (but folate from beans and greens is helpful), multivitamins, and deep fried foods. Large stool size has been associated with breast health and may reduce cancer risk. One might also not want to take advice from health food store employees, as their recommendations for breast cancer treatment were found to lack a sound medical or scientific basis.

The information on this page has been compiled from the research presented in the videos listed. Sources for each video can be found by going to the video’s page and clicking on the Sources Cited tab.

All Videos for Breast Health

Does Tea Tree Oil Have Hormonal Side Effects?

Do the estrogenic effects of tea tree oil get absorbed through the skin?

Benefits of Cabbage Leaves for Relief of Engorged Breasts

Benefits of Cabbage Leaves for Relief of Engorged Breasts

Cabbage is put to the test in a randomized controlled trial.

Benefits of Marjoram for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)

Benefits of Marjoram for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)

Even a small amount of fresh herbs can double or even quadruple the antioxidant power of a meal. The abilities of oregano to decrease chromosomal damage from radiation and marjoram to affect hormone levels in women with PCOS are put to the test.

Should Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer Avoid Soy?

Should Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer Avoid Soy?

Which dietary changes could reduce free radical damage and also improve DNA repair in women with mutated BRCA genes?

Is Soy Healthy for Breast Cancer Survivors?

Is Soy Healthy for Breast Cancer Survivors?

What role do soy phytoestrogens play in the prevention and treatment of breast cancer?

What are the Effects of the Hops Phytoestrogen in Beer?

What Are the Effects of the Hops Phytoestrogen in Beer?

When it comes to breast cancer risk, does the phytoestrogen in beer act more like the animal estrogens in Premarin or the protective phytoestrogens in soy?

The Most Potent Phytoestrogen Is in Beer

The reason women who handle hops start menstruating is because of a phytoestrogen that ends up in beer, called 8-prenylnaringenin (8-PN).

Does Rye Bread Protect Against Cancer?

Does Rye Bread Protect Against Cancer?

The lignans in rye could explain why rye intake is associated with lower breast and prostate cancer risk.

Diabetes as a Disease of Fat Toxicity

Diabetes as a Disease of Fat Toxicity

The “twin vicious cycles” explain how the buildup of fat in the cells of our muscles, liver, and pancreas causes type 2 diabetes, which explains why dietary recommendations for diabetics encourage a reduction in fat intake.

GMO Soy and Breast Cancer

The hormonal effects of the Roundup pesticide on GMO soy put into perspective.

Can Flax Seeds Help Prevent Breast Cancer?

Can Flaxseeds Help Prevent Breast Cancer?

Flax seed consumption may play a role in preventing and treating breast cancer by blocking the inflammatory effects of interleukin-1.

Collaboration with the New Vectors of Disease

Collaboration with the New Vectors of Disease

Appeasement by the food industry through partnerships with children’s organizations to steer the focus to inactivity rather than our diet recalls tobacco industry-style tactics and may require tobacco industry-style regulation.

Second Strategy to Cooking Broccoli

Second Strategy to Cooking Broccoli

Adding myrosinase enzymes in the form of even a pinch of mustard powder to cooked cruciferous (cabbage-family) vegetables like kale, collards or Brussels sprouts can offer anti-cancer sulforaphane levels comparable to raw, removing the necessity to pre-chop for maximum health benefits.

Breast Cancer and Constipation

Breast Cancer and Constipation

The reason why women who have more frequent bowel movements appear to be at lower risk for breast cancer may be because bile acids absorbed from our intestines concentrate in the breast and have a estrogen-like tumor promoting effect.

Alpha Gal and the Lone Star Tick

Alpha-Gal and the Lone Star Tick

Our immune response against a foreign molecule present in animal products may play a role in some allergic, autoimmune, and inflammatory disorders. This reaction is thought to underlie tick bite-triggered meat allergies.

Cholesterol Feeds Breast Cancer Cells

Cholesterol Feeds Breast Cancer Cells

Cholesterol appears to stimulate the growth of human breast cancer cells—which may explain why phytosterol-rich foods, such as pumpkin seeds, are associated with reduced breast cancer risk.

Phytates for the Treatment of Cancer

Phytates for the Treatment of Cancer

Do the anticancer effects of phytates in a petri dish translate out into clinical studies on cancer prevention and treatment?

Phytates for Rehabilitating Cancer Cells

Phytates for Rehabilitating Cancer Cells

Unlike most other anticancer agents, the phytates naturally found in whole plant foods may trigger cancer cell differentiation, causing them to revert back to behaving more like normal cells.

Back to Our Roots: Curry and Cancer

Dramatically lower cancer rates in India may in part be attributable to their more plant-based, spice-rich diet.

Dietary Sources of Alkylphenol Endocrine Disruptors

Dietary Sources of Alkylphenol Endocrine Disruptors

Foods of animal origin (especially fish) appear to be the most important source of human exposure to industrial pollutants such as alkylphenol xenoestrogens.

Alkylphenol Endocrine Disruptors and Allergies

Alkylphenol Endocrine Disruptors and Allergies

The dramatic rise of allergic diseases such as eczema and seasonal allergies may be related to dietary exposure to endocrine-disruptor xenoestrogens, such as alkylphenol industrial pollutants.

Lifestyle Medicine: Treating the Causes of Disease

Lifestyle Medicine: Treating the Causes of Disease

If doctors can eliminate some of our leading killers by treating the underlying causes of chronic disease better than nearly any other medical intervention, why don’t more doctors do it?

BRCA Breast Cancer Genes and Soy

BRCA Breast Cancer Genes and Soy

One reason why soy consumption is associated with improved survival and lower recurrence rates in breast cancer patients may be because soy phytonutrients appear to improve the expression of tumor-suppressing BRCA genes.

Tell Your Doctor If You Eat Grapefruit

Tell Your Doctor if You Eat Grapefruit

The role white and pink (red) grapefruit may play in weight loss and cholesterol control, as well as the suppression of drug-clearance enzymes within the body.

Starving Cancer with Methionine Restriction

Methionine restriction—best achieved through a plant-based diet—may prove to have a major impact on patients with cancer because, unlike normal tissues, many human tumors require the amino acid methionine to grow.

Which Seaweed Is Most Protective Against Breast Cancer?

Nori seaweed snacks may favorably alter estrogen metabolism by modulating women’s gut flora, resulting in decreased breast cancer risk.

More than an Apple a Day: Preventing the Most Common Diseases

Dr. Greger has scoured the world’s scholarly literature on clinical nutrition, and developed this brand-new live presentation on the latest in cutting-edge research on how a healthy diet can affect some of our most common medical conditions.

Anti-Angiogenesis: Cutting Off Tumor Supply Lines

Cancer cells are commonly present in the body, but cannot grow into tumors without hooking up a blood supply. Angiogenesis inhibitors in plant foods may help prevent this from happening.

Cancer Risk from CT Scan Radiation

Pediatric CAT scans are estimated to cause hundreds of cancer deaths every year.

Lavender for Generalized Anxiety Disorder

In a double-blind study, lavender oil worked as well as the valium-like drug lorazepam (Ativan) for relief of persistent anxiety, though there are concerns about estrogenic effects.

Breast Cancer Risk: Red Wine vs. White Wine

Modest lifestyle changes that include the avoidance of alcohol may cut the odds of breast cancer in half, but certain grapes appear to contain natural aromatase inhibitors that may undermine the ability of breast tumors to produce their own estrogen.

Cranberries vs. Cancer

Drug companies and supplement manufacturers have yet to isolate the components of cranberries that suppress cancer cell growth.

Breast Cancer and Alcohol: How Much Is Safe?

Nearly 5,000 breast cancer deaths a year may be attributable to just light drinking (up to one drink a day).

Flaxseeds for Breast Pain

A tablespoon a day of ground flax seeds appears to improve ovarian function, and is considered a first-line therapy for breast pain associated with one’s period (cyclical mastalgia).

woman holding breast

Plant-Based Diets for Breast Pain

Plant-based diets appear to offer relief from a variety of menstrual symptoms, including cramping, bloating, and breast pain (cyclical mastalgia).

Herbal Tea Update: Rooibos & Nettle

Rooibos (red) tea may reduce stress levels by suppressing adrenal gland function. Nettle tea is mineral-rich, but may have estrogenic side effects.

Protein, Puberty, and Pollutants

The early onset of puberty in girls associated with animal protein consumption may be due to endocrine-disrupting chemical pollutants in the meat supply.

Prolonged Liver-Function Enhancement from Broccoli

The boost in detoxifying enzymes triggered by cruciferous vegetable consumption may last for weeks!

Cancer, Interrupted: Green Tea

Using the cooked meat carcinogen PhIP to turn normal breast cells cancerous, researchers explore the use of green tea to interrupt this malignant transformation.

Reducing Cancer Risk in Meat-Eaters

Those who eat meat risk food poisoning from undercooked meat, but also exposure to cooked meat carcinogens in well-cooked meat. By boiling meat, non-vegetarians can mediate their risk of both.

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