Donna's Healthy Living Tips

You may not know that I had a lump removed from my breast in 2007.  My dad had been diagnosed with cancer about six months earlier and I remember walking into the appointment thinking, “I don’t want to be cancer buddies.”  Fortunately the lump was benign and falls into the classification of “Fibrocystic Disease”; unfortunately they couldn’t tell it was benign by mammogram or ultrasound.

What they could tell me was verify that they could see a lump where I had been able to feel it.  The lump was about the size of a marble and the surgeon told me that is about as small as most women are able to detect.  He also told me I could expect more of these in my lifetime because women who seem prone to them tend to get a lot more. 

I spoke to my doctor and we did a few things with my supplements (like increase my vitamin D) and I am thankful that I haven’t had another lump appear since then (knock on wood).

Last night I was at a very interesting presentation of the Metro Detroit Chapter of Holistic Moms (www.HolisticMoms.org) where they had a speaker from Therma-Scan of Birmingham (Michigan) speak on using Infared Mammography (also called Thermography and Thermology) speak about using that tool to detect breast cancer.  I will do another post on breast cancer and Thermology.  Today I want to address breast fibroids. 

One thing that was said last night is that fibro-cysts (it appears there are about a dozen words for the same condition…benign breast lumps) is that there has been an increasing incidence of these lumps in the past thirty years.  The reason?  Xenoestrogens.  These are synthetic estrogens that are in our environment that stick around in our bodies and wreak havoc. 

How do we get exposed to them?  Here are a few ways:

• Plasticisers
• Chemicals (in the air and food)
• Antibiotics (not all)
• Oral Contraceptives (not necessarily all)
• “New Car Smell”

You might think that because these imitation estrogens are foreign our bodies would expel them but it appears the opposite is true and they actually hang onto them for very long periods of time.  I think there is a lot we can do to support our bodies in getting healthier including trying to avoid exposure to more xenoestrogens, increase our intake of pure foods, pure water, and pure supplements, and help our bodies detox through our various natural detox systems (another blog).

In the meantime, chew on this: The presenter shared that breast cancer appears to get its start in a person’s body about 14-20 years before it actually is visible by mammogram or ultra sound.  Consider what choices you were making 14-20 years ago and understand that having a family history of breast cancer accounts for very FEW cases of the disease, most women diagnosed with breast cancer have no significant family history of the disease.

The good news is the same things we would do to prevent breast cancer we can do for all types of cancer.  Stay tuned for more information and consider Thermology for early detection (which, by the way, CAN tell the difference between a benign lump and a cancerous lump).  You can find more information at: http://www.thermascan.com

Donna Copeland is an Independent Shaklee Distributor who enjoys sharing healthy living tips she picks up from a variety of sources with you.  You can check out her Shaklee products (yes, she does get paid a commission by Shaklee if you go to this site and purchase products; she isn’t getting paid by Holistic Moms or Therma-Scan of Birmingham) www.DonnaCopeland.MyShaklee.com