Breast Cancer

There aren’t many things worse than sitting in the chair across from your doctor and being told that you have breast cancer. In 1997, more than 180,000 American women found themselves in just that situation. Behind that dreadful scenario, however, there’s a statistic that allows for more hope than ever before. Today, many experts think that at least 50 percent of all cancers—including breast cancer—can be prevented with the right lifestyle changes.

The catalog of cancer-preventing lifestyle changes is the same one that applies to all healthy living—exercise, eat right, and avoid cancer-causing agents. "Just four hours of exercise a week can reduce your risk of breast cancer by about 50 percent," says Jennifer Brett, N.D., a naturopathic doctor at the Wilton Naturopathic Center in Stratford, Connecticut.

On the dietary front, try to eat fewer dairy and animal products, she advises, and reduce the number of calories you get from fat. As for healthful additions to your diet, try to eat more fiber, fruits, vegetables, and soy products such as soy milk, tempeh, miso, tofu, and products made with soy flour. Avoiding alcohol use and pesticides on produce, both of which increase your risk of getting breast cancer, can also make a difference, she says.

Supplements can complement the primary strategy of eating right and exercising, says Dr. Brett. Also, as far as supplements go, there are a lot you can choose from, such as vitamins C and E and selenium. There are also herbs such as red clover and black cohosh.

There’s one thing to keep in mind, however. Almost all of the studies on breast cancer–preventing agents have been done on foods, not supplements, says naturopathic doctor Tori Hudson, N.D., professor at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon, and author of Women’s Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine. Many times, the supplements that are recommended to prevent cancer are the key nutrients in the particular foods that have been shown to help, she says.

Fighting Free Radicals with Antioxidants

There are little scavengers in your body called free radicals. These molecules—natural products of the aging process—are each missing an electron, so they go around trying to steal electrons from molecules in healthy cells. When they succeed, the cell that was robbed is damaged or even dies. In some cells, the genetic material that tells them how to duplicate themselves is damaged. That’s when cancerous changes begin.

Enter antioxidants. Antioxidants donate their own electrons to the free radicals and help prevent damage to cells.

Vitamins C and E, selenium, and carotene are all antioxidants, and studies have shown that they all help to prevent cancer. Initial studies of the supplement forms of these nutrients suggest, however, that vitamin E has the strongest cancer-preventing potential.

Researchers at Gazi University in Ankara, Turkey, compared vitamin E levels in the blood of 100 breast cancer patients and 70 healthy women. They found that the levels were much lower in women with breast cancer than in the healthy women.

To get the benefits of vitamin E, talk to your doctor about taking a dose of 400 international units (IU) a day, suggests Dr. Brett.

Vitamin E often gets top billing among antioxidants, but other supplements are effective, too. Numerous studies have shown that people who eat foods that are high in vitamin C can also reduce their risk of cancer.

In one review of studies that examined vitamin C intake in different populations, researchers concluded that women who get about 300 milligrams of vitamin C a day are 30 percent less likely to get breast cancer.

Dr. Brett is in favor of taking as much vitamin C as possible. The upper limit isn’t the same for everyone, however, and the first sign that you’re taking too much is a case of diarrhea. Dr. Brett suggests that you actually take enough vitamin C to give you diarrhea, then back off until you find a level that you can take without side effects. It might be best to take it in two or three divided doses so your body doesn’t have to deal with a megadose all at once, she says.

As far as selenium goes, it’s been shown in many studies that high levels of selenium are often associated with low levels of cancer, including breast cancer. For the best protection against breast cancer, take 200 micrograms of selenium daily, says Dr. Brett.

Carotene is also an effective cancer preventive, but not necessarily in the form of beta-carotene. Carotene capsules that contain natural carrot oil are much better for preventing cancer than synthetic beta-carotene, says Dr. Brett. "In fact, there’s some evidence to suggest that taking synthetic beta-carotene could actually increase your risk of getting cancer," she says. "I typically recommend taking 25,000 IU a day of carotene, or about five carrots’ worth."

Immunity Boosters

In order to successfully ward off disease of any kind, your body needs a sound immune system. Supplements that strengthen your immunity are a good idea if you’re trying to prevent breast cancer, says David Perlmutter, M.D., a neurologist in Naples, Florida, and author of Lifeguide. In addition to the antioxidants mentioned earlier, two supplements that Dr. Perlmutter recommends for building immunity are zinc and Kyolic garlic, a brand that supplies standardized amounts of the herb. It’s available in health food stores, drugstores, and many supermarkets.

Garlic has sometimes been called Russian penicillin because it figures in many Russian folk remedies to fight infection. The chemicals contained in its fragrant cloves help to activate the immune system. Garlic may also help your cells expel cancer-causing chemicals, and it can protect the genetic material of cells and improve the ability of certain enzymes to neutralize toxins. A typical dose of Kyolic garlic is two capsules three times a day.

Zinc helps by building new immune system cells and getting them ready to battle disease. "Adequate zinc stores get your body poised to fight at the first sign of cancer," says Dr. Brett. If you meet the Daily Value by getting 15 milligrams of zinc a day, you’re probably getting enough, she says.

Estrogen-Lowering Herbs

"One of the biggest reasons that women get into trouble with breast cancer is that they have too much estrogen floating around in their bodies," says Dr. Brett.

One way to reduce free-floating estrogen is by following the dietary guidelines for breast cancer prevention mentioned earlier. In addition, Dr. Brett notes, there are some natural substances that will help to reduce estrogen levels. Your key allies are called phytoestrogens.

Phytoestrogens are simply the estrogens that occur naturally in plants. When you eat fruits and vegetables that contain those compounds, they act as a weak form of estrogen in your body. A woman’s cells have specific receptor sites that are prepared to accept estrogen, and when the phytoestrogens come by, they move into those sites, taking the place of the body’s estrogens. Because the phytoestrogens have taken the receptor spots, your body’s much stronger estrogen has nowhere to go and is excreted as waste.

Researchers at the Royal Hospital for Women in New South Wales, Australia, reviewed all the studies conducted between 1980 and 1995 concerning the effect of phytoestrogens. They concluded that phyto estrogens were among the factors that protect vegetarians against breast cancer.

One of the most powerful phytoestrogens is soy. Women in Asian countries who consume a lot of soy products have much lower rates of breast cancer than women who eat a Western diet. Researchers have observed that rates of breast cancer among Asian women increase significantly when those women switch from an oriental to a Western diet.

Eating foods like tofu that are made with soy is a great idea, but if you’re not fond of them, you can try taking genistein capsules, says Dr. Brett. Genistein is believed to be one of the active ingredients in soy, and as such, it can impart some of the same estrogen-reducing benefits.

Even better, genistein can prevent tumors from getting a foothold. Tumors need blood to grow. To get that blood, they send out biochemical signals that trick the body into building blood vessels to supply them. If you can stop a tumor from getting blood, it will starve and die. Genistein is believed to be capable of stopping blood vessels that supply tumors from being produced.

If you decide to try genistein, you can find it as a supplement in health food stores. A typical dose is 45 milligrams a day.

Red clover and black cohosh are two herbs that are also phytoestrogens that work to reduce potentially dangerous levels of estrogen.

"Red clover is an old, old cancer remedy," says Matthew Wood, a professional member of the American Herbalists Guild in Minnetrista, Minnesota, and author of The Book of Herbal Wisdom. "It works to break down tumors and keep cancer from spreading. Like soy, red clover contains genistein."

If you are taking a number of different supplements to help prevent cancer, follow the directions on the labels of the products you buy, says Dr. Brett. A typical dose for black cohosh, for instance, is 40 milligrams twice a day.

With red clover, Wood sometimes recommends large doses as part of a cancer treatment program. For very large doses of this herb, you’ll need the advice of an herbal practitioner or a naturopathic doctor, he says. Even when clover shows results, he cautions that it is important to continue with medical supervision.

Flaxseed Packs a One-Two Punch

Taking flaxseed will add two powerful anti-cancer weapons to your arsenal: lignans and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA).

In 1990, when the National Cancer Institute decided to single out certain plant chemicals for extensive study, flaxseed was the first item on the list. Early results suggested the existence of powerful anti-cancer compounds.

The plant compounds called lignans are believed to be part of the reason that flaxseed exerts such powerful effects. Like soy phytoestrogens, lignans tend to take up space on estrogen receptor sites. With fewer sites that it can call home, your body’s estrogen tends to be excreted rather than affecting breast tissue.

Lignans have another benefit as well, as they increase production of a compound that helps with the excretion of excess estrogen. Research has shown that breast cancer rates are lower in women who excrete higher amounts of lignans in their urine.

The other beneficial compound in flaxseed is ALA. When researchers examined the levels of ALA in the breast tissue of 121 women with breast cancer, they found that the ALA seemed to be producing some distinct benefits. Among women who had low levels of ALA, the cancer was much more likely to have spread from the breast to the lymph nodes in the armpit and to other areas as well. After considering all other factors, the researchers concluded that low levels of ALA were the most significant predictor of whether a woman’s breast cancer was likely to spread.