October is breast cancer awareness month. Historically, I send an email to help remind all of us on how we can care for our health, and especially healthy, happy breasts.
I dropped the ball since the pandemic (this isn’t the only area…..I keep remembering things I did pre-pandemic that I loved but had completely forgotten about…..has that happened with you, friend?), and I’m getting back in the saddle with so many things here. I JUST remembered that I loved doing this each year.
Let’s dive in with all of the goodies I’ve got for you!
First off, remember that you’re the master of your own destiny. YOU get to make choices, throughout your life, that add to your health (and other choices can deplete it). I want to remind you that with each moment, each day, you control your health outcome. Don’t wait for your doctor to tell you to do something as a reaction to a lab test. Do things NOW while you’re feeling good!
Secondly, know that cancer cells are forever circulating around your body. Throughout your life, your immune system identifies cells that aren’t welcome and moves them along and out of your body. Your immune system is THE most important factor when staying healthy and vital.
I also want to share that, in the way that I speak about health, I don’t like to use words like ‘fight’ or ‘destroy’. I feel that these words are not kind or loving to the ecosystem that’s maintaining the balance in your body.
When we’re addressing health, you’ll most likely read or hear me say ‘bringing that into balance’ or ‘where’s the health here?”. I strongly believe that all disease processes begin with an imbalance. Imbalance leads to dysfunction, which leads to disease.
We want to create balance to prevent dysfunction to prevent disease. I want you to catch things WAAAAAAYYY before you get to the disease process, which is by-and-large what we’ve been acculturated to focus on…..curing something once it happens rather than preventing it.
What I’m sharing with you this week is a short list of acitivities, foods and supplements you can implement, today. My advice would be to pick one item on this list and practice it. Experience tells me that the micro-habits we create, become our behaviors (remember that habit challenge we just did?!)
And before I dive in, I know so many of you out there have dealt with breast cancer, mastectomies and other scary and challenging health issues. You’re a warrior. I want to honor you and what you’ve been through and what you continue to go through. It’s a lifelong health challenge that you’ll be facing. Please know that nothing I’m writing here is a ‘well, if you’d done these things….’
Also from experience, there are no guarantees of anything in this life. Even with the best of intentions, sh** still happens. It’s not fair. It’s not anyone’s fault. It doesn’t mean that you didn’t do your very best. There’s so much more that we’re exposed to these past several decades. Our foods are depleted. We’re sitting so much. We’re stressed.
What I’m offering up below are the things I know that can help boost your immune system and help unburden your body from the toxic load that we’re all carrying around with us.
These tips are great for everyone, whether you’re a man, woman or kiddo (yes, men’s rates of breast cancer continue to rise). These are tips and tools that I’ve used for decades. I know this isn’t a complete list, by far, and there are TONS of things you can do and not do.
So, for the sake of trying to keep this short-ish, I’ve kept it to 10 items:
Top 10 Tips for healthy breasts:
1. Keep your liver clean. Your liver is your blood filtering system. It cleans out toxins like alcohol, both pharmaceutical and recreational drugs, pesticides, car exhaust, and hormones.
There are LOTS of things your liver is working hard to get rid of. But as I mentioned above, we live in a very toxic world. It’s likely that your liver is overloaded and needs regular, daily support to keep up the good work it’s doing.
- Drink water with lemon first thing in the morning: here’s a link to my master cleanse recipe
- Make ginger lemon tea 3-5 times a week. This boosts liver and gallbladder function
- Eat plenty of steamed beets and carrots throughout the week
- Drink water instead of soda, alcohol, black tea or coffee
2. Move. Everytime you move, you’re stimulating and circulating your lymphatic system. Think of your lymphatics as your roving army to pick up waste products, toxins and dead bugs from around your entire body. It doesn’t move like your circulatory system that has little muscles contracting along blood vessels. Nope.
Movement is the ONLY way for those vessels to pump. I tell my patients that, even if you can’t get up and move due to pain or illness, move whatever it is that can still move. Whether it’s a wrist, an ankle, bending a knee….move!
Here’s a super easy movement video I made some years ago... still good info. You can even do this in your desk chair!
3. Breathe. Everytime you breathe, long and deeply, you’re stimulating your lymph system, as well as balancing your nervous system. Both of these systems are important for balance. When your fight-or-flight system is in balance with your rest-and-digest system, you’re living the dream. A healthy nervous system = less stress = less pressure on your immune system
4. Cold showers. Taking cold showers stimulates your lymph and blood flow. The breast tissue doesn’t drain itself and needs stimulation, either from movement or touch. Cold showers stimulate blood flow to that area. See my blog post to learn more about this.
5. Eat organic. When you eat foods that haven’t been sprayed with chemicals and preservatives, you’re doing your liver and breast tissue a favor. Breast tissue tends to store chemically synthesized estrogens. Many cancers feed off of estrogen and most of the estrogens we’re coming into contact with, are chemically synthesized.
6. Lymphatic drainage therapy. Fibrocystic breasts run in my family and the only thing that has helped with the pain is this. I go to a practitioner who uses the Lymphstar system, which is the best for me and some of my patients.
There are lots of therapists out there who use their hands, which also works well for many people. The women who see me who have had mastectomies lean toward lymphatic therapy to help with the swelling. I’ve got a mini class in my video below for self breast massage that I do daily.
7. Balance your stress. Stress is one of the major contributors to a lowered immune system. Whenever you experience a stressful situation, your body’s HPA axis fires, indicating that there’s an emergency. Every time this occurs, your immune system also jumps into action. If this is happening 8,10,15 times a day, you see where that gets you?
8. Laugh several times a day. I’m a huge believer that ‘laughter being the best medicine’. I intentionally watch, have conversations, and do things that make me laugh. Even if something isn’t THAT funny, I push myself to laugh. Laughter releases endorphins which build up your immune system.
9. Check your hormones. High levels of estrogen can contribute to different kinds of cancers, fibroids and many other health conditions. Make sure yours are at the correct levels. You can go to your doctor or find an online practitioner to help you. Make sure that the person you’re working with is skilled in this…AND make sure you educate yourself on hormones.
I love Dr. Mary Claire Haver’s ‘The New Menopause’. The OG book on this is Dr. John Lee. I feel like he was a pioneer on hormones and was thinking outside the box. His ‘What Your Doctor May not Tell you About Pre-Menopause’ was the one I’ve had since the early 2000’s and was my original look into the alternative to suffering through menopause
10. Keep your immune system healthy. Wherever you are in your life, age-wise, health-wise, keeping your immune system healthy is uber important. I recommend the following….you can click this link and get my complete protocol (and you’ll get 15% off all of your orders when you register with Fullscript through my account) for long-term immune boosting.
- Adrenal support: your adrenals are affected every time your adrenaline spikes. Think: road rage, crummy boss, screaming kids, mother-in-law, running your business. Too much adrenaline everyday results in depleted cortisol (natural anti-inflammatory), lowered sex hormones, fatigue, increased blood pressure
- B complex: one of the best things you can do to balance your nervous system and alleviate stress
- Magnesium: ditto above
- Omega 3s: We need these for every. single. function. in our body. I have test kits for checking your Omega 3 levels if you’re interested
Ready to start building up your immune system?Here’s my challenge to you: 🌱 Which of the above suggestions resonated with you? 🌱 Is it the movement? The organic eating? The immune boosting supplements? 🌱 What can you implement today? 🌱 What can you stick to for at least 40 days? 🌱 Let me know what you decide and let’s stay in touch about it! I’ll help cheerlead you! |
|
Let’s work together right now! Here’s how:
Herbal Supplements I Trust: I’m here to support you every step of the way towards a healthier, happier you. One of the ways to help you is to get the right supplements. Here are some of the supplements that I recommend. Telehealth Sessions: For a number of reasons, meeting with me online might feel more supportive to you at the moment. My books are currently open for telehealth sessions where I can support you in reading your medical charts, finding solutions to your plaguing health issues, or providing alternative holistic support.
|
Always in healing,
Dr. Arjan