This month is breast health awareness month and we are so passionate about understanding how to optimise your breast health to avoid any scary health battles later down the line.

At Agent, we strongly believe that Cancer is not just a physical disease, it’s multifactorial.

We want to help spread the word that it never comes from just one cause, it comes from so many lifestyle decisions over a period of time far before the tumor appears. In fact, the time frame for the development of cancer is much bigger than anyone ever expects - with some studies showing that it can take ten years from the development of one cancer cell to a tumor.

In today’s article, we are going one step deeper, looking into the 7 physical terrain imbalances in the body that can lay the foundations for poor breast health to emerge so you and your loved ones can work to avoid these.

Understanding these 7 things that can lead to a physical terrain that is more conducive to send cancer cells into a spin, can help us to understand what areas of our health we can track, focus on and be aware of to reduce the general risk of cancer across the board

Interested in the 7 terrain imbalances linked to poor breast health and, ultimately, breast cancer? Ok, let’s go.

1. Estrogen dominance - this is one of the biggest players in the cancer game. 

This one comes first in our list of terrain imbalances because many Doctors think it is the most important cancer driver, particularly because an estrogen-dominant environment can feed cancer cells and cause them to grow more rapidly.

A study published in Cancer Letters found that cells involved in estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer cells and tumors need estrogen to grow. High estrogen levels are also classified as a risk factor by the American Cancer Association for breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and endometrial cancer so, being aware of whether you are living in a body that has signs of estrogen dominance is important.

Heavy periods, irregular bleeding, weight gain, fibroids, endometriosis, fibrocystic breasts, and low libido can sometimes be a sign of estrogen dominance. Be sure to seek medical guidance if you are experiencing any of these symptoms.

2. Insufficient iodine - building on the above point, insufficient iodine levels are also increasingly being connected to an increased risk of cancer.

This is because iodine is required by the body to balance estrogen levels so enough iodine can help to reduce the risk of cancer.

More specifically, it’s particularly important for reducing the likelihood of cancer cell creation and replication, particularly in the breasts, ovaries, and prostate. 

Signs of iodine deficiency include increased sensitivity to cold, dry skin, weight gain, puffy face, muscle weakness, and dry skin, amongst others. Iodine levels can be tested through a simple blood test. If you think this might be relevant to you, be sure to chat with your medical doctor.

At Agent, our go-to is high quality, organic and natural food sources before we start to supplement. Foods that are high in iodine that you can consider incorporating more of if you are deficient are things such as seaweed, kelp, wakame, nori, cod, ionized salt, shrimp, eggs, prunes, lima beans.  We often don’t get enough iodine from our food intake on a daily basis so it’s good to understand where you can source it.

If your doctor advises you to supplement, or you have tested your iodine levels and you aren’t able to effectively supplement with your diet, our favorite iodine supplement is the CellCore Iodine linked here.

This CT-Iodine is a bioactive, carbon-driven product that is amazing not only for iodine delivery (helping to prevent the absorption of radiation into the thyroid and reducing the symptoms of fibrocystic breast disease) but also to support the thyroid more generally, as well as increasing energy levels and promoting cerebral function. To be able to purchase the CellCore Iodine, you can create an account at CellCore here with the Agent Nateur code A8QqLfcy.

3. Excess Iron - Iron is something we talk about a lot but most of the time we talk about people facing *LOW* levels of iron in the body (think, anemia, bags under your eyes, pale skin), as opposed to *HIGH* levels of iron.

However, when there is excess iron in the body it can act as a powerful oxidant - which is a bad thing. Oxidants and the resulting oxidative stress can damage your physiology, your cells, and DNA which can lead to increased aging, as well as the onset of a whole host of diseases - cancer being just one of them. 

Increased levels of oxidants need antioxidants to fight against them, and if your body is not getting enough of these, there can be an imbalance.

Ferritin is the way that iron is stored within the body, and higher levels of this in the body (both in the serum and in the tumor) have been linked to increased levels of fatality from breast cancer.

Check your iron levels and remember, it’s not just low levels of iron that need to be monitored!

4. Chronic stress and emotional trauma

Day-to-day stress, and past stress, often stored in the body as emotional trauma or repressed emotions, can be dangerous as a contributor to a terrain that is more favorable to the creation and replication of cancer cells in the body.

This is because ongoing stress leads to the ongoing creation of elevated levels of cortisol (the body’s stress hormone). These stress hormones can inhibit a process that is known as anoikis.

Anoikis is a form of programmed cell death (die, cancer, die) that occurs when the cancer cells detach from the cells closest to them that they need for survival.

Basically, stress can increase the risk of cancer cells multiplying and replicating into tumors.

5. High insulin - alongside increased levels of estrogen and iron, high levels of insulin are also being proven to increase the risk and onset of breast cancer. 

A recent study co-founded by a man named Gunter, and published in the journal of Cancer Research, studied more than 3,300 women and found that high levels of insulin (when fasting) doubled the risk of breast cancer for a woman, irrelevant of her weight at the time of the study.

Taking it one step further, the study also showed that women who were over the advised weight recommendations, or who were insulin-resistant in their day-to-day life, increased their risk of breast cancer by 84%.

84%! This is huge!

6. Ionizing radiation - nearly there. Next up, the connection between ionizing radiation and breast cancer.

Ionizing radiation is any type of radiation (like X-rays or gamma rays) that have enough energy to cause ionization in the subject, substance, or medium that it is passing through - with the power to cause chemical changes in the substances (not good when that substance is the structure of your body).

As we discussed in our live with Dr. G when we explored the connection between the onset of cancer and exposure to X-rays, mammograms, and airport scanners (head here for a summary of the live), we know that radiation exposure for the body is cumulative and builds up over time each time that you come into contact with the radiation.

Radiation is thought to have estrogen enhancing effects and so, now understanding the important connection between estrogen dominance and cancer onset, it is a good idea to avoid ionizing radiation unless absolutely critical. 

Our founder, Jena, has been opting out of the TSA scans for many years now and is passionate about people knowing that you can do this too. She is also a fan of thermography as it reduces the levels of radiation that a woman is exposed to with a more traditional mammogram or CT scan approach.

Thermography, or a thermogram, is a test that uses an infrared camera to detect heat patterns and blood flow in body tissues. A thermogram produces a type of ‘heat map’ that can be used to identify abnormalities (particularly of physiological changes that can show a pre-disease or disease state), without intense levels of radiation.

There is never a one size fits all approach and whilst, at Agent, we love thermography for early prevention and general health, working in conjunction with a mammogram at later ages to catch dangerous changes may be something you can discuss with your doctor.

Try to Avoid CT scans where possible as they deliver a higher dose of radiation than the traditional mammogram.

Be sure to know you have options before being told you need to undertake particular treatments or therapies.  Knowledge is power here !

7. Low vitamin D - finally, good old Vitamin D!

We’ve been talking a lot about Vitamin D recently, particularly in the fight against COVID-19, (you can read our most recent blog linked here). It’s fascinating to understand that some studies have also shown that breast cancer cases seem to be lower in regions with the highest solar exposure. It’s thought that there may be a connection to the Vitamin D that we get from the sunlight. This is just another reason to get out into the sunshine, no matter where you live, on a daily basis. Vitamin D is critical to our health in so many ways.  

Vitamin D also protects against 17 different types of cancer, has been shown to stop cancer cell growth, as well as inhibiting tumor blood vessel growth. In short, Vitamin D helps to kill cancer cells. Major!

In a world full of supplements, if you’re confused about where to source high-quality Vitamin D, we suggest you head to https://wholescripts.com/register - where Jena’s good friend, Dr Will Cole, has an amazing Vitamin D.

As a friend of Agent Nateur, you can use referral Code: drwillcole and practitioners Last Name: Cole to take the next step in your Vitamin D health journey.

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Understanding these terrain imbalances are an eye-opening step forward in the battle against breast cancer and breast cancer prevention. 

Understanding how many cases of cancer may be lifestyle-based, and equally preventable, can help us to understand how we can monitor our health for many years before the onset of cancer.

 Knowledge is power - and by educating ourselves, we can start to monitor our health, avoiding known excesses or deficiencies that may, over time, lead to a terrain imbalance that is more conducive to cancer and the replication of cancer cells.

 At Agent, we always like to remember that there is a root cause to every disease - and cancer cells don’t just appear for no reason.

Share this with a loved one!

***THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN APPROVED OR REGULATED BY THE FDA.  WE ARE NOT DOCTORS, THEREFORE ALWAYS CONSULT WITH YOUR DOCTOR FIRST.

By Louise Rumball / @iamlouiserumball