Cancer Prevention

From mercola.com:

The Most Important Cancer Prevention Strategy

There are a number of lifestyle changes that can help prevent breast cancer from ever becoming a reality for you. For starters, we cannot discuss breast cancer without mentioning the importance of vitamin D.
Vitamin D, a steroid hormone that influences virtually every cell in your body, is easily one of nature's most potent cancerfighters. According to one landmark study, an estimated 600,000 cases of breast and colorectal cancers could be prevented each year if vitamin D levels among populations worldwide were increased.
Your liver, kidney and other tissues converts the vitamin D in your bloodstream into calcitriol (the hormonal or activated version of vitamin D), which your organs then use to repair damage, including that from cancer cells.
Vitamin D is actually able to enter cancer cells and trigger apoptosis or cancer cell death. When JoEllen Welsh, a researcher with the State University of New York at Albany, injected a potent form of vitamin D into human breast cancercells, half of them shriveled up and died within days! In fact, the vitamin D was as effective as the toxic breast cancerdrug Tamoxifen, without any of the detrimental side effects and at a tiny fraction of the cost.
In my opinion, it should be criminal malpractice not to recommend vitamin D and regularly monitor a breast cancerpatient's vitamin D level to make sure it's between 70 and 100 ng/ml. Vitamin D works synergistically with every cancertreatment I am aware of and has no adverse effects.
If one of my loved ones had breast cancer I would measure their vitamin D level every week until it reached the target.
If you're still unfamiliar with vitamin D and its many health benefits, please watch my one-hour free lecture on vitamin D.

Safer Screening Options

Reducing breast cancer rates and mortality begins with prevention and effective screening methods. Vitamin D is the most important preventive strategy, but there are also others. I will summarize all of them at the end of this article, but first, it's important to realize that mammography is actually NOT an effective cancer screen.
In fact, mammography, just like chemotherapy and extensive radiation therapy, causes more harm than good, and may in fact be partially responsible for a large number of breast cancer cases!
I strongly advise you to consider the safer and more effective alternative of thermographic breast screening, especially if you are younger and have not already been diagnosed with, or undergone treatment for breast cancer.
By measuring the radiation of infrared heat from your body, thermographic screening can detect signs of breast cancer as much as 10 years earlier than either mammography or a physical exam – all without any ionizing radiation or mechanical pressure.
Sure, there are times when mammograms and x-rays are warranted, and thermography may not be a 100 percent replacement of these ionizing procedures in every instance. However, as a part of your annual health prevention regimen,thermography is a FAR better alternative to mammograms.
Its ability to detect the possibility of breast cancer, before any tumors have formed, is because it can provide a picture of the early stages of angiogenesis -- the formation of a direct supply of blood to cancer cells, which is a necessary step before they can grow into tumors of size.
I recently discussed this mechanism in another article. In it, Dr. Li presents compelling evidence that by including more anti-angiogenetic foods in your diet, you may be able to effectively starve cancer and prevent tumors from ever forming since they must have sufficient blood supply to thrive, just like all other cells.
Just imagine the impact these two strategies could have together!
Were you to undergo a thermographic screening and discover that angiogenesis is taking place, meaning that tiny blood vessels have begun sprouting to an area to feed cancer cells, you now have YEARS at your disposal to effectively "cure yourself" (although by conventional standards you're not yet ill) by implementing lifesaving lifestyle changes.
This would logically include increased amounts of anti-angiogenetic foods such as red grapes, berries, turmeric and broccoli, just to name a few. For more information, I recommend watching Dr. Li's video.
You can also get more information about thermography and other types of breast cancer screening options from this previous article. And for instructions on how to perform an effective breast self-exam, see this link.

Other Important Lifestyle Changes that Could Save Your Life

Here is a summary of all my cancer prevention strategies:

1. Normalize your vitamin D levels with safe amounts of sun exposure. Ideally, you'll want to monitor your vitamin D levels regularly throughout the year.
2. Control your insulin levels: Make certain that you limit your intake of processed foods and sugars as much as possible.
3. Get appropriate amounts of animal-based omega-3 fats.
4. Get appropriate exercise. One of the primary reasons exercise works is that it drives your insulin levels down. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risks.
5. Eat according to your nutritional type. The potent anti-cancer effects of this principle are very much underappreciated. When we treat cancer patients in our clinic this is one of the most powerful anti-cancerstrategies we have.
6. Have a tool to permanently erase the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. My particular favorite tool for this purpose, as you may know, is the Meridian Tapping Technique/Emotional Freedom Technique.
7. Only 25 percent of people eat enough vegetables, so by all means eat as many vegetables as you are comfortable with. Ideally, they should be fresh and organic. However, please understand that, frequently, fresh conventionally grown vegetables are healthier than organic ones that are older and wilted in the grocery store. They are certainly better than no vegetables at all, so don't use that as an excuse. If you are a carb nutritional type you may need up to 300 percent more vegetables than a protein nutritional type.
8. Make sure you are not in the two-thirds of the population who are overweight and maintain an ideal body weight.
9. Get enough high-quality sleep.
10. Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and air pollution.
11. Boil, poach or steam your foods, rather than frying or charbroiling them.

Related Links:

  Avoid Routine Mammograms if you are Under 50 

  Chemo for Breast Cancer - More Harm Than Good? 

  Simple Steps to Lower Your Breast Cancer Risk