A Gutsy Guide to Getting Your Mojo Back

Hiya, Pinkies! It’s Healthy Thursday, so I wanted to spend a few minutes talking to you about breast cancer.  For four years, I have been casting women with breast cancer for an art project near and dear to my heart- The Woman Inside Project. For this project, I cast the torsos of women with breast cancer with medical plaster. I then hold up these casts and ask these women to tell me about the beautiful women they are inside. I then transcribe these interviews into stories about the beauty I see within each woman. And trust me- each woman is GORGEOUS.  I’ve even started a campaign to Cast Oprah, because the women I’ve cast have expressed such deep feeling about how the experience has moved them. I now realize we are all beautiful- thin or fat, young or old, breast cancer or not. What a revelation! The show goes on national tour starting January 2010, so stay tuned! Needless to say, I have a soft spot in my heart for these women, and chances are, some of you Pinkies are among these beautiful women with insides like gold.

Lissa Rankin's The Woman Inside cast of Susan

Your Lifetime Risk Of Cancer (What The Hell Does that MEAN?)

But back to breast cancer.  We all hear the scary statistics- one in eight women will get breast cancer in her lifetime. Which is true, but misleading. So what does it mean?  Yes, the lifetime probability of developing invasive breast cancer (the kind that can getting into your lymph nodes and metastasize) is one in eight. But statistics can be very confusing.  Basically, because we live longer and have better screening methods, we have higher and higher lifetime risks of breast cancer.  When you are born, you have a 12.3% chance that you will be diagnosed with breast cancer in your lifetime, but less than a 3% chance that you will die from it. When you are twenty, you have a 1.9% chance that you will be diagnosed before you are fifty.  At fifty, there is an 8.9% chance you will be diagnosed in the next thirty years.   So it’s not as if, every year, you have a one in eight chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer.  But it’s frightening, nonetheless.

Most of us know multiple women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Because I am a gynecologist, as well as an artist who has been casting the torsos of women with breast cancer for The Woman Inside Project, I know thousands.  Many are young, otherwise healthy women who had no idea they might have breast cancer until they found a lump.  So how do you know whether you are at risk?  Here’s a few myths I want to clarify for you Pinkies:

5 Myths About Your Breast Cancer Risk

1)    If I have a family history, I am definitely at high risk. While this may be true, it’s usually not.  Most breast cancers are not genetic, and with one in eight women getting breast cancer, almost all of us will have a family history of some sort.  If your fifty-year old cousin Elsie and your ninety-year old Great Aunt Bertha have breast cancer but your mother and sister don’t, your risk is probably not increased.  But if your mother and sister were both diagnosed with breast cancer before menopause, your risk is definitely higher.

2)    Big breasts are more likely to get breast cancer.  Breast size is not related to cancer risk.  While examining and screening larger breasts takes more time and attention, large breasts are at no higher risk than small breasts of developing breast cancer.

3)    Because I have fibrocystic breasts and my breasts hurt, I might have breast cancer. The majority of breast cancers are painless, and most breast pain does not relate to breast cancer.  Many women have fibrocystic breasts. In fact, what we used to call fibrocystic breast disease, we now call fibrocystic change, since it’s so common and normal.  Most women with fibrocystic change do not have an increased risk of breast cancer.

4)    If I use hormone replacement or birth control pills, I will die of breast cancer. There is conflicting evidence about the effect of hormones on breast cancer risk.  While some evidence supports the idea that using hormones will increase your risk of breast cancer, this risk is very, very small and most likely represents growth of a preexisting cancer.  In major studies, women who use hormones (hormone replacement or birth control pills) do not have an increased risk of dying of breast cancer compared to women who have not used hormones.

5)    Mammograms will prevent me from getting breast cancer. While most experts recommend mammography for decreasing breast cancer risk, mammograms are an imperfect test and can miss breast cancers.  Breast thermograms, which evaluate blood flow and heat, may help to pick up early changes that may lead to breast cancer, while the changes may still be reversible. While breast thermograms are not well studied and may still miss breast cancers, they may have benefit for young women at high risk for whom mammography doesn’t serve as a good screening tool.  Mammography, and possibly thermography, can reduce your risk of dying from breast cancer.

Lissa Rankin's art from The Woman Inside Project, Jillie Bo

Decreasing Your Breast Cancer Risk

-Practice monthly self-breast exams.

-Eat 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day, preferably raw

-Limit your intake of animal fats, particularly red meat.

-Eat lots of fiber

-Avoid drinking two or more glasses of alcohol per day

-Increase your intake of superfoods high in antioxidants, such as kale, beets, carrots, beans, collard greens, brussel sprouts, and broccoli.  If you’re not good about eating your veggies, try Sun Chlorella.

-Drink green juice. It’s a great way to alkalinize your body, and cancer likes acid, not alkalinity.

-Avoid dairy or use organic butter, cheese, and milk, as they are less likely to be contaminated with human growth hormone or estrogen, which is sometimes used to stimulate milk production in cows.

-Use extra-virgin olive oil, raw flaxseed oil, and cod liver oil.

-Expose yourself to the sun.  High levels of Vitamin D help fight cancer.

-Talk to your doctor about when you should begin mammography and/or breast thermography.

-Be aware of your family history. If you have a first degree family member who was diagnosed with breast cancer before menopause, consider talking to a genetic counselor.

-Limit alcohol intake, and if you do drink alcohol, make sure you’re getting enough folic acid in your diet. If not, take a supplement that includes folic acid.

-If you are at higher risk for breast cancer, talk to your doctor about supplements you can use to reduce your risk.

What about you Pinkies? Does breast cancer scare you? Have you lost loved ones? Have you been cancer victims yourselves? Share your stories, and feel the love….

Be well, Pinkies. And don’t forget to examine your boobies!

With pink love and healing juju for any of you afflicted by breast cancer,

Dr. Lissa

To make an appointment with Dr. Lissa Rankin, call www.clearcenterofhealth.com

Dr. Lissa Rankin is writing her next book, What’s Up Down There? Questions You’d Only Ask Your Gynecologist If She Was Your Best Friend (St. Martin’s Press, Sept 2010)