LOADED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We hear so much about breast cancer these days: in the media; through fundraising organizations; and from family and friends facing the diagnosis. Perhaps you, too, are a breast cancer survivor.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and we want to honor and support all women by highlighting our Functional Medicine approach to the prevention of breast cancer, whether the focus is on primary prevention, or prevention of recurrence. Because research shows that how you metabolize estrogen can be one of the causes of cancer, we focus on supporting estrogen detoxification, a process that happens primarily in the liver.

HOW MUCH ESTROGEN DO YOU HAVE?

Many women believe that after menopause they aren’t making estrogen anymore.
This is not true. Estrogen is produced in several places in the body, including the ovaries, adrenal glands and fat cells. Even if your ovaries have been removed or you have gone through menopause, estrogen is still being produced, in low but measurable amounts, by these other tissues. You might wonder: since we all have estrogen, why do some women end up with breast cancer? Well, it turns out that all estrogens are not the same.

When estrogen is processed for elimination, the hormones are sent to the liver where they are metabolized, a process also called detoxification. During the estrogen detox process, you can end up with “bad” estrogens or “good” estrogens. The bad ones are toxic and damage DNA, as opposed to the “good” estrogen metabolites that behave safely and are preferable. Although our genetics influence how easily we make the good and bad estrogens, it turns out (no big surprise!) that food and other lifestyle factors have an enormous effect on the kinds of metabolites the liver will make. These are what we focus on for breast cancer prevention at BCH and in BlumKitchen.

IMPROVE YOUR RATIO OF GOOD:BAD ESTROGENS

The best way to reduce your cancer risk is to increase your good estrogens, and decrease the bad. Here are our top 3 tips:

1. Eat lots of food that supports estrogen detoxification pathways (Mary will talk more about these foods in our Nutrition section). These include:
cruciferous vegetables like kale, broccoli and cauliflower
fiber from fruits and vegetables
soybean that is non-gmo, and in its whole form, like edamame or tofu. Or, fermented soy like tempeh or miso (we will focus on the soy controversy in next month’s newsletter, so stay tuned…)
beans
ground flax seeds
2. Consider taking the supplement Di-indolylmethane, or DIM, which is basically the active component extracted from cruciferous vegetables. This can improve the good:bad estrogen ratio and decrease the risk of breast cancer. We also recommend it to reduce symptoms of too much estrogen, such as fibrocystic breasts, uterine fibroids or heavy painful periods. This condition is called estrogen dominance.
3. If you want to know more about your personal risk, genetic testing can be done to evaluate your probability for making bad estrogens, and urine testing can be done to assess your current ratio of good:bad estrogens. With these test results, we can determine how to use food, supplements and mind-body practices to increase good estrogen levels and lower bad ones. These tests are available from our Functional Medicine practitioners.

Lifestyle, as well as our environment, influences the production and metabolism of estrogens. Poor food choices, alcohol, high insulin levels, and excessive body fat all play a role – so does an over exposure to chemicals (plastics), and pesticides. Thankfully, many plants, and their compounds, support estrogen detoxification:

When our food intake is healthy, balance and varied, we naturally balance our estrogens – we eliminate the troublemakers and hold onto the good ones for optimal bone and brain health — so that we can flip summersaults with our grandchildren and remember their names!

Consider dancing as your mind.body.spirit practice of choice this month. Put on your favorite melodic, slow to moderate paced, happy music, close your eyes, and let the music move you!

When you do a quieting activity that also makes you happy, you turn off the stress hormone cortisol and increase your happy inner neurotransmitters. These provide support to your immune system, helping to heal, decrease pain, and prevent inflammation.

On Saturday November 15th, Dr. Blum and I will offer a One-Day Mindfulness Retreat, that you won’t want to miss! We will focus on techniques you can use every day to create spaciousness and more mental freedom. And it will be a great chance to create community with other Blum Center participants!

Hope to see you at one, or all, of our Mind Body Spirit offerings!

If you are like most of my patients, you are completely confused about cleanses.  In fact, sometimes I think the Internet and media have created almost a mass hysteria about ‘doing a detox’.  What is a cleanse and what is a detox program?  Are they the same? This month I will help you sort out the difference, and decide if it is for you.

First, let’s define the word ‘cleanse’.  Some people think that doing a cleanse means cleaning out their intestines, similar to a colonoscopy prep.  They ask whether they will be in the bathroom all the time for the duration of the program.  Many cleanses on the market use laxatives and herbs to help clean out the gut in this way, and this is not the kind of cleansing that I recommend.

Instead, from a Functional Medicine point of view, a gut cleanse means killing harmful bacteria, yeast and/or parasites using ‘cleansing herbs’ to do this.  It does not entail multiple trips to the bathroom; in fact people with chronic constipation often happily find relief while doing this program, without the use of laxatives.

On the other hand, a detox program is focused on “Supporting Your Liver”.  It is not about the gut, and it isn’t generally thought of as a cleanse, although your liver does continually ‘cleanse’ or rid yourself of environmental toxins, and the ‘bad’ end products of your every day metabolism.  Because of the enormous amount of toxins we are all exposed to every day, and because research is showing the clear link between toxins and chronic diseases like autoimmune disease, cancer, obesity and heart disease, it is good to support your liver and tune it up periodically to keep those toxins moving out and not getting stuck in your body.  A detox program uses supplements that boost and enhance your liver detox system, and this is the Functional Medicine approach to a medically sound detox program.

And finally a word about juice cleanses, which fall under the category of a liver cleanse, but without supplements.  Your liver needs many nutrients to do its job, especially if you have a lot of exposure to toxins, like mercury in fish, or pesticides from your lawn or in food.  A juice cleanse can be a terrific way to get intense amounts of antioxidants, B vitamins, phytonutrients from greens-all things that help your liver-while at the same time taking a rest from eating food, especially animal food.  However, many juice cleanses are not organic, are high in sugar and don’t have the protein that your liver needs, leaving people feeling worse than when they started.

Here are my suggestions for choosing a detox program or juice cleanse:

1. Plan on doing a liver support detox program twice/year, to tune up your liver in the fall and spring.  This is a great weight management strategy, too.  Use liver support supplements with a detox meal plan to get the maximum benefit.  We run these programs regularly at Blum Center for Health, both onsite and online.  Click here for our next program dates and for more information.
2. In between the medical detox programs, several times a year or when you need a tune up after vacation or a weekend completely ‘off the wagon’, consider doing a juice cleanse for 1-3 days.  Choose an organic food and juice company like Organic Pharmer, which I co-founded, to make sure the cleanses are in keeping with my recommendations.  I usually do a juice cleanse day every Monday as a way of starting off the week on the right track. For more information, please visit:http://bit.ly/1lELOKR

If you have digestive issues and think you need a cleanse focused on the gut, check out our free online ‘Do It With Us’ Healing Your Gut Program.  We can help you with this, too.

The vegetables commonly found in “green drinks” or juice cleanses are rich in antioxidants – vitamins A, C and E, and phytonutrients called thiols.  Without the support of these important nutrients during a detox program, toxins will form very reactive free radicals that may cause you to feel unwell and damage your tissues.

The following vegetables deliver vital nutrients to your body – so be sure to include them in your liver support regimen:

Other essential nutrients needed for safe detoxification include – amino acids, fiber, and magnesium.  A liver cleanse is not the time to be nutrient deficient!

Here is your detox challenge for creating more peace of mind and getting rid of mental toxins:

Take a break from the news!

News is one of the biggest causes of stress for the modern mind because the articles and broadcasts focus on the thing that grabs your attention: the risky, dangerous, frightening, catastrophic.  In short, if it pushes the fear button, it’s probably on the news.

We are surrounded by one crazy story after another-if we’re not listening to them on the radio, or reading it on our web homepage, we’re hearing from a friend or neighbor about gossip posing as news.

So for just one day, turn it off.  Let it go.  The world will go on even if you have missed the latest episode. And tomorrow’s episode won’t be that different, as those of us from the soap opera generation remember so well.

Whew!  Doesn’t it feel great to even just imagine being without the newscast!

So enjoy the silence, or put on some music that soothes or excites you, or maybe laugh out loud at the freedom you are experiencing from just that simple step.  Laughter, after all, is the best medicine!

Experiencing our Signature Learn to Relax Guide & CD are wonderful tools for your relaxation pleasure.