It’s unlikely you’ve never met or known someone with breast cancer. In fact every year breast cancer is attributed to 30%, or 1 in 3, of new female cancers every year. It is the most common type of cancer among women.

According to the CDC breast cancer is the number 2 killer among women of all ages and races. White women being affected the most, then black, asian and pacific islander next and hispanic women being affected the least. Women between the ages of 70-74 have the highest rates of breast cancer, but women as young as 20-24 are affected by breast cancers every year. Unfortunately, Ashkenazi Jewish women have a higher risk of breast cancer as well because of the BRCA1/2 gene mutation which occurs in about 1 in 40 Ashkenazi Jewish women. Whereas in non Ashkenazi Jewish women it occurs in 1 in 400 women. Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in black women

In 2023 it is estimated that there will be 297,790 new cases of invasive breast cancer in the united states. World wide number are just as high if not higher in some countries with Australia and Aotearoa being the highest and eastern/middle africa, and south central asia being the lowest.

So is this something we as women just deal with and hope we don’t get or just expect to get? Do mammograms actually help? What causes it? What protects us from it, if anything? So many questions regarding something we’ll all most likely deal with directly or indirectly.

I’ve already made a post on mammograms and why they’re probably not the most reliable. Check that post here if you haven’t seen it yet.

What causes breast cancer?

There’s no one answer for this one, unfortunately. As seen above, your genes could be what causes you to have a cancer diagnosis, it could be your environment, it could be your diet (that’s a big one). If you have the BRCA mutation, if you are diagnosed with breast cancer, if cancer “runs in your family,” does that mean you just accept your fate?

Thankfully, no. We as women do not have to accept breast cancer as “our fate.” That would be a seriously horrible way to live to just expect to get breast cancer because you’re a woman or because your family member had it. It’s extremely defeatist and wreaks of victim mentality. You don’t have to be a victim. Let’s learn…

We can literally cut off their blood supply. Without getting completely scientific, cancer cells develop to a point where they must have a blood supply, they must have blood vessels. They send out these little messengers to the body that say “hello, I’m a cell, I need some blood vessels, please hook me up!” If we cut those little messengers off, no blood vessels are made for the cancer and the cancer cannot continue to grow.

But foods can’t possible help a serious disease like breast cancer right? Its the second leading cause of death in women, if food could help people wouldn’t be dying in droves as it seems. And I’m sure we’ve all heard that certain foods cause illnesses, right now the popular one is “seed oils,” but in the past (and I still see it today) soy has been said to cause cancer–especially breast cancer!

We’ve already determined the BRCA gene mutation can increase your risk of cancer, but so can food and drink.
Alcohol is estimated to cause ~5.8% of all cancer deaths (mouth, throat, esophageal, colorectal, liver, voicebox, and breast) worldwide with evidence mounting that it also causes pancreatic, prostate and melanoma. In women, the majority of the alcohol caused cancer is breast, and that’s at about 100,000 cases a year. We’re not talking heavy alcohol drinkers either. We’re talking the toxic mom culture of “mommy needs a drink” or “I’ll just have a wine with dinner” or “oh I only drink every once in a while, special occasions and such.”

Breast cancer is an estrogen dominance cancer, meaning excessive estrogen causes these cancers (breast and ovarian). All women have estrogen, it’s what makes us women (hallelu), but too much or for too long causes issues. When we’re seeing kids starting their menstrual cycle at 8 and 9 years old, thats an issue because they’re significantly increasing the amount of time their body is exposed to estrogen. This increases their risk of breast and ovarian cancers. Why are kids starting puberty at 8 and 9?

Their diet.

Children (and adults) are being fed foods that have estrogen in them, and no for heaven’s sake I’m not talking about soy. I’m talking about beef, milk, cheese, butter, pig (pork) goat, sheep (lamb). You can barely order anything at a restaurant or fast food without it containing any one of those items. Why are those an issue? Because they all contain mammalian estrogen and what are humans? Mammals. Mammalian hormones mimic and affect mammalian hormones. So much so that people on hormone replacement therapy (like thyroid hormone treatment) will have medicines made from pig thyroid hormones. If you’re ingesting mammalian estrogen, you’re just boosting your estrogen levels and increased estrogen increases breast and ovarian cancer risks.

Meat in the US can be injected with something called Zeranol which boosts the estrogen in meat. Zeranol is 100,000 more potent of an endocrine disrupter than BPA. In fact in experiments, Zeranol doubled the growth rate of cancer. It has also been shown to turn normal breast cells into cancerous cells within 21 days of introduction. Obese women are at an even higher risk of Zeranol injected meat causing cancer because they have high levels of leptin which already promotes breast cancer growth. The meat industry has no effective federal regulation and can use whatever feed additives they want including Zeranol and other carcinogens.

But that’s meat injected with an additive. What if you got organic meat that was injected with anything, or a local cattle farmer that let you “buy a cow?” That has to be better and not carcinogenic…Unfortunately not true. The proteins, the casein, the hormones (natural and added) like IGF-1 (a cancer promoting growth hormone) all can and do cause cancer.

20% of cancers can be linked to infectious agents, like viruses. One of those viruses is bovine polyomavirus. The polyomavirus can survive cooking temps, so even cooking a meat product isn’t going to kill the cancer causing virus. Interestingly enough, the smallpox vaccine which contains the skin of calves has been shown to cause cancer at the injection site.

People who consume meat obviously are at risk of cancer, people who work in the meat industry are at an increased risk of developing and dying from multiple times of cancers.

Evidence shows that dairy, because it comes from the mammary glands of cows and contains estrogen, increases the risk of specifically breast cancer. Bovine leukemia virus was found in the DNA of human breast cancer tumours. Researchers were able to calculate that about 51.82% of breast cancer cases could be connected to bovine leukemia exposure through the consumption of dairy, but also meat. This seems obvious, but I’ll state it outright–if you’re concerned about breast cancer (or any cancer), stop eating other mammals who’s diseases and hormones affect your body.
Putting this bovine leukemia and human breast cancer link into perspective, here are other things that cause cancer compared to bovine leukemia:
-hormone replacement therapy for five years increases your risk of breast cancer by 30%
-birth control pills for a dozen or more years increases your breast cancer risk by 40%
-Being obese as you age increases your breast cancer risk by about 60%.
-Having an immediate family member (mother, sister etc) may double your risk.
-Being infected with bovine leukemia virus quadruples your risk of breast cancer.

(BLV can also cause leukemia in humans as well).

But what if you do have the BRCA gene mutation? Is this a situation where you just get your breasts removed to save yourself the heartache of a breast cancer diagnosis?

No.

You prevent the cancer from even having a chance–yes, even with the BRCA gene mutation and yes, even keeping your breasts.

How?

With soy.
*Queue the offended gasps from women who have had doctors and society telling them that soy causes cancer* Let go of your pearls ladies and listen up.

Cancer survivors who eat soy, like soy milk, tofu, and edamame beans have a 29% lower chance of dying from breast cancer and a 36% lower risk of cancer coming back. Another study showed that one cup of soy milk a day reduces the mortality of breast cancer by 38%.
After two years, breast cancer survivors eating soy were still alive, a quarter to a third of the women who didn’t eat soy had died. After 5 years, 90% of those soy eating cancer survivors were still alive, half of the non soy eaters had died.

Why is this? Why is soy actually protective? Soy turns on the BRCA gene. The job of the BRCA gene is to suppress cancer development and growth. And the BRCA gene mutation is not something you just have to deal with, it’s not a “once it’s broken you cant fix it.” Research and studies show, on human cells, that soy literally gets the BRCA gene working again.

Something else that every mom and mom to be should know is that breastfeeding lowers her risk of breast and ovarian cancer. There’s already a multitude of reasons to breastfeed. I could go on all day about the benefits of breastfeeding, but the fact that the simple act of nourishing your child lowers your risk of breast and ovarian cancer, seems to be a strong reason to do so. Especially if you’re concerned about breast or ovarian cancer.

Let’s put this discussion into more shocking terms because sometimes we just need to be shocked. We all know what a carcinogen is (something that causes cancer). Here’s a list of carcinogens you’re most likely consuming daily:
Alcohol, meat, dairy products.

And how do we prevent those carcinogens from killing us? By not consuming them.