Breast Health – your life is in your hands

One in nine New Zealand women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.  Every year 2,300 women face the shock of this diagnosis, and 650 die from their illness annually.

Much of the breast cancer awareness emphasis revolves not around prevention, but rather early detection through regular mammographic screening.

And yet, we already know so much about the causes of this cancer. Looking at global incidence gives us some very strong indicators that diet, lifestyle and environment are key factors in prevention. Women in rural china have a breast cancer risk 5 to 6 times lower than western women, yet when they move to the west their incidence increases to that of their host country within 1 to 2 generations.

So, what do we do in the west that increases our risk so greatly? Many features of typical western lifestyles increase oestrogen levels. With the stimulation of oestrogen feeding around 7 out of 10 breast cancers, this is highly significant.

Higher oestrogen levels result from obesity; lack of exercise; alcohol consumption; diets high in calories, meat, refined carbohydrates and sugars, a low fibre diet, and the use of antibiotics. We also live in a toxic world polluted with well over 100,000 synthetic chemicals, many of which are carcinogenic or work like oestrogen once taken into our body.

There is much controversy over whether mammographic screening translates into lives saved, especially in pre-menopausal women. Their denser breasts mean a high incidence of false positive and false negative readings.

Thermographic breast screening has been approved by the American FDA since 1982 and has since been the subject of numerous clinical trials involving over 300,000 women. A mammogram can only detect a breast abnormality when a lump is present. By detecting increases in breast heat, thermographic screening is able to detect precancerous breast changes up to ten years prior to a detectable lump. Combined with mammograms, thermography increases reliability to around 95%, in women of all ages.

Thermograms involve no breast contact, compression or radiation and are safe for all women of all ages.