10 Ways to Help Prevent Breast Cancer – Part 1

1. Avoid Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)

Synthetic HRT increases the risk of breast cancer. In 2002, a huge double-blind placebo study called “Women's Health Initiative” sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) was stopped early because it was proven during the study that HRT causes breast cancer.

Natural bio-identical hormones, on the other hand, are safe. They are made from botanical plants such as soy and yams. These plants are pharmaceutically processed to produce natural bio-identical progesterone or estrogen derivatives; they may come in cream or oral forms.

It is not difficult to determine if one needs some form of hormone balancing; if you feel perfectly well and have no symptoms listed below, it is very unlikely that you need to do or change anything. However, a large number of peri-menopausal women who come to my clinic suffer from the following symptoms:

• fatigue

• pre-menstrual breast tenderness

• fibrocystic breast condition

• short menstrual cycle (less than 28 days)

• anxiety

• headaches

• sleep disorders

• low libido

• depression

• PMS

Women in menopause may have some of these symptoms in addition to:

• hot flashes

• vaginal dryness

• memory problems

If some of these complaints are present in a patient, it is important to identify any hormonal deficiencies.

We can carefully monitor most hormone levels with blood tests, although they are not as reliable as saliva tests, which measure bio-available free-hormone levels, or 24-hour urine collection, which looks at what is excreted through metabolites over a 24-hour period. Once identified, single or multiple hormone deficiencies can be corrected by the use of bio-identical hormones, which have an anti-aging action by the nature of their action.

The effect of these hormones is dose specific; however, in nature more is not necessarily better. If the hormones are prescribed in too high a dosage, they can cause adverse effects.

Many women hearing of the great effects of progesterone decide to self-medicate. A word of caution here needs to be made: some progesterone products on the market have very little or no effect. Compounding pharmacies have a reliable and consistent product; however, this would require a prescription from your doctor.

One of the best books on the subject was published by Dr. John Lee, entitled What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer. For additional information on bio-identical hormones and breast cancer prevention you can visit www.drpettle.com.