October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and, in the hopes to bring some awareness, I wanted to share with you my take on how I believe we can prevent a cancer that can affect 1 in every 8 women. I am not a health practitioner, nor one in training. I consider myself a healthy lifestyle aficionado, since I have been to multiple health conferences, spoken to several MDs and read so much that I consider myself capable of giving you some advice. Advice so simple that you shouldn’t even have to read this article to know that a healthier integral lifestyle can prevent breast cancer and any cancer (and, with the word cancer, I mean not only malignant tumors, but also rhetorical cancers in your life).
Let's start with prevention. Prevention starts by mastering the basic foundations of health and taking your health into your own hands. Andrew J. Fox, HHP, MS, CSCS, and founder of TrueLife Fitness and Wellness, suggests there are three basic foundations that, if taken care of, can help you live a healthier longer life. I will save you the research and lay them out here really simple for you:
- Rest and Restoration: Basically, you need to sleep. Your body’s biological clock, your circadian rhythm, is supposed to sync with day and night. Your body will perform its best when following the cycle, which means that you need to be up during the day and down at night, so maybe the night owl thing might not be working for you. Your body rests best before midnight, so it is not about being a morning person, but about being an early night person. The unquantifiable amount of information we have today is preventing us from slowing down and restoring our brain. Adults need a minimum of 7 hours of sleep so that your major organs can detoxify. As students, it is typical for us to be working late on our computers, or going to bed with our full-brightness cellphones. One way to minimize the impact of the blue light emitted by the screen, which will mess up your circadian rhythm because your brain understands this light as daylight, is by turning the Night Shift option on (for iPhones) and get an app like Rufous for iOS, which will block out the blue light.
- Exercise: Working out not only strengthens your body, but also your mind. Try to challenge your body five to six days per week. Working out is a keystone habit, which means it is correlated to other habits. It might seem obvious, but better eating habits, drinking and smoking less are related to exercising more. It is important that you combine cardiovascular with strengthening workouts. In the strength workouts, remember to slow down and focus on form, posture, technique, and breathing. Also, if you go to the gym, try focusing on different variations, not only the ones that you like. Do the ones that you hate too and challenge yourself.
- New-Trition: Did you know that 87% of Americans do not consume the recommended daily portions of vegetables and fruits? The average four to six hours of TV has exposed us to refined sugars and processed foods, which conditioned us to go for good taste, fast, and cheap alternatives rather than nutritious alternatives. It’s important to educate ourselves and learn what is being done to your food and your environment. Focus on the quality of your nutrition by choosing organic and NON-GMO foods. For breast cancer prevention, some foods you may want to incorporate in your diet are organic flax seeds, green vegetables, garlic and onions, soy beans (as opposed to soy protein), mushrooms, and berries.
I believe awareness starts with mindfulness and prevention. It is important to support research to cure breast cancer, but it is also important to support research that looks at prevention. Preventing cancer is not only cheaper, but can also bring collateral benefits like a longer life span, increased energy and focus, and overall wellness. Most importantly, don’t forget to breathe. We take inhaling and exhaling for granted, and there are several theories that suggest that chronic diseases, like cancer, are closely affected by a lack of oxygen at the cellular level. Bring in the deep breaths, take three minutes out of your busy day to nourish your mind and your body and live a better life.
