Guest Blog Post from Libby Ray - Breast Health Coach and Clinical Thermographer
Being a clinical thermographer for the past fifteen years as well as a Breast Health Coach, I have seen thousands of women who have breast concerns. These are my top three secret weapons for prevention when it comes to your breasts, and it is not what you think. I call it the triple threat!
Iodine and Breast Health
The first weapon women may not know about is iodine. Literally every cell in your body has an iodine receptor within the cell yet, we as women are woefully deficient in iodine. Most women don’t even think about iodine affecting breast health, let alone seek ways to increase it in the body. What we do know is that in Japan, women have a very low risk of breast cancer. They also have very high levels of iodine which has some direct links to their lower levels of breast cancer. Their iodine consumption in the foods that they eat daily helps to keep breasts at optimal health. Unfortunately, most women in America don’t eat the kelp, kale and fish quantities that they do in Japan. In fact, the SAD diet (Standard American Diet) is loaded with unhealthy fats, seed oils, processed foods, and a huge amount of sugar. But nowhere in that diet do we get adequate amounts of iodine. Even iodized salt does not really contain the type of iodine that we need to benefit our breast health.
According to Guy Abraham MD, who developed Iodorol, our dietary intake of Iodine is too low. This was set at 150 mcg per day as the government recommended daily allowance (RDA). Dr. Guy Abraham recommends higher Iodine intake of 12.5 mg per day, corresponding to the Japanese daily Iodine intake. According to Dr. Abraham higher dietary Iodine explains why the Japanese have the lowest rates for cancer of the breast, prostate, and thyroid.
So, what can we do as women to ensure that we get adequate amounts of this secret weapon because the key is not too little or not too much when it comes to iodine. A great start is to do an iodine patch test. This is easy to do in the comfort of your own home. We recommend a little 2 x 2-inch application directly on the breast of Lugol’s Iodine first thing of a morning. This patch test will tell how deficient you are in iodine. The iodine will stain the skin and what you are wanting to see is when the iodine disappears in the body as your body will be absorbing it. For most women the iodine will disappear in 2-4 hours. This means your body is very deficient in iodine. If it is still there after 24 hours, then your body is completely loaded. Once we know how deficient you are then we can begin to add iodine into the body. My favorite way is a topical application directly on the breasts to help with a variety of breast issues.
Women are particularly at risk due to environmental agents depleting iodine reserves and other agents exposing them to radioactive 1-131. After the thyroid gland, the distal portions of the human mammary glands are the heaviest users/concentrators of iodine in tissue. Iodine is readily incorporated into the tissues surrounding the mammary nipples and is essential for the maintenance of healthy functioning breast tissue. The radioactive decay of 1-131 in breast tissue may be a significant factor in the initiation and progression of both breast cancer and some types of breast nodules.
Selenium and Breast Health
The second secret weapon for better breast health is selenium. Several studies have shown that determination of selenium in the blood could be used as a non-invasive diagnostic parameter in clinical assessment of malignant breast disease. Women with breast cancer had significantly lower values. Also noted that women who carry a mutation of the BRCA1 gene were found to have more chromosome breaks (which can lead to breast cancer) than women who did not carry the mutation. When women with the BRCA1 mutation were given selenium for three months, the number of their chromosome breaks were reduced to normal.
The first conclusive study, a double-blind study, was performed by Dr Larry Clarke and the results published by the University of Arizona Medical School back in 1996 (these results were then published in the prestigious “Journal of the American Medical Association” J.A.M.A).
Dr. Clark tested 1312 people and gave them nothing more than 200 micrograms of selenium daily, then watch them for ten years.
What he discovered was that selenium alone was able to reduce the overall cancer mortality rate by a stunning 50%.
In a similar University of San Diego study, selenium was able to reduce breast cancer in women by a staggering 65-95%, depending on the type.
In “Eat and Heal” by the editors of FC&A Medical Publishing, talk about the powerful effects of selenium when it's combined with iodine and used as a natural cancer treatment - for breast cancer…
Dr. James Howenstine, in his book, A Physicians Guide to Natural Health Products That Work, says… (In regard to selenium)
“It contributes towards the death of cancerous and pre-cancer cells. Their death appears to occur before they replicate, thus helping stop cancer before it gets started.”
Vitamin D and Breast Health
Finally, Vitamin D is our last secret weapon of which we prefer Vitamin D3 for better breast health. Laboratory studies have identified the mechanisms of vitamin D, which contribute to the reduced risk of breast and other types of cancer. According to these studies, vitamin D is involved in the observation of cells and allows them to survive if they are the right type in the right place or helps them commit suicide (apoptosis) if not. Vitamin D also reduces blood vessel formation around tumors and reduces the ability of tumors to metastasize.
Low levels of vitamin D in the blood are strongly associated with elevated cancer risk. Compared to people with higher vitamin D levels, those with low levels have an 83 to 150% increased risk of developing cancer.
This strong correlation is due to vitamin D receptors, which regulate a number of signaling pathways involved in inflammation, tumor growth, and immune system surveillance for cancer—especially in the epithelial cells of the skin, breast, prostate, and colon (tissues that are prone to cancer development) vitamin D can affect the risk of breast, colon and ovarian cancers, possibly due to its role in the cell life cycle or its ability to block excess estrogen.
The key is that these three components for better breast health work better synergistically, meaning they need to be taken together and here is why:
Iodine collects in your Breast Tissue. Breast Cancer Cells ATTRACT Iodine. Once Iodine is inside a Cancer Cell, it shrinks and then KILLS the CANCER CELL ONLY! (Scientifically and Medically Proven). Selenium is needed to ACTIVATE Iodine. Vitamin D3 builds the Receptors in Cells that attach to the iodine.
There you have it…the top three secret weapons for better breast health.
- Libby Ray
Libby Ray has her BA in Education and received further clinical education through the American College of Clinical Thermography. She is a certified DITI Clinical Thermographer with the Level II designation. Libby is also a member of the Professional ACCT Organization for Clinical Thermography. She has been with Breast Research Awareness and Support, as a thermographer/trainer since 2008.
As a Clinical Thermographer, Libby provides a screening that looks for abnormal areas in the body using a Digital Imaging Camera. DITI is unique in its capability to show physiological change and metabolic processes. It is also FDA approved to be used in thermal imagining.
As a coach, she works with others located across the country for training sessions on preventative ideas for those with breast health concerns.
Her main office is in the Ozarks, but she has worked with 1,000s of women in thermography, one on one calls, trainings, seminars and coaching experiences.
Libby is available to provide informational sessions on thermography and courses on the benefits of breast health prevention and well as one on one and group coaching. If you are interested in a thermogram, booking a seminar, one on one or group coaching, please contact her via the website brasthermography.com using the dropdown box under locations for Springfield, MO.
Resources & Sources:
Breast Cancer Res Treat. 1990 Jul;16(1):57-61.
https://www.lifesavinghealth.org/natural-cancer-treatments.html
Lappe, J,M,, Travers-Gustafson, D., Davies, K.M., et al. Vitamin D and calcium supplementation reduces cancer risk: results of a randomized trial. Am J Clin Nutr 2007;85:1586-91
Welsh J. Cellular and molecular effects of vitamin D on carcinogenesis. Arch Biochem Biophys. 2012 Jul 1;523(1):107-14
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