Do not panic if you find a breast lump!

I Found a Breast Lump, now what?

The very first thing to do is to stay calm. According to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, most lumps are not cancerous.(1) You may have a calcification, a cyst or a fibroadenoma, which are quite common (these can be related to excessive estrogen – see #3 below). Whatever the lump is, there are many natural actions you can take to disable it and also change the conditions in your body that produced it in the first place.

Be aware that cancer often takes several years to develop(2), so investing a number of weeks or months to 1. strengthen your immune system, 2. do your research, 3. clarify your options and 4. plot your treatment plan is probably not going to matter one way or the other. You will be glad you did this as it will give you time to educate yourself on how to proceed in your own best interests. Breast cancer patients can quickly find themselves on a treadmill, hurried into treatments such as chemotherapy or a mastectomy, both of which can have long-term physical and emotional consequences. For example, before deciding on a mastectomy be sure to ascertain your surgeon’s attitude about lymph nodes. Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that removing large numbers of underarm lymph nodes (called axillary nodes) did not result in superior patient outcomes versus removing just a small number of lymph node closest to the tumor (called sentinel nodes).(3) Removing large numbers of nodes can also cause lymphedema, a permanent condition that can be painful and disfiguring.(4) The point is, you should know all the risks — if you’re in a rush, this may not be fully explained. And this is just one angle among many that you’ll need to do homework on. It’s simply too big a decision to be hurried into.

Another mistake is focusing solely on the lump. As Andreas Moritz asserted in Cancer is not a Disease, cancer is a systemic, full-body disease and a tumor is the “physical symptom reflecting our body’s attempt to eliminate specific life-destructive causes.”(5) It’s inadvisable to focus on the tumor as the end-all, be-all; even if the tumor is cut out the the underlying dysfunction most likely won’t be healed. This is why cancer often “comes back” but the reality is it was never gone.(6) Also by focusing on the tumor alone, you miss the opportunity to address the whole body dysfunction as a result of poor diets, chronic stress, and toxic exposures to nasty substances such as xenoestrogens which are highly implicated in breast cancer and must be addressed.(7) The checklists on this website will help you begin to address the full spectrum of factors to turn your entire system around.

If you do receive a cancer diagnosis, it’s crucial not to let family, friends or doctors pressure you into treatments you aren’t sure about. This is a time to use your intuition. Ask yourself: what is your true desire in regard to approaching healing? Rely heavily on your intuition, which means identifying your real desires in a quiet place, away from the noise of the world. This is so important because you need to believe in your protocols in order to heal.(8)

For example, if I were diagnosed tomorrow, I personally wouldn’t undergo mastectomy, chemo or radiation as a first step. There could be a place for those later, but, for me, they are way too drastic and harsh to start with. I would however take fast and decisive action on the steps below. Each person will approach the healing process somewhat differently and that is always to be respected. If you strongly believe in conventional protocols then that’s probably a good decision for you. Just be sure to also implement the action items below, especially in regard to better nutrition. Commit to eating a cleaner diet than you’ve ever eaten, which really is a must in order to maximize your chances of permanent remission.

Hopefully, the lump is nothing to worry about, but by reading and researching you improve your knowledge and improve your healing capacity. That is the goal of this website. Whether the lump is malignant or benign, use this list as an opportunity to support your overall wellness. It took me several years to learn about all these practices; I offer them to you to quickly adapt into your own life.

8 Holistic Actions to Take if you Find a Breast Lump:

  1. Do not panic!
  2. Overhaul your Diet
  3. Reduce Dietary and Environmental Estrogens
  4. Open the Elimination Channels
  5. Increase your Body Temperature
  6. Reset your Circadian Rhythm
  7. Do a Body Evaluation Checklist
  8. Don’t Make Decisions too Fast!
  1. Again, do not panic. Most lumps are not cancer. It’s also worth noting that breast cancer often grows for years often in a neglected, exhausted and imbalanced body. 95% of the time cancer is not “bad luck” or bad genes, but sloppy lifestyles that have worn down the body and disabled the immune system. Most of us are nutritionally depleted, having eaten the Standard American Diet (SAD) for years; we’re also under significant stress, experiencing brutal work schedules; many also carry unresolved emotional traumas causing perpetual fear and grief and/or caustic belief systems resulting in long-held resentment and anger. Add in our daily ingesting/absorbing/inhaling of hundreds of environmental pollutants at work and home. To top it all off, our elimination pathways are clogged up so we don’t eliminate normal lymphatic body sewage very well. No wonder we are ill! According to Dr. Joseph Mercola: “You need to be brave enough to address the terrain of your body first, before doing invasive and highly toxic interventions.” The good news about all of this is that you can acquire the knowledge and power to address these factors.

2. Overhaul your Diet: There are so many important factors in healing, but diet and nutrition is the most fundamental. A cancer-therapeutic diet can optimize the functioning of every cell, every organ, even one’s emotions and attitudes; good nutrition energizes the crucial elimination, immune and lymphatic systems and turns on helpful genes and turns off harmful ones. It can also heal metabolic issues that directly fuel cancer such as high glucose levels and insulin resistance. These conditions can undermine the effectiveness of conventional treatments; evidence shows that when your glucose and insulin are elevated, radiation therapy becomes ineffective, as cancer cells are desensitized to radiation when they’re being bathed in sugar. The field of cancer nutrition is evolving rapidly to become individualized to one’s unique genetics and labs. There is so much you can control on this front and, with the right planning, it’s delicious and not as difficult as it may seem. You’ll be amazed at how fast your body responds.

3. Reduce Dietary and Environmental Estrogens: Estrogen is a cell proliferator, meaning it encourages cell growth, including cancer cells. Today, excess estrogen is estimated to be a factor in approximately 70% of breast cancers**. Most bodies are awash in estrogen, often starting in childhood or even in utero. This phenomenon is called “Estrogen Dominance;” it’s a key factor in why more and more women, at younger ages, are being diagnosed with breast cancer (by the way, men can also develop Estrogen Dominance). Why is estrogen is so prolific in today’s bodies? According to educator Barbara O’Neill, there are three key reasons: 1) The presence of “fake” estrogens in our environment called xenoestrogens. These are everywhere–food, pharmaceuticals, plastics, tap water, cookware, personal care products, pesticides/herbicides and more. 2) Non-organic meat and dairy products in the United States from animals fed inferior and non-natural foods and dosed with pharmaceutical hormones. Amazingly, for over 30 years, since the 1980’s, the European Economic Community (EEC) has banned most U.S. meat from being sold in any European nations, citing concerns regarding hormone driven cancers.*** 3) The use of birth control pills and hormone replacement therapies, which can cause estrogen-progesterone ratios to get out of whack. Symptoms of Estrogen Dominance include early menstruation (normal age according to educator Barbara O’Neill is 16, not earlier), PMS, acne, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, PCOS, thyroid malfunction, infertility, loss of libido and, ultimately, breast and ovarian cancers. How many of today’s bodies have experienced one or more of these conditions? Sadly the answer is “too many.” Fortunately, the body can correct itself over time.

4. Improve Colon Function: A breast cancer lump can occur from having a congested body. Most of us have extremely sluggish eliminative organs, such as the colon, kidneys and skin. Because much of the body’s waste is eliminated through the colon, we’ll focus on it first. Many people do not have enough bowel movements or have chronic constipation or diarrhea or both. When the colon isn’t working it’s like a toilet getting backed up in your house, only it’s happening in your body. When waste gets backed up, you can eventually expect to see tumors. If you’re not pooping a minimum of once every day, with the goal being 2-3 times a day, you have a health problem. You probably know right now if your colon is not working well. Pooping should be easy. Constipation and diarrhea are abnormal and are warning signs of illness. Many people have a sticky sludge called “mucoid plaque” that sticks to the intestinal walls. This slowly poisons us by inhibiting elimination, preventing absorption of nutrients and creating a great place for bacteria, yeast, parasites and biofilms to live. Mucoid plaque is caused by eating processed grain foods — think breads, cereals, pastas, rolls, bagels, baked goods, desserts and snack foods; basically the SAD diet, including all the processed food in the center of your local grocery store (and don’t forget restaurant food) that ends up like a paste in your intestines. Fortunately it is straightforward to deal with by clearing out the sludge, then healing and regenerating the tissues to the point where 2-3 daily poops become the new normal.

5. Increase your Body Temperature: Recently, the media published headlines about the “new normal” lower body temperature for human beings, which has fallen over the last 150 years from 98.6 to 97.5 degrees. However, there are strong indications that falling body temperature is actually a sign of health deterioration; certainly, in regard to cancer, as body temperatures have fallen, mortality rates have been steadily growing since the 1920’s. Higher body temperatures 100 years ago were likely because people ate real food; toxic body loads were far less common; and stress levels were a lot lower. The evidence suggests you should make your body warmer.

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6. Prioritize Rest and Sleep: This is absolutely essential, and seems simple, but it is actually one of the toughest things for most of us. Prioritizing rest and sleep often means a complete reset of your Circadian Rhythm, involving lots of lifestyle adjustments, especially in regard to how we use electronics, cellphones and computers. Many of us also need to re-think how much we work (a huge challenge in our workaholic society), which also has all kinds of implications for how and where you live, your personal relationships and even your finances.

7. Get a Baseline Thermogram: I’ve lost track of the number of biopsies I endured in my 40s and 50s from false positives from mammograms. Particularly with very dense breast tissue, mammograms simply produce too many false positives for me; I no longer rely on them for annual screening. Instead, I use thermograms. If mammograms work for you, you can still use thermograms in conjunction with them. A thermogram is an easy, non-invasive test that measures heat and inflammation as an indication of possible disease. It can potentially spot a potential cancer problem years before it gets out of control. You can get a baseline and then compare them year after year as one tool to track your status. They are very user-friendly and can show things like gut and dental inflammation. I like to get a full-body scan every couple years.

8. Don’t Make Treatment Decisions Too Fast: Dr. Nasha Winters, a renowned Naturopathic Oncologist who has clinically treated hundreds of patients and co-authored The Metabolic Approach to Cancer, advises addressing your overall health before doing surgery, radiation or chemotherapy:

The vast majority of cancer diagnoses are non-emergencies. The real emergency is the diagnosis itself, and the way you react or respond to that emergency will often dictate your success at overcoming or maintaining this process. I always encourage people, ‘Take a breath. Dive deep into your [whole body] terrain. Really understand what’s making it tick right now before you choose any intervention. And then you will likely not have to see me again because you won’t likely be in that 70% recurrence rate … [J]ust take a moment and reframe and get clear on what is specifically right for you.

Glucose and insulin resistance worsen your prognosis As noted by Dr. Nasha Winters, when you look at the statistics across all tumor types, all stages and demographics, chemotherapy has about a 3% success rate across the board. Radiation has about a 12% success rate and surgery, about a 50% success rate, with “success rate” referring to debulking or making the tumor smaller — not eliminating evidence of the disease. She also points out evidence showing that when your glucose and insulin are elevated, radiation becomes ineffective, as cancer cells are desensitized to radiation when they’re being bathed in sugar. highly recommend listening to the full Dr. Nasha interview on Mercola.com.

Sources:

3* https://www.beyondpatmos.org/watchvideo.aspx?videoid=622

3**https://The Metabolic Approach to Cancer

3***http://www.preventcancer.com/consumers/general/hormones_meat.html

4*The Detox Miracle Sourcebook

4**https://beatcancer.org/blog-posts/cancer-and-the-lymph-system-the-crucial-importance-of-lymphatic-drainage/

Disclaimer: I am a Certified Holistic Cancer Coach specializing in breast cancer focusing on the health supporting factors of nutrition, lifestyle improvement and stress reduction. I do not diagnose, treat or prescribe anything. The intent of this article and website is to provide ideas and information only. Nothing on this website is intended as medical advice. You must consult your licensed healthcare practitioner regarding surgery, drugs and treatments for your individual case.