Ask Dr. Mandy’s New Years Breastolutions

February 10th, 2012 by Kimmy McAtee

New Years Breastolutions!

Happy New Year to my Keep a Breast friends, I hope everyone is having a great new year. It’s time for another segment of “Ask Dr Mandy”. For those who are just visiting the site I am a naturopathic doctor in San Diego, California with a serious passion for natural preventive medicine. I have been working with Keep A Breast (KAB) for about 3 years now. Click here to see my previous posts. It has been fantastic here in Southern California and there’s been no shortage of sun here in Encinitas. It’s a great time of year because everyone is not only active, but actively working on staying healthy and creating healthy habits.

New Years time is always a very inspiring time for myself and the patients I treat.  The feeling of a brand new year gives us the feeling of a fresh start and the motivation to bring in new changes to our life.  Developing habits for healthy breasts is always something I try to motivate my patients to bring in to their lives.

With this New Years energy all around us, I think we should take some of it and use it to instill some simple habits and  that can have a big pay off – the maintenance of healthy breasts.

I want these changes and habits to be very easy but helpful.  So here’s my breastolutions that I wish for all my own patients and for each of you in our KAB community.

1. Drink a little veggie juice every day:  Try picking up some fresh juice and have some every day.  You can either buy some great juices or you can even get your own juicer and play with different combinations.  You can add in a little bit of apple juice to give it a better taste.  Not only is vegetable juice teaming with cancer preventing antioxidants, but we also know that vegetable juice alkalinizes our body – which is also believed to help us prevent cancer and other diseases.
2. Get a better bra:  The right bra can make a big difference for our breast health.  Think about how much of your life is spent wearing a bra.  Especially if a bra is too tight it can block of the very important lymphatic flow that exist underneath where our bras lie on our body.  I strongly encourage my patients to consider trying on wireless bra’s.  These are made of more flexible materials and they are lessing constricting to these lymphatic areas.  They can still provide great support also.
3. Increase your vitamin D:  This nutrient is the most talked about with breast cancer because there is a staggering amount of research showing it is protective against cancer and other chronic diseases.  Try eating salmon regularly, and healthy organic eggs.  It’s also important to get about 20 minutes of sunshine daily to help your body utilize this powerful nutrient.
4. Change your deodorant:  Do a little check in on your deodorant to make sure it passes the test.  I always have my patients check their deodorant for 2 main ingredients – Aluminum and Parabens.  If you see either of those – get rid of your deodorant and find one that doesn’t have these ingredients which are believed to be toxic to breast tissue.

I think  these 4 simple breastolutions are realistic yet powerful.  I encourage you all to sit down with a pen and paper and think about any other powerful healthy changes you would like to bring into your life.  This is the time to set the intention for a healthier version of you this year.

Love and Health to you all in the new year

Xo

Dr. Mandy