Foods, Supplements and More for Promoting Breast Health
Foods for promoting breast health:
- Juice with raw fruits and vegetables at least twice a week.
- Add garlic and ginger to foods for flavor and antioxidant activity.
- Eat phytonutrient-rich foods such as broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and kale. All contain indole-3-carbinol, which promotes breast health.
- Drink green tea daily.
- Increase your intake of healthy fats through fish oil-rich fish such as salmon, cod and haddock, as well as monounsaturated extra-virgin olive oil.
- Eat soy and flax 2-3 times per week, unless you have estrogen-dependent cancer in which case, avoid all soy.
- Avoid eating well-done, burned or charred meats.
- Limit your intake of alcohol to no more than one glass a day.
Targeted supplements for breast health:
- Alpha lipoic acid is a versatile antioxidant that is both fat- and water-soluble. It has the ability to neutralize the toxic effects of radiation and chemotherapy as well as recycle other antioxidants such as vitamins C and E. I recommend 50-100 milligrams daily for all women.
- Antioxidant vitamins A, C, D and E help protect immunity. You can get all four in a quality multivitamin mineral complex.
- N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), when broken down to glutathione, promotes breast health. The same is true of whey protein. I recommend 500 mg of NAC and 30 grams of whey protein daily.
- Melatonin is a sleep-regulating hormone that decreases with age that may also support breast health. Start with ½-1 mg prior to bedtime, and work your way up to 3 mg, keeping in mind the potential for side effects such as vivid dreams and, very rarely, headaches. At these doses, you must work closely with your physician.
- Immunomodulators, such as coenzyme Q10, promote a healthy immune system. Take 180 mg a day for maintenance and 400 mg a day for extra breast health support (120 mg if you take Q-gel).
- Essiac Tea contains herbs such as burdock root, sheep's sorrel, slippery elm bark and others, and is regarded as a potent tonic and detoxifier that supports the body's natural defenses. You can find it in most health food stores.
Environmental toxins and breast health:
- Maintain a hormone-residue-free diet with organic range meats and dairy whenever possible.
- Halt use of chemical pesticides and insecticides around your home, your yard, your pets and yourself. Also avoid hair spray, perfumes, soaps, plastic wraps and food containers, household cleaners, dry cleaning and gasoline vapors. These "xenobiotics" can mimic estrogen and lock onto receptor sites in the breast, causing abnormal cell division.
- Try to buy foods from markets that use old-fashioned butcher paper to wrap meats and seafood. If that's not possible, remove the plastic wrap from your foods as soon as you get home and place in glass containers. Do not microwave food with plastic wrap.
- You can neutralize many petrochemicals by consuming at least one tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil, rice bran oil, wheat germ oil or shark-liver oil daily on salads or veggies. These oils contain squalene, an immune-enhancing nutrient that neutralizes many petrochemicals.
- Avoid antiperspirants. They prevent you from eliminating toxins, which may be deposited in the lymph nodes in the armpits. Use a natural deodorant instead, or consider a mineral-salt "stone" deodorant found in health food stores.
To learn more about Dr. Sinatra's top recommendation for women's health, click here.
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Top Tips for Bone Health
1. Maintain a diet adequate in calcium. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommends the following approximate daily calcium levels:
Adolescent: 1,200 mg
Adult: 1,000 mg
Postmenopausal woman not on estrogen replacement therapy (ERT): 1,500 mg
Postmenopausal woman on ERT: 1,000 mg
The average American diet supplies 500 to 800 milligrams of calcium daily. You can improve on this by adding one to two glasses of skim milk or one to two glasses of calcium-fortified soy milk, green leafy vegetables, asparagus, broccoli and sea vegetables, tofu and other soy products.
If you cannot fulfill your calcium requirement from dietary sources alone, supplementation might be a suitable alternative. But do not be overzealous — excess calcium can also promote bone loss due to its interference with manganese absorption. In addition, research has demonstrated that calcium intake of more than 2,000 mg per day may be detrimental to your health because of its negative impact on the absorption of magnesium.
Aim for a ratio of 2:1 of calcium to magnesium. For example 1,000 mg calcium with 500 mg magnesium, some additional vitamin D and 1 mg boron in a softgel form is an ideal combination.
2. Let the sun shine in. Just 15 minutes of sunlight a day on exposed areas of the body — particularly the hands and legs — along with a healthy diet, should be enough to get your basic requirement of vitamin D. Most high-quality multivitamin/mineral supplements also contain 200-400 units of vitamin D. The RDA for vitamin D is 400 IU per day. Older women may safely take up to 800 IU per day.
3. Move it! Weight-bearing exercise is paramount when supporting your bone health. No doubt about it — sedentary people are much more prone to weaker bones. Walking at least 20 minutes a day will help prevent bone loss in your hips. I also recommend weight-bearing aerobic exercise to strengthen the heel of the foot.
Walking to a supermarket with a backpack and filling it up with some groceries is a great way to help bone density in your hips, ankles and heels. Swimming should not be your predominant form of exercise as it is not weight-bearing; however, aquatic aerobics are fine. Warm up with 20 minutes of stretching of the hamstrings and lower back. Regular exercise not only helps conserve bone but also maintains flexibility, erect posture and muscle strength.
4. Consider estrogen. Some studies support estrogen's role in preventing bone loss in certain high-risk women. Although estrogen therapy only helps support bone for about one year, it can help relatively quickly. And, although the increase is modest, some studies suggest the risk of hip fracture can be reduced during that year by as much as 50 to 80 percent.
5. Natural topical progesterone cream can support new bone formation. Rub about 1/4 teaspoon into your hands, chest, arms, face or breasts, where it is readily and quickly absorbed. This unbound type of progesterone enters the bloodstream quickly and is not broken down by the liver like oral micronized progesterone.
6. Salmon calcitonin, a synthetic version of a natural hormone now formulated as a nasal spray, is recommended for people with low bone mass who are more than five years postmenopausal and who can't — or won't — take estrogen. Although the bone-enhancing benefits of salmon calcitonin are less dramatic in some women, the drug also has an additional analgesic effect that may be quite beneficial in those with chronic pain from fractures.
7. Ipriflavone is a synthetic isoflavone that has shown to promote bone formation. It's derived from the soy isoflavone called daidzein. Take 200 mg three times a day. Until there are more long-term studies on this supplement, I advise short-term use (12 to 18 months). If you must also take estrogen-replacement therapy, be sure to discuss the complications and side effects with your doctor.
8. Alendronate (Fosamax) has been shown to support bone density of the spine, hip and total body. Caution: Alendronate must be taken according to strict directions to minimize side effects (nausea, diarrhea) reported in up to 30 percent of users. You must be under a doctor's care to consider alendronate, which should only be used in advanced cases of osteoporosis.
9. Prevent falls. Check your home and workplace for hazards — loose rugs, exposed electrical cords and other clutter underfoot — that may increase your chances of a spill. Wear low-heeled, soft-soled shoes to reduce your risk of tripping, and watch those stairs.
10. Weight Training: Add weights to your exercise regimen to promote healthy bones and heart. Not only does strength training increase endurance, it takes stress off of joints, promotes healthier cartilage, and promotes bone growth. It also promotes healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
11. Take 80 mcg of vitamin K daily or try Natto, to strengthen and support your bones. Natto is made by boiling or steaming soybeans, the fermenting them with the bacterium Bacillus subtilis natto. Nattokinase in supplement form will not enhance bone. Eating natto is the only way. Contact www.nzymeceuticals.com for natto product information.
To learn more about Dr. Sinatra's top recommendation for women's health, click here.
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Six Heart Facts Every Woman Should Know
For years, cardiologists advised women about their heart health with data and guidelines that were established from mostly male studies. This, we've discovered, meant misdiagnosing women and treating them incompletely, ineffectively or too late. The bottom line is this: When it comes to taking care of your heart, men and women are different. What works for men often doesn't work for women.
Here's what you must know.
1. Women's symptoms are subtler.
Men often have dramatic onset, such as numbness or a sharp pain in the middle, left, or right side of the chest.
Women's early warning symptoms often appear to be only anxiety, stress, or indigestion. Signs of coronary insufficiency include discomfort in the chest, waking up at night with difficulty catching breath, chronic generalized fatigue, a pain below the left shoulder blade or elsewhere in the back, pain or tingling in jaw, elbow or arm, a pain in the left arm simultaneous with chest pain, throat tightness, shortness of breath, gastro-intestinal problems accompanied by a feeling of fullness and wanting to burp, nausea and vomiting, lightheadedness, dizziness, or vertigo with exertion, disproportionate sweating with activity, angina or heart attack.
2. Women tend to develop heart problems later in life, but with worse impact.
Males statistically have heart-related problems ten years earlier than women, but are more able to recover. Women, as they age, experience a greater rise in cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, weight gain, and menopausal hormone imbalance. Conditions tend to be more serious at the onset, but can often mimic arthritis and other age-related maladies.
3. Women are protected during the childbearing years.
Men often carry a great deal of work-related stress during their prime years, which can add to their risk. During their childbearing years, women have high estrogen levels which lower LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels and raise HDL ("good") cholesterol. After menopause, as estrogen drops, LDL goes up and HDL goes down. Countering this advantage is the fact that birth control pills increase the risk of heart problems during this same stage of life, especially in combination with smoking. Because women have learned to bear pain in the form of menstrual cramps, pregnancy and childbirth, they may also be prone to denial where heart pain is concerned.
4. The female heart is constructed differently.
Men's hearts are larger, with more powerful muscles, used to bearing a sudden increase in workload. Women's' hearts are smaller, and the arteries are narrower. Because the inside diameter of the arteries is narrower, they can be blocked more easily by a buildup of plaque.
5. Men can experience angina, but it is a different phenomenon.
Men's angina comes on with exercise or exertion, and improves with rest. Women's angina comes and goes with no obvious cause, and may not improve with rest. Women's angina is often mistaken for gastrointestinal problems. Women experience chronic lower-grade angina symptoms rather than sudden dramatic signs like men.
6. Heart problems are more than medical for women.
Women are more likely to generalize stress and unhappiness as heart problems, but also more intuitive about diagnosing the problem. For men, heart problems may present themselves in fairly mechanical terms, making it possible to treat the symptoms as they appear.
For women, heart problems are often more than purely medical problems. They are often problems of the heart, of the fullness of their emotional life. Preventive medicine, watching for subtle signs, staying on top of overall "quality of life" issues, is the best medicine. Fortunately, women have a much better ability to intuit what the problems are and speak about them, and are much more likely to go to heart workshops, therapy or discussion groups in order to accelerate the healing process.
To learn more about Dr. Sinatra's top recommendation for women's health, click here.
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