Dr Weil on breast cancer

In the United States, an estimated 182,000 cases of breast cancer occurred among women in the year 2000, according to the American Cancer Society. Breast cancer accounts for 18.5 percent of cancer deaths in women. Fortunately, it is one of the most curable types of cancer when detected at an early stage. Survival rates are continuing to climb as technology advances for early breast cancer detection and intervention. The five-year relative rate of survival for localized breast cancer has increased from 72 percent to 96 percent over the past 60 years. Early detection with a mammogram - which should be performed annually for women over 40 – has been key to successful early detection and treatment.

Diet plays a role in prevention. American women have five times the risk of developing breast cancer as Japanese women who consume a traditional Japanese diet. Second- and third-generation Japanese-American women who adopt a typical American diet have almost the same incidence of breast cancer as other American women. And a Westernized diet in Japan is now causing an increase in breast cancer among women there.

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Here are some lifestyle measures for prevention:

• Get active. Regular physical activity, at least 30 minutes on most days, has been shown to be protective against breast cancer. This may be because it results in weight loss and decrease in body fat; therefore, it lowers circulating estrogen levels.
• Reduce exposure to xenoestrogens. We are exposed to a large number of synthetic chemical compounds that have estrogen-like activity. These include common pesticides, industrial pollutants and hormone residues in meat, poultry and dairy products. While the research on their link with breast cancer is conflicting, we recommend limiting exposure as much as you can. Choosing hormone-free dairy and animal products and organic produce is a good start.
• Early detection is key. Women ages 20-39 should have a clinical breast exam performed by a health care professional every three years in addition to conducting a self-examination every month. If you are 40 years of age or older, annual breast exams and mammograms are recommended. Your physician may request one at an earlier age if you display other risk factors.

Nutrition and Supplements

• Pay close attention to your diet. The original thought that breast cancer risk increased with a high-fat diet may have been too simple. There are several factors that we now believe are more closely associated with risk.
• Choose fats wisely. Studies have shown that women with a higher intake of olive oil have less breast cancer. Omega-3 fats, found in cold-water fish (especially wild salmon and sardines), freshly ground flaxseed and walnuts have also been associated with inhibiting the growth of breast tumors.
• Eat generous amounts of vegetables and fruit, which are loaded with cancer-protective phytochemicals. Our recommendation is 8 to 10 servings a day.
• Use freshly ground flaxseed or other sources of fiber every day. Diets that are high in fiber - lignins specifically – seem to increase the excretion of estrogen or modify the metabolism of estrogen and reduce the risk of breast cancer.
• Eat more soy. There has been some recent discussion on the possible negative effect of soy on risk of breast cancer, especially hormone receptor positive forms of the disease. Although the isoflavones in soy do have a mild estrogenic effect (they are able to bind to estrogen receptor sites in human tissue), soy foods also contain many cancer-protective substances. For this reason, and also because population studies have failed to show a relationship between soy consumption and increased risk of breast cancer, we recommend one serving of whole soy foods a day.
• Make green tea your beverage of choice. Green tea consumption is linked with lower incidence of many kinds of cancer.
• Drink very little, if any, alcohol. Alcohol consumption, even in modest amounts, is associated with increased risk of breast cancer.
• Take a multivitamin with folic acid, vitamin D and antioxidants. All these nutrients have been shown to be related to a reduced risk of breast cancer. Although the diet should be the primary source of most of these, a good daily supplement can help provide insurance that your intake is adequate.

Also, I highly recommend the book Breast Cancer: Reduce Your Risk with Foods You Love (Penstokes Press, 2011), by Robert Pendergrast, M.D., who teaches at the Medical College of Georgia and is a graduate of the Fellowship at the University of Arizona's Center for Integrative Medicine, which I founded in 1994. It's a clear, scientifically validated compendium of what to eat, and what to avoid, to lower your risk of breast cancer.  

This blog is written by DrWeil.com. Go directly to original blog.

Meditation Q&A | Chopra Blog

Question: I know that everyone’s experience of meditation can be different, but I just have this need to know what is really going on. I have been meditating for a year or so, on and off, usually clearing my mind and being silent for an hour, but  recent, I have started to meditate regularly, and feel a physical sensation, of my body vibrating and I seem to be free from my body and my head feels like its swirling around, its almost as if I am drunk! Though, I have to agree this is an amazing sensation like I am intoxicated, I feel fresh and awake after that.

Can you explain what is actually happening on the spirit level as my physical level goes through this? How is it possible that my mind, when it is silenced to such a deeper level, is able to cause this freeing of my body, when I know that I am not my mind or my body? How does it influence my body . . . or is it that my mind has been taken over by my spiritual self and it is indeed the spirit self that’s causing this? I would really appreciate it if you could relieve me from this curiosity.

Answer: Even though meditation is in one sense a mental process, because the mind and body are intimately connected, when the mind experiences silence, it affects the body and provides a corresponding degree of restfulness in its physiological functioning. It is this depth of rest that allows the body to normalize any imbalances that inhibit its full expression of health. What you experienced was a somewhat entertaining version of the very mundane process of the body’s release of stored stress and conditioning, and the consequent sense of rejuvenation and freedom afterward. It’s  a matter of understanding the interrelationship of the mind and body and how the two function symbiotically during meditation.


It’s important to keep in mind that what happens during a meditation session isn’t actually all that important. Where you really begin to experience the benefits of meditation is in all your daily activities. As you meditate regularly, you carry some of the stillness and silence with you into everything you do. Instead of being reactive and reflexive, you are more responsive and reflective.  You release constriction and become more creative, relaxed, and expansive. 


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