Natural Solutions for Breast Health | Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Written by: Marisol Teijeiro N.D. (inactive).
Medically reviewed by: Victoria Williams R.H.N.
Est. reading time: 6 minutes.
So you’ve heard about heart health and gut health, what about breast health?
My breast journey
I used to look at my breasts in the mirror, pulling one up and comparing it to the other. I would wish so hard to have perky, stand-up-here breasts instead of pendulous, way down-there-puppies with sparkling, multicolored stretch marks.
Weight changes and overnutrition in my youth never gave me the opportunity to have perky, perfect breasts. Instead, I went from flat to fat and then stretched out to swinging and saggy.
Breasts define our femininity in many ways, we feel sexy because of them and un-sexy in spite of them.
I recall getting intimate with my husband and being so ashamed to get naked in front of him. I apologetically told him I needed to be honest with him and tell him that my tits sagged, instead of being heralds of fertility and proud of them with pomp and circumstance. I felt deflated because of them just like they were deflated.
Turns out he didn’t care. He actually knew, and had been staring down my top for a while and loved what he was seeing – without me knowing!
Why Are Breasts Such a Big Deal?
Breast are bold, they stick out from our bodies. They are the first thing that enters the room, the first thing in many cases that get noticed.
Men obsess about them, maybe because they have mother and latching issues, or maybe because they just adore the difference between male and female bodies.
Whether you think your breasts are too large or too small, they are a source of shame for many. It’s time to take this inappropriate thought pattern and shove it where the sun don’t shine. It’s our time to be proud of all of our shapes and sizes and stretch marks. Be proud of the pleasure they bring us, from foreplay to feeding our babies.
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Breast Judgments
My first encounter with the dangers of judgments made on breasts wasn’t my own, but actually my mother’s. When she was a dashing young lady, she had gone to the doctor’s office to have her yearly check-up and breast exam.
Upon taking off her shirt to be examined, the doctor gasped at how large her breasts were (super inappropriate FYI, in this day and age but this was back in the 60s). My mother, being incredibly shy about her sexuality, was immediately embarrassed, turned red as a lobster and searched to get dressed immediately.
So shocked was she by this judgment that she never had another breast exam again, until it was too late.
Judgments can damage our psyche, we don’t know how our words will fall on the ears receiving them. Judgments serve no purpose either, except pain. After all, no one asks the doctor to comment on how large they are, but rather how healthy they are.
My Mother’s Breast Cancer
Forty years later, my mother waited until blood came out of her nipple and a mass so large it was hard to avoid, came cauli-flowering out of her breast. With two doctors as daughters, we couldn’t believe that she had let the shame of an event that happened so long ago, impact her life now.
The diagnosis – stage 4 breast cancer. Devastating, with little to no time to act.
Because of this experience, I got over my breast bullsh*t and got into owning one of the most beautiful, female, flourishing features of my health.
Importance of Breast Exams
For this reason alone, every single woman in my naturopathic practice gets a yearly breast exam, done by our skilled naturopath assessment hands.
But some of us don’t have access to a doctor who is experienced or willing to do a breast exam, especially since now the recommendation is to avoid breast exams.
In countries where breast cancer is diagnosed at advanced stages, it is valuable to have patients understand breast self-examination as well as to be examined1.
So this is extremely valuable. My mother was fortunate, even though she was at the extreme case, she survived with a combination of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy as well as naturopathic medicine. Her cancer was so far advanced that it was an impossibility to only do the natural route.
Self-Examination Is Invaluable
The comment I get in clinic time and time again is that most women don’t know what normal feels like. They feel that their breasts are lumpy and bumpy (a sign of estrogen dominance, or low iodine).
But let me tell you, the first time I did a breast exam I thought exactly the same thing! How was I going to identify anything going wrong if I can’t notice anything different?
Do you know what changed it? Practice, my friends, practice is the mother of all skills.
And what if you find lots of lumps and bumps? Make your way to your doctor and get checked out. It never hurts to be extra cautious.
There are many things you can do at home now to support cystic & lumpy breasts
Most of these strategies deal with reducing the amount of estrogen in your body:
1. Eat more broccoli family foods (cruciferous veggies)2
2.Reduce your alcohol intake3
3. Reduce your theophylline intake, in coffee, tea and chocolate
4. Wear a sleep mask to bed – they naturally increase melatonin which is a powerful anti-cancer hormone in the body4
5. Of course, do a castor oil pack daily, because it helps with cleansing and detox5, microbiome balance6 7 8, inflammation9, and stress reduction10 11, which all impact your hormonal balance.
So get to know your boobies! I know I’ve got saggy tits, and sometimes they really do look like sacks! But I love them because they are me 100% and I get to know them regularly so I can keep them a part of me for the long haul. They are my twins after all, and I can’t get another pair just like these (no judgment if you’ve had yours changed, just love!).
Do you know the difference between then and now? Now I love my breasts, I treat them better every single day because I have learned that they are an important part of who I am. They share my story.
I also want to share a quick recipe with castor oil for boob and lymphatic health. Castor oil has a long history of use for breast cancer. In fact, Hippocrates, known as the father of modern medicine was advocating it as a treatment in 460 BCE, as was another medicine man of the time, Galen in 200 BCE12.
How To Use Castor Oil To Support Breast & Lymphatic Health.
- Mix organic castor oil from a GLASS bottle with baking soda until it becomes a paste.
- Add 2-3 drops of organic rosemary essential oil.
- Rub into your armpits and over your breasts.
- Leave on for an hour or more then rinse off.
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Click here for references
.1. rev Med. 2011 Sep;53(3):118-20. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2011.05.001. Epub 2011 May 8. The role of clinical breast examination and breast self-examination. Miller AB1, Baines CJ.
2. Kendra J. Royston, B.S.1 and Trygve O. Tollefsbol, D.O. Ph.D. The Epigenetic Impact of Cruciferous Vegetables on Cancer Prevention. Curr Pharmacol Rep. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2016 Feb 1. Published in final edited form as: Curr Pharmacol Rep. 2015 Feb 1; 1(1): 46–51. Published online 2015 Jan 25. doi: 10.1007/s40495-014-0003-9
3. Terryl J. Hartman,1 Julia S. Sisti,2,3 Susan E. Hankinson,2,3,4 Xia Xu,5 A. Heather Eliassen,2,3 and Regina Ziegler6 Alcohol Consumption and Urinary Estrogens and Estrogen Metabolites in Premenopausal Women. Horm Cancer. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2017 Feb 1. Published in final edited form as: Horm Cancer. 2016 Feb; 7(1): 65–74. Published online 2016 Jan 4. doi: 10.1007/s12672-015-0249-7
4. Giuseppe Di Bella,1,* Fabrizio Mascia,1 Luciano Gualano,2 and Luigi Di Bella Melatonin Anticancer Effects: Review Int J Mol Sci. 2013 Feb; 14(2): 2410–2430. Published online 2013 Jan 24. doi: 10.3390/ijms14022410
5. Holm T, Brøgger-Jensen MR, Johnson L, Kessel L.Glutathione preservation during storage of rat lenses in optisol-GS and castor oil. PLoS One. 2013 Nov 19;8(11):e79620. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0079620. eCollection 2013.
6. Andrade IM1, Andrade KM2, Pisani MX1, Silva-Lovato CH1, de Souza RF1, Paranhos Hde F1.Trial of an experimental castor oil solution for cleaning dentures. Braz Dent J. 2014 Jan-Feb;25(1):43-7.
7. Badaró MM, Salles MM, Leite VMF, Arruda CNF, Oliveira VC, Nascimento CD, Souza RF, Paranhos HFO, Silva-Lovato CH. Clinical trial for evaluation of Ricinus communis and sodium hypochlorite as denture cleanser.J Appl Oral Sci. 2017 May-Jun; 25(3):324-334.
8. Salles MM, Badaró MM, Arruda CN, Leite VM, Silva CH, Watanabe E, Oliveira Vde C, Paranhos Hde F. Antimicrobial activity of complete denture cleanser solutions based on sodium hypochlorite and Ricinus communis – a randomized clinical study.J Appl Oral Sci. 2015 Nov-Dec; 23(6):637-42.
9. Vieira C et al. .Effect of ricinoleic acid in acute and subchronic experimental models of inflammation. Mediators Inflamm. 2000;9(5):223-8
10. Walker SC1, Trotter PD2, Swaney WT2, Marshall A3, Mcglone FP4. C-tactile afferents: Cutaneous mediators of oxytocin release during affiliative tactile interactions? Neuropeptides. 2017 Aug;64:27-38. doi: 10.1016/j.npep.2017.01.001. Epub 2017 Jan 19.
11. Rolls ET et all. Representations of pleasant and painful touch in the human orbitofrontal and cingulate cortices. Cereb Cortex. 2003 Mar;13(3):308-17.
12. Lukong KE1. Understanding breast cancer – The long and winding road. BBA Clin. 2017 Jan 27;7:64-77. doi: 10.1016/j.bbacli.2017.01.001. eCollection 2017 Jun.
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AWESOME article! Thanks for sharing <3
Glad you enjoyed it! Stay tuned for more awesome info! 🙂
mY DR. has me putting a compounded progesterone cream on my breast area morning and night. I have started doing the castor oil pack nightly for 1-2 hours before bed, with the placement of the cloth on the breasts. I’m not sure if I need to wash the RESIDUAL oil off before i apply the progesterone cream? Will I still get the full benefit of the cream if I put it right over the top off the oil? or is there a better way to get both in?
Hi Lynnette! You don’t need to wash the residual oil off, you can rub it in then apply your cream and it may actually help the cream work better and absorb more deeply!
Would putting castor oil on the head of someone Who lost hair thru chemo, help protect the hair folIcles
Absolutely, it’s great for improving circulation nourishing the hair follicles. Check out this article by Dr. Marisol for some more information – https://naturalpath.net/body/the-cosmetic-use-of-castor-oil-the-incredible-vegetable-oil-part-3/ 🙂
Hi,
I am 56 yo and just diagnosed with fibroadenomas in my right breast. I had a hysterectomy in 2007 for ovarian cancer. My doctor wants me to have another ultra sound in 3 months but I want to do what I can beforehand to see if I can shrink them. But fearful of breast cancer as I am over 50. I have been doing castor oil packs 3rd night in a row. My breast feels painful. Is that normal?
Any advice appreciated
Hey Fiona – although we cannot comment on your case specifically, when using castor oil on the breast, it’s a very gentle way to reduce inflammation and get your body on the right track! When your body is moving things out and trying to optimize itself you may feel some discomfort on the area where you are applying the pack – this will balance out with continued use, you may also want to start slowly alternate days (1 day on, 1 day off) – I hope this helps and remember to always check with your higher self and health practitioner before starting any new health practise.
How often would you recommend to do the breast packs to help reduce chance of reoccurance of cancer?
Hey there, thank you so much for reaching out! Although we cannot comment on your case specifically, with Castor oil packs consistency is key. We recommend wearing your pack for at least an hour daily for best results.
Remember it’s always best to check with your health practitioner if any health practice is right for you.