Breast Health.org

I met Marisa Weiss a few years ago.  I was introduced by a breast cancer survivor.  Her story is amazing.  Her endless support as a doctor and champion around breast cancer from research to building a support system is tireless and deserves applause.

Breasthealth.org just relaunched their site.  It is grounded in the deep medical expertise of Breastcancer.org. Just as medical research guides Breastcancer.org’s information for a woman with breast cancer to help her make the best decisions for her care, this organization also provides science-proven steps to reduce the risk of breast cancer.

Only 10% of breast cancers are due to an inherited genetic mutation. This means that 90% of breast cancers primarily depend on the lifestyle, reproductive and environmental factors—many of which can be modified to reduce the risk of getting breast cancer or its recurrence.  A recent paper by Dr. Graham Colditz claims that breast cancer incidence could be reduced by 68% if breast health promotion starts with our girls and continues through life: eliminating obesity, eating mostly a plant-based diet of real unprocessed foods, exercising regularly, limiting alcohol, utilizing breastfeeding, and avoiding pharmaceutical estrogens/progestin products.

The video is a worthy watch.

Comments (Archived):

  1. William Mougayar

    Good to see processed foods on the bad list. There isn’t enough awareness about how bad processed foods are on the body.

    1. Gotham Gal

      they are absolutely terrible.

  2. awaldstein

    68% reduction with “eating mostly a plant-based diet of real unprocessed foods” and other controllable factors.A loaded statement.I believe this and Luli’s success is built around this approach to nutrition, but hard facts are hard to come by. Can you point to where to find them?

  3. Laura Yecies

    What a great website and wonderful organization. While clearly lifestyle, diet etc. play a big factor in cancer risk, it is tricky business quantifying that. Also while we want to educate and incent people to reduce their risk we need to be careful not to guilt those who develop the disease

    1. Gotham Gal

      Marisa is a force of nature!

  4. jlix

    I don’t know– I’m a BC survivor (stage 3, 6 years!) and this site rubbed me the wrong way. Before I was diagnosed I did pretty much everything right– diet exercise etc. but I got it anyway– and fairly late stage. I don’t think lifestyle CAN really be quantified and this site feels very sanctimonious to me. (i.e.–you try having chemo every week and not having a damn glass of red wine when you want it! and SPARE me the breast feeding mafia please….)

    1. Gotham Gal

      my guess is there are always outliers. marisa is not only an advocate she is also a doctor and a survivor herself.

  5. Brandon Burns

    I currently met with a health tech company that does DNA screenings. There was a lot of talk around what happens after a screen, after you know you have x% higher or lower chance of getting a disease or a cancer.The physicians I met with were split. One one side, they say that as many people as possible should get screens, as that will lead to never before seen amounts of data that links genetics to health. The other side brought up how individuals freak out with this kind of info — and when a stat like only 10% of breast cancers are due to a genetic mutation, or when you see people “inspired” by Angelina Jolie’s personal and unique choice to get a preemptive double mastectomy, you can see where the knowledge advances in health tech start to conflict with the practical realities of putting this information in everyday people’s hands.That said, I’m of the camp that we’re better off knowing — and figuring out how to educate people properly on how to process the new information that’ll get about their bodies. And videos like this one you just posted definitely help!

    1. Gotham Gal

      I am in your camp. Good to know