Q:  I was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and I’ll be going for the necessary surgery.

Can you tell me what caused the cancer, and whether there is anything that I can do to prevent recurrence?

A:  Let us start with a little biology: women have two main hormones: oestrogen and progesterone. Put simply, oestrogen makes cells grow, while progesterone keeps them healthy. They work in synergy.

However, in some cases, a woman will have too much oestrogen in relation to progesterone, and a situation known as ‘oestrogen dominance’ arises.

Oestrogen dominance is thought to be the major trigger of a number of illnesses, including breast and uterine cancer, pear-shaped obesity, polycystic ovaries and osteoporosis. So, where did all this extra oestrogen come from?

Many cite the oestrogens in the environment. It is true that we are exposed to countless man-made chemicals, each one a hormone-disrupter, hence the hype about organic food.

You can also be exposed to these chemicals through plastic (the softer it is, the more the plastic residue leaches into the food). This is why it is advisable to avoid wrapping food, especially meat and cheese, in cling-film, and not to heat food in plastic containers.

But despite all this, I feel that what is going on inside our own bodies is what is actually more important. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the liver is the most important organ for irrigating the lower half of the body – also, it is the liver’s job to break down oestrogen.

UNBURDENING THE LIVER

When the liver is congested, the oestrogen that should have been broken down continues to circulate in the body, and starts to undermine the body. The growing cells are also not kept healthy.

This fact helps to explain why women who drink more than one unit of alcohol daily have an increased risk of getting breast cancer - if your liver is busy detoxing alcohol, it will not have sufficient time to break down oestrogen.

This is why the majority of my dietary suggestions to patients focus on unburdening the liver: whether it is cutting out wheat and dairy (dairy increases the growth rate of hormonal cancers), eating lots of vegetables (should fill half your plate) and limiting meat and fish to four times a week, or switching with lentils and green grams instead, which are healthier.

Also. I normally suggest taking herbs such as milk thistle, dandelion, boldo and artichoke.

Since excess oestrogen can also be normally eliminated via the bowel, increasing soluble fibre (two apples and two raw carrots daily) can also help.

Unlike wheat bran which is scratchy on the intestine and hard on the body, this sort of fibre helps digested food and waste pass through the intestine more rapidly, so that there is less opportunity for oestrogen to be reabsorbed back into the body.

Kudos if you eat food that cleans up your liver and avoid using plastic utensils.

However, if you are on birth control pills and Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) you are at risk. The fact is that HRT can increase risk of breast and uterine cancers, while, for girls under 20, taking the pill can triple risk of breast cancer later in life.