Decreasing Your Breast Cancer Risk

Some clinical studies show very beneficial information but it takes years, even decades, for doctors to educate their patients. I was reminded of this recently when a patient shared with me his frustration with a doctor he was seeing prior to seeing me. He felt he was the one that was educating this doctor instead of vice versa. This is not surprising because some of them do not take the time to read medical journals and research. In addition, the conventional medical establishment is often skeptical, and in some cases, resistant to the findings. For instance, it took about 3 decades for the use of folic acid before and during pregnancy to become common knowledge. In the 1960s Drs. McCulley and Smithells’s¹ research on the association between the B-vitamin folic acid and preventing neural tube defects in newborns were rejected, and even ridiculed. In 1980, Dr Smithells published additional research with stronger association between folic acid and prevention of neural tube defects² and got rejected again. The acceptance did not occur until 1993 when Oakley published research saying that not only did folic acid greatly decrease the risk of babies having spina bifida, but also greatly decreased the risk of babies being born without a brain.³ Today, it is considered malpractice for any doctor to fail to recommend adequate folic acid and B-vitamins to pregnant women.

Studies have shown that Vitamin D, Indole 3 Carbinol (I3C) and Di-indolyl-methane (DIM) help decrease breast cancer risk, and yet many do not know this. According to researchers from UC San Diego, Harvard University, Rutgers University and other research facilities, 1760 females who had vitamin D blood levels of at least 52 ng/ml, had at least a 50% decreased incidence of breast cancer⁴. Also, according to other research studies^{5, 6, 7}, Indole 3 Carbinol (I3C) and a metabolite of I3C called Di-indolyl-methane (DIM), significantly increase the anti-cancer estrogen metabolite, 2-hydroxyestrone, and greatly lower the cancer promoting estrogen metabolite, 16-alpha-hydroxyestrone. I3C is a compound found in veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts. Both I3C and DIM have been shown to raise the “good” 2-hydroxyestrones and lower the “bad” 16-alpha-hydroxyestrones⁸. For a more detailed explanation of how this occurs in your body, you can read my article in the January 2007 newsletter.

Knowing this, should you wait until this becomes common knowledge?

Women should get 4000 IU of Vitamin D3 and 200 to 400 mg of DIM or Indole 3 Carbinol per day! Make sure you get an effective, highly absorbable form of each of these supplements. If you want to know your blood vitamin D levels and 2 and 16 hydroxyestrone levels, a simple, relatively inexpensive blood test can measure your blood vitamin D levels, and special urine test can measure the 2 and 16 hydroxyestrone levels⁹.

Dr Husbands is a Chiropractor, a Certified Clinical Nutritionist, an Anti-Aging Healthcare Practitioner and a Functional Medicine Doctor. For more information, visit http://www.holistichealthbayarea.com.

Copyright © 2009; Douglas Husbands, DC, CCN, ABAAHP. All rights reserved

1 Smithells R, D’Arcy E, McAllister E. Dev. Med. Child Neurol (Suppl.). 1968;15:6-10.

2 Smithells R, Shepard S, Schorah C, et al. Possible prevention of neural-tube defects by periconceptional vitamin supplementation. Lancet 1980:339;340.

3 Oakley G. Folic acid-preventable spina bifida and anencephaly. JAMA 1993;269:1292-3.

4 Garland C, Gorham E, Mohr S, et. al. Vitamin D and prevention of breast cancer: Pooled analysis. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2007;103:708-11.

5 Gruber C, et. al., Production and Actions of Estrogens. NEJM 2002;346:340-50.

6 Telang N, Katdare M, Bradlow H, et. al. Inhibition of proliferation and modulation of estradiol metabolism: novel mechanisms for breast cancer prevention by the phytochemical indole-3-carbinol Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 1997;216:246-52.

7 Meng Q, Goldberg I, Rosen E, et. al. Inhibitory effects of indole-3-carbinol on invasion and migration in human breast cancer cells. Breast Cancer Res Treat 2000;63:147-52.

8 Wong G, Bradlow L, Sepkovic D, et. al. Dose-ranging study of indole-3-carbinol for breast cancer prevention. J Cell Biochem Suppl 1997;S28-29:111-16.

9 Ursin G, London S, Stanczyk F, et. al. A pilot study of urinary estrogen metabolites (16 α-OHE1 and 2-OHE1) in postmenopausal women with and without breast cancer. Environmental Health Perspectives. 1998;106:A126-A127.