This browser does not support the Video element.
Advice to prevent breast cancer you've likely never heard before
Dr. Sharon Stills from Scottsdale, Arizona, is a Naturopathic Medical Doctor. She shares some advice for preventing breast cancer that you've likely never heard before.
HOUSTON - You've probably been told to eat plenty of veggies, limit alcohol, get quality sleep, exercise, and never smoke to prevent breast cancer.
The question is, have you heard that you should also stop wearing an underwire bra, move your breasts around, pull dead teeth, and work through emotional drama to prevent breast cancer? We got some interesting, eye-opening advice from Dr. Sharon Stills from Scottsdale, Arizona.
EXPLAINER: What are the symptoms of breast cancer?
She's a Naturopathic Medical Doctor who began this conversation with a lesson about our lymphatic systems.
"A lot of what we're talking about when we're thinking about the breasts is looking at the lymphatic system," Dr. Stills said. "So, I actually use a machine from Germany called the CRT. It's a computerized regulation thermography machine. It's the only diagnostic machine that actually looks at your lymphatic system and is it congested or is it regulating and open? That's so important."
"It's how we detox and how we get toxins out of this system. We don't really pay attention to it!" she added. "Unlike the circulatory system, it doesn't move unless we move, so we've got to move our boobs! I do it after the shower. I tell my patients just make it part of your routine. You take a shower, you brush your teeth, you comb your hair, you move your boobs, and just simply moving them up and down, and side to side for 10 seconds up and down. 10 seconds side to side. Just get some circulation in there."
KNOW THE SIGNS: Most women can't spot signs of aggressive form of breast cancer — here's what to know
She also believes that we need to reconsider what type of deodorant we're wearing.
"A lot of us are worried we'll smell, so we don't want to sweat, but we're using these deodorants, these antiperspirants that have aluminum in them, and aluminum is extremely toxic to the body," states Dr. Stills. "So, not only are we putting a toxic element into the body, but we're stopping sweating from under our arms, which is where there's all this lymphatic tissue that needs to move. We have all these lymph nodes and if we are congesting them and stopping them from sweating, then we're stopping ourselves from detoxing."
She also wants to make sure everyone realizes that there's more to our mouths than just making sure we brush our teeth daily and get them cleaned at a dentist.
"Each one of our teeth has a connection to an acupuncture meridian," Dr. Stills explained. "So, for example, our front teeth are related to the bladder meridian."
This browser does not support the Video element.
What are the sneaky signs of breast cancer?
October is breast cancer awareness month, so we speak with an expert after a recent study says most women cannot spot the symptoms of aggressive breast cancer.
"So, a lot of times men who have prostate issues often can have a problem with these teeth," she added. "Now, as for breast cancer, the meridian tooth is on our upper molars for the stomach, and that meridian goes right through our breasts, so the breasts are connected to the stomach meridian."
"I was surprised to learn this many years ago when I first became a physician, because I studied over in Europe where the dentist and the doctors work under the same building. They treat the patients together. I learned very quickly that if you have a root canal, so basically you have to think about it if you have a root canal that means the tooth was dead. Rather than pulling it out, they kept it in your body, and we never keep dead organs in our body. If you have an appendix that ruptures, they don't save it. They remove your appendix, and so we don't think of our teeth like this, but our teeth are organs. So, when we do a root canal tooth, and we keep a dead organ in our mouth, what happens is bacteria builds up because we have this root canal, but there's all these little microtubules coming off the root canal, and it's like the perfect place to set up for bacterial problems."
IT CAN HAPPEN TO MEN TOO: Man shares battle with breast cancer to help raise awareness
She goes on to say that this low-grade bacterial infection can fester and affect the meridian.
"I know it might sound crazy, and you might be asking, ‘who is this crazy doctor?’ but I see it time and time and time again," Dr. Stills said. "I scan someone on the thermography, they have a root canal on this tooth, the tooth is blocked, and they have breast cancer. We pull the tooth - it's not the only thing we do, but we pull the tooth. We take care of the terrain because the way I look at the body is that we don't get sick from the outside. We get sick from the inside, and so I have a very terrain-based perspective."
"So, we have to balance the terrain in traditional medicine," she continued. "If you have breast cancer, they cut it out. They radiate it, they give you chemo, and they don't think about your immune system, or the cells of your body or the extracellular matrix, which is the space outside the cells, and so I look at it very differently. I look at it. Why did you get breast cancer in the first place? What's going on - is your lymphatic system congested? Are you depleted in minerals? "Do you have infections? Do you have emotional issues going on? There are all these things that contribute to the terrain. So, if we just cut something out, but we never take care of the terrain itself, then it can just grow back."
MORE STORIES BY MELISSA WILSON
She describes it like a pond of water.
"If the water is polluted, you put fish in it, they die," Dr. Stills said. "If you take out those fish and put new fish in it, they're going to die too. You have to clean the water. And so that's what I mean. When I say terrain based, I mean we have to clean our internal system."
Finally, Dr. Stills discussed the emotional component in the disease process.
"As women, we so often are giving, and we forget to give to the most important person in our lives - ourselves," she said. "If you think about the breasts, they express our feminine nature, and they're also how we feed babies if we've had babies, so they're all about nurturing and so often, if you do have a disease process going on in your breasts, it's really important to take stock of your emotions, your self-love your relationship to yourself, your relationship to others."
This browser does not support the Video element.
Breast cancer survivor gets treatment for another decade-long health mystery
Tiffeny Morrow was diagnosed with panic attacks, following her breast cancer treatments, but she found a doctor at UTHealth/Memorial Hermann, who helped her realize that anxiety had nothing to do with her serious problem.
"Often, we see that there has been a big betrayal, so I see this all the time," Dr. Stills added. "Women get diagnosed with breast cancer after a year of being divorced or after being cheated on or after being overlooked at the office and someone went above them for the promotion that they deserved and that someone was a man and not a woman. And so, we have to look at emotions!"
"Our mind and our body are connected," Dr. Stills concluded. "When we have a diagnosis such as breast cancer, it's really important that we take our emotions into account, as well as our diets, our hydration, our nutrition, the state of oxygenation in our body, of course our dental health and so it's a process."
For more information on breast cancer prevention and about Dr. Stills' work, visit her website.