0:00

You're listening to Better Than Before

0:02

Breast Cancer with the Breast Cancer

0:04

Recovery Coach. I'm your host, Laura

0:06

Lummer. I'm a certified life coach

0:08

and I'm a Breast Cancer Thriver.

0:10

In this podcast, I will give

0:12

you the skills on the insights

0:14

and the tools to move past

0:16

the emotional and physical trauma of

0:18

a breast cancer diagnosis. If you're

0:21

looking for a way to create

0:23

a life that's even better than

0:25

before breast cancer, you've come to

0:27

the right place. Let's get started.

0:33

Hey there, welcome to episode 386

0:35

of Better Than Before Breast

0:37

Cancer. I'm your host Laura

0:39

Lumber, the Breast Cancer Recovery

0:41

Coach, and we're going to

0:43

talk about some great stuff

0:45

here today. So... What we're going to

0:47

talk about has a lot to do with

0:49

many aspects of your health. And it's something

0:51

I think there's a couple of terms that

0:54

people throw around to various health publications, and

0:56

you might have even heard me talk about

0:58

here on the podcast before. We're going to

1:00

talk about methylation, and I know I've spoken

1:02

about it in a couple of different ways,

1:04

but I get asked about this all the time.

1:07

Especially because there's some popular genes,

1:09

the MTHFR for instance, that people talk

1:11

about and wonder if they have this

1:13

gene or not and what it means

1:16

to them. And that they, I've gotten

1:18

a lot of questions lately as I

1:20

review people's nutrition genomes. on really understanding

1:22

what methylation is and why it's even

1:25

important to them. Why does it have

1:27

any significance whatsoever to our health, but

1:29

especially to those of us who have

1:32

had a breast cancer diagnosis? So I

1:34

know, methylation sounds like a technical term,

1:36

but I promise you you don't need to

1:39

have a biology degree to take care of

1:41

your health. You just need to have a

1:43

willingness to learn? to take small meaningful steps

1:45

and to just be open to

1:47

what's out there. So in this

1:50

show what I want to do

1:52

is help you understand at the

1:54

simplest level what methylation is, why

1:56

it is important to you, how you might

1:58

know that you're having with

2:00

methylation without a nutrition genome or

2:02

any other kind of genetic report.

2:04

What you can do if you

2:07

think this might be an issue

2:09

for you, how you can adjust

2:11

your lifestyle, and I'm even going

2:13

to leave you with a couple

2:15

of recipes to boost your body's

2:17

ability to methylate, right? Let's begin.

2:19

So let's start talking about what

2:21

methylation actually is. Here's just the

2:23

very basics. Methylation is a process

2:26

that happens in every single cell

2:28

in your body. So think about

2:30

it like adding a little tag

2:32

to your DNA or to other

2:34

molecules in your body. And these

2:36

tags act like on and off

2:38

switches. You know how we have

2:40

those breaker boxes in the house

2:42

and they're marked, bathroom, kitchen lights,

2:44

microwave? Kind of think about it

2:47

like that. So it's got these,

2:49

these tags act like on and

2:51

off switches and they tell your

2:53

body what to do and when

2:55

to do it. So methylation, the

2:57

process of methylation is involved in

2:59

creating energy. in repairing DNA, breaking

3:01

down toxins, processing hormones, including estrogen,

3:03

big important one for us, and

3:06

managing stress and mood. So you

3:08

might think like, managing stress and

3:10

mood as a function of the

3:12

way that I think, but it

3:14

actually has a lot more. to

3:16

it than that. And the way

3:18

that our body works, the neurotransmitters,

3:20

the dopamine, the serotonin, the adrenaline,

3:22

the nor all of these different

3:25

things play a role, hormones play

3:27

a role, and how they affect

3:29

our brain. And then that has

3:31

an effect on how we think.

3:33

So it has, and how we

3:35

feel, right, on our mood and

3:37

the way we respond to stressors.

3:39

So, methylation is kind of like

3:41

the body's maintenance crew, and it's

3:44

always working behind the scenes to

3:46

try to keep everything running smoothly.

3:48

when methylation doesn't work smoothly, when

3:50

it doesn't work perfectly. And that

3:52

can be the result and it

3:54

can be driven by certain genes,

3:56

like the one I mentioned, MTHFR.

3:58

You've probably heard of it. There's

4:00

another really big important one, ComT.

4:02

There's another MTR. In fact, there's

4:05

many variations that have the MTR

4:07

type of variants that affect methylation.

4:09

But these three that I just

4:11

mentioned are pretty big players. And

4:13

they can make the process of

4:15

methylation slower or less efficient in

4:17

your body. So when methylation isn't

4:19

working well, it can impact your

4:21

overall health and how your body

4:24

handles. the processing of toxins and

4:26

estrogens. And obviously that's critical for

4:28

us as people who've had a

4:30

breast cancer diagnosis. So let's dig

4:32

a little deeper into that. Why

4:34

would you care about this as

4:36

a breast cancer survivor? Well, one

4:38

big reason is the estrogen that

4:40

I just mentioned. So estrogen metabolism.

4:43

Your body uses methylation to process

4:45

and safely remove estrogen. Right? So

4:47

this is an important thing when

4:49

we have hormones in our body,

4:51

hormones do their job, and then

4:53

what's leftovers got to be removed

4:55

from the body. And if it's

4:57

not removed effectively and efficiently, it

4:59

transforms into other... parts or other

5:01

types of estrogen and it has

5:04

byproducts of the estrogen metabolism of

5:06

trying to break it down. So

5:08

these more toxic forms of estrogen

5:10

can cause damage to our cells

5:12

and increase a risk of breast

5:14

cancer recurrence. So methylation also helps

5:16

your body manage inflammation and DNA

5:18

repair. We know what big players

5:20

these are in the game of

5:23

health, right? We want to make

5:25

sure that we keep inflammation at

5:27

its absolute lowest. And poor methylation

5:29

can leave yourselves very vulnerable to

5:31

damage from toxins. Again, toxins is

5:33

going to keep popping up here.

5:35

Or oxidative stress is kind of

5:37

like the overwhelm. If your body

5:39

can't... process toxins effectively, then they

5:42

start to overwhelm the cells and

5:44

we have this oxidative stress. So

5:46

that also both of those toxins

5:48

and oxidative stress can have an

5:50

impact on our cancer risk. And

5:52

when it comes to detoxification, think

5:54

about what we go through after

5:56

treatments like chemotherapy, surgeries, radiation, multiple

5:58

different pharmaceutical drugs that we may

6:01

take, and that our body has

6:03

to eliminate the leftover toxins from

6:05

all of these treatments. So supporting

6:07

proper methylation can help support your

6:09

body in this detoxification process, so

6:11

it can happen more efficiently, and

6:13

so that you can recover more

6:15

effectively. So another thing that can

6:17

happen here. is that if methylation

6:19

isn't happening effectively, if we're having

6:22

poor methylation, it can also lead

6:24

to higher levels of what's called

6:26

homocysteine. And homocysteine is an inflammatory

6:28

molecule that's linked to heart disease

6:30

and possibly cancer. So homocysteine is

6:32

this interesting kind of a byproduct.

6:34

The process of methylation requires some

6:36

really important nutrients, which we're going

6:38

to touch on here in just

6:41

a few minutes. And if we

6:43

either don't have enough of those

6:45

nutrients, or if our body can't

6:47

for some reason use those nutrients

6:49

effectively, then that homocysteine can kind

6:51

of be this leftover product causing

6:53

a lot of inflammation and especially

6:55

homocysteine is linked to cardiovascular disease,

6:57

which we definitely want to avoid.

7:00

So how would you even know

7:02

that you were having an issue

7:04

with methylation if you didn't do

7:06

a nutrition genomics? And the reason

7:08

really I want to talk about

7:10

this because I see methylation issues

7:12

so often as a very high

7:14

impact. in a lot of the

7:16

women that I work with. And

7:18

so I know that it's got

7:21

all this cascade of effect in

7:23

the way that it impacts our

7:25

body. But if you didn't know

7:27

your genetics, if you didn't want

7:29

to know your genetics, your nutrition

7:31

genome, or how your genetics respond

7:33

to lifestyle, how could you know

7:35

if this was an issue for

7:37

you? Well, there are a few

7:40

signs that you can look for.

7:42

One is fatigue. So if your

7:44

body isn't producing enough energy, poor

7:46

methylation could be part of the

7:48

reason. and mood swings. So methylation

7:50

helps process brain chemicals, like I

7:52

mentioned, those neurotransmitters, dopamine, serotonin, and

7:54

so if methylation is sluggish you

7:56

might feel a lot of brain

7:59

fog or just kind of down

8:01

or in a funk. If you

8:03

notice that you feel worse after

8:05

eating certain foods, drinking alcohol, or

8:07

being exposed to different environmental toxins,

8:09

that could point to a methylation

8:11

issue. So what does it mean

8:13

if I say you feel worse?

8:15

Obviously, you could notice that you

8:18

don't feel good when you eat

8:20

processed foods or foods that have

8:22

dyes or colors or chemical additives

8:24

in them. You could notice that

8:26

you don't respond to alcohol well.

8:28

And with environmental toxins, I did

8:30

a show way back. I'll have

8:32

to find it. I'll link to

8:34

that in the show notes. You

8:36

can listen to it. It was

8:39

on multiple chemical sensitivity. What if

8:41

you go into these, I don't

8:43

want to mention any company names,

8:45

so candle parties with lots of

8:47

scented things, and they smell lovely,

8:49

right? They have lovely fragrances, but

8:51

you walk in and you just

8:53

feel sick. and you start to

8:55

get a headache and you feel

8:58

like cold and clammy, you feel

9:00

funky, you feel like something's off.

9:02

If you walk down the cleaning

9:04

aisle in the grocery store or

9:06

you go to Home Depot where

9:08

there's a lot of chemicals, do

9:10

you notice that you respond in

9:12

a way that is a little

9:14

more intense than other people around

9:17

you might respond? This could be

9:19

a little bit, these could be

9:21

some red flags that you're having

9:23

trouble with methylation. Is there a

9:25

family history of breast cancer or

9:27

heart disease? So variants and methylation

9:29

related genes like the MTHFR can

9:31

run in families. So if you

9:33

see there's a history of that

9:35

in your family, then you can

9:38

think, well, maybe I have that

9:40

too. Maybe something's going on with

9:42

there. So if these kind of

9:44

things resonate with you, it could

9:46

be worth exploring. If you're open

9:48

to understanding and knowing your nutrition

9:50

genome, you can certainly find someone

9:52

who practices functional medicine can help

9:54

me of that. Next steps, I'm

9:57

gonna give you these three tips

9:59

on things you can do to

10:01

support healthy or more effective methylation.

10:03

And if you notice, you start

10:05

to feel better when you do

10:07

these things, that could be another.

10:09

indication of red flags that maybe

10:11

I was having poor methylation issues.

10:13

So the great thing about nutrition

10:16

genomics is that it's highly influenced

10:18

by food. So if you're having

10:20

poor methylation, if you think you're

10:22

having poor methylation, if you're noticing

10:24

some of these symptoms of fatigue

10:26

and these things that are bothering

10:28

you, then I'm going to give

10:30

you three tips that anybody could

10:32

use to support healthy methylation. So

10:35

even if you are already you

10:37

can still do these things to

10:39

be very supportive of that process

10:41

that's going on in your body.

10:43

So let's talk about some of

10:45

the right nutrients, the nutrients that

10:47

make a big difference in methylation.

10:49

Folate, not folic acid, folate, those

10:51

are two different things. Folate is

10:53

found in leafy greens like spinach,

10:56

kale, and asparagus. And sometimes there

10:58

are certain nutrients that I know

11:00

that from my nutrition genomics that

11:02

I know I need more of,

11:04

and I'll just go to Google

11:06

and say, what are the foods

11:08

that are highest in this? So

11:10

you can get lots of lists

11:12

of food that way. So folate

11:15

is a very important nutrient. B12

11:17

is found in animal-based foods, eggs,

11:19

fish, chicken, all the animal-based foods.

11:21

You can find it fortified in

11:23

some plant-based milks or plant-based foods,

11:25

but it's still not going to

11:27

be... as effective if it's fortification

11:29

versus just a naturally occurring part

11:31

of these animal-based foods. B12 is

11:34

one of those in nutrients that

11:36

hear a lot of people who

11:38

are vegans that they suffer from

11:40

some B12 deficiencies. And the important

11:42

thing about that is that B12

11:44

is a really powerful nutrient in

11:46

supporting this whole process of methylation

11:48

and this process of methylation, as

11:50

I've just talked about, impacts many

11:52

areas. of the body. Okay, so

11:55

B12 is a big player. Colleen

11:57

is a big player. Colleen is

11:59

in egg yolks, Brussels sprouts, liver.

12:01

I did a podcast a while

12:03

ago on organ meats and how

12:05

valuable they are to our health.

12:07

That's gross to me. So when

12:09

I say liver, I use capsules

12:11

that are just organ meat capsules,

12:14

organic grass-finished organ meat capsules. So

12:16

I can get more Colleen into

12:18

my body because this is an

12:20

issue for me as well. Butane

12:22

is found in beets and in

12:24

kenwa. So you can look for

12:26

these nutrients in your food. I

12:28

love to say to my people,

12:30

and I know a bunch of

12:33

people freak out when you talk

12:35

about tracking food. People don't like

12:37

to track food. I totally get

12:39

it. I don't love tracking food.

12:41

But I find a way to

12:43

be curious about it because I

12:45

want to see when I track

12:47

my food. Not how many calories

12:49

I'm eating. I'm not worried about

12:52

the calories. What I'm concerned with,

12:54

what I'm interested in, is the

12:56

nutrients. And so when I track

12:58

my food, I want to see

13:00

the nutrient values. Am I even

13:02

getting the RDA, the recommended daily

13:04

allowance of folate, of B12, of

13:06

choline, of betane, of iron, of

13:08

potassium, of all the things, right?

13:10

And so a good food tracker,

13:13

I use chronometer, it's an excellent

13:15

food tracker, and that's really helpful.

13:17

Because if you have some of

13:19

the symptoms I talk about, and

13:21

you think maybe I am having

13:23

trouble methylating, you could use this

13:25

kind of a food tracking app.

13:27

Even if it's just for a

13:29

week or two, to see on

13:32

the average how much of these

13:34

nutrients are you getting? So an

13:36

RDA is just the recommended daily

13:38

allowance. It means the minimum amount

13:40

recommended for an average healthy person

13:42

so that they don't go into

13:44

deficiency. So if you're not even

13:46

meeting the RDA on these nutrients,

13:48

well... it's kind of easy to

13:51

see that you would be going

13:53

into deficiency. So let's think about

13:55

if you think you're having trouble,

13:57

if you know these nutrients are

13:59

big players in mezzulation, and if

14:01

you track your food... for a

14:03

few days and see, I'm not

14:05

even getting close to the minimum

14:07

of these nutrients. Then there's another

14:09

step you can take to improve

14:12

your diet and see what foods

14:14

carry these, how can I put

14:16

more of them into my diet,

14:18

and then do I feel better

14:20

after that. So these nutrients fuel

14:22

your methylation pathways, they help your

14:24

body process toxins, they help repair

14:26

DNA, and they help balance hormones.

14:28

So again, obviously the focus on.

14:31

whole nutrient-dense foods organic as much

14:33

as possible because obviously if we're

14:35

already having trouble detoxifying because of

14:37

a problem with methylation the last

14:39

thing we want to do is

14:41

put more pesticides and toxins into

14:43

our body right we want to

14:45

give our liver a break we

14:47

want to give our body a

14:50

break we want to reduce the

14:52

toxic burden okay the second step

14:54

is managing stress So stress hormones,

14:56

like adrenaline, can build up if

14:58

methylation is sluggish. And then that

15:00

can leave you with feelings of

15:02

anxiety, tenseness, burnout. So things that

15:04

you can do, which people I

15:06

think don't give enough credit to

15:09

these at all, are deep breathing,

15:11

gentle yoga, and journaling. Yeah, journaling

15:13

the process of writing your thoughts

15:15

out. The process of just taking

15:17

a moment to sit back and

15:19

take a deep full breath. The

15:21

process of moving your body gently

15:23

with your breath. These can really

15:25

be super helpful and journaling can

15:27

help your body process these hormones

15:30

more effectively because it's dealing with

15:32

your emotions, right? It's dealing with

15:34

your stress. So simple, easy breath

15:36

work practice would be like box

15:38

breathing. Breathe in for four counts.

15:40

Exhale for four counts, hold for

15:42

four counts. You could do this

15:44

for five minutes every day and

15:46

it would be a huge step

15:49

in helping you to manage stress.

15:51

So easy and so powerful. You

15:53

know, we don't have to go

15:55

all out an hour a day,

15:57

seven days a week, flip and

15:59

tire. going crazy to be fit.

16:01

We don't have to go to big

16:03

meditation classes or hour-long

16:05

courses. We can just take

16:08

a few minutes every day

16:10

because consistency is really the

16:12

key to everything. So five

16:14

minutes a day every day is

16:16

so much better than an hour

16:18

a day once a month. All

16:21

right, so make little steps to

16:23

support yourself. Now the third tip

16:25

is to detoxify your environment. Reducing

16:27

your toxic load gives your body

16:29

less work to do. So these are easy

16:32

tips. Make sure you're drinking

16:34

filtered water. Avoid processed food

16:36

and excess alcohol. When it

16:38

comes to breast cancer, there

16:41

is actually no safe recommended

16:43

intake of alcohol. None. They

16:45

say that any intake of

16:47

alcohol increases our risk of

16:49

recurrence. But the general recommendations

16:51

for alcohol is not more

16:53

than a day for a

16:55

woman. A drink is one

16:57

ounce of alcohol like liquor

16:59

or five ounces of wine.

17:01

That's considered a drink. And

17:03

so we don't want to go

17:05

above these recommended allowances here. So

17:08

on the food, we want to

17:10

exceed the recommended daily allowance. On

17:12

alcohol and processed food, we definitely

17:14

don't. We want to keep that

17:16

as low as possible. And then

17:18

of course, using natural cleaning products

17:20

and personal care products that don't

17:22

have parabins and fragrances and colorings

17:24

and things like that in them.

17:26

Those three simple things can make

17:28

a huge impact and a huge

17:30

change in your life. So let's

17:32

wrap this up. We know that

17:34

methylation is a powerful process.

17:36

that affects your energy, mood,

17:38

detoxification, hormone balance, lots of

17:40

things in your body. For

17:43

breast cancer survivors, people who

17:45

have had a breast cancer

17:47

diagnosis, supporting mezzulation is an

17:49

important step in promoting our

17:51

long-term health and reducing our risk

17:53

of recurrence. And remember that

17:55

the journey to health is not about perfection.

17:58

It's about progress. to like

18:00

figure out methylation, get everything right,

18:02

get on B12 supplements or any

18:04

of that stuff, but making small

18:06

changes to your diet, managing your

18:08

stress, checking out your environment, detoxing

18:11

here wherever you can, cutting back

18:13

as much as you can in

18:15

additives and chemicals and things like

18:17

that in chemical exposures, all of

18:19

these little steps and understanding why

18:21

they're important for your body. You

18:23

know we hear a lot in

18:25

the public eye and the public

18:27

arena is just like detox and

18:29

in California we have these little

18:31

prop I don't know it's prop

18:33

64 I think it was stickers

18:35

there they're literally on everything every

18:37

package everything and they're like prop

18:39

64 this is a cancer warning

18:41

on everything every toy every package

18:44

everything We can't live like that,

18:46

like it's too overwhelming. And so

18:48

do what you can, understand why

18:50

you're doing it, right? So understand

18:52

why you want to cut out

18:54

toxins, understand how they're impacting the

18:56

way that you feel. And little

18:58

by little, you will see your

19:00

health improved more and more and

19:02

more and we'll get into that

19:04

optimal range and you'll get to

19:06

know your body better. so that

19:08

you can serve it better and

19:10

so that you're not guessing all

19:12

the time about what it needs.

19:14

I hope you found that helpful.

19:17

You can always come and work

19:19

with me. You can find all

19:21

the details at the Breast Cancer

19:23

Recovery Coach.com. I have a life

19:25

coaching membership that literally contains all

19:27

the programs, all the workshops, all

19:29

the things I do, and my

19:31

members get to have. Weekly group

19:33

coaching sessions with me and with

19:35

each other as well as opportunities

19:37

for private coaching sessions and lots

19:39

of discounts they get and I

19:41

also have lots of programs that

19:43

stand on their own. My four

19:45

pillars of breast cancer recovery, a

19:47

wonderful supportive program to move you

19:50

through creating a life that's better

19:52

than before breast cancer. I have

19:54

the 90 days of wellness which

19:56

is heart-centered approach if you want

19:58

to just like how do I

20:00

start loving myself more so I

20:02

can treat myself better. That's an

20:04

excellent program. And then of course

20:06

I've got all of my metabolic

20:08

health packages where we look at

20:10

your labs, we look at your

20:12

nutrition genome, and we just help

20:14

you understand how your body works

20:16

so you can eliminate all of

20:18

the confusion and start putting your

20:20

energy and your time into what

20:23

you know works best for you.

20:25

All right? It's all available for

20:27

you. You can find it all

20:29

on the Breast Cancer Recovery Coach.com

20:31

and I'll see you again next

20:33

week and until then go to

20:35

the show notes for this episode

20:37

the Breast Cancer Recovery Coach.com/386 and

20:39

check out the recipes that I

20:41

posted there that can help you

20:43

create delicious meals that support your

20:45

body's ability to methylate. I'll talk

20:47

to you soon. Your

20:52

mind is clearer than

20:55

before. Your heart is

20:58

full and wanting more.

21:00

Your future is at

21:03

the door. Give it

21:05

all you got. No

21:08

hesitating. You've been waiting

21:10

all your life. This

21:13

is your moment.