28 Breast Cancer Prevention Tips that Go Beyond Pink
By now you’ve probably noticed that everything seems to be pink lately. From medication bottle lids, to football players’ shoes — everything. Is. Pink.
While, yes, it’s great so many people are interested in and involved with breast cancer awareness campaigns, the pink ribbon, along with some of its more contemporary awareness counterparts, such as “save the ta-tas” (I mean, really – how about “save a woman’s life” instead?), breast cancer prevention campaigns are often overshadowed. To remedy this, we’ve rounded up some breast cancer prevention tips that go beyond the pink ribbon.
Choose healthy cosmetics
Conventional cosmetics can make you look ravishing, but the list of creepy ingredients in conventional cosmetics? Not pretty. At all. And often, quite toxic and bad for your body.
Here are some tips on how to pick healthy cosmetics:
1. Use fewer products: the more products you use, the more you expose yourself to crazy chemicals. When you do buy products, go for certified organic brands, or try and make your own cosmetics.
2. Avoid fragrance: put simply: fragrance = chemicals.
3. Buy antiperspirants that don’t contain aluminum.
4. Stay away from anti-aging creams with lactic, glycolic, AHA, and BHA acids.
5. Don’t use chemical-laden hair dyes. Dark permanent dyes, especially.
6. Don’t buy nail polish and polish removers with formaldehyde, DBP or toluene, or liquid hand soaps with triclosan, or triclocarban.
7. Skin lighteners with hydroquinone are bad news.
8. Don’t use skin products with petrolatum, or fungicides; or shaving creams, hair gels, and hair color products with nonylphenol.
9. Hair spray, gel, mousse, or shaving cream with isobutene is a no go, too.
Create a healthy home
10. Similar to cosmetics, many conventional cleaning products contain nasty chemicals. An alternative? Make your own cleaning products (vinegar and baking soda do wonders.)
11. When you furnish your home, buy items that are not coated with nasty chemicals (use cast iron cookware, buy furniture made of wool and natural fibers, and avoid carpets and other household items with flame retardant chemicals.)
Some other easy ways to keep a clean home:
12. Don’t use pesticides and chemical herbicides. Use natural pest deterrents and go organic.
13. Swear off perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) and don’t use products with chlorine bleach, or products that are bleached.
Go organic when you can, and eat healthy
14. Buy local and organic when you can. If you can, buy fresh at your local farmers market every week.
15. If you have to go to a conventional grocery store, avoid buying canned foods (can liners are typically coated with BPA). Organic practices protect your food (and you) from harmful pesticides, and also help keep the planet clean, and the earth and water supply free of chemicals.
You can also:
16. Eat hormone-free dairy and meat, and choose “safe” fish to eat.
17. Don’t eat too much fat, and steer clear of animal and hydrogenated fats.
18. Limit the amount of alcohol you drink.
19. If you eat soy, don’t eat too much. Always buy local or organic soy, or soy that isn’t genetically modified.
Protect the environment, and your family
There are so (so, so!) many things that we come into contact with every darn day, just living, that we can educate ourselves about and limit our (and our family‘s) exposure to. Here are just a few:
20. Don’t smoke and stay away from cigarette smoke.
21. If you can, avoid medical tests that use high amounts of radiation.
22. Don’t flush pills you don’t use: take expired meds to the pharmacy for proper disposal.
23. Avoid hormone replacement therapy: Yes, menopause is tough, but you can fight some of its symptoms naturally. Engage in regular exercise, cut out caffeine and alcohol, and eat a healthy diet.
24. Wear sunscreen everyday, everywhere, all year long, and buy natural brands if you can.
25. Opt for hand washing (or green dry cleaning) over conventional dry cleaning.
26. Limit exposure to items with electromagnetic field radiation. Basically, turn your computer off when you aren’t using it, turn off WiFi when you aren’t around or are sleeping, and use a headset when talking on your cell phone.)
27. Dispose of cadmium batteries properly and buy low emissions cars.
28. Try not to use plastics. Use glass or ceramics instead. Also: avoid non-stick cooking surfaces and don’t microwave food in plastic.
For additional information on how to protect against breast cancer, give these articles a read:
“Watch Out for Pinkwashing this Breast Cancer Awareness Month”
“Cosmetics and Breast Cancer, is there a Connection?”
Resources:
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/detailedguide/breast-cancer-risk-factors
http://www.livestrong.com/article/352927-foods-to-avoid-for-cancer/
http://www.breastcancerfund.org/reduce-your-risk/tips/
Image: TipsTimes
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