(NaturalHealth365)  When faced with breast cancer, many women wonder what strategies they can incorporate into their life to increase their chances of survival.  After undergoing countless chemotherapy and radiation treatments, most women are lead to believe that they have finally beaten this deadly disease.  Then reality sets in, and they must face the reality that even though Western medicine may say ‘the cancer is gone,’ there’s still the chance it can return with a vengeance.

Surviving breast cancer is possible, and, in truth, many women have gone on to live their lives cancer-free for the rest of their lives.  So, what’s their ‘secret?’ They know certain strategies will help them heal and follow them to ensure they never have to face the nightmare of breast cancer again.

When you follow these simple strategies, breast cancer cells have no choice but to stop their deadly progression within your body.

Surviving breast cancer begins with unconventional wisdom

1.  Consume cancer-fighting foods

While eating healthy and consuming organic foods that are high in nutrition is essential for anyone, it is especially vital for breast cancer survivors to eat a well-balanced, healthy diet that includes foods that are known to fight cancer, such as:

Carotenoids:  Fruits and vegetables that are high in carotenoids are particularly helpful and have been shown to provide a 33% increase in survival amongst survivors, who made them a major part of their diet.  Foods rich in carotenoids include carrots, sweet potatoes, dark leafy green vegetables such as kale, collard and dandelion greens plus, apricots, mangoes, tomatoes, and cantaloupe.

Fiber:  A high-fiber diet has also been shown to reduce the recurrence of breast cancer cells.  Adding whole foods that are high in fiber will greatly increase the chances of survival.  Try increasing your intake of organic brown rice, beans, raspberries, pears, apples, green peas, cauliflower, and barley.  The truth is: most vegetables and fruits will provide higher fiber content, versus processed foods – which should be avoided.

Organic (non-GMO) Soy:  For many years, breast cancer survivors were told to stay far away from soy because of the estrogen-like properties it contained.  New evidence, however, is showing that not only is there no risk, but soy is actually beneficial in terms of mortality and reducing the recurrence of breast cancer cells.

Organic fermented soy, such as miso, tempeh, natto, and raw kombucha, are your best bets and should be consumed in moderation.

2.  Avoid high-fat dairy products

Especially conventionally-produced dairy products, breast cancer survivors who regularly consume full-fat cheese, ice cream, and yogurt could cut their chances of survival in half.  Scientists from the cancer research center at Kaiser Permanente in California looked at reports of 1,500 women who had survived breast cancer and completed questionnaires about how often they consumed dairy products.

Don’t be fooled by milk advertising.  They found that women who ate just one portion of full-fat dairy products daily were 50% more likely to die from breast cancer in the next 12 years.  The most common culprits were cheese, ice cream, yogurt, and full-fat lattes … because it’s widely known that these conventional dairy products are full of estrogen – a hormone known to generate tumor growth.  Low-fat varieties of the same foods did not show a decrease in mortality rates, so if you’re set on consuming dairy products, make sure they’re raw, organic and 100% pasture raised.

Better yet, why not try making your own homemade almond or hemp milk as a healthy alternative to cow milk?

3.  Get plenty of exercise

Not only can physical exercise help with the side effects of treatment, but it can also vastly improve survival rates for those who have beaten breast cancer.  Try to get in at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week.

More than two dozen studies have shown that just a few hours of exercise each week will reduce the risk of developing breast cancer by 30-40%.  Any exercise is better than none at all.  Walking, yoga, and swimming are all forms of gentle exercise that are a great place to start after treatment and will greatly increase your chances of survival.

4.  Make time for meditation

It’s no secret that meditation is a huge benefit for reducing stress and anxiety among breast cancer survivors.  Research is showing that not only is meditation beneficial for survivors’ mental state, but can be an advantage for their physical state as well.

It all has to do with telomeres, the proteins at the end of chromosomes that become shorter every time a cell divides.  Longer telomeres are associated with survival, while shorter telomeres are associated with disease and premature death.

Research conducted on meditation amongst breast cancer survivors showed that after only 3 months of meditation, their telomere length was unchanged.  Those who did not meditate were shown to have shorter telomere lengths than when the study began.

5.  Increase your vitamin D level

According to a report from the University of San Diego Medical School, breast cancer patients with high levels of vitamin D in their blood are twice more likely to survive than those with lower levels of this essential nutrient.  Five studies conducted on 4,443 breast cancer survivors over a period of nine years found that the benefits of vitamin D help to increase communication between cells by turning on a protein that blocks cell division.

While the current recommended daily allowance for vitamin D is a dismal 600 IU for adults and 800 IU for people over 70, breast cancer survivors are often told to consume 4,000 IU (or more) daily – depending on the results of current blood tests.

Obviously, as much as we’d love to, we can’t possibly list all the natural breast cancer survival strategies that exist in a short article like this.  So, we encourage you to learn more by working with an experienced (integrative) healthcare provider and/or health coach.

Editor’s note: To discover the many ways to stop cancer naturally, own the Stop Cancer Docu-Class, presented by NaturalHealth365 Programs – featuring many of the top experts in holistic cancer therapies.

Sources for this article include:

NIH.gov
BlockMD.com
Dailymail.co.uk