Breasts are full of lymphatic tissue and are designed to move around. Bras prevent your breasts from doing this and so stop this all important self cleansing mechanism.

This is why it feels good to take off your bra at the end of the day – it should be the first thing you do when you walk in that door – let your breasts breathe. Those push up bras make our boobs look fabulous, there is no doubt about it, but save them for special occasions. Around the house, go braless.

Especially, never wear a bra to bed. And avoid bras with underwire – they cut off the circulation of blood and lymph – if you don’t believe me have a look at the big red mark under your breasts after you take off an underwire bra.

Go to the lingerie section and have your bras fitted – most department stores have staff trained in this and its free – a well fitting bra does much less damage than an ill fitting one. Most women are wearing badly fitting bras – that’s why it feels so good when you take it off. You need to be resized for a bra when you are pregnant, breastfeeding, weaning or when you have gained or lost 5kg or more of weight. Breasts are fatty deposits and when you gain or lose weight you’ll notice it on your breasts almost immediately.

Many fibrocystic lumps disappear altogether if you don’t wear a bra for six months.

An effective, free way to assist with breast health is to lightly stroke your fingers from sternum (breastbone) to armpit for several minutes a day. This helps by promote lymphatic drainage of your breasts.

Fenugreek Tea has traditionally been used to help cleanse the lymphatics also.

Bush Iris from Australian Bush Flower Essences energetically balances the lymphatics. Much more information on Bush Iris is shared during the Level 1 Australian Bush Flower Essences Workshop.

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You MUST have all breast lumps checked medically to make sure it is not cancer. This is true not matter what your age – more and more young women are being diagnosed with breast cancer.

Oestrogen dominance is one cause of benign (non cancerous) breast lumps and can be reversed naturally using various herbal medicines. For my free series of article on Oestrogen dominance, sign up to the mailing list on my website.

Sore, swollen or lumpy breasts pre-menstrually can also be quickly assisted using herbs, with Chaste Tree being one of the good, over the counter, herbs available. Herbalists also have stronger herbs that should only be used by those who are professionally qualified.Medically, fibrocystic (benign) lumps are viewed as sometimes preceding breast cancer.Naturopathically, they can also indicate lymphatic congestion. Consider going without a bra as much as possible – more on this in the next post in this section.

Breasts are full of lymphatic tissue and are designed to move around. Bras prevent your breasts from doing this and so stop this all important self cleansing mechanism. Many fibrocystic lumps disappear altogether if you don’t wear a bra for six months. Lightly stroking your fingers from sternum to armpit for several minutes a day also helps by promoting lymphatic drainage of your breasts. Fenugreek Tea has traditionally been used to help cleanse the lymphatics also. Bush Iris from Australian Bush Flower Essences energetically balances the lymphatics. Much more information on Bush Iris is shared during the Level 1 Australian Bush Flower Essences Workshop.

Breastfeeding your babies is another traditional way of reducing your risk of developing breast cancer. If you get mastitis and a lump remains afterwards, herbal medicine can nearly always remove it, even many years later. It is important that you do so, to reduce the risk of the trapped toxins providing fertile soil for cancer to take root in.

A toxic colon often underlies breast lumps. The Australian Bush Flower Essence Bottlebrush is excellent to energetically re-balance the colon and shift the emotional pattern of “holding on” that is often underlying a sluggish bowel. Much more information on Bottebrush is shared during the Level 1 Australian Bush Flower Essences Workshop.

A mammogram is obtained by squashing the breast flat to get an image. This is recommended annually for all women over fifty. Due to the known cancer causing potential of accumulative X-Rays, from a naturopathic viewpoint, it would seem wise to remove this radiation after each procedure. Double blind trials have shown “Electro” by Australian Bush Flower Essences to be effective in dramatically reducing radiation levels.

Old wives and folk medicine advise women to protect their breasts, due to an increased risk of cancer following trauma. Interestingly, young sufferers of breast cancer today often report a history of an injury to the affected breast at the cancer site. External application of arnica, calendula or comfrey in the form of an ointment or compress at the time of the injury, assist with complete healing from bruising (obvious and otherwise).

Due to the density of younger breast tissue, mammogram is not very effective at diagnosing bnormalities in women under fifty. The latest technology in breast screening is using a hand held infrared thermal scanner to detect “hot spots” in the breast during monthly self examination. Early cancers immediately
establish a blood supply so they can grow. This generates abnormal heat at the site that is detected by the thermal scanner, prompting it to beep. Further investigations can then be undertaken via ultrasound or mammogram. Another alternative further investigation is professional thermal imaging, a painless, non invasive, non radiation procedure that shows up abnormalities at their earliest stage. More information, including clinics throughout Australia and the USA, is available here.

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