Episode Overview

Many people believe that breast cancer is primarily caused by genetics, but did you know that only 5-10% of cases are linked to inherited mutations like BRCA1, BRCA2, and CHEK2?

The truth is, your overall health and risk of recurrence are influenced by key biological processes such as detoxification, methylation, and inflammation—and these are things you can actively support with your nutrition and lifestyle choices.

In this episode of Better Than Before Breast Cancer, I break down how these processes impact your health, how to recognize the signs of imbalance in your body, and why a low-carbohydrate diet can be a powerful tool in regulating glucose, insulin, and inflammation.

I also explain why nutrition isn’t about restriction—it’s about giving your body the support it needs to function at its best.

You’ll learn:
✔️ Why genetics are only part of the breast cancer risk equation
✔️ How detoxification, methylation, and inflammation work together to protect your body
✔️ Common signs that these processes may not be working efficiently
✔️ How blood sugar regulation impacts detox, inflammation, and cancer risk
✔️ How a low-carb, nutrient-dense diet supports healing and reduces recurrence risk
✔️ Simple, actionable steps to support your body's detox, inflammation, and methylation pathways

This episode will empower you to understand your unique genetic blueprint and how to make lifestyle changes that align with your body’s needs.

It’s not about fear—it’s about taking control of your health and making choices that truly support healing.

Resources & Links:

📌 Join the Better Than Before Breast Cancer Life Coaching Membership for more in-depth support

 📌 Book a Private Coaching Session with me to get support on adopting a wellness mindset and understanding the tools to support you

📌 Follow me for more breast cancer recovery tips:

• Instagram: @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach
• Facebook: The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach
• Pinterest: The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

If you found this episode helpful, please share it with a friend who could benefit, and don’t forget to leave a review on your favorite podcast platform.

🎧 Listen now and take a powerful step toward reclaiming your health!

Read the full transcript:

0:00
You're listening to better than before breast cancer with the breast cancer recovery coach, I'm your host, Laura Lummer. I'm a certified life coach, and I'm a breast cancer thriver. In this podcast, I will give you the skills on the insides and the tools to move past the emotional and physical trauma of a breast cancer diagnosis if you're looking for a way to create a life that's even better than before breast cancer, you've come to the right place. Let's get started. Hello friends and welcome to Episode 400 better than before breast cancer. I'm your host, Laura Lummer, and I am got 400 these landmark episodes, 123, 400

0:48
is just remarkable to me, not because I'm still here and I've actually recorded 400 actually, there's some bonus episodes, so a few more than 400 but I think back when I hit these landmark kind of episodes, and I think back about what they signified to me as I have gone through the process of managing cancer for all these years and all these episodes, how I've changed as a coach, how much more I've learned, how much I've been able to support my own healing And just the evolution of me as a human being, as well as me as a coach. And this podcast, I think, just signifies that I have a couple of clients who it's they're just amazing. And they said to me, I've literally started episode one, and I'm listening to every single one of your episodes. I don't even go back and listen to my episodes. And I think, wow, that's just so so much has changed in the time since I've started this podcast. And you know, one thing that's very, very meaningful and that I want to talk about today is my thoughts about why we get cancer and how we support our body in its ability to heal and in its constant effort to heal, and today I want to talk about that, because if there's anything I've learned, and there's a lot that I've learned over the years, one of the things is that there's just a lot of confusion and a lot of fear over why we get cancer. And I think a lot of people get confused. They think I don't have braca one or two, I don't have check two, I don't have Lynch syndrome. They identify with the ATM gene, or specific genes that have been talked about in the media, or maybe they hear about from their doctors. They think I don't have that. I don't have a family history. I don't understand why I got cancer. And so I think it's important to talk about this so that you get a better understanding of how your body works and what things contribute to vulnerabilities in our system that increase our risk of cancer or cancer recurrence, or that influence even the outcomes of cancer, because these different pathways of health, they play a role. And the reality is that our bodies are very complex, but we also have a lot of power. And so honestly, understanding the different pathways that impact cancer is a very empowering thing to do. So today, let's explore how your body and its biological processes, and we're going to talk about three, in particular, detoxification, methylation and inflammation, and how these processes are vital to health. And here's what I think is the exciting part, understanding your body's unique blueprint, understanding these systems of your body can be a game changer in supporting and understanding and making changes. You know, I talk with people a lot and on a regular basis about making lifestyle changes. And I've said this on the show. I say this to my clients, it isn't that we don't know what to do. It isn't that we don't know whole foods are good for us, organic as much as possible, plant forward as much as possible, healthy fats, avoiding Ultra processed foods, avoiding fast foods, avoiding fried foods, we all know this, avoiding sodas and alcohol. We all know that's the right thing for us. But why do many of us choose to continue to do it? I think because we don't really realize the impact that these foods have, and so understanding the impact that detoxification, methylation, inflammation, blood sugar regulation, what it really has on our body and how it impacts our risk of cancer and our health outcomes overall. I think once we have that knowledge, it's a little easier to implement some changes, little changes, little bit at a time, but to implement these changes because. Is when we understand how our body works and how food serves us, and we know that it's specific to our body's needs. We don't go through this kind of justification, like moderation and everything, or this is okay, or that's okay. We understand how our risks of what we don't want to happen can increase, and so I believe, and what I've seen in my own clients, is that it's easier to implement changes and support our body. It's easier to kind of shift the way that we think about nourishing our body and what food really means to us. So let's start talking a little with a little bit of information about genetics. So genes like braca one and braca two, mostly everybody has heard about that, and they're often referred to as the breast cancer genes, because there are certain variants in these genes that can significantly increase someone's risk for breast cancer, and that's because, basically, these are tumor suppressor genes. So these mechanisms in our body where our body might detect that there's something going on, that we're growing cancer, that a tumor is forming, and when these genes don't function optimally, they don't come in and shut down the formation of that tumor, and so it has a tendency to be able to grow more. But there's an important fact when it comes to genetic risk factors, and that is that only about five to 10% of breast cancers are linked to inherited genetic mutations, and that means that the majority of breast cancer cases are influenced by other factors, metabolic factors, factors that we have a lot of control over. So think about genes like a recipe. They provide instructions for your body, but how that recipe turns out depends on the ingredients you use and the conditions that you cook in. So if you're baking and you're using high quality ingredients, do you change your temperature or the length of time you're baking based on the altitude that you're cooking at? If you don't, your cake is not going to turn out the same at sea level as it is at 3000 feet in the mountains. If we're cooking with high quality ingredients, grass fed ingredients, wild caught ingredients, organic foods that are regeneratively farmed, they're going to have a lot more flavor than some of the other foods that we might choose. So even though we may be following the same recipe, the ingredients of that recipe will change the taste in the presentation and the nutritional value, even in some situations of the dish. So this is where our environment comes in, our lifestyle and our diet. Even if you carry gene variants or gene mutations, it's not a guarantee that you will develop cancer, and that is also very good news. It's about how your genes interact with your choices and your environment, and this is why I think understanding processes like detoxification, methylation and inflammation becomes so important, because these processes are like the mechanics that keep your car running if they're working smoothly, your body can handle stress. It can better repair itself. It can better maintain balance. If it's not working properly, then it's like driving with the check engine light on, and things start to break down over time, and we become really nervous, and we don't feel great. She's like, Oh my God, what's wrong with my car? Am I going to get stranded when our bodies aren't working, right? We know that too, right? We kind of get that sense. We get that feeling, right? I'm concerned. I've been with people who say to me, you know, I have so much stress going on in my life that I'm stressed out over the amount of stress, because I know the stress is making me sick, or I'm really worried because I eat like this, I know it's not good for me, and I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. So that's kind of like the car with the check engine light on, right? We feel like something's off, but we just keep riding until something breaks down. So what if we can get ahead of it, and we can get ahead of supporting the processes in our body before something breaks down? So let's take a look at these three processes in very simple terms. Let's break down and explore how they might show up in your body as not working well. How do you know if your body is not detoxifying Well, if it's not methylating effectively, and if you have a lot of chronic inflammation, well, detoxification is your body's way of cleaning house. Every day, your body encounters toxins. We make toxins just from being alive. So we have the ones that are inside of our body, and we're also exposed to them externally, from the air we breathe, from the food we eat, from the products we put on our skin. So your liver. Your kidneys and other organs work together to filter out toxins and get them out of your body. But if your detox pathways are sluggish because of genetics and because of lifestyle, or because you have some genes that predispose you, and then your lifestyle causes those genes to express themselves in unhealthy ways, here's some of the symptoms you might notice fatigue, frequent headaches, skin issues like acne or rashes, bloating, heightened sensitivity to smells and chemicals. These are all signs that your body might be struggling to handle its toxic load. So toxic load is an interesting concept. We talk about toxic burden and we talk about toxic load. Why do more people get illnesses or cancers at later in life, right at later stages of life as we age? Well, one of the theories of that, as far as it applies to toxins and toxic exposures is that we have a toxic load, so a 10 year old is not going to be exposed to as many toxins as a 65 year old has been throughout their lives. And a lot of toxins build up their forever chemicals, and they build up in our systems, and they create problems. This is one of the reasons why I say that understanding your nutrition genome and how your body responds to food and lifestyle at an early age is so valuable because we can make a conscious effort, an intentional effort, to lower our exposure to toxins and decrease that toxic load. So think about the fact that those of us who have had a cancer diagnosis, most likely, we've been exposed to either chemotherapy, radiotherapy, some kind of surgery, aromatase inhibitors, SERM some kind of pharmaceutical drugs to support us through treatment and after treatment. And those all come also with a toxic load, right? These are very toxic treatments. They're life saving treatments, but they come with a lot of toxicity, so then that adds to the burden. And then after chemotherapy, after surgeries, anesthesia is right, all of these drugs, radiotherapy, we start to feel even more sluggish. And then, of course, you have hormonal changes and menopause and things like that, but think about it in terms of how much can your body handle? How much can your body detox? Are you supporting your body's ability to detoxify by getting proper sleep, honoring your circadian rhythms, getting lots of hydration, eating anti inflammatory foods, following fasting protocols, so your body has a break in between all the times we're putting food into it, so all of its energy isn't going into detoxifying food, but actually has energy spared to go into supporting healing and cleansing of the body, right? So detoxification is a very powerful pathway that when it's not functioning right, can lead to toxic buildup in the system, and even the failure to break down different hormones and neurotransmitters that are functioning as just a regular part of a healthy, normally functioning of the body. But if we don't break them down and eliminate them from our body, effectively, they become more and more toxic as they break down inside of our body without having an escape path, so to speak. Okay, so that is one way in which detoxification or toxic burden contributes to risk of cancer or impacts our outcomes. Methylation, methylation sounds complicated. A lot of people. I've talked about methylation several times on the podcast. A lot of people hear this term, and they just are like, I don't, don't really understand what that means. So very basic. Let's talk about methylation at its most fundamental is your body's ability to turn on and off genetic process, many processes in the body, and methylation affects how your body repairs DNA, how it processes hormones, and how it turns on and off our genes, that science of epigenetics when methylation is not efficient, And that's often do to genetic variants like the MTHFR, a slow, calm, T, C, O, m, t gene variant. There's lots of gene variants that lend themselves to kind of turning down the dial on how effectively our bodies methylate. And I picked these three pathways to talk about methylation, inflammation and detoxification, just because I see them so much in the nutrition genomic reports, I see issues with them so much in the population that I deal with, which is people who've had breast cancer, so our genetic variants can affect this. But again, genes aren't the whole story. Genes tell us, well, you might be predisposed, have a higher risk of having issues with this, but you might not experience any symptoms of it if you're supporting your body in the proper way. And that's the epigenetics turning on and off these things now, if you are experiencing problems with methylation. If your body is not effectively methylating, you might experience symptoms like brain fog, mood swings, hormonal imbalances, trouble sleeping. You might have difficulty bouncing back, recovering from stress. You might experience poor wound healing and in your labs, in your blood work, if your doctor is testing for it, you might also see high homocysteine levels. This is one of the indications that maybe your body is not methylating as effectively as possible. How do you support effective methylation? You support it through lots of dark green leafy vegetables, healthy sources of B vitamins in your food, good, clean sources of animal proteins. So it comes back again to that, knowing the way that we're supposed to eat, but then implementing it right, clean Whole Foods, staying away from processed foods and focusing on giving whole food nutrition to your body. Inflammation, this is your body's way of protecting itself. Inflammation is good for us in many ways, but chronic inflammation is not so when you get a cut or you have an infection, inflammation helps you heal, but chronic inflammation the kind that's caused by poor diet, stress, environmental toxins that leads to symptoms like joint pain, swelling, digestive issues, feeling puffy, chronic inflammation can also make you just feel constantly tired or run down. So even out of these three pathways, I've talked about detoxification, methylation, inflammation, as I speak to these symptoms that you might experience, if these are happening in your body, I know they sound familiar to you. They sound familiar to me. I've been through them. And if I'm not careful, if I'm not really conscientious or intentional about the way I'm nourishing myself, the way I'm supporting myself, then I will often recognize these symptoms starting to pop up and know, hey, I've got to get back on track here. So the key is recognizing symptoms not as my body's betraying me, my body's broken, but as a way that your body is communicating to you the symptoms of fatigue and rashes and sleeplessness. They're not just random. They're clues that your body needs more support. So let's talk a little bit about why good nutrition is so important for these processes, and why it's not about restriction, but why I love to view good nutrition and supporting your body as an act of self love, supporting yourself, nourishing your body, when you give your body the tools it needs to thrive, that's an act of love. Think about your body as a garden, and if you want your plants to grow, you've got to feed the soil. You've got to give it water and sunlight and nutrients, and the same goes for your body. If you want it to thrive, if you want it to support you, we've got to support it first by eating the right foods that support detoxification processes, that support methylation, that support the reduction of inflammation, and that help your body function at its best, and food first is always, always, always my approach, because if we can get our food in check, we have to take care of so many other things. In order to do that, we really have to step up and look at the way we treat ourselves and the thoughts about ourselves and what we deserve right what we're worthy of. Because when we feel worthy of good treatment, of good nutrition, of good health, then we take steps to support ourselves and love ourselves more so one of the most effective ways to support these processes is to think about glucose and insulin regulation.

19:33
Glucose and insulin regulation and healthy levels of blood sugar and insulin support, detoxification, inflammation and methylation, and the best way to get that kind of regulation is through a low carbohydrate diet. So you know, if you listen to the podcast that I speak about following a ketogenic diet or being in a state of ketosis, and a lot of people kind of freak out about that, because they're like, oh. That's fat, that's bacon cheese, which, for me, it is not. It's a very plant forward diet. But one of the things that's very important, whether you want to follow a ketogenic diet or not, is a reduction in excessive carbohydrates, refined sugars and processed foods, because these cause your blood sugar to spike, and they trigger insulin responses when we have blood sugar spikes and constant insulin responses and elevated insulin responses over time, these chronic spikes lead to insulin resistance. Insulin resistance leads to increased inflammation, sluggish detoxification and poor methylation. High insulin levels can affect methylation pathways because they disrupt your hormonal balance and they increase oxidative stress, those free radicals, those reactive oxygen species, those toxins in our body that are harmful to our cells, that are like assaulting ourselves. A low carbohydrate diet helps regulate blood sugar and insulin. It reduces systemic inflammation and supports liver function, which are two key players in detoxification. So you see how it's all connected. When insulin levels are stable, your body can better manage energy production. It can reduce oxidative stress, that toxic assault on our cells, and it can promote more efficient breakdown of harmful compounds, other toxins that we might be exposed to. So in in addition to that, keeping carbohydrate intake low, keeping it in check, it allows for better fat metabolism, because it encourages your body to use ketones as an energy source, and ketones have been shown to reduce inflammation, support brain function and contribute to overall well being and longevity. And who doesn't want that? So by prioritizing nutrient dense food, low carbohydrate foods, increasing the intake of leafy greens, quality proteins, healthy fats, fiber, rich starch, low vegetables. You're giving your body what it needs to optimize detoxification, inflammation, regulation and methylation efficiency, and in doing all of that, we're decreasing our risk of cancer and cancer recurrence, and we're increasing our odds of better outcomes and a healthier overall body. So you can see that this picture is about so much more than just Do you have a genetic variant? Do you have a family history. I look at my family history, and there's a lot of heart disease and blood sugar dysregulation and diabetes, which leads to and has underlying cause of a tremendous amount of inflammation. So as I've learned more and more about this and about how my body works and what actually contributes to cancer, it makes it that much easier for me to say no to certain foods, and because my body feels so much better, inflammation doesn't feel good, right? You know, when you're inflamed, it's uncomfortable, does not feel good. It's just that underlying sense that something is off. So you can take into consideration some of the symptoms that I've shared with you, notice them and ask yourself if you're experiencing any of those symptoms, the fatigue, the sluggishness, the low energy that maybe making some adjustments in your diet could support you in feeling better. The first step, I would suggest is eliminate the things that contribute to the inflammation, start to eliminate the processed foods by focusing on incorporating the healthy, nutritious, colorful, fresh, beautiful foods that support you feeling well. So we're not thinking about deprivation as much as we're thinking about support, right? If you know you have high impact genes like an MTHFR gene, then you know you need more folate rich foods like dark green leafy vegetables to support that methylation. So being really intentional about getting lots of vegetables or getting salads into your diet on a daily basis are so important. If you know you have a G it's TM one gene, for example, that affects the way your body can detoxify. Then incorporating foods like broccoli and cauliflower and cabbage and Brussels sprouts, those, those cruciferous vegetables. So how do you know that? Again, if you feel sluggish, if you've got constipation, if you've got bloating, if your skin is breaking out, if you're not feeling great all the time, try incorporating more of these foods and see if that helps you in the elimination process and you start to feel better, right? If you have genes that help make you prone to inflammation, then think about incorporating turmeric and berries and fatty wild caught fish into your diet. Diets help calm things down, so that you can kind of kind of cool that fire of inflammation. So when we align your diet and lifestyle with your genetic blueprint, and if you don't know your genetic blueprint, then again, we're going to just listen to the body and say, What are the symptoms my body is showing that can give me a sign saying, maybe I'm struggling in this area. You're not just reducing your risk of recurrence by adapting your diet and lifestyle, but you're helping your body function at its best. And remember, it's not about being perfect. It's about making small, consistent choices that add up over time and support your wellness. You don't have to stress out about it. Taking good care of yourself a little bit at a time is wonderful. Small steps, every single step you take moves you forward to a healthier body, lowering your risk of cancer and improving your chances of great outcomes and more efficient and effective and effectiveness from medications you or therapies you may already be going through. Okay, friends, I hope that that helps to clear up a little bit of confusion, any bit of confusion for you that it gives you a little bit more insight and clarity on this very complex disease and this very complex body and how we can support our body that cancer isn't just random, that if we didn't have a Broca one or a braca two, or we don't have a family history, there are so many other things that we can support in our body to help us get the best outcomes possible, prevent disease, prevent recurrence, or at least reduce risk a lot. So if that gives you some insight, some ideas and hopefully some inspiration to support yourself by shifting that lens of understanding good nutrition and supporting your body with good nutrition, from something of being driven by deprivation and willpower and resisting everything to one of just an act of self care, an act of love and a connection to our body. So we understand the signals it sends us and we can support it, instead of looking at the signals that it sends us as if our body is doing something wrong, right. If you need more help with that, if you'd like more help with that, if you want to dig into how you support your body in the healthiest way possible. Come and find me at the breast cancer recovery coach where you can choose one of my metabolic health coaching programs. We can dig into understanding your nutrition genome and how your body responds to food and lifestyle and what it means to best support its unique genetic makeup. You can also join my better than before breast cancer life coaching membership, where we dig into all things, mindset, nutrition, lifestyle and creating a life and a body and a state of health that you love and desire. All right, my friends, I'll talk to you again next week, and until then, take good care of yourself.

27:59
You've put your courage to the test, laid all your doubts to rest. Your mind is clearer than before, your heart is full and wanting more. Your future's at the door.