#65: Dr. Kristi Funk - Fighting Breast Cancer with Plant-Based Nutrition
In fact, 87% of all women diagnosed with breast cancer don't have a single first-degree relative with breast cancer and about 80% don't have any. It shows you, 'Okay, wait a minute. If I can't blame my parents, if I can't blame genetics, well, who can I blame?' And it turns out, you're looking at her in the mirror, and that is not meant to vilify or make someone feel solely responsible, but rather to empower women to realize, 'Wait a minute, you're saying, I have a hand in this?' And I'm like, 'Sister, you have such a strong hold on this disease. If you have no idea, I want you to get an idea right now...and that's why I wrote the book.' - Dr. Kristi Funk
Today's guest is Dr. Kristi Funk. She is a Board Certified Breast Cancer surgeon and physician, a bestselling author of the book, Breasts: The Owner's Manual, an outspoken women's health advocate, a regular feature on shows like Good Morning America, and best-known as the breast surgeon who treated both Sheryl Crow and Angelina Jolie. This passionate doctor's mantra is "God, family and kill cancer," which she wrote to empower women to understand the role they play in their own health.
For the majority of her career, she thought she was doing all she could to help women fight the battle against breast cancer, but 18 years into her practice, she found herself confronted with a new truth. She learned that nutrition, specifically plant-based nutrition, undisputedly plays a huge role both in a person's predisposition to get breast cancer and in their ability to fight it. And once she discovered the truth, she wasn't afraid to do an about 180, both personally and professionally, and she literally emptied her fridge and changed her patient protocols to advise a whole food plant-based diet as the best means to live optimal lives and to thrive.
This interview will empower you with facts and research, and it will debunk so many of the myths that we hear all the time, like what about soy or alcohol or underwire bras.
Dr. Funk not only embraced the truth, but she has also been on a mission to share it with the world. Please share today's episode with one of the millions of people that you know that have been touched by breast cancer.
Episode and PLANTSTRONG Resources:
Pink Lotus - Dr. Funk's website and resource library
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Dr. Kristi Funk:
87% of all women diagnosed with breast cancer don't have a single first-degree relative with breast cancer and about 80% don't have any.
Rip Esselstyn:
Those are phenomenal, phenomenal stats right there.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Right? It shows you, "Okay, wait a minute, if I can't blame my parents, if I can't blame in genetics, well, who can I blame?" And it turns out, you're looking at her in the mirror and that is not meant to vilify or make someone feel solely responsible, but rather to empower women to realize, "Wait a minute, you're saying, I have a hand in this?" And it's like, "Sister, you have such a stronghold on this disease. If you have no idea, I want you to get an idea right now."
Rip Esselstyn:
Season 3 of the Plant-Strong Podcast explores those Galileo moments where you seek to understand the real truth around your health and dare to see the world through a different lens. This season, we honor those courageous seekers who are paving the way for you and me, so grab your telescope, point it towards your future, and let's get Plant-Strong together.
Rip Esselstyn:
Today's guest is Dr. Kristi Funk. She is a Board Certified Breast Cancer surgeon and physician, a bestselling author of the book, Breasts: The Owner's Manual, an outspoken women's health advocate, a regular feature on shows like Good Morning America, and best-known as the breast surgeon who treated both Sheryl Crow and Angelina Jolie. This passionate doctor's mantra is God, family and kill cancer.
Rip Esselstyn:
For the majority of her career, she thought she was doing all she could to help women fight the battle against breast cancer, but 18 years into her practice, she found herself confronted with a new truth. She learned that nutrition, specifically plant-based nutrition, undisputedly plays a huge role both in a person's predisposition to get breast cancer and in their ability to fight it. And once she discovered the truth, she wasn't afraid to do an about 180, both personally and professionally and she literally emptied her fridge and changed her patient protocols to advise a whole food plant-based diet as the best means to live optimal lives and to thrive.
Rip Esselstyn:
This interview will empower you with facts and research, and it will debunk so many of the myths that we hear all the time, like what about soy or alcohol or underwire bras. Dr. Funk not only embraced the truth, she has been on a mission to share it with the world. Please share today's episode with one of the millions of people that you know that have been touched by breast cancer. Thanks.
Rip Esselstyn:
I have to say that I am so excited about having Dr. Kristi Funk on the podcast. I first heard about Kristi, actually, believe it or not through my sister Jane and my mother Ann. Jane was holding a conference, I think it was last year, Prevent Reverse Heart Disease and Cancer for Women Conference in Cleveland, Ohio and you flew in from L.A. And Jane and Ann said you were such an amazing hit. You have such a presence about you and you came with these crazy hair extensions, I think.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
I don't have them in today, but I did put them in your mom's hair and took a picture.
Rip Esselstyn:
Well, yeah, that's what they were saying and before long, you were taking them out of your suitcase and dressing up and what a blast it was.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Yeah. That was such a delight. And I have to tell you, I didn't realize that your father, whom I have the deepest respect for, is such an art fanatic. So, I actually without permission snapped a photo of something really intriguing that I wanted to share with you real quick. I wanted to get your thoughts on this piece of art. It's a drawing actually.
Rip Esselstyn:
Okay.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Yeah. So, if you can enable screen sharing real quick.
Rip Esselstyn:
I will do that in a sec. Multiple participants can share simultaneously, you should be able to.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Okay, let's see, here we go. And there it is.
Rip Esselstyn:
No.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
I just really love the long necks and the pot bellies and everybody's so happy. And for those of you who don't see down here in the corner, it says a Rip, 1970.
Rip Esselstyn:
And you know what's hilarious about that? Is that you are what? One years old or two years old?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
I was one, I was one and you were already on your way to being such an artist.
Rip Esselstyn:
My gosh. That is funny.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
I knew I'd have a good use for it one day. It was in the guest bathroom where I was sleeping and I thought, "This is going to come in handy one day."
Rip Esselstyn:
My goodness. So, you just drove in, if I'm not mistaken, you were just performing a mastectomy. Right?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
I was, yes.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yep, yep. And, anyway, I so appreciate you making time for this, so in the opening of your book, and I just want to show it to everybody. It's called Breasts: The Owner's Manual came out in 2018, so it hasn't been out long at all.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Right.
Rip Esselstyn:
Actually before I say this, let me just say is your favorite color pink?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
My sister's always shocked by that. When I grew up, it was only like black and brown and gray, but pink has grown on me. I would say blue is my favorite color.
Rip Esselstyn:
And why lemons on the front? What is it about the lemon?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
I feel like lemons are innocent and cheerful and don't have that ominous presence of like, "Dun, dun, dun, this could be breast cancer." So, it kind of demystifies breasts in this way and presents them in a sunny light that makes you want to learn more. And it also has that connotation of making lemonade out of lemons when life hands you a cancer diagnosis.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah. So, in the opening of the book, and I love this, you basically say that after your relationship with God, the next most important things that you care about are your family and then killing cancer. You are like laser-focused on this. Tell me this, because in Season 3, what we're really focusing in on is the kind of courageous true seekers that are paving a better way for all of us. And I really believe that and know that you're doing that. What led you, Kristi Funk, to being a breast surgeon in Medicine?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Well, this is sort of a circuitous route, to say the least. So, I always thought I'd be an actress and I was studying drama theater at Stanford University in Psychology, so I was doing a double major. And in the very end of my sophomore year, I was studying for Neuro Biology final. It was like the hardest test I ever had taken in my life, and I was up really late, so it was about 2:00, 3:00 in the morning. I'd never pulled an all-nighter before and it was not an audible voice, but it was very clear to me later that it was the voice of God overtaking my thoughts. And it simply said, "You're going to be a doctor." And I was like, "I might marry a doctor, but no, I'm not going to be a doctor." And I couldn't shake this thought.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So much so that about three days later, I was on a plane to Africa. I already had had a plan for the whole summer to be a short-term missionary in Kenya, teaching religion classes out in the bush. So, there I was sitting in a dung hut with a dirt floor and I really was blown away by the absolute joy these children had around me. They had nothing in terms of possessions. They had very little in terms of food. They didn't have toothbrushes, but they had their health. They were healthy, and they had joy. And it really impressed upon me in that moment, that I wanted to spend the rest of my life helping people achieve optimal health, so that disease and illness and stress and pain wouldn't rob them and steal them from their joy.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
And so, I did an about face. I went back to Stanford. Started in on Biology and all the math and science that I needed to get to med school. And then I thought my vision had been Pediatrics, I loved kids and I loved drama, so I was going to create like this psychodrama way of creating therapy for children through expression of art, et cetera. Well, okay, my first rotation through Pediatrics, that was gone. Not interested in Pediatrics, but I fell in love with Surgery. It was actually the very first thing I did in trauma was what I did for two months straight and I thrived on it.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
I loved being presented with an acute problem, creating a solution and moving on. The irony eventually becomes that I focused in Surgical Breast Oncology, which you do zero-in on a critical moment and to the best of your ability fix that and recreate a new path, but I never let go of these patients. I see them every six months or annually forever. I have these long lasting relationships that kind of inherent into a lot of surgeon personalities, you don't want that. You kind of wanted like, "I fixed you. Goodbye." But now I just have the most thriving career with this massive just army of loving women who I get to grow old with and it's so exciting to me.
Rip Esselstyn:
So, has your practice changed much or your popularity since Sheryl Crow and Angelina Jolie? I mean, it seems to me like you are like the star breast surgeon probably in United States now. I mean, has your life just been crazy since then?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Honestly, no, but it is true that most of us doctors toil away in relative anonymity, right? And so, I was thrust into the spotlight, particularly when Angie wrote her Op Ed, which connected directly to Pink Lotus and to me, like with the link, so it became this undeniable connection. What it's really done is kind of vetted me in a way that nothing else can. So, that actually every once in a while, it's more often than you would think. People actually don't Google, I guess and they don't know that about me. It's not like I have it on my website or advertise like I was this surgeon.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So, they'll come into the office, and I am 51, but they're very sweet to think I look young enough to have to ask me, "So, have you done a lot of these operations?" So, that always cracks me up, but I would say it's not that I soared in popularity. People don't necessarily flock to a breast surgeon unless she is needed, so I think I'm in a lot of people's back pockets. I will hear that, too, like, "I heard your name 5, 6, 7 years ago, and I tucked it away in here should I ever need it." And then that day comes along and there they are.
Rip Esselstyn:
Well, but so you just said though they don't come to somebody like yourself, unless they need it, but I want you to go through with me and the listeners, what are some of the numbers right now surrounding women and their chances of getting breast cancer and the average age that a woman gets breast cancer because to me, it's kind of crazy.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
It is crazy, especially when you compare it to men. So, the biggest risk factors for getting breast cancer are being a woman. One in eight women will get breast cancer in her lifetime and that's as opposed to men, 1.3:100,000 men get breast cancer, and aging. So, that 1:8 stat means about a 12.5% chance of getting breast cancer, but it's not 12.5% every day of your life, so age has a lot to do with it.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
The median age for breast cancer in the U.S., meaning half occurs at or above and half occurs below is 62, which is older than many people think. The reality is when you're in your 20s, you don't have a 12.5% chance. It's not 1:8, 20 somethings get breast cancer. In fact, it's 1:1479, 20 somethings and if you're 30, it's 1:209, and if you're 40, between 40 and 50, it's 1:65, and when you add up all those one ins, then you end up with 1:8.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Right now, there are about 3.5 million women who have had or have breast cancers. There are a lot of women thriving, having had it in the past and a lot dealing with it now. And that's owing to earlier detection and better treatments. The fact that over 1.2 million women, though, have died from breast cancer since 1970 also speaks to the fact that we have a long way to go.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
One thing I hear a lot, which is very false, is that, "It seems to be getting more and more common." Like it's just ubiquitous now and getting younger, right? Well, no, so only 5% of all breast cancer happens in women under the age of 40 and that's a stat that's been rock stable since 2005.
Rip Esselstyn:
Wow.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
What has changed is social media and you and me doing this podcast and making the word breast not taboo to say in an educational format anyway, and so, people suddenly say because of Facebook know about a friend's friend whose daughter is 20 and has breast cancer. And so, that person you never would have heard about even 12, 15 years ago, so now, it's coming around to be seeming more common.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
In reality, the breast cancer rate in the U.S. does go up every year, but at 0.3% since 2012 and only in women over 50. So, it's like a tiny amount that you wouldn't actually pick up on your little brain computer, but it is going up a little bit. So, that's kind of the pervasiveness of the problem right now. The big shock for people is to find out this stat. Only 5% to 10% of all breast cancer can be attributable to inherited genetic mutations.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So, you mentioned Angelina, she had a BRCA or BRCA-1 mutation that is the most common, the one that people know about most commonly, but there are a handful of about 11 different mutations, CHEK2, PALB2 that elevate breast cancer risks substantially. However, only 5% to 10% of all breast cancer is because of that. In fact, 87% of all women diagnosed with breast cancer don't have a single first-degree relative with breast cancer and about 80% don't have any.
Rip Esselstyn:
Those are phenomenal, phenomenal stats right there.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Right? It shows you, "Okay, wait a minute, if I can't blame my parents, if I can't blame in genetics, well, who can I blame?" And it turns out, you're looking at her in the mirror and that is not meant to vilify or make someone feel solely responsible, but rather to empower women to realize, "Wait a minute, you're saying, I have a hand in this?" And it's like, "Sister, you have such a strong hold on this disease. If you have no idea, I want you to get an idea right now."
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So, we've got 5% to 10% genetic, I'm going to throw in a generous 5% to 10% wacky, right? Like fate, like she's only 22, she hasn't even lived long enough badly enough for her genes to go wacky, but there's no mutation like inexplicable. Okay? So, we've got ends of a bell curve, one's a gene mutation, one's hard to explain, that gives me a super fat 80% to 90% of all breast cancer in the middle of this bell curve, that I know for a fact because of my research steeped in science, I can prove to you that it has to do with the daily choices you make.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Every time you lift fork to mouth, your diet and nutrition matter and your lifestyle. We're talking alcohol, exercise, obesity, hormone replacement therapy, environmental toxicities, emotional stress, all of these things to a better rather than lesser degree are completely under your control. And that's why I wrote the book.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah, yeah. And I want to get into some of those things, absolutely, but I find it amazing that you're saying that 90% of these factors lie within your hands. Right?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Right. And again, it's not meant to condemn you, it's meant to empower you, to make you realize, "Wait a minute, I have the upper hand here. Gene mutation or not, you can make a radical difference inside the very cell microenvironment." It's called the tumor microenvironment. Think of it like a little bathtub that your cells sit in and every day, what you think and don't think, what you eat and don't eat, what you do and don't do are changing what is in that little bathtub soaking up into a cell, pro-cancer or anti-cancer. You're choosing because the tub is there.
Rip Esselstyn:
Can we combat some myths that are swirling around out there before we jump into some of the best ways to prevent breast cancer? What do you see? I mean, you mentioned genes, right? And how genes even if you just have the BRCA-1, it's responsible for what, 5% to 10%?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Of all breast cancers, right. You have that gene. It can be very significant. It's like 87% lifetime chance of breast cancer. A far cry from 12.5 that we were talking about for all women, so if you have a gene mutation, there are definitely choices to be made between upping the ante with breast surveillance or getting very maximally risk reducing with very aggressive with surgery, removing breast, removing ovaries, et cetera, but that is a small subset of breast gene mutations.
Rip Esselstyn:
But what about stuff and I think you mentioned in the book like bras and cell phones, and can you actually catch breast cancer, stuff like that?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Yeah, it's fun to debunk myths, because people, I believe, get a little... they get paralyzed by thinking that every little thing that they think and do and breathe might contribute to cancer. When in fact, some of the most basic things we do on a daily basis contribute not at all So, you mentioned them like bras, underwire or not, I don't care. Whatever you want to do in terms of support, I support you, but it's been very well-studied. And I will say and I explained it in the book all throughout Chapter 2. These theories aren't out there because they're insane, like for example bras. Maybe the metal in an underwire, the aluminum in an underwire maybe that could absorb into your body or conduct electromagnetic fields or maybe the bra could be too tight and constrict lymphatics and then lymph fluid, which has toxins can leak into the cells and damage them.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
I actually can understand why some of these theories are propagated, but then I debunk them all with science because it just doesn't have any basis in physiology. People can get fearful about cell phones. They tuck them in their bra when they're busy and they want to be hands-free and they worry. Like, "Hey, I tucked it in my left bra cup all the time and now, I have left breast cancer. Did that contribute?" And no, it didn't, because that's non-ionizing radiation. The same with electromagnetic fields not strong enough to damage DNA and make breaks happen. Same with microwaves and infrared.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Coffee is a big one that I hear about because coffee actually has a breast effect on some women and that is to cause a little bit of swelling, breast cysts or pain. None of which is cancer. None of which predisposes you to cancer and in fact, a bunch of the studies show it's a fair amount of coffee. It's literally five cups a day, but it drops breast cancer risk to have the methylxanthines in coffee, apparently. So, that's another myth I'd like to bust.
Rip Esselstyn:
What about piercing and tattoos?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So, piercing, completely safe, nipple piercing, all of that. Trauma, there's no association, like between a big car accident and you get a bruise on your breast and future breast cancer. But tattoos are a little bit on the we're not entirely sure. I will tell you that every time I do an operation on somebody who has upper body art, so tattoos on her chest or arms or neck, there is tattoo pigment visible in the lymph nodes. It can see it under the microscope and I can usually see it with my eye. It stains the lymph node, so it gets into your lymphatics.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
What it does there, nobody knows, so the official party line is to think before you ink when it comes to breast cancer. A lot of patients who have to have their nipples removed with mastectomy, will opt instead of reconstructing the nipple with skin, they'll do a 3D tattoo and it's just recommended that the caution is to think before you ink. Certainly, there's no causation proof between tattoos and breast cancer.
Rip Esselstyn:
Right. Well, since this is the Plant-Strong podcast, I think it's really important that we do talk about diet and I'll kind of throw it out to you how you want to approach this as far as the power of plants. What you've seen in your research as far as the reduction of meat, dairy, and how you want to present that, but I'd love for us to have a conversation about that.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Yeah, let's dive in. There's so much to say and I'm so excited about it because it's powerful and simple and you do it three to six times a day, right? You eat something. When I wrote Breasts: The Owner's Manual, I dove into the nutritional science literally for the first time in my career. As you may know from your dad-
Rip Esselstyn:
How crazy is that?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Right. It actually makes me angry to think that it could be this important and I didn't hear a peep about nutrition and food and how it impacts health and illness, not a peep throughout all of medical school. I went to medical school in 1992 and I bring this up because of course your dad's work was published right around that time, Dean Ornish's his work in The Lancet in 1990. And we knew, proof positive because of Dean's work in your dad's work that the power of food cannot only stave off illness, but reverse the number one killer of human beings on planet earth, it's heart disease, right? Like, didn't hear about it, never, until 2017 when I was doing my own research.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
And that is how I found Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and all of his work and started watching a few documentaries and understanding things I actually found you, Rip, on a podcast. It was a TED talk, actually. Firefighter talk and I was blown away by how all these people knew what I didn't know, so but that's it. So, I dove into the science, literally, to prove that the way I ate was correct, which being a teen in the '80s meant that I never ate bread, pasta, rice or potatoes and it was all kind of low carb, lean meats, chicken, turkey, fish. I seem to know that red meat was bad. I had been vegetarian when I was 10. My sister who's 12 years older than I became a vegetarian, so when I was 10, so did I, and then when I was 16, she went back to eating meat. So, to prove that I kind of grown up and become my own kid, I stayed vegetarian until I was 30.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Then I was in my surgical residency, all of us were getting too chunky and I challenged everybody. Atkins was all the rage. I know this is horrible. I challenged everybody to Atkins. Everybody sort of tried and then everybody gave up except for four guys and me and we made it a month. The challenge was a month. Well, I was so stinking hungry that I went back to eating lean meat and cheese because I needed to eat something. I didn't poop for a month, but I started eating that stuff and everybody lost. The boys lost 40, 20, 10 and 5 pounds, and I gained 3, so that backfired.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
But anyway, back to I was going to the science to prove though that that still was a proper way to eat, Mediterranean diet style, right? Mind blown, as my kids would say, because not only did I stumble across study after study after study proving the deleterious connection between animal protein and animal fat consumption in cellular response that I'm talking about with the tumor microenvironment. What is that response? Well, it's to elevate estrogen levels. Estrogen feeds and fuels 80% of all breast cancer.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
It elevates growth factors, in particular, IGF-1, insulin-like growth factor 1, which is the big daddy of them, right? Screaming at everything in your body to grow, which was super useful if you're a kid trying to become an adult and grow and also, we turn over a shocking 50 billion cells a day. So, thanks to IGF-1, those cells get replacing, but your body is super smart in imbalanced. Your brain tells your liver just how much IGF-1 we need and the only thing that can make an excess of IGF-1 is to consume animal protein and animal fat.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Up goes the IGF-1 and now it's screaming like the day's work was done. We turned over the cells, but it's just yelling, "Grow, grow." So, you grow atherosclerotic plaque, you grow fat, you grow cancer, grow into a big mass, grow into the liver, into the lungs, metastasize. Without IGF-1, you might never ever have cancer. Two studies point towards this. One is to examine people with Laron syndrome. Are you familiar with Laron syndrome?
Rip Esselstyn:
Well, I am because I read it in your book, but otherwise, no.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Okay. Right. So, this is people largely located in Ecuador and they don't have receptors for IGF-1, so they have medical dwarfism. They don't grow, but drumroll, are you ready? No one in the history of the world with Laron syndrome has ever, ever had breast cancer. In fact, only one person reported in 2017 had ovarian cancer, that's it for cancer. That's how important IGF-1 to causing cancer. No one with Laron syndrome also has ever, ever had type 2 diabetes. So, without excess IGF-1, it just actually might be hard to die. So, anyway, that's [crosstalk 00:27:57].
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So, eating meat, protein and fat elevates estrogen, elevates IGF-1 and it creates something called angiogenesis. So, this is not like a missed book in the Bible. Angio means blood vessel and genesis birth, so it's the birth of new blood vessels that every single cancer if it intends to get beyond the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen, every cancer must create its own blood supply to bring itself the nutrients it needs to multiply and divide and then eventually, escape route, straight to that same blood vessel, straight to your liver or lung or bone or brain. So, angiogenesis is created by eating these foods, which all together tumbles into a sea of inflammation, immune system dysfunction, free radical damage, DNA mutations, and then voila, the stage is set, so that's one half.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Here's the other half that again, blew my mind. It's not just that animals are so deleterious to your cell function, it's that plants is so helpful and helpful, right? Like literally the list I just gave you goes in the opposite direction. Again, you are seasoning that tumor microenvironment, that little bathtub with now anti-estrogen power, anti-IGF-1 power, anti-angiogenesis, anti-inflammatory, anti-free radicals, literally from plants, particularly whole food plants. You and I both know in your Engine 2 line is just so beautiful with the lack of oils and extra salt, et cetera.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So, you can definitely be a terrible vegan. I don't mean, not a judgment on you as a human, but you can eat poorly as a vegan with Oreos and beer. But, true whole food plant-based eating has such power in it. There's a lot I could go into here and debunk, but there's one study in particular that I love to tell patients and I'll tell you now because to me it's eyes wide open for a woman who's maybe 64 years old on the fairly chunky side, which 72% of Americans are overweight or obese, that's a standalone risk factor for breast cancer. So, she may be a little bit chunky, now, she has breast cancer. Maybe she drinks, alcohol, a good glass of wine every night and she's like, "Look, Doc, I hear you, but it's too late for me, like look at me." "No, no, no."
Dr. Kristi Funk:
And this is what I tell them. There's this study that took 50 obese women, they didn't have cancer, they just were overweight, drew their blood, checked the IGF-1 levels, checked the IGF-1 binding protein level which is like a body snatcher that retires IGF-1 from circulation, and they took their blood dripped it on a petri dish blanketed with fresh human breast cancer cells. A few cells died because they have a functional immune system, they're alive, so some cells died. Now, the ladies went away, and they had to follow the Pritikin plan. So, it was a low fat, high fiber, vegetarian, a whole-plant based diet. This one was not vegetarian. That's Dean's one. Whole food plant-based diet and daily exercise which was just 30 minutes a day and for some of them was sauntering seriously, like we're not talking pumping iron and getting super sweaty.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
How long did they go away for? 12 days, 12 days. Whole food plant-based diet, high fiber, low fat daily exercise, come back, draw the blood. IGF-1 plummeted, binding protein skyrocketed, and here's the best part. They took a fresh sample of blood on a fresh petri dish of human breast cancer cells and 90% of the cells died on the spot. They transformed their blood into a cancer kicking machine in less than two weeks.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
And I liken it to people who they're like, "Really? Can your body be that forgiving? Can it transform that fast?" It's kind of like all your life someone's like blown smoke in your face from a cigarette, like you don't know any different, but how long would it take before they just stopped and disappeared? Before you'd be like, "What's that? What's fresh air?" It wouldn't take long at all and it's the same with the transformation that happens inside your body. When you transform, when you transfer eating protein from animals to eating protein from plants.
Rip Esselstyn:
In Plant-Strong, our mission is to educate and empower people to enhance their health by following something as simple and profound as a whole food plant-based lifestyle. Transitioning from the standard American diet to a plant-strong lifestyle is an absolute game changer, and will be one of the best decisions you ever make in your life. Our team works to innovate smart solutions to make this way of life delicious, simple and absolutely convenient.
Rip Esselstyn:
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Dr. Kristi Funk:
It's just incredible. And so, I was so blown away by what my research did. It was a daily dive for like 15 hours a day and about three weeks into it, I was like, "I can't take another bite of salmon." And I went downstairs and I have, Andy and I have. He, too, I had to exclude him from, I have three kids. We have three kids. And at that time they were literally just a couple of days passed, they just turned eight, triplets. And I go running downstairs and I'm like, "Boys, boys, come here." And they come running over to the fridge and with great panache, I fly open the doors and I say, "Boys, we're going vegan." And they're like, "Yeah. What is vegan?"
Dr. Kristi Funk:
But I'll tell you, we just turned, on a dime. I emptied out four bagfuls to the brim of like my Manchego, my five-year aged goo and my therapy drawer of cheese, a big salmon fillet, then you go into the freezer and you're like organic vegetarian, veggie burgers, milk cheese in it right? It's everywhere. It's ubiquitous. Fill up all these grocery bags and well, truth be told my parents are 90 and they live a mile away and we brought the bags to them and I was like, "Here, [inaudible 00:34:42] with you."
Dr. Kristi Funk:
I'm kidding. I don't think it's too late for them, but honestly, you know that age? They're depression babies. They would never have spoken to me again if they knew I threw away that perfectly good carcinogenic food.
Rip Esselstyn:
Now, did Andy, was Andy on board with this?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
100%. So, Andy, you'll appreciate this. He does full Ironman races. He was ranked fifth in his age group and so, he was a serious athlete, is a serious athlete and does Ironman. He races all the time or COVID be gone, they'll come back. And he's born and raised in Germany where he had a much healthier diet as a child. His mom was always really alternative minded.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Anyway, so before I called the boys over to the fridge, I wanted to run it by him. I'm like, "You know what? I need to eat plant-based." And this was his response, "Thank goodness. I never ate so badly until I met you." It's like, "Huh?"
Rip Esselstyn:
And you've been together for how long now? 12 years, something like that?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
It's 15 years now, so it was 12 years at that time.
Rip Esselstyn:
Well, and you have triplets, you said, right? And they're boys?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Yes. They're all boys.
Rip Esselstyn:
And do they love being plant-based? Are they all about it?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
They love it. So, what I did is I had them watch all the typical Netflix movies to understand why. And so, at first, it was all about our own health. It was more egocentric. That was my motivation, but you're hard pressed not to immediately start understanding how dramatically you're affecting your carbon footprint and climate change, not to mention animal cruelty. And I mean, it's just an avalanche effect from there on the good that you do by eating a whole food plant-based.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
But the kids had that kind of global view of the benefits because we watched the Netflix stocks and within a week they would come home and be like, "Mom, so and so at school has lunchables every day. She's going to get diabetes."
Rip Esselstyn:
I know. Did you share with them the Game Changers?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
I did. We watched that. Yes. And you executive produced it. Thank you for doing that.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah, I had small role. Yeah and yeah, that was a great documentary.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
It was so great.
Rip Esselstyn:
I'm glad we got it out there. All right. So, let's get back to, so you talked about something in your book, like for example, Zeranol. If you remember Zeranol? Yeah, yeah. Can you let people know what that is and where they can find that?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Sure. Let me tell you about Zeranol. So, Zeranol is the most potent estrogen mimicker that man has ever made and they inject it behind the ear into every cow that's born that needs to get fat fast in time for slaughter, which is in about 18 months and they need to be 1,500 plus pounds. So, it is the biggest growth promoter and it literally has 100,000 times the estrogen-mimicking potency of the BPA in plastic. So, there are many women out there who are like, "No, no, I never drink out of plastic water bottles with their beef burger."
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So, organic beef doesn't have Zeranol, the grass-fed is plus or minus could be, and everybody else is. So, everybody else is literally 94%, according to my research, of the cattle-raised in the United States. So, basically every beef burger is chockful of Zeranol, but the plot thickens. So in 1981, in Milan, all these little boys and girls 3 to 10 years old started sprouting breasts in 1981, and they tracked it back to the Zeranol in beef.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
And in 1987, they decided citing its ill effects on human, its potential to be a carcinogen. They eliminated all use of Zeranol in the entire world is now the EU and they banned the importation of all beef from the U.S. and Canada. That ban is in effect today because we still have all our beef chockful of Zeranol. So, as usual, when it comes to environmental carcinogens and additives in our food, the EU is way ahead of us in identifying some of these sinister compounds.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah. That's absolutely some crazy, crazy stats and the fact that you earlier said that estrogen is responsible for 80% of breast cancers and this has, did you say 100,000 times the estrogen effect of?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
BPA in plastics.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah, yeah. Wow. Okay. And then what about people that are, women in particular, they are afraid that their edamame or their tofu or their tempeh may have some sort of estrogen causing effect.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
This is such a great myth to debunk and I'm so sorry that I perpetuated this myth for 18 years as a breast cancer surgeon. Before I wrote my book, I thought I was super smart. Apparently, not smart at all, because now, I know so much more and I have so much more power to give them in terms of their control over recurrence. But here's the real deal on soy.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Soy, I knew enough to think it's a phyto estrogen, it's a plant-based estrogen. You think, okay, let me back up, 80% as we've said, of all breast cancers have a little receptor on them for estrogen. When estrogen hits that receptor, it's going to send a signal to the cell to multiply and divide. Estrogen-driven tumors are actually less aggressive and more treatable and curable than cancers without estrogen receptors. But the big beef, the big problem with soy or so, we thought was that genistein and the other isoflavones have the molecular structure of estrogen such that they could fit into that receptor, and then cause that downstream reaction of making it multiply and divide or so we thought.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
This was Petri dish stuff. This was rats and mice kind of research. Until 2009, we didn't have human studies. And since then, this is going to blow the lid right off of all the soy myths. Now, we know there are two estrogen receptors in your body: Alpha and beta. Alpha is on the cancer cell. With 1600% more affinity, the genistein in your soy is going to hit beta and what does beta do? It does two fantastic things. It shuts alpha down, so if you're familiar with tamoxifen, which is a drug a lot of breast cancer patients have to take in order to block the estrogen receptor, they block it with a drug called tamoxifen, which is another estrogen look-alike, but deactivates the receptor.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Soy deactivates your receptor. Soy also goes out into your peripheral fat cells. Everywhere you have a fat cell and listen up because this actually is the direct connection as to why being overweight and obese elevates breast cancer of current, recurrence, and death. So, everywhere there's a fat cell, there's an enzyme called aromatase, this enzyme is busy all day converting precursor steroids that come from your adrenal gland, which you're never going to get rid of, so you've always got testosterone, androstenedione, these things are getting converted into estrogen, which can then feed and fuel your cancer.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Soy inhibits the aromatase enzyme, the same as a whole another category of drugs that we give women. So, if this is true, the study should point toward decreases in breast cancer and in fact, we've got amazing studies with high volume of women. One of them is the Shanghai women study 73,000 Chinese women, those who were the highest versus lowest soy consumers had 59%, less premenopausal breast cancer.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Now, this is an interesting thing about these studies that I'll run through when I say high versus low soy consumption for the most part, we're talking 1.5 servings a week versus less than that. It's not even, I advocate for two to three servings a day, which also slashes prostate cancer by 70%. Okay, so another really great study, because it was an American Asian woman, but still Asian, so I'll get to multi-ethnic, but [crosstalk 00:43:04]-
Rip Esselstyn:
I can't believe how well you know your studies. I mean, it is really remarkable. And I guess-
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Thanks.
Rip Esselstyn:
I guess, you use it to back up everything you say?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
I do. I like to be bulletproof, which is why the book, so when I went to the science on soy, that's when I realized I was so embarrassingly wrong. I went to pull the studies to prove that I was right that you should spit the miso out of your mouth. So, it does make me delightful to be married, too, because I like to be right all the time, but it did make me into the doctor that I am today, that I must be backed in science if I'm going to publish this out in the world.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So, the other big study that I loved about showing that soy decreases breast cancer occurrence is in American Asian women and they again only had 1.5 servings a week versus less than that and they had less than 58% adult onset breast cancer, so this was in childhood. So, if they consumed one and a half servings a week in childhood, they had 58% less breast cancer as an adult that points toward how important nutrition is in our adolescence. They are so much at the mercy of what is in their own refrigerator at home. They're not old enough yet to really make any thoughtful choices. And we as parents hold all of that power to make their futures as healthy as possible by providing them with these foods. The same kind of studies point toward like higher vegetable intake in youth, leads to less prostate and colon cancer. It's just, it's astounding how important good nutrition is at the earliest possible moment, which would be birth.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Another favorite study because it points toward the power of food even in the presence of those mighty mutations. So, there was a study on Korean BRCA mutation carriers, high versus low soy consumption, 43% less breast cancer in a BRCA carrier. Now, I'm not ready to say that I can overcome a BRCA mutation by teaching you diet and lifestyle changes, but if we could only get those studies out there, we might be able to create a regimen that doesn't involve removing breasts and ovaries.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So, all of that, that I've just said points toward, "Okay, if you consume soy, you'll have less breast cancer in your life. But wait, what if you have breast cancer? Now you're getting risky, right? Especially if it's estrogen driven, shouldn't you shy away from soy?" So, back to our alpha and beta receptors, keep that in mind and the answer is a shocking, resounding very loud, "No. You want to purposefully consume soy." So, one study looked at estrogen driven to women with estrogen driven tumors on tamoxifen, so they were taking that estrogen blocker and when they had high versus low soy consumption 60% less breast cancer. All right, maybe it's really all the tamoxifen.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Okay, then let's look at another study that is only estrogen negative cancers, doesn't care about estrogen at all or estrogen driven cancers, they're not taking tamoxifen. This also blew my mind, 32% less mortality, so not just recurrence, a 32% drop in death from breast cancer in an estrogen-driven tumor, just because they eat the soy and then there was a 51% drop in the estrogen-negative group. So, I say that to point toward these anti neoplastic powers within soy that go beyond the whole estrogen equation and they're anti, everything we were talking about.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
They're anti-angiogenic, anti-inflammatory, and it's all inherent in the soy. So all of the human studies to date show somewhere, it was consistently, it's always around this magic 32% decrease in recurrence and mortality for high versus low soy consumption, but sometimes even higher numbers come up. So, there you have it, soy it up.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yes. Soy it up. Block those hormonally active compounds with the soy. What's your opinion, because in all of my books, I talk about how we are fans of soy, but we want it to be in more of its whole state, less of its unprocessed state? Do you have an opinion on like the soy burgers, the soy dogs, the soy nuggets that are composed of mostly soy protein isolates and concentrates?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Yeah, they've been so divorced from their nutritionally intact components that while it probably isn't the soy protein isolate itself that is going to be harmful, it's everything else is packed in that because nobody just scoops that out of a jar and eats it, right? It's always with the oils and the other things that are coming in these highly processed meat-like substitutes. So, for sure, if you want to get all the power out of your soy when it comes to anti-cancer power, you want to be consuming it.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Honestly, these studies were minimally processed, but your typical stuff. We're talking tofu, soy milk, edamame, soy beans, but if you want to bump it up a small notch, you want to do the fermented soys: Tempeh, miso, natto, and tamari. They have even more phytoestrogen power in your body, but that's the group. Everything I just rattled off. Everything else that has soy in it is too processed and is probably not powerful in you anymore.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yep. All right. We just talked about soy. I would love for you to talk about alcohol because it seems like Americans really love their alcohol. There's this whole French paradox thing rolling around out there Mediterranean, I need my glass of wine for heart health or overall health. Where do you stand?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Well, there's no question. I mean, even the IARC, the International Agency for Research on Cancer says that it's a Class 1 carcinogen, so alcohol is a carcinogen. What it does is multifold and when it comes to breast cancer risk, let's kind of zoom in on that. So, it creates acetaldehyde, which is a carcinogen, even if you just like swish and spit that alcohol, you're going to swallow acetaldehyde down, then your liver makes more, so that's not good. It impairs your immune function, so obviously, your immune system is going to seek out and tag cancer cells for destruction and it impairs the ability for your own cells to recognize intruders or morphed cells and it increases, ready, estrogen levels. So that's a bad actor, as we've just hammered through.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
But really the main driver from alcohol to cancer formation is that it inactivates an enzyme called MTHFR, which sounds like a super bad word, but MTHFR, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase converts folic acid from a vitamin or folates from your leafy greens into methylfolate. Methylfolate is the active form that babysits the DNA as it divides, so if there's a DNA break or mutation similar to a BRCA, everybody has BRCA genes, they work when you are BRCA mutation or when you don't have your methylfolate, the mutation is like "Sorry, like good luck with that one." So, your methylfolate gets whacked every time you drink.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So, there's a study, the Nurses' Health Study looked at, it subset of about 5,000 women that were daily drinkers. One or more drinks a day, and in those who consumed 600 micrograms of folate, so it's kind of like enough to overwhelm your impaired enzyme, so you're making enough methylfolate, so all of them are drinkers. Those who had 600 mg of folate a day had 89% less breast cancer. That's how important a driver this whole methylfolate thing is.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
But what is the true risk to you if you drink? So, if we take our T total or non-drinker and make her the neutral risk, and then you think about your drink, so 5 ounces of wine equals 1.5 ounces of hard liquor equals 12 ounces of beer, that's 14 g, that's a drink. A drink a day increases breast cancer by 10%, two drinks a day 30%, three drinks a day 40% and onwards and upwards from there. So, even the American Cancer Society, however, does say that if you choose to drink, so you're not supposed to start drinking, because you think it's... you heard it was heart healthy or something like that. But if you are already drinking, they say to limit alcohol to no more than one a day for women and two a day for men.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
And I would echo that if you choose to drink, there are a couple of redemptive qualities in and only in red wine. So, a four to eight ounces of red wine in some studies has shown actually a decrease in all-cause mortality, but more importantly, what's in it is resveratrol, really potent anti-carcinogen. There are studies in the U.S. right now using resveratrol as a standalone anti-cancer agent.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
But you get it out of the skin of red grapes, the kind with the seeds, so you certainly don't need to drink to get your resveratrol nor do you need to buy a pricey supplement, you just need to chomp on the skin of red grapes. And red wine is an aromatase inhibitor, which if you've been listening thus far know that's the enzyme in your fat that's making estrogen, so red wine will actually decrease your estrogen. So, that's sort of where I stand. So, it's best not to drink at all. If you choose to drink, I would only favor the red wine for it.
Rip Esselstyn:
Do you drink at all?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
I do. We have red wine, now and again.
Rip Esselstyn:
Now and again? Yeah, yeah. So, what's your favorite beverage of choice in your house? Is it good old H2O, water?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
It would have to be. Yeah, when you put that in the mix, I was about to say green tea.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah. And so, why do you like green tea?
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So, again, when I was doing my research, it made me sad that doctors don't know more about the power of food because I think they would really dig it. They would realize that it's chemicals. It's the curcumin in turmeric, it's the EGCG in green tea, the epigallocatechin-gallate, like these reminds me, these words are like organic chemistry all over again, right? The resveratrol in red grapes, the limonene in oranges. They would realize that there are chemical structures in your food. All you do is chew and swallow a broccoli floret and bam, these isothiocyanates become sulforaphane because they mix with an enzyme called myrosinase.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
A lot of doctors would get it. They would be like they'd geek out on this stuff if they only knew and instead, I know for my patients like the medical oncologist gives me an eye roll when I talk about your anti-estrogen foods list, which by the way is not just soy. Flaxseed, broccoli, I get the whole list, mushrooms. I get an eye roll from my colleagues that I've been practicing with for 25 years and it doesn't really hurt my feelings because I totally get where they're coming from.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
But anyway, back to green tea, EGCG. There is a really good study it's in Asian women because they drink the green tea to prove the point. Those with Stage I breast cancer who drink three cups of green tea a day have 57% less recurrence and Stage II breast cancer three cups of green tea a day, 31% less breast cancer. That's powerful. And that's just from the tea. Imagine if you just put it all together, you have tea with your tofu. It's really just astounding to me.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
But I don't know if they like green tea, so I have this ancient matcha powder that we actually sell in our online store that I scoop into. It's sourced from Japan, high quality and I just put it in other stuff like my oatmeal or something that I'll be, a smoothie if I make one. So, I just, I don't really like the taste of tea, but I believe in its power so much that I get that matcha in me every day.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah. I am blown away at the breadth of the knowledge that you have at the end of your tongue. I mean, and it's crazy, especially the fact that you just really started diving into the nutrition, it seems like a couple of years ago when you were writing your book. You, I mean, have you reached back out to or thought about some of your patients, including like Sheryl and Angelina to say, "Hey, you know what" or they've probably read your book and they know all about it.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Well, Sheryl kindly wrote the foreword in the book, but she knows all about it. But you know it's true, I try, I generally don't solicit my celebrity patients to do stuff for me. But it is sort of the way the world works and their platform is so massive that it's a faster way to reach lots of ears and eyeballs. But I tried to respect that doctor-patient relationship and not... I want to be like one of the only people in their lives that didn't ask for a favor back.
Rip Esselstyn:
I know, I know. Let's, and we're kind of winding down here, unfortunately and maybe, I'll have to have you on like for a part two, but what are the five, six things that women can do to help prevent their chances of breast cancer? We've talked about diet, right? Plant-
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Right. So, for sure, numero uno, plant, yes. Plant-based, whole food plant-based diet, tons of fruits and vegetables, 100% whole grains, legumes, right? Lentils, beans, peas, chickpeas, nuts, [crosstalk 00:56:22].
Rip Esselstyn:
Can I stop you for a second? Let me stop you.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
[crosstalk 00:56:23], pine nut. What?
Rip Esselstyn:
Let me stop you for a sec.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Yeah.
Rip Esselstyn:
Because you very cleverly in your book, you put the breast superfoods like the eight breast super foods, like that was awesome, like yeah.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Yeah. Lately I've taken to signing my emails with breast regards.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yes, brilliant.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So, yes, go get my book. I recommend that you read it and devour especially chapters 3, 4, and 5, which are so empowering with diet and lifestyle choices, but in there is my 10 breast superfoods list, which would of course be all plant-based, but there are the tippity top ones including beans and berries, mushrooms and certain spices, turmeric, the whole allium family like garlic and green onions, et cetera. So, you wanted the tip one, you said top five or six.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So, tip one is to eat whole food plant-based in contrary wise to avoid or eliminate all animal protein and animal fat. Number two, Google body mass index, put in your digits and find out if you're too chunky, because if you are, the kind of there's no fat shaming intended, but it's not cute when you're too chubby, it's potentially fatal and especially so, when it comes to breast cancer. [crosstalk 00:57:36]-
Rip Esselstyn:
And it's hard to believe, but you, in the book, talk about how you used to be a chubster.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
I was chubby. I definitely was chubby. In the book, I say and it is so true, we would go visit my cousin's Marie Frank in Laguna and we would drive by where the blimp, that flies in the sky and takes the photos of football games. The blimp was housed there and my brothers would be like, "Hey, Kristi, there you are waiting for takeoff." [crosstalk 00:58:02].
Rip Esselstyn:
Okay, so-
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Yeah. You know why? And God bless my parents and we did have fruits and vegetables, lots of them, but at the same time we literally top shelf in the cabinet Ho-Hos, Ding Dongs, Twinkies. This is how I grew up. My favorite sandwiches were bologna and liverwurst. When I went to McDonald's, I would have a Big Mac and fries and I honest to goodness, ordered the strawberry shake, because I thought it was healthier than chocolate, but I really wanted the chocolate. Okay, so that's, I ate like that.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
So, keep your body mass index under 24.9, 18.5 to 24.9, that's the sweet spot and your whole body will be so much happier if you get to that weight and stay there.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Tip three exercise. How much and how hard? You know what? If you are a couch potato and you just get a cup of coffee and saunter around the block and that's what you can do today, go do it and that's great and then try to go half a block more tomorrow, but if you are an exerciser and you want to understand what is truly scientifically shown to reduce risk, so I love this one study because it just shows people like anything works. So, thousands of postmenopausal woman followed them for 15 years and those who just exercise for 11 minutes a day, like briskly walked actually was the term.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Briskly walked for 11 minutes a day dropped breast cancer by 18%. If you put some pep in your step and you work out moderately for three to four hours a week, you're going to drop breast cancer by 30% to 40% and for every hour, after four hours, you're going to be dropping your breast cancer risk by 47%. So, it's powerful. It decreases estrogen levels and it supports your immune system function or the main mechanisms why exercise decreases breast cancer.
Rip Esselstyn:
Move that body.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Exactly, yeah, bust the moves. So, five hours a week if you can carry on a conversation, that's my barometer. Two and a half hours a week if it's super sweaty can barely answer a question. So, exercise.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Alcohol, limit or eliminate it. And the biggest one, to me that is elusive is stress. I want people to become mindful of that mind-body connection. Really, really powerful study, LACE, Life After Cancer Epidemiology Study followed over 2200 early stage breast cancer patients for 10.8 years and they found that those who self-reported low levels of psychosocial support and/or a lack of religious affiliation were 58% more likely to have died in the decade follow-up. So, that's how important connectivity and love and support are and how stress alters immunity and a lack of feeling important or loved or included really elevate stress.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
It's that is one of, if not the motivating factor behind what I created called Breast Buddies. So, every person listening who knows anybody with breast cancer, should tell them about this. So, it's completely free. It's called breastbuddies.com and I already have over 5,000 members and what it does is it you'll either are a woman who enters herself as "You've been there, done that." You've finished all your treatments or you're newly diagnosed with breast cancer.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
And the system will pair you age for age, stage for stage, treatment for treatment, like chemo for chemo, mastectomy for mastectomy, and everybody is kind of like match.com for breast. Like everybody who say is 42, who had a mastectomy into chemo pops up and then you can read more. You be like, "My gosh, she has a 10-year-old. I want to talk to her." And then you can connect. So, it's solely for purposes of connection and friendship and support and again, it's totally free.
Rip Esselstyn:
That's great. The one thing I think that you forgot and I'm just going to bring it up is not to smoke.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Yes, that's true. You know what? Interestingly, the connection between breast cancer and smoking is there, but only in like certain circumstances. Basically a lot of pre-pregnancy smokers will get breast cancer later or really heavy, but interestingly, if there something, you didn't hear from me, but the tar is like carcinogenic with the nicotine and somehow like maybe anti-estrogen. Of all the things smoking does, I mean, it causes every other cancer in every organ in your body and gives you wrinkles, so that you look ugly at your own funeral. It doesn't have like this really compelling causation to breast of all things, but I agree with you. I mean, don't smoke.
Rip Esselstyn:
This has been an absolute joy, Kristi, thank you for spending this hour with me and the Plant-Strong podcast. You truly are, you're such a... what I love about what I just heard. I mean, I read about it in your book, but I'm seeing it now is how you are such a true seeker and you were not afraid to basically give up the life that you knew and that was very comfortable, right? And move on to something that for whatever reason, you explored it, and you discovered it, and you owned it. And now...
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Thank you.
Rip Esselstyn:
... you're getting the word out. It's so awesome.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
I really appreciate the opportunity to be on your podcast, Rip. You've really been an inspiration to me from the beginning of my veganism and thank you for creating this season's podcast theme. People who are paving the way and I can't wait to see who else you have on.
Rip Esselstyn:
Stay tuned. All right, Kristi. Hey, will you do the sign off with me? Just follow me. All right? Ready? Peace.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Peace.
Rip Esselstyn:
Engine 2.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Engine 2.
Rip Esselstyn:
Keep it plant-strong.
Dr. Kristi Funk:
Keep it plant-strong.
Rip Esselstyn:
All right. Isn't she incredible? As Dr. Funk shared, when you understand the beautiful connection between nutrition and health, it becomes empowering and I hope that's how this episode has made you feel, empowered with the knowledge that you have infinitely more control than you ever thought you had, that genetics don't necessarily determine your destiny, and those things that we've been told all of our lives about health and nutrition may simply not be true. The message that I want you to take away from this episode is that it is never too late to make dietary and lifestyle changes and that nutrition can have a dramatic impact on your long-term health, especially as it relates to breast cancer risk. Let's all keep learning and keep truth seeking.
Rip Esselstyn:
And along with fabulous experts like Dr. Kristi Funk, we're here to help. Thanks for listening. To learn more about Dr. Kristi Funk and her book, Breasts: The Owner's Manual, visit the show notes at plantstrongpodcast.com. Thank you for listening to the Plant-Strong podcast.
Rip Esselstyn:
You can support the show by taking a quick minute to subscribe, rate and review at Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Sharing the show with your network is another great way to help us reach as many people as possible with the great news about plants. Thank you in advance for your support. It means everything to me.
Rip Esselstyn:
Have you had your own Galileo moment that you'd like to share? What happened when you stepped into the arena and shed the beliefs that you thought to be true? I'd love to hear about it. Visit plantstrongpodcast.com to submit your story and to learn more about today's guests and sponsors.
Rip Esselstyn:
The Plant-Strong podcast team includes: Carrie Barrett, Laurie Kortowich, Ami Mackey, Patrick Gavin, and Wade Clark. This season is dedicated to all those courageous truth seekers who weren't afraid to look through the lens with clear vision and hold firm to a higher truth, most notably, my parents, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr. and Ann Crile Esselstyn. Thanks for listening.
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