Kristi Funk - Breasts - An Owner’s Manual - Every Woman’s Guide to Reducing Cancer Risk, Making Treatment Choices and Optimising Outcomes

Past President, American Society of Breast Surgeons

“Dr. Funk uses scientific facts, complex theories, and clinical experience to artfully compose and communicate pearls of advice that are actionable and sensible. Breasts: An Owner’s Manual will become an indispensable and valued guide for women looking to optimize health and minimize breast illness.”

—DEBU TRIPATHY, MD

Professor and Chair, Department of Breast Medical Oncology,

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Editor-in-Chief, CURE Magazine

“In Breasts: An Owner’s Manual , I can hear Dr. Funk’s straight-talking, witty voice as she debunks breast myths, simplifies complex choices, and inspires you to become your healthiest self. An important read for anyone looking to take charge of their health.”

—TRAVIS STORK, MD

Host, The Doctors

Emergency Medicine Physician

“ Breasts: An Owner’s Manual not only provides a clear path to breast health, but a road that leads straight to your healthiest self. As someone who has faced breast cancer, I suggest you follow it.”

—ROBIN ROBERTS

Coanchor, Good Morning America

“Dr. Kristi Funk distills the complex topic of cancer causation and promotion down to practical, actionable advice and cutting-edge nutritional science. Breasts: An Owner’s Manual will become a cherished, life-saving manual shared among all generations of women throughout the world, for both breast health and breast illness. There’s simply no guide like it—and it’s so compelling to read!”

—CAROLYN “BO” ALDIGÉ

President and Founder, Prevent Cancer Foundation

“ Breasts: An Owner’s Manual is highly readable, informative, and practical. Dr. Funk is a trustworthy and knowledgeable source of information. If you’re searching for the comprehensive book on breast health, look no further.”

—MIKE DOW, PSYD

Psychotherapist

New York Times Bestselling Author

“I believe that Breasts: An Owner’s Manual will change and save lives and serve as a gateway for many women to enter into a total health transformation: physical, mental, and spiritual. It is a comprehensive how-to, go-to book addressing the lifestyle issues of anyone with breasts. Somehow Dr. Funk has been able to neatly dissect, define, and package this explosive information. You now hold in your hands knowledge of revolutionary proportions. The light of this manual chases away the darkness that can be associated with breast health. Now sit back and enjoy the ride.”

—BEVERLY “BAM” CRAWFORD, DD

Chancellor, Bible Enrichment Fellowship International Church

“We all have (or had) breasts, but who has ever told us how to care for them? What should you eat, not eat, do, not do—and what about all those risk factors over which you have no control? There are so many mixed messages about screening and even about what to do after you’ve been diagnosed. In Breasts: An Owner’s Manual , Dr. Funk helps you sift through all the confusion as though you’re having coffee with a dear friend—a friend who just happens to know a lot about breast health and illness! So grab a cup and turn the page.”

—LISA LING

TV Journalist

Producer and Host of This Is Life with Lisa Ling

To the women and girls all over this wonderful world who have—or had—breasts.

Contents

Cover

About the Author

Title Page

Copyright

Praise

Dedication

Foreword by Sheryl Crow

Author’s Note

Introduction

PART 1:Breast Health Basics

Chapter 1: Breast Care ABCs

Chapter 2: Debunking Breast Cancer Myths

PART 2:Reducing Cancer Risk

Chapter 3: Eat This

Chapter 4: Don’t Eat That

Chapter 5: Beyond Food: What You Should Do

PART 3:Learn Your Personal Risk Factors and Control What You Can

Chapter 6: Uncontrollable Risk Factors: Do You Have Them?

Chapter 7: Medications and Operations to Consider

PART 4:Making Medical Choices and Living with Risk

Chapter 8: Breast Cancer Screening and Detection

Chapter 9: Cancer Happens: A Newly Diagnosed Starter Kit

Chapter 10: Now What? Life After Diagnosis and Treatment

Acknowledgments

Appendix: Acronyms and Abbreviations

Notes

Index

About the Publisher

Foreword

I’m embarrassed to say that when I first walked into my appointment with Dr. Kristi Funk, I wanted to turn around and leave. I thought, There’s no way this young woman whose beauty rivals Jessica Simpson’s can be the doctor I’ve heard so much about from my gynecologist and my internist as being someone who is widely known for her dedication and expertise to breast surgery. Boy, was I wrong! And furthermore, that appointment was one of the big blessings to come from my cancer experience. Not only was she then—and remains now—one of the finest breast surgeons a woman could have, but she also has been an inspiration and a friend to me ever since I walked into her office.

It was February 2006, and I was due to have my yearly mammogram. This one seemed to be more of a nuisance than ones in the past, because my engagement had just fallen apart five days before and I really didn’t want to be bothered with something I knew would be a waste of time. I was healthy and extremely fit, having spent the better part of the previous three years riding my bicycle up the sides of mountains—and I had no family history of breast cancer. I licked my wounds and went ahead and got it over with.

A few days after my mammogram, my gynecologist called me and suggested that I have two biopsies just to answer any questions that had shown up on the film, rather than waiting the recommended six months to view the areas again. She advised me to see Kristi Funk, who performed surgery a few days later.

I went through the painful process of a wire-localized open surgical biopsy and went home to resume the business of getting on with life. Four days later, I went in for my postoperative appointment with Dr. Funk. I will never forget the look on Kristi’s face when she told me that, although the odds of my having invasive cancer had been extremely minimal, mine was invasive, and I would need additional treatments. It was a blow of the first degree to someone who, until that point, had had complete and total control over every aspect of her life, or so I thought. And it seemed a blow to Kristi as well.

Now that I know Dr. Funk as I do, I believe each time she has had to deliver the outcome of a cancer screening that renders a malignant diagnosis, it has felt like a blow to her.

I got through my treatment uneventfully and went about rebuilding my life, personally and physically. Cancer was a game changer in the best and hardest of ways. I had to learn to put myself first, and I had to challenge what it means in a woman’s life to always nurture others but never to allow anyone to nurture her. I had to learn to say no and to be okay with not everyone liking or respecting me. I had to learn how symbolic breasts truly are and to accept that reality.

Accepting these truths seemed to be the lesson in the cancer experience for me—and from what I have heard from the countless women I have met in the most random of places who come up to me and share their cancer experiences, there is a lesson in it for everyone. Additionally, cancer changed my behavior; I had to learn about self-care and quality of living through nutrition and alleviating stress.

After some time passed, Kristi and her husband, Andy, and I met about their dream of opening a place that offered a “one-stop shop” where breast cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment happened seamlessly and comfortably under one roof. I was all in. Their dream would eventually become Pink Lotus, including the free care they provide to underserved women via the Pink Lotus Foundation. The Pink Lotus Breast Center would offer the first contrast-enhanced digital mammograms in North America, combining Western medicine with complementary and alternative medicine, nutrition, psychology, physical therapy, genetics, and innovative technologies — and offering women holistic, whole-body view of health and wellness.