Dr. Monisha Bhanote | The Impact of Nutrition and Lifestyle on Women’s Health
LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS HERE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/3-pillars-of-well-being-2-minutes-of-motivation/id1500457853?i=1000538677556
LISTEN ON SPOTIFY HERE: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4xTehdBWOW22z7bnO5xrtA
Are there ways that women can reduce their breast cancer risk? Dive into this episode with Dr. Monisha Bhanote to learn the lifestyle factors that may increase the risks of breast cancer and the nutrients you should keep an eye on. This is not medical advice or treatment recommendations and is for informational & educational purposes only. Always talk to your healthcare provider about recommendations specific to you.
Key Takeaways From This Episode
4 lifestyle tips that may support breast cancer prevention
Does drinking a glass of wine at dinner actually support your health?
Foods that may decrease the risk of breast cancer
What is ‘’targeted supplementation’’?
Why you should consult your doctor before taking any supplements
Disclaimer: All of the information and views shared on the Live Greatly podcast are purely the opinions of the authors, and they are not medical advice or treatment recommendations. The contents of this podcast are intended for informational and educational purposes only. Always seek the guidance of your physician or qualified health professional for any recommendations specific to you or for any questions regarding your specific health, your sleep patterns, changes to diet and exercise, or any medical conditions.
Resources Mentioned In This Episode
Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life
About Dr. Monisha Bhanote
Dr. Monisha Bhanote is a quintuple board-certified physician with 20+ years in health care. She has expertise in Integrative Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Anatomic/Clinical Pathology. She is a sought-after health and wellness expert providing both speaking and written commentary to multiple news media outlets and publications. She has been featured in publications such as in ''Shape Living'', ''Popsugar'', ''Bustle'', ''HealthCentral'', ''Insider'', ''Prevention magazine'', and ''Healthline'', amongst others.
She is the founder of the Holistic Well-being Collective and continues to practice, write, and teach.
Her mission is to support a holistic approach to well-being, health, and happiness by empowering wellness business entrepreneurs with confidence, clarity, and community through evidence-based knowledge.
Connect with Dr. Monisha Bhanote
Website: www.drbhanote.com
Instagram: @drbhanote
Facebook: Dr. Bhanote Well-being Doctor
If you are struggling with feeling overworked or overwhelmed, access the Top 10 Stress Management Tips for the Overworked free right now.
Kristel Bauer, the Founder of Live Greatly, is on a mission to help people awaken to their ultimate potential. She is a wellness expert, Integrative Medicine Fellow, Keynote Speaker, Physician Assistant, & Reiki Master with the goal of empowering others to live their best lives!
Follow her on:
Instagram: @livegreatly_co
Clubhouse: @livegreatly
LinkedIn: Kristel Bauer
Youtube: Live Greatly, Kristel Bauer
To learn more about Live Greatly's transformative online courses for personal development and self-improvement, to discuss collaborations and partnerships, or to book Kristel as a speaker or consultant, click here.
Episode Transcript
Kristel (Disclaimer)
Now for a quick disclaimer, the views and opinions expressed on this podcast are purely the opinions of the authors. They are not intended to provide medical advice or treatment recommendations. Contents of the Live Greatly podcast are intended for informational and educational purposes only. And make sure to always seek the guidance of your physician or qualified health professional.
When you have any questions regarding your specific health, any changes to diet and exercise in any medical conditions.
Dr. Monisha (Teaser)
There’s a link between low vitamin D levels and breast cancer. So vitamin D supplementation all around, even if you live in the sunny state of Florida or in California, individuals do have low levels of vitamin D.
So having that checked with your physician is very important.
Kristel (Guest Intro)
If you're looking to support optimal wellbeing and also learn about integrative approaches to breast cancer prevention, you're going to gain a ton from today's episode with Dr. Monisha Bhanote.
Dr. Monisha is amazing. She's a friend and was also a fellow with me in my integrative medicine fellowship. And she's a quintuple that's a five times board-certified physician with experience in integrative medicine, internal medicine. And pathology.
She has so much to offer from a holistic perspective and also an integrative perspective. I'm super pumped to chat with her about specifically breast cancer prevention.
She's on the clinical advisory board for Let's Beat Breast Cancer. She's also a medical reviewer for Healthline medical. She is incredible. She recently started a wellbeing collective on is just doing so many awesome things.
I'm pumped to have her on let's jump right into it and welcome Dr. Monisha Bhanote to the show.
Dr. Monisha:
Thank you for having me crystal and excited to be here today.
Kristel:
Yeah. So for everyone listening, we did our integrative medicine fellowship together with Dr. Andrew Weil and have stayed in touch and you're doing a lot of really, really. Cool. Interesting things. And I would love to start with just you sharing a little bit about yourself and how you got involved in integrative medicine and all the things that you're currently up to.
Dr. Monisha:
Great. Thank you. Yeah. So my name is Dr. Monisha Bhanote. I'm the founder of the Holistic Wellbeing Collective. And this has been quite a journey from conventional medicine into integrative medicine.
You know, I'm conventionally trained. I did internal medicine and then, uh, subsequently I went into pathology, which is basically the study and diagnosis of disease.
So for quite a bit of time, I spent looking at. All the diseases in the human body and really what was going on in a cellular level and the changes that we see in these individuals. And then I started getting curious as to why is it that so many people have so many diseases and really going through their medical charts and looking at what is being done to prevent this.
Is there anything that the individual is doing? Is there anything that they're doing that's contributing to it? Can we advise them? And that really got me into this. There's more we can do than just wait for a diagnosis and wait for a drug. And then I started looking at. What are these different things. And that really led me to this integrative medicine program at the Endure well center. And, uh, subsequently it led me to culinary medicine because nutrition is a significant art of our wellbeing. And it also led me to yoga medicine because addressing our mind and how our mind operates is also significant. So, yes, that's just a very brief part of my journey into this.
Kristel:
So interesting. And I love that you mentioned some things that I'm super excited about nutrition and culinary medicine and yoga. And it's not that often that you find physician in a pathologist, who's also doing all of these other things. So I would love to just start with, how are you integrating them?
Like, how are you kind of combining all of this knowledge that you have, and what are you currently doing with it? I know we've chatted a little bit about this well-being collective that you're working on. So maybe you could just share a little bit about that.
Dr. Monisha:
Yeah, absolutely. So I actually do two things. So one is, I do see patients as an integrative medicine physician at the benefit of my pathology background is I do see a lot of cancer patients. Um, I get cancer patients from the local oncologist and cancer center, and then I also get patients from the community and I'm probably one of the only physicians that asks for every single laboratory and pathology report that they've had done in the last 10, 15 years because I want to see them. I want to read what has been written about them. I want to see what the actual findings were to see what has developed over time for these individuals.
I think that laboratory data has a lot to provide us. And some people don't even realize that their labs were abnormal or on the verge of being abnormal. And they were just told that it's fine.
Come back next year for your annual and Even when lab values start creeping up as a significant time to be like, can I prevent something from happening in the future? What is this a sign of in my body? So definitely I work with the patients, but then I also realized that there is so many people out there that really want to help other individuals with lifestyle practices and with nutrition and exercise and sleep health and mental health and all the things that we really need to optimize our wellbeing.
And I'm working on bridging the gap between the Doctor community and the wellness community is, is in a broad, global sense because we have all these individuals that can help. And since 95% of health happens outside of the doctor's office and there's actually individuals who want to help using evidence-based based approaches and the science behind it is really the approach to go.
So that's where I work with wellness entrepreneurs to build their programs in a way that makes sense and that they can sustain results and their clients can sustain results. And ultimately that a doctor feels comfortable that I can send my patient to you, and you're going to help them with whatever disease and you're not going to interfere in a negative manner. So.
Kristel:
So important. And especially I think with all of the stress of the past couple of years that people are facing, and I really see a desire for more vitality and more wellness and wellbeing in people's lives.
So there's such a focus on that. So I definitely applaud what you're doing with that. And I think this is a good segue into talking about prevention.
So. You're on the clinical advisory board for the Let’s Beat Breast Cancer board. And I know you worked as a pathologist, so you were looking at slides and seeing breast cancer cases, et cetera. What have you learned and what can people do and women do to reduce their risk of breast cancer?
Dr. Monisha:
Yeah, absolutely so I have diagnosed close to a million cancers and a significant portion of them being breast cancer. And we know that one in eight women experiences, breast cancer, there are over 30 types of breast cancer.
So when women are talking to other women in breast cancer groups and comparing their treatments and their responses and stuff, it's so individual and personalized and understanding that is so important because. Sometimes misinformation is given out there that one person got this. And I got that.
So it's really important to understand that your tumor can be very well different than somebody else's. Now, when it comes to prevention, only five to 10% of breast cancers are actually genetically related. And those are the ones that we know are with the BRCA mutations.
So that means. About 90% is something else. And what is that something else is questionable. And we have seen that as we age, you know, whether it comes to breast cancer or other cancers, we develop mutations over time. So those mutations are different than the ones that we were genetically born with.
Those are things that we are exposed to over a lifetime, which might be environmental exposures, dietary exposure. You know, stress-related we basically have our genes and we have the ability to turn them on. And also we might have a compromised immune system because of all the stress and all the things we've done in our life.
Which doesn't allow us to fight off tumor cells because technically we're producing tumor cells every single day and our body is able to fight them off. So it's quite interesting. So there are a number of lifestyle factors that I discussed with my patients, whether they are cancer patients trying to prevent cancer, whether they have already dealt with cancer and trying to prevent a recurrence or just overall lifestyle, you know, the big ones is really managing your Mental emotional stability, you know, your stress levels and really having tools to address that.
The importance of nutrition and really what makes your body function? Nutrition is the fuel for our body. Just like gas is a fuel for our car. And nutrition is a fuel for our body sleep and the importance of not just the amount of sleep, but the actual quality of sleep you get and then movement, our body was meant to move.
Our body was not meant to sit around. Our body actually needs to move. These are just some of the big things. And then for specific diseases, we go into the specific benefits and what's related, and what's not related to what the research has shown.
Kristel:
Okay. So I feel like these categories, sleep and movement and stress management, nutrition are good for everybody no matter what does to feel your best. So if we wanted to go a little bit more detailed into specific for breast cancer prevention. What comes to my mind and things that I've learned about are things like soy. And I know there was some controversy around soy, and I remember Dr. While we had that one lecture about it. And it was really interesting seeing the research.
And then also I hear about things like flax seed and different dietary things. So are there any, or I guess what's your view on Soy and flax. And then anything else that you can share about this topic?
Dr. Monisha:
Yeah. So when it comes to the food and drink, we put into our body. So let's talk about the negative ones first. Right?
So alcohol is shown to be linked with cancers. And when it comes to breast cancer, each alcoholic drink can increase the risk 7% is what the studies say, which to me is a significant amount. You know, 7% is still enough for me to be like, okay, maybe drinking is not my best option here. And what are some alternatives for that?
And with each subsequent drink, 10 grams of alcohol, you're increasing that risk even more. So now when I talk to my clients, most people have. A drink of wine with dinner every evening, because in their mind they're doing it for heart health. So you really want to look at your overall risk factors for breast cancer.
You know, are you more prone to developing heart disease? Are you more prone to developing breast cancer? What are some of these other factors? You know, and when we look at that, obesity is a definite risk factor when it comes to breast cancer and. We are not without obesity in the US. We definitely have that as a chronic epidemic.
And so keeping that in mind, but then also when it comes to the foods, like you had mentioned soy, so, you know, there's a lot of misinformation going around about Soy. And I actually encourage my breast cancer patients to have one to three servings of soy a day. So it is part of the anti-inflammatory diet. And the research does show that individuals who have consumed soy over their lifetime actually have a 30% decrease in the occurrence of breast cancer.
But when I talk about soy, I'm talking about whole food non-GMO soy, which is like non-GMO tofu edamame and soy milk. I'm not talking about, um, soy hot dogs or soy chicken nuggets or soy burgers, or even soy protein isolate and stuff found in protein powder.
So I'm talking about the real food that's going to show the benefit. Um, and then, so there's definitely a number of other foods that we talk about. Green tea is another one of them due to its high amounts of polyphenol and ego go Elekta catechins which is a big word.
I don't even know if I said it correctly, but nevertheless, drinking three to five cups of green tea can also be beneficial for breast cancer prevention and for breast cancer patients.
But another big one is cruciferous vegetables. Yeah. When we think of that, somebody is like, how could I possibly eat that much broccoli? Well, you know, there's alternatives here. We can talk about broccoli sprouts for one it's super super easy way to get in the nutrients that broccoli contains yet in a smaller amount.
And it can be easily added onto, um, a number of foods.
You can throw it in your sandwich, you can throw it on your soup. You can throw it on your. But when we're talking about that, it's those cruciferous vegetables have been shown to be linked with a reduced risk of breast cancer. So the mechanism behind that is this sulforaphane component and the flavones in there.
So when we're looking at it from a research perspective, we're actually looking at what are the compounds in these foods that are helping.
Kristel:
Yeah, those are all really, really wonderful suggestions. And we had chatted a little bit before we started recording about supplements and I'm sure this is something that you do a lot with your patients, and this is something that I know I did a lot when I was practicing clinically, which I'm not doing any longer, but as far as supplements, obviously it's going to be very individualized. So someone should always talk with their healthcare provider about what makes sense for them.
But if you could just give a little bit of insight into how potentially could supplements play a factor when it comes to prevention.
Dr. Monisha:
Yeah, absolutely. So if we're just mentioning breast cancer, usually individuals with breast cancer have low vitamin D levels. Okay. So that is a study that was done many, many years ago now, but there is a link between low vitamin D levels and breast cancer. So vitamin D supplementation all around, even if you live in the sunny state of Florida or in California, individuals do have low levels of vitamin D.
So having that checked with your physician is very important and then doing what I call targeted supplementation. So that means that you actually test your blood levels and you supplement according to them and you monitor them over time. So this is not about going to the drug store or to the local store and picking up a bottle of multivitamins and just taking it and hoping it works.
This is about actually targeting your specific body, what your body needs. And that's what I really do with my clients is we do testing to see what does their body need, that it's not already receiving. What is it, you know, low in that would actually help some of the symptoms that they're experiencing and link that together and see how they're feeling as we improve these levels.
So when it comes to the big supplements, you know, I definitely work from targeted, meaning what have we tested in their blood. Omega's is a big thing, you know, especially for our brain health, when we're experiencing so much during this time, Omegas is definitely a big thing that people aren't getting enough of, whether it's through their diet or just in general.
So it's very productive for your brain and cardiovascular wise. So omegas are a big one. Vitamin D is a big one. Magnesium is also another big one. You know, magnesium is a co-factor for over 300 reactions in our body. So when I'm looking at it from a, how are each and every one of yourselves functioning and all these cycles that, um, you know, not to bring you back to the horrors of, um, organic chemistry, but that's basically how our body functions, right.
And most people are deficient in magnesium. And it is interesting. Cause I actually had a client who was like, oh, I'm taking magnesium and shit. And she showed me her bottle and it was 2% of what she needed in the day. So that brings up the subject of how do you know what supplements to take, uh, reading the labels and how can you interpret them as to what is a serving size?
And so supplements is in itself is a visit you need to have with your doctor who, and whether they're an integrative medicine or functional doctor. Understands the value of supplements and how to implement them into your lifestyle because they can really be supportive. I have seen some incredible changes in people's health, just from appropriate supplementation.
Kristel:
Okay, so one thing that I want to just touch on a little bit is I do think there is such a need for this kind of information in more medical practices and in medical school training and PA nurse practitioner training and in training all around in the medical world. And I know you and I, you know, we sought out this training and specifically did the fellowship, but what thoughts do you have on, if there are any practitioners listening on how can people start educating themselves?
And if you are a practitioner kind of going down this road of learning more about these, I wouldn't, I don't even like the word alternative, but this more additive approaches to supporting wellbeing.
Dr. Monisha:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean I think, you know, as healthcare providers, whether you're a nurse, a physician, a PA, a health coach, there's a role for everybody in what I view as a holistic health care system, as opposed to the conventional, I think it's a whole-body approach. And I think you always need to be curious and continue to learn, because what I learned twenty-five 30 years ago. It does not apply anymore.
And it is a matter of being curious because you keep seeing the same thing again and again, and you're kind of like, well, why is there so much of this? Like, why am I literally looking at this much cancer? Why am I diagnosing breast cancer in an 18-year-old? And her genetics are normal.
I mean to me that tells me that there's something else we need to look at. You know, like, why are we seeing all these diseases? What is that missing point there? So I think stay curious.
There are plenty of programs available. I mean, I don't think people realize our integrative medicine fellowship, was it two and a half year intensive? I mean, this was not just, you spend six weeks, like learning something.
This was a very intensive eye-opening fellowship and. You know, I didn't stop there. I mean, I'm quintuple board certified. I don't know if anybody else is and if you are.
I would love to meet you, but I mean, that's five board certifications.
That's that doesn't even take into account yoga, but, um, cause that's not a medical board, but uhm.
Kristel:
List them list them off for me, the first certification.
Dr. Monisha:
So anatomic pathology, which is the, um, pathology around the actual tissues, clinical pathology, which is more of the laboratory. So that's all your laboratory tests, you know, your chemistries, your CVCs, all these complex tests. Cytopathology, which is looking at your individual cells.
So down to even like a further level, then anatomic pathology is. Then integrative medicine, which is really looking at the entire body from this whole global view of, and I agree, it's not alternative. It's complimentary, it’s actually, um, once you actually learn it and it makes complete sense. Yeah. And then culinary medicine, which, you know, bridges that nutritional science with the actual diseases that, um, people are experiencing. So.
Kristel:
Impressive. Wow. Oh my gosh. Okay. So I'm thinking like how long were you in school for all of this time, but you have to be like, you have to have a passion for learning. Like you said, you're curious and excited about learning all these different things and it's incredible. So you wrote a book. Right? And just, if you could just give everybody a little tidbit, cause it's not going to be coming out. You mentioned it until probably the new year, but this way, at least they can keep their eye open for when it appears.
Dr. Monisha:
So this book arose from the fact that I was getting a lot of calls from individuals who wanted to be my patient, but whether they were not located in a state that I was licensed in, or for whatever reason they could not be my patients.
I'm like, this is information. I think everybody needs to know. They need to know how their body functions and why they need to, you know, take care of it. You know, we have one body and we kind of hand away what we can do with our body when we actually have a lot more control than we do. Right. So the book is called The Anatomy of Wellbeing, intentional practices to embrace your body's unique design and revitalize your health.
So this is all about living an intentional life. Living your life by design. And how do you do this? So it does go into all the pillars of wellbeing and how you can incorporate these habits, these lifestyle rituals into your everyday and make them so easy and really dissecting which ones are important, why they are important and how they make your body work.
So I'm pretty excited about it because, from the people who have already reviewed and looked at the book, they're like, wow, this is like. I showed it to this person and this person said, oh, this is pretty exciting.
Kristel:
I'm so excited to read it and I will put links to your website and your social and everything, and the episode details.
So if you want to learn more, you can definitely check that out and follow Dr. Bhanote on all of her sites, because you definitely are posting a lot of great stuff too, on social that I know can bring a lot of value. So. At this point, we're going to get close to the wellness lighting round. We're coming close to the end, but is there anything else that you want to share before we jump into that part?
Dr. Monisha:
No, the wellness lightning round. I don't even know what that is, but sure let’s do that.
Kristel:
Okay, Let's do it. So the goal here is just for you to give me what comes into your mind. Like first answer without giving it a lot of thought.
Okay? All right. So the first question is what's a self-care practice. That's a non-negotiable for you?
Dr. Monisha:
Uh, non-negotiable for me is really putting nutrients into my body and being aware of the food that I put into my body. That's a non-negotiable so, but it has to be done quickly, like under 10 minutes gourmet meals. Um, so yes, that's a non-negotiable.
Kristel:
Love it. Okay. Second question. If you were on a deserted island and you could only bring three foods with you, what three foods would you bring?
Dr. Monisha:
Good one. Um, okay, so avocados, um, I would bring avocados. I would bring tofu. Ooh. Yeah. And quinoa.
Kristel:
Great choices. Those are like very comparable. I think I would do avocado and quinoa and then I don't know about the tofu one, but we're very in alignment there. Okay, So.
Dr. Monisha:
It could make for a great bowl and I could probably eat it for quite a bit of time, maybe you could find some fruit on the island somewhere.
Kristel:
All right. So third question is what's a book you've read recently that you would recommend?
Dr. Monisha:
oh gosh. A book that I've read recently. Let's see, um I've been reading a lot of business books, but, um, let's see, you know, the book that I have been listening to on an audio podcast for quite a bit of time now. And I, I kind of go back to it is, uh, Jim Kwik’s Limitless.
Kristel:
Cool. Yeah. Awesome. And last question, knowing what you know now, what advice would you give to yourself from 10 years ago?
Dr. Monisha:
Uh, from 10 years ago. Yeah. 10 years ago was great. I think I would go back 20 years ago, back 20, 20 years. So let's go back 20 years. You know, I really would have been more intentional with how I took care of my body because just working out and just doing all the things that you do during residency and the sleepless nights and, um, you know, during training and all this stuff, I think.
If I had known what I know now, I probably could have had a smoother ride going through all this and really nourishing my body. I mean, it's all about really taking care of it.
Kristel:
Love it. Well, this has been an amazing conversation. I learned a lot. I'm sure that everyone listening has learned a lot of valuable insights today.
So thank you so very much for taking some time with me today.
Dr. Monisha:
Yeah. Thank you so much for having me on here. Thank you, Kristel.