Welcome #boobyluv friends! We are thrilled to have you join us here for our third interview in the #boobyluv series. If you missed it, we have posted thought-provoking comments from Dr. Maureen Borghoff and Meghan Telpner. Today we would like to bring you the wise words of Nadine Artemis. In case you missed it, read more about the #boobyluv project. Follow along each week as we talk with amazing health experts.
Nadine Artemis is the creator of Living Libations, an exquisite line of serums, elixirs, and essentials oils for those seeking the purest of the pure botanical health and beauty products on the planet. She is the author of Holistic Dental Care: The Complete Guide to Healthy Teeth and Gums, a frequent commentator on health and beauty for media outlets, and her products have received rave reviews in the New York Times, the National Post, and the Hollywood Reporter. Described by Alanis Morissette as “a true-sense visionary,” Nadine has formulated a stunning collection of rare and special botanical compounds. An innovative aromacologist, Nadine develops immune-enhancing formulas and medicinal blends for health and wellness; her potent dental serums are used worldwide and provide the purest oral care available. Her healing creations, along with her concept of “Renegade Beauty,” encourage effortlessness, eschew regimes, and inspire people to rethink conventional notions of beauty and wellness. Nadine’s fresh paradigm for beauty and her natural approach to health presents a revolutionary vision; it allows the life-force of flowers, dewdrops, plants, the sun, and water to be the ingredients of healthy living and lets everything unessential, contrived, and artificial fall away.
1. It seems like everyone is aware of the pink ribbon campaign and breast cancer awareness activities that take place in October. The messages that proliferate are about coping with a diagnosis, finding a cure. We share a common interest in shifting that conversation to “prevention.” What does prevention mean to you?
We endlessly debate risk factors, give lip service to prevention, and run around for the cure endlessly blinded by pink. Pink ribbon campaigns sponsored by plastics and parabens and laced with pesticides are the belle of the charity ball. Yet, the answer to cancer is not found in pink buckets of fried chicken, pink water bottles, or pink lipstick. The answer to cancer is in preventing it from developing at the cellular level.
Prevention means understanding the root causes that make breasts imbalanced. It is claimed that the etiology of breast disease is unknown, and of course every disease is multi-faceted. Yet, I see a clear pattern as I ponder a myriad of scientific studies, the effects of xenoestrogens, the mystery of the microbiome, the genetic plasticity of epigenetics, the foreign compounds found in breast tumors, and my own mother’s health history. This is a potent recipe for making our breasts a liability, and prevention is entirely possible.
2. And why are you passionate about breast health, and women living healthy vibrant lives?
I am passionate about women grasping the power to optimize their own health. It is liberating to live a healthy, vibrant life, and this includes feeling good about our mysterious mammary glands.
3. Too often we talk about breasts only in two (maybe three) contexts: female sexuality, usually as it is contained by male sexuality; and when something goes wrong with breast health – namely breast cancer (maybe we talk about breastfeeding, usually when it has been shunned publicly). Why do you think there is a silence around talking about breasts outside of these topics/angles?
Our breasts have been mythologized, scandalized, and politicized. We live in a culture where breasts receive misguided Las Vegas-adulation while their biological purpose gets shrouded. A millennium of medical-misogyny and neglect has created a mindset of women as something other than the master of their mammary glands. It is up to us, up to women, to chart a new course.
4. We believe that women are unsure of their breasts, and that for many women, their breasts are a source of fear. Perhaps pink ribbon campaigns are in part responsible for this fear, perhaps there is a fear of the sexuality of breasts, or of the power women can hold. Many women are not used to touching their breasts even. What is your opinion of our culture of breast fear?
In many ways, we have divorced our bodies, our breasts. We tend to leave the care and functioning of our bodies to doctors who consider our breasts as just specialized body parts. Our bodies are strangers to us, and we tend to fear the unknown and unfamiliar. As we reclaim the responsibility for our health and get reacquainted with our breasts, fear will transform into appreciation.
5. Imagine yourself talking with a young girl about body image, body health and growing into a conscientious woman. What would you impart to the conversation of breasts?
Be a renegade.
As girls, we are taught that respectable young ladies make their bodies “polite” by applying antiperspirant, primping with perfume, and popping contraceptive pills. These preening, paraben-products create artificial estrogens that accumulate in the soft, lymphatic, fat-filled tissue of our glandular orbs.
Our breasts, along with their under-valued role of sustaining life, are canaries in a coal-mine, detecting our environmental invasions and storing for decades the toxins of our trespasses. They are barometers for the changing atmosphere of our planet. The cultural beauty icons – moisturizers, pasteurized milk, and sunscreen– prompt earlier puberty. There is a delicate time in prepubescent girls in which chemical exposure from pesticides, processed-food, and estrogen-mimickers influences adult breast health and gene expression.
Health professionals report increased infertility, miscarriages, record-breaking breast sizes, earlier menopause and earlier puberty (gold-glittery maxi-pads are now marketed to 8 year olds). All this linked to the residual results of marinating in the industrial flotsam of man-made chemicals.
6. How has breast health, or breast health touched your life. In what personal ways are you invested in projects that raise awareness of breast health?
Breast health is a deeply personal issue for me. My mother died of breast cancer last year. I have been passionate about women’s health for over 22 years, and I often educate on breast health. I also co-created a free online summit called Rethink Pink.
7. Leave us with a final word. When we say “breasts” you say:
When you say breasts, I say “breastfeeders”. That is what my toddler used to call them.
Join us here in the coming weeks for more #boobyluv interviews.
Read Dr. Maureen Borghoff’s interview.
Read Meghan Telpner’s interview.
I’m learning how to release the fear and love my breasts with the #boobyluv interview series.
