Discover Essential Tips for Breast Health and Living Toxin-Free with Patricia Luccardi

In this inspiring episode, Patricia Luccardi shares her journey from a New York makeup artist to a holistic health advocate. She discusses her passion for women’s health, natural hormones, and toxin-free living. Patricia explains how her career shift deepened her understanding of endocrine health and its importance. She offers practical tips to reduce exposure to harmful toxins, balance hormones naturally, and support breast health. Her insights provide valuable guidance for navigating today’s toxin-filled world. Tune in to learn simple, effective ways to protect and improve your overall wellness.

Key Topics:

> Environmental Toxins and Endocrine DisruptorsThermography vs. Mammograms
> A radiation-free method for breast health screening
> Practical Tips for Toxin-Free Living
> Sulforaphane and Detoxification
> The role of vitamin D, iodine, and selenium in overall health

Key Takeaways:

Reducing Toxin Exposure: Environmental toxins, especially those found in plastics (like BPA) and petrochemicals, mimic natural hormones and can disrupt our endocrine system. Simple lifestyle changes, such as using glass containers, choosing BPA-free products, and opting for natural skincare, can significantly reduce toxin exposure.

Detoxification and Hormonal Balance: Sulforaphane, a compound found in broccoli seeds, is highlighted as an effective way to detoxify the body and support hormonal balance by clearing harmful estrogens from the system.

Self-Education is Key: Patricia underscores the importance of being informed about the products we use in our daily lives, from cleaning supplies to cosmetics, and encourages listeners to consult resources like the Environmental Working Group (EWG) to find safer, non-toxic options.


Patricia's Bio: Patricia Luccardi, CTT, LMT, CNMT, is a passionate advocate for holistic women’s health and wellness. She empowers women by educating them about the dangers of environmental toxins and endocrine disruptors, offering natural protocols—like diet, supplements, and lifestyle changes—that deliver real results, often confirmed through thermographic imaging. With certifications in Thermographic Technology, Clinical Massage Therapy, and Whole Health Education™, she promotes natural healing. Patricia practices in NYC and lives in the charming village of Chatham in the Hudson Valley.

Get in Touch with Patricia:
Website: patricialuccardi.com
Breast Protection Detox Protocol Program

Resources Mentioned:
EWG (Environmental Working Group)
Grass Roots Health
Dr. Lindsey Berkson (Author of Safe Hormones Smart

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Chapters

• 0:01 From Makeup to Health
• 13:01 Natural Hormones and Toxin-Free Living
• 25:28 Breast Health and Iodine Connection

Transcript

Lauri Wakefield
00:01
Hi, welcome to the Inspiring Journeys podcast. Thanks for joining me today. I'm your host, Lori Wakefield, and I've invited Patricia Lucardi to be my guest today. Would you like to say hi, Patricia? 

Patricia Luccardi
00:11
Hi, thank you everybody who's listening. It's an honor to be here. Thank you so much. 

Lauri Wakefield
00:16
So a little bit about Patricia. She's a licensed professional with certifications in thermographic technology, clinical massage therapy, neuromuscular therapy, food as medicine, whole health education and wellness coaching. She's an active member of Breast Thermography International and the Professional Academy of Clinical Thermology. Is that correct? That's correct. That's a mouthful, thank you. So in this episode we're going to discuss Patricia's journey from a young adult in her early 20s as a professional makeup artist to where she is now and what she's doing today. So, patricia, let's go back to your early 20s, when you moved up to New York and you got your cosmetology license and then worked as a professional makeup artist. You want to talk a little bit about that? 

Patricia Luccardi
01:03
Sure, if you really want to know the beginning, the history. I was dating a photographer in Dallas and I met Jerry Hall before she married Mick Jagger, and I was friends with her sister and she said you should go to New York and be a makeup artist and I thought that's a great idea and I just so happened to find a psychic in the Louisiana swamps and I went to this famous psychic. He was way back in the woods in a hut and he grabbed me on the knees. He said you're going to New York City and I said I don't know, I really like California. He said you're going to New York City. And three months later I was in New York City and I have to tell you, jerry Hall, I love this. She gave me the best advice. Now, mind you, this is before she married Mick Jagger. She said honey, you only have to be good in a couple of rooms of the house. I always laughed at that. You only have to be good in a couple of rooms of the house. 
01:56
Anyway, I went to New York and my first booking I got was a counter card for Chanel. So I started off as a makeup artist. I went to Milan, worked for Italian Vogue for seven months and got my portfolio together and it was a wonderful time. 15 years in New York City working on photo shoots. I traveled and people say how did you get into health? At lunch we had the most intelligent conversations. You have people that are freelancers coming in and talking about it. It usually ended up in health Eat right for your type and models wanted to stay thin and it was a wonderful time and it actually it's shifted my career. When I started working, getting booked for pharmaceutical ads, I was like I don't need the money that bad. 
02:41
So, I decided to go into health because it just it was so part of my life. I had this passion ever since I read the book Eat. What was it? Died for a Small Planet. Remember that I actually had don'ts, Adele, Davis, Adele, Anyway. So I've always had a passion for health my entire life, since I was 18.
 
Lauri Wakefield
03:01
So your career first shifted to neuromuscular therapy and breath work right. 

Patricia Luccardi
03:07
After I stopped being a makeup artist, I went back to school to become a licensed massage therapist I was teaching Kundalini Yoga at that time and then they sought me out at Canyon Ranch. I had moved upstate New York and Canyon Ranch is in Lenox and at the time Dr Mark Hyman was there and he's one of the leading functional medicine doctors in the country. 

Lauri Wakefield
03:32
Yeah, we were talking about him when we talked a couple of weeks ago. 

Patricia Luccardi
03:34
Yeah, it was a wonderful place to work in functional medicine and I was also a breath educator. I did neuromuscular therapy. And then I wanted to do something else. I did the life visioning process by Michael Beckwith. It's a wonderful question what is God's idea of itself? It's my life and I asked that question and I meditated on that and it was a process and then thermography came. It just came. One day you think you're going to make a left and you end up making a right. So I went into the bank and I got a loan and I bought a franchise and I've been doing it for 13 years. 

Lauri Wakefield
04:12
Okay, before that, though, you actually had your own clinical massage therapy business, didn't you? 

Patricia Luccardi
04:18
Oh yes, I did. For five years I did, but I Canyon Ranch. Actually, they went into a class action lawsuit and at that time a lot of us got a lot of money. Some of the massage therapists picked up $100,000. Oh okay, I've been a traveler for many years as being one of the top destinations, but I loved being there. But at the same time, I was looking to do something else and I did that process, that life visioning process, and it came to me thermography, because I had a strong background in anatomy and physiology. 

Lauri Wakefield
04:58
So that's what you do, that's your practice. Yes, do you do specific parts of the body, or just like whole body, or just a pound? 

Patricia Luccardi
05:05
The whole body. When one thinks of thermography, they think of breast thermography, but my practice has been for 13 years. I'm in Manhattan and for 13 years I've been working with holistic breast protocols and breast health. I look at prevention as the cure and I work with women having healthy breasts. 

Lauri Wakefield
05:27
Yeah, we're going to get into it because you actually have something that you offer for women to help with the estrogen detox or the breast protection detox. What was I going to say? And you also became certified as a whole health educator and you do speaking engagements. Do you speak about both thermography and the whole health education?

Patricia Luccardi
05:47
One is protecting your breasts in an ever-increasingly toxic world and one is protecting your endocrine system in an ever-increasing toxic world. I've been speaking for actually many years. I spoke more before COVID. Now I do mostly podcasts, but I think where I was for I don't know between hair and makeup and doing yoga and moving into health, I work with a group called Living Foods USA and we went to a lot of health symposiums and we were on top of our game 30 years ago for Health Freedom Coalition and it was great because I traveled all over the country and that's when I studied food as medicine and it really is about food is your medicine? Food and herbs are your medicine long before pharmaceuticals. So that was a wonderful study that I did. Yeah, functional medicine, excuse me, it looks at the cause and not a symptom. The way that our medicine is now, it's just fixing a symptom and putting a band-aid on it. 

Lauri Wakefield
06:48
Isn't that crazy? Isn't that crazy Like you think about when you go to just a regular doctor, and I meant like dismissing conventional medicine At least I'm not, I think there's a place for it but like you go there, like they're not looking. They're looking at what's right and what's fixed instead of how can we prevent things from going wrong to begin with. 

Patricia Luccardi
07:08
So I was at Yale, New Haven a few years ago and there was a doctor doing her rounds and I said she had just graduated and I said how much nutrition did you get in school? She said two hours. I got a year. I got a year of nutrition and massage school. So they're trained by the reps. They come in and they tell them this pill does, this pill does that. But it's interesting that every pill out there has side effects. 
07:31
So, I'm very blessed because I get to work. I take my thermography camera into different offices of doctors because I have my own practice, but it's a mobile unit. I travel with it, but I work with some of the most cutting edge and I send a lot of my patients to this one particular functional medicine doctor. There's a lot of information out there and there's a lot of misinformation, but the key is that we want to be healthy, exactly, and for them it starts with navigating a toxic world and what we put in our mouth, our food is medicine.
 
Lauri Wakefield
08:02
Yeah, it's weird. So we're going to talk about, like, the health risks of environmental toxins. Can you just talk a little bit about that Endocrine? 

Patricia Luccardi
08:12
Endocrine disruptors are also called xenoestrogens, endocrine disruptors, hormonal disruptors. And for anybody old enough that ever saw the Graduate with Dustin Hoffman, the gentleman told him said, son, the future's in plastics. Now, 50-something years later, we are living in a plastic epidemic. 
08:32
Getting back to these, xenoestrogens are old, they're coming from the petrochemical companies and they come into our body through what we breathe, what we eat, what we put on our skin Our skin is the largest organ. It goes in within 26 seconds what we put on our cosmetics, our lotion and everything and the water that we drink. So these they come in like normal estrogens. Our body accepts them as estrogens and they park on the receptor sites like Velcro, and it doesn't allow our own natural hormones, which flow through the body within hours and days and they're released. But these park on the receptor sites like Velcro and it doesn't allow our own hormonal system to signal correctly. And I was just reading in the Environmental Working Group that the PSAF, the forever hormones, has a shelf life in our body for two to five years. Oh sorry, two to four years. 
09:33
Two to four years, but there's a movement of starting to look at these petrochemicals like in organic bras, organic panties, organic children's clothing. I just saw that Whirl B dental floss has a forever hormone in it. Can I interrupt? 

Lauri Wakefield
09:52
Can I interrupt you for just a second? Okay, so you're saying the forever chemical. They have a two to four year, or something like that, shelf life in our body. Does that mean after that that they're expelled from the body, or what does that mean for forever? 

Patricia Luccardi
10:06
What they have found is that the greatest flusher of plastics out of our body comes from sulforaphane. It comes from the broccoli seed. People say, oh how about broccoli sprouts? But the seed has more efficacy. But what they found is that this flushes it out, but once it's in the bloodstream they still don't know how to deal with it. But these little micro pellets, these little tiny things that we see in fish, and the plastics that are in the ocean and everything they're collecting in men's testicles. So they're in the body and we have to find a way to flush them out. But it's not just the human kingdom whose endocrine system is under attack. We have a place in the Pacific Ocean the size of Texas of floating plastics. So these petrochemicals, or endocrine disruptors, have been found at the bottom of the ocean to the top of the Himalayas. 

Lauri Wakefield
11:03
It's also like in plastic bottles, plastic wraps 

Patricia Luccardi
11:12
Dr Lindsey Berkson she is the foremost scholar on hormones and she was on the think tank at Tulane University for 15 years on the hormone deception and it's on all these environmental estrogens. But she is a scholar on bioidentical hormones, so that's another story right there. But getting back to these hormones, it's affecting life all over the planet Because all animals fish have an endocrine system. They get pregnant. They gestate and they give birth, So, it's just like humans.

Lauri Wakefield
11:52
and this is like totally off the topic, but what do you think about bioidentical hormones? 

Patricia Luccardi
11:56
Our hormones are the guardians of our health, and behind every hormone is a chakra and it's part of our subtle bodies. They probably knew more about hormones 2,000 years ago in India than what they know now. Recently I was at a conference with Dr Berkson and she showed a study of 10 million women that were studied by NIH, that's National Health Institute. It hasn't been peer-reviewed yet, but they found that women need natural estrogen, they need bioidentical estrogen. It had even benefited women in their 80s and 90s and they did a study with insurance companies and they saw a huge decrease in not just only cognition but also Parkinson's. And I wouldn't not just only cognition, but also Parkinson's, and I wouldn't. The best test that you can take for hormones would be a dried urine test. You take it overnight. If you're doing a blood test, it really needs to be done several times a day, not just one, and saliva tests are marginal. But again, there's a book that she wrote called Smart Women Safe Hormones, and she also wrote a book called Sexy Brain, and she wrote a lot on oxytocin. That's the cuddle hormone.
13:15
Yeah, one of my doctors says oh, you know what? Yeah, but again a 10 million women study that women need natural estrogen, not synthetic, not birth control. And you think of progesterone that balances out too much estrogen. It can be done topically, on the skin, but again there's dermal fatigue. After so many months you have to switch it up. But again, there was a doctor who wrote Dr John Lee. He wrote a book called what your Doctor's Not Telling you About Breast Cancer and Progesterone and he was the pioneer in studying progesterone. But again, that's a whole other subject that one really needs to be educated in, and I would first be educated before I would would my power into a doctor's hands, because I know what I know. 

Lauri Wakefield
14:08
Self-education is empowering oh, yeah, definitely, I know I do a lot of studying too, researching yeah, very curious mind that I have. But yeah, I mean, I know, like um, about the progesterone because it's interesting. I actually read about this pretty recently that, and, like to you and maybe to other people, it's like something they've known for a long time. I actually did not, but when women, go through perimenopause and some of them will become estrogen dominant, so what happens when the estrogen increases is that the progesterone actually goes down. Is that right? That could actually be like a cause of breast cancer or lead to breast cancer. I don't know if I would say cause, but it can lead to. 

Patricia Luccardi
14:51
Well, yeah, because and then we're going to get into why is estrogen so dominant right now? Why is it out of control? We didn't have this kind of estrogen 50 something years ago, because now we're living in an estrogen-toxic world and it's dysregulated. And we'll talk about why it's dysregulated. 

Lauri Wakefield
15:09
Yeah, it's crazy too, because you think about all the companies that manufacture plastics or materials that contain those plastics and they're selling it. It's like a big part of their business. They have no incentive financially to try to change things not to try to get rid of them, even though they know that there are things that are hurting people. That's no secret. 

Patricia Luccardi
15:26
There are things that come out in the news about Well, you know how they first found the BPA connection to breast cancer and they found that this, and particularly for women who get inflammatory breast cancer. Now this is you can't see it on anatomical studies because it's heat it's very lethal for women to have inflammatory breast cancer but that affects some of the cells. That kicks that in through the BPA. Now there's also BPA in the lining of our cans, also BPA in the lining of our cans. So I forget the percentage of what our cans are lined with these BPA. So if a person is eating out of a can maybe coconut milk or tomatoes or beans or something if they go, yeah, they get something from a can. Just make sure it's from the health food store and it says Bpa free. Right, because we don't want to do that. But every now and then you need a can of beans and it's easier than cooking it. But yeah, bpa is it's just, it's everywhere so there are. 

Lauri Wakefield
16:27
There are a couple tips that, like you, could share with women. You know probably apply to women of any age, but if we're talking to the women over 50 age group, just like one or two lifestyle changes that can help them to maybe get the environmental toxins I was going to say estrogen, but it would include just like environmental toxins out of their body.

Patricia Luccardi
16:50
The first think you do is you open up your refrigerator and anything that's got plastic in there, you throw it out. Because you look at mayonnaise and mustard, the larger they are, they're in plastic. But you throw it out Because you look at mayonnaise and mustard, the larger they are, they're in plastic. But if you look at the Hellman's mayonnaise the small ones, it's in glass, the mustard's in glass. So you want to throw out everything as plastic. If you can go to the butcher and or where you get your fish and everything and ask that it's not wrapped in plastic. 
17:16
But first you go, you start with your own home. You look at what the toxins are underneath your sink. Now it is all over the internet and all of these things we wash our clothes in have cancer, producing toxic chemicals. But now there's a movement. Now there's a little sheets that you can put in the washing machine. That's natural. Now there's a little sheet that you can put in the washing machine. That's natural. Again, start in your own home. Start in your own home and see Murphy's Oil Soap. We used to think, wow, that's the most wonderful thing you could do. And they might have changed their formula over the years, but it's some of the most toxic things you can put in your home. Environmental Working Group EWGorg Environmental Working Group. They are the best because they'll tell you the best skincare, the best things for babies, the best bras out there, the best makeup. They're on top of their game when it comes to environmental toxicities. 
18:11
And they've been doing this for over 25, 30 years. 

Lauri Wakefield
18:15
Yeah, we don't really talk too much about skincare products, but I know like I've been for a lot of years like where I don't I don't use like any type of facial makeup and I really never have like foundation and stuff like that. But even like moisturizers I rarely will use a moisturizer I use an avocado oil. 

Patricia Luccardi
18:32
Listen, it gave me great joy to empty my makeup kit because I had Dior, I had Chanel, I had all the best pigments, but hey, they all have environmental toxins in them Even eyeshadow, lipstick, matt, for a while was using something that had mercury in it.
 
18:49
I loved that glamour red that Madonna used to wear, but they had to pull that off the market. I think they were having it made in Mexico, but, yeah, cosmetics are very toxic. But it was a great joy to throw all that stuff into the market. I think they were having it made in Mexico, but, yeah, cosmetics are very toxic, but he great joy to throw all that stuff into the landfill. That's where I threw it into the dump, but yeah, so I cleared my makeup kit. 

Lauri Wakefield
19:06
Yeah, it's crazy, though, cause you look at something that's supposed to be like natural and like even something, cause I like shea butter, like whipped shea butter, but if you get it like in a container unless it's actually like just shea butter and like maybe another type of oil with it there are like all kinds of probably at least eight to 10 other chemicals that are in that. They're usually in plastic bottles. 

Patricia Luccardi
19:29
Yeah, exactly yeah, the plastic is, and I'm very frustrated. It's like I try to find joy and gratitude in my life, but I am to the point. I am so frustrated when everything is in plastics. Yeah, Everything's in plastics. 

Lauri Wakefield
19:43
But what are you supposed to do? I don't know If you do the best you can and you just try to, okay. So we talked about those. What is another way? You talked about sulforaphane. Is there another thing that can help get those, get the environmental toxins out of the body.
 
Patricia Luccardi
19:59
Sulforaphane comes from again broccoli seeds, I don't know. Can I talk about products? I'm going to buy them. But what they found? That it's the strongest inducer of what's called phase two enzyme pathways. That flushes the electrophils, the precancerous toxins, all the chemicals out of the body and it flushes the receptor sites of these foreign estrogens. So classically, in thermography we have two different scales. One is the rainbow scale, it's the colors that come off the body in the form of heat through the infrared scale. And then we have another one. It's called the inverse gray scale. It looks like a black and white photograph. 
20:36
Estrogens will classically look like leopard spots, isn't thatrogens will classically look like leopard spots, isn't that crazy? They'll classically look like leopard spots. Now, if a woman had a hot flash in front of me, we'll get back to the sulforaphane. If they had a hot flash in front of me, she would go totally leopard Ears, everything leopard. Now, isn't it interesting that our sexy hormone is very cat-like? Isn't that interesting? Who does not own a pair of leopard underwear, a leopard bra, leopard shoes or a leopard handbag? Because we are sexy leopards. Those foreign estrogens can also look like leopard spots. So guess what? I see men with leopard spots. They're not supposed to look like leopard spots but whether it's real or unreal estrogens, it will classically look like leopard spots. 
21:25
In that gray scale they're just pockets of inflammation. Sometimes it looks like pigeon feed or little splotches of inflammation. But taking the sulforaphane actually flushes those receptor sites and you should see the remarkable results I get in before and after. Imaging of thermography Incredible, because it leaves the good estrogen and takes the bad estrogen out. In fact I had one woman. She was so covered like a leopard and then after six months they could see her vascular patterns. They said, hey, we should look at this because we've never seen it before. So she had another six-month follow-up. She should have had a year-up follow-up. 
22:05
She had a six-month follow-up and it turns out that she didn't have any of her own estrogen. She's now in bioidentical hormones and of course she looks like she's got the estrogen on her body. But she continues to take the sulforaphane. Because when are you never not exposed to foreign estrogens, right? Never. And children can take this too, because it's plant based and her hormones are balanced. Her hormones are balanced. 
22:29
So certain things like your vitamin D and your sulforaphane and your iodine and selenium and your minerals these are things that you take every single day because we're living in an excess, we're in excess of toxins and we're living in a deficiency. So we have to balance that. We have to purify and detox all the toxins and then we have to give our body what we're deficient in in certain things, which is part of your daily nutrients. So what I do? I go to Michael's or Joanne's, those craft stores and I get these little bead bags and I put it out on a little tea cloth and I put down all my nutrients enough for two weeks and I put them in little bags and I have one for the day, one for the evening. It makes it so much easier. 

Lauri Wakefield
23:16
Yeah, and then vitamin D3, I know that's something that a lot of women, especially as they get older, and I don't know if it's because they don't absorb it as well or what it is, but low vitamin D is linked to breast cancer too. 

Patricia Luccardi
23:32
Yes, it's linked to actually 16 cancers and if their numbers are 20 nanols or lower, particularly for women of color, because they don't absorb it, that can come up with birth deficient, birth problems, because the brain doesn't wire in utero the fetus, and there's neurological damage at the other end. But to quote Dr Mark Hyman, he said about vitamin D. He said unless you're living 20 miles south of Atlanta, you're butt naked 20 minutes a day, you're not getting enough vitamin D. He said unless you're living 20 miles south of Atlanta, you're butt naked 20 minutes a day, you're not getting enough vitamin D. And then guess what? And the insurance companies don't even want to pay for it anymore. 
24:06
It's so crucial to our health. At University of Albany several years ago they took breast cancer cells and they exposed them to high doses of vitamin D. Within two days most of them had shriveled up. Wow. So there's a group called Grassroots Vitamin D, and they're out of California. They have the most research on vitamin D, particularly on breast cancer. And if one really wants to become educated, they offer like a five-hour class at University of San Diego and you can become a vitamin D educator.

Lauri Wakefield 
24:44
Okay, wow, so we're talking about vitamin like in the form of supplements vitamin D3?

Patricia Luccardi
24:59
right, Correct and it's interesting because a couple of summers ago I was dating a man who lived up in the Catskills, so I was able to go with not a lot of clothes on for part of that summer and my vitamin D actually dropped. For some reason it dropped. We can't shower afterwards, I don't know. Again, grassroots vitamin D. They really educate what vitamin D is about and they put on sunscreen, which is very toxic, yeah, which? 

Lauri Wakefield
25:16
also blocks the absorption of vitamin D from the sun. 

Patricia Luccardi
25:20
And it's toxic. Vitamin D is one of those crucial things that we need all the time,

Lauri Wakefield
25:20
So,I think that we'll probably wrap things up now. We covered a lot of stuff, didn't we? 

Patricia Luccardi
25:30
No, actually we want to talk about iodine. I just put out a newsletter called the Link Between Iodine Deficiency and Breast Cancer and I got more openings on my emails since I started this 13 years ago. So what happened during the 60s and 70s? They told people to not have table salt, had just enough iodine to not have goiters. And they said, well, get off table salt because of high blood pressure. So table salt was demonized. They took it out of the bread it used to be one slice of Wonder Bread. You got your iodine and they replaced it with bromide, which is an iodine disruptor that can't uptake it. And iodine's an old medicine, it's been around forever. So what they found? 
26:15
10 years later, all the endocrine disruptors, all the endocrine disorders started dovetailing Prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, thyroid cancer, ovarian cancer, breast nodules, breast fibroids, nodules in the thyroid, nodules on the ovaries, cyst in the breast. All of these were connected to lack of iodine, because iodine keeps the estrogen being regulated. If there's not enough iodine, estrogen becomes dysregulated. So if a woman has a cyst in her breast, but cystic breast, first it becomes cyst, then it becomes hard nodules and then it becomes hyperplasia that can become breast cancer. So there's a link between that. So iodine you treat it systemically. So in Japan they have such a high consumption of iodine through their diet that they have very low breast cancer. They also have very high IQ because iodine is connected to the IQ. So it's always you're going to have enough iodine in a woman's prenatal formula not to have retardation. And so again. 
27:30
Here we have the dovetailing of 10 years becoming iodine deficient and we are a nation of a deficiency now. I was afraid of iodine when I first started and and I did a 24-hour urine test and I was clinically low. And Dr David Brownstein, who is the iodine guru, he said out of 6,000 patients, 96% were clinically low. So there's people say I'd have Tibetan sea salt or I eat sea salt. That's not enough iodine. So people say how do I get iodine naturally? If you're a vegetarian, you're going to be shorter. You can get an egg, yolks, potatoes, seaweed, seafood. Let's see yogurt again. But is that enough iodine to suffice? An iodine deficiency? Because our breasts thrive on iodine. Hypothyroidism, lack of iodine is connected to breast cancer, again because it's lack of iodine. It costs pennies. Terry's Tri-Iodine is excellent, 12.5 milligram. But again, iodine is crucial for the endocrine health because it helps the estrogen that's so dysregulated. It helps keep it intact. 
28:41
So you have the sulforaphane that works with the iodine. It's crucial for breast health. And one last thing women have got to consider what their bras are. We know that underwires are terrible for the lymphatic system, but anything that's constricted around the outer quadrant of the breast or any kind of little hard tabs that are there, most women take their bra before they go to bed at night. The lymph system doesn't move if anything is constricting it. 
29:08
There's a book called Dressed to Kill the Link Between Bras and Breast Cancer by Sidney Ross Singer. He's a medical anthropologist and he went around the world for 10 years studying breast lymphatic system and breast cancer. There is a direct link between our bras and breast cancer. It stagnates the lymph. So in 1931, john Mayo, before he created the Mayo Clinic everybody knows the Mayo Clinic clinic he said women in industrialized nations that wear bras creates lymphatics. It's called lymph stasis or stagnant lymph, with the potential of getting breast cancer. 
29:47
And those wires do not lift the breast, ditch the wires. If you want to have a lift in your bra, you do it in the strap. The lift is in the strap. If the bra is too tight, there's always they have those little extenders that you can put three or four inches into your bra. So bras are very crucial. I know some women have to wear bras, but right and they're. Most of them are made out of petrochemicals, so there's now a big movement of natural bras. But we really got to consider if our bra is stagnating in our lymph system. 

Lauri Wakefield
30:17
Right, and you were. We talked a couple of weeks ago. 

Patricia Luccardi
30:21
organic cotton, they're all organic  now they're totally all over PACT, Blue Canoe there's so many out there. But again, women sometimes have to wear bras. A woman came to me yesterday and she showed me her new bra. I said, oh my gosh, it looks like something out of Gladiator. I never saw such a constructed bra in my life. But again, we want to have healthy breasts. 

Lauri Wakefield
30:43
Right and not have them be affected by breast cancer, right?

Patricia Luccardi
30:49
And I did write a book called Thermography and the Fibrocystic and Dense Breast a Radiation-Free Guide to Happy, healthy Breasts. And 49% of the population of women have dense breasts and they cannot be seen on a mammogram. So because tumors are white and on connective tissue it's white on a mammogram. So it's like looking for a snowball in a snowstorm. So thermography works amazing because it's looking at heat first, because any pathological process starts in heat and thermography is a study of heat. And then you use an ultrasound. 
Lauri Wakefield
31:26
That's environmentally safe? Yeah, one thing I was going to ask you about thermography. I know what I've read and I'm just asking your opinion about this. And I'm not saying that what I've read is right or wrong, I'm just asking your opinion about it. And I've read that thermography doesn't detect early stage cancer as well. 
Patricia Luccardi
31:43
They have found. It was cleared by the FDA. It was covered by insurance until 1987. So any pathological process starts in heat. Now it's not 100% because it's a biopsy, but at Presbyterian Cornell they did a study with, particularly for dense-breasted women. They did a study finding that women using thermography with an ultrasound had a 97% sensitivity. So anything that's pathological creates heat. Heat cannot be seen on an anatomical study an MRI, an ultrasound, a mammogram. It's looking at an anatomical structure, but before it becomes a structure it's metabolically hot, exchanging cells up to eight to 10 years. And that's what they found when they. It was the mammography lobby that took thermography out in one of the few countries in the world not using it. It's physics Right?

Lauri Wakefield
32:41
Just out of curiosity, like in your own practice, you have a radiologist who looks at their results. 

Patricia Luccardi
32:47
Yes, we do Absolutely. 

Lauri Wakefield
32:49
Okay. So in your practice have you found cases of early stage like stage one, stage zero cancer? 

Patricia Luccardi
32:59
Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, One was very profound. It was in the gray scale, the black and white picture. She had a dark spot but it can't be seen on conventional screening because it was still in the stages of heat. But I've been doing this for 13 years. I will say first, five, six, seven years. I was like, wow, I practice in New York. I'm not seeing any breast cancer. It must be because the women are more educated, they're taking care of their body. 

33:24
But I will tell you, in the last few years, just this past summer, I had seven women in two weeks with breast cancer. One was 37 years old and if you go back to it stays in that stages of heat for eight to 10 years, so when she was 37, she was getting that breast cancer when she was 27. 

Lauri Wakefield
33:41
Yeah, I've heard that too. 

Patricia Luccardi
33:42
definitely, and we're getting it in younger and younger women and this is so actually part of my practice now is working with women with protocols to help in the breast cancer. And I will just share one thing. A lot of nutraceutical companies have the sulforaphane but the seed grower is out of Kentucky. They send the seeds to Germany and they're processed and the nutraceutical companies like Designs for Health and Biotics, research and Metagenics they buy from the seed company but their own line is online and it's CH Health, charlie H Health, ch Health and their product is called Vitalica Plus the physician's formula. It has 600 milligrams of pure sulforaphane and what they've studied at Johns Hopkins, that the seed actually has more efficacy than the sprout and it actually has the ability to inhibit breast cancer cells. But again it goes back to flushing those receptor sites because it's allowing the hormonal system to freely signal, flushing those bad estrogens out of the body. 

Lauri Wakefield
34:54
What was it called CH?
 
Patricia Luccardi
34:58
CH Health. That's the seed grower out of Kentucky, but their product is called Vitalica Plus the Physician's Formula right sulforaphane, something I've been taking for over 10 years, and I have done the hormonal test and my estrone pathways, which are the bad estrogens, are 100 clear. 

Lauri Wakefield
35:18
Just out of curiosity how much do you take per day? 

Patricia Luccardi
35:22
I take one a day. But again, I've been on top of my game for 15 years and I'm 74 and people think I'm like 10 years younger. 
35:34
Too bad I have an aging neck. I guess I have to be like Candace Bergen and wear like a scarf around my neck the rest of my life. 

Lauri Wakefield
35:39
Wear turtlenecks all the time, even when it's 90 degrees outside. That's right, aren't you hot? 

Patricia Luccardi
35:45
I'm not having a hot flash, that's for sure. I know there was a lot of information for you ladies out there, but again, it's plastic, plastic. 

Lauri Wakefield
35:54
That probably wraps things up. You can talk.  I know you can. Every time I've talked to you, you're a talker. 

Patricia Luccardi
35:59
But just think about what creates healthy breasts and management of ill health. 

Lauri Wakefield
36:05
Exactly. So that's going to wrap things up for this episode. Thanks so much for joining me today. If you'd like more information about Patricia, you can visit her website at patricialuccardi.com. Be sure to check out the breast protection protocol, which includes a 14-day detox plan plus a 60-minute consultation with Patricia. If you'd like to see the show notes for today's podcast, you can find them on my website at InspiredLivingForWomen.com. The show notes will be listed under Podcast Show Notes, Episode 5. I'll include a link to Patricia's website in the show notes and I'll also link to her breast protection detox protocol. You have a newsletter that you send out too that people can sign up for?

Patricia Luccardi
36:44
Yes, I do. 

Lauri Wakefield
36:45
Okay, so that form is on the site too, if people are interested in following you and you share valuable information that can help a lot of people. 

36:53
So if you'd like to join me as I continue my conversations with other guests exploring topics for women over 50, please be sure to subscribe to the Inspiring Journeys podcast. Also, if you have your own inspiring journey to share and would like to be a guest on this podcast, you can reach out to me using the contact form on my website. It's on the podcast, it's on the podcast page, but I'll also link to it in the show notes. Thanks again and have a great day. 

Patricia Luccardi
37:25
Thank you so much.