Latest / NHA Today Podcast / How Diet and Lifestyle Can Prevent and Fight Breast Cancer With Dr. Kristi Funk | NHA Today
Transcript
- Stephan Esser: back to the NHA Podcast Today I'm super excited to be joined by Dr. Kristi Funk, who's a board certified breast cancer surgeon and physician, bestselling author, international keynote speaker, women's health advocate. The list just goes on of all the awesome things that she does. She's helped thousands of women through breast cancer treatment and is an accomplished, as I mentioned, author, speaker, doctor, surgeon, go-to breast. health expert for shows like Good Morning America and The Doctors and countless other TV programs. She's written thousands upon thousands of news articles, magazine articles, online blogs, you name it. So super excited to have you with us today. Dr. Funk, thanks for joining the show. Dr. Kristi Funk: Thanks, Dr. Esser. Nice to be here. Stephan Esser: You know, I thought we'd do a couple of fun, like getting to know you questions first, and I want to jump right in. So what are five foods that you would take with you if you were going to be stranded on an island for a year? Five must haves. Dr. Kristi Funk: Okay. Okay, must haves, but we're gonna just pretend like they're not perishable because I want to bring broccoli, but we all know it will go bad by Tuesday. Broccoli, berries, flax seeds, soy in any form that you wanna bring it. So tofu, edamame, soy milk. and what is gonna be my fifth? You know what? I'm to say mushrooms. Stephan Esser: Okay, wrong, Shrooms got some shrooms on there with you. All right, very nice gonna circle back that later on about ⁓ those five but you know wanted to go in I was looking through your resume very impressive and so what attracted you to medicine? Let's go back to very beginning of all this what attracted you to medicine to begin with? Dr. Kristi Funk: This was an epiphany, like actually not on a track to do medicine at all. No doctors in my family, wasn't on my radar. was a freshman, no, was a sophomore at the end of my sophomore year at Stanford University studying psychology and drama, wanting to like go into this new field of psychodrama to use it as a therapeutic tool for children who experienced trauma. That was my focus. And then all of a sudden I was studying for a final and there was this thought, overwhelming thought, like almost audible, but not that just said, you're going to be a doctor. I was thought, did it say you're going to marry a doctor? I was like, what? This is not on my radar, but it was so overwhelming and intrusive as a thought that I had to pay attention. Stephan Esser: Hahaha Dr. Kristi Funk: Shortly thereafter, three days later, I was on a plane to Africa to spend the summer as a short-term missionary in Kenya. And it was there, combined with the inaudible, thot voice, that I realized, you know what? If don't have your health, you really have an uphill battle for the rest of your life to find joy. And it's hard to... ⁓ maintain optimism and joy in the face of health adversity. it just clicked that I was meant to take my gifts and use them in medicine. Stephan Esser: Gorgeous, I love it. And why breast surgery though, right? So, so many different fields of medicine you could have gotten into. What brought you down that path? Dr. Kristi Funk: Right. Okay. So thankfully as a resident, because this was before our restrictions, so I was working ungodly hours, like beyond the stories I could tell. So I loved every part of surgery and I'm glad I did because honestly, if I had known I was going to hone in on breasts, I'd be like, I don't know how to, I don't need to know how to take your esophagus out or put your heart on bypass. Like all of the laborious hours and hours of residency would have felt like a waste of time and I would have resented it instead. loved it. I just loved every minute of my residency, even though it was all consuming. at the time, this would have been the late 90s and then 2000 and 2001 is ⁓ I graduated. The idea, the world of laparoscopy, the idea of doing surgery through little incisions where you put instruments and one of them is a camera and you're watching the monitor doing your surgery, that was all new. So I got butted out of the way by the attendings. who needed to learn how to take a gallbladder out without like an eight inch incision. so they were learning and I therefore was watching. And I thought, you know what, this is the future minimally invasive surgery. So I did a fellowship in that and I came back to LA, which is my home and I was at Cedar Sinai and the ⁓ so talented and fabulous Ed Phillips was running the MIS, minimally invasive surgery fellowship. ⁓ he was the director. Stephan Esser: Right. Mmm. Dr. Kristi Funk: of the breast center, which had just opened at Cedars-Sinai like a year prior. And they were having a heck of a time trying to find any estrogen to run the place. They had five men over 50. And he was, well, he sat down and he said, you know what? I haven't really asked you about like your real aspirations after the fellowship. Let me tell you what you're going to do. That was it. Like no breath, no moment, no pause. Just let me tell you what you're going to do. You're going to switch to a breast oncology fellowship and you're going to run the breast center. Stephan Esser: Ha ha ha. Dr. Kristi Funk: And that he said no pressure though. I know that wasn't your your thoughts. So, you know take until Friday to let me know and honestly, he only gave me till Friday and I Spent the next couple of days really soul-searching praying and trying to figure out what I wanted my life to look like as a surgeon and then at the time I was single but Actually, that's not true at all. I had a first husband and he was useless. So that happened Stephan Esser: Hahaha. Dr. Kristi Funk: So I felt single. I felt alone. Anyway, the point is I was trying to make up my mind, like, how do I want my life to look? And imagine, you know, children in the picture one day and being so busy as a full fledged general surgeon, which was with the minimally invasive. That was my path. And I thought, you know what? I think breast surgery is easy. And this was again, 2001. was before it was really like a respective. ⁓ lane of its own. People who did breast surgery also did colons and, you know, gallbladders and their whole lineup that day of surgery wouldn't just be breast, breast, breast, breast. ⁓ was very new and there weren't that many fellowships in the country at the time. And I thought, you know, it might be quote unquote easy surgery to me, but I can have this depth of expertise in this one area and it is anything but easy for a woman going through a breast cancer. Stephan Esser: Yeah, that's right. Dr. Kristi Funk: So I aborted the other fellowship, changed course, and that was it. Rest is history. Rest all day. Rest all night. That's my lane now. ⁓ Stephan Esser: Wow, what a journey you've been on. And so during that journey, obviously it sounds like you had some evolution in your practice. So if you had to give me kind of in two or three sentences, your practice of breast, care now, give it to me. me like that whole, like a couple sentences. Here's how I practice breast care now. Dr. Kristi Funk: Right, so see patients ⁓ or without breast cancer. They just have breast issues and concerns and I help ⁓ through diagnosis and treatment if it is something that needs any surgery or other modalities. But I bring into my practice a holistic lens that is ⁓ medicine based where I take a step back and say, you have breast cancer risk because you're a woman and you're gonna get older. So you've got two of the biggest risk factors right there. How can we look at your life through diet and lifestyle and choices and mitigate future breast cancer risk or recurrence risk if you've already been diagnosed? Stephan Esser: Now, a lot of physicians don't talk about that holistic approach when they talk about breast care. What was it that made you decide to integrate nutrition, holistic measures into the care of women who had these concerns? Dr. Kristi Funk: The science made me do it. So I was writing my book that became Breast the Owner's Manual back in 2016, 17 And I dove head first into nutritional science for the very first time in my life. Cause as you know, Dr. Esser I didn't get any of that in my medical training at all. So I was, you know, your typical California girl, always looking at the next fad. And so I was no pasta, rice, potatoes, or bread ever. Like since I was 10, because that's going to make you fat, right? Like I was on that sort of low carb misinformation train, but almost my whole life. And I wanted to go into the science to prove that the breast healthy diet would be the way I ate, which was largely Mediterranean. So lots of fruits and veggies. However, lots of meats, chicken, turkey, fish, so much fish that I'm sure I was radioactive. My husband and I had sushi like three, times a night and I would never check my mercury. was like, don't want to know, don't want to stop eating it. so I'm sorry, disgusting now in retrospect but however, at the time I thought that was the best way to eat and I wanted to prove it with science. so ironically, as I was the book chapters on what to eat and what not to eat, Stephan Esser: Ha ha ha. Dr. Kristi Funk: I myself was radically transformed by the rock solid evidence that animal products are so detrimental to health and plant products are the key to longevity and staving off illness that I my entire view and diet in a day. ⁓ day hit me so hard that I literally ran downstairs Stephan Esser: Wow. Wow. Dr. Kristi Funk: And my kids had just gone to camp. have a longer story, too long for now, just about what I had sent them to camp with to eat. It's highly embarrassing. And they came back and I said, boys, boys, OK, so I have to set the stage a little bit. We're talking about seven-year-old triplet boys. So they come running to the refrigerator. What, mom? And I fling open the doors for great panache. And I say, boys, we're going vegan. And they were like, yeah. Stephan Esser: Ha ha! Dr. Kristi Funk: What is vegan? And ⁓ that moment, I said, get some bags. And we filled four paper grocery bags to the brim with salmon and cheese and all the rest. And I brought it over to my then 82-year-old parents and said, here you go. It's too late for you. gave them all my perfectly good carcinogenic food. Stephan Esser: That's right. Dr. Kristi Funk: And ever since that day, my three sons and my husband and I are 100 % plant-based vegan because the science said so. And so when you ask, did I, why did I stumble into talking about lifestyle with my patients? It all started from that moment. When I changed my life, I wanted to help change their lives. Stephan Esser: Ha powerful, like I'm visualizing like this little light just going on and the light spreading out because I think about the tens of thousands of people whose lives you've impacted so powerful from that moment when the switch went on. You know, if you had to give me, ready? Here we go. Another little fun question. At least I think it's fun. Elevator pitch, elevator pitch for plant-based nutrition for the breasts. And you got like 30 seconds and go. Dr. Kristi Funk: Yeah. haha Every time you chew and swallow, unleash biochemical weapons inside your system that are pushing you toward cancer or away. I want you to chew and swallow plants to beat cancer. Stephan Esser: Ooh, I like it. Got me, I like that. All right. ⁓ you're going to be speaking at the 2026 Annual NHA Conference in June of this year. Super excited to hear you. Can you give me kind of a sneak peek ⁓ of your of like kind of what you're gonna be sharing with us a little bit? Dr. Kristi Funk: Okay, good. Yes, so I'm going to be talking about the nine nines, the nine choices that you make wittingly or unwittingly every single day that affect nine processes inside your body that just like my elevator pitch are pushing you toward cancer or away. So I can spoiler alert you what the nine choices are so you can have a thought about that for the next two months till I see everybody. the nine things that you're choosing. whether you know it or not every day, are what to eat. So we're talking about nutrition, exercise, body weight, risky substances like alcohol and tobacco, environmental toxicities, emotional stress, fasting, sleep, and hormone therapy use. ⁓ so fun. Stephan Esser: Ooh, those are some, ooh, I'm excited. I wanna learn more. So I guess you have to come to the conference, everybody, to learn about these nine-nine, I like it. ⁓ Hey, will hit you with one or two quick questions that I've been curious about. Because I read some articles recently, I thought were really fascinating with regards to like phthalates and things like that on breast tissue and kind of activating cancer cells. What are some of your recommendations you give women with regards to soaps and body washes? Just, you know, ⁓ what you talk to, what do you say? there any? Dr. Kristi Funk: you Mm-hmm. Stephan Esser: Quick tips for the ladies out there. Dr. Kristi Funk: Yeah, you know, so we just are, live in a barrage of these chemicals that we're soaking in. And so don't stress too much about it because, you know, what are you going to do? You got to put the gas in the car and yes, the gas pump when you touch it is going to be an endocrine disrupter. And then if you're out at lunch and the only thing they have is a plastic fork to eat it with, I mean, maybe it's sandwich or something, could use your hands. But my point is like every little thing you can't just freak out about. But think most importantly about what you're putting on or in your body, because that really just has adjacent proximity to the cells you're trying to control and not let get out of control. So as you mentioned, body's obsolescence, detergents, certainly the food that you chew and swallow down, ⁓ makeup. Then your air in your home. Like I have HEPA filters. Think about your water. You're dousing your whole body when you're in the shower. Is it feasible to have a point of entry filter? If not, that's OK. But what are you drinking? Make sure you've tested your water. I have this little stick that gives me the parts per million of bad things in my water. And you'd be shocked. Like I'll get a can of water, you know, just some like bubbly water and put it in and it'll it should be zero. ⁓ would be ideal. And you're supposed to change your filters when it hits like six, okay? And I'll put it into certain waters that you've paid good money for and I'll get like 250, like some crazy high number. So just start paying attention to what's in and on you. And when it comes time to buy new things that are big purchases, like a couch, maybe get one that isn't made, you know, that has natural fibers as the, at the base of it, not spewing formaldehyde off of the couch and things that you don't even Stephan Esser: Wow. Dr. Kristi Funk: really necessarily know are bad for you, but just start doing some research like that. And I certainly advise everybody to look at the cookware the storage ware, right? So everything should be glass or ceramic, silicone based. So look at your pans, look at, and again, that's a big investment for most people. So when it's time to buy the new pan, don't be using any scratch Teflon. I mean, that is just leeching bad. Stephan Esser: Right. Dr. Kristi Funk: stuff and heavy metals into your food in there for your body. So yeah, that's what I tell people is, know, don't get overly stressed, but also be judicious with what you can control and afford to control and do so. Stephan Esser: Now you commented there about your book earlier, Breast the Owner Manual. Does that have some of these things in it? Dr. Kristi Funk: I do, I have a whole chapter on things and endocrine disruptors and lists of what you need to pay attention to because the science has ⁓ definitely proven ⁓ suspects that these lead to breast cancer. Stephan Esser: Awesome. So everybody who's watching, go buy the book, right? Get it out and purchase it and read it. And then you also have some really cool online forums. Can women who are not seeing you in clinic join those forums? Dr. Kristi Funk: Yeah, absolutely. have, so I do, ⁓ I'll do like things through Instagram. Like we just completed a five day ProLon fast as a group. So we met every day at five and I talked about the science and we commiserated together about how hungry we were. You know, you don't actually get too, too starving. just miss real food. So I do things like that together as a group. I'll have cooking classes and have everybody join on a Zoom so I can see all of your faces and you can put comments and we chat that way when I do cooking with my Chrissy. So it's Cook Live with Chrissy and Dr. Kristi So you join that. And then if anyone is struggling with breast issues of any sort and would like to consult with me, I do plenty of telehealth. So we can deep dive into our life and see what... Stephan Esser: Nice. Dr. Kristi Funk: needs room for improvement. Pinklotus.com is the breast center website. Stephan Esser: So cool, you know, because so many breast surgeons out there or just breast, you know, oncologists, et cetera, you just focus on the standard care, right? Either we're gonna cut them off and that's about it and move on with life, right? Versus, you know, or chemo's, et cetera, but not the holistic, the whole person, all these different inputs that you're talking about that based on the science can radically influence the success long-term. ⁓ It's funny, I was at a marathon that is geared toward quote, preventing breast cancer. Dr. Kristi Funk: Yeah. Stephan Esser: And at the end of the race, they had all kinds of different foods. And they had about six different alcohol vendors. And they had about 15 different tents of meats. And I thought, we're missing something here. ⁓ Dr. Kristi Funk: I know it's quite tragic all of the pink washing too with October, you know, buy this carcinogenic product and we'll give 1 % of profits to the, you know, BCRF or whatever it is. Yeah, along the lines of what you're saying, I'd love to tell women, you know, there's sort of like BCAC before cancer, after cancer, and with zero blame, but actual total empowerment, I try to say we can't go through Stephan Esser: Right. Right. Dr. Kristi Funk: fill in the blank of what she has to do or has chosen to do surgery, radiation, chemo, anti-estrogens, the kind of the mainstay of treatment options. We can't go through all of that just to emerge and be like, yep, I did it all, cancer's behind me. Because whatever you were eating and drinking and thinking and moving and exposing yourself to, again, knowingly or unknowingly, those years led to that ability for your body to allow cancer to exist. So we can't just revert back to those exact same diet and lifestyle behaviors and expect not to have a recurrence or a new cancer pop up. So let's take this teachable moment and evaluate what we've been doing. the lens of anti-cancer, can we change some things? It doesn't have to be like me in an instant, go from. one way of eating to totally vegan, but we can all go get our report card from like a C to maybe a B plus. And I like to help people do that. Stephan Esser: You mentioned briefly about, you said the word alcohol, and I know for some people that is such a hot button topic. Could you just kind of let us know your thoughts on alcohol and breast cancer? Dr. Kristi Funk: Yeah, it's really unfortunate because I would love to say like the resveratrol and red wine is an antioxidant and can help you. I would love to give some sort of glimmering hope to those who enjoy a glass of this or that once in a while or daily. You can't. You just can't. It's absolutely carcinogenic. ⁓ Even ⁓ glass week has been shown to decrease cortical thickening on brain MRIs. So while your uh, cognition is not related to breast cancer. It turns out acetaldehyde is. So we swallow down alcohol. It becomes a potent carcinogen acetaldehyde, which then damages DNA and impairs your immune system. I can go on and on and disrupt your sleep. Did you know that one night of just getting four hours of sleep, which would be a terrible night's sleep, I realized, but just one night of a bad night, you drop your natural killer cells, which as it sounds, naturally kill cancer inside of you. by 28%. Sleep is so important. I think it's the most overlooked lifestyle factor in our entire lives when it comes to fighting cancer. So alcohol completely disrupts It destroys your microbiome, which is so important for immunity and anti-inflammation and something down there in your gut called the estrobalone. There's a bunch of critters down there that are busy. getting rid of excessive estrogen. And if you don't know, 80 % of breast cancers are fueled by estrogen. So we need that balance and it's maintained by the critters that alcohol messes with. So on and on it goes, the stats to conclude the alcohol spiel are as follows. 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. Stephan Esser: All right, time to put the alcohol down and get the mocktails and the sparkling ciders. There you go. I like it. All right, well, we're getting close to end of our time. We've enjoyed having you on. Anything you want to leave our audience with. Dr. Kristi Funk: Get the mocktail it up. You have so much more control over your health destiny than perhaps you've been led to believe. So you might look around at your parents and siblings and think that ⁓ health fate is your health destiny and it just is not true. So through ⁓ but steady dietary tweaks, increases in exercise, putting down the ⁓ and picking up the mocktail, switching out the plastics, know, all of these little things. make a large health impact and stoke your immune system inside of you to do what it does best and that is to eliminate illness. So come to the conference, learn more and I can't wait to see you guys there and honestly with physicians in your community or telehealth if you must who can help give you the resources and guidance you need to become the healthiest you. Stephan Esser: Awesome, what a pleasure to have you on Dr. Funk. Thank you for inspiring all of us and your continued work to advance this science in breast care and general health. We'll look forward to seeing you soon at the NHA conference, June, 2026. Thanks. Dr. Kristi Funk: Thanks.