What If You’ve Never Had Cancer? Here’s Why You Should Still Care About Prevention.
Dr. Rebecca Moragne, ND, MS
If you’ve had cancer and gone through treatment, you already know that the journey doesn’t just stop when you’re in remission. But what if you’ve never had cancer? Should you still be thinking about it?
The answer is: absolutely, yes.
Whether you’re recovering from cancer or just trying to stay ahead of it, long-term health is all about prevention. Cancer isn’t always a random event—it often has deeper root causes that need to be addressed. Think of your body like a garden: if the soil isn’t healthy, weeds can grow. Same idea with cancer—it can thrive in an environment that’s out of balance.
So, even if you’re cancer-free, the question becomes: what kind of environment is your body creating?
Let’s say you have low thyroid function, high blood sugar, difficulty detoxing, or even low vitamin D—these are all things that can increase your cancer risk. (Yes, even a simple vitamin D deficiency can be a factor.) The goal is to help your body become a place where cancer doesn’t want to stick around.
And here’s an important point: cancer isn’t just about one organ. For example, breast cancer is not just a disease of the breast. The problem is not just the breasts. It’s about your whole inner system—your “terrain,” as we like to call it. That includes everything from your metabolism to your stress levels to how well your body handles toxins.
Dr. Nasha Winters, ND, coined the term “the Terrain Ten”—ten key areas of health that play a big role in cancer development:
🧬 Epigenetics
🔥 Inflammation
🛡 Immune Health
💤 Stress & Mental Health
🦠 Microbiome
⚖️ Hormones
🧪 Environmental Toxicants
🫀 Metabolic Health
🧠 Psychological Well-being
🩸 Angiogenesis (blood vessel formation)
By focusing on these factors, you can create environment that reduces the risk of cancer and supports their overall well-being.
Through a series of articles I will discuss each of the factors. Let’s start with epigenetics and metabolic health.
Epigenetics: Your Genes Are Not the Boss of You
Your DNA doesn’t have the final say—how your genes act is largely influenced by your environment, diet, stress, and even sleep. This is what we mean by “epigenetics.” Epigenetics is the layer that sits “on top” of our genes and determines how they are used.
There’s a process called methylation (a fancy word for how your body switches genes on and off) that depends heavily on certain nutrients—especially folate (vitamin B9). If you’ve heard of the MTHFR gene mutation (about 60% of people have it), you know it can make it harder for your body to produce folate, which means methylation—and gene regulation—gets thrown off.
To support methylation, we often recommend folate not folic acid. We also measure patient’s homocysteine levels - a marker for both B9 and B12 vitamin status and inflammation. When homocysteine is high, it’s not just a red flag for cancer risk—it’s also linked to heart disease. So look at that – homocysteine management is helpful for cancer and cardiovascular health. What a thought – it’s almost like our body’s systems are connected or something ;)
Metabolic Health: It’s More Than Just Weight
When we say “metabolic health,” we’re talking about how your body processes energy—how it handles blood sugar, fat storage, and hormones.
A few key things we assess:
🔹 Fasting insulin
🔹 Hemoglobin A1c (a 3-month snapshot of your blood sugar)
🔹 Cholesterol levels (HDL, LDL, triglycerides)
🔹 Blood pressure
🔹 Waist size (belly fat tells us a lot about internal inflammation)
Why does this matter for cancer?
Because high blood sugar and insulin resistance don’t just lead to diabetes—they also fuel inflammation and weaken your immune system. That’s not a combo you want when trying to prevent cancer (or anything chronic, really). Pre-diabetes isn’t just a warning sign for diabetes—it’s also linked to an increased risk for several types of cancer. That’s why catching and addressing blood sugar imbalances early is so important.
Even if you’re just here to improve your energy, lose a little weight, or clear brain fog—working on your metabolic health is a great place to start. We’re not just reducing diabetes risk—we’re actively lowering cancer risk, too.
You don’t have to wait for a diagnosis to get serious about your health. Prevention is powerful. And it starts with understanding what your body needs before something goes wrong.
