| Breast Cancer Awareness Month,* sadly, has | | | | decisions about what we use as our medicine. Modern |
| become a time of increasing awareness not of the | | | | science has increasingly confirmed the veracity of the |
| preventable causes of breast cancer, but of the | | | | Hippocratean phrase: "let food be thy medicine," and |
| breast cancer industry's insatiable need to both raise | | | | until a prescription is required to obtain and consume |
| money for research into a pharmaceutical cure, and | | | | organic food, we have quite an amazing arsenal at |
| to promote its primary means of "prevention": early | | | | our disposal. |
| detection via x-ray mammography. | | | | 1) Cruciferous Vegetables, such as broccoli, kale, |
| On first account, a pharmaceutical "cure" is as unlikely | | | | collards, cabbage and cauliflower contain a variety of |
| as it is oxymoronic. Drugs do not cure disease | | | | powerful anti-cancer phytochemicals. The |
| anymore than bullets cure war. Beneath modern | | | | isothiocynanate sulfurane and the glucosinolate |
| medicine's showy display of diagnostic contraptions, | | | | indole-3 carbinol, in particular, have demonstrated |
| heroic "life-saving" procedures, and an armory of | | | | significant in vitro and in vivo activity against breast |
| exotic drugs of strange origin and power, it is always | | | | cancer. Large population studies have demonstrated |
| the body's ability to heal itself - beneath the pomp | | | | that those who are in the top quarter percentile of |
| and circumstance - that is truly responsible for | | | | cruciferous vegetable consumption have 50% less |
| medicine's apparent successes. Too often, in spite of | | | | chance of developing breast cancer than those in the |
| what medicine does to "treat" or "save" the body, it | | | | lowest quarter percentile. This sort of risk reduction |
| is the body which against invasive chemical and | | | | is impossible for a drug, and so, it is often played |
| surgical medical interventions, silently treats and saves | | | | down, lest the oxymoronic farce of pharmaceutical |
| itself. | | | | prevention be revealed for what it is. |
| If it were not for the body's truly miraculous | | | | 2) The Estrogen Connection. Most breast cancer is |
| self-healing abilities, and the ceaseless self-correction | | | | estrogen receptor positive. For this reason reducing |
| process that occurs each and every moment within | | | | the effects of endogenously created estrogen, and |
| each and every cell in our bodies, it would die within a | | | | reducing exposure to exogenously created estrogen |
| matter of hours. The mystery is not in how our body | | | | (e.g. dairy consumption, hormone replace therapy) |
| succumbs to cancer; rather the mystery is in how, | | | | and estrogen-mimicking molecules (e.g. the leaching of |
| after years and even decades of chemical exposure | | | | bisphenol-A from plastics, and paraben preservatives |
| and nutrient deprivation our bodies prevail against | | | | in body care products) is crucial in reducing breast |
| cancer for so long. | | | | cancer risk. Supporting estrogen metabolism with the |
| The primary causes of breast cancer: nutritional | | | | indole-3 carbinol in cruciferous vegetables, blocking |
| deficiencies, exposure to environmental toxicity, | | | | the conversion of androgens into estrogen with |
| inflammation, estrogen dominance and the resultant | | | | aromatase inhibiting foods like white button |
| breakdown in genetic integrity and immune | | | | mushrooms and pomegranate, or aromatase inhibiting |
| surveillance, are entirely overlooked by this fixation | | | | herbs like hops, red clover, and grapeseed, and |
| on drug therapy and its would-be "magic bullets." | | | | reducing estradiol binding to breast cell receptors with |
| Billions of dollars are raised and funneled towards drug | | | | flaxseed lignan and the soy isoflavone genistein, are |
| research, when the lowly turmeric plant, the humble | | | | all ways in which natural substances have been |
| cabbage and the unassuming bowl of miso soup may | | | | demonstrated to prevent and inhibit breast cancer. |
| offer far more promise at preventing and treating | | | | 3) Inflammation: the Cox-2 enzyme is |
| breast cancer than all the toximolecular drugs on the | | | | over-expressed in most breast cancers, and plays a |
| market put together. | | | | key role in metastasis. This enzyme's job is to literally |
| When it comes to the breast cancer industry's | | | | burn (oxidize) arachadonic acid, which is its main |
| emphasis on equating "prevention" with "early | | | | source of fuel. This process of combustion results in |
| detection" through x-ray mammography, nowhere is | | | | the production of the pro-inflammatory eicosanoid |
| the inherently pathological ideology of allopathic | | | | known as prostaglandin E2, which is found in high |
| medicine more clearly evident. Not only is the very | | | | levels in malignant breast tumors. This entire |
| ionizing radiation used to discern pathological lesions in | | | | inflammatory cascade depends on the production of |
| breast tissue one of the very risk factors for the | | | | arachadonic acid from the consumption of high levels |
| development of breast cancer, but the identification | | | | of polyunsaturated omega 6 fatty acids found in all |
| of the word "prevention" with "early detection," is a | | | | of those "healthy" grains, seeds and beans (e.g. soy, |
| disingenuous way of saying that all we can do to | | | | peanut) we've been told to consume by public and |
| prevent breast cancer is to detect its inevitable | | | | private health organizations. It is excess omega 6 |
| presence sooner than would be possible without this | | | | fatty acid consumption, unopposed by sufficient |
| technology. | | | | levels of the omega 3 fatty acids, that literally |
| If women succumb to the idea of prevention as | | | | provides the fuel that cancer ultimately feeds off of. |
| doing nothing but waiting for the detection of the | | | | 4) The Problem with Calcium: Women are told to |
| disease, many will find a similarly deranged logic | | | | consume massive amounts of fossilized calcium/chalk |
| reemerge later when the self-fulfilling prophecy of | | | | in order to prevent osteoporosis, despite the fact |
| prevention-through-doing-nothing is fulfilled and | | | | that there is absolutely no evidence demonstrating |
| "treatment" is now required. "Treatment," when not | | | | that thinning and porous bones are caused by a |
| strictly surgical, involves the use of very powerful | | | | limestone deficiency. Where does all this calcium go? |
| chemicals and high doses of ionizing radiation which | | | | The body in the attempt to protect itself from |
| "poison" the cancer cells. The obvious problem with | | | | biologically inappropriate forms of calcium shunts |
| these approaches is that the application of either | | | | excess into the bone, where through stimulating the |
| form of death energy is not suitably selective, and in | | | | bone-building cells (osteoblasts) to replicate |
| the long run, many women die sooner from the side | | | | prematurely, the replicative potential (i.e. the fixed |
| effects of toximolecular "therapy" than from the | | | | number of replication cycles available to the |
| cancer itself. | | | | osteoblasts throughout one's lifetime) is prematurely |
| Why is the obvious question never asked: if | | | | exhausted. Although this may contribute to the |
| exposure to the genotoxic and immune system | | | | production of denser bone earlier in life, the bone |
| disabling effects of chemicals and radiation is | | | | may not be stronger (glass is dense, but structurally |
| causative in breast cancer, then why is blasting the | | | | weak), and the pace of bone formation later in life |
| body with more poisonous chemicals and radiation | | | | will be outstripped by bone resorption, resulting in |
| considered sound treatment? The answer to this | | | | higher facture rates, which is exactly the case in high |
| question has much more to do with ignorance than it | | | | calcium consuming cultures. |
| does an intentional desire to do harm. But the results | | | | Shunting calcium into the bone as a protective |
| are the same: unnecessary pain, suffering and death. | | | | mechanism is inefficient and results in the elimination |
| Faced with a situation where medieval notions of | | | | of calcium via other channels, e.g. excreting it through |
| prevention and treatment of breast cancer are the | | | | the kidneys, perhaps contributing to the narrowing |
| norm, it is no wonder that when polled over 40% of | | | | and calcification of the artery leading to the kidney |
| women believe they will contract breast cancer | | | | (nephropathy), and calcification within the kidney itself |
| sometime in their life - well over three times their | | | | (kidney stones). The inability to fully rid the body of |
| actual risk. After all, have any of them been given a | | | | excess calcium via the bones or excretion via the |
| sense that there is something they can do to actually | | | | kidneys and bowel may lead to the deposition of |
| prevent their disease other than "watchful waiting"? | | | | calcium crystals in the joints (osteoarthritis) and the |
| Obfuscating the real preventative measures available | | | | arteries (calcification of the fibrous cap on the |
| to women to combat breast cancer, and all cancers | | | | atheroma), and arguably into the soft tissue of |
| for that matter, trusted "authoritative" sources like | | | | breasts. |
| the Susan G. Komen Foundation publish irresponsible | | | | The most common type of breast cancer in |
| statements like this: | | | | American women - mammary ductal carcinoma - is |
| "It is unclear what the exact relationship is between | | | | usually discovered in x-ray mammograms by the |
| eating fruits and vegetables and breast cancer | | | | presence of very small specks of calcium known as |
| risk...little, if any link was found between the two in a | | | | microcalcifications. It is likely that in susceptible |
| pooled analysis that combined data from eight large | | | | individuals limestone (calcium carbonate, and the |
| studies." | | | | various chelate forms: citrate, gluconate, etc) and |
| Have we really come to the point where the | | | | bonemeal supplements (also known as calcium |
| commonsense consumption of fruits and vegetables | | | | phosphorous or calcium hydroxapatite) will not only |
| in the prevention of disease can so matter-of-factly | | | | lead to the calcification of breast tissue, but may |
| be called into question? Do we really need placebo | | | | exert proliferative effects on that tissue. This theory |
| controlled, clinical trials to prove beyond a shadow of | | | | has gained support by a Queensland researcher, Won |
| a doubt that our bodies can benefit from the | | | | Jae Lee, who has identified a mechanism by which |
| phytonutrients and antioxidants in fruits and | | | | excess calcium acts as a mitogen (i.e. stimulating cell |
| vegetables in the prevention of cancer? | | | | division) capable of signaling breast cells to proliferate |
| Examples like these make it increasingly apparent | | | | uncontrollably. By inhibiting the calcium signaling Lee |
| that orthodox medicine, and the world view it | | | | was able to dramatically block the growth of these |
| represents, are approaching a theoretical end-time | | | | cancers. Although these findings do not prove calcium |
| perhaps most accurately described as Pharmageddon. | | | | supplements cause breast cancer, it raises the |
| Within the horizon of this perspective vitamins are | | | | possibility that changing the amount and type of |
| considered toxic, fruits and vegetables simply a | | | | calcium in the diet may have profound effects on |
| source of caloric content (a poor one, at that), and | | | | reducing breast cancer risk. |
| drugs are understood as the only legitimate and for | | | | Numerous other natural substances have |
| that matter, legal, way to combat disease. Are we | | | | demonstrated profound activity against breast |
| really at the tipping point, or is there still hope? | | | | cancer, including but not limited to: vitamin D, |
| Thanks to thousands of scientific studies extant | | | | melatonin, DHEA, black cohosh, red clover, skullcap, |
| today on the therapeutic effects of foods, herbs and | | | | cranberry, cats claw, grapeseed, inositol |
| spices on breast health, we still have a fighting | | | | hexaphosphate, walnuts and many more. |
| chance to let sanity and good sense inform our | | | | |