October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and along with the rest of us, I’ve been watching the incredibly positive results of superhuman efforts to raise awareness and money in search for the cure.
In the past 20 years, the most success surrounding breast cancer has come from the commitment to raise money for research and the incredible tenacity and dedication of women who have suffered with the disease or just plain care.
Women are wonderful human beings. Our commitment and passion allow us to give selflessly and completely. When we believe in a cause, we make things happen. Breast cancer is one of the places women are showing who they are.
I have been taking care of women for 30+ years and breast cancer has become our nemesis. Although statistically we don’t primarily die of breast cancer, we obsess about it, we fear it more than anything else, even death.
This fear is so big and so strong that it often turns us into victims and that is not a good position to be in.
When we look at the breast cancer situation we are faced with a huge dilemma. In spite of hundreds of millions of dollars going into academic research for more than 20 years, we have no cause nor do we have a cure.
More women die of side effects of chemotherapy and radiation than of the actual cancer. Those are the scarier facts, if you ask me.
Integrative and alternative medical therapies address prevention as the number one way to eliminate breast cancer. It makes sense to me. I want to prevent any disease I can prevent. I want to teach everyone I come across how to live without fear. Prevention actually allows us not to live in fear.
Unfortunately the concept of eliminating fear has not yet made it to the mainstream.
I become uncomfortable when I watch TV and see 20 and thirty year old women talking about their experience with breast cancer. That is enough to scare any young woman. Why are these women getting the cancer?
Could it have something to do with our changing environment? Stress? Toxins? Radiation? Diet? Genetics?
Most women who are diagnosed with breast cancer are over 50. They are mostly menopausal and have lost their hormones that serve as disease protectors and youth extenders when we produce them and they are in balance. They also may be women who have been on synthetic hormone replacement therapies known to cause breast cancer.
If we look at breast cancer as a disease of aging we know it is caused by inflammation caused by wear and tear, oxidative stress, toxins, drugs, HRT, genetic predisposition and too many years of our terrible eating habits and sedentary lifestyles. So we know what causes breast cancer in most of us older women.
With this knowledge, doesn’t it follow that we should focus our energies and finances on research and education about prevention? Shouldn’t we be stressing the importance of healthy diet, supplements, exercise, sleep and stress lowering tools as a primary focus to us and our young women?
Yes, a mammogram may be helpful after 40 or sooner... Regular check-ups are good to keep you aware and in a great relationship with a caring doctor who will listen to you. Medicine is there to serve you and should do so without intimidation and abuse. Overdoing testing or biopsying every lump in your breast will not protect you and is likely to harm you. It’s never too late to change your diet, start exercising, getting your hormones in balance, learning to say no to toxic relationships and focusing on sleeping 8 hours a night.
Prevention is even more important for our young women. If we teach our daughters by example from the very beginning to avoid eating junk, drink less alcohol, eliminate soda, do not allow them to take birth control pills or any other synthetic hormones, help them develop a healthy self- image, exercise regularly and sleep, we will be doing them a much bigger favor in the long run- we just may eliminate breast cancer! I don’t think any of us need any study to prove the truthfulness behind this statement.
Instead of limiting our focus on those who have gotten cancer and died or were fortunate and survived, or waiting for the next woman to get the dreaded diagnosis, let’s spend serious time and serious money on those who should not and will not get cancer if they learn how to prevent it.
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