Natural Holistic Health

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month…. Complete with pink t-shirts, pens, stickers, and you name it. What are we supposed to be aware of? I went to the official website http://www.breastcancerawareness.com. There you can order all of your pink stuff. How is this going to save anyone’s life? I looked under prevention and found the following information: ”Talk to your doctor about methods of preventing cancer that might be effective for you.” Upon closer inspection, I found surgery and drugs offered. How is this prevention? What is offered is LOTS of information about self breast exams and annual mammograms.

Here’s a fact: EARLY DETECTION IS NOT PREVENTION. That’s right…. Sitting around waiting year after year between your mammograms for the lump to appear is NOT preventing anything. In fact, it leaves you frightened and helpless. This is NOT healthy.

The facts are that breast cancer is one of the most treatable but more over, PREVENTABLE kinds of cancer despite what the official website states. Statistics vary upon which reference noted, but well over 90% of women survive. It is impossible to state how many women prevent it… because it never happens.

You can do more than buy pink tick tacks or a pink ribbon. You can become educated. All breast cancer is hormone dependent. Specifically, it is estrogen dependent. Women who have had their ovaries removed simply don’t get breast cancer. (http://www.cancermonthly.com/cancer_basics/breast.asp) So is estrogen a bad thing? Certainly not. It allows women to be young, beautiful, sexual, and FERTILE. Estrogen is one of the hormones that allow us to have children. This certainly doesn’t mean to run out and get your ovaries removed. It means that taking a close look at where all of your estrogen is coming from and how it is being stored in your body is important.

First of all, not all estrogen is created equally. There are two kinds of estrogen (to keep it simple). One is a good kind, and the other is not (kind of like cholesterol). Science has yet to figure exactly how it works. What they have found is that blocking all cells from being receptive to estrogen prevents some cancer (but can create others). (http://www.nytimes.com/specials/women/warchive/970624_0906.html) Isn't this like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire? This is not my idea of cancer prevention.

In the healthy world, we know that estrogen is essential to life. We know that all healing comes from being in balance. We also know that if you want to get well, you don’t study sick people. You study healthy people. You look to countries who don’t have high breast cancer rates and find out what they are doing and why it works. What has been shown over and over is that there are some natural foods that eliminate the effects of “bad estrogen” or change the cells reception to it. They are broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, turnips, kale, green cabbage and mustard greens. Turmeric (also called curcumin), green tea, selenium, CoQ10, Melatonin, palm oil, rice bran, barley oil also have shown protective benefits in that they keep your cells healthy and only sensitive to the good estrogen.

If you knew that Broccoli costs $1.99 a pound and could be served with dinner, who would choose to have their ovaries removed or be subjected to the unknown dangers of drugs like tamoxifen (the newest in breast cancer protection)? The cost differential is substantial. Surgery or drug therapy can be in the tens of thousands of dollars. Then there are the side effects. Broccoli: none. Drug Therapy: blood clots (thrombosis), endometrial cancer (cancer of the uterine lining), abnormal growth of uterine tissue (endometriosis), stroke, fertility issues, and hair and nail thinning. http://www.breastcancer.org/tre_sys_tamox_sideEff.html

Do the math! Are we trying to prevent one disease or create another? I’m going with the $1.99 lb broccoli.

Now, is all of this trouble coming from the estrogen that is produced in the ovaries? NOPE. Women (and men) are getting estrogen from many other sources: Birth Control methods, Hormone replacement therapy, Soy products, commercial meat and dairy products. Yep. That’s right. Estrogens are being used to increase profitability of commercial farming…. http://www.health-science.com/diet.html.

http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/soydangers.html

http://www.mercola.com/2000/aug/20/soy_dangers.htm

What is very sad about this is that the real dangers of surgery, drug treatment, false health claims about soy, hidden hormones in our food are not included in the National Breast Cancer Awareness campaign.

Let’s get “aware”.

Women who get well and stay well from this disease and so many others have the following things in common:

• They perform an annual comprehensive detoxification program.
• They avoid all sugars, white foods, artificial foods, junk food, food additives and preservatives.
• They avoid meat and dairy products that are commercially produced.
• They consume little or no animal or fat products
• They eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and whole grains
• They exercise regularly
• They don’t believe hype or believe in fear
• They make happiness and gratitude a daily part of their life.

I am grateful that we only celebrate a disease 1 month out of the year. I would like to celebrate how wonderful women and men are for the other 11 months. We can wear any color we like, live wonderful lives and learn to be the very best we can be. Eat your broccoli and celebrate your greatest health and vitality.