Can Breast Cancer Be Prevented?
By Susun S. Weed
Sometimes it seems that every magazine, newspaper,
radio show, and piece of mail has a headline declaring that every
woman's risk of developing breast cancer is increasing. There is a
numbing feeling of inevitability in these pronouncements. More and
more women think about breast cancer as a when rather than an if.
It's true that there's more breast cancer now than
ever before, that between 1979 and 1986 the incidence of invasive
breast cancer in the United States increased 29 percent among white
women and 41 percent among black women, and incidence of all breast
cancers doubled.
It's true that the percentage of women dying from
breast cancer has remained virtually unchanged over the past 50 years,
and that every 12 minutes throughout the last half of the 20th Century
another woman died of breast cancer.
And it's true that breast cancer is the disease that
women fear more than any other, that breast cancer is the biggest
killer of all women aged 35 to 54, and that of the 2.5 million women
currently diagnosed with breast cancer, half will be dead within ten
years.
These facts frighten me, and they also make me angry.
My studies spanning 25 years and many disciplines have convinced me
that the majority of breast cancers are causally related to the high
levels of radiation and chemicals released into our air, water, soil,
and food over the past 50 years. United States government researchers
estimate that 80 percent of all cancers are environmentally linked.
What can be done? The answer isn't as simple as a
yearly mammogram. That may help detect breast cancer, but it won't
prevent it. To prevent breast cancer we need to take individual and
collective action.
Effective action requires understanding the causes
of breast cancer and what decreases breast cancer risk. But there
are few conclusive answers to these queries, partly because most research
focuses on eliminating breast cancer after - not before - it occurs.
Science has validated so few risk factors for breast cancer that 70
percent of the women diagnosed with breast cancer have "no identifiable
risk factors."
Unfortunately, our sex, age, reproductive history,
family history, exposure to radiation (such as fallout from above-ground
atomic bomb tests), race, culture, and height are beyond our control.
When we're told these are the only risk factors, we can be left with
feelings of hopelessness and panic.
But when we include risk factors that are considered
"not well substantiated" - but which are clearly contributing
to breast cancer incidence - including ingestion of and exposure to
prescription hormones, hormone-mimicking organochlorines, prescription
drugs, petrochemicals, and electromagnetic fields, as well as unwise
lifestyle choices such as smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol immoderately,
wearing a bra, or not exercising, then we can find many ways to lower
breast cancer risk. No need to panic.
We can help prevent breast cancer on an individual
basis by buying organically grown food, filtering our water, building
powerful immunity, living wisely and vigorously, being in touch with
our breasts, using natural remedies for menopausal problems, and by
paying attention to our Wise Healer Within.
But there's a limit to the control that any one woman
has over her exposure to petrochemicals, radiation, and other environmental
cancer-inciters. Limiting the production and discharge of substances
that initiate and promote cancer is collective work.
When our individual acts are combined with the acts
of others, we can achieve the envisioned social change. For example,
as I saw more and more evidence that chlorine residues from papermaking
contribute to breast cancer, I began to ask for chlorine-free paper
from my book printer.
They went from amazement and puzzlement at my request
to contracting with a new paper supplier who can provide them with
elemental chlorine-free paper. (I'm not the only one asking, you see.)
Whether you think your risk of breast cancer is high,
low, or average, there are things you can do, individually and with
others, to help yourself stay free of breast cancer and to help stop
the epidemic of breast cancer too. (What is your risk of breast cancer?
See "Risk Assessment," page 317, to educate your guess.)
Since 1950 the incidence of breast cancer in the U.S.
has increased by 53 percent, according to Nancy Brinker, chair of
President Clinton's Special Commission on Breast Cancer.
If you liked this excerpt by Susun S. Weed, you
will want Breast Cancer? Breast Health! available from www.ashtreepublishing.com
Susun Weed PO Box 64 Woodstock, NY 12498 Fax: 1-845-246-8081
Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has
garnered an international reputation for her groundbreaking lectures,
teachings, and writings on health and nutrition. She challenges conventional
medical approaches with humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic
knowledge of herbal medicine. Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated
and enthusiastic lectures are engaging and often profoundly provocative.
Susun is one of America's
best-known authorities on herbal medicine and natural approaches to
women's health. Her four best-selling books are recommended by expert
herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and cherished by
millions of women around the world. Learn more at www.susunweed.com
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