Archive for the "breast cancer" Tag

Breast amputation, medically known as mastectomy, seems a radical measure to prevent breast cancer. As an emergency room physician in my early years of doctoring I hated amputations the most, even if it was an accidental traumatic loss of a portion of a finger. Amputation seems so final. No hope of regrowth or regeneration of that body part.

So, as you well know by now I have always looked for the prevention, for the underlying causes of a disease process.

And that’s what epigenetics is all about, the factors that influence your genes for a healthy or unhealthy … Read the rest

It’s all in the news. A very well-known lady decided to have her breasts amputated because she carries the gene for breast and ovarian cancer. She has been quoted as saying,

“My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman.”

If those statistics are true, then maybe she made a good decision.

But… can any doctor really give that precise a diagnosis based on genetic testing?

Has anyone considered the concept of epigenetics … Read the rest

What Do Red Wine and Peanut Butter Have in Common?

Hmm… red wine and peanut butter don’t even go together very well do they. But they both contain a compound called resveratrol that can help prevent breast cancer.

Dr. Eleanor Rogan, PhD, professor at the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center; and Chairwoman of the Department of Environmental, Agricultural, and Occupational Health studied the effects of resveratrol on the development of breast cancer.

Since breast cancer develops in stages, finding a substance that blocks one of the stages … Read the rest

In my study of medical journal articles I have started collecting the ones that reveal how certain food prevents various diseases so I can share that information with you.

In one way it’s amazing and encouraging to me that main stream medicine is performing research to identify how food affects health and various disease processes.

On the other hand, it’s a bit amusing too since main stream medicine is so far behind what most of us (you and me) have known for at least decades, that is:

Healthy eating produces healthy bodies.

Dr. Price knew that in … Read the rest

Thermography offers another surprising benefit. Not only does it detect breast cancer at very early stages, it can also help prevent the development of breast cancer.

So is the thermography procedure itself therapeutic? No. But thermography can identify hormonal risk factors that play a part in the development of breast cancer.

In a woman’s life the total amount of time that her breasts are exposed to estrogen contributes the greatest to the risk of development of breast cancer. Therefore, the best step in prevention may be normalizing the balance of the hormones in the breast.

Infrared imaging will reveal a … Read the rest

If you missed the prior articles on Mammography Risks, you may review them here:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

And here we are for Dr. Boyce’s conclusions on whether or not the risk of mammograms adding to the development of breast cancer outweigh the benefits.

“Does x-ray mammography put women at an even higher risk of developing a radiation induced breast cancer?

The controversy today surrounding screening of healthy women is not whether the radiation exposures are hazardous, but whether young women, under the age of 50, benefit from mammograms.

A 30 percent reduction in death from breast cancer … Read the rest

The debate over whether having mammograms done yearly increases the risk of developing breast cancer prompted the writing of this series of articles. You may want to review Part 1 and Part 2.

In this article *Dr. Boyce presents more information about the risks of developing breast cancer and comes to his conclusions at the end.

 From Dr. Boyce’s article:

“Common conditions or life style factors that increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer by about 40%:

• Never being pregnant or not having children (nulliparity)
• A very early age at first menstrual period (under age 11 years at menarche)

In part 1 of this series on the risks of mammography adding to the cause of breast cancer we looked at the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation that we might be exposed to in Dr. John D. Boyce’s article Ionizing Radiation and Breast Cancer Risk on the Cornell University web site at:

http://envirocancer.cornell.edu/factsheet/physical/fs52.radiation.cfm#mammog

In summary, ionizing radiation exposure comes from medical x-rays and radioactive substances. They are powerful enough to knock an electron off an atom and may cause changes in a cell’s DNA which can lead to cancer.

On the other hand non-ionizing radiation cannot knock an electron … Read the rest