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Enough of the Grim Statistics
Breast Cancer. The very words strike fear into women everywhere. And for good reason — according to the National Cancer Institute’s factsheet, the 2008 estimates indicated that 182,460 women were diagnosed with and 40,480 women died of breast cancer.1 That translates into 1 out of 8 women who will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their life time.
With such alarming statistics, it’s even more tragic that most women just wait until a self exam or mammogram shows an unusual lump in the breast. By then the cancer has taken hold and it becomes a life or death battle for survival.
That’s why I did a double take when I read Jim La Valle’s article, Breast Cancer — Real Prevention that appeared in the November 4 issue of Total Health Breakthroughs. Jim’s advice can save countless lives if it is read and understood by women everywhere.
As Jim explains in his article, most breast cancer is determined by how estrogen is metabolized in the body and whether it is balanced by adequate levels of progesterone. Knowing this and taking the appropriate steps means that you may never be involved in this fight for your life, because with the proper testing and nutrition the cancer will never have the opportunity to develop in the first place.
In brief, here’s what you need to know and then pass on to your mother, your sisters, and your friends.
Have your estradiol, estrogen metabolites, and progesterone levels tested. If you have a progesterone deficiency, you are at least 4 times more likely to develop breast cancer. If testing shows you are deficient, there are several bio-identical , not synthetic, progesterone creams available without a prescription that can be recommended by a healthcare professional.
Estrogen testing will let you know whether your body is breaking down estradiol, your primary estrogen, into safe or dangerous metabolites. For instance, 2OH, a metabolite of estradiol actually inhibits breast cancer, but 4OH and 16OH increase your risks, so you don’t want to see those levels elevated.
The good news is that you can encourage your body to make more good estrogen while getting rid of the bad stuff simply by maintaining healthy gut flora and modifying your diet to include more antioxidant-rich and omega-3 foods and fewer inflammation-causing carbs. As Laura explains in the same issue, the insulin resistance and inflammation these foods cause significantly increase your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and breast cancer.
You might not know that your thyroid plays a role in breast health too. If you have an underactive thyroid or thyroid antibodies (autoimmune thyroiditis), your body may not be making enough natural killer cells —the immune cells that search out cancer cells and destroy them. That’s why it’s vitally important to have your thyroid regularly checked too.
This brings me to an important question: Were you aware that it was in your power to dramatically reduce your risk of breast cancer by balancing your hormones and eating a nutritious diet? If you’re like me, the answer is no. I believed it was fate or genetics that determined whether or not I would be faced with a breast cancer crisis.
And like millions of women, I thought that a yearly mammogram (and waiting for the bad news) was the most I could do to protect myself from this horrific disease. But not anymore. Thanks to what I learned from Jim LaValle, hormone and thyroid testing will now be part of my yearly checkup.
I can’t even imagine how many lives could have been saved if women were properly educated about real breast cancer prevention by the medical establishment and media. But we don’t need to wait any longer. We can carry this message to women everywhere, and together we can reverse these killer statistics. Let’s put breast cancer behind us once and for all.
Reference
- http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/breast.html
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Tags: breast cancer, cancer, estradiol, estrogen, thyroid
I am definitely going to share this with all my girlfriends.Knowledge makes us strong.
I discovered this information years ago, and it changed my life. I hope more women read up on this issue and realize they have the power to use these tools to improve their health and even prevent disease. My husband and I both use hormone testing and supplementation with bioidentical hormones to balance our hormones, and we are firm believers in the benefits! It takes good nutrition, exercise, lifestyle changes and hormone balance to create optimal health, and it is within everyone’s power to have it. Thank you for this article.
Thank you for this information. The more that gets published the better. I have been talking about this for at least four years to anyone who might listen. It is a challenging prospect - spreading the word - but so very important.
what levels are healthy? what should the numbers be?
I have heard much about this but still can’t figure out what is correct and what to ask my doctor.
Thanks for your wonderful message, I am surly going to share this with all my friends and relatives, thanks!
Good luck trying to get a doctor to actually go along with it. It’s changing, but not very fast. And I’ve argued with at least a couple of docs about the dangers of the mammmogram. I get a thermography–more accurate, not invasive.
Amy
You have no idea how happy I was with your article on Breast Cancer Prevention. I had every female patient in my practice off synthetic hormones, and on “natural” progesterone. The drug companies hated me and probably still do!
All my patients were followed with sonograms as well as mammograms, since mammograms are not all that accurate. While I was in practice these were all covered by insurance companies. It comforts me to know that I did what I was supposed to do.
I am retired now because Insurance companies are deciding who needs what. It is intolerably frustrating for me as a physician to leave decisions of this magnitude to a “cost effective” system when my training is “patient effective” Medicine. I find it almost criminal that all patients, not just women, depend on “coverage”.
Other cancers are also preventable. You remember Gilda Radner Radner, a young girl, and the governor of Connecticut, Ella Grasso, a mature woman, both died of ovarian cancer.
One of the primary reasons for these deaths is the difficulty in early diagnosis. The symptoms are varied and ovarian cancer is not suspected. For this reason every female, age 35 and up or earlier, if there was a family history, had a sonogram of the ovaries in my office. By examining the ovaries in this way a small lesion could be detected and removed before the spread when it is too late.
My own niece was being treated for “indigestion”. Luckily she was seen by a superb physician. With the right diagnostic tools, he found it early and she is well, thriving and beautiful.
Melanie you have served your community well with this article and as you might be able to tell, I have lots to say in this regard. It is very disappointing to see how insurance reimbursement codes have taken the place of real medicine.
I’m creating a web site where I can supply information on prevention of many illnesses, not just cancer. Since I’m only a doctor, and not an internet techie, it’s taking forever. I had asked someone in ETR for help in setting up laboratory facilities for the readers. Rather than depend on insurance I hope to make the testing reasonable enough so it would be easier to pay out of pocket. Making these tests available to the public would give them the specific information to bring to their doctors, and avoid office fees. It would also help and save time for their physicians so they can get on to treating the patient.
Insurance companies can’t stop that. They pay for life-threatening events not preventing them.
If anyone is interested in helping with the tech involved in web sites, I would love to hear from you.
The website Alfabalance.com needs more work so please contact me at DrAlfano@Alfabalance.com or DrAlfano@gmail.com.
Melissa, great job!
The article stated that a deficiency of progesterone was a marker for breast cancer, and that some metabolites of estrogen were protective and others stimulated the growth of breast cancer. I did a PubMed search with keywords “estrogen metabolites cancer risk factors” and came up with progesterone abstracts as well. But progestin and progesterone increased breast cancer, not decreased it. Progesterone is protective against uterin cancer, but increases the risk in breast cancer. I need clarification here. Marilyn Johnson, RPh
Is it not the ratio, the balance, between the different types of estrogen and progesterone that is vital. Thank you. This is a very interesting article/
Thank you for this article. I had heard different theories on the balances, etc. but never really understood them until now. Thank you again
thanks a million for this wonderful message and hope and pray that all women including men read about this article so that they can educate their families,friends and the uneducated ones too.
This is an eye opener: very interesting and informative. May people most especially women take heed
Complete genetic nutrition will also help for sure. Btw I was intrigued to know that gut flora influences hormonal balance.
I just want to thank you for this website and information, it could be life saving, i will recommend this site to all my friends and future clients once my site is up and running. Once again this is a jewel and thank you so much for being concerned for the good of mankind. Ms Vee
Thanks a million for this article i’m still a bit hazy about it so i’m off to question my gyno Keep this important info coming it’s superb!
The info makes sense but if I have to convince my GYN I´ll have to mention facts supported by studies, results, statistics etc. Who is Jim LaValle ? keep info coming! Maria