Breast Cancer Deception Month

October is breast cancer awareness month which, as the name suggests is about raising awareness of the disease. But most people are already aware of breast cancer. The National Breast Cancer Foundation wants to remind us to take the steps to detect the disease in early stages and encourage others to do the same. Which begs the question, why not look for the cause of breast cancer and teach people how to prevent the disease? Answer: because it is not profitable to do so. 

After decades of research, we are still no closer to finding a cure for cancer. Fortunately, there are scientists who are not funded by large corporations who are looking into causes for the disease. In his ground-breaking book, “The Dark Side of Breast Cancer (Un)Awareness Month”, Sayer Ji writes:

Sadly, Breast Cancer Awareness Month is a time of increasing awareness not of the preventable causes of breast cancer, but of the breast cancer industry's insatiable need to both raise money for research into a pharmaceutical cure, and to promote its primary means of "prevention": early detection via x-ray mammography.

On first account, a pharmaceutical "cure" is as unlikely as it is oxymoronic. Drugs do not cure disease any more than bullets cure war. Beneath modern medicine's showy display of diagnostic contraptions, heroic "life-saving" procedures, and an armory of exotic drugs of strange origin and power, it is always the body's ability to heal itself – beneath the pomp and circumstance – that is truly responsible for medicine's apparent successes. Too often, in spite of what medicine does to "treat" or "save" the body, it is the body which against invasive chemical and surgical medical interventions, silently treats and saves itself.

… The mystery is not in how our body succumbs to cancer; rather the mystery is in how, after years and even decades of chemical exposure and nutrient deprivation our bodies prevail against cancer for so long.

While the focus on drug therapy remains, the primary causes of breast cancer are continually overlooked. These include: nutritional deficiencies, exposure to environmental toxicity, inflammation, estrogen dominance and the resulting breakdown in genetic integrity and immune surveillance.

What to avoid:

• Substances that mimic estrogen in the body - Many metals are estrogen mimics, making them potentially dangerous in the human body because of their ability to combine with estrogen receptors, thus replacing natural estrogen. Aluminum, used in anti-perpirants, is one of these estrogen mimics.
• Most commercial personal care products - including shampoo, toothpaste and mouthwash - contain carcinogens, pesticides, reproductive toxins, endocrine disruptors, plasticizers, degreasers, and surfactants.

The majority of people wash their hair with products containing these toxic ingredients: Sodium lauryl sulfate, parabens, and propylene glycol. Parabens are preservatives that mimic estrogen. In cosmetic use, these chemicals have reactions internally. Regulators say they are safe in small doses; however, parabens are absorbed through the skin and are known to bind to the body’s estrogen-receptors, where they encourage breast cancer growth.

Seeking out responsible skin care products is like making healthy food choices. In addition to food, there are healthy alternatives to toxic products. Of course, prevention is not always possible. We need treatments for those who get the disease and research is a necessary part of that solution. My point is that funding is not directed toward finding roots causes and educating the public about cancer prevention. Mammography may not be the best method of prevention; it may actually be one of the causes.

I would like to see more transparency and accountability by companies that take part in breast cancer fundraising, and I encourage consumers to ask critical questions about pink ribbon promotions.

This, and every month, let's do what we can to prevent the breast cancer. We can take steps to avoid toxic substances and look to foods like turmeric, cabbage and miso soup among others. And by all means help raise funds for cancer research. And encourage solutions that are health-promoting not health-damaging.

  

For further reading on the dangers of mammography, see Rethinking Mammograms.