Wellness

[OhioAngel]

Wonder can it be from they food eaten?  Cleaning products that are toxic?  Skin care that is toxic?  Things like cheap plastics that contain chemicals?

[Laura14]

@Zhills  That's correct. Your body's cells have a cycle of grow, develop, die.  Cancer is essentially that cycle being disrupted due to a variety of factors.  Instead of dying, they keep growing and usually at a faster than normal rate.  Haywire is a perfect word for it.

@sidsmom  I've seen you post this many times.  I applaud nutrition as the first defense against most of our health issues today but one diet fitting all I disagree with. 

I am strong supporter of fat (monounsaturated fats).  Your brain is mostly fat and should not be starved of the right kind. I don't think dementia is preferable to cancer.

And cholesterol in the right amounts is absolutely necessary for your body's health.  Cholesterol actually plasters your arteries after they've been scratched to bits usually by the sugars we eat.  Drop the sugar not the fat and watch your levels come down significantly if this a concern.    

[Laura14]

@OhioAngel  Absolutely.  There are a lot of secondary cancers caused by toxicity.  Robin Roberts' blood cancer was due to her chemotherapy for breast cancer.  Marie Curie died because they didn't know at the time radioactive chemicals were cancer causing and she handled them all the time.  

[Zhills]

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@Laura14 wrote:

@OhioAngel  Absolutely.  There are a lot of secondary cancers caused by toxicity.  Robin Roberts' blood cancer was due to her chemotherapy for breast cancer.  Marie Curie died because they didn't know at the time radioactive chemicals were cancer causing and she handled them all the time.  

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Does chemo actually 'cause' cancer or does it just destroy your immune system's ability to fight it????

Not arguing, just interested in your opinion.

[seaBreeze]

Annabelle,  

All women in my immediate family have either passed away or been diagnosed with BC, so for me, can I do something about the 80% that I might be able to change.   Since 1999, I have been following the advice of a bio-chemist who discusses the negative effects of:

Hydrogenated Fats

Frequent mammograms

High Fat luncheon meats

Wine 

Something odd about the hype on plant-based diets, just yesterday in the newspaper it mentioned this it is the cause of heart issues in dogs due to lack of sufficient meat in their diet (taurine).  And with humans, low taurine levels have been found in patients with anxiety, depression, hypertension, hypothyroidism, gout, infertility, obesity, kidney failure and autism, among other conditions.

[Laura14]

@Zhills  It actually can do both.  Chemo kills cells good and bad.  It can also mutate a good cell's cycle and cause it to not die thereby creating a secondary cancer.   Rare but it happens a la Robin Roberts.

Radiation or the radioactive element within chemotherapy drugs is why you see people handling radioactivity in haz mat suits or why you wear a shield when being x-rayed.  X-rays are lower forms of radiation than what is normally given in chemotherapy or the targeted radiation given to some cancer patients so no need to run screaming from your next dental appointment.           

[Trinity11]

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@OhioAngel wrote:

Wonder can it be from they food eaten?  Cleaning products that are toxic?  Skin care that is toxic?  Things like cheap plastics that contain chemicals?

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I had breast cancer in 1990 and have never had a recurrence. My physician told me back then and continues to tell me that research has never really determined an exact cause. She continues to warn me not to buy into conspiracy theories or quack dietary advice. She is with Sloan Kettering..

My good friend died from breast cancer and never ate meat. She was the healthiest cook I have ever known. Just goes to show cause and effect does not always mean a cure is possible yet. Everything is still conjecture and we need a lot more research...

[vsm]

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@Annabellethecat66 wrote:

I've been astounded by the number of people I've been hearing about who've recently died from breast cancer.

My late husband's family has had so many people die from it, I've literally lost count.

I have 3 adult daughters who've had all of the tests offered now and are on top of it.

No one way down the line has had breast cancer.  It seems like the woman live almost forever (100, 99, 98, 84 and so on).  

I thought this was so much further advanced.  My sister-in-law is now the last in my late husband's family to have been diagnosed with it.  It has spread to her brain, her liver and her lung.

This is a terrible disease that is taking so many young women.  I think we should be hearing more about it.

It seems like a few years ago information about it was everywhere.  Now not much at all.

I'm curious, what are your ideas about this?  Is there much in the news about it where you live?

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I'm sorry to hear your family has been hit so hard by bc.  A few years ago, I read that in the 1940s, the incidence of bc in women was about 1 in 22.  By the 2000s, it was up to 1 in 8 or 9. I think we have to ask ourselves what the biggest lifestyle changes in those decades have been.  The increased used of hormones for purposes of birth control (especially at younger and younger ages), fertility treatments, acne, menopause symptoms, etc., has been identified as one of the likeliest culprits.  That makes sense when you consider that the World Health Organization has long designated those hormones as a Class 1 carcinogen -- right up there with asbestos and nicotene.  I've never understood why women who make sure to exercise, get their tests, and wouldn't dream of buying anything but hormone-free meat and dairy products seem to have no qualms about ingesting hormones directly, as if they were vitamins.  A quick online search gives lots of info on the connection between hormones and bc.  (Just discount the "research" done by the pharmaceutical companies that produce the hormones...)

[Laura14]

 @Zhills  And I'll also add that as far as your immune system (which I am assuming you mean our white blood cells), they do not attack cancer which is why cancer is so deadly. 

The cancer cells are your own cells misbehaving which is why cancer goes undetected by our own immune system.  The blood and bone marrow cancers do "kill" white blood cells only in the sense that they attack the part of our body, the bone marrow, which is where we make these cells so that none or very few are produced.   

I believe it is the stem cell therapies that are now "reprogramming" are own defensive cells to recognize and attack cancer cells in the recent clinicals for certain types. 

As always, please feel free to ask your doctor or an expert.  I am offering what I have recently been taught while obtaining my license in pharmacology.  We need to know disease states to understand how and why the drugs work.      

[luvdoodles]

It really makes me sick to think that there are better mamogram machines out there but the insurance companies have the final say on whether we can have one. Think about how many more lives would be saved by better early detection. 

I had breast cancer over 20 years ago, I was in my late 30's. I felt a lump but the dr could not. He ordered a mamogram and nothing showed. A follow up a year later, lump was still there, he could now feel it. Ordered an ultra sound and low and behold he found it. I went over a year with this growing in me, which resulted in me needing surgery, 6 months of chemo and 6 weeks of radiation. Good news is that I am still here.

Last Fall I was diagnosed with tongue cancer. Major 10 hour surgery to reach the tumor which had spread to a lymphnode in my neck. My whole left side of my face was cut up and 3 slices across my whole neck to reach the node. Long recovery. Ended up with a lot of

 permanent painful nerve damage. Did Chemo and radiation, the big guns. Well it has come back and has spread to nodes again and each lung. Appointment tomorrow to see how my surgeon and oncologist want to handle it this time. Doesn't sound promising according to them. I am so scared. I have been lucky my insurance company has not given me any problems yet. I have had so many scans and MRI's. 

I feel for all of us going through this and their beloved family members. Cancer sucks. Plain and simple. 

I would like to add that I lost a friend in July to lung cancer and my very best friend has on about 3 months to live now. She has been batteling this for almost a year now. It just has been a horrible sad Summer.