Last night I watched the news channel light up with pictures of Angelina Jolie, and her decision to remove her breast tissue, triggered by her fear of dying from cancer, as her mother did. I am not too surprised at her fear-based emotional reaction, but I am deeply saddened by the medical advice she followed. We (in the functional medicine field) do know what causes cancer, and how to prevent it. Even the statistics do not favor her decision: she is facing a very small chance of getting the cancer in the first place, and natural cancer treatments are having an excellent success rate.
I was going to write my own piece, by my friend and our member Donna Tennant beat me to it. I don’t think I would put it better, except I would not be nearly as tolerant and conciliatory.
I read with great interest and respect Angelina Jolie’s op-ed in the New York Post yesterday on her radical decision to have a pre-emptive double-mastectomy (and reconstructive surgery) to reduce her risks of acquiring, and potentially dying from breast cancer. She made this choice because she has the BRCA1 gene that puts her at high risk and that contributed to her mother’s own death from breast cancer at the age of 56. I applaud her taking charge or her own health and support any woman’s right to determine her own health journey.I am now begging the governments who ultimately control access to much of our medical and social support systems to do the same – take a radical approach to address breast cancer. Here are my suggestions (based on my own breast cancer journey and extensive research) for systemic changes required to reduce cancer occurrences and increase positive outcomes for those with a diagnosis:
• Mandate a reduction in pesticide, hormone and chemical use in our food supply (Israel banned hormones in their milk supply and the countries’ breast cancer rates were cut in half over a 10 year period);
• Invest in increased preventive, non-invasive dental care for people (in a study in Australia 96 out of 100 women who had a breast cancer diagnosis had a root canal within 1-2 years of diagnosis). Healthy gums and teeth are imperative to health in general;
• Invest in affordable counseling and mental health support for people (trauma, particularly sexual trauma, has been linked to breast cancer);
• Stop promoting the medical paradigm currently used for cancer (chemo, radiation and hormone treatment) as evidence clearly indicates it does not work, or does not work to the level that it is promoted. Or at the very least invest in advanced diagnostic measures similar to what Germany has done, where each breast cancer tissue is analyzed to determine its reaction to chemotherapy before mandating the treatment;
• Require all oncologists to provide statistics for comparing treatment to non-treatment to patients not in scientific terminology but by expected life benefit to ensure women understand this before making any treatment decision. (I had to beg for this information);
• Stop the use of mammograms and look for alternatives such as ultrasounds as mammograms have been proven to increase women’s risk of acquiring breast cancer over a 10 year period;
• Address the situational poverty many women face when entering into breast cancer treatments (and for women who began in poverty this is particularly devastating);
• Make alternative options covered by insurance programs;
• Acknowledge that cancer treatments positively impact the GDP while not generating the same positive impact for the patient and that there is a financial benefit to the greater community to have women undertake expensive treatments which may not be effective or have more devastating long term impacts than led to believe;
• Acknowledge that for many of these early-stage breast cancers, no treatment is necessary and many go away on their own.
I realize this is a lot of information and if anyone is interested in the research that backs up each and every one of these claims, please Facebook message me and I would be happy to provide.
The dreadful disease malaria, a disease that has killed more humans than all the wars combined, can finally be defeated. We have an irrefutable proof of this defeat through a test carried out by the Red Cross on the 16th of December 2012 that proves that they have the cure for malaria. The location was Africa, in the country of Uganda, Luuka District.
The test was conducted by the International Red Cross, the Uganda Red Cross, the local health authorities, and other Ugandan scientists and laboratories. Scientific protocol was maintained throughout the 4-day operation. There were doctors to sign off on the blood tests, malaria test strips to show malaria, and official microscope technicians to even verify the number of malaria parasites present in each malaria victim. The microscope technicians have officially identified malaria parasites on a daily basis. Other personnel present were nurses to help the doctors, video technicians, people to serve as observers and various other personnel. Read the rest of this post
You would think that with weight management being the top health concern of most Americans, and with billions of dollars changing hands in this market segment every year, that there would be more research and less confusion. But under the hood, so to speak, is a nasty secret. The people that should really care about the health of the nation (the government) is in the pocket of special interest groups. Instead of looking after the long term interest of its citizens, it instead sells out to the interests of the money that will help re-elect them. This is the consequence of switching our system from “one man, one vote” to “one dollar, one vote”. We do have a representative democracy, and it is financial interests that are represented.
The food manufacturers want you to eat more of their stuff, regardless of how sick it may make you and regardless of the necessity of a body type diet. The drug manufacturers don’t want to heal you, they only want to treat you. They don’t want you to get well, they only want you to feel a little bit better, and then they want you to come back for more of their “solution” to your problem. To say it differently, they help you manage your problem, not solve it.
It is for that reason that even though the solution to obesity is well known, it is hiding from you in the plain sight, behind the veil of ignorance. The research has been done, the necessity of a body type diet results are clear, the solutions are identified, and the reports have been published. But it is not in the financial interest of the advertisers in mass media to promote it. Read the rest of this post
It turns out that hypothyroidism is one of the most common health problems in America, and it is frequently not recognized, and just as frequently a hypothyroid diagnosis is performed incorrectly. The most common situation we see is a client who has just been checked by their doctor and was told that their thyroid tests all came back normal.
So why is it that they are presenting with the symptoms of hypothyroidism? Could it be that the hypothyroid diagnosis results are not interpreted correctly? Read the rest of this post
About a decade ago Marjory Wildcraft volunteered to help get fresh, local, organic produce into her kids’ school system. That project failed miserably, but it changed her life forever. Why? Because there wasn’t enough locally grown food in the entire county for even one small elementary school. Marjory devoted her life to finding the fastest, easiest, and funnest ways for an individual or family to grow their own food, and in the process discovered that growing your own is incredibly rewarding.
Marjory developed a video that teaches permaculture – in other words, the techniques used to grow your own food – that is now used by teachers, universities, missionary organizations, and regular folks. It gets you started producing your food very quickly. You probably have a sense that the era of readily accessible high quality food is over. The era of cheap food is coming to an end – we just have not fully associated with it. It was an illusion anyway: we did get cheap food, but we were getting exactly what we were paying for – not much in the way of nutrition. Read the rest of this post
