Breast Cancer: Risk Factors Rarely Mentioned

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Breast Cancer: Risk Factors Rarely Mentioned

JoAnn Guest

Feb 03, 2005 19:29 PST

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by Annemarie Colbin, C.H.E.S.

 

http://www.foodandhealing.com/article-breastcancer.htm

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We have been told that women have a 1-in-8 lifetime risk of getting

breast cancer. To the statistically naive, that appears to mean that one

in eight women will be stricken at some point in her life. Scary? Well,

it's not that simple. Here is a more accurate description of the

statistical chances of contracting breast cancer according to ages:

 

 

WOMAN'S BREAST CANCER STATISTICS

At age 20: 1 in 2500

At age 30: 1 in 233

At age 40: 1 in 63

At age 50: 1 in 41

At age 60: 1 in 28

At age 70: 1 in 24

At age 80: 1 in 16

At age 90: 1 in 8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks quite different, doesn't it? The risk increases with age, and

1-in-8 figure applies only if you live to be 95. That gives us some

time. As Mark Twain once said, " there are lies, damn lies, and

statistics. "

 

Let's now look at the variables that affect breast health, and I'm going

to focus on some of the lesser discussed ones:

 

number of children

breast-feeding

environmental causes

use of antiperspirants

tight and underwire bras

use of oral contraceptives

milk product intake

A) Number of children. Having children is protective against breast

cancer; in fact, the more children, the higher the protection. One study

found that women who have seven or more children had a 47% less chance

of developing the disease than women who'd had only one child. This

probably has to do with the fact that with more children a woman has

less menstrual periods, thus less up- and-down estrogen fluctuations.

 

B) Breast-feeding. The function of a woman's breasts is to secrete milk

for her newborn, especially if she has actually been pregnant. Pregnancy

initiates changes in the breasts, preparing them for lactation. If that

process is interrupted or not allowed to proceed, through miscarriage or

by bottle feeding, the body has to deal with the aftermath. Plugged milk

ducts can result in lumps; while these would start off generally benign,

over time, with other risk factors, they could become cancerous. In

fact, all breast cancers arise in the milk ducts. Short breast-feeding

has not shown any protective effect; what counts is the accumulated time

of breast-feeding during the whole of a woman's life. In the study

mentioned, women with a lifetime total of 25 or more months of

breast-feeding had a 33% lower risk for contracting breast cancer as

compared to women with natural children who had never breast-fed. I will

assume that suppressing lactation with drugs can also have serious

adverse effects on the breast.

 

C) Environmental causes. There are a number of external factors that may

affect a woman's hormonal health. The main ones are pesticides,

particularly organochlorides, and living near nuclear reactors. Many

petroleum-based pesticides imitate the form of estrogen, and confuse the

body into accepting them into their cells. They are sprayed on fruits,

vegetables, and animal feed; when these are consumed, the pesticides

then are stored in human and animal fat, which, according to Connecticut

nutritionist Phyllis Herman, may explain the link between a high animal

fat diet and breast cancer. A 1990 study in Israel found a strong link:

between 1976 and 1986, the rate of breast cancer declined 20% after a

number of organochlorine-type pesticides were banned. Industrial

countries where breast cancer mortality declined between 1971 and 1986

had no large commercial nuclear reactors operating within or near their

borders; the other 12 industrial powers did, and breast cancer rose in

them all. It is thought that low-level radioactive contamination enters

the groundwater, affecting produce, and is also carried downwind,

affecting both animals and people. These environmental reasons are

perhaps why breast cancer mortality rates for Long Island went up 39%

between 1970 and 1989.

 

D) Use of antiperspirants. Here is a very intriguing thought. Kerri

Bodner, publisher of the excellent Women's Health Letter, points out

that 50% of breast cancer tumors appear on the upper quadrant of the

breast closest to the underarm. Antiperspirants are strong chemicals,

usually containing aluminum, which prevent sweating. Now sweating is a

way for the body to eliminate toxins and unwanted materials with the

help of the lymphatic system. Preventing this activity is, in Bodner's

words, " like damming up a river. " Sweat backs up into the lymphatic

ducts, and the toxins become trapped in the under-arm lymphatic area.

The fatty breast tissue allows for efficient storage of these unwanted

toxins. Breast cancer often involves the lymph nodes. Could there be a

connection?

 

E) Tight and underwire bras. I remember reading an article that pointed

out an increased risk of breast cancer for women who used tight bras,

particularly if they wore them for more than 12 hours. Tight bras also

interfere with breathing, which may in turn cause oxygen deprivation in

the cells. I personally have great antipathy to underwire bras: the

metal in them crosses the body's acupuncture meridians, and so can block

the normal flow of Chi which in turn can cause stagnation and disease.

Why do women through the ages feel they have to mold themselves into

some shape dictated by social whim?

 

F) The use of oral contraceptives. Numerous studies have shown the

direct correlation between hormone-based drugs and female cancers. The

latest is a study published in The Lancet, the prestigious British

medical journal, on the effects of The Pill on 150,000 women. It found

that all users face an increased risk, even 10 years after stopping.

Women on the Pill had a 25% higher risk of contracting breast cancer. A

study in 1994 had found that women who started on the Pill before the

age of 20 had a 3 ½ times higher risk, while 97% of the women who got

cancer before the age of 36 had used birth control pills at one time or

another of their lives. Note that this does NOT mean that 97% of the

women who took birth control pills got cancer; it's the other way

around. Obviously there are other variables triggering the disease.

 

G) Diet. Fat is suspect, but studies give conflicting results and the

issue is not conclusive. It is often mentioned that Japanese women

eating their traditional low-fat diets have little if any breast cancer,

but when they come to the US they soon catch up. I maintain that fat is

not the issue: milk products are. The Japanese diet has no milk

products, but now that they are picking up " Western " dietary habits,

their use of these products is going up and so is their breast cancer.

The highest rates of the disease are in Northern Europe (Finland,

Sweden, Holland), the UK, the US, and Canada -- all countries where

cow's milk is a major food. Frequent consumption of whole milk has been

found to be a risk factor in cancers of the lung, bladder, breast, and

cervix; even more interesting, breast cancer patients were found to have

twice as high a consumption of Vitamin D (usually added to milk) as

cancer-free controls.

 

What foods protect against cancer? Cruciferous vegetables clearly do:

cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, kohlrabi.

Soybeans have also been developing a good reputation as anti-cancer

foods. Miso and tofu are excellent additions to your diet. Here is a

simple recipe.

 

MISO- TOFU SPREAD

 

½ block soft organic tofu, steamed for 3 minutes and cooled (about 5 oz)

 

1 tablespoon brown rice or barley miso

1 tablespoon organic flaxseed or extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons grated onion

 

Mash all the ingredients together in a bowl, and serve on organic

wholegrain bread or rye crackers.

 

Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D.

_________________

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

DietaryTi-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes

 

 

 

 

AIM Barleygreen

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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