Breast cancer has become an equal opportunity disease, striking rich and poor, black and white, leaders and followers alike. In 1960, one out of 20 American women, or 5%, could expect to develop breast cancer. Today that number has risen to one in eight, or 12%, a 250% increase in the incidence. In 1995, 183,400 Americans will develop breast cancer, of which 1,400 are men, with 46,300 deaths expected. After lung cancer, breast cancer is the second most prevalent cancer in the United States.

Cancer in general is on the rise. One in three Americans will get it. One in four will die from it, with 526,000 mortalities in 1994. In the near future, cancer will surpass heart disease as the number one cause of death in America. It is already the number one fear.

Researchers have been busy trying to find a "magic bullet" cure for cancer, unfortunately with little success. The National Cancer Institute was formed in 1971 when President Nixon confidently declared that we would have a cure by the bicentennial of 1976. By 1991, the 20th anniversary of the "war on cancer", a group of highly respected physicians and scientists gathered a press conference to report that "our ability to treat and cure most cancers has not materially improved." Essentially, the $45 billion 30 year war on cancer has been a serious disappointment and we must rethink our strategy.

What causes cancer?
Each and every day, our cells are dividing to replace lost cells and rebuild damaged tissue. The only way we change from a single-celled fertilized egg in our mother's uterus to a 60 trillion-celled adult at high school graduation is through trillions of cell divisions. Each of these divisions carries the potential of making a mistake in the body's "blueprints", or the DNA, which could then give birth to an abnormal cancer cell that grows too fast and eventually overwhelms the body through malnutrition, infection, or organ failure.

Based on some rather elaborate studies done at the University of California at Berkeley, Professor Bruce Ames and colleagues found that the human DNA survives an endless storm of "hits", or potentially cancer-causing breaks, numbering around 1000 to 10,000 hits per cell per day. Imagine being on the roof of your home during a major tornado or hurricane and having to nail down shingles as old ones are being ripped off. Make a mistake in repairing your shingles and cancer may be the result.

Let's look at a fair comparison for cancer. Fungus grows on the bark of a tree due to the conditions of heat, moisture and darkness. You can "cut, burn, and poison" all you want on that fungus, but more fungus grows as long as the conditions are present. Similarly, cancer grows in a person due to the conditions of lack of oxygen, sugar feeding, immune suppression, toxin overload, abnormal pH, maldigestion, parasites, allergies, hypothyroidism, malnutrition and more. You can "cut (surgery), burn (radiation), and poison (chemotherapy) all you want on the cancer, but as long as these underlying conditions are present, the cancer continues to grow. While chemo, radiation, and surgery do reduce tumor burden and provide many a patient with a headstart, cancer can only be beaten when the conditions that started the disease are changed.

Nature has many built-in mechanisms to prevent cancer from getting started and to destroy it if it does get started. By nourishing these natural defenses, we can cut the risk for getting cancer by 90% and dramatically improve the odds of recovering from cancer.

There are a number of dietary factors that help the body repair damaged DNA, including folacin, soybeans, bioflavonoids, zinc, vitamin D, A, and more. There are many substances in a healthy diet that encourage the immune system to recognize a cancer cell and destroy it before it becomes a palpable lump.

Nutrition factors that probably relate to breast cancer
Fat in the diet. There is a straight line relationship between fat in the diet and incidence of breast cancer. People who eat a low fat diet, such as the Japanese, Seventh Day Adventist, and Mormons, have one half to one fifth the breast cancer incidence of the normal American.

ACTION PLAN. We need to cut our fat intake from 40% of calories down to a healthier 20% of calories, by eating less beef, dairy, margarine, and fried foods, while increasing our intake of whole grains and legumes, vegetables, fruit, and sea vegetables.

Sugar in the diet. The average American consumes about 132 pounds per year of refined white sugar. The late and highly respected Nobel laureate, Dr. Linus Pauling, felt that sugar was a greater risk toward cancer than fat.

Studies in animals and humans show us that cancer is a sugar feeder or, more appropriately, an "obligate glucose metabolizer". In plotting the relative incidence of breast cancer around the world, we find a predictable trend: of 21 countries studied, the average intake of sugar in that country dictates the breast cancer incidence. Sugar in the diet elevates sugar in the blood, which elevates insulin, which then affects our potent prostaglandins in a negative fashion.

ACTION PLAN. We can help delay or prevent breast cancer just by dramatically cutting back on sugar intake. This means avoid white sugar and its many cousins and aliases: corn syrup, dextrose, sucrose, etc. Sugar is more of a drug than a food in the way it influences the body. Wean yourself of the need to graze on sweet foods, thus taming the sweet tooth that wreaks havoc on American health. Eat nothing sweet by itself. Meaning, if you are going to have a small bowl of watermelon, then eat it at a mixed meal with other foods, such as broiled halibut, cooked barley, and raw spinach. Honey, fructose, molasses, frozen concentrated apple juice, and sucanat are preferred sweeteners over refined white sugar. Cut your intake of all sweets by 75%.

Obesity. Fats can "rust", or oxidize, in a reaction to form free radicals, which then damage the DNA and bring on cancer. Fats also carry most of the dazzling array of toxins that have been irresponsibly dumped across our fair land. Fat cells increase the circulating estrogen in the bloodstream. Women with larger breasts, which generally indicates too much fat in the body, are at greater risk for developing breast cancer.

ACTION PLAN. Eat less fat and more vegetables. Read your food product labels. Exercise for at least 30 minutes each day. Work with your health care practitioner to establish your abilities and limitations. Supplements of chromium, vitamin C, carnitine, hydroxycitrate (HCA), and medium chain triglycerides can help melt fat a wee bit faster.

Stress. Of all risk factors in breast cancer, this is the most common in the hundreds of patients I have worked with. Many of my patients did not eat well. Some smoked. Some were exposed to environmental toxins. But almost all had experienced a traumatic event in their life about 1 to 2 years prior to the diagnosis of breast cancer--divorce, death of a loved one, parents suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and so on.

As our lives become more fragmented and harried, we are all exposed to dangerous levels of stress. Yet, the father of the modern stress theories, Dr. Hans Selye, told us that stress is like the tension on a violin string: just enough tension and there is music in our lives, too much tension and the string may break, not enough tension and there is no music. People need a reason to get up in the morning. But we also need coping skills to manage the inevitable stress that comes our way. Think of coping skills as the "shock absorbers" that allow us to better tolerate the bumps in the road of life.

ACTION PLAN. Be yourself. Be here now. Do not put excess emphasis on the past or the future. Figure out non-toxic ways of stress relief, such as prayer, meditation, exercise, clubs to join, music, talking to friends, and writing in your journal. Take time each day for yourself in a mini-vacation. Use creative visualization to be at your favorite vacation site or just relax with some soothing music. Make realistic demands on your life. Too many women today are expected to be "super-moms", with career, husband, kids, social groups and too much to do with no time for herself. Don't forget that someone has to nourish the nourisher.

After decades of high tech research, we know that the mind is intimately linked to the body and the immune system. To boil this field down to one elegant quote from Dr. Deepak Chopra: "Every cell in your body is eavesdropping on your thoughts." Make them good thoughts. Scripture tells us: "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." (Philipians 4:8). Controlling your thoughts is more than just a good idea, it may be your ultimate bunker in the siege of breast cancer that is affecting American women.

Smoking. Tobacco has single-handedly given the world epidemic proportions of lung cancer, emphysema, and heart disease. As the incidence of smoking tapers slightly in the U.S., it is rising elsewhere around the world. Smoking brings with it a plethora of poisons.

ACTION PLAN. Stop smoking. Use biofeedback, hypnosis, nicotine gum, homeopathic preparations, the herb Lobelia, or whatever it takes.

Active immune system. When the doctor tells his or her cancer patient: "We think we got it all." What the doctor is really saying is: "We have done our best and removed all visible cancer from your body. There is now something less than a billion cancer cells left, which we cannot detect and must be destroyed by your active immune system." The only way to completely eradicate the presence of cancer is to turbo charge your microscopic warriors in the immune system to seek out, recognize, and destroy all cancer.

ACTION PLAN.
Factors that can turn off the immune system:
-toxic metals, like lead, cadmium and mercury
-volatile organic chemicals, from agriculture and industry
-too much sugar in the blood
-fat; including too much fat, or the wrong kind of fat, like omega-6 fats from soy and corn oil, and hydrogenated fats from lard
-stress and worry

Factors that can super-charge the immune system:
-vitamins, like A, beta-carotene, C,E, and B-6
-quasi-vitamins, like Coenzyme Q-10, and the special fats of EPA, GLA, and ALA from fish, borage, and flax oils respectively
-minerals, like zinc, chromium, and selenium
-amino acids, like arginine and glutathione
-herbal extracts, like echinecea, ginseng, Pau D'arco, and astragalus
-food factors, like yogurt, garlic, cabbage, fresh green leafy vegetables, bovine cartilage, shark liver oil, and enzymes from papaya, pineapple, and kiwi
-positive emotions, like love, forgiveness, peace, and creative visualization

Exercise. Our bodies are built for regular movement. Dr. Walter Bortz of Palo Alta, California wrote a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Sept.10, 1982) in which he provided many scientific studies to support his claim that "disuse leads to disease in the body". Exercise helps to burn fat tissue, elevates the body temperature for regular bouts of "fever therapy", reduces stress, stabilizes blood sugar, improves detoxification and circulation, warms the lymph to speed up the transport of immune factors, and generally bolsters the immune system.

In a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (Sept.21, 1994), researchers at the University of Southern California found that 4 hours of exercise per week cut the risk for breast cancer by 75% in women who had children and 25% in women who had no children. Other studies have drawn the same conclusion. Exercise is the cheapest, easiest, most non-toxic, and most clinically effective thing a woman can do to beat the odds on breast cancer.

ACTION PLAN. Take your pick: walking, biking, stationery biking, cross country machines, stair steppers, aerobics, horseback riding, rollerblading. You name it, if you are sweating and tired when you are through, then it probably was the right thing to do. Work with your health care professional to determine your abilities and limitations. The 30 minutes of exercise you get each day will dramatically cut your risk of breast cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes, and premature death.

Antioxidants. The rusting that occurs on an outdoor nail, or the tarnished surface of a brass trumpet, or the browning of an apple is also going on inside of us. Since we are oxygen breathing creatures, we are constantly bombarded with pro-oxidants or "free radicals" which attack the delicate DNA and cell membrane. Fortunately, there are protective substances available to us, called antioxidants, which means that they counter the effects of oxidation.

Professor Howe reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (vol.82, 1990) that fruit and vegetable intake provide dramatic protection against breast cancer. Dr. Howe calculated that by increasing our vitamin C intake from the average of 90 milligrams per day to 380 mg/day, we could cut breast cancer incidence by 16%, which means that over 29,000 women each year would not have to hear the ominous diagnosis of "breast cancer".

ACTION PLAN. For food antioxidants, go for the color. That means that red grapes are better than white grapes, sweet potatoes better than white potatoes, spinach better than lettuce, and so on. For supplemental antioxidants, take 1000 milligrams daily of vitamin C, 25,000 iu of beta-carotene, 400 iu of vitamin E, and 200 mcg of selenium. Other antioxidants, like Coenzyme Q-10 and grape seed extracts, may also be of benefit.

PARTING COMMENTS
Cancer is a whole body disease, not just a regionalized lump or bump. No one with a headache is suffering from a deficiency of aspirin. And no cancer patient has a deficiency of adriamycin, a common chemotherapy drug. We need to re-think our paradigm on treating breast cancer. Using tumor debulking medical therapies will only help the breast cancer patient if we concurrently change the conditions that started the disease.

Our health is composed of a delicate interplay of nutrients consumed, and toxins expelled, coupled with mental and spiritual forces that influence metabolism. We are a product of our genes, lifestyle and environment. We are not dumb automobiles to be taken to the mechanic and fixed. We are physical and metaphysical beings who must become part of the cure, just as surely as we are a part of the disease process. Healing is a joint effort between patient, clinician, and that mysterious and wonderous Force which most of us take for granted. The days of "magic bullet" cures are over. The days of cooperative efforts between patient and clinician are here to stay. With your active involvement, breast cancer is truly beatable.

SELECTED REFERENCES
Austin, S, and Hitchcock, C, BREAST CANCER, Prima, Rocklin, CA, 1994
National Research Council, DIET, NUTRITION, AND CANCER, National Academy
Press, Washington, 1982
Quillin, P, and Williams, RM, ADJUVANT NUTRITION IN CANCER TREATMENT, Cancer
Treatment Research Foundation, Arlington Heights, IL, 1994
Quillin, P, BEATING CANCER WITH NUTRITION, Nutrition Times Press, Tulsa, 1994
Quillin, P, HEALING NUTRIENTS, Random House, NY, 1987
Simone, CB, BREAST HEALTH, Avery, Garden City, NY, 1995
Simone, CB, CANCER AND NUTRITION, Avery, Garden City, NY, 1992
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, THE SURGEON GENERAL'S REPORT
ON NUTRITION AND HEALTH, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1988

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