The Breast Chronicles

Make Peace

2008-06-10T09:45:00.000-07:00

I talked to a psychic friend of mine the other day and while she was reading my cards, she mentioned something that made me stop and think. I'd heard the information before, but this time it really hit home. She said that for the past twenty years that she has been helping people, there have been many struggling with breast cancer. She mentioned that all of them had one important thing in common... a problem with letting go of old hurts and resentments. Right on down the board... every one of them. I started to think about my own life and sure enough... yes, this is something I have been struggling with for a while. I take great offense to people who wrong me unfairly. So, after talking to my psychic friend I have been working even harder to release old hurts and frustrations. I've had some major betrayals from people very close to me so this process hasn't been easy. I think however, that I am close now to letting it all go. I try to forgive these people in my mind every day. At first it can be hard... you don't want to forgive them, you want to curse them! But after a while the forgiveness comes easier. Do yourself and your body a favor and let it go. Your breasts will thank you.

Cell Phone Radiation

2008-05-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

If you place your cell phone in your breast pocket and use blue tooth, you may be putting your breasts at risk for breast cancer. It is becoming widely known that cell phone use causes brain cancer... well now you need to know what "pocketing" your cell phone can do to other parts of your body. Please watch this video... it is important information.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/y7news/index.php?rn=248153&cl=7586475

What causes disease?

2008-05-12T13:54:00.000-07:00

From Dr. Mercola:

I’d like to reiterate that while I view herbs as frequently helpful and virtually non-toxic when compared to patent drugs, they rarely treat the cause of your disease. I view most of them as frequently effective symptomatic band-aids. Therefore, if you depend solely on herbs without addressing the underlying cause of your disease, you’re still likely avoiding the real cure.

So what are the underlying causes of most, if not all disease? I strongly believe it boils down to three basics of equal importance:

Your emotional and mental state
Your nutrition
Your physical activity

All advice essentially falls under one of these three basic necessities for optimal health, which create a circle of either positive or negative ramifications, depending on whether you address them appropriately or not.

Awesome Cancer-Busting Approaches

Without disputing the value and effectiveness of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as an alternative to the flawed healthcare system in the United States, I believe you can VIRTUALLY ELIMINATE your risk of cancer and chronic disease, and radically improve your chances of recovering from cancer if you currently have it, by following these relatively simple risk reduction strategies.

You won’t read or hear much about them because they have not been formally "proven" yet by conservative researchers. However, did you know that 85 percent of therapies currently recommended by conventional medicine have never been formally proven either?!

Here are my Twelve Strategies:

Reduce or eliminate your processed food, sugar and grain carbohydrate intake. Yes, this is even true for whole unprocessed organic grains as they tend to rapidly break down and drive your insulin and leptin levels up, which is the last thing you need to have happening if you are seeking to resolve a cancer.

Control your fasting insulin and leptin levels. This is the end result, and can be easily monitored with the use of simple and relatively inexpensive blood tests.

Normalize your ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats by taking a high-quality krill oil or fish oil and reducing your intake of most processed vegetable oils.

Get regular exercise. One of the primary reasons exercise works is that it drives your insulin levels down. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risks.

Normalize your vitamin D levels and vitamin A levels by getting plenty of sunlight exposure and consider careful supplementation when this is not possible. If you take oral vitamin D and have a cancer, it would be very prudent to monitor your vitamin D blood levels regularly.

Get regular, good sleep.

Eat according to your nutritional type. The potent anti-cancer effects of this principle are very much underappreciated. When we treat cancer patients in our clinic this is one of the most powerful anti-cancer strategies we have.

Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and air pollution.
Limit your exposure and provide protection for yourself from information carrying radio waves produced by cell phone towers, base stations, phones and WiFi stations.

Avoid frying or charbroiling your food. Boil, poach or steam your foods instead.

Have a tool to permanently reprogram the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. Energy psychology seems to be one of the best approaches and my particular favorite tool, as you may know, is the Emotional Freedom Technique. German New Medicine is another powerful tool.

Eat at least one-third of your food raw.

New Cancer Cure?

2008-05-10T07:31:00.000-07:00

CBC News 2008

John Kanzius, a man with no background in science or medicine, has come up with what may be one of the most promising breakthroughs in cancer research in years. What’s more, he did it with his wife's pie pans.

Kanzius is a former businessman and radio technician who built a radio wave machine that has cancer researchers so enthusiastic about its potential that they're pouring money and effort into testing it out.

If clinical trials pan out -- and admittedly, there's still a long way to go -- the Kanzius machine will destroy cancer cells all through your body without the need for drugs or surgery ... and without any side effects.

Six years ago, Kanzius was diagnosed with terminal leukemia, and since then has undergone 36 rounds of toxic chemotherapy. He decided there had to be a better way. One night, Kanzius got out of bed, went to the kitchen, and started to build a radio wave machine out of modified pie pans. He eventually spent $200,000 building a more advanced version.

The machine sends radio waves from one box to another, creating enough energy to activate gas in a fluorescent light. Since metal heats up when it's exposed to high-powered radio waves, if a tumor was injected with some kind of metal, it can be destroyed with a focused radio wave beam.

Doctors can inject nanoparticles made of metal directly into a tumor, and then cook the tumor to death using Kanzius’ device without harming surrounding tissue. It is hoped that, by using special molecules that are programmed to target cancer cells and attach nanoparticles to them, the machine will eventually be able to target even microscopic cells throughout the body.

Question Your Doctors!

2008-05-07T11:13:00.000-07:00

I'm not one of those women who automatically does what my doctors tell me to. I'm sorry, but first I have an awful lot of questions to ask. After my diagnosis, I went to a radiologist in L.A. who was apparently "the best" in town. Highly recommended. I had my husband and my new-born baby in my arms (actually my husband wasn't in my arms, just the baby) when this Dr. told me that I would DIE if I didn't do exactly what he recommended (which was radiation). I was so stunned I stumbled out of the examining room with my baby... and with tears streaming down my cheeks I made my way out of the office. I was so upset I'm sure everyone in the waiting room was horrified as I ran past... probably believing I had just been given a fatal diagnosis. My husband was so mad at the doctor I could hear him yelling at him as I exited the medical building in a cold sweat. My husband demanded an apology letter... or he threatened to sue. The next morning at exactly nine o'clock in the morning a Federal Express truck pulled into our driveway and delivered a letter of sincere apology from the best radiologist in town.

P.S. I didn't do exactly what the doctor said... and guess what... I didn't die.

Remember to Give Thanks...

2008-05-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here drinking my cherry green tea, looking out the window at the enormous cedar trees, the sun streaming through the window and I'm thinking... I'm pretty blessed. I just heard on CNN that perhaps more than 100 thousand people have perished in the cyclone in Myanmar. I"m still not sure I even know where Myanmar is. But, since all life is inter-connected, that indeed all souls are connected... their pain is everyone's pain. And as we go through our own pains in life, whether it is divorce, death of a loved one... or breast cancer... we can always stop and remember that even though things are tough for us... there's always someone somewhere that is worse off. Let's all remember to give thanks for what we do have. For starters, this cherry green tea is pretty awesome. Thank you!

Yoga may help in mind-body healing from cancer

2008-05-07T10:47:00.000-07:00

CBC News

Yoga may help people with cancer face the fear and uncertainty of the disease, a growing body of research suggests.

Cancer treatment and defeating it often take precedence over addressing emotional needs, such as what the diagnosis means to a person's life and plans, family, retirement and future, said Linda Carlson, a psychologist who teaches yoga and studies it effects on patients.

Carlson says yoga participants tend to have less tension, sleep better and carry fewer stress hormones.

"People felt happier, they had more energy, they were less confused, sort of mentally confused," said Carlson, of the Alberta Cancer Board. "So there was a whole array of benefits and it was a fairly large effect."

There is growing evidence that the ancient practice may be a good fit for cancer patients, even during treatment, said Edmonton-based Kerry Courney, the Canada research chair in cancer and exercise.

"I think many of the yoga programs are a little more gentler, and [there are] things that cancer patients feel that they're capable of doing," Courney said. "It might be an amount of exercise that is more appropriate when you're going through the difficult treatments."

Studies on breast cancer survivors have shown that yoga may improve flexiblity and arm function after surgery, along with improvements in body image and self-esteem, reduced fatigue and pain control, Courney said.

The main risk is in overdoing it, such as overstretching areas that might be healing, he said, although there is less concern about injuries from the low-impact exercise.

The mind-body connection of yoga also helps to move patients past questions like "Why me?" Carlson said.

Robert Boutillier, a prostate cancer survivor in Calgary, considers yoga a life saver.

"We'd spend you know the 20 minutes or half an hour meditating, and you'd walk out of there feeling, 'I can handle this,'" Boutillier said.

Boutillier said he is grateful for the diagnosis, which has made him appreciate life more fully compared with his early days that were filled with fear, blame and stress.

Breast Cancer Action

2008-05-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have been recently diagnosed, I highly recommend you go to the Breast Cancer Action site "Do Something Besides Worry...Educate, Agitate, Organize" I love the message this organization has. It encourages women to get involved with their recovery! When I was diagnosed, I didn't really know where to turn... hopefully this will help.

http://bcaction.org/

The Mind Matters... especially when it comes to cancer

2008-05-02T10:49:00.000-07:00

When I had breast cancer, I realized very quickly the power I had inside of me to heal my body. I had been studying the power of the subconscious mind for many years and knew it worked. So here was this perfect opportunity for me to implement what I'd learned. Let's be real... it didn't happen immediately. I had just had a baby and suddenly I had breast cancer?! It was a lot to take in at once. Thank God I didn't have post-partum depression!

So, I spent a good week in shock, thinking about worst case scenarios... how I was going to die... how my husband was going to be left to raise our new-born baby... wondering how on earth he would do it... wondering when he would re-marry... and if my baby would like this new woman... would she be a kind person?... what if she was mean to my baby?... what if she smoked?!...

You see how quickly and easily the mind can invent a whole story about the future? The danger is... our subconscious mind can not take a joke and will go about trying to manifest the thoughts we think about the most! Ahhhhh! So, I quickly realized all these runaway thoughts were NOT going to serve me. I had to take control! I started becoming very aware of all of my thoughts and whenever a negative one popped into my head, I would gently push it aside and replace it with a positive thought... how healthy I was... how my body had the power to heal itself. It takes work to constantly police your own thoughts... but highly worth the effort.

If you have cancer... remember not to get sucked in to the "worst case scenario" mind game. Keep focusing on perfect health!

In regards to our thoughts... just today I received an email from Dr. Rob van Overbruggen and I'm very excited about his new book, "Healing Psyche... helping the mind heal". It was written for practitioners I believe, but if there are any of you out there who are intensely curious about the mind/body connection as far as healing from cancer goes... this is for you. I have a link for his website on my site or just go to healingpsyche.com or Amazon and you can buy the book.

My Oncologist Wears Prada

2008-04-23T13:06:00.000-07:00

“Man finds his significance by working through his difficulty not by cringing in the presence of it.”
Dr. Thurman Fleet

This is an excerpt from my upcoming book: The Breast Chronicles, how my breasts changed my life

I am sitting in a resplendent Beverly Hills doctor’s reception area waiting for my oncologist to hand down my sentence. The room is decorated in peach tones accented by an abundance of perky tropical palms. On the wall are carefully placed photographs of far-off beaches that appear too pristine to be real—the white sand airbrushed to annoying perfection. This flamboyant room could easily pass as a spa waiting area. Yet, something feels wrong. Very wrong. This place, that is desperately trying to evoke images of tranquility and ease is nothing but a troubling farce, for in truth—I am here to talk about cancer. Yes, I’m here to talk about my cancer and how I can keep myself from dying.
Cancer. Death. Unless I’m forgetting something, isn’t Beverly Hills strictly reserved for exciting, expensive establishments? Like Gucci, Prada and Donna Karan? For God’s sake, what is an oncologist’s office doing in Beverly Hills? In my estimation, having an oncologist’s office in Beverly Hills is just down right sacrilegious. Nowhere along Rodeo Drive have I ever seen proof of people with cancer. People go to Beverly Hills to shop and “do” lunch, not to shop and “do” chemotherapy.

Okay, I admit, I understand the whole plastic surgery thing that takes place in Beverly Hills. But, that’s entirely different. Plastic surgeons are needed in Beverly Hills. No—they’re demanded. But, oncologists? Why? Why did it have to come to this? Don’t these oncologists realize they’re going to tarnish the whole “be rich, be skinny and never die” attitude that is absolutely required in Beverly Hills?

I sit in silence thinking about this when suddenly a shock of fear floods over me like a tidal wave. Gripping. Paralyzing. I observe my hands, which are now soaked in sweat. I can feel my heart pounding without apology. I can’t control the fear from coming on, but I know I must control it from taking over my soul. So, I try to distract myself. I glance at the other patients. That woman with the gray suit and pearl necklace—what is she doing here? Does she have cancer? She doesn’t have the cancer look. Then it occurs to me. Maybe I have the cancer look. I’m certainly sweating enough. But her—she’s so poised, so calm. Maybe it’s not her, maybe it’s her husband sitting so solemnly next to her, polite eyes staring at the floor, that has cancer. Is he dying? It was hard to tell…people mask their pain well. The man’s insipid expression might be a reflection of his boredom and nothing else. The sweat comes back for another round.

The receptionist looks calm. But, why wouldn’t she? She doesn’t have cancer. She’s not dying. All she has to do is focus on answering that damn phone and taking messages for the doctors. Then, la-dee-da, it’s off to lunch across the street to some hip Beverly Hills deli for a turkey and Swiss on rye, hold the mayo because she’s watching her figure and maybe she’ll take an iced tea. Or perhaps a cappuccino. That’s what she’s thinking about. She isn’t thinking about cancer or how long she has to live. Damn her.

I take a few deep breaths and close my eyes and pretend the peach waiting room with the palm trees is actually a spa. This is obviously what they want me to do, so I may as well indulge them. I give it my best effort. It doesn’t work. I can’t stop thinking about the idiot who designed this place. What kind of a person puts palm trees in an oncologist’s office? Do they think we’re morons? Like maybe we’ll forget that we have cancer and just think we’re on vacation in Hawaii? It won’t work. When you have cancer, there isn’t two seconds that go by when you forget you have cancer. Every single damn thought you think, every single breath you breathe, you are aware of it. There is no forgetting—palm tree or not. They may as well put a huge sign on the wall with the question, GOT CANCER? in blazing red letters. And next to the sign, a photo of a man getting a chemo cocktail injected into his veins. No false pretenses. Just say it like it is and be done with it.

I am afraid and being afraid in Beverly Hills feels strange. It isn’t natural. I want to make a mad dash for the door, go screaming down the hall and explode out onto the street and run away! Yes, run all the way over to Rodeo Drive to Prada. Hell, that’s where someone like me should be anyway. Someone young and pretty and yes, I’ll say it—fashionable. I’ll say it because I’m not ashamed to currently crave a meaningless life of extravagant fashion. I’m confused because I shouldn’t be here in this spa death trap. I should be one street over shopping for the latest Prada sling back. Yes, I should be there, dressed to the nines, tossing out three hundred dollars for shoes. That would help, especially because I’ve never spent that kind of money on shoes in my life. Currently, it made a lot of sense. Spend money recklessly on shoes to take my mind off things. But, no, it wouldn’t be wise to be reckless. Perhaps another way. I have a vision of myself pan handling in front of Prada with a sign that reads, “HAVE CANCER, NEED PRADA”.

The man who possibly has cancer is staring at me. Am I sweating again? The cappuccino girl approaches and motions for me to follow her. I feel my legs moving, obliging her. I am ushered into a room and told that the doctor will be in momentarily. The sweat returns. The pounding. I can not see two feet in front of me—or anywhere next to me. Sort of like tunnel vision when the space around you gets sucked in to a very narrow point of view, with all peripheral vision completely gone.
Within seconds, my new oncologist walks in. Her expression is calm and together, as though she were just meditating or getting a massage in the next room (the spa idea is obviously working for her) and then presto, here she is to talk to me about my cancer. Her makeup reflects this post-massage appearance with its perfectly administered freshness, nothing severe or stark to intimidate or confuse. She wears a trendy black dress that criss-crosses at the breast accented by a delicate gold necklace hidden partially by a shoulder length shock of thick black hair.

She is perfectly poised as she sits down behind her desk and folds her hands in front of her. She looks at me with a kind expression and smiles gently—her usual greeting to people like me who have cancer, I decide. She is very careful in how she proceeds, the unfolding of her hands and the gentle shift of her expression from relaxed to slightly serious. She is about to tell me something important and suddenly I feel very inadequate and small because I have nothing to tell her, nothing that she doesn’t already know about me. Slowly I glance down at her shoes. Prada.

Without internal warning, I stand up. Some sort of reflex action I suppose before the guillotine strikes. My body doesn’t want to be here, so it takes matters into it’s own hands. It is beyond me, beyond any reasonable explanation. The calm oncologist stares at me, confused. “Is there something wrong?” she asks me. Oh, no, gosh, what could be wrong? I’m just stretching, nothing wrong at all. Oh, well… there is that cancer thing. That is wrong. Maybe that’s what you mean. I want to say all this. But I don’t.

The doctor shuffles papers and takes a deep breath. The news. It is coming.
“I recommend radiation and chemotherapy as treatment for your cancer, Heidi.”
I remain standing, but the words almost knock me over. My sight zooms back to tunnel vision and suddenly the woman doctor is smaller, skinnier and there is nothing around her. No desk, no window, no art on the walls. Her statement has become a floating declaration and my first reaction is to reject these words that surely are not meant for me, but for someone else.
She begins to look alarmed.
“Are you okay?” She asks me. Again with the questions.
“No, I’m not okay.” I tell her flatly.
It was rare for me to admit that I wasn’t okay. I could usually hide it somehow and pretend I was fine. But on this day, with this news, I couldn’t hold it in. I didn’t want to be here. I didn’t like her ritzy Beverly Hills office with the tricky palm trees and I didn’t like that she was wearing Prada shoes.
The woman doctor looked back at her chart. Apparently, there was more. She literally held my life in her hands with that damn chart. I wanted to just snatch it from her, stomp on it, burn it, then steal her shoes and run all the way home.
“As far as the chemotherapy is concerned, I recommend the highest dosage. Since you are still quite young, your cancer is considered aggressive.”
I am astonished at what I am hearing—and confused.
“I thought my cancer was contained within the tumor. It hasn’t spread to the lymph-nodes or anywhere…”
Her meditative glow was starting to fade.
“That’s true. But, we recommend the chemotherapy… just in case.”
A long silence. I’m beyond stunned. I repeat her words in a stupor.
“Just in case?”
“Yes, as a security measure.”
My body drops into the chair. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She wanted to douse my entire system with toxic drugs, drugs that would kill off every last cell in my system, weaken my body to the point of debilitation, singe every hair off my body with it’s venomous domination and ultimately force me to become a shadow of my former self—just in frickin’ case?!
“But my margins were clear…”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“And the tumor was small. Stage one.”
“True.”
“So, why…”
“It’s just to be on the safe side…”

Aha! The safe side. There it was. But, who’s side is safe? Was her side safer than my side? Was her chemotherapy side safer? Her words were coming from a place of her interpretation of the word “safe”. They were not my words. Not my ideas. Her idea of safe and my idea of safe were completely different. Yet, she was the doctor. I was supposed to “trust” her idea of safe.

I can hear the Pradas shifting on the hardwood. The doctor appears uncomfortable with the silence of my shock. But, I am so dumbfounded by the words I’ve just heard—I can not speak. I sense she wants me to respond. Needs me to. Because the quiet is just killing her. Or she could talk again. There was that option. But what else is there to say? I suppose she could tell me she considers it a high-stake gamble for me not to do the chemotherapy. Not a high-stake gamble in terms of my health, but a gamble because she and millions of other doctors are deathly afraid of being sued if they tell people like me, otherwise. Because if she said I didn’t need to do the chemotherapy and I took her advice and didn’t do it and then if I died—she could be royally sued.

I tell the woman oncologist I need time to think. She grimaces, doesn’t like how this sounds. But, it’s my life. I can take a little time if I want. It’s my decision, after all. Not hers. Besides, the woman was confusing me. Sure, she was cute and all that, but how did that help me? Let’s face it, how she looked was completely irrelevant to my cancer… and those damn palm trees certainly didn’t help any either. And the shoes, what’s up with them? Shouldn’t oncologists wear flats? For God’s sake there should be some sort of rule about being too cute and trendy when you’re dealing with cancer patients. People with cancer can be quite unpredictable and we wouldn’t want to be upsetting them any more than absolutely necessary. We don’t need to add the emotion of envy to the already stacked list of negative emotions cancer patients are feeling. How depressing. I’m going to die and I’m not very stylish.

I shake her hand and leave the office, my tunnel vision slowly expanding to normalcy as I exit the building. When I reach the street I am suddenly back amongst the living. I see happy, fashionable people walking and talking—laughing about life’s frivolous activities. I breathe deeply and walk amidst them pretending I have frivolous activities to tend to as well.
draft
4/4/08

Question chemotherapy!

2008-04-18T12:27:00.000-07:00

Chemotherapy's Long-Term Effects Can Last a Decade or More

Another reason among many to do all you can to avoid cancer: The damage chemotherapy can do on your body -- especially to your brain -- can last a decade, if not longer, after treatment.

Using positron emission tomography (PET), UCLA researchers compared the brain scans of 21 female patients who had undergone surgery within the previous decade to remove breast tumors against those of 13 healthy patients while performing short-term memory exercises and afterward. Of that group of breast cancer patients, 16 had been treated prior to their surgeries with chemotherapy.

The PET scans among breast cancer patients who had chemotherapy showed a lower metabolism in a key region of the brain's frontal cortex. The lower rate of a patient's resting metabolism was, scientists said, the more difficulty she would have performing memory tests. Scientists also noticed jumps in blood flow to the cerebellum and frontal cortex, a sign the brains of women who had chemo worked harder to perform normally than did healthy patients.

What's more, chemotherapy patients who also underwent hormonal therapy also experienced an 8 percent drop in the resting metabolism in another area of their brain (the basal ganglia).

The best thing you can do to avoid cancer, now the leading killer of Americans, and obscenely expensive drugs that will likely do you more harm than good: Follow my major recommendations that are far more comprehensive than those suggested by the American Cancer Society.

Invitation for dinner at Catherine Zeta Jones house

2008-04-11T13:12:00.000-07:00

So, yea... I've been hired as the writer to write the screen play for The Bettie Page Story for Catherine Zeta Jones. That's right. Me. Hitting the big time.

While I’m flushing out the character outline so Catherine can win an academy award, I’m also researching the whole chemo thing and just as I had suspected... it’s not a pretty picture. I’m back and forth with Bettie, chemo, Bettie, chemo…

Bettie: flamboyant, beautiful, skeletons in the closet…
Chemo: Serious bloody business. Wigs and crap.

I shift momentarily to a web photo that has milky-faced bald women in before and after wig shots. To my surprise and/or annoyance, most of these women are smiling. The wigs are nice and look remarkably realistic, but I’m absolutely sucked in to the smiles. Why are they smiling? I’m contemplating the truthfulness of the smiles, really scrutinizing each frame for any sign of inconsistency... a stiff jaw, a furrowed brow, something, anything to tell me they’re lying! Liar, liar pants on fire!! I need to find something that indicates they’ve been told to smile for the photo, to look as happy as possible, no matter what they’re really feeling. Because you know they're really feeling like crap. I feel like e-mailing the photographer and chewing him out for putting them through this B.S.

The truth is, I’m having outrageous hesitations about saying yes to chemo. Saying yes to something so destructive. It seems outrageous to me. Especially since the facts say that chemo hasn’t been proven to be effective for stage one breast cancer. So, my question is… if it hasn’t been proven to work for stage one breast cancer… why is everyone so insistent I do it?
To make things worse, a certain member of my immediate family (sister) has for some reason taken it upon herself to become the chemo Nazi. She is calling me at all hours of the day chanting her chemo propaganda and I’m bloody well pissed. Even though, to her dismay, she is reduced to being just a voice through the phone thousands of miles away, one would never know it because her forcefulness is staggering. “You really have to do what the doctors say, Heidi. You have to.” I could see her fine blonde hair jerking forward every time she said, “Have to.” If she were next to me talking, she would no doubt be squeezing my arm, hard, until it pinched, every “have to” harder than the one before. I unplugged the phone. I exit the "chemo wig" site and go back to researching for Catherine's character.

Oh, and Jeffrey and I have been invited to Catherine's for dinner. I'll have to go into cancer denial for one night.

What the hell am I going to wear?

CHECK THIS ARTICLE OUT:

NEW EVIDENCE: Linking Toxic Food Containers to Breast Cancer Risks in the Womb

Bisphenol A (BPA), an artificial estrogenic compound widely used in plastics for food containers, may increase the adult breast cancer risk of female fetuses. This confirms earlier findings regarding a link between BPA and breast cancer.

A study exposed pregnant rats to bisphenol A at a range of doses from 2.5 to 1,000 micrograms per kg of body weight per day.

Their female children developed precancerous breast lesions during puberty at a rate three to four times higher than usual. BPA resulted in an increased level of lesions at all dose levels, which suggests that the current exposure limit set by the U.S. EPA (50 micrograms per kg per day) has put American women at risk of breast cancer.

BPA is used in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastics for many food and beverage containers, including baby bottles and canned food linings. Dental composites can also contain the chemical. Urine analysis has shown that 95 percent of people have been exposed to BPA. BPA has also been linked to prostate cancer and brain tissue damage, even at extremely low levels.

Sources:
Reproductive Toxicology October 24, 2006
Foodconsumer.org December 18, 2006
Environmental Science & Technology December 20, 2006

Better Energy Bar is Finally Here
Why eat fattening, tasteless nutritional bars, when you can sink your teeth into a delicious, nutritious energy bar loaded with rich dark chocolate, shredded coconut and other natural ingredients that are GOOD FOR YOU.
Find Out More

Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Cheaper, "convenient" products made from polycarbonate plastics can expose your body to all sorts of toxins -- like bisphenol A (BPA) -- it was never meant to handle. Just 0.23 parts per billion of BPA is enough to disrupt the effect of estrogen in a baby's developing brain.

BPA is an endocrine disruptor, and may also be in part responsible for the recent cases of puberty being reported among preschool children.

Although it may be nearly impossible to completely avoid all toxins, there are many common sense steps you can take today to reduce your exposure to them, which include:

Avoiding processed foods that often contain toxic chemicals too.
Storing your food in glass containers whenever possible.
Eating as many organic foods as you can.
My first choice for water containers is glass, and I only use plastic bottles when I travel. I used to use colored high-density Nalgene bottles, but not since the Bisphenol A in the bottles was shown to cause birth defects and miscarriages in animal studies.

Plastics that are safer to use for storing food and beverages, none of which are known to leach harmful substances, include:

Polypropylene, designated "#5 PP"
High-density polyethylene, designated "#2HDPE"
Low-density polyethylene, designated "#4 LDPE"
Now I use the wide-mouth Nalgene bottles that are made from the safe plastic. I found them at http://www.campmor.com/ and have purchased a dozen so I don't have to worry about replacing them when they invariably get lost or left behind on my many trips.

The wide mouth also allows them to be easily cleaned so they don't accumulate bacteria. I bring my water to my office with me in a glass container, as that is better. It is just difficult to travel with glass due to the obvious safety reasons.

Elephants on my breasts...

2008-04-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, picture this. I'm being wheeled out of surgery and placed into my own private room. No, I'm not a celebrity, (okay, I am in my own mind) so why then do I get my own room in the fanciest hospital in L.A.? (The dark Armani shades I wore to pre-op may have had something to do with it) So, I'm laying there and coming out of the thick fog that anesthesia produces and as my eyes open in two small slits I'm sure I see an elephant sitting on my chest. It is astonishing, yet true. Okay, wait. Not quite true. What my stoned out mind is slow to realize is: I can't actually see the elephant. I can only feel the elephant. Yes, that's it. I can feel the elephant sitting on top of me like the hundred ton animal he is (maybe a she?). He/she is crushing me. And what the hell is it doing here anyway? This isn't Africa. Or is it? I'm too drugged up to know. So, I swat at it through my blurred vision, but it doesn't budge. But when I take a closer, even squintier look I realize it's not an elephant at all. It's only my swollen, bandaged breasts (one operated on and one not) that are about to explode like Mt. St. Helens because I haven't nursed my baby in 24 hours... and they are killing me! Oh yea. That. I forgot about the surgery. That breast cancer thing.

I call out, feebly: "Nurse!" Strangely, my voice has the distinct sound of an elf. It surely wasn't my voice and it was not a voice I had ever heard before (except in bad animated Christmas movies) I tried again. This time nothing came out except some foul air.

I rolled my body off the bed and landed on the floor with a big thud. I assume this would alert the deaf nurses. But, no. So, I stumble my way into the bathroom and drape my grossly engorged left breast over the sink and start to manually pump out 24 hours of breast milk! (I won't go into details about the color it had turned... okay I will... yellow!) Suddenly, I look in the mirror and I can't help wondering who this homeless person is looking at me. "Get outta my God Damn way" I yell at her, frothing at the mouth. Then, I swat at her just as I had done the elephant. But, she's not budging and I can't get her strikingly familiar eyes to stop glaring at me. When the horrible truth slowly washes over me that I am actually this person, I immediately wonder if I have been in a coma for a year... or five!! Don't nurses wash and comb your hair when you're in a coma?! Don't they try their hardest to make you look normal? What is wrong with these people?!

I crawl back across the room on my hands and knees and catapult myself up onto the bed, landing diagonally. I immediately pull the sheet over my face. Maybe the nurses will eventually come and think I'm dead. That'll show them.

The Cutting Edge of Breast Health

2008-04-04T19:03:00.000-07:00

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in l997 when I was only thirty seven years old. Because I had stage one I chose not to do chemo or radiation, much to the annoyance of all my doctors. More about that later! Mind you, I was not making a choice based on ignorance. I had done plenty of research and ultimately decided on alternative methods of healing including a scientific approach to acupuncture performed by a world renowned acupuncturist in Los Angeles, California. I did a detoxifying program to cleanse my organs (especially the liver!) and elimination system. I will talk more about what I did to actually CURE myself of B.C. later.

I'm going to be talking a lot about different ways women who either have breast cancer, had it in the past or who want to prevent it, can learn more about alternative approaches to the body, mind, spirit aspects of healing. However, don't be fooled, this is not a "fluff" blog! I will be inserting all types of breast news on this blog, traditional and alternative to keep you on the cutting edge of breast health.

Today's News from Dr. Mercola

The Truth About Grapefruit and Breast Cancer

A recent chain e-mail chain has made some people concerned about grapefruit. According to the messages, a 2007 study found an increased risk of breast cancer among postmenopausal women who ate large amounts of grapefruit.

The study is real; it looked at more than 46,000 women, and those who ate half a grapefruit every other day had a 30 percent higher risk of breast cancer.

However, a more recent report, which followed more than 77,000 women over the course of many years, found no rise in breast cancer related to either grapefruit or grapefruit juice.

Experts at the American Cancer Society said that there was insufficient evidence to raise alarm, but that women with concerns could cut back on grapefruit.

Your Immune System and Breast Cancer

2008-04-04T12:58:00.001-07:00

According to Dr. Geerd Hamer, who re-discovered the natural laws of what he now calls the German New Medicine, cancer is NOT a disease state, but rather a phase during your physical, mental and emotional healing process.

WHOA! That’s a radical statement!

Hope you were sitting down when you read that because I nearly fell out of my chair when I first heard it, because I realized the profound implications of this concept.

But please don’t let the shock value lead you to dismiss it before looking into it further, as there’s simply not enough space for me to do it justice in this article.

But what Hamer discovered is that cancer (as well as ALL other disease) is the temporary outgrowth of a serious emotional trauma – your body’s brilliant way of helping you resolve the issue – and once you’ve reached a resolution in your psyche (your mind), your brain directs your body to re-establish its original balance, i.e. go in and remove the cell growths it created in defense to the trauma.

Certain breast cancers, for example, can occur after traumatic events related to the potential, or actual loss of a child. Your body responds to the acute emotional crisis by increasing cell proliferation in your milk ducts, because your biological solution to saving your child’s life is to make sure you have plenty of milk to nurse your child back to health, and in so doing resolve the emotional crisis, which is “my child is hurt, or dying.”

Depending on the emotional trauma, different parts of your brain is affected, which in turn determines which part of your body may start proliferating cells (conventional medicine calls this cancer), and it also determines whether your tumor is created during the active stage of your emotional crisis, or if it’s created during the healing phase, in response to lesions or cell necrosis.

This explains how tumors go into remission, and/or disappear completely.

The most tragic part of standard cancer treatment is that when you receive the shocking news that you now have cancer and may die, your body re-enters a state of shock, often leading to additional cancers. Conventional medicine calls this metastasis – that your cancer is spreading. According to German New Medicine, you were healing, but the “death-fright shock” launched another set of tumors. Between the intense fear created by being diagnosed with cancer, and the deadly cancer treatments offered, death is unfortunately more common than healing.

Dr. Hamer has more than 40,000 case studies backing up his new science, and his cancer cure rate is over 95 percent. “Cure” being defined by conventional medicine as still being alive five years after the onset of cancer.

Compare that to conventional chemotherapy, which comes in at a dismal 2.5 percent cure rate, and you may grasp the vital implications of this information.

Consider also the fact that Dr. Hamer, as a reward by his conventional peers for his incredible success rates, has served time in jail for “inciting the public” and refusing to disavow his medical beliefs, and is currently in exile, seeking asylum from persecution.

Does That Mean It’s All in Your Head?

Certainly not. But it does mean that your psyche/mind and body are intricately connected, and that you cannot separate the two without dire consequences.

However, maintaining a strong healthy immune system is a mandatory step in maintaining robust health and creating an environment where your body has everything it needs to heal at its disposal.

I am a firm believer in that you can virtually eliminate your cancer risk, and radically improve your chances of full recovery from cancer if you currently have it, by following the following all-natural strategies to optimize your health and innate regenerative power.

And, by refocusing on the importance that your mental and emotional state has on your physical body, and learning to resolve your emotional conflicts rather than deaden them with toxic mind-numbing antidepressant drugs (see # 11 below), your chances of leading a long, healthy life seems almost inevitable.

Calcium for Breast Cancer

2008-04-03T12:59:00.000-07:00

I've been hearing a lot about the advantages of taking calcium as a preventative for BC but never really got into the why and what of it. One of the important issues I have learned is that calcium keeps your system alkaline and this is the state we need our bodies to be in to fight off the disease. There are lots of alkalizing foods we can eat and many acidic, so be careful in your food choices. Stay away from the acidic foods as cancer thrives in this environment.

Good News on the Breast Cancer Front
By James Keough

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported the good news that invasive breast cancer rates have continued the decline that started in 1999. The report, based on cancer incidence in 2003, confirmed similar findings in three other studies this year. According to most experts, the nearly 70 percent drop in the use of hormone replacement therapy since 2002, after the Women’s Health Initiative raised red flags about its dangers, may be responsible for some of the decline in incidence. However, mammography rates have also dropped during this period, which suggests that the decline may also stem from fewer cases being identified. (For more on the pros and cons of mammography, see
“Breast Check.”)

A recent study has identified two other factors that may play a role. Researchers at Harvard Medical School found that premenopausal women who consumed the highest amounts of calcium and vitamin D either through diet or supplements had 39 and 35 percent lower risk of breast cancer respectively.
Finally, a retrospective study in the International Journal of Cancer suggests that women who took black cohosh, a herb traditionally used to ease the symptoms of menopause, were 47 percent less likely to have breast cancer at the time of the study.

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