Estrogen May Cure Breast Cancer

Barbara Minton, respected health and wellness writer, reports [Researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston] have discovered that, while estrogen may cause breast cancer, for a large group of women with the disease, estrogen is also by far the best treatment for it. Thank you to my good friend for allowing me to share her article with my readers.

Blockbuster News for Women with Breast Cancer – Estrogen May Actually Cure Breast Cancer

by Barbara Minton

(The Best Years in Life) For many years women have been told estrogen causes breast cancer because it encourages breast cell proliferation. In cases where estrogen has lost its balancing hormones, progesterone and testosterone, this statement is considered true. However, a team of researchers headed by a special doctor at the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston has now shown there is more to the story. They have discovered that, while estrogen may cause breast cancer, for a large group of women with the disease, estrogen is also by far the best treatment for it.

For them, estrogen kills breast cancer cells quickly and completely, without terrible side effects. And it ends the need to worry. The group of women able to effectively kill breast cancer cells with estrogen is those having estrogen deprivation, a condition in which the body has for some time failed to produce estrogen. This failure can be the result of completing menopause, or it can be the result of hysterectomy. The single determining factor is the complete loss of estrogen.

To understand the great importance of this discovery, here are some statistics from the Susan G Komen Foundation. Fewer than five percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S. are younger than 40. Rates of breast cancer begin to increase after age 40 and are highest in women over age 70. The average age for a diagnosis of breast cancer is 64. This means this news pertains to the majority of women with breast cancer, and to those who may be diagnosed with it in the future. 

The average age for menopause, when hormone deprivation begins, is 51. Once complete estrogen deprivation is established, women can benefit from estrogen treatment to kill breast cancer cells and put an end to their disease. Treatment need be no more complicated than visiting a doctor for a prescription of estrogen in one of the many forms in which it is offered.

Once estrogen deprivation is established, there is no need for surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, or hormone blocking drugs such as tamoxifen or arimidex. 

Brainchild of “Father of tamoxifen” may save many women from breast cancer 

In 1978, the FDA approved a triphenyl ethylene-based drug known as tamoxifen. The man behind it was Dr. V. Craig Jordan. Despite his success, the issue of patients becoming resistant to the drug bothered him greatly. Long-term tamoxifen use in humans “seemed like a recipe for disaster,” he said. However, the belief that estrogen blockers were required to thwart the growth of breast cancer persisted in his mind, even though he saw holes in the theory.

Reports dating back to the 1940s had shown that giving breast cancer patients estrogen seemed to stop growth of the disease. In fact, estrogen was routinely used to fight breast cancer in women long before hormone blocking drugs such as tamoxifen came along. Approximately 30% of patients responded favorably to the treatment. 

In the 1990s, a graduate student in Jordan’s laboratory, Doug Wolf, transplanted tamoxifen-resistant tumors from mouse to mouse, and treated them all with estrogen. He found the tumors disappeared. Of that experiment, Jordan said, “Estrogen didn’t stimulate the growth of these tumors anymore. It killed them. They just melted away”. But he and Wolf still didn’t know the underlying mechanism of how that happened.

Jordan set out to determine how the same hormone often responsible for activating breast cancer could also kill it off. He came up with the theory of estrogen deprivation as the key. When women still making their own estrogen take more estrogen, it can fuel the growth of tumors. But when the patient is not producing any estrogen of their own, giving them estrogen causes tumors to quickly shrink away.

In his inaugural article, Jordan evaluated genetic changes to estrogen deprived breast cancer cells during the first week of estrogen therapy. The changes he found were stunning. The endoplasmic reticulum, which is the internal structure of the cell, quickly grew inflamed, triggering the cell’s death. Further, Jordan found that cancer cell death occurred with relatively low doses of estrogen. 

“In bodies that have been starved of estrogen, the hormone comes back as a jet fuel,” he said. That fuel overwhelms the estrogen receptors in breast cancer cells, causing them to invoke a death signal. “The dramatic cell kill I get with estrogen is better than anything I saw with tamoxifen”, he said.

Unfortunately, Dr. Jordan seems to be still attached to tamoxifen, and he wants it to continue to be the first-line treatment. Then when tamoxifen resistance is established, patients can be given estrogen treatment. Since he is a part of the medical establishment, he may have no other choice but to play down his discovery. Standard cancer treatments are very big business. 

Tamoxifen has a long list of side effects that include hot flashes, vaginal dryness, low libido, mood swings, nausea, change in the uterus, increased risk of blood clots, endometrial cancer, depression, dementia, and reduced size and function of the brain. 

Replacement estrogen has none of those symptoms and may work with the other steroid hormones to restore the life force in women who have experienced breast cancer. 

How long does it take to establish estrogen deprivation? That depends on the person and her hormonal terrain. For me it took six months, after stopping synthetic hormone replacement when diagnosed with invasive hormone-positive breast cancer eleven years ago. Now that there is this documentation supporting what I instinctively knew back then, I can write about my experience for the first time. 

Any woman wanting to stop breast cancer with estrogen should be tested to see if she has achieved estrogen deprivation. Once that is established, be sure to use bioidential estrogen, which is estrogen that exactly replicates what a woman makes in her own body. 

And plan on frustration as doctor after doctor refuses to treat you because he has been taught only that estrogen causes cancer. The best route to finding a doctor who will treat you is probably to go to the nearest compounding pharmacy. Tell the pharmacist what you want to do and ask him or her to recommend a doctor. Compounding pharmacies are where bioidentical hormones are made, so the pharmacists know the doctors. Usually doctors who prescribe bioidentical hormones are those specializing in hormone replacement or anti-aging medicine, but some may be gynecologists.

Since my journey began I [Mrs. Minton] have replaced all hormones that were deficient in my body, and I am now truly living the best years in life.

http://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/GettingOlder.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3223472/

http://erc.endocrinology-journals.org/content/22/1/R1.full

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3223455/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27355337

http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/6/5/2028.long

Iodine for Cancer Prevention and Optimal Health

After my breast cancer surgery, my alternative health physician strongly recommended adding iodine to my diet. (I used iodized salt—so what is the big deal.) I did not ask why—I should have. I always have better compliance with instructions when I know the why behind doing something. I knew iodine is needed for the cells to convert food into energy and for normal thyroid function. (No one wants a goiter.) But what effect does iodine have on cancer?

Lynne Farrow is a journalist, researcher, former college professor, speaker and activist. Her own experience with breast cancer led to her discovery that iodine is a medicine with proven benefits reaching back 15,000 years. 

Iodine is an element that is needed for the production of thyroid hormone. The body does not make iodine, so it must be made an essential part of our food choices. Most of us believe iodized salt is the answer. Author Lynne Farrow asks do we get enough iodine from iodized salt? After her research she asked does iodized salt contain any iodine at all? 

The report, Iodine Nutrition: Iodine Content of US Salt by Dasgupta et al, discusses the “Iodine Gap.” This gap refers to the amount of iodine that’s supposed to be in iodized salt compared to the amount actually be measured by the time you use it. The researchers tell us salt is a poor food product to fortify because chloride competes with the iodine making it less effective.

In her book, The Iodine Crisis: What You Don't Know About Iodine Can Wreck Your Life, Farrow explains how iodized table salt is actually a nutritional scam that provides a false sense of security. “The outdated government recommendation (RDA) states that an adequate amount of iodine can be consumed from less than the 250 mcg [about] half teaspoon of iodized salt. She tells us they never factored in that the current bromide pollution purges iodine. They never factored in that iodine “evaporates” from salt containers. Or, that the form of iodine in salt doesn’t absorb well into the body. Research scientists debunked the myth that you can get enough iodine from iodized salt.

An iodine deficiency causes serious problems including frustration, depression, mental retardation, poor perception levels, goiter, abnormal weight gain, decreased fertility, coarse skin, chances of stillbirth in expectant mothers, constipation and fatigue. The World Health Organization reports iodine deficiency is one of the leading causes of mental retardation all over the world.

Good food sources of iodine include shellfish, deep-water whitefish, canned sardines, canned tuna, lobster, oyster, clams, cod, haddock, halibut, herring perch, salmon, sea bass, and shrimp. Dulles, kelp, and seaweed also contain dietary iodine. Iodine is also found in garlic, lima beans, Swiss chard, summer squash, sesame seeds, soybeans, turnip greens and spinach. 

Specific health benefits include:
Regulating metabolism that affects the efficiency of body’s organ system and body processes, such as, absorption of food; sleep cycles, and the transformation of food into usable energy.

Iodine is essential to the creation of the hormones thyroxin and triodothyronine that influence heart rate, blood pressure, body weight, body temperature, and protein synthesis. Iodine helps maintain optimal energy levels of the body by the efficient use of calories. The healthy skin, teeth and hair need adequate amounts of iodine. It speeds up hair growth and increases follicle strength, while lack of this mineral can result in hair loss. It is needed for normal growth and maturity of reproductive organs. 

A deficiency in iodine can actually make a woman infertile. It is essential that pregnant women get good amounts of iodine to prevent stillbirths or neurocognitive conditions in the newborn babies and to avoid gestational hypertension, which can result in a number of complications during infancy. Many pregnant women do not realize they must consume enough iodine for herself and her child since a great deal is lost every day as it passes into breast milk. 

Iodine is used to treat hypothyroidism a condition characterized by an under-active thyroid gland, which results in the general slowing down of all bodily processes as the chemical balance in your body goes off track. Symptoms of hypothyroidism are fatigue, dry skin, trouble concentrating, constipation, cramps, and leg swelling. Untreated hypothyroid ism can result in conditions such as heart failure or a coma. 

Iodine acts as a relief for fibrocystic diseases and is widely used in therapies, both alternative and modern. Lynne Farrow tells us that salt is iodized with potassium iodide, 
which may be helpful to the thyroid, however, the breasts and ovaries need iodine as well as iodide. She warns women are taking the wrong iodine.

Iodine has cancer prevention properties. It is anti-carcinogenic and can boost the immune system by enhancing the activity of antioxidants throughout the body. Research studies have shown that cancer cells shrink after being injected with iodine. They even undergo apoptosis (automatic cell death) and are then replaced with healthier cells. Studies have demonstrated a positive connection in iodine’s ability to induce apoptosis in breast cancer carcinoma cells.

Studies demonstrate that thyroid cancer patients show an improvement in symptoms after increasing their intake iodine intake. Thyroid cancer is far more common in people who are iodine deficient. 

Iodine ensures programmed cell death (apoptosis), which is essential in the creation of new organs and the removal of malignant cells like cancer cells or diseased cells. Iodine flushes out chemical toxins like fluoride, lead, mercury, and biological toxins. It has antibacterial qualities and is particularly effective against Helicobacter pylori (H. Pylori) in the stomach, which contributes to ulcers and may cause gastric cancer.

Consult a good alternative physician when reviewing your individual iodine needs, especially if you are pregnant. Caution is recommended: Iodine intake of more than 2,000 mg could be dangerous, especially in people suffering from kidney ailments or tuberculosis. Different people’s bodies will react differently to dose amounts so be observant.

Farrow says don’t skimp on the cheap cost of iodine supplementation this may create expensive problems down the line.  She warns that processed table salts often come with aluminum anti-caking chemicals, which contribute to Alzheimer’s issues.

Lynne Farrow currently serves as the Director of Breast Cancer Choices, Inc. This nonprofit organization scrutinizes the evidence for breast cancer procedures and treatments. Farrow, editor of IodineResearch.com, has compiled materials for both beginning and advanced iodine investigators. Visit Lynne's website at LynneFarrow.net

https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/minerals/health-benefits-of-iodine.html

http://www.jcrows.com/iodine.html

http://iodineresearch.com

LynneFarrow.net

Hope and Healing: Antineoplastons for cancer treatment

I have watched a stunning independently made documentary film.  I wish I could say that I was stunned, overwhelmed by the picturesque beauty of the scenery, or deeply touched by the humanity of the story line but I cannot.

What stuns me is the corruptness that infects the Food and Drug Administration. I believe there are cancer treatments that promote healing without destroying the immune system and healthy tissue. Stanislaw Burzynski, MD, Ph D, has found such a treatment.

However rather than being supported in his research of this break through treatment for cancer, he is harassed.  Why is he harassed? Because of a bizarre set of regulations put in place by the FDA that state an individual cannot hold patents only large corporations can. Even if your treatment works it won’t be approved because you are not MERC or Pfizer. (This is my simplistic understanding of the laws and regulations at work)

The FDA no longer uses regulations to protect us, but has been corrupted by power, greed and corporate influence.  I hope you will take the time to watch this documentary about Stanislaw Burzynski, MD, Ph D. Please don’t skip the last ten minutes (I was tempted because it is long-1 ½ hours) Julian Whitaker, MD makes excellent points about the reason the medical establishment is trying to stifle Burzynski’s work. His findings will shake up the trillion dollar standardized cancer treatment business.

Burzynski, the Movie is the story of a medical doctor and Ph.D biochemist named Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski, who won the largest, and possibly the most convoluted and intriguing legal battle against the FDA in American history.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BurzynskiMovie

Why I Chose Alternative Breast Cancer Treatments

http://www.NaturalNews.com/024496.html

Dr. Crescence Allen Reveals Why She Chose Alternative Breast Cancer Treatments

Wednesday, October 15, 2008 by: Barbara L. Minton

(NaturalNews) At the close of the White Rose Symposium on contemporary health issues, leading psychologist, health advocate and life coach Crescence Allen agreed to be interviewed about her bout with breast cancer and her decision to forgo the "standard of care" in favor of pursuing alternative treatments. Crescence's expertise includes child development, learning theory, and stress management. She is the author of Adaptive Coping Strategies of High Mastery Caregivers. She is also an herbalist and hypno-therapist.

Crescence was simultaneously diagnosed with two different forms of breast cancer for which she underwent surgery. Before she was even approaching full recovery from that ordeal, she was bombarded with a list of statistics by an oncologist and a radiologist who were eager to recruit her into their treatments. She reports leaving their office in a state of fright, horror and intimidation. For a short period of time she was in a state of shock that left her unable to think clearly and advocate for herself. But due to her background and knowledge base, she was able to rally and regain her ability to think clearly. It was at this point that she made the decision to reject the traditional medical model and embrace an alternative treatment modality.

Barbara: Author Danielle Steele compares a diagnosis of breast cancer to being struck by lightening. What did this diagnosis mean to you?

Crescence: Not that. It wasn't a surprise. I think some part of me knew that I had it. I had a dream that must have pertained to what was coming in my future. What really bowled me over was the trip to the doctor. Historically I have a hospital, doctor anxiety issue.

People are either shocked or say they always knew, and I think that the way a person responds depends on which end of this continuum she is on. I can only speak for myself. I viewed having breast cancer as a wake up call to look at my own life, lifestyle and personal psychology rather than it being a terrifying assault. I viewed it as a growth opportunity. Of course I had to force myself to view it that way, but I would rather take that position than view myself as at the mercy of randomness.

Barbara: What were your impressions of the cancer industry?

I believe in being empowered, and I think that leads into the question of what I think about the typical approach of the medical establishment toward women with breast cancer. The medical establishment has a hard time dealing with an empowered patient. I do believe that there is a cancer industry, and it is unfortunate. I agree that cancer is big business. The medical establishment and doctors in general are indoctrinated toward a certain point of view. They have their established protocols that are supposedly based on science and research. But as a person who utilizes research, I felt that they used it inappropriately. Because I understand the use of statistics, I realize that the model you create cannot be a one size fits all model. But the doctors seem to think using a one size fits all set of statistics for everyone is acceptable. There is just not enough individualization in the way the medical establishment deals with people.

As a consumer of physical or medical model services you have to be knowledgeable, assertive and empowered. You have to make your physician deal with you as an individual, as a whole person, not a statistic. The individual person has to be willing to say -- I am more than this cancer. I am a mind, a psychology, a social being with responsibilities to my family, to my work. All of those things have to be considered. But the only thing physicians want to look at are statistics about some tumor.

Barbara: Do you want to describe what kind of breast cancer you had?

Crescence: I don't really care what kind of breast cancer I had. It is all generic in my mind. The stages and grades that the medical establishment gives it are artificial and have no real meaning. Articles I have read about holistic healers say that doctors who take an alternative approach really don't care about the pathology reports. This is because that tumor is no longer in your body. I went to a surgeon but I didn't do the chemotherapy or radiation, or the life long follow up of drugs. I chose the alternative approach to the after-surgery treatments based on the information I got as an empowered person.

What the oncologists gave me that made me turn away from their treatments was a discussion of statistics that had nothing to do with me as a person. It was just statistics put forth as part of the standard of care protocol. I couldn't understand why they didn't want to give me tests to determine how I was after the first intervention. But they weren't interested in the Me that was there. They were only interested in the pieces of me they had removed. The pieces were what was important--the actual human being that was there in front of them was not important. This didn't make any sense to me. I asked the oncologist, "Aren't you going to do any blood tests to see the levels of my hormones or the levels of cancer antibodies in my blood to see how I am reacting right now, four weeks after the surgery?" She said, "No, because we have data, all these statistics that determine what we are going to do to you."

This really bugged me. I have a negative bias toward chemotherapy to begin with, so she would have had to prove to me that it was absolutely necessary, and then I may have still said "no". Based on my previous education in chemistry and my knowledge of how the human body works and how drugs are created and tested--that the dosages of drugs are set right below the level that is lethal-- we have to be really careful about what we agree to take.

When they create a drug to fight cancer, they are creating a drug to kill off tumors that are actually made out of the same material that your whole body is made of, as opposed to antibiotics that are created to only kill off a foreign thing in the body. Chemotherapy attacks every cell in the body and works to kill every cell in the body. It destroys the immune system or damages it permanently. A physician probably wouldn't agree with me, but I don't think you ever get your immune system back. Anything that is so poisonous as to make the hair fall out of your head is deadly. Chemotherapy also destroys your organs.

Barbara: How did you come to the alternative treatments you decided on?

Crescence: After I sought out an alternative approach, I was lucky enough to find a medical doctor who is also a naturopath and believed in supporting the immune system through alternative approaches, trusting the body to health itself. If your physician gives you the idea that chemotherapy will cure you, you are being misled. Chemotherapy will kill off parts of your body, as well as manifested tumors. The alternative approach is based on trusting the body to heal itself. Only the body can heal itself. That's why damaging the immune system is actually criminal in my mind.

If you find a good physician who believes in an alternative protocol, that physician's protocol will include doing actual scientific tests to see if the areas of the body are functioning appropriately and at the rates they should be to foster good health. They will see what the levels of your estrogens are and your progesterone and so forth. My physician looked at new knowledge bases that are known in the EU. She worked from that format, looking at research being done on healthier, effective means for supporting the body and the immune system for good health. I can tell you what we have done in general.

We have supported the natural enzymes that are depleted from our food sources. These enzymes are essential to our good health. There is a whole biochemistry involved with good health that has to do with eating fresh fruits and vegetables and getting natural enzymes from them--because that is really the only place to get these potent enzymes. You can really see that an alternative physician cares about how the environment impacts health, and to me that is important – to look at the whole person living her life. In other words, the alternative physician wants to eliminate from your lifestyle the things that created the cancer. They are interested in preventing cancer, not in just killing cancer cells. My physician is interested in helping my body heal from cancer, not in continuing to punish my body because it developed cancer. It is very different from the oncologists' approach.

The protocol is designed on my doctor's theories and various models of what causes cancer. She deductively goes back into my life history and makes lifestyle suggestions, food suggestions and supplement suggestions that will promote and maintain my health. Among the things suggested are not just healthy enzymes but also the Budwig diet, with its emphasis on flax oil, vitamin D, iodine, and the healthy things you find in broccoli, beans and legumes, also glyconutrients. Her supplement choices were based on the ongoing series of tests I have done – blood tests and urine tests. A protocol can't be generic. It has to be tailor made for the person. I can't say that if you do thus, and so you won't get breast cancer.

Barbara: What would you tell someone who is newly diagnosed and unsure of what to do?

Crescence: My advice to someone newly diagnosed and unsure of what to do is to calm down, ground yourself, discuss things with your inner self, trust your inner self, your personal guidance. Because I don't think you need to rush into anything too quickly. This cancer has been growing in your body for a long time, for several years. Once it is discovered, it is not going to kill you tomorrow, or the next day, or the next month. You can take some time to think. What made me lose my focus and be at my wits end was when I was in the oncologists' office and they have you rushing here, and there, and they bombard you with their techno-jargon.

I think physicians lose their perspective because they have been trained to approach everything as an immediate crisis, and they view themselves as dragging people back from the edge of death. It is a fear mongering situation. They want you to be afraid, because then you will be a compliant patient and do what they want you to do when they want you to do it. Their whole occupation is conscious or unconscious manipulation of people by their fears and making them feel guilty if they don't do what they're told. It's that old physician as god syndrome. So my advice is, don't let yourself be manipulated. Chemotherapy and radiation don't have to be done immediately after surgery. You should allow yourself time to heal from surgery and gain perspective before you make a decision about chemotherapy and radiation. Be an empowered person.

Barbara: This is going to be a wonderful interview. I think you are putting out information that will benefit many people. Thanks so much.

About the author: Barbara is a school psychologist, a published author in the area of personal finance, a breast cancer survivor using "alternative" treatments, a born existentialist, and a student of nature and all things natural.