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Our Voices Are Being Heard!
One of the things I always recommend people do is vote with their money. If you are against a certain product or manufacturer, don’t buy it, don’t support them. They will soon get the message when sales start to slump.
This also translates to health care. While doing research on some ingredients within three different breast health formulations for which I have recently been writing product reviews, I came across something really interesting. It is apparent that our voices are being heard by the medical establishment!
Most of my research is done on pubmed.gov, the US website that is a service of the US National Library of Medicine. Pubmed.gov has over 24 million citations for biomedical literature, and that’s where I discovered that we – as breast cancer patients and survivors – are being listened to.
Use Of Complementary Approaches Is Common
One study I was reading about the effects of flaxseed began with the words “Use of complementary approaches is common among breast cancer survivors.” 1
A 2013 study done on the medicinal mushroom ganoderma lucidum stated “Breast cancer metastasis is one of the major reasons for the high morbidity and mortality of breast cancer patients. In spite of surgical interventions, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and targeted therapy, some patients are considering alternative therapies with herbal/natural products.” 2
I’m so glad they noticed! Actually in America alone, upwards of $35 billion is being spent on alternative therapies and complementary medicine. Per year.
We Don’t Want Side Effects!
One study investigating indole-3-carbinol (I3C) and its effects on the aromatase enzyme (the chief enzyme responsible for activation of estrogen) really got me chuckling. The researchers said “Natural products as aromatase inhibitors have received growing interest in recent years because of their potential in the inhibition of aromatase with lower side effect, and the possibility to the translation from their uses as chemotherapeutic agents to future clinical uses in breast cancer chemoprevention.” 3 More on chemoprevention below.
As a breast cancer coach, the complaint I hear most often is about the side effects of the hormone blocking drugs being prescribed for people after chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy treatments end. We are being told that we “need” these drugs, that our lives depend on us taking these drugs, but the side effects can be horrific – doesn’t quality of life count for anything? So I was delighted to read that researchers are aware of this and are actively looking for natural products that will have the same or similar effect. Good for them (and about bloody time)!
We Don’t Want Toxicity!
Another research study investigating the effects of eugenol, a phytochemical found in clove essential oil, stated “Breast cancer is a major health problem that threatens the lives of millions of women worldwide each year. Most of the chemotherapeutic agents that are currently used to treat this complex disease are highly toxic with long-term side effects. Therefore, novel generation of anti-cancer drugs with higher efficiency and specificity are urgently needed.” 4
Highly toxic indeed. Mother Nature has provided us with everything we need to maintain our health. The only thing that has been lacking is the scientific proof that they work, and the studies are flowing in, thick and fast. Researchers (mainly outside the USA, sadly) are discovering every day that what we had relied upon for centuries for our wellness really does work. It is exciting for me every time I come across some bit of research that indicates something coming from nature has potent anti-cancer activity and can be useful for our health regimes.
An Ounce Of Chemoprevention Is Worth A Pound Of Cure
A Polish study investigating the effects of curcumin as a possible cancer prevention agent stated “Breast cancer is the most common malignant cancer among women, both in Poland and worldwide. Due to the constantly increasing number of breast cancer cases, it is vital to develop effective activities in primary and secondary prevention. One of the promising methods of best value, connecting both types of cancer prevention, appears to be chemoprevention.” 5
Don’t confuse chemoprevention with chemotherapy. The goal of chemoprevention is to avoid breast cancer altogether, whereas chemotherapy is the use of some fairly toxic drugs to kill a cancer in progress. Chemoprevention can be possible not only with drugs, but with certain very particular natural supplements. In fact, I will go out on a limb and say the natural supplements and healthy lifestyle work better than the drugs do.
More Effective Modality Needs To be Promptly Established
I saved the best quote for last. My favorite remark in a research study was made in this new study just released this month (Feb 2015). Researchers were exploring the benefits of the medicinal mushroom Phellinus linteus and remarked “Although several therapeutic options are currently available for patients with various cancers, the outcomes are often disappointing and a more effective modality needs to be promptly established.” 6
Understatement of the year.
Research:
1. A pilot study comparing the effect of flaxseed, aromatase inhibitor, and the combination on breast tumor biomarkers http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24669750
2. The mushroom Ganoderma lucidum suppresses breast-to-lung cancer metastasis through the inhibition of pro-invasive genes http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24718855
3. Inhibition of testosterone aromatization by the indole-3-carbinol derivative CTet in CYP19A1-overexpressing MCF-7 breast cancer cells http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25612679
4. Eugenol triggers apoptosis in breast cancer cells through E2F1/survivin down-regulation http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24330704
5. Curcumin in chemoprevention of breast cancer http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24864107
6. Potent Anticancer Effects of Bioactive Mushroom Extracts (Phellinus linteus) on a Variety of Human Cancer Cells http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4245057/
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