Should women have preventive double mastectomy like Angelina Jolie for fear of breast cancer?

The recent news that Angelina Jolie had preventive double mastectomy even without cancer because of her carrying the BRCA genes has sparked a lot of conversation amongst women whether that is the best way to avoid breast cancer.

When my clients speak to me about this subject in clinic, I ask them if they want to also avoid ovarian cancer and remove their ovaries, hence go through premature menopause, or avoid bowel cancer and remove their bowels.  My heart reaches out to people who think that removing organs can “prevent” cancer.  I wish Angelina was better informed than she was when she made that decision.

Breast cancer has been shown to be less prevalent in certain communities. In her book “Your life in your hands”, Professor Jane Plan, who was a breast cancer patient herself, studied how rural Chinese women did not get breast cancer.  What Prof Jane Plan found was that only one in 10,000 women in China will die from it, compared to that terrible figure of one in 12 in Britain and the even grimmer average of one in 10 across most Western countries. In highly urbanized Hong Kong , the rate rises to 34 women in every 10,000 but still puts the West to shame. The Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have similar rates. Plan found that breast cancer in China was considered a “Rich Woman’s Disease” as these people could afford the likes of dairy chocolate, ice-cream, and spaghetti and feta cheese.

Carrying a gene does not automatically make a person get cancer.  The genes need the right environment for the mutation of cells to occur to turn cancerous.  Our body, mindset, nutrition, lifestyle, exercise and food we eat make up the environment. 

There are many things a woman can do to make her environment unfriendly to cancer.  Here are some of them:

1. Get adequate sunshine – Vitamin D deficiency has been closely linked to breast cancer. 
2. Get moving, get active and reduce excess weight (fat) – excess visceral fat (around the abdomen) is inflammatory.
3. Have lots of cruciferous vegetables – these have been proven to help with estrogen metabolism pathways, an excess of “bad estrogen” in the right environment will turn into breast or ovarian cancer.
4. Eat 2-3 brazil nuts a day – brazils are a good source of selenium and this mineral is important for iodine absorption.  A lack of iodine has been seen in many pathologies of the breast.
5. Have adequate good fats from oily fish, seeds and nuts.
6. Reduce intake of fried foods which are a source of carcinogenic acrylamides.
7. Drink green tea.
8. Take a resveratrol, tumeric and acai antioxidant daily, like ResAcai.
9. Do not use underarm deodorant that has propylene glycol, aluminium or artificial deodorants which act as xenoestrogens.
10. Avoid plastic containers, especially microwaving in a plastic container.
11. Use environmentally friendly home cleaning products, avoid excessive exposure to sodium lauryl sulphate.
12. Avoid processed meats that contain sodium nitrite.
13. Live with a purpose, think positive thoughts and be involved in the community.
14. Practice meditation, yoga or prayers daily to achieve spiritual calmness.

And there are many different natural health therapies and supplements that can help to keep your estrogen detoxification pathways open and help you along.  Consult your natural healthcare practitioner for assistance.

Because Angelina is a well-known celebrity, what she says and does will have a big impact on women around the globe and I hope for women to be better informed.  We are not a victim of our genes.  We can take proactive action for our health and wellbeing (yes, but not proactively removing our breasts!)

I hope Angelina is adopting a good diet, lifestyle and nutrition with her carrying the BRCA genes.  Sure she has no more breasts to develop breast cancer, but are her ovaries free from cancer risk?

Are you overweight and malnourished?

Today we see the largest obesity epidemic that the world has never seen before. In the last two decades, we saw a steady increase of caloric intake by children, men and women and at the same time an increase in malnutrition of children. The problem is being overfed and undernourished!

Obesity is a key predictor of diabetes and cardiovascular risk and even some cancers which is avoidable. The intake of high fructose corn syrup in most packaged foods, white sugar, white flour, shortening and trans fat are making us fatter than ever before! At the same time, the intake of nutritionally dense whole food, fresh fruits and vegetables, beans, seeds, nuts and good fats are getting lower, being replaced by these highly processed junk food.

The problem partially lies in the flawed food pyramid that we were taught in school, where at the base of the pyramid we are told, we could have 6-11 servings of bread, pasta, and other grains. And at the tip of the pyramid, we are told that we are allowed little fats. The last generation has seen the rate of obesity double! This pyramid has to be flawed!

Low fat diets have been the trend of the last generation. The number of perceived healthy food advertised on television are usually high in sugar and carbohydrates. In their efforts to keep fats low, many food manufacturers have to compensate for the lack of mouthfeel from low fats with higher levels of taste from salt or sugar or artificial sweeteners. Many of these advertisements target children as their audience, hence the rise in childhood obesity.

Are you overweight or obese? Is your child overweight or obese? Do you suffer from fatigue, headaches, digestive problems like bloating, flatulence or heartburn, poor concentration, insomnia, sinusitis or postnasal drips? If so, look at what you are eating. If you fuel an aeroplane with diesel, you don't expect the aeroplane to fly, do you?

Healthcare or is it really just disease care?

There has been much confusion on what nutritional supplements and natural therapies do and what drugs do. Many people think that nutritional supplements are a natural substitute to the drug they have been prescribed and work as quickly in suppressing the symptoms. They expect the pain or illness to go away in a few hours or a day when they take the “natural pill”. This is how well the media has brainwashed the public, that if you don’t feel well, pop a pill to take away the symptoms, and you’ll feel good again. But, are you and your body really well by suppressing the symptoms with presciption drugs?

I would like to highlight a few distinctions here, between nutritional supplements and drugs and between health care and disease care. First of all, health is about wellness, a state of equilibrium, feeling full of life, energetic, and good about yourself. Health is not defined as the absence of disease. Therefore, healthcare is a proactive approach to your wellbeing, looking at your food choices, lifestyle and social connectedness. Health affects our quality of life immensely.

Dis-ease, on the other hand, is a state of disequilibrium, where a problem large enough has arisen and the scale has been tipped. In our culture here, we go to the doctor when we are not in a state of health, i.e. to treat a certain disease. It is uncommon to go to the doctor if you are not sick and just want to feel better. A friend of mine told me once that her sister-in-law who is a doctor told her she spent only 3 days in her entire time at medical school studying nutrition. So in short, what we always think as healthcare, really, is disease care.

Also, there is a vast difference between natural healing through nutrition and a treatment using drugs. Drugs have a place in our lives, especially in times of emergency and in some acute conditions. However, for many conditions, especially chronic conditions where drugs only work by suppressing the symptoms, healing through nutrition in many cases are better solutions, dealing with the root of the problem rather than suppressing the symptoms.

So, we always have choices, we can choose the state of health we want like everything else that we do. There are only 2 things we can’t choose (or 2 persons rather), our parents!

Healthy Organic Food - The Environmental Working Group Dirty Dozen

There has been much debate about organic versus non-organic foods. Organic farming uses companion and rotational planting as well as composting without the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Most of the media coverage and many proponents of non-organic food argue on the nutritional content and taste of the organic food not being significantly different from non-organic foods. The one main point that is missed or rarely discussed is the difference in the amount of pesticides used between organically grown and non-organic crops. The absence of heavily sprayed pesticides in organic crops grows the resilience of the plant, which helps us, the consumers with our immunity. The lack of commercial pesticides also helps reduce the burden on our body to deal with those toxin and heavy metal load.

I have found it useful to refer to the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 when deciding whether or not to buy organic, especially when there is a large price difference between the organic and non-organic variety. For more information on the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen and Clean 15, download the Healthy Organic Food article on our Free Articles page.

The truth about Lemon Detox

A lot of people asked us about the Lemon Detox Diet. The suppliers of the Lemon Detox Diet approached us to sell the product. But we have not taken on the product. Well, we are losing customers from a business point of view because we are not meeting demand and supply, but from a naturopathic and health point of view, we stand by our principles of helping you look good and feel great through sound nutritional practice.

We will not recommend this product because we care. What is more bizarre is that this program is promoted as a Weight Loss Program. How can drinking sugar syrup mixed in lemon juice and cayenne pepper be a healthy way to losing weight? You do not need to be a rocket scientist to work out that if you stop eating, you will lose weight. But, are you losing weight healthily i.e. are you losing fat? What happens to your muscle mass?

Amino acids derived from proteins are the building blocks of your muscles. A sugar syrup, lemon juice and cayenne contain hardly any amino acids if at all. Without amino acids, you lose lean muscles. Loss of lean muscles will help you lose weight but it is not healthy at all. And beware of the rebound weight gain once you start eating again! For more information, visit our Free Articles page and download the article on the truth about Lemon Detox diet.

Natural Treatment of Eczema

What is eczema? Eczema is a condition of the skin that results in weak skin integrity, itchiness, redness and/or weepy skin. Eczema is prevalent in 10-12% of children. Allergic reaction and gastrointestinal function is almost always implicated in eczema cases. The pharmaceutical treatment of eczema is often steroid creams. Many people put up with eczema for years because they think applying the steroid cream from their doctors is the only cure for eczema. There can be different causes of eczema. Amongst the major causes of eczema include:
1. Food allergy
2. Toxicity from the gastrointestinal tract, liver, bowels or lymphatic system
3. Stress
4. Exposure to environmental allergens and irritants or overwashing
5. Nutrient deficiency
6. Immune dysregulation
7. Bacterial infection
Treatment of eczema naturally involves dealing with food allergy or intolerances and working with the gastrointestinal tract as a toxic gastrointestinal tract from leaky gut syndrome, constipation or congestion of the elimination organs like the liver and lymphatic system can also show up on the skin as eczema. For more information, visit our Free Articles page and download the article on treating eczema and allergy naturally.

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