New and Exciting Information about Breast Cancer.

October is breast cancer awareness month. You see pink ribbons, scarves, shirts and you’re encouraged to get a mammogram to “protect” yourself. While I appreciate the solidarity involved in women (and men) wanting to lower the risk of the disease and increase survival, I have little agreement with the approach.

From the vantage point of root cause medicine, I will share some truths as I know them. The news I’m going to share is exciting, optimistic and involves steps you can take action on today – for yourself, your children, your sisters, and friends. And guess what – it’s good for the men in your life as well!

According to breastcancer.org, one in eight women will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime, and nearly 40,000 women lose their lives to the disease each year.

Do Cows Spread Cancer to Humans?

It was never believed to be the case, but recent evidence points to the presence of the bovine leukemia virus in cows, affecting humans. Americans who eat rare to medium-rare beef or consume non-pasteurized milk are exposed to this virus.  It’s a cow virus that causes cancer in the mammary glands of cows. Due to its location in the mammary glands, it travels to the cow’s milk supply.

The bovine leukemia virus is so pervasive that literally 100% of the big dairy farms here in the U.S. have infected milk – yes 100%.

We’ve known about the virus for over 30 years but it was “thought” it wouldn’t bother humans. Research debunks that thought with close to 75% of the individuals tested exhibiting antibodies to the bovine leukemia virus in their bloodstreams.

But the question remained, was it making humans ill? Could it be causing cancer?

A 2014 study published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases confirmed 44% of the samples of breast tissue taken from women who had received breast surgery were infected with bovine leukemia virus. To decide if the virus was actually causing human disease vs. simply being present, a study was done to see if the virus was present more often in women with breast cancer. Unfortunately it was.

The conclusion? Up to 37% of human breast cancer may be attributable to exposure from the bovine leukemia virus.

Since 100% of the major dairy farms in the U.S. suffer from the virus, it sounds as if it’s impossible to get rid of it, right? Wrong. At last count, more than twenty countries have eradicated the bovine leukemia virus. It’s simply a matter of hygiene. You don’t expect your doctor to perform surgery on you wearing the same gloves he or she used on the last patient, correct? Why, because it spreads disease and germs. It’s no different for cows, yet a variety of “procedures” are conducted on these animals utilizing the same instruments and same gloves with no regard for sanitation. No wonder the entire herds get infected!

But wait, if there are so many sick cows, why is no one talking about it? It takes years to develop cancer and grow tumors. The cows have the virus and it is entering their milk supply, but since they are slaughtered long before their bodies develop tumors, it isn’t overtly evident they are ill.
Pasteurization of milk is likely killing the virus, but if you enjoy medium-rare to rare meat, that would be a source of exposure.

Steroid hormones are unavoidable in foods of animal origin. Cow’s milk, even when organic, has hormones occurring naturally within it that have a relationship to causing a variety of cancers such as endometrial, prostate, breast, ovarian, and uterine, along with early puberty and acne.

Drinking milk increases our levels of IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1), a hormone that is naturally present during human growth spurts, but in adults, its growth effects can result in tumors – cancer.

Higher levels of IGF-1 in the blood of adults is associated with a greater risk of developing cancer. IGF-1 actually transforms normal cells into cancer cells and then prompts them to grow and metastasize.

The action of milking cows while they are pregnant (which happens all the time in the U.S.) leads to higher levels of hormones in their milk.

In a study following 100,000 men and women over 20 years, those who drank milk had higher rates of death. The women drinking milk died more often from heart disease and cancer than their non-milk drinking counterparts.

Women who drank 3 glasses of milk per day had a 2x increased risk of death. Further, the more milk they drank the more bone fractures they suffered from.

In 1979 there was an epidemic of breast enlargement in Italian children. They suspected hormones being injected into animals to accelerate weight gain were to blame and as a result, these were banned along with U.S. imported meat due to our use of xenoestrogens (synthetic estrogens). Here in the U.S., we continue to ingest this meat that has been banned in many countries.

One chemical we use, Zeranol, can be dripped on healthy breast cells in vitro (meaning not in the body, but in a lab using human cells) and it will transform them into breast cancer in just 21 days. Despite the evidence, Zeranol is a highly potent synthetic estrogen with cancer-causing properties, its use is continued in our meat supply. It’s known to cause precocious puberty, a known risk of breast cancer, as well as the proliferation of breast tumor cells.

Obese women may be at greater risk of developing zeranol-induced breast cancer since they already have high levels of leptin, a pro-inflammatory hormone produced by fat cells that have been associated with higher breast cancer incidence. Due to zeranol’s growth-promoting tendencies, its presence in the diet can also create a higher risk of tumor growth and potentially metastasis in obese breast cancer patients.

Our population ingests a tremendous volume of hormone residues during our lifetime; none of them are labeled on our food.

A 2011 study evaluated more than a thousand girls across the U.S. finding a higher prevalence of breast development in mere 7 and 8-year-olds, compared to findings from a decade earlier. Unfortunately, women who develop at a younger age have longer exposure to the hormone estrogen, increasing their risk of breast cancer.  For each year you can delay puberty breast cancer risk may lessen 7%. When was puberty one hundred years ago? Typically around age 16. Some believe this explains why breast cancer rates are so high and worsening.

A study from 2010 followed 3,000 girls whose average age when starting their period was 12 years 8 months. The conclusion was meat consumption acted as the single most important determining factor dietarily of age of puberty. The second predictor was the consumption of animal protein in general, including dairy products, fowl, eggs and fish. For every gram of increased animal protein there was an over 15% increased risk of puberty occurring prior to age 12.

It has been surmised earlier puberty as a result of more overweight in children. However, European children, who also suffer from overweight but are not exposed to the degree of hormones and chemicals in their meat, do not display the same decreasing age of puberty.

Why does animal protein ingestion result in premature puberty? One reason is likely the same increased levels of IGF-1 we discussed above when discussing milk consumption – it occurs when eating meat as well.

Protective steps you can take even if you already have cancer

Here’s good news: women with breast cancer can cut their risk of death almost in half with the institution of some easy lifestyle changes:

5 or more servings of fruits and veggies a day, and walking 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week.

How to prevent breast cancer

Official guidelines for cancer prevention include the following:

1. manage our weight -getting your BMI into a normal zone is critical. Need help? Contact us.
2. eat more plant foods
3. eat fewer animal foods
4. drink less alcohol
5. breastfeed

These 5 simple measures were found to significantly impact our risk in a very positive way for specific cancers such as breast cancer, lung cancer, endometrial cancer, stomach cancer, oral cancer, liver cancer, esophageal cancer, and all cancers combined based on the largest prospective study on diet and cancer in history.

The recommendation to “eat mostly foods of plant origin” was deemed the most important.

A fascinating study out of England discovered the culprit causing almost 15,000 excess cases of cancer in just one year. What was it? A decade prior those who developed cancer had a very low intake of fruits and vegetables.

Is there something we can do to dramatically decrease our risk?

Is it possible to cut our risk factor by say 50%? That would be newsworthy right? Well, the proof is already out there yet we don’t hear too much about it, even during breast cancer awareness month. Why? It has been “assumed” that you can’t take the truth or you don’t really want to know it when it involves your lifestyle. Personally, I’m all about the truth. I tell it as I know it and let my patients decide if they want to listen.

Here it is: How to decrease your breast cancer risk in half!

A healthy lifestyle index was created by researchers and contains only four parts:

1) exercise – walking 30 minutes per day, six days per week
2) a diet shift away from the standard American diet (SAD) high in meat, dairy, fat, and sugar and transitioning towards a diet high in vegetables, fruits, beans, and legumes
3) avoidance of tobacco
4) avoidance of alcohol

Young women, who did well on just those four things cut their odds of developing breast cancer in half – unbelievable? It gets better! Older women scoring well cut their odds 80%! Yes, 80%.

The Harvard Nurses’ Study found consumption of less than a single drink per day may be associated with a modest increase in risk. Are you a non-drinker but you use mouthwash? It may sound silly since you spit out your mouthwash but listen to this: a study found that holding just a teaspoon of hard liquor in your mouth for 5 seconds resulted in carcinogenic concentrations of the chemical acetaldehyde that was produced from the alcohol held in the mouth. Despite spitting it out, the exposure of the carcinogenic chemical lasted an additional 10 minutes.

When it comes to mouthwash, the researchers concluded this: “All in all, there is a rather low margin of safety in the use of alcohol-containing mouthwash. Typical use will reach the concentration range above which adverse effects are to be expected.” If you want an effective mouthwash that we’ve used for years, check it out here. (Note: it’s part of our healthy hair, teeth and nails package, but it’s available on its own as well) My biological dentist introduced me to the company, one that also makes toothpaste, years ago.

Next week we will release the second part of this blog. In it we cover the following:

• What role saturated fat and trans fats have in breast cancer. Hint: if you think beef has the highest saturated fat you’re going to be surprised!
• Find out what food is cancer’s best friend – meaning what you should avoid eating to starve cancer
• What food component literally prevents cancer from invading your healthy tissues – it’s easy to find and inexpensive
• What is the single nutrient as effective at killing cancer cells as a drug – with zero side effects!
• Does cancer screening save lives? You may be surprised at the answer researchers reveal.
• What type of diet imparts the most protection against contracting cancer and improving life expectancy in those who already have it.

Why haven’t you heard much of this information before? Unfortunately, when it comes to solutions that involve diet and lifestyle too many doctors are not strict with their own lifestyles and therefore do not feel comfortable asking of their patients something there are unwilling to do themselves. Doctors who smoke as an example are less likely to ask patients to stop smoking. Similarly, doctors who don’t exercise are less likely to ask their patients to exercise. Therefore when it comes to the impactful dietary changes that truly make a difference in fighting cancer, your doctor won’t mention them because they’ve already decided you won’t do it. They’ve decided for you that you won’t make the change.

Here at Root Cause Medical, Dr. Rick, and myself completely practice what we preach – it makes us better doctors and healthier people. We are dedicated to helping you achieve better health and we are well aware of what that takes because we personally do it every day.