Breast Cancer: Two words that inspire the most hideous cocktail of gripping fear, indescribable helplessness and uncontrollable anxiety in a human being. And of course, that affects thousands around the world.
Just a casual walk through Hollywood alone will reveal the shockingly long list of ‘known celebrities’, who have had a brush with it. Sheryl Crow, Christina Applegate, Sandra Lee, Shannon Doherty, Giuliana Rancic, Olivia Newton John… stay with us… Julia Louis Dreyfus, Kathy Bates, Kylie Minogue, Betsey Johnson, Cynthia Nixon… not done yet… Rita Wilson, Suzanne Somers, Edie Falco, Maggie Smith, Angelina Jolie and the list goes and goes.
One out of eight women in the world, at some point in their lives, have had to endure the mental, physical and emotional anguish that mastectomies, radiation, chemotherapy and a diagnosis of the dreaded C bring with it. All despite well-known research suggesting that breast cancer is, in fact, the most treatable one of all.
First: The Good News
“There have been tremendous advances in treatment, surgical techniques, drug treatments and radiation over the last two decades; improving survival rates and outcome, minimising cosmetic side-effects and maintaining quality of life,” says renowned Breast Oncologist at Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai, Dr Vinay Deshmane. “It’s important to remember, that all stages of breast cancer are now treatable,” he adds, lifting the heavy shroud around the subject and giving us hope and promise.
Breaking It Down
So let’s start with the A’s and B’s of the dreaded C. What exactly is cancer we ask Dr Deshmane, “Normal cells have a cycle; they grow and they die. When this cellular clock goes wrong or is affected, the cells keep multiplying and don’t die. The result is uncontrolled cellular growth, which is called cancer.”
Types of Breast Cancer
Continues Dr Deshmane, “There are two main types; the non-invasive ones that don’t spread all over the body and the invasive ones which do,” he says explaining that cancer is spread by the blood stream and the lymphatic system and that is how ‘staging’ is determined.
“Staging is a combination of the size of the primary tumour, the status of the lymph nodes and the status of distant organs (liver, lung, bones and brain).”
The Four Stages
As most of us already know, breast cancer is divided into four stages:
Stage I and II: Early
Stage III: Advanced
Stage IV: Metastatic or disseminated (spread over
the body).
And then there is the stage before 1 – ‘precancer’, which is determined by the finding of precancerous cells in a person’s body; which if addressed early, increases life expectancy exponentially.
What Is A Precancerous Cell?
Now for those who have never had a family history of the disease, the words ‘precancerous cells’ can quickly conjure up feelings of foreboding horror. However, those who do, consider them to be a God-given warning sign that allow them to take immediate proactive action, resulting in a healthier and longer life. After all, the best protection is early detection!
Normal cells don’t become malignant, cancerous or abnormal overnight. It’s when they become progressively ‘Atypical’ – but are not yet abnormal enough to be called cancerous – that they are considered precancerous,” says Dr Vinay of Hinduja Hospital. And here’s the great news, not all precancerous changes progress to cancer and it’s hard to tell which of them will. Of course, when the family risk is higher, a mastectomy (removal of all the breast tissue) is recommended as a preventative measure.
Less than a decade ago, precancerous or early-stage cells could rarely be detected. However, today, with medical and personal hypervigilance they are. And what action does hypervigilance entail? Well, noticing small changes in ones’ body, going for regular check-ups, not avoiding or ignoring alarm bells and looking after your emotional, physical and emotional well-being!
“Regular self-examination is the gold key; you need to know what your breast tissue feels like, so that you will know if and when there are any changes,” says certified Bodytalk Practitioner, with a PhD in Natural Medicine, Geraldine Naidoo.
It’s an established fact that cancers are caused due to changes in the genome and are thus genetic in origin. So the big question that begs to be asked is – fate aside – can a genetic disease like Cancer really be prevented, avoided or dodged?
Says celebrated obstetrician and gynecologist of Primavera Medical Centre in Dubai Healthcare City, Dr Rosalie Sant, “Sometimes, while cells replicate to replace old ones, the DNA inside them makes a mistake. This happens especially if the environment the cells are in are contaminated or if our internal policing system or immunity doesn’t function optimally due to environmental pollutants, oxidants and other toxins!”
So is there a way to stop these cells from making mistakes and preventing cancerous growth?
Well, if you ask the men making waves today in the world of epigenetics, wellness and disease, Dr Joe Dispenza, Dr Gregg Bradden and Dr Bruce Lipton, the answer would be a resounding meditative YES!
“Genes have but a two per cent chance of being ‘switched on’ and it’s mostly lifestyle and man’s emotional state that determine if it will or won’t,” says Dr Joe Dispenza. of factors come together to create the perfect storm that is cancer. Things like internal emotional stress (fears, unresolved emotions and challenging relationships), nutritional stress, external environmental stress and circadian imbalances,” Geraldine says with reference to the common threads she has found between all the cancer patients she has treated over the years.
Despite being a Doctor of Natural Medicine, Geraldine is a strong believer in western medicine as the first port of call and complementary ‘Quantum’ treatment alongside it. “We are complex beings, made up of emotions, thoughts, feelings, belief systems and consciousness, which is the highest form of our being. Quantum Science teaches us there is downward causation. This means that the energy body affects the physical body. As a result it is critical to address all these layers of ourselves for prevention of cancer, or for full healing to occur,” says the Holistic Healthcare Practitioner, who spends half her time in Dubai and the other half in South Africa.
Quantum medicine includes various medical and healing modalities from the around the world that existed before traditional medicine was discovered. And now after years of these alternative medicine and energy healing modalities being dismissed as unicorns, rainbows and hocus pocus, finally Quantum Science is proving that while human beings have a physical form that we can see made up of vibrating energy particles, there are millions of unseen particles, elements and energy fields that co-exist, vibrating at a frequency that cannot be seen by the naked eye, much like WIFI! But somehow we are all quick to buy into the invisible entity that is WIFI, yet find ourselves rolling our eyes at the even more powerful entity that is ‘energy’ or ‘consciousness’.
“Dr Bruce Lipton, one of the leading voices in New Biology at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, has conducted studies proving that genes do not necessarily determine destiny!” Says Geraldine about the new-age science around epigenetics. This, in laymen’s terms, proves that ‘environment’ – behaviour, lifestyle, emotion, thought etc – impacts the physiology of the cell by turning genes on and off!
So just because you are genetically predisposed to cancer does not mean you will absolutely get it; environment impacts gene expression says Dr Bruce Lipton. “And that’s powerful knowledge because we CAN change our environment,” says Geraldine confidently.
The Medical Science Experts
“Holistic medicine believes that the mind has an important part to play in all functions and when affected things go wrong in the body,” says Dr Deshmane.
“Environment, both internal and external, allows our protective genes and immunity to keep us healthy or otherwise. Nature has given us different types of corrective genes. So having one missing does not mean that there will definitely be a cancer,” adds Dr Rosalie Sant of Primavera Medical Centre in Dubai.
Prevention
1. Manage Your Hormones
“Excess Oestrogen is known to affect the risk of breast and uterine cancer. And Oestrogen may be consumed in many different forms – even through foods, both meat and plant. Hormones affect the internal milieu of the body and therefore, indirectly, the immunity and general environment of the replicating cells,” says Dr Sant.
“Avoiding long-term Hormone Replacement Therapy,” says Vinay Deshmane.“Circadian rhythms include hormone cycles and a disruption of this can cause full body imbalance. If it remains undiagnosed and untreated, it can lead to chronic and or terminal illness. Respecting the time and quality of sleep, nutrition and exercise are basic ways to keep good balance,” says Geraldine.
2. Reduce Your Environmental and Emotional Toxicity
“Limit toxic exposure wherever you can, including Bluetooth and WIFI!” says Geraldine.
“Smoking has been linked to lung cancer and viruses like HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) are linked to cervical cancer, especially if our immune system doesn’t manage them effectively. And a person’s susceptibility to damage by toxins is vary varied and individual,” Says Dr Sant.
“Further to toxins from food and environment, my concern with cancer is emotional toxicity. It’s not only about people who are toxic to us, but how toxic we are to ourselves. What harmful habits and belief systems we perpetuate. What we subconsciously or secretly think about ourselves, others and the world. For clarity on these issues, we need to enlist the help of an observer – a therapist or practitioner,” Say Geraldine.
“My own clinical experience with many cancer patients has been that they truly believed, at some point, that the world would be a better place without them. And because every cell in their body was listening to that sentiment and vibrating with that feeling, their physical body eventually proved this thought. If we believe we are inherently bad, undeserving or unworthy, it will manifest in the physical body,” says Geraldine.
3. PractiCe Mind and Body Harmony
“Practice regular stress management techniques. If you feel something is out of harmony, have it checked out sooner rather than later,” says Geraldine Naidoo adding “Don’t be afraid to cry wolf. Prevention and early detection
is gold!”
“Regular exercise that is not excessive. Excessive exercise may release toxins, lower the immune system and be counterproductive,” says Dr Sant. “Meditative exercise that controls the breathing and affects the vagus nerve (the main nerve of the autonomous nervous system that affects the internal subconscious functions of the body) is beneficial as it allows the body to balance the internal chemical environment that the cells live and replicate in,” adds Dr Sant.
“Exercising 45 minutes, 3 times a week is ideal. And meditation is known to have beneficial effects,” says Dr Deshmane. “It is crucial to our wellbeing that we stop, sit in silence, connect to ourselves and/or to nature in order to nourish and replenish our minds. It takes courage to say yes to rest and play in a culture where exhaustion is seen as a status symbol. Don’t just rest when you are tired, make rest a habit and this will show up in your health and wellbeing,” says Holistic coach Geraldine.
4. Nutrition Matters
“Avoid obesity and keep a low BMI,” says Dr Deshmane “Food that is anti-oxidant, fresh, free of chemicals (pesticides, growth enhancers, etc) is ideal. Leafy green and other colourful vegetables and clean meat and fish are great too,” says Dr Rosalie Sant.
“Meal timing is as important as meal quality, and variety is the spice of life! Diversity of diet equals diversity of microbiome and this is a key component of the immune system” says Geraldine.
5. Sleep
“If we don’t choose a day to rest, our body will choose one for us,” says Geraldine adding, “Disrupted circadian rhythms are often indicated in patients with cancers and other chronic illnesses, and is usually the first thing I have to balance in a cancer patient. We live on a planet that has roughly a 24 hour cycle, and everything that lives on this earth has a cycle to match this timing.
We have ‘clock genes’ which are internal time keeping systems that regulates the various physiological processes in our body, including sleep-wake cycles, production of cortisol the stress hormone, heart rates, oxidative stress, immune and digestive and inflammatory responses, epigenetic responses and cell metabolism. When our body is out of rhythm with this cycle we open ourselves up to potential major illness. Science also shows that our circadian rhythm impacts the production of melatonin, which has been found to inhibit tumour growth,” says Geraldine.
6. Miscellaneous Factors
“There are a few other things that studies have found that decrease the risk of breast cancer. Like bearing a first child early, breast feeding, avoiding oral contraceptives, having a mammography yearly (especially after the age of 50) and, for those with a high-risk family history, more vigilant check-ups are essential for early detection and arrest. And contrary to common belief, self-breast exams should be monthly and not yearly,” says Dr Vinay.
“Finding the root cause of your own cancer and resolving these issues means that you destroy the environment that caused you to become ill. We don’t just want remission, we want full healing, and this means a change in all the poor habits and the environment that led us to the cancer in the first place,” says Geraldine.