Beating breast cancer means stopping over-treatment

Breast cancer business doesn’t have to be a growth industry

You know the old saying — there are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

And somehow the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has managed to put out a report that had all three.

NCI is claiming that by 2030, we’re going to see 50 percent more breast cancer cases every single year. Those are the statistics… and they’re also the lies.

Because we’re not on the cusp of some breast cancer epidemic. That 50 percent growth represents the sickening rise of breast cancer over-diagnosis and over-treatment.

Thousands of women are being sent each year for disfiguring surgery and radiation for tumors that are small, harmless and sometimes not cancerous at all. And the problem is only getting worse.

If you don’t want to be another breast cancer statistic, you need to prevent the disease — and beat the overtreatment racket at the same time. Here are five easy ways to do it:

(1) Cancel that mammogram: A mammogram is more likely to falsely diagnose you with cancer — or lead to overly-aggressive treatment of a non-threatening tumor — than it is to save your life.

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that mammograms have had no effect on the breast cancer death rate. But Harvard scientists estimate that women waste $2.8 billion a year on painful and sickening breast cancer treatments they never needed, often after their mammograms produce a false positive.

Dr. Wright recommends thermography, which is more reliable than mammograms and works without radiation.

(2) Don’t treat DCIS like cancer: The most over-treated condition diagnosed by mammograms is ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), which means you have abnormal cells in your milk ducts.

DCIS is non-invasive — and many doctors argue it’s not cancer at all. But that doesn’t stop frightened women from agreeing to lumpectomies, radiation and even double mastectomies! Even our government admits that “most DCIS lesions will not evolve to invasive cancer.”

(3) Get your vitamin D levels checked: Researchers from the University of California, San Diego found that women with the lowest vitamin D levels were three times more likely to develop breast cancer. Keeping your levels in check may be an easy way to stop tumors from ever forming.

(4) Avoid these drugs that can cause breast cancer: Research from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found that women taking calcium channel blockers like amlodipine, diltiazem, isradipine, nicardipine, nifedipine, nisoldipine, and verapamil increased their breast cancer risk as much as 250 percent.

If you’re taking one of these meds, talk to your doc about getting off of it — fast.

(5) Load up on proven, cancer-preventing supplements: A major study a few years back proved that a daily fish oil regimen could slash your risk of the most common types of invasive breast cancer by 32 percent. Berberine, which if often used to help control blood sugar, may also help prevent and kill breast cancer.

Sources:

Breast cancers predicted to rise by 50 percent by 2030

(washingtonpost.com)