Breast Cancer.Health Strategy.
Breast Cancer.
Breast cancer statistics. Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in Ukraine and on the planet as a whole. The probability of breast cancer in women is approximately 12% on average *. This means that today every eighth woman gets breast cancer during her lifetime.
Despite the growth of scientific knowledge and improved understanding of the nature of the disease, the incidence of cancer is increasing year by year, especially in low- and middle-income countries *. Each year gives at least 2% increase in the incidence of breast cancer *. And according to the forecasts of the World Health Organization (WHO), by 2035 the risk of cancer may increase by 1.5-2 times compared to 2012 * * *. That is, if nothing changes, then every fifth woman will be diagnosed with it.
If this rate of increase in the incidence is maintained, every second girl born today will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her life. Naturally, this causes anxiety in every woman, and the desire to reduce her chances of falling into this sad statistic. Cancer in general, in comparison with other diseases, inspires the greatest fear and horror. Although cancer is currently the second leading cause of death in the world after cardiovascular disease, it is steadily catching up with its competitor and will become the leading cause of human death in the coming years. This situation requires the most serious response to it.
Humanity's war against cancer was decisively declared back in 1971. Over the past half century, hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent, but instead of a triumph, medicine suffers embarrassment. All this time, we constantly hear optimistic sensations that, finally, a new cure for cancer has been found, and it is about to be defeated. However, so far not only have effective methods of getting rid of the disease not been found, but even the indicators of the effectiveness of treatment have not improved as well as we would like. For example, in the US, the 5-year survival rate for breast cancer increased by 16% from 1975 to 2016, from 75% to 91% *. The situation is similar in other developed countries.
It would seem that 16% over 40 years is impressive achievement. However, this success is largely due not so much to fundamental scientific breakthroughs (such as monoclonal antibodies or tamoxifen) *, but to advances in technologies for earlier detection of the disease. In fact, due to data juggling – attributing to the patient's survival period the period of previous tumor development, which was hidden in former times. As a result, the 5-year survival rate is encouragingly increasing, while the number of deaths from cancer (an indicator that is difficult to manipulate) continues to increase year by year *, even with population growth *.
The effectiveness of traditional methods of treatment is still unsatisfactory. Doctors prescribe high doses of toxins to the patient and, watching the death of cancer cells, assure themselves and the patient that the tumor is defeated. But if she comes back again, can it be called a victory?
The contribution of chemotherapy to the 5-year survival of adult women in the United States with breast cancer is estimated to be from 1.4% * to 3-7% *, which is comparable to the placebo effect. According to other very rough estimates, chemotherapy for breast cancer can reduce mortality in patients under 50 years of age by no more than 6-12%, and in patients over 50 years of age even less *. Against the background of an overall 90% survival rate, this is so low that it fundamentally casts doubt on the predominance of the advantages of traditional chemotherapy over its disadvantages.
Radiation therapy also shows low efficiency. The side effects of both therapies are so severe that the body often lacks the resources to resist relapse. The latest cancer therapies, including targeted therapies, are no safer than existing ones. The price you have to pay for them is an increase in the rates of incomplete treatment (by a third), toxicity of grades 3 and 4 (by one and a half times), and death from toxins (by 40%) *.
Even outside of oncology, medical manipulations in themselves increase the risk of dying. Complications of drug therapy are one of the leading causes of death in the world. In the United States alone, at least 225'000 people die every year as a result of medical actions, more than 100,000 of them due to correctly prescribed and FDA approved drugs * *. Negative adverse reactions of varying severity develop in 10-30% of hospitalized patients, and in 40% of outpatients *.
Survivors of conventional therapy with breast cancer, even 20 years after diagnosis, are at increased risk of disease recurrence *, weight gain *, cardiovascular disease *, metabolic disorders *, and other pathological conditions that impair quality of life and increase risk other dangerous diseases.
Promising therapies (such as immunotherapy *) are far too distant and their efficacy and safety are unclear. It is still very far from widespread practical use. At the moment, it is difficult for women diagnosed with cancer to count on their help.
Surgery remains the most reliable method of getting rid of the tumor, but it is powerless with multiple metastases. At the same time, neither surgery, nor chemotherapy, nor radiation therapy, nor other methods of treatment aimed at getting rid of an existing tumor, can prevent the appearance of new tumors in the body. Thus, the problem of the patient is not fundamentally solved, since neither the disease nor its underlying causes disappear along with the outwardly visible physical destruction of the tumor.
Health is the harmony of the body, not the absence of symptoms. However, until now, the entire modern cancer treatment strategy is aimed solely at combating the consequences, and not the causes of the disease. On cancer cells, and not on the normalization of functions. The effectiveness of the treatment is evaluated only by the disappearance of the tumor, and is rightly ridiculed in the spirit of black humor: "The tumor is defeated, but, unfortunately, the patient died." The therapeutic goal turns out to be false, amusing evil tongues: "Medicine is making more and more progress, but in the wrong direction."
A fundamental problem stands in the way of moving in the «right» direction. The medical industry is an ordinary business, the purpose of which is profit, and not a public service, the purpose of which is the health of people. Doctors profit from sick people, not healthy people. A cured patient is a lost client, a lost profit. Therefore, the interest of medicine is to treat people, not to cure them.
The pharmaceutical business profits from other people's suffering, tears and fears. And practical medicine is more and more dependent on the financial success of Big Pharma.
Therefore, there is little hope that any effective treatments will be cheap and widely available. On the contrary, non-commercial therapies are unlikely to be able to find a sponsor to go through all the costly evidence-based research and licensing procedures. At the same time, highly profitable therapies do not face such problems; they are only threatened by the emergence of cheap alternatives. What is beneficial to a person is completely unprofitable for a multi-billion dollar corrupt industry.
The high cost of treatment makes it beyond the reach of the poor, especially in poor countries. This state of affairs leads so many patients to turn to alternative or complementary strategies to fight cancer, even the most wild, ridiculous and dangerous ones; in this case, already bringing profit to many scammers.
Prevention of breast cancer can prevent a tumor, while the widely advertised early diagnosis and treatment, by definition, cannot affect the incidence of cancer and the number of people who get it. The vast majority of diseases, including those considered incurable, can be prevented; instead of allowing them to appear and then trying to fight them. The best fight against a disease is not to give it any chance at all.
And it is quite real. The American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Foundation estimate that 30-40% of all cancers can be prevented with an appropriate diet, physical activity, and maintaining adequate body weight *.
Even seemingly minor lifestyle changes can be more effective than any other medical intervention in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, stroke, as well as all types of cancer and overall mortality *. Conversely, our behavior can negate any therapeutic effort.
Prevention saves lives. But she deprives the business of profit. Therefore, the healthcare system is focused more on compensating for existing pathologies than on preventing them. And therefore, preventive medicine has no engines, except for the enthusiasm of individuals, in contrast to practical medicine with its gigantic financial and media opportunities.
However, it would be unfair to blame doctors for all the problems associated with diseases. A doctor can be a diagnostician, consultant, even healer with a passion for your health, but he cannot and should not be a babysitter. Disease prevention is the responsibility of the person himself, if, of course, he really wants to be healthy.
The cost associated with the appearance of a thief is always greater than the cost associated with the appearance of a fence. The costs associated with treatment are tens and hundreds of times greater than the costs associated with prevention. We have a choice: either treat ourselves responsibly, or choose other life priorities, paying for them with our health.
Our body is only for ourselves. Health is given to us by the Lord as a gift at birth. But just like an inheritance, its preservation and multiplication requires at least minimal effort. Unfortunately, most people do not think about it, and burn wealth until the irreparable happens. And after that, not everyone draws the appropriate practical conclusions. And they would rather die than change their lives.
Unfortunately, it is not in our power to completely avoid cancer. Cancer is as much a part of life as stress, injury, suffering, and death. However, it is in our power to reduce its risk to the lowest possible level, as it is a preventable disease *. Only 5-10% of all cancer cases are the consequences of unfavorable heredity, and in the case of breast cancer, this percentage is even lower. We can avoid the influence of all other risk factors *. Even with a genetic predisposition, it can be significantly compensated by greatly reducing the risk of the disease.
There are quite a lot of preventive measures that can reduce the risk of breast cancer by an order of magnitude, and which will be outlined below. This is exactly the case when a copper coin of prevention saves a gold coin of treatment, and minutes of prevention save years of life.
Cancer does not have a single cause. It is not infectious, it is a complex systemic disease. There are many factors that together drive the process of tumor formation and development. Accordingly, there are no fewer ways to counteract them, anf they are discussed in detail in the relevant sections of this work. We cannot know which of the factors is the most significant for a particular person, so the best strategy is to avoid each of them.
Briefly summarizing the essence of all the above, in a separate section, a female breast health formula † is proposed that could prevent most of the problems associated with the mammary gland, such as hyperplasia, fibrocystic conditions, benign and even malignant tumors. Moreover, its recommendations could take many other common health disorders off the agenda. However, the author understands that, most likely, these lines are being read because prevention is already too late.
Treatment of breast cancer. Just as there is no absolute insurance against cancer, there is no inevitability to die from it. The earlier the disease is diagnosed, the less it is started, the more responsible the attitude to the situation, the more favorable the prognosis will be.
Be that as it may, the possibilities of medicine are growing, our understanding of the nature of the disease is growing, our ability to maneuver, and with them the chances of a cure. And not only in the sense usually understood in oncology (lack of symptoms of the disease within 5 years after diagnosis and treatment), but also in the commonly understood everyday sense (irreversible deliverance from the disease). Even without the use of medicines, solely due to healthy principles of behavior, it is possible not only to prevent the disease, but also to significantly slow down its development, and in some cases even reverse it.
Cancer is a multifactorial disease, and for this reason there can be neither a single effective drug nor a single effective therapy. Only a multipurpose approach focused on the whole organism, and not on a cell, organ or function, can be truly effective. An example of such an effort to develop the concept of broad-spectrum cancer therapy with a combination of non-toxic natural substances is an initiative called The Halifax Project *.
In the following sections, a comprehensive breast treatment strategy † will be proposed that helps to get rid of tumor, as well as many other degenerative diseases, by normalizing the work of the main functions of the body. It will not require large expenses, but it will require responsibility and systematic. Those who want to hear the finished proposal, and not understand the intricacies, can immediately follow the link.
The purpose of the publication. This work is designed for a thoughtful reader who wants to better understand the causes and mechanism of his illness, and who seeks to apply the knowledge gained to get rid of it.
This is the result of many years of work of an independent researcher, which absorbed the answers to many questions, the answers to which he could not find in the popular literature. Here he attempted to outline the minimum knowledge regarding breast cancer. As well as reviews and reports of many scientific papers that have considered ways and means of fighting cancer beyond those offered by the standard protocol. This work is done with the hope that the knowledge accumulated by modern science can significantly improve the outcome of treatment.
In the end, even if the disease cannot be managed, we still have ways to make the patient's life better, and to prolong it as much as possible; ideally – up to death from old age or from other causes. If you can live happily ever after with diabetes or heart failure, why not live happily ever after with cancer?
Warning. Knowledge is power. In our case, it is the power that conquers death. But in the wrong hands it is a devil force. The wide range of options discussed here is by no means an invitation to self-treatment. Although they all have some scientific basis, the practical application of most of them will require the decision of the attending physician in order to enhance the prescribed treatment, and not harm it. Which of them to choose, and in what doses, how to combine them, and whether they should be used at all, should be decided by a competent specialist. However, the patient has the right to discuss the choice of the best solution.
Wish. Health is something without which a happy life, success, realization of one's destiny is impossible. It is foolish to take care of the house, car and clothes more than your most important property – the body. A good state of finances no longer makes any sense when there is no good state of health. And health depends entirely on ourselves. And although fate has favorites, it justly rewards everyone according to his efforts. The Lord only helps those who work. But the Lord does not work in his place.
Good luck and good health to you.