One day in 2009, LA Times Staff Writer Laurie Buckland found out she was dying.

She was stuck in traffic when she got the call. She pulled over into an elementary school parking lot, and received the news: she had breast cancer that had spread to her bones, liver, lungs, and brain. This call came 13 years after a previous diagnosis that had been “successfully” treated with a lumpectomy and radiation therapy. Now she had less than three years to live.

True to her life’s work, she poured herself into research, attended seminars, and wrote a scathing and intimate piece about the medical industry, “Susan G. Komen for the Cure,” and her own journey with breast cancer. In it, she points out that the current approach to fighting breast cancer is unbalanced and sometimes counterproductive.

An Out of Date Approach

“Promise me you’ll never wear a pink ribbon in my name,” Larizza wrote, “or drop a dollar into a bucket that goes to breast cancer ‘awareness’ for ‘early detection for a cure,’ the mantra of fund-raising juggernaut Susan G. Komen, which has propagated a distorted message about breast cancer and how to ‘cure’ it.”

In her view, the Susan G. Komen foundation is misguided and out of date. First of all, she says, early detection is not useful and can even be harmful.

“I’m proof that early detection doesn’t cure cancer. I had more than 20 mammograms, and none of them caught my disease. In fact, we now have significant studies showing that routine mammogram screening, which may result in misdiagnoses, unnecessary treatment and radiation overexposure, can harm more people than it helps.”

The search for “The Cure” is also misrepresented.

“We now know that breast cancer is not one disease. What works for one person might not for another: There is no one “cure.” We are each, in effect, one-person clinical trials. Yet the knowledge generated from those trials will die with us because there is no comprehensive database of metastatic breast cancer patients, their characteristics and what treatments did and didn’t help them.”

Moreover, the funds raised are not used effectively. “Komen channels only a fraction of [its] funds into research or systems to help those who are already seriously sick. Most of that money continues to go to a breast cancer ‘awareness’ campaign that is now painfully out of date.”

Lauri is not alone in her view. As Lauri observed, at a Metastatic Breast Cancer Network conference, “there were no pink ribbons in sight, except for a single lapel pin that had been turned upside down like a noose.”

Perhaps this is because, for all its heroism, the Susan G. Komen foundation’s efforts are no longer relevant. True, once upon a time raising awareness was a very important task, but that time has passed. Now, it may be giving supporters a feeling that they’re doing something useful when their efforts could be better channeled elsewhere.

So what can we do? Where should we channel our hope for a breast-cancer-free world?

Simple.

Nourish, nourish, nourish.

Nourishment as Prevention

I have this hunch that most modern illnesses can be prevented by consistent, long-term nourishment. This hunch led me to find Nicole Larizza, MS, founder of Nourish Our Girls.

She describes her focus on the website. “There is compelling data that diet and lifestyle choices during childhood and adolescence may influence risk of this disease [breast cancer] later in life. Nourish Our Girls is an educational campaign to raise awareness about girls’ food choices that may increase or decrease their risk of breast cancer as an adult. It’s all about feeding our daughters well NOW… to protect them from breast cancer later.”

In an interview with Huffington Post Larizza says:

As women, we tend not to think about breast cancer until mid-life — our 40s, 50s, and beyond — when our friends, sisters, mothers, or coworkers are diagnosed with this dreaded disease. But adult breast health is largely determined much earlier in life, when the breast tissue is developing. During this time, the breast is most vulnerable and sensitive to nutritional and environmental stimuli. Research shows us that consumption of certain foods during the breast development process may actually change the physiology of the breast, thereby making it more or less susceptible to future cancer.

So what are nourishing foods that reduce the risk of breast cancer? Larizza, quoted in Huffington Post, says,

• “First, girls should aim to get more of their dietary fat from plant sources like nuts, seeds, avocado, and vegetable oils, and from cold-water fish like salmon, tuna, and halibut. They should limit dietary fat from meats, cheese, and dairy products.
• “Second, girls should also try to get more of their protein from plant-based sources like legumes as opposed to relying on meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products as their primary sources.
• “Third, they should eat cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbages, kale, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts at least a few times per week, ideally raw or lightly cooked to preserve their nutrients. These powerhouse vegetables contain cancer-fighting glucosinolate compounds that protect cells from initial damage and deter the proliferation of any further cell damage.
• “Fourth, girls should also make whole, traditional soy foods like tofu*, tempeh and miso a regular part of their weekly menus. Similar to the broccoli family, these foods contain various compounds — indoles and isothiocyanates, in this case — that protect cells from damage and stimulate genes that suppress tumor formation.
• “Lastly, girls should endeavor to eat a high-fiber diet, consisting of plentiful beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, fibrous vegetables and fruits, and unprocessed whole grains. Dietary fiber may help to decrease her exposure to high levels of estrogen, which in turn reduces her risk of breast cancer later in life.”

When asked if there were any foods girls should avoid, Larizza said that it was more important to focus on getting healthy foods into a girl’s diet. If this is done consistently, she claims, these nourishing foods will naturally push unhealthy foods out of the diet “without creating an air of deprivation.” However, there are some patterns that should be avoided. “High sugar intake, or a high-glycemic diet pattern, high animal protein consumption, low fiber intake, and any amount of alcohol consumption are all related to higher risk [of breast cancer].”

Prevention in mid-life

Nourishing foods may be a long-term solution to breast cancer, perhaps, but what good does it do the woman in her forties who grew up on fast food? Susun Weed, author of Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way, says that nourishment is the solution for women of all ages, and suggests a nourishing lifestyle. Her list, adapted from an article in The Polishing Stone http://www.polishingstone.org/articles/susunweed-kylie.html, includes

• “Move more; five minutes, five times a day. It will have a tremendous impact on breast health.”
• Drink Nourishing Herbal Infusions.An infusion is an herbal tea made with a higher percentage of herb and steeped for at least four hours. Her list includes Stinging Nettle, Oat Straw, Red Clover, and Comfrey Leaf, all of which are deeply nourishing and known for their anti-cancer properties.
• Avoid Mammograms. She offers a well-documented case that mammography is unhealthy and does not assist in prevention.
• Get in Touch with Your Breasts. “What I say in my book (this is born out by many studies) is that the vast majority of breast cancers are found by women themselves. Not because they are looking for cancer, but because they are alert to what is going on with their bodies,”
• Eat Well.She provides a list of foods that assist in preventing and reversing breast cancer.

We must become responsible for our own health, and we can only do that by nourishing ourselves holistically. My herbalism teacher Linda Conroy often asks, “Where is the nourishment?” This might just be a mantra to save the world.

What About Treatment?

In her journey with breast cancer, Lauri Buckland found the search for effective treatment was missing out on one of its most important resources: patient data. Her conclusion was to create a new system of data collection that will take in information about breast cancer patients from both doctors and patients. The more data there is, the more opportunity to see correlations and identify what works. This could be a huge step in creating treatment programs that are more effective.

I feel nourishment is the most important aspect of treating any imbalace (as long as nourishment is defined as being holistic, including the body as well as the mind, heart, and soul). The American Institute for Cancer Research acknowledges nourishment as an important aspect of treating cancer, saying, “Eating a healthy diet and being physically active are very important for people diagnosed with cancer.”

However, it is disputed whether nourishment alone is a viable solution for treating breast cancer. David Gorski calls the Gerson approach (a nourishment-based cancer treatment plan) “The most obvious and blatant cancer quackery.”

However, that’s not to say that nourishment alone doesn’t work. Sir Jason Winters details his journey of healing cancer with nourishing herbal infusions in this article. That said, regardless of one’s chosen treatment plan, nourishment just makes sense.

The Heart of the Matter

No matter how old you are, and whether your breasts are healthy, unhealthy, or non-existent, setting out on the path of nourishment is incredibly rewarding. However, we must not limit our acts of nourishment to ourselves. Perhaps the most important step we can take in eradicating breast cancer is to nourish our children.

We must empower ourselves to create food-medicine and express our love for our children by feeding them what is nourishing. After all, they’re counting on us to lay a foundation of health that will last them the rest of their lives.

 

*It is important to note that “traditional” soy products are fermented. According to Natural News, “Unfermented soy has been linked to digestive distress, immune system breakdown, PMS, endometriosis, reproductive problems for men and women, allergies, ADD and ADHD, higher risk of heart disease and cancer, malnutrition, and loss of libido.” However, “Fermentation releases nutrients and transforms soybeans into nutritious food.” Thus, tofu may not be the healthiest option, but fermented soy products like miso are.

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Written by Nicholas Tippins