Breast Health Featured Article: Mammograms -Who Needs Them?

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Excerpts from "Breast Cancer? Breast Health!"
By Susun S. Weed

Designed to be a resource for both women who want to maintain breast health and
those who've been diagnosed with breast cancer, Breast Cancer? Breast Health!
The Wise Woman Way draws on "women's wisdom," or the inner knowledge
often ignored by modern medicine, as a powerful tool for healing - Amazon.com

The following are excerpts from her book, the topic is mammograms. You can view more details or purchase this and other of Ms. Weed’s books by clicking the book cover above. Naturally, these are Ms. Weed’s opinions, based upon her research and is not meant here as advice… it is meant to educate and encourage you to research some more in order to make an educated decision.

Susun's book on menopause is on this page--->

How to fight breast cancer naturally--->

Mammograms

Perhaps no aspect of breast cancer is more widely publicized than screening mammography. Ads on television, in magazines, and in the daily paper urge women to deal with fear about breast cancer by having a yearly mammogram. We're even told that doing this is a way to "really care for yourself."

But screening mammograms don't prevent breast cancer. A mammogram is an x-ray and x-rays cause cancer. The ads promoting regular screening mammography are paid for by those who stand to profit from their widespread acceptance and use-the manufacturers of the equipment and x-ray film. Whose health does this technology really benefit? Women's health? Or corporate health?

All Mammograms Are X-Rays

A mammogram uses radioactive rays to "see" breast tissues. X-rays are known to cause DNA damage in breast cells.

A diagnostic mammogram is used when a woman or her practitioner feels a lump and wants to see it. (Sonograms-a non-radioactive test can be used instead.) Most diagnostic mammograms are not one x-ray, but a series of x-rays.

A screening mammogram is done on a healthy woman to determine if there are unsuspected signs of cancer, such as a shadow or micro-calcifications. A screening mammogram is not one x-ray, but a series of x-rays, usually two per breast, four in all.

Mammograms are inaccurate

Low-radiation mammograms are safer mammograms, but less radiation means a fuzzier picture. Standard x-rays-rarely used any more for breasts create an easy-to-interperett high-radiation image. Xerograms use half that radiation, but are twice as hard to read. Film-screen mammography, the latest very-low-radiation exam, gives an image that's even more difficult to interpret. More than 10 percent of all screening mammograms done at one large center in 1992 couldn't be read and had to be redone.

A 1994 study showed wide variation in the accuracy with which mammograms are interpreted. Understandably, those who read screening mammograms regularly are more accurate than those who rarely do; in some hospitals, however, work loads are so heavy that accuracy suffers from lack of time, not inexperience.

Roughly 8 out of 10 "positive" mammographic reports are "false positive," that is, a subsequent biopsy does not confirm the presence of cancer. And as many as half (10-15 percent at an excellent facility) of all "negative" mammographic reports are "false negative."

According to current data, if all American women 40-50 years old were screened yearly by mammogram, 40 out of every 100 breast cancers would be missed.

If all women over 50 were screened, 13 out of every 100 breast cancers would be missed. Half of all breast cancers in women under 45 are invisible on a mammogram.

Screening mammograms often miss the deadliest breast cancers: fast-growing tumors in premenopausal women.

Mammograms Can't Tell If There's Cancer

Neither diagnostic nor screening mammograms detect cancer. Mammograms can reveal areas of dense tissue in the breasts. These areas may be cancer, or may be associated with cancer, or may be normal tissue, but a mammogram can't tell. The only medically accepted way to tell is to do a biopsy. Over 80 percent of the biopsies done to follow up on a suspicious screening mammogram find no cancer

Mammograms Don't Replace Breast Self-Exams

Women find their own breast cancers most of the time. (Ninety percent of the time according to one English study.)

Monthly breast self-exam (or breast self-massage) provides early detection at lower cost, with no danger-and more pleasure-than yearly screening mammograms.

Most breast cancers (80 percent) are slow growing, taking between 42 and 300 days to double in size. A yearly mammogram could find these cancers 8-16 months before they could be felt, but this "early detection" does little to improve the already excellent longevity of women with slow-growing, non-metastasized breast cancers.

The 20 percent of breast cancers that are fast growing are the trouble-makers. They can double in size in 21 days. Monthly breast self-exams are much more likely to find these aggressive cancers than are yearly mammograms. (A 21-day doubling cancer will be visible on a mammogram only 6 weeks before it can be felt.) If you massage or examine your breasts even six times a year, you can take action on fast-growing lumps. If you rely on mammograms exclusively, the cancer could grow undetected for months.

In a recent look at 60,000 breast cancer diagnoses in the United States, 67 percent were found by the woman or her doctor -and over half of these were not visible on a mammogram-while 33 percent were discovered by mammogram. (This may seem like a substantial number of cancers found by mammography, but the majority of them were in situ cancers, a controversial type of cancer that may-but often does not-progress to invasive cancer.)

Mammographic screening increases risk of
breast cancer mortality in premenopausal women

A Canadian study of 90,000 women (published in Lancet, November 1992) showed a 36-52 percent increase in mortality from breast cancer in women 40-49 who had annual mammograms. 8, 9 The Swedish Malmo Screening Trial (as reported in The British Medical Journal, 1988) which also included tens of thousands of women, showed 29 percent greater mortality from breast cancer in women under 55 who were regularly screened with mammograms. (Studies of women 50-59 showed no difference in breast cancer mortality between women who did and women who didn't have regular screening mammograms.)

Critics of these studies claim that newer mammographic equipment uses less radiation. This belies the point that mammograms are inherently dangerous. Orthodox medicine tells me again and again to overlook the harm that it has done to women and promises a future where the machines will be better calibrated and safer. But what of the harm that's been, and is now, done?

Mammographic screening is not and never will be a safe way to find breast cancer. Although safer after menopause than before, mammography is never without risk entirely.

Mammograms aren't safe

Professor Anthony Miller, Toronto National Cancer Institute, says cancer cells may be squeezed into the bloodstream under the pressure of the mammographic plates.11 Screening mammograms are unsafe other ways, too: they expose sensitive breast tissues to radiation, and they increase your chances of having a biopsy and being overtreated for carcinoma in situ.

Radiation Dangers

Scientists agree that there is no safe dose of radiation. Cellular DNA in the breast is more easily damaged by very small doses of radiation than thyroid tissue or bone marrow; in fact, breast cells are second only to fetal tissues in sensitivity to radiation. And the younger the breast cells, the more easily their DNA is damaged by radiation. As an added risk, one percent of American women carry a hard-to-detect oncogene which is triggered by radiation; a single mammogram increases their risk of breast cancer by a factor of 4-6 times.

The usual dose of radiation during a mammographic x-ray is from 0.25 to1 rad with the very best equipment; that's 1-4 rads per screening mammogram (two views each of two breasts). And, according to Samuel Epstein, M.D., of the University of Chicago's School of Public Health, the dose can be ten times more than that. Sister Rosalie Bertell-one of the world's most respected authorities on the dangers of radiation-says one rad increases breast cancer risk one percent and is the equivalent of one year's natural aging.

If a woman has yearly mammograms from age 55 to age 75, she will receive a minimum of 20 rads of radiation. For comparison, women who survived the atomic bomb blasts in Hiroshima or Nagasaki absorbed 35 rads. Though one large dose of radiation can be more harmful than many small doses, it is important to remember that damage from radiation is cumulative. Many women born in the 1930s and '40s-who are now considering the benefits of postmenopausal mammographic screening-have already absorbed quite a bit of radioactivity into their breast tissues from fallout from the atomic bomb tests of the 1950s.

The American Cancer Society claims that the radiation danger from a screening mammogram is no more than that caused by natural radiation in the environment. Not so. The amount of radiation from even one breast x-ray is 11.9 times the yearly dose absorbed by the entire body, according to Diana Hunt, former saleswoman for an x-ray manufacturing company, UCLA Medical Center graduate, and senior staff x-ray technologist for 20 years.

A study published in the October 20, 1993 issue of Journal of the National Cancer Institute found a statistically significant increase in the incidence of breast cancer following radiation treatment of various benign breast diseases even among women older than 40 at the time of the first treatment.

Treatment Dangers

You increase your risk of being overtreated for breast cancer whenever you have a screening mammogram. Eight out of ten masses detected by screening mammogram are false alarms, but if something is seen in your mammogram you'll be urged to undergo a biopsy.

Mammograms Don't Find Cancer Before It Metastasizes

Breast cancers generally don't begin to metastasize until they contain at least one million cells. It takes an ordinary breast cancer-one that doubles every 100 days-about six years to grow that large. Some very slow breast cancers take 20 years to accumulate a million cells. A very fast breast cancer can get there in a year.) But a million cells is still only as big as the dot at the end of this sentence. And that's undetectable by either touch or mammogram. (But not by intuition. I've met several women who "felt" their cancers at this tiny size but couldn't convince anyone they had cancer because the medical diagnostic equipment, though technologically advanced, wasn't as perceptive as their inner wisdom.)

By the time a cancer is big enough to be seen on a mammogram, it's usually 8 years old, has 500 million cells, and is approximately one-quarter inch (half a centimeter) long. It has been large enough to metastasize, if it is going to, for a year or more. (Some breast cancers never metastasize, no matter how large they get.)

Are there other ways to find early-stage breast cancers?

In addition to physical examination and breast self-massage, thermography and ultrasound are safe tests available to women who wish to avoid mammograms. Thermography gives a picture of the heat patterns in the breasts (cancers are hotter than the surrounding tissues). Ultrasound bounces sound waves off the breast tissues to measure their density (cancer is denser than the surrounding tissues). Other techniques used to image breast tissues, such as digital mammography and scintimammography rely on radioactivity and are inherently unsafe.

If You Decide to Have a Mammogram

Get the best, even if it means a long journey.

Go where they specialize, preferably where they do at least 20 mammograms a day.

Be sure the facility is accredited by the American College of Radiology.

Insist on personnel who specialize in mammograms. (Taking and reading mammograms are skills that require intensive training and a lot of practice.)

Ask how old the equipment is. Newer equipment exposes the breasts to less radiation. A dedicated unit (one specifically for mammograms) is best.

Ask how they ensure quality control. When was their unit calibrated?

Load your blood with carotenes for a week before the mammogram to prevent radiation damage to your DNA.

Expect to be cold and uncomfortable during the mammogram, but do say something if you're being hurt.

The more compressed the breast tissue, the clearer the mammogram. (But pressure may spread cancer cells if they're present.)

If your breasts are tender, reschedule. During your fertile years, schedule mammograms for 7-10 days after your menstrual flow begins.

Don't wear antiperspirant containing aluminum; it can interfere with the imaging process. (Those clear stones do contain aluminum, as do most commercial antiperspirants.)

If you want another opinion, you'll need the original mammographic films, not copies. (X-ray facilities only keep films for 7 years.)

Get your doctor to agree,in writing,before the procedure,to give you a copy of your mammogram.
The U.S.Public Health Service advises women to ask for written results from a mammogram

Given the high percentage of "false normal" mammograms, if you think you have cancer, trust your intuition.

Remove radioactive isotopes from your body with burdock root, seaweed, or miso.

Mammograms don't promote breast health. Breast self-massage, breast self-exam, and lifestyle changes do.

Herbs, Foods, and Natural Preventive Care

*Review excepts from Departments of Medicine and Pathology,
Mount Zion Hospital and Medical Center, San Francisco, CA.

Lycopene - You say tomato, i say tomahto

Tomatoes, once thought to be poison, rank at the top of a list of foods that have shown real promise in fighting breast cancer. Recent evidence suggests that the Mediterranean diet, heavy on red tomato sauces, might do as well in preventing cancer as it seems to in preventing coronary heart disease. In addition to tomato sauces, the Mediterranean diet is rich in fresh fruits, vegetables, breads, cereals and fish - all good cancer-fighting foods.

A major chemical component of the Mediterranean diet is the antioxidant lycopene, primarily found in ripe, red tomatoes. Lycopene, one of the most powerful antioxidants, has shown amazing power against a variety of cancers. Antioxidants work by allowing themselves to be attacked and damaged by free radicals, sparing the cell itself. Left unchecked by antioxidants, free radicals can rob our health by "rusting" our cells. Over time, a shortage of antioxidants can make us vulnerable to a host of health problems.

Several recent studies have shown that a diet rich in tomatoes and tomato products is strongly linked to a reduced risk of certain cancers and actually may help prevent prostate cancer. A Harvard physician found that consuming tomatoes, tomato sauce or pizza more than twice a week, as opposed to never, reduced the risk of prostate cancer of 21 percent to 34 percent. Other studies suggest that lycopene protects against cancer of the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, colon and rectum, as well as cervical cancer.

Lycopene in food is most potently released during cooking and most readily absorbed by the body that way, according to Sheila Kelly, a clinical dietitian at Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C. Cooked tomato sauces, the hallmark of a Mediterranean diet, provide the highest concentration of lycopene.

The other magic of the Mediterranean diet is in the cooking technique. Traditional Mediterranean cooking does not generally involve frying or broiling meat; rather, the protein source is slow cooked in a sauce, Kelly says. Research has shown that broiling or frying of red meats unleashes oxidized compounds called heterocyclic amines, which are powerful mutagens. The research shows that people who often consume well-done meats have higher rates of breast cancer than those who do not. Those red tomato sauces actually minimize the formation of those heterocyclic amines through their antioxidant ability, Kelly says.

When food is fried in Mediterranean cooking, it is usually in olive oil. Research has repeatedly shown that olive oil has a beneficial effect on the HDL cholesterol (the "good cholesterol"), which is beneficial in preventing coronary heart disease. Olive oil contains monounsaturated fats, which are the least of all fat evils. Animal fats and trans fatty acids or partially hydrogenated ones, such as those found in margarine, cookies and crackers, are the worst.

The true benefits of reducing fat have not been directly linked to preventing breast cancer. However, most nutrition experts note most Americans eat far more fat than their bodies need and that breast cancer rates are lower in Japan and China where the foods that women ingest are lower in fat but rich in soy. The same holds true for women in Mediterranean countries. When these Asian women move to the U.S., within 10 years, their breast cancer rate increases and equals American Caucasian women's rate.

In addition to cutting calories, women also are advised to limit their consumption of alcohol. Studies have shown that one or two daily glasses of red wine (another favorite in the Mediterranean diet) may be good for the heart, but those few glasses of wine - or any type of alcohol - may increase breast cancer risks. The reason is that alcohol apparently increases the circulation of estrogen in the body.

Concord grape juice has the most cancer-fighting antioxidant power of any juice.

Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables that are chock full of antioxidant vitamins, such as A, C, D and E. If you want to get your daily dose of vitamin A, eat butternut squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach and cantaloupe.

Pressed carrot juice contains 700 percent of the daily recommendation for beta-carotene, which is in the same family as carotenoids. (Lycopene, found in tomatoes, is a carotenoid.)

Salmon is rich in omega-3 fats. Research suggests that women with higher tissue levels of omega-3 have lower rates of breast cancer. Omega-3 fats are part of an experimental diet to prevent breast cancer in a UCLA study.

Tuna -White tuna - not light tuna - to get the most omega-3 fats.

Daikon radish. It looks like a big white carrot and contains indole-3-carbinol, which lowers women's levels of a type of estrogen that may promote breast cancer.

Women who eat one serving a day of a cereal high in wheat bran lower their level of breast cancer-promoting estrogen.

Garlic has some cancer-fighting compounds.

Mediterranean women who use a lot of olive oil in cooking have low rates of breast cancer.

Drink green tea. Green tea is rich in EGCG, a compound that inhibits breast cancer cells in mice.

Herbs

Large-scale research projects are underway worldwide in an effort to discover and measure the effectiveness of therapies long-used by non-Western cultures to combat illness and promote health. One of these research projects, taking place in California, is the screening of Chinese herbs and compounds to measure their ability to fight breast cancer cells. By analyzing the active chemicals in more than 70 different herbs, scientists have found some considerable potency in a few of them. Some examples are:

Ban Zhi Lian (Chinese) - Scutellaria barbatae (Latin) - This herb inhibited breast cancer cells in the lab, and will be tested in a group of women with metastatic breast cancer who are taking no other cancer drugs.
Zhi Mu - Anamarrhena asphodeloides - Lab tests showed it to be "highly active" against breast cancer cells. Future clinical trials are being considered.
Wang Bu Liu Xing - Vaccaria sigetalis - Also "highly active" against breast cancer cells in the lab, and being considered for future trials.

Health experts are discovering a new and healthy way for all of us to maximize their use of herbs. These phytochemicals (phyto = plant) are present in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and culinary herbs, and number in the thousands. Scientists have found they go beyond protecting against many chronic diseases and actively fight cancer as well.

Coriander, rich in coriandrol,helps combat breast and liver cancers. In animal studies, coriandrol stops aflatoxin (a liver toxin) from binding with DNA. Aflatoxin causes liver cancer in humans. Coriander is sold in seed form or fresh. Fresh coriander is known as cilantro.

Rosemary contains high levels of carnosol, a chemical that breaks down other chemicals that can start a cancer process.

Carnosol may also protect against skin and lung cancer.

Mint plants contains limonene, a powerful anti-cancer agent that studies suggest blocks the development of breast tumors and may actually shrink them. We also encounter limonene in citrus peels, such as oranges, grapefruits, and lemons, though few of us eat much of the peel. But mint can be used in many foods and drinks as a flavor enhancer.

Other herbs and vegetables with strong phytochemical characteristics are:

Cabbage family of vegetables and green tea
onions and garlic
Soy and soybeans - Genistein and diadzein - phyto-flavonoids effective against some forms of breast cancer and lowering LDL cholesterol
Citrus fruits, some vegetables, teas and wine contain flavonoids and indoles, powerful antioxidants that protect tissues, blood vessels, and the heart

Vitamins

In the vitamin arsenal, it's vitamin C that is on top. Vitamin C boosts our immune system, and increases our ability to destroy "foreign" bodies, chemicals, and debris. The active form of vitamin C, ascorbate, helps prevent formation of cancer-causing chemicals known as N-nitrosoamines, commonly found in cured and smoked meats, drinking water, and cigarette smoke. They are also sprayed on our pre-cut vegetables, and become part of produce grown on farm soils heavily fertilized with nitrogen-based fertilizers.

The immune system plays such a key role in cancer that a person with cancer is considered to have a weakened immune system because it was not capable of removing the foreign substance that caused the cancer. If you decide to take vitamin C as part of either a cancer-preventive or cancer therapy, most protocols will recommend large doses ("mega dose" therapy), which may not agree with your body. The acerola cherry is the most concentrated source of vitamin C, followed by red chili peppers, guavas, red sweet peppers, kale, and parsley. Collard greens, turnip greens, green peppers, broccoli and Brussels sprouts follow close behind. Be sure to seek the advice of your doctor before you make your decisions.

Beta-carotene, the precursor to vitamin A, is another antioxidant with cancer fighting properties, preventing excessive free radical damage - allowing cells to utilize oxygen more efficiently. Vitamin A and beta-carotene are known to be helpful in preventing prostate, cervical, lung, stomach and oral cancers. Vitamin E, also known as alpha-tocopherol, has been effective in decreasing the overall cancer risk in non-smokers. Top sources of vitamin E are sunflower seeds, almonds, spinach, and asparagus.

B-vitamins,including pantothenic acid, may be critically low in patients susceptible or diagnosed with cancer. A general B-group multivitamin with pantothenic acid is a good choice. This group of vitamins works together with your body's enzymes and minerals to provide the cells with maximum energy and nutrients.

Minerals

Selenium is a mineral that plays a key role with an enzyme called glutathione peroxidase, one of our body's most powerful antioxidants. High levels of glutathione peroxidase have lowered the risk of breast, colon, gastric, and rectal cancers. Oranges, grapes, radishes, almonds, onions, and cabbage are good sources for selenium. Along with zinc,potassium, and other micro-minerals that participate as co-factors to bodily processes, we can help improve our chances for preventing cancer and perhaps,fighting its devastating effects on our bodies.

note of caution regarding the use of herbal, vitamin, and mineral supplements, and nutritional supplements in general: It is imperative you discuss any questions or considerations about supplements with your doctor before you take any over-the-counter substances.

Breast Care, Breast Cancer, Breast Cancer Prevention Diets
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