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Lifestyle and Cancer Risk

Beachbabe
3 Recommendations

WARNING: I am pissed off and it is only 6:30 a.m. New York time.

Each morning I peruse the international news, hoping I've received an invite to the Magic Ball and the remote opportunity to dance with our boy NED. This morning's news brought a doozie out of the UK (Vicki, find these people and clobber 'em over the head with Drip for me, please)...

The story goes on to say how life style effects breast cancer...if young women would just not drink, maintain a 'normal' weight, and exercise, 40% of breast cancer would disappear. Gals, do you actually BELIEVE this garbage? If I had been a lean, mean juice drinking machine I STILL believe I would have been tackled by this alligator...and I know far too many of you who have always been lean, mean, juice drinking machines that I take this as a complete and total slander on all of us.

WE DID NOTHING WRONG. We are not obese, potato chip eating, vodka guzzling sloths (not that there's anything wrong with that). We are active, brilliant, wonderful people who have been struck in our prime with a scary, painful disease. WE DID NOTHING WRONG. Please do not make this any harder by pouring money into any more studies which show one less glass of wine and one more push up was all we needed to do. It is insulting to all of us.

Thank you, I will now put away my soap box and start my day...

Explore topics in this discussion:

Exercise Cancer Scoliosis Provera Anorexia Bronchitis Progesterone Stress Plague Childbirth Hysterectomy Prostate cancer Breast cancer Liver cancer Obesity Estrogens

42 replies

Groovygirlcool

"Princess Colleen,
Your presence is requested by Prince Ned,
to accompany him to the
Mystical Magical Most Fabulous Ball...." - nah, sorry....but...(one day!!)

I do concur with your gorgeous self, that trying to make us feel 'responsible' for our previous wayward,galavanting, uproarious behaviour which somehow lead to faulty DNA signalling is our very own fault - CRAPPPPPPP........

http://www.cancerrecovery.org/site/PageServer?pagename=EnvironmentalCauseso fBreastCancer

Environmental Causes of Breast Cancer
From the "Women, Health, & the Environment" conference (Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 14-15, 2008)

Sponsored by Greenpeace, Women’s Environmental and Development Organization (WEDO), and Cancer Prevention Coalition

Dr.Samuel Epstein summarized evidence on causes of breast cancer:

Since the 1950’s scientific evidence has incriminated chlorinated organic pesticides as breast cancer risk factors because of their carcinogenicity, estrogenic effects, and accumulation in body fat, particularly the breast.

The unregulated use of growth promoting hormonal cattle feed additives has resulted in near universal contamination of meat products. This results in life-long exposure to carcinogenic estrogens, and poses a major avoidable risk of breast cancer.

Where you work increases your breast cancer risks. Excess breast cancers were found in the 1970’s in women working with vinyl chloride. There is similar evidence among petrochemical and electrical workers. In spite of more women working in such industries, NCI recently admitted that it has still not investigated these risks among working women.


Where you live increases risks of breast cancer. Based on a review of 21 New Jersey counties, and more recently 339 nationwide counties, statistically significant associations were found between excess breast cancer mortality and residence in counties where hazardous waste sites are located.
Living near a nuclear facility increases your chances of dying from breast cancer. Based on a nationwide survey of 268 counties within 50 miles of 51 military and civilian nuclear reactors, CPC member Dr. Jay Gould, showed that breast cancer mortality in these "nuclear counties" has increased at 10 times the national rate from 1950 to 1989. Counties near military reactors, such as Hanford, Oak Ridge and Savannah River, have registered the greatest increases, ranging from 27 to 200%. Dr. Gould charged NCI with "misrepresentation of such findings."


Premenopausal mammography increases your risk of breast cancer. Increases in breast cancer mortality have been consistently reported following repeated mammograms in younger women in six randomized controlled clinical trials over the last decade.

Based on this evidence, NCI has recently withdrawn recommendations for pre-menopausal mammography. ACS, with financial support from Dupont and General Electric (both heavily invested in mammography equipment), and self-interested radiologists are still promoting this dangerous practice.

Participation in the 1972 NCI/ACS reckless, high dose mammography experiments has increased breast cancer risks for the 400,000 women involved.


Breast implants, particularly polyurethane foam, pose serious risks of breast cancer. Evidence on the carcinogenicity of polyurethane foam dates back to the early 1960’s. One breakdown product of polyurethane is 2,4-toluenediamine which was removed from hair dyes in 1971 following discovery of its carcinogenicity. Frank admission of these risks are found in internal NCI, FDA and industry documents.


The Tamoxifen "chemoprevention" trial is a travesty! Since 1992, the cancer establishment recruited 16,000 healthy women in a Tamoxifen "chemoprevention" trial. NCI and ACS claimed in their patient consent forms that Tamoxifen could substantially reduce breast cancer risks, while trivializing risks of drug complications.

There is strong evidence of Tamoxifen’s toxicity, including high risks of uterine, gastrointestinal and fatal liver cancer. "This trial is scientifically and ethically reckless, and participating institutions and clinicians are at serious risk of future malpractice claims," warned Dr. Epstein.

Environment and Effects on Cancer

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is conducting and supporting a number of cutting-edge research studies to understand breast cancer risk factors in the environment.

The studies aim to identify and assess risk factors, detect and quantify cancer-causing environmental exposures, explain mechanisms and pathways or processes that link exposures to cancer, and identify and evaluate genetic determinants of individual susceptibility to cancer.

Investigators are also conducting research to develop or improve methods of surveillance, exposure measurements, and risk assessment that may be applicable in future epidemiologic studies of cancer.

The National Cancer Institute supports a large research portfolio which identifies environmental risk factors for breast cancer and explores biological pathways that link exposures to cancer and the genetic factors that affect a person's susceptibility to cancer.

Several studies are exploring the residential and occupational breast cancer risk factors among women. These include agricultural workers, textile workers, and women who received heavy exposure to DDT from environmental contamination.

Some long-term studies in populations such as atomic bomb survivors, patients with scoliosis, and radiation technologists are evaluating the effect of ionizing radiation on breast cancer risk.

The role of estrogen in breast cancer risk has raised the possibility that environmental contaminants that mimic estrogen might also be involved. The evidence on this remains inconclusive.

Early studies with relatively small sample sizes indicated a positive association between several organochlorine compounds and breast cancer risk. More recent work has cast doubt on some of these findings. And the latest results indicate that there are links between some estrogenic compounds and breast cancer risk, for examplediethylstilbestrol and dioxin.
........................................................................... ..............

I 'found' this cancerrecovery site this morning, mentioned in someone's post - GREAT site! Fantastic integrative info.

I think such articles, as the one that has raised your ire this fine morning (NYtime), does indeed need some letters to editors, etc. I feel a spot of "scream-and-shout-it's-not-our-fault" coming on!

More power to you Sister Friend - maintain the pinked off rage!!!!

xxxGGC

jojobeans

I hate it when they have these articles... My mom was thin, didn't smoke or drink, maintain a healthy weight, was active, worked hard and raised 3 very active kids and she still fought the alligator. First at the age of 32 and then it came back when she was 58... It makes me so mad to see these articles

faithmena

Obviously this article is hogwash.......lots of super duper healthy women get breast cancer. I don't think that cancer picked me because I ate ding dongs......honestly the more I read and learn the more I believe it's one big crap shoot . I also take a peak at other alternative website and it's all about "healthy" living. Sadly some of the stage 4 women who have adopted the raw diet, who juice and all that healthy stuff still deal with progression.
So who ever wrote that article needs to do some more research.

StickiVicki

I get so annoyed by all these "you should do this" "you should do that" reseach surveys and most people are now ignoring them over here because there are just so many which contradict each other. Most of them seem to be funded by vested interests, "research shows that processed white sugar is good for you" - says a survey which turns out to have been funded by the British Sugar Corporation and so on.

How did the western world get so carried away with the unrelenting greed which seems to dominate these days? I believe in capitalism and free trade etc but not when it is completely ruled by the bottom line of the audit sheet of company profit. Managers, whose one concern is their own pockets and their own self importance now control these companies. Those who excuse them say they take the risks - RISKS? When you are going to get a multi million £ pay off for bringing a company or bank to its knees, where exactly is the risk? Then some other company will pay them £millions to work for them or as a consultant etc. When you are set up for life (by any normal persons standards) for being an abject FAILURE where precisely is the risk?

Medicine and scientific research are supposed to be for the good of Humanity and for expanding human understanding and knowledge. Not to create monster crops and animals, which once they are released on the world could obliterate the delicate balance of nature and destroy life itself. But they want the glory to say they created the first "x" whatever that may mean in the long run.

As for the governments of our countries who will stand aside and allow products to go on the market which are artificial and which have potentially disastrous consequences - words fail me. When something is genuinely known to be bad for us, and is also unnecessary (ie food colourants, flavourings etc) why do they continue to allow these products to be produced. Are consumers truely that stupid and greedy that they cannot understand that their food, cosmetics etc would be better for them if they were slightly different in look or taste? Or is that the problem? Consumers really are as stupid and deserve to be treated with the contempt that these companies are acutally treating us with?

Democracy is the best system there is, despite being so imperfect, but our politicians have forgotten that they are elected to serve the people of their country and not themselves and their paymasters - public or unseen.

The expansion of the European Union is partly because there are politicians who want to be the first President of the United States of Europe. But what happens if all the Eastern European countries which are now beginning to outnumber the mainly western European countries (which have a history and understanding of the theory and responsibilities of democracy) suddenly decide they prefer communism or facism? World War III here we come and that could truely mean the end of the world as we know it. Sadly you cannot change the world overnight and there are no easy answers to such huge problems.

But there you have it in a fairly large nutshell - RESPONSIBILITY. That is what we have lost. Everyone demands their rights, but what about the responsibility that comes with those rights? I have the right to express my anger by killing someone, but I have the responsibility to understand the right to life of others and have compassion for them. Scientists have the right to make the nuclear bomb, but the responsibility to understand the dreadful consequences of their actions.

So in a much smaller way all those who put out these endless research results which try to blame someone for what has happened have the responsibility to understand that nothing in nature is that easy. There maybe a germ of truth in what they say, but there are so many other things that can cause something to happen - cancer is just not that simple; if it were there would be a cure by now. It is a multifaceted thing which, like a snowflake, is individual in each case. If all the money and desire for profit and self glory were put into meaningful reseach to cure cancer (or any other of the many diseases and problems that plague humanity) we would be much further along than we are now.

My life is not for profit and my death should leave the world a slightly better place, even if that is just by one atom's worth of good.

StickiVicki

Oops sorry about that. Will step down and put my soap box away in a cupboard and lock it away for a while - promise.

Did I tell you about the results of a recent survey.......ahhhhh

"It's okay folks you can come out now, we have her sedated and under control. Max, get the straight jacket will you...come on chaps if we work together we can get her out of here as quickly and quietly as possible."

Have a nice day!

Beachbabe

Aw Vicki, don't put a lock on the cupboard that houses your soap box...I absolutely adored your chant and stood here, arms waving, saying, "You Go Girl!" As a matter of fact, if I were planning to have a tombstone (which I am not, I want my ashes given to a multitude of friends with instructions to spread them at your favorite beach...in this way I will become a big part of that which I love the best), I would engrave on it: "My life is not for profit and my death should leave the world a slightly better place." Actually, being the Type A go getter than I am, I expect my death to leave the world A LOT better than what it was...a lot kinder, a lot funnier, a lot more compassionate and empathetic...that's my goal. It's a big one, so you can see how I simply cannot possibly check out any time soon.

Groovygirlcool

GO VICKI !!!!!!!!

SEND that off now to all the online letters-to-editors in your corner of the world - that's a whole bunch of energy and enthusiasm going to waste if you don't!

"StickiVicki for P.M." I reckon - give old boring 'Whats-his-faceP.M.' the boot - dull as dishwater. No one interesting's been in the 'job' since Hugh Grant in 'Love Actually' - my favourite movie in the world!

xxxGGC

Groovygirlcool

Miss Beachy - a spot of true epitaph 'humour':

"Mary Weary, Housewife
Dere Friends I am going
Where washing ain't done
Or cooking or sewing:
Don't mourn for me now
Or weep for me never:
For I go to do nothing
Forever and ever!"

Belchertown


"Here lies
an Atheist
All dressed up
And no place to go."

Thurmont, Maryland

On a dentist:
"Stranger tread
This ground with gravity.
Dentist Brown
Is filling his last cavity."

Edinburgh, Scotland


In a New Jersey cemetery:
"Rebecca Freeland
1741
She drank good ale,
good punch and wine
And lived to the age of 99."

Personally, I've always liked Spike Milligan's:

"I told you I was ill"

We have PLENTY of time to think up ours!

xxxGGC

ReneP

Amen, sistas
it ain't our fault

Beachbabe

And by the way...WHERE are the reports that indicate that drinking Scotch, watching football while sprawn on the couch, and smoking a cigar lead to Prostate Cancer??????????????

margaret27217

Dear Colleen,

Your soapbox is indeed mine. I've worked diligently for 13 years to convince myself that this is not my fault and then those dudes come along and seek to undo my exorcism. Bite me! Bite me! Bite me!

nancyc

And just Sunday, I had to explain to a couple that no, you can't prevent cancer entirely by eating/drinking right, exercising, etc. I read shock and disbelief in their faces when I pointed out that many a woman w/ BC had lived a healthy, "virtuous" life, but just had genes that got damaged, and were exposed to carcinogenic substances in the environment. What drives me, and obviously you all nuts is the assumption of folks that we did it to ourselves somehow. I believe that my rotten sister, who is thin on the verge of anorexia (just got married on the beach in an orange bikini at the age of 51, she reported to mom) believes that because I'm NOT thin, it's my fault that I have BC, and has used that judgement against me to further distance herself from me. (But that's another rant....I digress)
Beachy....you've said a mouthful!

JillAline

Ha! Don't get me started.....

It's NOT our fault. NOT NOT NOT. Amen to everything everyone has said. Furthermore, the stupidity continues with governments and such and environmental factors. For example, the EU is banning incandescent light bulbs and going for the compact flourescents, apprently not considering that flourescent lights at night are linked to breast cancer: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/19/AR200802190 2398.html. And when are we going to be using all those bulbs in our homes, ladies. At night! I'm hoarding incandescent bulbs for when the US does the same.

And pink. I hate pink. I ranted about it on my blog yesterday, but this article does a much better job: http://bcaction.org/index.php?page=welcome-to-cancerland-2

BethA

You are 100% correct. I was one of those lean, mean, juice machines, had zero risk factor for cancer. My entire family lives to their 90's,never overweight, never smoked or drank or ate red meat etc... I had hiked my usual weekend ritual of 5 hours up the side of a mountain the weekend before at the age of 48 I found out I had breast cancer in spite of doing every single thing right.
Go figure.

It's NOT our fault.

The sooner the media stops blaming the victims and goes looking at the chemicals in our food and air, perhaps the sooner we actually identify the real causes of breast cancer.

GirliebikerTPBC

I agree - what an insult!!! One of the first things my oncologist said to me when I was diagnosed with Stage IV was, "This is not your fault. You did nothing wrong." He said this knowing that I had been taking oral estrogen for 16 years. And, I believe him - I did nothing wrong!!

darcey

IT'S ALL A LOAD OF B.....KS.GIRLS AND IT WOULD HAVE TO COME FROM MY UK.

IGNORE, IGNORE IGNORE.
JUST ANOTHER WAY OF DEFLECTING THE REAL ISSUES .


DARCEY XXX

chainsawz

Beachbabe - I agree 100%...where are the articles that blame prostate cancer on lifestyle?? That is the most ridiculous thing I have heard. It is NOT our fault! I was raised by a hippie and never had anything non-organic put in my mouth. I was athletic and never took any medicines. I even had natural childbirth. My whole family consists of healthy people who just grow very old and die. But, at age 44 I got the big stage iv whammy. It seems to be a common theme when I read the stories of others. How do they explain all of us?? Healthy living causes breast cancer for 1/2 of the women, and unhealthy causes the other 1/2? Puh-leeease!!! lisa

JillAline

Still seething. Count me in on the healthy lifestyle and "doing everything right." The only person who has ever had cancer in my family (besides me) is my grandfather who had prostate cancer in his 80s. My family, too, simply grows old and dies.

The first friend I had who died of BC was Miss Skinny Organic Jogger.

Again, outrageous.

Don't these people read anything like this: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/us/23water.html?_r=1

Sorry to keep referring you elsewhere, but maybe this information will encourage you that you did nothing wrong while making you righteously indignant about what's been done to the environment.

Deanie

Just read this post and the responses. You guys left me nothing to say! I agree 100% but it doesn't help one bit if we don't get to voice our opinions to someone who isn't living with MBC. We have a lot of work to do educating people on US. There is so much ignorance and therefore much absence of HELP.

margery

Dear Girliebiker, I am interested in the type of estrogen you took for 16 yrs. I took estrogen therapy only (no progesterin) for 36 yrs due to hysterectomy and loss of one ovary at age 38. At age 74 I was diagnosed with stage IV bc with mets to bones. I DO BELIEVE THE DOCTOR PRESCRIBED ESTROGEN LED TO MY ESTROGEN RECEPTOR POSITIVE BC. You don't really believe a doc would admit he/she made a mistake prescribing estrogen for all those years, do you? My various docs never discussed the downsides of estrogen therapy with me.

What treatment have you had? Are you doing well? I am stable after one yr of arimidex and zometa only. Oncologist is urging me to have double mastectomy. In put please.

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