Why is it hard to see beyond the Western model for treatment?

gemini4

This discussion is so interesting. Early last year, about nine months before my diagnosis, I developed an itchy rash between my breasts that seemed to have originated as an irritation from my underwire bra (where it hits the thin skin against the sternum). Then I was itching on my neck, scalp, and clavicle area (also where my bra strap was making contact). The itching seemed to morph in to eczema/psoriasis. The rash between my breasts was dx'd as yeast by one nurse, but it didn't respond to treatment. It went away only when I started steroid cream. The other patches are better but have left discolored marks behind.



About five or six years ago I noticed that I have an allergic reaction where, when I scratch my skin, a welt shows up. The welt goes away within ten minutes but looks hideous when it's inflamed. Definitely an immune reaction. And that timeframe is (according to one of my onc's) how long the ILC had been brewing.



I've read that there's some connection with perimenopause (where I am and have been for at least five years) and eczema/psoriasis. My ILC was hormone+ The last big psoriasis flare I had was accompanied by a period. I just had my first period on tamoxifen, and interestingly didn't have a skin flare with it.



After reading the stories here, I definitely feel like I too have been experiencing a delicate dance between immune response, hormone imbalance, and cancer. Here's hoping they all just calm down and coexist peacefully!

Mini1

Indenial- Your experience mirrors my own. I had been telling my doctors for at least 5 years before my diagnosis that there was something wrong. Sometimes they would find something minor and address it, but most often it was attributed to stress, pre-menopause etc. Coincidentally, my doc told me my cancer was 5-7 years in the making. Coincidence? Maybe, but I don't think so.

Recently, I was thinking about those that lead healthy lifestyles and still get sick. What I wonder is these people always have a healthy lifestyle all their lives, or did they choose that lifestyle as an adult? Many of us were raised on not so healthy foods. Additionally, in my case, I lived in an area that had PBB contamination while I was growing up, and we ate meat and drank copious amount of milk contaminated from that incident. Did that exposure increase my chances? Maybe. My mother and I both had cancer, my sister no. Or not yet anyway. But she was a healthful eater long before it was fashionable. Perhaps that has delayed or even prevented her cancer. They're are many areas that have contamination from a number of things, especially toxic waste dump sites. We have chemicals in our mattress, the material in our clothes, the lotions we slather on or bodies, and plain old smog. We are bombarded with toxins. IMHO, I think we're all vunerable. What they should be studying is what makes some of us more vunerable to them.

A careful diet may not prevent cancer, but it can benefit our general health and perhaps stave off cancer for many years.

indenial

Mini1, I grew up in a rural area -- no contaminants in the environment that I am aware of. I didn't eat 100% perfectly healthy during childhood, I occasionally had candy, or ate junk/processed stuff when at my friends' houses, but I would say I ate really well compared to the average kid. I was the kind of kid that chose broccoli over cake frosting. I went vegetarian at age 12 and vegan 10 years later (remained vegan until age 29, diagnosed with BC at 30). I started playing sports by age 5 and continued through high school & remained very active in college & beyond. Like I said, I'm far from perfect, but I think my lifestyle from birth onward has been much, much healthier than the average. It's not just something I started in my adult years, yet I still got cancer. I still believe eating healthy is important. One of my friends asked me why I'm not gorging on junk since I lived so healthily but got cancer anyway! I believe that eating healthy has far-reaching benefits, but I'm not convinced it can always prevent cancer. Even babies who are breastfed (from mothers who eat organic & healthily themselves) can get cancer, before they've had a chance for their lips to touch a Cheeto or a slice of bacon. If diet were that all-powerful, I think cancer would show up differently than it does...

exbrnxgrl

If diet were the end all and be all answer to preventing cancer, wouldn't that be wonderful? My younger sister ate and lived "clean" from a very young age. She was fit and thin, calm and balanced. She gave deodorants and artificially scented products decades before people even wondered if they were harmful. Shortly after her 50th birthday she started having irregular bleeding which she thought was a peri-menopausal symptom. She was swiftly diagnosed with uterine cancer and dead four months later. Now, I am not saying we should have unhealthy diets and lifestyles. I am just saying that cancer is sneaky and insidious and you can do everything "right" and still have it.