Huffington Post article by Dr. Weiss

Barb1958..I love the bumper sticker!

I am perplexed about Dr. Weiss's article re "prevention is the cure." Many survivors on this website have followed healthy diets and still got breast cancer. I played golf a few weeks ago with a breast cancer survivor who used to play tennis and she told me that the four women with whom she played, all got breast cancer. And then there is Martina Navratalova who was diagnosed a year or two ago who said she was stunned to get this diagnosis considering her healthy lifestyle! So why not add tennis on the list of don'ts!

I agree with many posters, the article is insulting since the medical community really don't know what causes breast cancer! 

kira:  Thanks for your post.  Ironically, I was searching for information about lymphodema earlier today and ran across your website.  I bookmarked it and intend to read it.  It looks very helpful.

I did read the brochure "Think Pink, Think Green", and you can see my opinion about it on my above post.

Painterly, I agree with you that since the medical community does not yet know what causes breast cancer, it is insulting to suggest we can prevent it.

This whole "Prevention is the Cure" thing has been bothering me, and when I googled it I ran across this website called "Preventionisthecure.org".  This website seems to embrace the same philosophy as the article and brochure does.  It says something about why are we spending millions on research for a cure, when we can just prevent it.  We first need to determine what exactly causes breast cancer, and how to cure it, and then hopefully we will be on our way to preventing it.  

It's also who the message of "prevention is the best cure" is aimed at. If it is aimed at a woman who ends up triple neg after learning to stay away from HRT, well, how hollow is that?

And are people really supposed to have babies sooner? How do you try to fall in love early. Should one just marry one's first date in high school to prevent BC? Sometimes when I re-read Dr. QWeiss's article I wonder if that is the next thing we will hear. Or just have a one night stand and  have a child even if you hate children, breast feed it and then give it up for foster care. Lumping reasonable things like eating and exercising with unreasonable things like what can be interpreted as a mandate to fall in love early really causes the message to lose steam. This, in addition to all the other shortcomings.

I've got the best risk reducer of all (slapping self on head for not having thought about it sooner): why don't we all turn into men???? Have the surgeries and start taking testosterone. If there are no women, the BC rate will certainly plummet, since so few men get it. :-) Then perhaps we can truly say "prevention is the best cure."

Very strange, I lived squeeky clean, physically fit and started having my (six) children at age 15.  Loved the good green veggies I grew in the garden, never had junk food til I was almost 20, had genetic testing done and there was nothing.  Have a history of heart disease and diabetes in my family, so we all ate healthy.  Yet for all that I still had DCIS and IDC.....prevention is a cocktail they mix up because it sounds good, just like the toxic chemo they give us.  Nobody really knows anything, and your guess is as good as theirs, but probably better because you've been there and done that!

Well I have a different theory.  I had a fibroadenoma when I was 16.  Had it removed and at the age of 53 was diagnosed with ILC in the exact same spot.  I also noticed that when I was breast feeding my Children that breast would not produce as much milk as the other one and would not get as big.  I'm wondering if the surgery I had somehow clogged something in that breast to create the perfect storm.

Listen, if I had realized having my large and dense breasts reduced would have lowered my risk that would have been good information.

Maybe just maybe if I had done that 5 years ago, I would have had DCIS instead of stage 2, and maybe no LE.

But nobody says, hey reduce those big dense boobies since you will never feel a lump. I mean I could have built a condo in there.

So do the healthy lifestyle women have more aggressive bc and the roly poly couch potatoes have less agressive bc.

There is something besides just lifestyle obviously...or every meat grilling, beer drinking, plus size lady would have BC.

Good point.

If our daughters and granddaughters follow all the advice to the letter and live healthy lives, then when some still get cancer, it will be discovered that the unavoidable GMO foods and medications and the minerals in computer chips in our cell phones and computers and the output from the new energy efficient vehicles and the radio waves in the air and microwave and electrical... blah blah blah... With progress comes risk. It's never ending.

"...prevention is a cocktail they mix up because it sounds good, just like the toxic chemo they give us. Nobody really knows anything, and your guess is as good as theirs, but probably better because you've been there and done that!"

37antiques - very well said. 

Okay - I may be crazy, but this is my theory on how I got breast cancer - because I have an auto-immune disorder, my doctor recommended that I start mammos at 35 - I was good little soldier and got them faithfully for 7 years - the last one I had was so tight I tried to pull out.  6 months later, a lump appeared right in the area that was so crushed.  Now, this is where I was stupid - I told my doctor about the lump and he sent me to a surgeon who tried to excise the lump in his office.  That didn't work out so well - then I had an ultrasound guided fine needle biopsy - nothing showed.  That took a year - the bad mammo was in December of 2000, the lump showed up in June of 2001 and the fine needle biopsy was in the summer of 2002.  So, I went my happy way until March of 2006 thinking I just had a lump from a bad mammo even though I was advised to have it removed.  I came close twice, but I bolted.  Finally, I decided to get it taken care of.  It was mostly DCIS with a small amount of IDC.  I am convinced I got cancer from an injury.  So all my other risk factors had nothing to do with it as far as I am concerned - it was the dang mammo that did it. 

I did download the Think Pink, Act Green brochure.

I'm a bit surprised at our collective ‘condemnation' of Weiss' article.

I think it is excellent, thoughtful, appropriate and addresses a gaping hole in our fight against  breast cancer.  I bolded the paragraph that projects the gist of this article.  The Komen foundation seems to dominate the public perspective of this disease and demanding a cure and working toward a cure should be our ultimate goal.  Reducing the need for a cure by embracing prevention is perfectly pertinent.  It seems we all don't like that pink stuff and ‘green' is nice.   The Think Pink Act Green brochure is an excellent start to this new direction.  I think the gist of the article is directed to avoiding developing breast cancer in the future,  something I certainly worry about for my innocent daughter.     Too bad this article wasn't available to read when I was a teenager.   I don't see anything in that article that blames those who do have cancer.  I don't know that we should take things so personally. 

BCO is an excellent resource for women with breast cancer.  The forums are a small subset of this valuable website.   We have lifestyle choices that were not available years ago and toxins in our environment that are relatively new in our environment.    How does pointing that out blame us?  The article has certainly givcn me food for thought for a discussion with my daughter.  We already have BC.. this article is written for those who do not have it yet.

I really do like David Servan-Schreiber's book btw.. 

I have read a lot lately about early onset menopause.   I bet that is a factor too.

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Breast Cancer Prevention: A Huge Missed Opportunity  (Marisa Weiss, MD)

All women are at risk for breast cancer. And all women and girls can take steps in their everyday lives to reduce their risk of developing breast cancer -- even the healthiest women with no family or personal history of the disease.

Breastcancer.org, in partnership with Stonyfield Farm, is launching a new initiative to address prevention -- a huge missed opportunity in the current breast cancer awareness movement. This initiative, called Think Pink, Live Green: Protect Your Breast Health, is a public health campaign that gives women and girls a step by step guide to reducing their risk of breast cancer by making healthy lifestyle choices and limiting their environmental exposures.

Correcting major myths is a critical first step. It's just not true that all breast cancers run in families. Only about 10 percent of cases are associated with an inherited abnormal breast cancer gene (such as BRCA1 and BRCA2). Plus, these abnormal genes only make an individual prone to breast cancer; they don't cause cancer on their own. In order for breast cancer to start, other genetic changes have to occur. It is often the wear and tear of living, heavily influenced by lifestyle and environmental risk factors, can trigger the development of breast cancer.

What you eat, drink, and breathe, as well as the supplements and medicines you take, and the products you use, can become the building blocks -- the foundation -- of your future breast health. These ingredients and other exposures also influence the daily operations of your breast cells and can increase your future risk of breast cancer. And, when you consider all the chemicals, pesticides, and other contaminants in just our food supply alone -- it's no wonder that breast cancer has become the most common cancer to affect women.

Modern life can be dangerous for our breasts -- organs that are uniquely vulnerable to the development of cancer. During the unusually long period of breast development, breast cells are extra sensitive to new mutations. (It takes about 10 years for breasts to form and less than one year for other organs.) Then, during the time between breast formation and the first full-term pregnancy, breast cells remain highly active and immature, and primed to respond to estrogen, other hormones, and a full range of environmental pollutants. Too much stimulation over an extended period of time can trigger and accelerate abnormal breast cell growth -- including cancer. Other realities of modern life can further increase breast cancer risk. Here are just a few examples of risk factors that represent the interplay between the environments outside and inside the body:

The onset of puberty is occurring earlier and earlier. Around 1800 the age of puberty was about age 17 and at the turn of the next century, it was age 14. Today it's around age 10. Earlier puberty leads to earlier breast formation. As soon as the breasts are made, they are ready to respond to a broad range of chemicals exposures.

More women are missing the protective effects of pregnancy and breastfeeding, by postponing or never experiencing a full-term pregnancy, or by not breastfeeding. Many women and girls take pharmaceutical hormones, hormone replacement therapy and contraceptive agents, for extended periods of time. Both are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.

Obesity is epidemic. Two-thirds of American women are overweight or obese. Extra fat marinates breast cells in extra hormones; fat also collects and stores many pollutants. Obesity also is associated with chronic inflammation that can weaken the immune system's ability to repair the wear and tear of everyday living.

This combination of well-established risk factors and emerging serious concerns should make us all want to take immediate action. Too much is at stake. There are over 3 billion women and girls in the world and 1 in 8 are projected to get breast cancer over their lifetimes. And that doesn't include all of the loved ones who are instantly affected when a diagnosis strikes.

We believe that prevention is the best cure. The good news is that changing your life can help reduce your risk of breast cancer. Our bodies have the power to forgive, repair and rebound once healthy steps are taken. These steps will yield the greatest breast cancer prevention benefit during the years of breast development.

There are many definitions of 'prevent'. I guess a lot of us will be confused if our perspective is skewed by our experience and our interpretation.  .. I am surprised by the outrage ..I see nothing outrageous about  information providing a foundation for making good choices that MIGHT help us avoid cancers.  

Forgive me if I don't argue my point... I realize many of you already obviously disagree.   time for some mommydaughter time today. 

I never usually get into discusions like this, but must say this one interests me. I felt the article was a well written article to start a discussion. To me see our girls developing so early is a red flag. No the article doesn't say the hormones in the beef and chicken, but she does mention how our breasts are affected by hormones as well as estrogen during those years after puberty. We all know our meat is full of estrogen and other hormones.

As a teacher I see little girls in 2nd grade who are already starting to mature physically. It really concerns me as a parent and as a teacher. My own daughter began maturing at 8 years of age. I worried about it at the time, and more now since my diagnosis. I must say the first thing I changed in my diet after the diagnosis of cancer was to start eating hormone free meats, as well as hormone free milk.

Surprised that no one has mentioned the hormones in our foods.  Hormones fed to cattle, chickens, other animals so they grow faster, and then are consumed.  Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FLA) was part of a press conference ages ago in the House of Representatives talking about the formation of a group to study the effects of the environment on women getting breast cancer.  Big deal made of it, all the women in Congress showed up, some celebrities - never heard a thing about it after that.

But then the Cattlemen's Association ( which sued Oprah Winrey, and lost!), and the GMA ( Grocery Manufacturers of America) aren't offering BC.org money....sad, but we know it always comes back to that.

Happy to report, too, that I feel SO MUCH BETTER being dairy free.  Allergies almost gone, no stuff nose - and have lost a lot of weight!  JOY!!!!!