Trying to find a common cause. Please help!

I think searching for a cause was a good distraction from the feelings of helplessness I experienced in the beginning.

That's a good point, Wrenn. I've been fascinated by learning more about the disease - sort of along the lines of 'know thine enemy' with a touch of reading the tea leaves thrown in.

I doubt any of us will ever know what factors turned the switch for us although it would be most interesting to be able to see the cascade of effects that brought us to this point.

For those who want to avoid this sort of reading, the article claims that abortions cause breast cancer, and uses language like "mafia thuggery" and "abortion industry."

ninetwelve,

I just shook my head when I read the link

Oh, more fun stuff. Liver dysfunction is at play in our cancer formation, as it is the main detoxification organ in the body. Without enough water your kidneys can't do their job and the burden falls to the liver -- which if you are chronically dehydrated, or have a subpar diet or too much stress, isn't going to have enough magnesium to do the various detoxification pathways.

Dehydration will also increase your hormonal load, as the hormones the liver has packed up for excretion will linger with constipation in the gut and instead of being expelled, those hormones are going to be reabsorbed -- making the load on the liver even greater.

Here are some nutrients levels that you might see if your doctor can test for you, and can help guide your healing of your body from the systemic imbalances that led to the cancer. These are ones that my naturopathic oncologist has been following over the past year and even with supplementation to correct my deficiencies my levels are still low, but slowly climbing back up. I actually think my body is turning a corner now and things might start to move up more quickly.

These are the nutrients to have tested:

• Ferritin -- test of iron stores in the body, hemoglobin and RBC levels might not show deeper anemia as your body will push all the iron into the blood
• Zinc -- should be checked in combination with copper
• Copper - there are two tests you can get, try to get both ceruloplasmin and serum
• Magnesium - have them check your red blood cell magnesium to see what your stores are like, a serum magnesium might not show how low your levels are

Carrir61....then why did I get it? Because I think abortion should be legal and safe? Posting that article is just plain cruel.

Interesting thread. I need to get out more often. How did I miss it? I can affirm for certain that abortions do not cause BC as I have never had one and guess what? Well, you know.

I get wanting to research. I think it is good to ask the questions and have the discussions. I blamed myself in the beginning. I don't eat perfectly. I like sugar. I am not social enough. Blah, blah, blah. I think it's natural to ask these questions. Then I looked at my sister who never exercised a day in her life. She eats total garbage. She is 3 years older than me and even with me having cancer, you would see her walk and she looks like she has 20 years on me.

I find the comparisons to Asian interesting. But I also agree with the poster/researcher who pointed out that different cultures metabolize things differently (if you don't mind me paraphrasing). I have a Chinese friend who won't drink a drop for that reason. I always found it interesting.

I am no longer interested in what caused my cancer. I am interested now in making my life the best it can be. There ARE things I can do to improve myself. I am particularly interested in stress reducing/meditation type techniques. But again, I know a woman who has 3 special needs kids and I have to imagine the stress in her life is off the charts. So there you have it. Or not.

I know that when I was first diagnosed, researching options/treatments helped me cope tremendously. It took my mind off the crappy hand I was dealt a bit.

Trvler - you said what I was thinking but didn't post. I absolutely NEVER had an induced abortion, I never had a miscarriage but do have 2 sons so where did my IBC come from? It is great that there is legitament information available on line but taking an OpEd and 'thinking' it is fact is scary.

I just found this topic today, and became concerned about agness, because her naturopathic doctor was supplementing her with copper:https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/8/topic/828244?page=1#idx_10

Thank you, Tomboy. Yes, it does kind of prove the point. During my first bc diagnosis, I saw the head genetics doctor at a NCCN center to discuss BRCA test results (youngish age, truncated family history--no mutation found). I was trying to figure out why. He leaned forward, looked me in the eyes, and said firmly, "It's not your fault."

I am not taking copper, it was one of my blood tests. I had elevated copper at time of diagnosis and it has been slowly falling over the past year but increasing my zinc intake (60 mg a day). Copper is cancer and inflammation promoting. We discussed copper-chelation at my check-up with my ND last week, but since my level is dropping we are going to continue this route.

Copper chelation has been studied for use in triple-negative BC with some success. It requires taking a special drug which binds up the copper in your body for excretion. You have to have your blood monitored regularly to make sure they aren't causing problems by doing it too quickly.

Copper depletion shows early success in triple-negative breast cancer: Discoveries

High doses of vitamin C will also help push copper out of the body.

"Copper is common in the diet, particularly in vegetarian diets, and can be found in the water due to copper plumbing. Many multiple vitamins contain relatively high doses of copper. Zinc and manganese deficiencies will also cause copper retention. The hormone estrogen promotes the retention of copper and this is why women are particularly vulnerable to the problem of copper toxicity.

However, prolonged adrenal stress can eventually cause the problem in both men and women. Some children are born with high copper levels as it can be passed through the placenta and the high estrogen of pregnancy can worsen any copper retention the mother has."

from: Copper Toxicity

Here is another good link about copper


Prolonged stress, which our modern society seems to expect from us in our day-to-day lives, is probably a big culprit as it stresses the adrenals and pushes out zinc and then everyone drinks more coffee to try to hang on which is very copper-rich. Zinc, which inhibits copper, is also difficult to absorb from vegetarian sources, and the most absorbable form is in red meat. As many BC patients have elevated copper, the related zinc deficiency continues to be a problem as zinc is an important nutrient for the pancreas and digestive enzyme production. The lower your zinc goes the less able your body is to obtain nutrients from your gut. I've been taking digestive enzymes for a year now, under guidance from my naturopathic oncologist.

You should talk to your healthcare provider, or find one who knows about nutrition, and get tested and then work on supplementing whatever you are deficient in.

If any of the things listed here caused cancer everyone would have cancer.

I was confused about the lump that lit up in my PET scan too as I've been a vegetarian for most of my life and have none of the risk factors for BC. I've never weighed over 105 lbs, I've never used hormonal birth control, don't smoke although I was exposed to 2nd hand smoke until I was 23 from a parent, don't drink and have never used or tried drugs. I have, however, been exposed to a lot of radiation via xrays and various scans throughout my life for different medical conditions. I've also been prescribed a lot of antibiotics over my lifetime so while my lifestyle is healthy, I've been exposed to a lot of toxins.

Someone implicated malnourishment and dehydration which also sound plausable in my case. I have struggled with deficiencies in B12, protein, potassium, magnesium and Iron throughout my life as well as a weak immune system. I've also had high copper and low zinc levels for most of my life.

Another poster in this thread mentioned that they read that low vitamin D levels have been linked to BC but I took 4000 mg's of D3 for a year for uterine fibroids and 2 years later, I have DCIS. The D3 didn't shrink my fibroids at all.

I'm no longer a vegetarian and now take Iron and an immune support vitamin. I also try to drink lemon water everyday. I have tumeric tea but read that the human body can't absorb most of the important stuff in it.

I know that BC is found across the globe but its highest rates are among westerners so there is something about the things we're exposed to and/or ingest or are deficient in that's responsible.

sunny8: good question and one I asked when diagnosed IDC two months ago.

Never had a pregnancy, so maybe I had too many hormones rattling around my bod.

Had a hysterectomy age 35 - kept my ovaries.

Took birth control pills for ten years, tried an IUD ... Until my bod started to expel it. That was interesting!

Was prescribed Premarin in my early fifties. Didn't do so well - somehow got mastitis and then a lump, which turned out to be liquid. Took myself off Premarin, doc said I was setting myself up for more problems and should stay on it. Thank goodness I didn't.

Fast forward to this year and after years of good mammos, my new reality.

I drink a lot of water, love walking and gardening, eat healthily, very little meat but lots of white meat and veggies. But, I do love dark chocolate, especially Dark Reese's. I have a glass of red wine every few days and take a senior multiv it, calcium with D, fish oil and lutein every day. I drink coffee or black tea. And oh yes, the occasional blueberry glazed donut from DunkYD

So, for some reason I developed a cell mutation but why is the great unknown. I haven't been stressed out about my diagnosis, when the doc told me I said that in the scheme of things, if someone had to cop for cancer, better me than a child.

There is no b/c history in my family but I am the first female who didn't have children.

My thoughts... I don't believe there is any one cause, partly b'cuz it's been shown in recent years that not all of our bc's are the same (not just our hormonal or Her2 stats, but much more complex cellular level differences). I do strongly believe that in most cases (other than those w/a genetic link such as BRCA1 or 2) bc happens due to a compilation of things that stress our bodies and immune systems, which could be a different combination for each of us -- hormones, exposure to environmental chemicals (including in utero), prolonged emotional stress, etc. -- and that eventually something tips the scales and cells start to mutant. And if our immune systems don't catch them -- sometimes b'cuz they're too busy dealing with (even minor) autoimmune issues -- those cells get a foothold and are off and running. I also believe that there are a lot of yet unknown genetic mutations that increase our predisposition, like a new one just discovered in those of Polish or French Canadian decent. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/293147.ph...

Things I believe can make a difference for most of us include... Exercise (a host of research supports this); keeping a normal weight (extra fat = extra estrogen, among other things); eating for your health (which to me means making choices that are the most nutrient dense and feel right for your individual body, although I personally eat mostly plant based these days to restrict the amino acid methionine); supplementing what's missing in your diet, such as D3; eating organic (especially dairy -- that BST & rBGH is bad stuff -- but also avoiding GMOs, which have herbicides and pesticides built in); using toxin-free household and personal care products (because the cumulative affects of prolonged exposure to so many of them has never been tested); and perhaps most importantly (IMO), making a conscious effort to live as stress-free as possible.