Archived News of the Week

Cancer and Mammograms, Vitamin D, Diabesity

Cancer and mammograms: Cancer is a big business. Nobody in the "industry" really wants to cure cancer, because there goes billions upon billions of dollars of revenue. "There is a well-oiled circle of relationships that support one another under the pretense of "your best interest" that are actually looking out for their profits over your health." Dr. Sorem Khalsa, M.D.

Who are they? Who are these people? Are the Koch brothers involved? (Probably) Here is a list starting with Agribusiness and Big Pharma. They don't want you to know the truth. They want you to eat junk food. 2) Healthy food costs more and the government (of the people, for the people?) subsidizes crops like corn, soy, wheat and rice which is not your healthiest way to eat. So this means that good, ongoing health is pretty much an elitist thing now. Yet, disease costs money.

3) Who gets paid? Doctors, Big Pharma, Hospitals. Cost of sick-care is huge and involves Big Pharma and their synthetic drugs. 4) The GMO Profiteers who are fighting tooth and nail to delude us into thinking that GMO's are safe. They aren't. You should see the huge, ugly tumors hanging from the mice fed GMO's. 5) The Food Profiteers, or the processed foods manufacturers who are knowingly producing the foods that addict you.

6) The Drug Profiteers or Big Pharma, waiting for you to fall ill and need their latest enormously expensive drug. 7) The Doctor Profiteers who find themselves caught in a web of deceit and find it easier to stay caught than to fess up and clean up their practice. I, however, am seeing more and more integrous docs getting off this dishonest position. 8) The Regulatory Profiteers are the Insurance Companies who actually regulate the way your doctor treats you. Then there is my particular bête noir, the Susan B. Komen foundation, rife with illegalities, huge salaries for the higher-ups and zero transparency as to where and how the donations are spent. It's not the pink-ribboned, smiley-faced, organization that is pictured on the news.

It's a real mess, isn't it? But we can fight all this on our own, one by one and we can eventually prevail. Start by eating healthily. I am not going to bore you with how to do that. You already know how, you just have to do it. Just remember, it's really all so simple: If you eat cancer causing foods, and participate in cancer causing behavior and eat a diet high in sugar, the chances are greater that you will get cancer and then be catapulted into the mess of Big Pharma and the Sickness Industry. Secondly, get your weight down. Don't drink too much. Don't smoke. And lastly, exercise a bit.

The latest news on mammograms suggests that they, the mainstay against the "fight" against breast cancer are suspect. Last week, a Canadian study was published in the Brit Med Jour: The study found that mammograms did not reduce breast cancer deaths in 50 year old women COMPARED TO PHYSICAL EXAMS and that one in five women screened was over diagnosed, possibly leading to unnecessary surgery or radiation. And certainly leading to horrible anxiety which descends upon you the moment the call comes from the doctor's office: "Call the Doctors office as soon as possible; there is something she would like to discuss with you." Oh God. And it starts. Then there is the awaiting the results of the second or third painful mammogram or perhaps the results from the unnecessary biopsy, the anesthesia, the hospital stay. And then you find out, it was all for naught. And oddly, you are relieved, rather than enraged.

And then there is the Cochrane study from 2001 when the first whisperings denying the value of mammograms was first heard: "The currently available reliable evidence has not shown a survival benefit of mass screening for breast cancer. Or, mammograms do not save lives." I also don't like the painful and inhumane squishing of breast tissue  if there are any cancer cells loosely encapsulated in the breast, it's possible that the extreme pressure could burst the capsule and free the cancer cells. I personally like the Buddy Check 9 routine which I have changed around a bit to a breast self- exam every month on my birth day. Get to know your breasts intimately so you can feel any changes. And, of course, if you still want mammograms - good on ya - I will support you.

Vitamin D: I am peeved that I have to address yet another flawed, stupid study on a non-pharmaceutical, this time vitamin D, everyone's best buddy as far as I am concerned. I will try to make it short and sweet: The new study claims that vitamin D supplements are useless against heart disease, stroke and anything else for that matter and in fact may do more harm than good. Plus, this insane review found that people taking vitamin D supplements had a greater risk for hip fracture. The subjects in the study were given a huge dose  500,000 iu's all in one sitting. This is beyond absurd as the body cannot absorb this amount all at one time and the D becomes toxic. Other studies which have repudiated the validity of D have gone the other way and proclaimed that D doesn't work on the basis of giving 400 iu's of D. This, of course, is not enough to make any difference at all.

All experts plus me suggest that you keep on a high-ish dose of D (5,000-10,000 iu's daily) until you reach the protective level of between 60-80 ng/ml, then adjust your dose to keep your D at this level. There are over 800 studies showing the efficacy of these higher levels and the protection from heart disease and cancer. And pursuant to my above article on breast cancer, Grassroots Health suggests that as much as 90% of breast cancer may in fact be related to vitamin D deficiency. I know that my D levels were pathologically low (around 6) when I first began testing them a few years ago, so I can assume they were low when I was 42 and diagnosed with breast cancer. I celebrated the other day when my lab work showed that my D levels are now 83.

Diabesity: New word. Great word! Obesity and Type II diabetes go hand in hand and their seeming inseparability has led to the convenient catch phrase "diabesity." What no one can agree on is this: Which comes first? Obesity or diabetes? "It is clear that cases can be made for both: The deranged glucose metabolism and insulin signaling that underlie diabetes can cause obesity, but obesity itself, whatever the initial cause, can interfere with proper glucose and insulin regulation." Paul Vitello, Designs for Health. But I suppose it doesn't really matter. You can just take home with you that if you are obese, you are more apt to get diabetes type II for whatever reason and this just means you have an insulin regulation problem and this means that you probably eat too much sugar and carbs and/or drink too much alcohol.

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