Needless Breast Cancer Treatment
A new study in the British Medical Journal shows that one in three breast cancers detected by screening are over-diagnosed. Let's repeat this so it sinks in. One-third of the breast cancers that are diagnosed are harmless and will not cause symptoms or death.
This means that millions of women are having unnecessary surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.
From http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1198711/Third-women-breast-cancer-dont-need-treatment.html -
"The study showed that in more than a third of cases, lumps which were flagged up as a cause for alarm were harmless - either because the tumour was growing so slowly that the patient would have died of other causes before it produced any symptoms, or because the cancer remained dormant or even regressed."
Breast cancer treatment is a highly profitable industry. So it's not surprising that the industry is downplaying the study. The industry has always pushed mammography as "prevention", because that is where the money is. Yet subjecting your body to the ionizing radiation used in mammography in no way prevents cancer.
It amazes me that intelligent women will spend a small fortune and do everything in their power to detect and treat cancer, yet do nothing to prevent it.
It is time for us to wake up and take responsibility for our own health. We need to make the lifestyle changes necessary to prevent cancer. Studies have shown that lifestyle factors play a huge roll in activating and de-activating those genes which cause disease and help protect us from disease.
Eat a nutrient dense, whole-foods plant based diet, avoid cigarettes and alcohol, exercise regularly, and maintain a healthy weight.
News articles on the study can be found here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1198711/Third-women-breast-cancer-dont-need-treatment.html
http://health.usnews.com/blogs/on-women/2009/07/10/too-many-breast-cancers-diagnosed-by-mammograms.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/besttreatments/2009/jul/10/breast-cancer-screening-leads-to-unnecessary-treatment-for-one-in
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2 comments:
Thank you for this - I sent it to many of my friends and family.
I don't know what the statistic is on ovarian cyst diagnoses, but I do know that ovarian cysts are "normal" and usually, the cyst will dissolve. My mother was diagnosed with "ovarian cysts" and had a radical hysterectomy in 1983, when she was thirty-eight years old. She has suffered with the effects of having her uterus and ovaries removed (including early menopause and prolapsed bladder, which required additional surgery) since that time.
Similarly, the c-section rate in the US is between 20% and 25%, which is more than double the acceptable rate per the WHO. Why is it that one-fourth of the woman who go into a hospital are incapable of giving birth without a surgical procedure?
I don't wish to minimize real problems, but it seems like over-diagnosis is an across-the-board issue, especially when it comes to women's health care, and I completely agree with you that we need to be better informed, and even more, we need to understand that there is a direct link between what we put into our bodies and our health.
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