Can Breast Cancer be Prevented?
Excerpt from: Breast Cancer? Breast Health! the Wise Woman Way
by Susun S. Weed
Sometimes it seems that every magazine, newspaper, radio show, and piece of mail has a headline declaring that 
every woman’s risk of developing breast cancer is increasing. There is a numbing feeling of inevitability in these pronouncements. More and more women think about breast cancer as a when rather than an if.
It’s true that there’s more breast cancer now than ever before, that between 1979 and 1986 the incidence of invasive breast cancer in the United States increased 29 percent among white women and 41 percent among black women, and incidence of all breast cancers doubled.
It’s true that the percentage of women dying from breast cancer has remained virtually unchanged over the past 50 years, and that every 12 minutes throughout the last half of the twentieth century another woman died of breast cancer.
And it’s true that breast cancer is the disease that women fear more than any other, that breast cancer is the biggest killer of all women aged 35 to 54, and that of the 2.5 million women currently diagnosed with breast cancer, half will be dead within ten years.
These facts frighten me, and they also make me angry. My studies spanning 25 years and many disciplines have convinced me that the majority of breast cancers are causally related to the high levels of radiation and chemicals released into our air, water, soil, and food over the past 50 years. United States government researchers estimate that 80 percent of all cancers are environmentally linked.
What can be done? The answer isn’t as simple as a yearly mammogram. That may help detect breast cancer, but it won’t prevent it. To prevent breast cancer we need to take individual and collective action.
Effective action requires understanding the causes of breast cancer and what decreases breast cancer risk. But there are few conclusive answers to these queries, partly because most research focuses on eliminating breast cancer after—not before—it occurs. Science has validated so few risk factors for breast cancer that 70 percent of the women diagnosed with breast cancer have “no identifiable risk factors.”
Scientifically accepted risk factors for breast cancer
1. Sex (Women get a lot more breast cancer than men.)
2. Age (Seventy-five percent occurs in women over 50.)
3. Lifetime exposure to estrogen (Early menarche, no pregnancies, late menopause, hormone pills increase risk.)
4. Family history (Two close relatives with premenopausal breast cancer increases risk.)
5. Lifetime exposure to radiation (The greater the exposure, up to a threshold, the greater the risk.)
6. Race and culture (White, European-extraction women are at greater risk than other women.)
7. Height and weight (Larger women are at greater risk.)
Unfortunately, our sex, age, reproductive history, family history, exposure to radiation (such as fallout from above-ground atomic bomb tests), race, culture, and height are beyond our control. When we’re told these are the only risk factors, we can be left with feelings of hopelessness and panic.
But when we include risk factors that are considered “not well substantiated”—but which are clearly contributing to breast cancer incidence—including ingestion of and exposure to prescription hormones, hormone mimicking organochlorines, prescription drugs, petrochemicals, and electromagnetic fields, as well as unwise lifestyle choices such as smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol immoderately, wearing a bra, or not exercising, then we can find many ways to lower breast cancer risk. No need to panic.
Not accepted, but likely, risk factors for breast cancer
8. Organochlorines (Exposure increases risk.)
9. Electromagnetic fields (Exposure increases risk.)
10. Tobacco smoke (Exposure increases risk.)
11. Alcohol (Greater use increases risk.)
Excerpt from: Breast Cancer? Breast Health! the Wise Woman Way
by Susun S. Weed
Breast Cancer? Breast Health!
The Wise Woman Way
by Susun S. Weed
Foreword by Christiane Northrup, MD
380 pages, index, profusely illustrated.
Foods, exercises, and attitudes to keep your breasts healthy. Supportive complimentary medicines to ease side-effects of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or tamoxifen.
Retails for $21.95
Read a Review
Read some excerpts:
Mammograms - Who Needs Them?
Using Herbs Safely
My Anti-Cancer Lifestyle
Order BREAST CANCER? BREAST HEALTH! in our Bookshop
What a gift to women of all ages! This book helped me overcome my fear of what I might discover during self-examination. I am so grateful that this book came my way and I am healthier in mind, body, and spirit thanks to Ms. Weed's wise words! If I could, I would give a copy of this book to every woman in the world!
Menopause, Phytoestrogens and Breast Health
2 CD Set - Susun S Weed
7th International Herb Symposium
Expose the common myths about menopause and hormones. Straight talk about phytoestrogenic herbs. Are they the best herbs to use when a menopausal woman wants treatment? Do they promote health? Are progesterone creams safe? Should we be concerned about scientific research that shows some estrogenic herbs, including soy and black cohosh, correlate with breast cancer. Find the best way through the menopausal maze.
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