This is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  This topic is of great concern to all and has become a major cause for many.  It is because it touches the lives of so many.  As we fund research and rally our cries for a cure we must also educate ourselves.  We must do this in a proactive and assertive manner.  Many of our lives and the lives of our loved ones depend on what we know and don’t know around this issue and the very nature of cancer and our bodies. 

 I like to start any awareness or education process with getting to know the basics.  For when you know and master the basics of a thing you can master the management of that thing.  First off as humans we have to realize like so many other animals on the planet we are classified as mammals.  The reason we are classified such is very simple, because at the very first stages of life we feed from our mothers through the mammary gland.  The word mammal is a derivation of the word mammary.  Describing all animals that possess such a gland.

Each and every mammal’s mammary gland is adapted very specifically to that species.  It’s purpose is very direct, to create and secrete milk to feed the newborn of that particular species.  Any other use of the mammary (breast) as a source of food or non use for that purpose after giving birth quite simply goes against it’s natural design.  Because of the way we have been informed and our stern desire to stand up for what we believe many will argue this point in various ways.  Whatever the argument we can’t escape these facts and the consequence of ignoring them. 

What are the things that we routinely do that violate this natural order.  Well today many women don’t breastfeed or nurse, as it was formerly known, their newborn children.  Instead infants are fed formulas concocted according to information gathered in some laboratory experiment.  These scientific formulas are composed mostly of the milk of another mammal other than human, or soybean extracts.  As stated earlier, each species of mammal prepares milk in its body specifically for the health and growth of it’s newborn.  Humans are the only mammals that routinely drink the milk of another animal.  Humans are the only animals that drink milk past the infant/toddler stage of life.  And humans are the only animals whose mothers drink the milk of other animals.

We can’t have this discussion without examining milk.  After all it is the reason women have breast.  Milk is the natural food of infants.  Its purpose is to nourish their growth at the very beginning of life.  It is filled with protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, antibodies, hormones, and other chemicals necessary to fuel growth at a rate far greater than any other stage of development.  This holds true for all mammals.  This is a very defined and specific purpose.  Treating and consuming milk outside these naturally defined parameters creates a multitude of problems.  Breast cancer and other forms of cancer are but a few of these very dangerous results. 

There is an incompatibility between the various constituents of the milk of each mammal to the bodies of other mammals.  The comparable growth rate of an infant of the bovine species compared to that of humans is drastically different.  Human growth hormone in human milk and Bovine Growth hormone in cow’s milk attribute to different growth rates.

I wanted to get back to the basics in this article to rein in our thoughts around this issue.  Kinda de-cloud and un-clutter our minds a bit if you will.  Of course this is not a simple matter since this issue is of such a tall order. 

To drive home the broader implications of three major points that I feel need be in the forefront of any discussion on Breast Cancer and other cancers I am including three links. 

The first link is to Breast Cancer Risk Factors listed on the Cancer Treatment Centers of America website.  A large amount of these factors fit what I consider the misuse of Breast, food, and the hormone estrogen. 

http://www.cancercenter.com/fm1/breast-cancer/breast-cancer-risk-factors.cfm

The second link is to an article published in the Harvard Gazette in December 2006.  In the article a Radcliff Fellow Dr. Ganmaa Davaasambuu, speaks to the  suspected role of cow’s milk, cheese, and other dairy products in hormone-dependent cancers.  Which include cancers of the Breast, Prostate and Testicles. 

http://www.radcliffe.edu/about/news/in_the_news_news2007.aspx

The third link is to an article published in Science News in 1997.  In this article several doctor’s and studies point to plant estrogens or phyto-estrogens as exhibiting Breast Cancer prevention characteristics.

http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/pdfs/data/1997/152-15/15215-11.pdf

Though there are no guarantees in life, there are precautions we can all take to minimize the potential that we will succumb to this and other deadly cancers and diseases.  Once again getting back to basics.  Increasing our oxygen intake and managing our breath, consuming better quality food and managing nutrient uptake, moving our bodies by exercising regularly.  This trinity of good health is explained in detailed and simple terms in my new book The Obesity Myth: You’re Not OverWeight, You’re OverWaste, soon to be released.  Once it is available I will post the necessary links.

Copyrighr 2010