When I hear the words CANCER I hear lots of B and S.  If you read
many of the top news wires they vary the story slightly, but all
give the universal idea that the war on cancer is still going O.K.

Headlines vary between
“Cancer death rate down but 565,650 seen in 2008″

“Once-sharp decline in cancer death rates easing
U.S. deaths up by 5,000 suggesting that screening has hit limit”

“Cancer rates up 5400 in 2005″

“So it was big news when the rate dropped by 2 percent in both 2003
and 2004, enough to cause the total number of cancer deaths to fall
for the first time since 1930.

President George W. Bush and others hailed that as a sign that
federally funded research was making strides against the disease.”
—Associated Press

—Dr.Altman here…I say B and S…give me a break.  The Amercian
cancer society is claiming a drop because of colorectal screenings.
If you remember the news from last year.  Oh, how quickly they
forget.
The REAL reason death rates fell the most dramatically in 2003 and
2004 was because medical doctors STOPPED prescribing hormone
replacement medications to women in 2002 because of the large study
that came out saying the hormone medications were killing too many
women with heart disease and strokes.

So now things are apparently leveling off and still dropping a bit.
Don’t get too excited.

The AP states that “In 2005, there were just under 184 cancer deaths
per 100,000 people, down from nearly 186 the previous year.”

That’s .002%  thats 2 one thousands of a percent.

Because of the population growth the overall number of deaths is
actually up by more than 5000.

So what can we assume.  The information about preventing cancer to
pure crap.  That will make the colorectal people happy.

I have a number of articles on cancer and real solutions to
prevention because that is the ONLY way to win that war.  Treating
cancer is not the answer.  http://www.docaltman.com/category/cancer/

According to Forbes Magazine Cancer is the 3rd most expensive
condition costing America 69 BILLION dollars a year.  You wonder why
you can’t get cheap insurance.

Read the posts above and don’t be a statistic.
Live happy and healthy now so you can tomorrow.
Dr. Altman

I want to give you some practical advice you can use to increase your odds. Because a cure isn’t coming any time soon. Here are some of my notes for a recent class. If you are unfamiliar with some of the topics or are confusing, just email and I’ll try and fill in the gaps. This is the short and sweet version of what your doctor should have told you. Breast cancer has to be thought of as a long term problem that starts 10+ years prior to diagnosis. Mammograms are too late, they are not prevention devices, they are early detection devises. This advice is designed for prevention.

What are the “Classic” risk factors?

1. Over 50 y.o.

2. Started menstruation early

3. delayed child birth or no kids

4. family history

5. lumpy breasts / fibrocystic breasts

6. Eating fat increases your risks (see below)

JAMA Dec. 2006 Has called these risk factors weak or not effective in predicting who will get breast cancer.

Old Theory

“Fat is bad” This looked at studies from western culture with high fat and other countries with lower breast cancer rates and lower amounts of fat. Saturated was the enemy.

Not any more

Western diets and non-western diets are far more different than just in fat intake. Westerners eat more junk food, less fruit and veggies, and exercise less. Some parts of the world use up their entire calorie intake just working in the fields.

According to Dr. John Lee’s research, “saturated fats, in moderation, aren’t as dangerous as once thought, and the majority of studies show absolutely no connection between saturated fat intake and breast cancer. The latest research shows that trans-fats in margarine, and the polyunsaturated oils they’re made from, are actually more dangerous to your health than the saturated fats.”

March 1999 JAMA study

88,795 women tracked.

2,956 developed breast cancer

No difference in risk factors between high or low fat diets except…

Those who ate less then 20% of calories in fat had 15% more breast cancer.

Another study looked at mono vs. polyunsaturated.

Less breast cancer in women who ate monounsaturated oils.

Theory is that polyunsaturated oil oxidize faster and easier.

Remember fat doesn’t make you fat.

Carbohydrates beyond your exercise capacity increases your weight.

It is not necessary to count fat grams or grams of anything when you eat a variety of natural whole foods.

Increases in weight (fats cells) increase estrogen output.

Estrogen tells cells to GROW. Excess estrogen can kick cancer into high gear.

Oils

1. Use Olive oil- use liberally, extra-virgin and not “PURE”

2. Use Saturated fats: butter, coconut oil, lard- stable and good for you, support hormone production.

3. Avoid Hydrogenated oils: Block good hormone production

4. Use Omega- 3 fatty acids: fish, flax, green leafy veggies, walnuts, keeps inflammation down and good source of fats

5. Avoid Omega- 6 fatty acids: safflower, sunflower, other vegetable oils go rancid easily.

More knowledge to ponder.

-80% of breast cancer is related to diet and toxin exposure

-20% is Genetic

Positive Things To Do

1. Avoid estrogen hormones

2. Exercising can decrease your risk by 35%

3. Stop eating hydrogenated oils.

4. Eat good hormone producers -raw butter, extra virgin olive oil, cod liver oil, coconut oil

5. Wearing a bra less than 12 hours per day can decrease risk by half.

6. Lots of raw fruits and veggies

7. Save your liver- less alcohol, medications, toxins in general. See below

8. Eat as many anticancer foods as possible: kale, beets, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, garlic, onions, and leeks

9. Get you vitamin D naturally. Sunlight is best then cod liver oil

10. Eat organic as much as possible. More nutrition, no pesticides, herbicides, artificial fertilizers, or injected hormones.

11. Do drink clean water

Liver lesson of the day

Methyl compounds provided by meats, eggs, and dairy are necessary to get rid of toxins,

Bad estrogen comes in to your body–> converted to really bad estrogen in your liver–> Methylation occurs and your liver says bye bye to the toxic estrogen. This is one reason to avoid being a strict vegetarian. The one wrinkle is that the meats
must be hormone free-and RBGH free milk.

U. of Illinois toxicologist Samual Epstein, M.D. “all women from conception to death will now be exposed to and additional breast cancer risk due to milk from cows treated with RBGH”

How some foods help

Broccoli Removes carcinogens from cells, helps estrogen break down to its harmless form.

Cauliflower helps estrogen break down to its harmless form.

Cabbage helps estrogen break down to its harmless form.

Citrus fruits help prevent cancer causing hormones from hooking on to cells

Onions detoxify the body

Garlic detoxify the body

Hot Peppers help prevent cancer causing hormones from hooking on to cells

Properly Prepared Soybeans

Good Parts

Inhibits vessels growth to cancer cells

antioxidant

inhibits glucose uptake

Bad Parts

some estrogen effects

blocks thyroid hormone production

can inhibit good vessel production (hair growth and vision)

We currently do not use soy products of any kind in our house. The risk is too high.

#1 thing to do

Stop eating so much sugar. Sugar Feeds cancer and promotes insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance messes up hormone production

Junk food increases fat and insulin production, smoking and birth control pills makes it worse –> Insulin resistance increases carb cravings –> more weight gain –> more fat=more estrogen –> girls develop earlier = more menstrual cycles –> Increased breast cancer risk.

Insulin resistance also leads to PCOS –> With PCOS there is no ovulation –> now there is even more estrogen –>Increased breast cancer risk.

“Well you see Dr. Altman, I thought you were smarter than that, it goes like this…”

Or

You are more emotional about cancer because you have had personal experience with it. Eventually everyone will be affected. It is the number one killer.

Have you ever seen an adult who acts more like a kid? They often say he hasn’t grown up.

Cancer is a cell that never grows up. Just don’t go and call your goofy uncle “Hey Uncle Cancer”

Normally cells grow up to be bones, skin, eyes, etc… but something happens along their journey. They don’t fall down the stairs and land on their heads like Uncle Cancer. It is far more subtle than that. Here are a few things that damage cells: Viruses, radiation, toxic chemicals (pesticides), injuries, artificial estrogen hormones (they were added to the government’s list of cancer causers), and genetics.

Artificial estrogens can come from birth control pills, hormone replacement, grocery store milk & beef.

Cancer is not a complete mystery. Scientists know a lot about how and why it starts, but it is not completely understood.

Generally, it is thought that you need multiple damages to a cell for it to go crazy and be unresponsive. This is why you don’t get cancer after a drink of grocery store milk or after your first hormone prescription. But, once it goes nuts and stops responding to reason, it can keep growing for 10-20 years before it is noticed. How fast it grows depends on what you feed it.

Cancer loves sugar. Who doesn’t?

Patrick Quillin, PhD, RD, CNS has treated more than 500 cancer patients for Cancer Treatment Centers of America.

“Of the 4 million cancer patients being treated in America today, hardly any are offered any scientifically guided nutrition therapy beyond being told, “just eat good foods.” Most patients I work with arrive with a complete lack of nutritional advice. I believe many cancer patients would have a major improvement in their outcome if they controlled the supply of cancer’s preferred fuel, glucose. By slowing the cancer’s growth, patients allow their immune systems and medical debulking therapies — chemotherapy, radiation and surgery to reduce the bulk of the tumor mass — to catch up to the disease.”

Sugar Control Makes a Difference

“Controlling one’s blood-glucose levels through diet, supplements, exercise, meditation and prescription drugs when necessary can be one of the most crucial components to a cancer recovery program. The sound bite — sugar feeds cancer — is simple.”-Dr. Quillin

“A female patient in her 50s, with lung cancer, came to our clinic, having been given a death sentence by her Florida oncologist. She was cooperative and understood the connection between nutrition and cancer. She changed her diet considerably, leaving out 90 percent of the sugar she used to eat. She found that wheat bread and oat cereal now had their own wild sweetness, even without added sugar. With appropriately restrained medical therapy — including high-dose radiation targeted to tumor sites and fractionated chemotherapy, a technique that distributes the normal one large weekly chemo dose into a 60-hour infusion lasting days — a good attitude and an optimal nutrition program, she beat her terminal lung cancer. I saw her the other day, five years later and still disease-free, probably looking better than the doctor who told her there was no hope.” -Dr. Quillin

A few other thoughts on cancer prevention

1. Don’t eat conventional meat and dairy. If you don’t have access to organic meat, try and buy the hormone-free meat in the store.

2. Don’t eat products with hydrogenated oils in the ingredients list. No matter what the front of the product says, read the back.

3. Don’t eat added sugar products.

4. Don’t eat bleached or enriched grain products, breads, bagels, muffins, donuts, pastas.

5. Do use fruit as your sweetner if you need something sweet. The fructose in fruit is slowly absorbed by your body and isn’t as hard on your body.

6. Stick to organic whole foods, fruits, veggies, grains, meats, eggs,etc… Pesticides are known cancer causers.

7. There is so much you can do. This will get you a long ways.

Sharp decline in 2003 when older women stopped drugs, research shows

Wow, what a headline for MSNBC

“SAN ANTONIO - In a startling turnaround, breast cancer rates in the United States dropped dramatically in 2003, and experts said they believe it is because many women stopped taking hormone pills.

The 7.2 percent decline came a year after a big federal study linked hormone replacement therapy used at menopause to a higher risk of breast cancer, heart disease and other problems. Within months, millions of women stopped taking estrogen and progestin pills.”

“Incidence of breast cancer had been increasing in the 20 or so years prior to July 2002, and this increase was over and above the known role of screening mammography. HRT had been proposed as a possible factor, although the magnitude of any HRT effect was not known.” 

Dr. Altman– Sometimes I am still surprised when the truth leaks out. Just think if all medical treatments were put under the scrutiny these HRT hormone pills were given, considering medications are between the #1 and #3 cause of death in this country, depending on whose numbers you use.

On the Heels of Breast Cancer

People have been hyping an observational study that says that women who ate more red meat had more breast cancer. Here is the part they missed and didn’t factor in. It’s not the meat.

It’s the hormones that are injected in the cows to make them big and fat. They give the cows estrogen hormones just like they gave women for hot flashes. You eat the cow, you get the hormones. Easy fix-Eat beef without hormones.

Antacids

 CHICAGO (Reuters) - Long-term use of popular anti-heartburn drugs that block stomach acid production increases the risk of hip fractures in adults over 50, perhaps because the drugs inhibit calcium absorption, researchers said —Talk to Dr. Altman if you take these.

Doctors: Skip antibiotics for child ear infections

‘Watchful waiting’ OK for common illness to avoid drug resistance

“My experience is that parents are often the driving motive behind not giving antibiotics. Parents are very, very concerned about the use of antibiotics,” said Dr. Richard Rosenfeld, director of pediatric otolaryngology at Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn and a consultant who helped write national guidelines on antibiotic use for ear infections.

Dr. Altman– 70% of ear infection will go away on their own. The 3 things I have seen work well.

1. chiropractic adjustments (opens the canals)

2. natural ear drops

3. ear candling

Antibiotic have been linked to childhood asthma and intestinal trouble, primarily yeast overgrowth. If you do need antibiotics for whatever reason, make sure you take good bacteria (probiotics) when you are done. Yogurt isn’t really strong enough.

Dr. Altman—Presume drugs are dangerous until proven safe. The FDA

presumes drugs are safe until they kill a bunch of people.