To treat breast cancer or prevent it
Yesterday was the 35th anniversary of the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure breast cancer fundraiser in NYC. It was good to see that so many people are taking action to combat breast cancer. In the past 35 years there’s been tremendous advances in early diagnosis and treatment options. Unfortunately, there is a 1% increase in breast cancer annually. Even more alarmingly is the diagnosis of women with breast cancer under 50 and in the 20s often with a more aggressive form.
In an interview with Dr. Laura Collins a Harvard Medical School professor in pathology said that she was surprised that the American Cancer Society in their annual paper reported the increase rate of breast cancer in younger women. She said, “Certainly there are changes in lifestyle that could impact the incidence of breast cancer and there are other environmental factors”.
Could some of this money be spent on investigating lifestyle and environmental factors to prevent breast cancer. As I said there’s been great advances in diagnosis and treatment options but wouldn’t some of this money be directed at prevention. Prevention is easier than racing for a cure. Why is there such emphasis on a cure rather than prevention? Especially since Dr Collins cites lifestyle and environmental factors are possibly responsible for the steady increase in breast cancer.
Given the option of patients to actively participate in their health care should empower them, decreasing fear and anxiety. I could have long discussions about the causes of breast cancer including the BRCA genes which I have previously written about. Focusing on lifestyle and environmental factors may keep the BRCA genes quiet, family history must be taken into consideration.
My emphasis in functional medicine is the prevention of disease not the treatment of, especially cancer. In future emails I’ll be focusing on the immune system and a part of the immune system that is virtually forgotten even among functional medical practitioners. I will also explain the connection between chiropractic and functional medicine.
