What Is Breast Cancer?

Hope For Breast Cancer Patients

How Does Flax Help Breast Cancer Patients

Press Release

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What Is Breast Cancer?

According to the American Cancer Society, Breast Cancer is a malignant tumor that starts from cells of the breast.  Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States, other than skin cancer. It is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, after lung cancer.  About 178,480 women in the United States will be found to have invasive breast cancer in 2007. About 40,460 women will die from the disease this year. Right now there are about two and a half million breast cancer survivors in the United States.  The chance of a woman having invasive breast cancer some time during her life is about 1 in 8. The chance of dying from breast cancer is about 1 in 35.  Today, breast cancer death rates are going down. This is probably the result of finding the cancer earlier and improved treatment.

(An Amazing Study)

Every woman concerned with breast cancer needs to be aware of an amazing landmark study conducted by Jeffrey Bland, Ph. D., and Ewan Cameron, M.D., more than a decade ago.  Using a special strain of laboratory mouse known for its genetic predisposition for breast cancer, Dr. Bland and Cameron took 300 of these mice and divided them into six experimental groups of 50 mice each.  The control group received only lard-based food as the exclusive dietary source.  The remaining five groups were all treated with a known carcinogenic agent.  In addition, each of these groups received a different dietary source of fatty acids.  One group received omega-3s from flax seed oil and another received omega-3s from fish.  The remaining groups received fatty acids from a variety of vegetable oils commonly consumed by humans in the United States.  Neither Bland nor Cameron knew which group received which intervention; only the laboratory technicians knew.  Weeks later, the researchers were informed that of the six groups, two exhibited 100 percent survival and the remaining four groups had 100 percent mortality.  Bland and Cameron guessed that one of the survival groups was the control group.  They were wrong.  To their surprise, all the control animals, fed only lard-based laboratory mouse food, died of the genetically induced breast cancer.  The two groups that displayed 100 percent survival, despite genetic cancer risk and carcinogen exposure, were the flax seed oil and fish omega-3 groups.  All other groups fed typical vegetable oil fatty acids had 100 percent mortality.  These results were so incredible, the editors of medical journals in which the researchers wanted to publish an article on this experiment absolutely insisted that the experiment be repeated.  It was, and with the same results.  Clearly, this is a strong indication that when we improve the quality of the fatty acids on cell, nuclear, and mitochondrial membranes using omega-3s, we have a powerful beneficial influence on how our cells respond to pathological genetic tendencies and environmental influences.  ‘The Healing Power of Flax’  by Herb Joiner-Bey, N.D. – (page 55)

 It has been previously discovered that flax seed contained phytochemicals known as lignans within the cell matrix of its seed.  Much of the interest surrounding plant lignans is based on the suspected association between them and the low incidence of breast and colon cancers of those consuming a plant – and grain-based vegetarian diet.  Lignans are converted, by bacteria in the colon, into the compounds enterolactone and enterodiol that have protective effects against breast cancer and other malignancies.  Flaxseed, in particular, contains up to 800 times more plant lignans than its closest competitors, wheat bran, rye, buckwheat, millet, soybeans, and oats. 

The lignans found in flax seed, once consumed and converted to the mammalian lignans enterolactone and enterodiol, are then absorbed through the intestinal mucous membrane into the bloodstream.  The mammalian lignans bind with estrogen receptors on cells throughout the body, reducing the effect of women’s estrogen hormones by blocking the receptors the hormones activate.  In addition, these compounds are believed to induce an increased production of sex hormone binding globulin, which controls the overall availability and influence of women’s estrogens.  Sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) regulates estrogen levels by facilitating the excretion of excess estrogen from the body.  It should be noted that lignans are thought to be estrogen modulators, balancing estrogen activity with both weak estrogenic and anti-estrogenic abilities.  They also seem to weaken the toxic effects of excess estrogen- especially the most potent types of estrogen in women’s bodies that are associated with cancerous processes.  A woman’s cumulative lifetime exposure to estrogen, including the length of her estrous cycle, plays an important role in her lifetime breast cancer risk.  The more estrogen to which her tissues are exposed, the greater her risk.  Because flax seed lignans are weakly estrogenic, it has been thought that they might displace more potent forms of estrogen from the receptors of breast cells.  These potent forms of estrogen are likely to increase women’s risk of cancer.  In this sense, because they are weak estrogens, it has been speculated that flax seed’s lignans might have a beneficial anti-estrogenic effects much like the drug tamoxifen – but without its risks.

In fact, the anti-estrogenic effects of flax seed have been compared with tamoxifen by monitoring estrous cycles.  Four-week supplementation of a high-fat diet with flax seed produced a dose-related cessation or lengthening of the cycle in about two-thirds of animals.  With tamoxifen, 83 percent of the animals had irregular cycles.  Thus, both compounds were anti-estrogenic; however, flax performed its activities without tamoxifen’s tissue toxicity (including uterine cancer risks).  ‘The Healing Power of Flax’  by Herb Joiner-Bey, N.D. – (pages 58-59)

The following press release is from Canadian scientists that conducted their own research with volunteer breast cancer patients.  Their research was based on the studies conducted on mice, previously mentioned.  The volunteer subjects were given a controlled amount flax seed per day.  Information resulting from the experiment was presented in a press release.

Press Release

ONE FLAX SEED MUFFIN A DAY FOR 30 DAYS KILLS 31% OF BREAST CANCER CELLS IN NEWLY DIAGNOSED WOMEN

EL VERANO, CA, July 29, 2005 --/WORLD-WIRE/-- Linseed oil, made from flax seeds, is an extremely useful natural oil that is used as a preservative for wood, concrete, and as an ingredient in the manufacture of paints, varnishes and stains. Little did anyone realize that the discarded flax meal was a powerful therapeutic food for the treatment of breast and other cancers.

The role of flax seed lignans as a treatment for cancer has been studied in cell cultures and animals for years, but until a few months ago it has never been tested in humans with diagnosed cancers.

Canadian scientists, following up on previous studies conducted in mice, enrolled women newly diagnosed with breast cancer as volunteers to study the effects of flaxseed on breast cancer progression. In this study, one flaxseed muffin a day, containing a predetermined concentration of pre-lignans, was consumed per day for 30 days. Tissue biopsies were preformed prior to and after the 30 day period. The results showed that the flaxseed pre-lignans, converted in the intestines by bacteria into powerful anti-cancer lignans, were extremely efficient, in low doses, in killing the breast cancer cells in these volunteer women.

The results were nothing short of dramatic. The growth index in the cancer cells was reduced 34.2%, while the level of programmed cell death increased 30.7%. Women who expressed the HER2 (c-erbB2) metastatic oncogene saw its expression decrease by a dramatic 71%.

According to Dr. Stephen Martin, Chief Scientist of Grouppe Kurosawa, data like this has never been reported before.

“This study is critically important not only for breast cancer patients, but for all cancer patients because lignans kill many kinds of cancers, including the presently incurable melanoma. With the exception of palmitic acid, the common saturated fatty acid, specific foods do not normally have the ability to kill cancer cells. And we are only talking about one muffin a day. What if we ate two? This study is so exciting that it has me jumping out of my skin. This study and parallel studies are too important for the public health to be ignored so we decided to send out a press release.”

 

The World Health Organization estimates that 1.2 million women will develop breast cancer in 2004. Since many of these women lack adequate medical care, they will eventually die from this disease. In the US, a country with unlimited medical resources, 211,240 women will develop breast cancer in 2005, and 40,410 will die. African American women in the US are particularly prone to develop and die from this cancer.

Medical costs are out of control in the US and throughout the world. Natural medicines such as lignans are cheap, non-toxic, effective in low doses, and the only hope for those without health insurance. Anyone can grind up flaxseed and put it in muffins, smoothies, yogurt or animal food. The idea that this simple seed can actually kill cancer cells in the human/animal body is almost overwhelming in its implications for human and animal health.

Grouppe Kurosawa, an organization dedicated to developing treatment protocols for acute and chronic diseases using only natural medicines and over the counter drugs, has compiled the information on lignans and cancer into the Medicinal Nutrition folder on its web site.

The folder contains hyperlinked scientific references, and flax meal recipes so people can investigate the medicinal powers of flaxseed on their own. Visit: http://www.grouppekurosawa.com/nutrition.htm