Healthy Living
Breast Cancer & Garlic
By David Perlmutter, MD, FACN
The multiple medicinal uses of garlic have been known for centuries and even under the scrutiny of modern day scientific evaluation, garlic continues to demonstrate its effectiveness in a wide variety of medical conditions including elevated cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, fungal infections, dysentery, gastritis, parasites, and bacterial infections.
Recently, some of the finest research institutions in the world have focused on garlic as a potential anti-cancer agent. In a recent publication in Oncology Reports, researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Cornell University Medical College demonstrated a profound inhibitory effect of Aged Garlic Extract (Kyolic Garlic®) on the rate of growth of breast cancer cells in laboratory. In their study entitled Anti-Proliferative Effects of Garlic Constituents in Cultured Human Breast Cancer Cells, the researchers found that two of the components of Aged Garlic Extract (Kyolic garlic®), were profoundly reduced the rate of growth of these breast cancer cells. The study then further explores the specific biochemistry underlying the mechanisms whereby this garlic extract was able to reduce cancer growth. Although the precise mechanisms still remains somewhat elusive. The idea that garlic has significant anti-cancer activity is certainly supported not only by countless other laboratory studies, but also epidemiological data which confirm significant lowering of incidence of both gastric and other digestive tract cancers in parts of the world where there is increased consumption of garlic. Indeed, the very potent anti-cancer effect of garlic has been clearly demonstrated in animal model systems including chemically induced colon cancer, esophageal cancer, and breast cancer.
These reports, like so many others that are now appearing in the most highly respected medical research journals, continue to provide support for the recommendation of garlic supplementation in an overall program for health and longevity. Aged Garlic Extract (Kyolic Garlic®) clearly represents the most extensively evaluated commercially prepared garlic supplement in the world. It is the only garlic supplement prescribed at the Perlmutter Health Center. If you would like more information about Kyolic® Garlic or would like to receive copies of the research articles supporting its usefulness, contact Wakunaga of America at 1-800-421-2998.
Breast Cancer & Oral Contraceptives
A new study recently published in the British Medical Journal The Lancet reveals a profound increase in incidence of breast cancer in some individuals. This study, performed in the Netherlands, evaluated the risk of developing breast cancer at various ages and involved 918 women with breast cancer who were diagnosed at between 20-54 years of age.
Over all, the study revealed that using oral contraceptives for 12 or more years was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer of 30%. Beginning the use of oral contraceptives before age 20, and using them for 4 or more years doubled the risk of breast cancer.
Unfortunately, the bulk of literature provided to American women by the cancer establishment contains precious little information on actual breast cancer prevention. Typically, women are told to have frequent mammograms as a way of "preventing breast cancer." Recall, however, that a mammogram in no way prevents breast cancer, it is simply a technique for early detection. This study demonstrates that oral contraceptives can substantially increase the risk of developing breast cancer. In the United States today, 1 of every 8 women will develop breast cancer, and a third of them will die from this epidemic. These numbers roughly translate into a 747 jumbo jet filled with women crashing and killing all the passengers, every other day!
Here are some of the risk factors for breast cancer that you can change to improve the odds:
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RISK FACTOR vs. BREAST CANCER RISK
- Post Menopausal Estrogen Replacement Therapy 40%
- Alcohol Use 1 drink per day 40%
- 2 drinks per day 70%
- 3 drinks per day 100%
- Obesity (Age over 50 years) 20%
- Age over 30 years at birth of first child 90% (Data from New England Journal of Medicine)
Finally, data accumulated over the past decade clearly links exposure to organochlorine type pesticides to increased risk of breast cancer. Unfortunately, we continue to manufacture this group of pesticides and import fruits and vegetables from countries with minimal restriction on their use. I expressed my concern about the link between these pesticides and breast cancer in the following editorial published in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Organochlorines, Breast cancer, and GATT
To the Editor: -- "Breast cancer, which now affects one in eight American women, must truly be regarded as a modern epidemic. This year 180,000 American women will be diagnosed as having this disease and a third of them will die of it. In the past two decades, breast cancer has claimed the lives of more American women than the total fatalities of the Korean War, the Vietnam War, World War I, and World War II combined.
Recent evidence strongly supports the relationship between tissue levels of organochlorines like dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) and the incidence of breast cancer , with some studies showing as much as a fourfold increase in the relative risk of breast cancer in women with high organochlorine compound concentrations.
Metabolites of DDT have been noted to be 50% to 60% higher in breast cancer patient specimens compared with controls. The US government, hoping to stimulate the American economy, stands poised to approve the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). To stimulate worldwide agricultural trade, the GATT rules could allow substantially higher levels of pesticide residues on US import produce. Levels of DDT 5000% higher than current US standards will be permitted on imported peaches and bananas with similar deregulation affecting grapes, strawberries, broccoli, and carrots.
While recognizing the importance of national economics, this agreement, which affects safety standards of imported produce, demonstrates that the health of American women is not a primary concern.
"The treatment of breast cancer, once established, is about as effective today as it was 50 years ago. Certainly methods aimed at early detection are useful, but prevention is the name of the game. As China's yellow emperor stated in the 4th century B.C., Prevention is the ultimate principal of wisdom. To cure disease after it has manifest is like digging a well when one already feels thirsty, or forging weapons when the war has already begun."