I was most recently at the Clinical Applications for Age Management Medicine Conference in Boca Raton, Florida and gave a lecture to over 400 Physicians.  One of the most interesting topics was risk reduction for breast cancer.  I presented a case regarding a patient who was a young 42 year old female who was diagnosed with Stage 1 invasive breast cancer.  

She had undergone twelve rounds of chemotherapy and a bi-lateral mastectomy as a result of the diagnosis.  When I had seen her approximately two years after her therapy she was feeling horrible, she felt fatigued, had decreased libido, PMS, constant irritability and agitation, her ADD symptoms were worse, and she was on medications for Attention Deficit and asthma.  What concerned her the most was now that she was treated for breast cancer she still had no idea how to prevent another cancer or why the cancer began in the first place.  This is often a question people have whether they have a diagnosis of benign or cancer.  Either way a diagnosis that is benign (or in other words non-malignant) or they are diagnosed with cancer, it is very scary, very frightening and often we do not know what the reason was.  In my practice I take a head to toe approach in regards to my patients.  

So when they present to me I want to know fully what their history is including such things as: childhood illnesses, social influences, anything that could be a stressor in their lives, how is their diet, how is their nutrition, what is the quality of life, how much do they exercise, what is their mental functioning and what type of environment do they live in to name a few.  

Toxicity is a big issue as I’ve mentioned in prior newsletters.  What is concerning to me is that I see younger patients diagnosed such as this one with breast cancer that are without a clearly identified genetic link.  Even though she had a family history of breast cancer she was BRCA1 and BRCA2 negative also her receptors for the breast cancer were negative, we call these estrogen and progesterone, and  Her2/neu receptor negative.   These markers are important because they help us guide the treatment options, for example because she was hormone receptor negative chemotherapy was an option.  If she was hormone receptor positive she would have the option for something called selective estrogen receptor modulators, such as the drug example tamoxifen which could be used for up to five years in this patient.  

In approaching this patient we want to try to work on the cause that led to cancer to begin with, often we are not exactly sure what the trigger was and we know that cancers can grow for ten to fifteen years before we ever identify them.  By looking back over a patient’s history (that is broad and detailed) we can sometimes see potential triggers.  Some of these potential triggers include:

long term use of birth control pills
birth control pills started at an early age
history of estrogen dominance
toxin exposure
poor dietary habits

and certain genetic predispositions related to our body’s ability to detoxify and metabolize whatever comes into our body or that we are exposed to in our environment.  

We are meant to live in a natural world not an industrial one.  

 Sometimes our bodies are overloaded and that’s one of the reasons I so strongly recommend beginning detoxification as early as possible in a person’s life.
In this case, the patient, a young woman 42 years old, really at the prime of her life was struggling to get through the day.  She has been told that currently she is free of cancer but she felt miserable.  The way I worked with her was to clearly identify several things to improve including: good dietary, nutritional supplementation and an exercise regimen that helped her rebuild her body and rebalance her body.    Functional tests further identified where there was a breakdown in the communication between her cells.  When we think of the cells of our bodies we think of the powerhouse of the cells which are the mitochondria.  We can actually get more information on our body by using urinary testing that looks at our body’s ability to process our nutrients.  In her case, we found that she had significant deficiencies in certain vitamins such as B12 and B6, which are really our “get up and go” and due to the chemotherapy she was in complete ovarian failure and menopause.  She suffered from hormone imbalance issues.  In utilizing therapeutic herbal recommendations, to help improve her body balance, and balancing her hormones we were able to achieve optimal health in this patient.  

Another study I did with this patient was look at heavy metal toxicity as a possible trigger to her breast cancer and when I tested her she had greater than 95% toxic load of lead, which we know is associated with breast cancer and other cancers as well.  So it was necessary to kelate the lead, removing it from the body. This can be done through oral supplementation, or in her case we used a suppository, the result she feels enormously better.  

She is joyous once again, living without pain and living without fear.  She has control of her body; she saw where some of the problems were in her body and was able to repair them through her education, her knowledge and her disciplined approach to her lifestyle.  She was able to make therapeutic lifestyle changes with the appropriate interventions.  I can’t emphasize how important it is to take control of your life to be disciplined and work fully to optimize your health.  Granted at times we want to reach for the chocolate cake, as I do right now, but resisting or limiting yourself to those temptations is a part of staying in balance and progressing forward to a healthy lifestyle.  Taking charge and making positive changes will result in your health being as optimal as possible.  

This is not only about being a survivor, it is about being VICTORIOUS!  

*Read more:  Cabeca Health News 

Wishing you a vida pura ,
Anna Cabeca, DO, FACOG, ABAARM

*CabecaHealth.com 

Drawing by Betty Jo Blystone