Breast Cancer and The Benefits of Detoxification

Detoxification is an important process for the overcoming of chronic disease such as breast cancer and the process has many facets, all of which should be considered in a well rounded, comprehensive, and efficient treatment plan.

During the body’s natural detoxification processes, potentially detrimental molecules such as hormone metabolites, alcohol, drugs, and air pollutants are removed from the bloodstream via the liver.  Healthy hormone detoxification is a crucial part of the normal functioning of the immune system.

What is detoxification?

Detoxification is the process of neutralizing or transforming substances that would normally be poisonous or harmful and eliminating them from your body. Without detoxification, toxic substances would accumulate, impairing your health and interfering with the function of all your vital organ systems.

Detoxification includes the removal of stored toxic products from the bowel, the blood, liver, and kidneys plus the great amount of toxic substances stored in body fat. Any change from a poor diet to a healthy one is detoxifying.

Detoxification is a process in which potentially harmful compounds are excreted.  The lungs, skin, kidneys, and gastrointestinal tract, are all responsible for this detox process, while the liver is considered to be the major organ of detoxification.  Within the liver cells there are a number of intricate mechanisms involved in the breakdown of toxic substances. Chemicals that enter our bodies, including drugs, pesticides, herbicides, and hormones are broken down by liver cells. If the liver is over-burdened, it has a difficult time performing these necessary functions.

Environmental pollutants and toxins can build up in the body, slowing the body’s natural cleansing processes.

What we put on and in our bodies can make a difference for our risk of breast cancer.

The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat are filled with man-made chemicals and pesticides that overload the liver and the entire immune system. Studies show that these toxins have been associated with hormone disruption, immune system suppression, reproductive disorders, several types of cancer and other disorders such as allergies. An alarming finding of one study showed that PCB and DDE levels appear to be unexpectedly high in the general population and may actually be increasing. These toxicants were banned decades ago; it was assumed that they would now be almost non-existent in the U.S. population.

Estrogen mimicking chemicals build up in our tissues over time. The source of these chemicals are from things like soaps, lotions, cosmetics, pesticides, acetate (nail polish remover), plastic’s, the list goes on. These estrogen mimicking chemicals are called xenoestrogens, they are synthetic and very potent and toxic to our body because they are not efficiently cleared from our body.

Toxin build-up has become more of a concern in the twenty first century than ever before. Industrial and technological progress has resulted in many new and stronger chemicals, air and water pollution, radiation and nuclear contamination. Due to medical advancement we are using more drugs that promise to rid us of our various day-to-day ailments. We eat a higher percentage of refined foods, and stress is leading us to abuse our bodies with stimulants or sedatives.

In the 1940s, a woman’s lifetime risk of breast cancer was 1 in 22. Today, the risk has risen to 1 in 8. The swift increase, says Tufts scientist Ana Soto M.D., cannot be attributed to just genetics — long believed to be the largest factor in whether women develop breast cancer. It’s time to examine our environment for causes of this deadly disease, says the Tufts expert.

While many breast cancer studies focus on genetics, or lifestyle factors such as reproductive history, alcohol use and exercise, Soto said there was little being done to assess how environmental toxins may be causing cancer,” reported ABC News.

According to the Tufts professor of cell, molecular, and developmental biology, there is already some evidence to suggest a link.

“The increasing risk of breast cancer and other cancers has paralleled the proliferation of synthetic chemicals since World War II,” said Soto. The Tufts professor added that only 7 percent of the estimated 85,000 chemicals registered for use in the United States have been reviewed for toxicity.

We know that lifetime exposure to estrogen is a risk factor,” Sheldon Krimsky — a Tufts environmental health hazards expert  told The Washington Post. “So it is logical that if we have chemicals that are creating more estrogen, the risk may go up.

At press conferences held in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., researchers revealed these shocking results: On average, each person had 50 or more chemicals linked to cancer in humans and lab animals, considered toxic to the brain and nervous system or known to interfere with the hormone and reproductive systems. (The Environmental Working Group’s Web site www.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden features biographies and toxic profiles for each person as well as the kind of products that contain such chemicals.)

At least 400 foreign compounds have been identified in human tissues. The National Human Adipose Tissue Survey (NHATS), a program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency analyzes adipose (fat) tissues in cadavers from around the country. According to NHATS, 100 percent of Americans have xylene, styrene and other known carcinogens in their fat.

Some pesticides and herbicides have been labeled as human or animal carcinogens and many are found in water supplies as well as in air and dust in homes. Though banned in the U.S in 1972, DDT and its metabolite DDE are still found in the body fat of humans and animals, and in human breast milk and placenta. The triazine herbicides—atrazine, simazine and cyanazine—have all been shown to cause mammary cancer in rats. Through different mechanisms, three other pesticides heptachlor, dieldrin and aldrin—have also been shown to increase estrogen levels and/or stimulate growth of breast cancer cells.

Keep in mind that:

• If you don’t remove those toxins from the fatty tissue, they remain there as if locked up in jail for decades — the rest of your life.
• During middle age your body has all the more difficulty in getting rid of these chemical pollutants — although with the proper procedure you can clean them out.

Click here to learn some practical breast cancer detoxification tips.