Here is an article for all women to read, particularly those who have had breast cancer, and those who wish to reduce their risks of developing it. Suzannah Olivier is an expert in the field of nutrition and has researched her subject thoroughly. Throughout the article her infectious enthusiasm bubbles through, and practical advice and help are to be found throughout. It is not the whole answer, as she is the first to admit, but it makes sense. It offers a means of taking control of one's body, of adopting a positive approach and saying, 'This is what I can do to help myself.'
I met Suzannah Olivier when, typically, she was hosting a dinner in aid of a breast cancer charity. She herself had developed breast cancer at an early age. She took a positive approach to her illness and during her treatment decided that her diet and lifestyle were wrong and set about changing them. She is now, over ten years later, a picture of health and a testimony to her convictions. Many people would be content with just that but Suzannah felt that her experience needed to be passed on to others. As a nutritionist she started advising women with breast cancer, and now with this book she is able to reach an even wider audience. She is at pains to point out that attention to diet is and must be complementary to conventional medical treatment and I obviously endorse this.
Diet has been known to be a factor in the development of some cancers for a long time. There are many other factors, of course, but sufficient heed has not been taken of diet, and advice, when given, frequently falls on deaf ears. Eating is a habit after all which, like many other habits, may at first seem hard to change.
As a surgeon specializing in the treatment of breast diseases I have, all too frequently, to utter those fateful words, 'You have breast cancer.' For the patient a period of anxious waiting has ended and life will never be quite the same again. It is then my task, together with my dedicated team, to treat that patient. The emphasis here is the word 'patient' - not just the cancer, but the whole patient.
Over twenty-five years ago I spent my research year in America working on the immune response to breast cancer and I have always been aware of the need to preserve this immune response. The body has its own natural defence mechanism against cancer cells - the immune system. Antibodies to breast cancer cells are produced in the same way as they are to infections. These antibodies attach themselves to the cancer cells and inhibit their ability to divide. Treatment therefore needs to be directed towards eradicating the tumour by conventional
means - surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy or hormonal manipulation - and restoring the balance in favour of the immune system. Surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy will themselves cause temporary immunosuppression, but the overall benefits in destroying the tumour are of greater value, and the adverse effect on the immune system is a temporary one.
One of the first things to do is to build a positive approach which involves being outgoing and looking forward. Saying, 'What can I do to help myself?' Improving one's general health and level of fitness will boost the body's immune system, and here diet, exercise and stress-reduction play an important part.
The past fifty years have seen a dramatic increase in the incidence of breast cancer. Is it just coincidence that our diet has changed along with this? We look with dismay at the food our teenagers are eating, ready-prepared foods abound on supermarket shelves, sugar and salt are added to canned foods, and so-called fresh fruit and vegetables have withstood the onslaught of chemicals and pesticides. The pace of life has increased and food too has become 'fast'. We expect and demand more and more, yet stress levels rise and we remain discontented. Nor should we ignore the other changes in our lifestyle. The majority of breast cancers are hormone dependent, that is to say they are stimulated by the body's oestrogen. Nowadays, we can test the cancer cells for oestrogen receptors as a means of predicting whether they will respond to hormone manipulation using, for example, the drug Tamoxifen. Suzannah discusses the changes in our lifestyle that have changed women's hormone balance - the move towards having smaller families later in life, the contraceptive pill and HRT.
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Cancer
