Infected cells develop genetic changes that transform them into cancer cells.

A new study published in the journal Nature divides breast cancer into 4 genetic types.  One of the most deadly types, "basal-like" cancer, shows strong genetic similarities to types of lung cancer and to ovarian cancer.  A researcher is quoted in the New York Times as saying these similarities point to a common cause of the cancers.  I laughed out loud when I read this because they're all caused by infection and the cancers with the similarities they've identified are caused by a common organism infecting similar kinds of cells in the different organs.  It's right under their noses!

 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/health/study-finds-variations-of-breast-cancer.html?_r=0

I've noticed, reading these research reports, that cancer researchers are excellent at identifying the results of infection with carcinogenic organisms and even of finding treatments that are effective against these results, without identifying the underlying cause of the disease.  For example, Tamoxifen and Taxol, two of the most important breast cancer drugs, are potent antifungal drugs.  Breast cancer is caused by skin fungal infections.  Researchers somewhere discovered these drugs work against breast cancer without knowing why!  God bless them anyway - they've saved countless lives with their antifungal drugs.

It's important to note that early breast cancers are always intraductal - they form inside the ducts of the milk glands, which are open to the outside world through the milk gland openings in the breast nipple.  Fungal organisms on the skin enter the ducts through the gland openings in the skin and infect and transform the cells lining the ducts.  Breast cancer does not start in the deep breast tissue as you would expect if it were entirely a genetic disorder - it spreads to the deep tissue through invasion of the cancer cells through the walls of the ducts.

Statistically, breastfeeding before the age of 32 lowers the lifetime risk of breast cancer.  I believe it is because breast milk contains potent immune factors intended to protect the nursing infant but that also protect the breast ducts from the infection.  Breasts continue to make small amounts of milk for 10 years or more after weaning, so that increased immune protection for the breast continues indefinitely.  A mother who first nurses after age 32 may already have an entrenched infection which would not be affected by the presence of breast milk.

Cancer rates are rapidly increasing, especially in young people, because our American food supply is over-manipulated.  Our food is genetically modified (GMO) and contains chemicals and pesticides that our parents and grandparents were never exposed to.  The alterations in our food supply are also causing our epidemic of obesity.  The rest of the world isn't suffering these problems because they're still eating food that's wild-type, not scientifically altered.

Japanese women living in Japan have a low breast cancer rate but when they move to the U.S. they quickly reach the same rates of breast cancer as American women.  Obviously genetics are not the problem - these women are exposed to new environmental factors when they move to the U.S.  Japanese women consume large quantities of soy in their diets.  My Chinese physician tells me that consumption of soy outside of the U.S. lowers the risk of breast cancer, but soy grown in the U.S. significantly raises the risk of cancer because it is 100% genetically-modified.  To lower your risk of breast cancer in the U.S., you must eat wild-type or imported soy.

The genetic counselor I consulted for BRCA 1 and 2 testing told me that these breast cancer genes code for DNA repair.  The presence of the BRCA genes decreases the body's ability to repair DNA damage.  So women with these genes develop cancer at an earlier age.  These genes do not code for cancer.  They make women more susceptible to carcinogenesis.  From what I've read about the mechanisms by which fungal organisms infect mammalian cells, it makes sense that when fungal organisms trick cells into taking them up into the cytoplasm and the organism shuts off programmed cell death in the cell nucleus, DNA damage must occur during the process which the BRCA genes are unable to repair.  Perhaps shutting off cell death IS the DNA damage that cannot be repaired.

We develop cancer because our chemically altered, genetically altered food damages our immune defenses, allowing infections to proliferate, invade and genetically transform cells into cancer cells.

We must stop the genetic modification of our food, identify and eliminate the chemicals used in food production that weaken our immune defenses and identify and treat the infections that cause cancer without damaging our natural defenses in the process.

What If I Could Do My Cancer Treatment All Over Again?

I've learned a LOT over the last 5 years through trial and error.

The standard Western medical approach to women with stage 4 breast cancer is give them chemo until they die, which they always do.  I'm alive because I've been treated for the causative infection since the beginning.

A breast surgeon told me that stage 4 patients don't undergo mastectomies in the oncology protocols because they all die despite the surgery.  I had to have a mastectomy after 3 years of chemo to eradicate the original tumor - chemo hadn't touched it.  My surgical pathology report stated the tumor showed "minimal chemotherapy effect."  After 3 YEARS of chemo!

If I could do my entire cancer treatment over again, this is what I would do:

1.  Start Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) the day I received the diagnosis to effectively and safely treat the causative infection.
2.  Start hyperbaric oxygen therapy the day I received the diagnosis to immediately kill cancer cells and infectious organisms spreading from the original tumor.
3.  Undergo a simple mastectomy ASAP to remove the original tumor.
4.  After a month healing from the mastectomy, start a SHORT course of chemo to clean up any lingering cancer cells.
5.  Continue Traditional Chinese Medicine indefinitely to heal from the surgery and chemo, effectively and safely CURE the causative infection and correct the underlying physical issues that allowed the disease to start in the first place.

Traditional Chinese Medicine seems miraculous to me as a physician and cancer patient.  It has been developed and refined for 2500 years, each successive generation of geniuses perfecting it more.  Modern Western medicine is only a century old.  It has a LONG way to go, although it's best for emergencies like cancer spreading too rapidly to be controlled by slowly-acting Chinese herbs.  I believe TCM has saved my life.  I cannot recommend it highly enough!  Go find a Chinese physician STAT!

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is an excellent adjunct to TCM.  It's believed in TCM that cancer begins in areas of the body where there is a blockage, e.g. from constant muscle tension.  I believe these are areas of decreased blood flow, therefore decreased oxygen levels, which impairs the activity of white blood cells.  HBOT saturates the blood and the organs of the body with oxygen, leaving cancer cells nowhere to hide.  The oxygen saturation directly kills infectious organisms and cancer cells and arms white blood cells with all the oxygen they need to make oxygen radicals (their ammunition).  It provides the oxygen needed to make strong collagen during healing.  It also immediately relieves swelling, which immediately relieves the pain caused by metastases.

The most effective HBOT uses hard-sided chambers to achieve pressures of 2.2 to 2.6 atmospheres.  Soft-sided chambers only reach pressures of 1.5 atmospheres, too low to mobilize stem cells into the bloodstream.  Soft-sided chambers may have benefits, but it takes many more treatments and much more time to see any results.

A good friend of mine, Robert Lyne Sands, is an expert on HBOT.  You can check out his blog at http://sandsie.blogspot.com/.  He's a redheaded Aussie who LOVES to pick fights, but he's also extremely smart and incredibly kind.  He's a man on a mission.

I've tried a lot of alternative medicines and treatments and those I listed above are what work, with few or no side effects.  I've tried Cimetidine, which did seem to slow the spread of my cancer while I waited for my mastectomy, but caused me stomach inflammation, I believe because it neutralizes stomach acid, leaving the stomach unprotected from germs in food.  We NEED stomach acid!  So use it only for short periods of time.

I've used colloidal silver - it's not only anti-bacterial and antifungal, it even kills fungal spores.  I used too much of it and developed mildly abnormal kidney tests as a result.  The best way to take it is put a tablespoon of the solution in a 2-liter water bottle and sip the water through the day.

The bottom line is, from my rocky experience, to use Traditional Chinese Medicine along with hyperbaric oxygen to eradicate the infection causing your cancer.  Use your oncologist's recommendations, but CAUTIOUSLY.  Be skeptical - you don't HAVE to do any treatment.

And never give up on yourself.

Four years with Stage 4 Breast Cancer and still going strong

 I started this blog entry last fall, after 3 years of continuous chemo followed by 3 months of radiation to my chest and spine.  I didn't finish it because the radiation after all that chemo made me horrifically sick.  Now in Sept 2012 I still have not recovered from my standard Western treatment:

I'm doing very well despite being diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer 4 years ago. I'm about to celebrate my 50th birthday, which I did not believe I would reach 4 years ago. Because the cause of my cancer, a skin fungal infection, has been treated, I have not been overwhelmed by metastases.

I've survived years longer than any other stage 4 patient my oncologist has treated in 25 years. I'm the only stage 4 patient in the United States involved in an Amgen drug study to survive. If all patients with hormone-dependent cancers were treated with anti-fungal drugs along with chemotherapy, everyone would survive like I have. Please see my previous posts, starting in 2009.

I've discovered more integrative medical treatments in the past year, which I want to share with you in the hope it relieves your suffering and saves your life, too.

I had a mastectomy last December, followed by radiation. The surgery was a breeze, but the radiation made me horribly sick and weak for

I'm now coming up on my 51st birthday and my fifth anniversary of receiving my death sentence.  I've worked for the past 5 years to create my own stay of execution.  It's clearer to me now more than ever that all cancers start as infection and that cancers are the means by which these infections spread through the body.  The worst thing we can do in fighting these infections is damage the body's defenses, particularly the immune system.  The white blood cells that cause inflammation are doing their job - they're NOT the disease.  They are fighting to control a life-threatening infection.  If we effectively treat the infection, the inflammation will resolve on its own.  Wherever there is inflammation, there is an infection.