Women’s Health I

Often as women, we are busy caring for other people’s health, such as our children, spouse, or parents, but we do need to take care of ourselves. So, these next couple of weeks, I would like to address women’s health.

Breast Cancer
One of the greatest concerns of our time is breast cancer, so we will start with this topic. First, it is helpful to understand more about cancer and what it really is. Here are some differences between normal cells and cancerous cells.

Normal Cells
Mitosis: Normal cells grow orderly and have controlled patterns.
Apoptosis* occurs when cells are old.
Differentiation: Cells take on same form and function as their surrounding environment.

Cancer Cells
These cells grow uncontrollably faster with no pattern.
Apoptosis does not occur in cancer cells.
Cancer cells crowd and invade surrounding systems.
Look different: Irregular shape, large irregular nuclei, primitive in appearance

*The death of cells that occurs as a normal and controlled part of an organism’s growth or development.

There are several things that we know that can cause cancer, such as, tobacco, alcohol, chemicals, radiation, free radical oxygen, genetics, cell phones, diet, and more. Yet, the real cause is cellular damage. The healing process has gone awry. This is the bottom line that differentiates between cancer cells and normal cells.

Another thing we should know about cancer, is that cancer cells are very small. In fact, 1 million cancer cells cannot be medically detected, and 1 billion cancer cells are only the size of a pea. This is why after removing a cancerous growth, or treating cancer, doctors state, “We think we got all of it.” They don’t know! Therefore, prevention and health measures that will strengthen our immune system are extremely important when dealing with cancer.

Causes and Prevention
As with ALL cancer, prevention consists of Environment, Diet, Exercise, Herbs, and Emotions. I will not go into all of these, but just touch on a few basic concepts for the prevention of breast cancer in specific. Since we now understand more about cancer and what it really is, we can gather that there are some practices that could contribute to breast cancer:

Mammograms – The radiation from the x-rays damage cells, which is not what you want to do.
Wire in bra – have an antenna effect attracting electromagnetic fields, and also over-stimulating reflex points.
Tight bras or wearing them for a long period, such as overnight – Constricts lymph drainage.
Hormone replacement therapy.
High estrogen levels or long exposure to estrogen.

Here are some things to do: