Participants: Don Miller, Agatha Thrash
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000134
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00:01 Breast cancer is a very serious and very common disease in women
00:05 I'm Agatha Thrash, a staff physician at Uchee Pines 00:10 And during the next half an hour I and several members of the 00:13 staff at Uchee Pines will be discussing the subject of breast 00:17 cancer... not only in women but also in men. 00:20 We invite you to stay by and join us for this discussion. 00:45 Welcome to "Help Yourself to Health" with Dr. Agatha Thrash 00:48 of Uchee Pines Institute. 00:50 And now here is your host, Dr. Thrash. 00:53 There are many lifestyle issues involved in breast cancer. 01:01 These lifestyle issues are usually quite simple 01:05 and it isn't difficult to follow these lifestyle principles 01:09 But sometimes people are a little bit reluctant to do it 01:12 because it may cut across some of our established habits. 01:15 Now, we would like to talk with you about various ways of 01:21 finding the cancer early because that is one of the most 01:24 important things that you can do apart from lifestyle. 01:27 And so with me here is Valerie Schreiber. 01:30 Valerie and I work together in our helping women to know how 01:35 to discover their breast lumps. 01:36 And Valerie is going to tell you some things about 01:40 how to discover a lump yourself, Valerie. 01:43 Ladies, pay attention. 01:46 Knowing how to properly examine your breast could save your life 01:50 And I'm going to show you today how to do the triple touch 01:53 method that the American Cancer Society has for us. 01:57 And so you're probably saying to me... "uh, examining my 02:03 breasts, there are so many lumps and so many things I 02:07 feel in there, I can't tell one thing from another. " 02:10 Well, you know, I've been a product of that too 02:11 but that's not the real issue in examining your breasts. 02:15 The real issue in examining your breast is to get familiar 02:18 with your tissues. 02:20 Therefore, if they change in the slightest, you will 02:23 recognize it. 02:24 What happens in most women because they are not familiar 02:27 with their breast tissue, the lump gets quite large or 02:30 dimpled and by then, you're in real trouble. 02:33 So what we want you to do is to learn how to do this 02:36 And I encourage you to go to the American Cancer Society. 02:39 They have an excellent brochure to show you how to do the 02:43 triple touch method. 02:45 Now before we go into that, I want to tell you how 02:49 to go about doing this. 02:50 If you have a regular menstrual cycle, then one week after 02:55 your cycle is when you want to check and you do this every 02:57 month consistently one week after your menstrual cycle ends. 03:02 Now, if you have irregular menstrual cycles or none at all, 03:05 then you pick a week every month and you mark it on your calendar 03:10 and you do it the same time every month. 03:13 That way, if anything happens, you are going to be 03:16 able to pick it up. 03:18 Now let me show you here, the risk. 03:25 The primary risk is age and family history. 03:29 Your secondary risk is reproductive history and 03:31 menstrual history. 03:32 However, the two major things that also influence it is diet 03:36 and hormones. 03:37 Now the triple touch method that the American Cancer Society 03:44 teaches is, you use 3 fingers and 3 levels of pressure. 03:52 And you will see the 3 levels. 03:54 First, it will be light, then it will be medium and a 03:56 little more firm, and how you will do that is you can just 04:00 watch me here, is you take your 3 fingers and you put it on the 04:05 breast and you do a dime-size circle. 04:09 And so you do light, then you go medium and then you 04:14 go more firm and then you just move right down to the next spot 04:19 light, medium, firm and then you just keep doing this all the way 04:25 around your breast. 04:27 Now, the other thing that the American Cancer Society is 04:30 showing us is, they are talking about doing what they call 04:33 the "lawn mower" check and so they are going from the top of 04:37 the shoulder all the way down to the waist, like you would mow 04:40 a lawn, down and up, up and down and up. 04:43 And then you can go across this way and you start underneath 04:48 your arm and you go all the way down to the waist and you do 04:51 those little circles with 3 fingers, light, medium and firm, 04:55 dime-size circles. 04:56 Now another thing you want to do before you actually do this 05:02 check, is to look in the mirror. 05:04 See, and you are going to look for color; you are going to look 05:08 for shape; you are going to look to see if your breasts are going 05:11 in the right direction, or if the nipples are going in a 05:14 different direction. 05:15 You are going to look to see if there could be any dimpling. 05:18 So you want to just stand in front of the mirror and just 05:21 look at yourself and you can turn sideways and look 05:24 at yourself and do it on both sides and look again, 05:27 look very closely. 05:29 Then you are going to want to lift your arms up like this and 05:32 look very closely at your nipples and your breasts and 05:36 again, do your side. 05:38 Then take your hand press them real firm and look again to see 05:42 if anything changes. 05:44 Many times one breast will begin to shrink or one will get larger 05:48 I have seen that in women with breast cancer. 05:50 So you want to look... is one getting much bigger, or smaller 05:53 or anything dimpling. 05:55 Then you would take your hands and go to the back of you, like 05:58 this, and press again real hard and look in the mirror and 06:03 look sideways. 06:04 Then the next way is to put your hands on your hips and press 06:08 in and bend over and look very closely at your breasts and do 06:13 again sideways on both sides of your breasts to see if there is 06:18 anything that could possibly be changing in your breasts. 06:21 So again, I encourage you, go to the American Cancer Society, 06:25 their brochure is excellent that they have for examining your 06:28 breasts and remember ladies, it's not just for looking for a 06:32 lump per se each time, it's knowing your own tissues, so 06:38 that if anything changes, you will pick it up right away. 06:41 You won't have to wait until the lump is great big. 06:43 Dr. Agatha. Oh, I need to show how to position yourself. 06:49 If you can show that now, we'll have Melissa to come up 06:53 and I can take this away and Melissa can actually be placed 06:58 on the table in the way that can let you know what position you 07:02 should take when you are going to examine yourself. 07:05 This is my granddaughter. 07:08 Now this is real important. 07:12 You can make a choice. You could examine your breasts one time 07:16 in the shower, the next time lying down. 07:18 However, lying down spreads the breast tissue so that you are 07:22 able to get into it much better and be able to cover 07:26 it much better. 07:27 So, what you do is, you get yourself a towel, fold it like 07:30 this, put it underneath your shoulder 07:33 and lay back down on it. 07:35 This causes the breast tissue to flare out more and then you lift 07:40 your arm up this way and use your hand to begin the check. 07:45 And going down like a lawn mower all the way down like this and 07:49 then all the way back up and you can go across this way as well. 07:53 Okay, very good. Thank you. 07:55 Well with these very simple instructions, you should be able 07:59 to handle examining your own breasts. 08:03 Now, there are several different kinds of breast cancers. 08:07 In women, there are several kinds and in men there is also 08:11 breast cancer in men. 08:13 And, with me today is Don Miller who will talk with you about 08:17 breast cancer in men and also how to discover it. 08:21 Don Miller. 08:22 It's not the most common disease in the world for men. 08:24 As a matter of fact, fewer than one percent of all breast 08:27 cancers will appear in men but that is a significant number for 08:30 those men who do develop breast cancer. 08:33 This year, probably about 1,400 men will be discovered to have 08:38 breast cancer and of those 1,400 400 of those men will die of 08:43 breast cancer. 08:44 Now, we need to look at a couple of things. One, what predisposes 08:47 a man to breast cancer. 08:49 What are some of the diagnoses of breast cancer. 08:52 What are some of the things that we can tell. 08:53 Now, what Valerie just talked about as far a self examination 08:57 men should do that too. 08:58 Now this was a revelation to me until just recently but we need 09:02 to be checking ourselves too for breast cancer. 09:05 Now there is a condition called gynecomastia, or depending on 09:10 where you are from, it may be "genicomastia. " 09:11 It's the over-development of the male mammary gland. 09:15 That is not a predisposition or a sign that you are going to get 09:19 male breast cancer. 09:21 It's just some men just develop breasts and it's just unordinary 09:28 but it's not a sign that you are going to get the breast cancer. 09:30 The things that will predispose to male breast cancer is... 09:35 One, a change in the hormonal balance of a man. 09:39 And this can happen by various ways. One, testicular trauma or 09:45 atrophy and when I mention testicular trauma, it's very 09:49 important for young boys who are out there on the soccer 09:52 field kicking that ball, a real good kick can really traumatize 09:57 the testicles and we need to very much guard against that 10:01 particular problem. 10:02 It can also, as far as testicular or hormonal balance, 10:06 things like liver disease, cirrhosis of the liver, can 10:10 cause a change in the balance of the hormones in a man. 10:15 Sterilization or infertility both are things that will change 10:21 the balance of the hormones in a man. 10:23 All these things can be a predisposition for breast 10:28 cancer in a male. 10:29 The other factor would be just having a familial history or 10:33 family history. 10:34 It's the main thing in women and it's also the main thing in men. 10:38 Now there are a couple of genes they have discovered very 10:41 recently, "BRCA1 and BRCA2" which predispose to breast 10:48 cancer in humans. 10:49 So if a man has breast cancer in his family, as far as his 10:54 females in his family, he may well be in that position to be 10:59 one of those 1,400 men who develop male breast cancer. 11:02 So, we need to be very careful and check in the histories and 11:06 then the checking ourselves. 11:07 Now, how do we check ourselves? 11:08 What Valerie just described is very good. 11:11 Now I'm just going to show it a little bit better 11:13 here on myself. 11:15 Again, you take your 3 fingers the pads of your fingers 11:18 and I'm going to do what she called the "lawn mower" effect 11:21 or being out here in a field is the "farmer effect. " 11:24 Basically, you take your fingers and either above or below your 11:28 your breast, it really doesn't matter 11:29 And you place them maybe about the sternum of your body, 11:34 the mid body and just start and what I like to do is just 11:38 do little, tiny curls as I'm dragging across, feeling, 11:43 always feeling. 11:44 Now, she mentioned something very important... 11:47 Get to know what you feel like. 11:49 If all of a sudden, the first time you do it, you feel a lump 11:52 that lump might have been there since you were born. 11:54 Know what you feel like. 11:55 As a matter of fact, I would recommend for all these things, 11:58 is you make a body chart. 11:59 Every mole, every dimple, every thing that you know when it 12:02 starts changing. 12:03 So you go across, little... I do little curly-Q's but very small 12:08 ones and while I'm doing it, I'm doing the light, 12:11 medium and heavy. 12:12 I do a little bit light, and press a little bit harder, 12:14 harder, harder. 12:16 Now we have to realize also that really traumatizing the breasts 12:19 are not good, so you don't sit there and smash all the way 12:22 through to your spinal cord. 12:23 You're just pressing in there. 12:25 Once you are across, you go back and then wherever your bottom 12:29 finger was, that is where you put your top finger. 12:31 And, so you are overlapping one finger width. 12:34 And you are going across, feeling, feeling, feeling. 12:39 And I would recommend you do this by yourself in the quiet 12:42 so you can be doing all of your concentration just on the 12:46 central touch of your fingers to see if you are feeling anything. 12:49 Once you have covered the entire breast area, then I would 12:53 recommend you go down 12:55 So now you plow the field, or you cut the grass in the other 12:58 direction... going down, feeling that thing, feeling, feeling, 13:02 feeling... go back up 1 finger width overlapping, pressing 13:09 hard, medium, soft... going all the way down doing it 13:12 in both directions. 13:13 If you feel that lump, I would have a doctor check it out. 13:18 It's a... granted only 400 men, "only 400 men" may die of it 13:23 and that may not be a very significant number but if you 13:25 are one or if someone you love is one, it becomes an extremely 13:28 meaningful number. 13:30 Breast cancer is a meaningful disease, Dr. Thrash, and I 13:33 think we need to really be careful with it, 13:34 males and females. 13:36 Yes, it is a very serious disease and, of course, it is 13:39 getting much more common nowadays. 13:41 So, we want to do what we can to discover the lump early 13:46 both in men and in women. 13:47 Now in women, we recommend... you will notice that the 13:51 technique was different in as Don Miller showed it, in one 13:56 respect for men, than for women 13:58 And that is that you reach across the chest with one hand 14:02 you reach across the chest to examine the opposite breast 14:04 because it's more difficult for a woman to do the same side 14:09 breast because of the way that the breast needs to fall to 14:14 spread, so that she can feel the breast more easily. 14:18 Now in lifestyle things, there are so many different things 14:22 that a woman can do to make certain that she doesn't have 14:27 breast cancer or she does what she can to make certain she 14:31 doesn't have breast cancer. 14:32 Of course, with everything good and perfect in lifestyle, not 14:36 everybody is going to avoid breast cancer. 14:38 And if you have breast cancer, you should not blame yourself, 14:42 nor feel guilty that your lifestyle maybe has not always 14:45 been what it should have been 14:47 but we go from what we have and go from this point. 14:51 So if you should discover a lump then, of course, you need 14:54 professional help right away. 14:56 Now with some of the lifestyle things, of course food always 15:01 looms up as one of the very first things. 15:03 And Valerie Schreiber is a master of the kitchen and can 15:10 turn out some positively wonderful foods... 15:13 So she is going to tell you a few things about what you can 15:16 do to make protecting yourself against breast cancer 15:21 actually fun... Valerie is able to do that. 15:24 So, Valerie, what do you have here for us? 15:27 Well, we are going to talk a a little bit about flaxseed 15:30 and flax is an essential fatty acid that we need for our 15:35 body and it is an oil and contrary to popular myths, 15:39 the body does need fats but it needs the right kinds of fats 15:43 And flaxseed, which we have right here in the bowl, are 15:47 these pretty little brown seeds as you can see here. 15:50 You can use them in many ways 15:52 and I'm just going to show you how. 15:54 I have a little nut mill here that I can grind them in; 15:56 however, if you don't have a nut mill, you can do it in 15:59 your blender as well. 16:00 But you can just put this on and just push it down like this 16:04 and grind them. 16:06 When you get done, this is essentially what they look like. 16:12 All ground up and you can grind them a little finer if you like 16:17 and they will get just like powder. 16:19 And what is so wonderful about the flaxseed, the ground 16:22 flaxseed like this, is you can sprinkle it over your cereals, 16:26 you can sprinkle it over your salads. 16:28 You can put it over the top of any vegetables. 16:32 It's kind of got a nutty little flavor to it but it 16:34 is quite delicious. 16:35 It is not offensive in any way but you will get your omega 3 16:39 fatty acids as a result of it. 16:41 Now there are other places that you can get the essential 16:44 fatty acids and that is in your legume family, your nut family, 16:49 and your seed family. 16:50 So there are those places that you can get the 16:54 essential fatty acids. 16:55 Now, they play a major role in hair loss, in your skin, 17:01 prevention of arthritis. 17:03 We use it for an anti-inflammatory. 17:05 It is excellent in that. 17:07 It lowers triglycerides and cholesterol. 17:11 And, it plays a major role in cardiovascular disease. 17:14 Dr. Agatha will continue to talk to us about it. 17:19 In fact, I might eat some of those flaxseeds. Yeah. 17:21 Because I really enjoy flaxseed. 17:25 When I first started, I have to admit that I didn't really like 17:27 flaxseed all that well. 17:29 But, as I became accustomed to it and also as I learned 17:32 that in many countries of the world, flaxseed are a staple 17:36 article of food, then I began to think, "well, it's not too 17:39 bad, you could get so that you could enjoy that. " 17:43 So I started sprinkling it on cereal and stirring it in fruit 17:46 juice or in many ways, trying to increase the exposure that 17:51 my family have to flaxseed. 17:53 You can put it in breads or put it in waffles and that can be 17:57 helpful but we just grind it and use it in that way. 18:02 Now, you might be interested in the fact that there are many 18:07 different aspects of soy, some of which are anticancer and also 18:16 in anything of this nature, you can expect that there is some 18:19 controversy concerning it. 18:21 And there is right now, a conflict over the scientific 18:26 benefits of soy in one's diet. 18:30 Whether or not one should actually use soy in the diet or 18:34 whether it might be harmful. 18:36 >From the best that I can tell, soy is not harmful to you... 18:40 although there have been some research projects, mainly 2 or 3 18:46 that show that there might be some deleterious effect 18:50 especially if a women with breast cancer is taking 18:53 tamoxifen, which is a chemotherapeutic agent used in 18:59 breast cancer. 19:00 It may be that those who are taking tamoxifen should 19:04 leave off soy. 19:05 But in all other cases, it seems to me there is just too much 19:10 evidence that soybeans have a beneficial effect for women's 19:14 health, especially in helping to prevent cancer or even in 19:18 treating cancer of the breast that is not of the hormone- 19:22 dependent variety. 19:24 So, with those remarks, then we can say that there are many 19:29 other things that soy can be useful for. 19:33 Osteoporosis is one of those and women who have osteoporosis 19:37 can take soybeans and use soy in many different kinds of ways. 19:44 The commercial products may or may not be that beneficial. 19:49 As an example, soy milk may not have the essential portions of 19:56 soy that would make the soy milk beneficial for a woman. 20:00 But that it will, to some degree perhaps help but she should not 20:07 depend on soy milk as her source of soy. 20:10 I like to recommend to women that they take the 20:13 soybeans themselves, or they actually purchase the beans or 20:17 grow them in her own garden. 20:19 That would give her more benefits than one. 20:21 And as she develops her interest in soy, she will find many, many 20:27 many recipes, both those that are on the market and those 20:34 that she develops herself. 20:35 And, we have developed several soybean recipes 20:39 at Uchee Pines and I like to experiment with these. 20:44 We use it for breakfast. 20:46 We use it as sandwich spreads. 20:48 We use it for lunch and we can fix them ahead of time and 20:53 freeze recipes. 20:54 And so Valerie is going to show you some of the recipes that 21:00 we have developed at Uchee Pines and some ways 21:03 that you can use these. 21:05 We have a number of products to show you here today that are 21:09 readily available on the market. 21:11 You can find many of these in your local grocery stores today, 21:14 as well as your local health food store. 21:16 But I'd like to read a quote to you that has meant a lot to me 21:19 and really says it all about soy bean. 21:21 It is by Dorothy Van Gundy Jones 21:23 She says, "Soybeans are one of the best sources of protein 21:26 in the vegetable kingdom. They can honestly claim the title 21:30 the meat that grows on vines. " 21:34 And really, that is true. 21:35 It is the meat that grows on vines. 21:37 You can do everything in the world with soybean. 21:40 And it has wonderful minerals in it, vitamins in it. 21:45 It's rich is calcium, phosphorus and iron. 21:48 Now, it has very little starch. 21:51 It's high in your B vitamins, B12, your vitamin E 21:56 and your omega 3 fatty acids which are your essential fatty 22:00 acids that everyone is concerned about today. 22:03 And, it is abundant in fiber. 22:06 So, you get plenty of fiber. 22:07 And, ladies, those that are having trouble with hot flashes 22:11 out there today, one-half cup of soybeans daily can reduce or 22:17 stop your hot flashes. 22:18 So it is very good for women that are in menopause. 22:23 Also, women eating soybeans also experience a drop in their LDL 22:27 cholesterol, so those that are concerned about high cholesterol 22:31 eat your soybeans. 22:32 Now let me just show you a few products that you can get at 22:36 your local grocery stores or health food stores. 22:38 This one here, which is "Silk," it happens to be readily 22:43 available in almost all grocery stores and it is an excellent 22:46 milk product for soy. 22:47 And they also have a very delicious yogurt that they make 22:53 in various flavors, as well as plain. 22:54 that you can use. 22:56 And, you can take the Silk yogurt, that I have right here, 23:04 and you can take and make sour cream. 23:08 You can make tartar sauce. 23:12 You can do various things with just this product. 23:14 So, it makes it very simple for those moms out there that are 23:17 having to work and don't have a lot of time to prepare products. 23:21 There are cream cheeses that are already prepared, right here... 23:26 "Better than Milk" makes a real nice cream cheese. 23:30 Then there are some other soy products and you can find these 23:35 usually in your local grocery store, as well as in your 23:38 health food store. 23:39 The Vitasoy makes wonderful products. 23:42 There are many other products such as your TVP which is not 23:48 flavored and you can use these TVPs and flavor them yourself 23:53 and this sort of like takes the place of chicken. 23:55 We also have another one that is in a dark color and that would 24:00 take the place of your beef and you can flavor it. 24:03 There are many flavorings that you can buy in your local health 24:05 food store that have a beef-type flavoring or a chicken-type 24:08 flavoring and you can make wonderful things with this. 24:12 For instance, you can soak it in water or in your flavoring and 24:16 then you can make burgers, you can make chicken salad that 24:19 is absolutely scrumptious... the chicken salad that I make. 24:22 Now, there are a few other things that I want to show you 24:25 that you can use and one of the other ones is the chunks. 24:30 Now, this is like a beef-like chunk. 24:33 In fact, we had a meal yesterday that had this in it, a Chinese 24:36 meal and it was absolutely delicious. 24:39 So, you can soak this and make whatever flavor you want. 24:41 You can use it in Oriental dishes or spaghetti or 24:46 stews, or soups and it is very, very good and takes the place 24:50 quite well of eating meat, especially when you are in this 24:53 transition of going from eating a meat diet, this is very 24:57 good to use. 24:58 Now, I would like to just show you another way to use soybeans 25:02 because it is really nice if you can use the whole soybean 25:06 And I have a bowl of soybeans right here that I have soaked. 25:12 Now, what you do is, you just take your soybean and you soak 25:15 it for several hours, or all night and then run that water 25:19 off and then you can take your soybeans and you can put them in 25:22 several packages and put them all ready in your freezer, so 25:25 that you will have either a cup or 2 cups, whatever you want to 25:28 use and then you can take your soybeans and you can grind them 25:35 the next morning in your blender with whatever flavorings that 25:39 you would like to use, and it turns out like this. 25:42 We make egg salad out of this, deviled eggs out of this, 25:46 scrambled eggs out of this. 25:48 You can just do almost anything and you can put this in corn 25:52 muffins and it will make them just puff up and get real light 25:56 and beautiful. 25:57 You can put it in your bread. 25:59 You can put it in almost any loaf that you would choose to 26:02 make and it makes it light and fluffy and very delicious and 26:06 then you are going to get your quota of your soybean and your 26:10 essential fatty acids, your minerals, your calcium, 26:13 your phosphorus. 26:14 You will get everything you need and high fiber at that. 26:16 Thank you. 26:18 And I want to know how you make a chicken salad 26:22 sandwich out of this. 26:23 Well, first off, I take this and I scramble it. 26:28 I put it in a frying pan, and I scramble it with water and I 26:34 put all my seasonings in it and I put a little turmeric so that 26:38 I can make it yellow. 26:39 And when I get all that done and it's all cooled down, 26:44 then I put it over in another bowl and I add my homemade 26:47 mayonnaise and I dice up onion and... 26:51 Was it egg salad or chicken salad? 26:52 Um, either one. 26:53 Either one, you can do either one. 26:54 And I put pickle relish in it and diced up onion and diced 26:59 up celery and I mix it all up and I'm telling you, it tastes 27:03 like egg salad. 27:05 But, I tell you, I do it two ways. 27:06 Before that, I will take a little bit of this out and I 27:10 will go ahead and make a home- made mustard and my mayonnaise 27:13 and dice up real, real fine onion and that makes like a 27:18 deviled egg and so then I take a glob of that and I put it on 27:23 like a corn chip, like a round corn chip and I put it right 27:27 on there and it makes a wonderful deviled egg. 27:30 You could do so many wonderful things. 27:32 Get a good cookbook. 27:33 It's all in nice cookbooks. 27:34 Thank you. 27:36 Well, I'm quite certain after this very good discussion about 27:40 soy, that no one should be in the dark about how one 27:44 can use it. 27:45 There are so many good things to do that are beneficial, that 27:50 there is no reason for anyone to feel that they are trapped 27:52 in a bad program, so God's blessings to you. |
Revised 2014-12-17