Do you or someone you
know have breast cancer?
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On today's program,
we're going to be answering
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questions and talking
about the cancer that affects
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1 in 8 women in the
United States... stay tuned.
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I'm Dr. James Marcum...
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Are you interested in
discovering the reason why?
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Do you want solutions
to your healthcare problem?
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Are you tired of
taking medications?
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Well, you're about to be given
"The Ultimate Prescription"
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Hi, I'm your host, Nick Evenson,
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and on today's program,
we're going to be talking about
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breast cancer - a topic that
can be very serious and scary.
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In 2014, 232,000 were
diagnosed with breast cancer.
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What do we need to
know and is there hope
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for the 1 in 8 women who
will be diagnosed this year?
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Dr. Marcum,
welcome to the program.
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Well thank you, Nick,
and this is a very serious
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topic that we're talking about.
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And, you know, we were
talking before we went on...
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we want to give
hope too. That's right
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You know, even though
it's serious and we choose
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programs based on what
affects a lot of people,
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and 1 in 8, that's a
pretty significant number,
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1 in 8 will
develop breast cancer.
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And, if you think about cancers,
cancer is a very scary thing.
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I'm going to quiz you
for a second here. Okay
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You might not
know all the answers,
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but let me throw some out.
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Do you know what the
most common type of cancer is
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overall - the most
common type of cancer?
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Skin cancer? Yes! ... for one
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Do you know which cancer kills
the most people every year?
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Ummm - I'd go with lung cancer.
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That's right - lung
cancer. It's like we practiced.
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Yes, we
practiced that one, okay.
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Now the cancer that
seems to affect the most women,
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of course, is skin,
but breast cancer 1 in 8,
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that's a pretty
incredible statistic. Yeah
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Now, in thinking about
cancers, everyone out there
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the first thing is we
want to avoid getting cancer,
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including breast
cancer, including skin cancer,
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and then if we have
cancer, we want to do things to
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help our own immune system
knock down the cancer cells.
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And the way I
think about it is...
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One of the things that triggers
cancers is prolonged exposures
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to stressors, okay...
For instance, prolonged
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exposure to the sun
- skin cancer. Right
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Prolonged exposure to
cigarettes - lung cancer. Right
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Now, in breast cancer it's
more like prolonged exposure
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to estrogen.
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There are a couple of doctors
out there that think that it's
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possible and the name of one
of them is Dr. Walter Willett,
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that you can make a
woman breast cancer-free,
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totally breast cancer-free,
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no breast cancer
at all, it's possible.
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BUT, okay, listen at
what we have to do to do this.
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But to do that, they
would have to not start to reach
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their menstrual period until
they were 17 or 18 years of age,
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and they would have to stay
pregnant almost all the time.
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What this does is - it
keeps the estrogen cycle down
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so in breast cancer, estrogen
tends to be a trigger. Okay
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The longer a woman
is exposed to estrogen,
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the greater the
risk they get cancer.
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So, if you have early
periods, if your menarche
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happens at an earlier age,
then they have more periods
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in a lifetime, they're
exposed longer to estrogen...
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estrogen turns on
the breast tissue which,
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if there are cancer genes,
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more likely to happen.
Does that make sense? Yeah
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Now, I imagine there may
be places in the world that
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have lower rates of breast
cancer than we do. Exactly!
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And, are these some factors
that play into their culture?
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Yes in rural China for instance,
the girls do not have their
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periods until they are 17 or 18,
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so they have a much
lower risk of breast cancer.
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Now, through the
years, the age of menarche...
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when women started
having their menstrual became
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younger and younger
and younger because they
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got exposed to, what I
think is, an animal-based diet.
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They get exposed to a lot
more estrogens earlier in life,
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and then starting to have
their menstrual periods early,
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so they have a
prolonged exposure to estrogen
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over a lifetime which is
going to raise their risk.
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So that's one
thing the early menarche.
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Another thing that happens
is we have gained extra weight
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as a society... Yeah, we have
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Fat takes even a
little bit of extra weight,
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and you make more estrogen.
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In fact, if you're a
little bit overweight,
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you make 3 times the estrogen
as you normally would. Really?
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So just carrying extra weight
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increases the
risk of breast cancer.
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Another factor that
going to increase the risk of
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a woman having breast cancer is
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increased insulin levels,
now think of it this way...
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Insulin is a growth
hormone, it makes cells grow,
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and if you think about
it, if a person eats a food
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that's highly processed,
especially high fructose
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corn syrup and those
high processed sugars,
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that spikes insulin levels. Okay
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So your insulin level
spikes, so you have this
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pro-growth thing, so
any cancer in the body
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is going to be more
likely to be stimulated.
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So processed foods,
being an insulin mechanism,
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could stimulate
breast cancer growth.
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So remember, a lot of
us have cancer genes...
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They're in our bodies and
we want them to stay dormant.
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We don't want to
activate them. Right
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So processed foods,
through insulin, is another way
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we could activate
cancer genes in addition to
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prolonged exposures to estrogen,
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and then we also talked
about the weight factor.
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So these are some
interesting things and that's
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why we see these levels of
breast cancer go up every year.
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So let me make sure
I have this right...
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You're saying that our diet
and some other factors as well,
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but our diet kind of increases
insulin which increases
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growth in a more rapid
rate than we were made to have?
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That's right.
And that can trigger
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some of the cancer. Right
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And you know, high
insulin levels not only
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stimulates cancer
growth, but it messes up
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the endothelium which is
the lining of our blood vessels.
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That's why diabetes, you
know type 2 diabetes which is
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extra weight, all that insulin
that's made, damages the body.
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It damages the blood vessels,
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raises the
chance of having cancer.
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So all the people
that carry extra weight,
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they increase risk of
different types of cancer. Sure
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So that's another thing
that we want to get out there,
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is let people know that
the diet makes a difference,
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the food makes a difference,
and movement and exercise
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tends to be very
valuable in lowering the risk
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of having cancer
through lots of mechanisms.
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Through the weight
loss mechanisms and probably
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through mechanisms
on the genetics itself.
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Now genes are what make proteins
that decide what our bodies do.
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And they have cancer
genes, but throughout the body
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you also have genes
that inhibit cancer.
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And one of the cancer
genes that got a lot of press
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was this "BCRA" gene.
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Have you heard of
that? No, I haven't.
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Well that was a gene that
they isolated and there was this
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actress, "Angelina
Jolie," she had this gene which
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raises her risk of
having breast cancer and because
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she had this gene, she
had both breasts removed.
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She wasn't going
to take any chances.
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No breast tissue -
no breast cancer. Right
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Get rid of it if you can.
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She wasn't going
to take that chance.
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So a lot of people said,
"Well, should everyone get
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tested for this gene?"
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No really, they shouldn't.
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So if you do have a
high risk of breast cancer
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in your family, that's
a whole different story,
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and she had young people
having cancer in her family
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including ovarian cancer.
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But if you had a high
risk, one of the things we want
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people to do are the
things we've talked about...
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Exercise, lower your exposures
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to estrogen in
whatever way you can.
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You know, do those
type of things and get your
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mammograms and your
breast self-checks regularly
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so if you do have it,
you'd pick it up very early.
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And eat a diet that
doesn't cause inflammation.
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Yes, now that's what
I wanted to bring up,
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and if you think about
the diet, the food we eat...
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The food we eat
directly affects our genes.
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And we have cells
in our body that...
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For instance, the BCRA
gene, that was a defective gene.
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That gene specifically encodes
for proteins that help destroy
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cancers - gets rid of cancers!
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So if you don't have that gene,
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you can't get rid
of the cancers. Right
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So we want to make our genetics
very valuable and we want to
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stimulate things
that help fight cancer.
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Well we know that
things that cause this process
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is "oxidation," I
call it "rust" in the body.
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Oxidation damages our genes,
hurts the ability of our genes
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to sort of clean up things.
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The foods that help our
bodies fight cancer are the
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"antioxidants" because
it helps our genes develop
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the things that we
need to help fight,
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and we talked, in other
programs, about telomeres
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and different genetics and
aging and different genetics,
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but we want to stimulate
our genes to do their own job
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to clean up the
matter, basically enhance
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our own defense
system, our immune system.
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But we know that things
like exercise helps our genes.
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We also know that the
food we eat helps our genes,
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but if you think about
this word "oxidation," Nick,
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anything that puts
prolonged stress on our body
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could promote oxidation. Right
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So it's not only the
food... can you imagine,
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a person that's under
a lot of brain stress,
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a lot of worries and
concerns or people have stress
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because they don't
sleep well at night...
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So any type of prolonged
stress, I think, can hurt
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our immune system and
damage our genetics so we can't
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fight off the cells
that we normally would. Right
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Now this not only
will help lower the risk of
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cancer cells
getting out of control,
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but it will help infections and
many other things in the body.
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It's sort of neat how
these chemical changes
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affect the entire body. Right
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And these are things
that we should think about
00:09:54.26\00:09:55.99
because this is
what, especially if a woman
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that is at high
risk for breast cancer,
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this is something
I would want to do.
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I'd want to say,
"Listen, I want to make my own
00:10:01.73\00:10:04.00
immune system - my own
cancer cells a lot stronger.
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Now there are some
natural herbs that have been
00:10:07.50\00:10:09.74
shown to help like
"turmeric," and things like that
00:10:09.77\00:10:11.74
to have anticancer properties.
00:10:11.77\00:10:13.74
And the way they studied
these, Nick, is they have these
00:10:13.78\00:10:16.21
dishes of cancer cells
and they actually put these
00:10:16.24\00:10:18.88
substances in to see if
they inhibit the growth.
00:10:18.91\00:10:21.35
So they'll react directly with
each other outside of the body.
00:10:21.38\00:10:24.39
Right, they can see which
cancers are growing faster,
00:10:24.42\00:10:26.29
the ones that get oxidation or
the ones that get antioxidants.
00:10:26.32\00:10:30.33
And they can actually
show that certain foods,
00:10:30.36\00:10:32.63
of course - the fresh
foods are the antioxidants,
00:10:32.66\00:10:34.83
the tumor cells
don't grow as quickly.
00:10:34.86\00:10:37.57
It's much more
complicated in the body,
00:10:38.97\00:10:40.84
but these are some things that
00:10:40.87\00:10:42.20
we want women to think
about as they think about
00:10:42.24\00:10:44.71
breast cancer - all the
things that they can do to lower
00:10:44.74\00:10:47.61
their risk and if they've
had breast cancer before,
00:10:47.64\00:10:50.21
all these things
will also enhance those.
00:10:50.25\00:10:53.52
So we want to
answer some questions
00:10:53.55\00:10:55.45
about breast cancer today.
00:10:55.48\00:10:57.19
We certainly do - it's a very
important discussion to have,
00:10:57.22\00:10:59.52
but first, before we
go into the questions,
00:10:59.55\00:11:01.12
we've been building a
first aid kit this year,
00:11:01.16\00:11:03.73
and we've got an item here.
00:11:03.76\00:11:05.16
Tell us about it and why should
00:11:05.19\00:11:06.59
it be in
everyone's first aid kit.
00:11:06.63\00:11:07.96
Yes, this is a very
important item and I realized
00:11:08.00\00:11:10.53
the importance of it yesterday.
00:11:10.57\00:11:11.97
We were in the studio
yesterday, and someone had a
00:11:12.00\00:11:15.00
situation where their
husband fell into the water,
00:11:15.04\00:11:18.57
and they got very, very
cold, on a very cold day.
00:11:18.61\00:11:22.64
Very cold weather!
00:11:22.68\00:11:24.01
And one of the
things that's important is,
00:11:24.05\00:11:26.85
when you're out in
the world, is hypothermia.
00:11:26.88\00:11:29.85
If hypothermia is
not addressed quickly,
00:11:29.88\00:11:32.35
the cells - bad
things happen quickly.
00:11:32.39\00:11:34.82
So first aid for
hypothermia would include
00:11:34.86\00:11:38.23
rubbing the body parts.
00:11:38.26\00:11:40.33
Some people would
take water, warm water in.
00:11:40.36\00:11:45.43
You know, we talked about
skin, how the skin wants to
00:11:45.47\00:11:48.10
retain heat, but this is
something that's fairly simple
00:11:48.14\00:11:50.71
that a first aid kit
should have - a blanket!
00:11:50.74\00:11:54.04
Now this doesn't
look much like a blanket
00:11:54.08\00:11:56.38
because it's in a small package,
00:11:56.41\00:11:58.11
but it's great because
you can carry it with you;
00:11:58.15\00:12:00.28
you can put it in your
first aid kit and if you happen
00:12:00.32\00:12:02.92
to run into
hypothermia or a cold situation,
00:12:02.95\00:12:06.29
you can wear this...
this helps reflect heat,
00:12:06.32\00:12:09.12
and it says this -
I've never used it myself,
00:12:09.16\00:12:11.69
but it can reflect
up to 70 to 80% of heat.
00:12:11.73\00:12:14.16
It can keep you warm
until someone can come and
00:12:14.20\00:12:16.60
warm you up, Nick.
00:12:16.63\00:12:17.97
And it seems like that's
more efficient than a lot of
00:12:18.00\00:12:19.87
blankets in my house
that are much bigger.
00:12:19.90\00:12:21.50
No, let me hand this to you,
look how little that is. Yes
00:12:21.54\00:12:23.91
It's not very big at
all and I would unwrap it,
00:12:23.94\00:12:26.44
but I'm afraid if we
unwrap it on the set,
00:12:26.47\00:12:28.81
we might not get it put
back together. Probably not
00:12:28.84\00:12:31.88
But this is another good
thing that our viewers can add
00:12:31.91\00:12:35.18
to their first aid kit that
will help them in an emergency,
00:12:35.22\00:12:38.72
and it might help
someone else, you never know.
00:12:38.75\00:12:40.59
You know, they might come
along the side of the road,
00:12:40.62\00:12:42.42
and there might be a
family that's really cold,
00:12:42.46\00:12:44.56
and has need of a blanket,
this will keep them warm
00:12:44.59\00:12:47.53
until they can
get a warm blanket.
00:12:47.56\00:12:49.06
So that's very important,
we're trying to give people
00:12:49.10\00:12:52.40
some practical ideas of
things that they can do,
00:12:52.43\00:12:55.04
not only to help themselves,
but also to serve other people.
00:12:55.07\00:12:58.64
So, we have a lot of questions
00:12:58.67\00:13:00.11
on breast cancer we're
going to get to. That's right
00:13:00.14\00:13:02.48
We're going to get to those
questions in just a moment.
00:13:02.51\00:13:04.68
But first, we're going to
break and we'll be right back.
00:13:04.71\00:13:06.82