Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way (Wise Woman Herbal Series) [Paperback]

Susun S. Weed (Author), Christiane Northrup (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: Wise Woman Herbal Series | Publication Date: April 11, 1996

For women who want to maintain breast health or for women diagnosed with breast cancer. Foods, exercises, and attitudes to keep your breasts healthy. Supportive complimentary medicines to ease side-effects of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or tamoxifen. Foreword by Christiane Northrup, M.D.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Designed to be a resource for both women who want to maintain breast health and those who've been diagnosed with breast cancer, Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way draws on "women's wisdom," or the inner knowledge often ignored by modern medicine, as a powerful tool for healing. Author Susun Weed proposes an anticancer lifestyle, and, if cancer does enter the picture, a six-step plan for healing (sleep is at zero, or "Do Nothing"; surgery is number six, which she terms "Break and Enter"), with various complementary healing techniques included throughout.

Weed is careful to point out that supplements and herbs can hurt as much as they can help, and she lists several alternative-medicine techniques that should be avoided no matter what. The steps she does recommend--from herbal oils for breast massage to help detect lumps early to the herbs milk thistle, dandelion, and burdock for women with liver damage from tamoxifen--are explained clearly, sometimes with fascinating quotes from centuries-old books on healing.

Weed will draw ire from some readers for recommending that mammograms be avoided. She says they tend to squeeze cancer cells into the bloodstream and can't detect cancer until it's metastatic, which are reasons enough to not have them, and adds that women would be better off by making her suggested anticancer lifestyle changes, paying more attention to their breasts, and performing regular self-exams.

The warnings about the dangers of electromagnetic fields, exposure to estrogen, and organochlorides from plastics may frighten some, but Weed means to enlighten and empower. She dedicates the book to environmentalist and Silent Spring author Rachel Carson and poet Audre Lorde, who both died of breast cancer. Extensive herbal resources, a solid glossary, and a thorough index are included.

About the Author

Susun S. Weed has no official diplomas of any kind; she left high school in her junior year to pursue studies in mathematics and artificial intelligence at UCLA and she left college in her junior year to pursue life. Susun began studying herbal medicine in 1965 when she was living in Manhattan while pregnant with her daughter, Justine Adelaide Swede. She wrote her first book -- Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year (now in its 29th printing)-- in 1985 and published it as the first title of Ash Tree Publishing in 1986. It was followed by Healing Wise (1989), New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way (1992 and revised in 2002), and Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way (1996). In addition to her writing, Ms Weed trains apprentices, oversees the work of more than 300 correspondence course students, coordinates the activities of the Wise Woman Center, and is a High Priestess of Dianic Wicca, a member of the Sisterhood of the Shields, and a Peace Elder. Susun Weed is a contributor to the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women's Studies, peer- reviewed journals, and popular magazines, including a regular column in Sagewoman. Her worldwide teaching schedule encompasses herbal medicine, ethnobotany, pharmacognosy, psychology of healing, ecoherbalism, nutrition, and women's health issues and her venues include medical schools, hospital wellness centers, breast cancer centers, midwifery schools, naturopathic colleges, and shamanic training centers, as well as many conferences. Susun appears on many television and radio shows, including National Public Radio and NBC News.

Product Details

• Paperback: 380 pages
• Publisher: Ash Tree Publishing; 1 edition (April 11, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0961462078
• ISBN-13: 978-0961462079
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #17 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Aging > Cancer > Breast Cancer

More About the Author

Susun S Weed has received the Twentieth Century Award for Achievement, is included in Who's Who of Intellectuals, was recognized as an Outstanding Person of the 20th Century, and was nominated as International Woman of the Year. Her books and appearances have helped millions of women attain better health and become more powerful in themselves.

Ms. Weed has no diplomas of any kind, having left high school in her junior year to pursue mathematics and artificial intelligence at UCLA, and having left there in her junior year to pursue life. She began studying her study of herbal medicine in 1965.

Her areas of focus are: folkloric herbalism, eco-herbalism, ethnobotany, pharmacognosy, philosophy and psychology of healing, comparative religion, and women's health/spirituality. She is especially interested in altered states of consciousness as they pertain to learning, healing, birthing, and dying; and the role of plants in these states.

Ms. Weed has four books in print (Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year; Healing Wise; Menopausal Years, The Wise Woman Way; and Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way) in English, French, and German, is published in peer-reviewed journals ( Journal of Nurse-Midwifery), writes a regular column in Sagewoman, and is the star of two professional video tapes (Weeds to the Wise and Menopause Metamorphosis).

She sits on many advisory boards: Oregon Menopause Project, CIIS, Above & Beyond Hope Sanctuary, and Weston A. Price Wise Traditions Foundation. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Women's Studies includes her entries on herbalism, menopause, and nutrition. She's been on numerous radio and TV shows including Fresh Air Radio, National Public Radio, NBC News, Prescription for Health, Ask the Family Doctor, Wisdom Channel, and America's Talking.

Susun S. Weed has instructed students at venues such as: Yale Nurse Midwifery School, State University of New York (Scholar-in-residence), Kripalu Yoga Center, Benedictine Hospital, Vassar Brothers Hospital, Northern Dachas Hospital, Conn. Inst. for Herbal Studies,California School of Herbal Studies, New York Open Center, Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies, Florida School of Midwifery, American College of Nurse Midwives, University of Rhode Island, Uni. of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, Rowe Conference Center, Interface Institute, Sufi Order Healing School, Heart of the Goddess Center, John Bastyr Naturopathic College, Reeves-Reed Arboretum, Hawkwind Earth Uni, and Self Heal Herbal Center.

She has also trained health-care professionals abroad at such prestigious schools as: The Kosmos/Amsterdam, Waikato College of Herbal Studies/New Zealand, Weg der Mitte/Berlin, Brustgesundheit Centrum/Germany, Arkuna/Munich, Frankfurter Ring/Germany, Australasian College of Herbal Studies/Australia, and Elfenbank/Holland.

During the past decade she has been a featured teacher at: Green Nations Herbal Gathering, International Herb Symposium, Women's Herbal Conference, Women's Spirituality Forum, HerbFest, Pacific Northwest Herbal Symposium, Midwifery Today Conference, Alaskan Midwives Conference, and Midwives Association of North America (MANA) conferences.

Susun S Weed is an initiated member of the Wolf Clan and the Sisterhood of the Shields; she is a Peace Elder. Her adopted Native American grandmothers are Twylah Nitsch and Keywaydinoquay. She is the founder of the Wise Woman Center and Ash Tree Publishing and the voice of the Wise Woman Tradition. Learn more at www.wisewomanweb.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a must read for women and girls!, April 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way (Wise Woman Herbal Series) (Paperback)

Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way by Susun Weed is a significant contribution to the state of women's health. She has woven statistics, research results, myths and facts into a fabric that is warm and inviting. Her style of injecting motherly and grandmotherly wisdom while sharing facts is very effective. She certainly helped me to accept that breast health is important and more than correct brassiere fitting. I received the book from a friend a few days after I had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I curled up with the book and read for hours, absorbing the spiritual soothing of the letters from the "grandmothers". I was challenged to rethink what I had already experienced and where I should step next. For instance had I read Weed's book prior to the diagnostic tests, I would not have submitted to a mammogram, clearly less than six months after a previous one. I would have requested an ultrasound, since the fact of the lump had already been established. The book encouraged me to slow down and think about optons and my direction. It made me know that I was not foolish in thinking that I could choose a way that would enhance my natural healing capacities rather than compromise them. It has been invaluable as a resource during my journey.The cancer-free lifestyle outline was formidable and empowering. The levels and types of breast cancer that Weed explained equipped me to understand pathology reports and information given in consultations with surgeons and oncologists. I realized gaps in nutritional information, since I was not aware of the many cancer-fighting foods and enzymes. The book encouraged me to reassess my eating habits and to become more serious about my diet. Weed also very ably handles the existing options for women diagnosed with breast cancer. Although she is very clearly a proponent of holistic approaches to healing, she makes the women who would choose the conventional approaches know that their decisions are personal and to be respected. There is no intense politicizing of the issues such that women will feel ashamed or less than courageous if they select the usually recommended course of treatment. She is an advocate for wise behavior on the part of women. Weed has achieved an important goal by writing a book that is womanish, informative, challenging and timely. I agree with her concern that in the next century people will look back and consider our conventional way of treating breast cancer to be barbaric.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Books on the Market!, November 12, 2002

By 

M.L. Benton Publisher, Echoed Voices Magazine (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way (Wise Woman Herbal Series) (Paperback)

Whether you or perhaps a friend or family member have had breast cancer, or you are a woman, period, this is a book you should have in your personal library. Author Susun Weed brings you every step of the way in breast health, which modern medicines and practitioners tend to either ignore or not explore.

Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way is the first step to wellness and staying healthy. Author Susun Weed has certainly done her homework, with research and a natural lifestyle. She begins with a small personal story and the awakening from it, which leads to the disclosure of her anti-cancer lifestyle, a one page insight of balance and harmony, then ends this section with a how-to on using this book, about herbs and their dangers.

She begins her chapters with the statistics of breast cancer and how they make her feel, how it makes us all feel. She leaves nothing out with her research with complete scientific data and what is accepted in the medical society and what may be likely but not proven. She explores every angle in a not so easy subject.

Moving on to "Can Foods Prevent Cancer?" Again she has done her homework and provided a wealth of information on anti cancer foods, she explores foods, herbs, oils, phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals. In "Taking Our Breasts into Our Own Hands, Breast Self Massage", Ms. Weed goes far beyond just the how-to that we so often get from our Doctors and clinics, thoroughly discussing the many aspects of self-breast exam, including an extensive list and uses of different oils.

As you make your way to the following chapters, you begin to expect much more from her. This is exactly what she gives you! With "Building Powerful Immunity, Journey to the Wise Healer Within", " Mammograms -Who Needs Them?" and the last of the first Section "There's a Lump in my Breast!", she brings you completely full circle as she delves into each of these subjects.

Section two has some of the scariest of topics, but the author gently eases your anxiety as if she is right beside you holding your hand, letting you know you are not alone by exploring every aspect of having Breast Cancer. From "What is Breast Cancer? The Diagnosis", dealing with your emotional state, to "Choosing Surgery Questions to Ask," the topics just continue to flow to give you a complete in-depth exploration, with recipes, suggestions and what to expect no matter what you decide. She gives you extensive resource lists on just about every topic. This book is not a get healed fast pill, but instead an exploratory journey, on one of the most feared and extended taboo subjects in our time. Through it all Susun reminds you; this is Your Life, take control!

Hail to Susun Weed who has brought the light in an age of darkness with this book! Every Clinic, Gynecologist and Oncologist worth their weight should read, then recommend "Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way," to all their patients. I give this wonderful archive of information my highest of recommendations!

M.L. Benton,
...

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is highly recommended to all women., December 31, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way (Wise Woman Herbal Series) (Paperback)

Every woman should read this book, most definitely so if you have cancer. The positive and very well researched suggestions for a healthy lifestyle by a very experienced, knowledgeable and compassionate herbalist will improve the quality of anyone's life and health. Many are easy to incorporate, even pleasurable. There is something here for everyone, and if you do have cancer, there is no better place you could turn. The recommended reading list is excellent. The ideas presented will strengthen you, soothe you, help you withstand the effects of chemotherapy and strengthen your immune system to help your own body fight the cancer. No dangerous remedies here. All very safe and gentle (with appropriate warnings and toxicities mentioned in the few cases where appropriate). Very effective ideas. Any of us can benefit by strengthening our immune systems and by avoiding toxic substances.