What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer: How Hormone Balance Can Help Save Your Life [Paperback]

John R. Lee (Author), David Zava (Author), Virginia Hopkins (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0446679801 | ISBN-13: 978-0446679800 | Publication Date: January 2003

An informative and absorbing read for both medical practitioners and their patients, "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer" takes aim at "the breast cancer industry" with a barrage of thought-provoking ammunition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An informative and absorbing read for both medical practitioners and their patients, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer takes aim at "the breast cancer industry" with a barrage of thought-provoking ammunition.

The book is equal parts criticism and suggestion. Current health treatments, including HRT, receive serious condemnation, and authors John Lee and David Zava carefully provide plenty of medical research to back up claims that excessive estrogen is a main source of cancer-causing irregularities. While the names of all the different natural and synthetic hormones can get overwhelming for the lay reader, with perseverance your new vocabulary of terms like androstenedione, estradiol, and cortisol will enable you to communicate more effectively with your doctors. The authors credit these hormones not just with a role in cancer, but with culpability for everything from insomnia and acne to fatigue and migraines. A full chapter extols the virtues of natural progesterone cream, and urges women to order their own saliva tests for proper evaluation of their hormone levels.

Diet and exercise recommendations are simple, outlining reasons to limit fats, sugars, and meats while increasing vegetables and adding a multivitamin. These recommendations extend to adolescents and urge getting off the couch and beginning a gentle exercise program to women of all ages and in each stage of life. --Jill Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

They've already told you What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause. Here's more help.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Life & Style (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446679801
• ISBN-13: 978-0446679800
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.2 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #496,100 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative, Positive and Hopeful, August 26, 2002

By 

Virginia Hopkins "co-author with Dr. John Lee... (virginiahopkinshealthwatch.com) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer : How Hormone Balance Can Help Save Your Life (Hardcover)

"Your risk of surviving malignant breast cancer is just about the same as it was 50 years ago, when the only treatment was mastectomy: about one in three. In other words, despite billions of dollars in research and hugely expensive and risky treatments, the conventional medical approach to breast cancer isn't working, and talk of prevention is virtually nonexistent." These are the opening words of the long-awaited book by John R. Lee, M.D., with David Zava, PhD and Virginia Hopkins, published by Warner Books. (Those of us who have heard Dr. Zava speak on the subject have been looking forward to his research and information in printed form.) The amount of research is first of all evident by the 63 pages of references in the back of the book. Many of these are covered in detail in the material.

Breast cancer is so prevalent in our modern society that it is a source of fear to most women. The statistics in chapter 1 from the National Cancer Institute and American Cancer Society include: a 40% increase from 1973 to 1998 and 15% of women who die of cancer are from breast cancer. The U.S. and Canada have the highest rates of breast cancer worldwide.

In Part 1, the traditional methods of treatment with radiation, chemotherapy and drugs such as Tamoxifen are related in large part to pharmaceutical funding of medical schools and research. Most of the risk factors for breast cancer, such as age, geography, early pregnancy, diet, alcohol, exercise, oral contraceptives and HRT are related in one way or another to estrogen dominance. What is the process of cancer development and how does a cancer cell differ from a normal cell? This information is covered in detail in Part 1.

Part 2 gives us details on the nature of estrogens, progesterone and androgens in the role of women's health. Dr. Ercole Cavalieri, research scientist at the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer, University of Nebraska Medical Center, coined the phrase "Angels of Life and Angels of Death" referring to estrogens. This is due to their beneficial and harmful natures. How estrogens are balanced with progesterone; the relationship to the cells, the liver, the immune system; and what makes estriol a superior, safer estrogen is thoroughly covered in this section.

What about other hormones: androstenedione, testosterone, DHT and DHEA? Read chapter 10: "The Nature of the Androgens." Especially important are the last two chapters in this section, researching the problems of HRT, ERT, Tamoxifen and Raloxifene. Read this shocking information: "In case you have any doubts as to the extent to which drug companies are controlling physicians, did you know that pharmacies sell prescribing information to drug companies? That's right. A drug company rep can purchase a list of all the doctors who are filling prescriptions at a particular pharmacy, and find out exactly what they're prescribing. How's that for an invasion of privacy?" (p.179)

Finally, we come to Part 3-how can we prevent and/or heal breast cancer? Guidelines for using natural progesterone are outlined for various circumstances, such as premenopausal, menopausal, with endometriosis, breast fibrocysts, PMS, menstrual migraine, hysterectomy or ovariectomy and women using estrogen. The use of other hormones is also covered. A chapter on saliva testing explains how and why it is valuable and gives helpful instructions.

What about soy, dietery fat and carbohydrates? Much nutritional information is given, including "Dos and Don't's of the Anti-Cancer Diet." (p.289) Also covered is the matter of the environment with the effect of xenohormones and other toxins. Is your liver in good shape? What support can you give your system to counteract the negative effect of all these poisons?
This is a brief summary of what to expect from this remarkable book, which is informative, positive and hopeful.

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars BOO!, September 15, 2004

By 

Bookgirl "Bookgirl" (Pacific) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer: How Hormone Balance Can Help Save Your Life (Paperback)

This book will scare the bejesus out of ya, so make sure you're ready for the in-your-face reality this book offers. Are you ready to read about everything contributing to breast cancer from pesticides to plastic bottles? We're talking bug spray, plastic water bottles, beef, cow's milk + milk products, nail polish, polish remover, furniture, hair dryers, computers, and on and on. I was afraid to eat or touch anything for days! But the premise of this book isn't to scare but to educate you.

While this book focuses on progesterone and diet to ward off or control breast cancer from spreading, it also slams current drug treatments and drug companies, along with mammograms. The information in this book is exactly the opposite of what your doctor will probably tell you. But are you willing to bet your life that your doc really knows what he or she is talking about and not just repeating the widespread word of rich and powerful drug companies or manufacturers of mammography equiptment?

So if you're like me and have just recently found a lump in your breast, take some time to get used to the idea that you might have cancer. Then if you want to know the harsh reality about breast cancer, read this book. It might just save your life.

63 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Truth is Finally Told!, January 29, 2002

By 

Functional Medicine Center (Grand Junction, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer : How Hormone Balance Can Help Save Your Life (Hardcover)

Finally a book on breast cancer that explains the REAL causes: (1)environmental exposure to toxic chemicals like pesticides and petroleum products that mimic our own natural hormones, estrogen specifically; (2) nutritional deficiencies from eating junk food that allow these toxic chemicals to inhibit normal detoxification mechanisims that take place in the Liver and Gastrointestinal tract; (3) taking prescription drugs which amount to synthetic derivations of our natural hormones, which inhibit normal cellular communication and can damage our DNA, resulting in formation of hormone-driven tumors; (4) chronic emotional stress which uses up our B-vitamins, essential fatty acids and other essential nutrients needed to maintain our immune and detoxification systems, as mentioned above.
Dr. Lee is a hero and a mentor. I highly recommend that ANYONE interested in the REAL causes of breast, ovarian, uterine and prostate cancers, AND how to prevent them, should read this book, and the two previous books by Dr. Lee, on Menopause and Premenopause, both available on this website!
More and more people are waking up....and beginning to understand the horrible mistake we made by trusting large corporations (drug companies)that place profits before people. Reading books by Dr. Lee will educate us and show us how with a little time reading, we can learn how to take care of ourselves while living in a world that is run by corporations trying their hardest to destroy us!
Read and share this book with those you love!