Undiagnosed persons with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity have a four times increased risk of cancer than than the regular population. The good news is, that 5 years of a gluten free diet seems to bring the risk of cancer down to the normal rate in the population.
This rate is still pretty high: 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women can expect to get this diagnosis.
But with a few simple lifestyle habits, that risk can be lowered. Eat a grain free diet (low glycemic), maximize your magnesium intake, meditate, sleep in total darkness 7-9 hours a night, exercise moderately, find out what your vitamin D level is and keep it in the 100-150 nmol/l range, find out what your homocysteine level is and keep it below 8 with supplemental methylators ( which are mainly B vitamins), have less than 10 alcoholic drinks a week for men, and less than 6 alcoholic drinks a week for women, have good mental and emotional coping strategies and don't smoke.
Below is an excerpt of an interview with Dr. Christiane Northrup, done by Dr. Mercola.She is a practicing physician, an OB-GYN who has dedicated a good portion of her life to helping women take control of their life and health. Dr. Northrup is also a New York Times best selling author and important educator and public speaker on natural health issues for women.
Another important study was published in November 2008 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.2 This study followed more than 200,000 Norwegian women between the ages of 50 and 64 over two consecutive six-year periods. Half received regular periodic breast exams or regular mammograms, while the others had no regular breast cancer screenings. The study reported that those women receiving regular screenings had 22 percent more incidence of breast cancer.
The researchers, as well as another team of doctors who did not take part in the study but who analyzed the data, concluded that the women who didn’t have regular breast cancer screenings probably had the same number of occurrences of breast cancer, but that their bodies had somehow corrected the abnormalities on their own.
“Of course, this makes complete sense, because your immune system is set up to recognize and destroy cancers in the right environment,” Dr. Northrup says. “The right environment, of course, is enough sleep, a low-glycemic diet, enough vitamin D, and also regular handling of resentments, anger, grief, and loss.
I think what I want women to know is that your breasts are not two potentially pre-malignant lesions sitting on your chest. The problem with our paradigm – whether it’s tomosynthesis or mammograms – is that it will find things that were never going to go anywhere. And then you’re out there wearing a pink ribbon and running for the cure, thinking that you were going to die of breast cancer when you never will, and never would.”
Your immune system is setup to recognize and destroy cancers given the right environment. And the right environment includes a grain free, low glycemic diet, sometimes called a GAPS diet and the lifestyle habits mentioned above.
Read the whole article especially if you've been contemplating getting a screening mammogram.
To your health.
Dr. Barbara
