chemicals and breast cancer

[Dolphin]

Dr. WEISS: Well, most people think it is all about family history and genes you may have inherited from your family. But actually, the breast-cancer genes only explain 5 to 10 percent of breast-cancer cases today. And those are ancient, stable abnormalities. They haven't changed. But what has changed over the years, that explains why the breast has become the favorite place for cancer to occur, are changes in our outside environment and our body's inside environment.

So in terms of the inside environment, with obesity making extra inside hormones that can influence breast-cell growth - it also triggers more insulin growth factor - more women are drinking alcohol; more women have not stopped smoking - they've started, but they haven't stopped as quickly as men have - we lead very stressful lives; we don't sleep enough; we're running ourselves ragged; we're not giving our bodies a chance to heal from the wear and tear of everyday living - from the outside environment we bring into our body's inside environment, what we're - the food, for example. The most commonly grown crops today, corn and soy, are grown with Atrazine and Roundup. Atrazine can turn on your...

GROSS: What is Atrazine?

Dr. WEISS: Atrazine is an herbicide. It's a weed killer that's used to grow corn. Roundup is a weed killer used to grow soy. Those seeds are genetically modified to grow in the presence of those chemicals. But we haven't been genetically modified to withstand the side effects of Atrazine and Roundup.

Atrazine can stimulate the production of estrogen in your body by turning on the aromatase enzyme. And Roundup is a hormone disruptor. It can kind of rock the boat and mess up the balances of hormones in your body. But all these chemicals, you know, they are used in agriculture or industry. They can get into the food that we eat, the water we drink. And they can have an influence -an unhealthy influence - on our breast cells.

[katie]

That's interesting Dolphin. I have long believed that many of the medical problems suffered today is due to chemical additives or preservatives of some sort. The astounding numbers of Autism, Allergies and other ailments, even in very young kids. How many of you knew a kid who was allergic to peanuts when you were growing up? Not me.... heck, peanut butter was a main course for us, lol. Truly, if man is making it in a beaker, I cannot see how it is beneficial to the human body.