Increasingly, breast cancer fundraising means playing ball with companies whose products actually cause cancer.
Susan G. Komen for the Cure, formerly known as the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, is the largest and most heavily funded breast cancer organization in the US. (Last year alone it took in about $420 million.)
Komen recently denied that BPA increases the risk of breast cancer, despite mounting evidence to the contrary! We wish we could say that we were surprised. But this is all too characteristic of the Komen modus operandi.
As you know, bisphenol A (BPA) is a common ingredient in polycarbonate plastics. It’s also a known hormone disruptor that has been linked with serious health problems: birth defects, heart disease—and breast cancer.
Why would Komen make such a reckless statement? One possible reason: their corporate sponsors are too heavily invested in products that contain BPA, though Komen denies the charge.
- Coca-Cola, which sponsors Komen grants, lines its soda cans with BPA. The company doesn’t deny it, either—but simply says “it’s not enough to hurt anyone.” In fact, research suggests that even tiny amounts of BPA will hurt you.
- General Mills uses BPA in its canned foods (bowing to consumer pressure on its Muir Glen canned tomatoes but keeping them in other canned foods), and Georgia-Pacific manufactures epoxy resins that contain BPA. Both are Komen corporate sponsors.
It’s called “pinkwashing”—claiming to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink ribbon product, while producing or selling other products that are linked to the disease.
Komen doesn’t just support big companies. It sells products itself. Komen’s “Promise Me” perfume line contains chemicals that are categorized as toxic and hazardous. Last month, Breast Cancer Action announced that independent laboratory testing conducted on their behalf discovered that the perfume contained galaxolide, a synthetic musk that works as a hormone disruptor and is detected in blood, breast milk, and even newborns; and toluene, a potent neurotoxicant that is banned by the International Fragrance Association (IFRA).
Of course, Komen also says that electromagnetic fields and organochloride pesticides like DDT do not increase cancer risk, and that to date no environmental pollutants that can increase breast cancer have been found. Only about 10 percent of cases of breast cancer in the US can be traced to hereditary factors, indicating that environment plays an important role—one that Komen chooses to ignore lest it upset its corporate sponsors.
Komen spends millions of dollars on finding “the cure,” yet promotes the corporate-driven medical mainstream status quo. This status quo includes oncologists getting rich by selling high priced chemo themselves, as well as annual mammograms which may do as much harm as good (the New York Times noted this week that “Pink Ribbon” campaigns and patient testimonials have imbued the mammogram with a kind of magic it doesn’t have)—while ignoring the contribution of integrative medicine, which focuses on prevention and root causes.
A recent Norwegian study found that mastectomy rates climb higher as more women have mammograms—that mammograms can lead to “cancer overdiagnosis” and potentially unnecessary invasive treatment. The study found that at best mammograms reduce the risk of dying from breast cancer by no more than 10 percent.
More disturbing is the fact that taking four films of each breast annually results in an exposure of approximately 1 rad (radiation-absorbed dose), which is about 1,000 times greater than that from a chest x-ray—which greatly raises the risk of breast cancer.
New data suggest that mammograms also increase the risk of false positives, and may miss up to a third or more of all breast cancers, depending on the type of cancer and the composition of the breast tissue.
Going against the Komen-led “pink” juggernaut can be difficult—California governor Jerry Brown questioned the efficacy of mammograms in the past and received a lot of negative backlash. But there are good alternative approaches to mammograms. Thermography and some forms of ultrasound are safer and may be more accurate when it comes to screening.
And much more can be done to prevent breast cancers, such as eating right, especially including some cruciferous vegetables; sleeping right, including the avoidance of blue lights at night; and taking fish oil, supplemental iodine, vitamin D, and selenium. And one should consider environmental factors, too. Cornell has a database on breast cancer and environmental risk factors.
Another vital preventive measure is controlling weight and blood sugar through exercise. The one thing we like about the Komen approach is their idea of getting out doors, even if it is to raise more money for Komen.
We thought we would offer an alternative: we would have our own fundraising event for integrative medicine research!
We are asking you to walk, run, hike, bike ride, or do some other physical activity—on Sunday, December 4. The event will support integrative medicine research and continued access to important alternative treatments for breast cancer. We’re asking our readers to organize some favorite physical activity, then get their friends to sponsor them through peer-to-peer fundraising .
The ANH-USA office will organize its own walk in Washington, DC, and DC-area members and readers welcome to join us! We’ll create our own fundraising page so folks can see our example.
Just go to the “Promote Integrative Medicine” event page and click the black button on the right that says, “Fundraise for this Event.” Choose whether you want to to sign up as an individual, start a new team, or join an existing team. If you start a new team, you’ll be able to invite friends to join your team as well. If you wish, you can even set a monetary goal for your fundraising event!
The main event page will have a leaderboard showing which teams and individuals have raised the most money so far, so you can compete with others!
ANH-USA staff’s team page will have details of our own 10-mile hike in Washington, DC. If you’d like to join them, email [email protected] with the subject “Integrative Medicine Hike,” and they’ll send you details (including the hiking route) closer to the day of the event. We will also be posting the details on the staff’s team page.
Health freedom and freedom of choice is the issure here.
a doctor at UT San Antonio was in the news about a 2-3 months ago curing breast cancer by injecting vit D directly into the breast cancer. Within 1 week the cancer was gone. There is no need for all this pink hype.
Amen, sister! it’s a scam!
The FDA should ban BPA immediately because of its toxic effects.
Dr. Richard Edlich
Everyone in the entire world needs to read this article. Thank you for trying to reach them!
hooray for you! I was just mentioning to my daughter the other day about the “pinkwashing” going on. Where is all the money going? What advances have come out of all the donations they’ve received?No cure will be found through the Komen Foundation…an integrative approach will be the only answer.
I have never supported or contributed to Susan Komen organization. I do know that the organization contributes to Planned Parenthood and their abortion clinics. I think that all the organizations which claim to help cancer patients are a fraud. They are supported by the very industry that makes the most money off of cancer patients. To actually do something to cure them would dry up the money well. That is why they want to remove and control all supplements. To have a population that can prevent disease would drastically reduce their money intake. I am sure they are now trying to figure out how to make ‘substitutes’ to foist off on the public that will, like their medicines, make people sicker.
I help crochet necklaces that are sold and all profits are sent to help breast cancer research. Where would this donation be sent to really wipe out breast cancer?
Have you ever heard of Dr. Buszynski, who invented the antineoplaston cure for cancer. It’s non invasive, has no major side effects. Is highly effective even in aggressive cancers. He was hunted down for thirteen years by the U.S government,trying to stop him. He has recieved no funding from any cancer organization or the government, because it works. See ” The Burzynski Movie ” , ” Cut, Poison, Burn ” on Youtube.
One step in preventing cancer in woman is to eliminate BPA completely. Thank you.
I no longer contribute to traditional cancer fund raiseing as I feel that the money goes to out moded and inefective cancer treaments or to adminastrative coffers. Instead, I support research based on more of a natural course. Also, I support research that ia aimed at cure rather than just symptom treatrement.
Dear Fellow Alternative Health Care Providers,
Whew that’s a long salutation. I’ve had cancer 3 times and have cured/healed it the last 2 times through Energy Medicines. The best and newest ways to cure illness in general is at the Quantum Physics level. Frequency based therapies that cancel out the frequency of cancer works beautifully. My 2nd breast cancer tumor shrank in one month from this remedy. The Ovarian Cancer diagnosed last was healed through a healer laying on of hands. I admit, it is a rare individual that can do this. Suffice it to say I am behind you all the way. Each time I see a pink ribbon I want to scream. Giant has just endorsed Komen and that damn pink ribbon is everywhere. Thank you for your efforts. I’ve wanted this to happen for 20 years. I am so glad you’ve picked up the funding ball for alternative treatments to be researched. Please look at Dawson Church PHD’s work on Epigenetics. You may already know of it. I work on an energetic level, or the Quantum level. I can clearly ‘see’ the root cause of the cancer and as a healer and medical intuitive, I help people at that level.
I greatly appreciate your efforts. Now I need to sit down and see if I can’t have an event of my own.
Right on to all of you. One more step towards truth and disclosure about cancer. So much misinformation that is spread to the masses.
Where is the money going, specifically? Who is conducting the research? What are the different methods that are being researched? My main concern in all of this is that no one ever addresses the psycho-emotional components of this illness or any illness for that matter. Treating people at this level is often tantamount to their return to health.
Look forward to hearing from someone on this matter…..again….Kudos to you all!
Much love, Maria
I agree completely with your approach. I attended a Susan G. Komen event and read their brochure. In the prevention section, they talked about mammograms. Breastfeeding, Vitamin D3, weight control, etc. reduce the incidence of breast cancer. Estradiol may help as well. I hope that we can promote breastfeeding which reduces breast cancer and has multiple benefits for mother and child.
Cancer is big business. The number of treatment centers is growing but curing cancer is millions of dollars away. It’s just too profitable. Sorry. You have to do homework on this. Check out the doctors who are successfully keeping people alive through a change in diet. There are options but you have to find them yourself. Do not give up, do not give your power away.
Yes, I am fed up with this billion dollar industry….the real answer is in prevention and the answers to beat cancer is also in real food and natural food supplements.
Very few dollars get to the people with Cancer or the non-profit trying to help women with breast cancer.
Shame, Shame, Shame!
Alll of this makes perfect sense. It keeps the $$$$ flowing in both pockets. NO ONE is concerned withg finding a cure, for any disease!
Look at all the evidence , whats in the food we eat, the water( soda,coffee tea) we drink, the air we breathe, it is not just breast cancer rate that has tripled in the last ten years .
Hallelujah! I am so happy to see I am not alone in being turned off by “pink washing”. Integrated medicine is the best way to go-the only way to go!
There’s something not right about all this breast cancer research. In my office of from 75-100 employees, 4 women have come down with breast cancer and 1 bile duct cancer within the last 4 years. I do not believe for one minute with all the billions of dollars donate to breast/cancer research they don’t know of something better than chemo and radiation therapy.
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2012/04/21/cancer-industry-exposed-as-fraud-the-science-is-false/
And this one…
http://www.whale.to/a/cancer_c.html
I think it’s shameful, that these big companies support groups that are so dear to our hearts and families, but at the same time use such toxic product in our foods and goods.
It seems that whenever money is involved, or is being raised, corruption always slowly creeps in. Sadly this happens with such an important fight for so many people. Even sadder, that so many unknowing folks buy into it.
“The company doesn’t deny it, either—but simply says “The BPA is not enough to hurt anyone.”
This statement demonstrates both the ignorance and arrogance of both Coke and our “regulatory agencies”. One dalton is approximately equal to the mass of one proton or one neutron.
“Sexual hormones are of two types: proteins and steroids. The steroids have a molecular weight of about 300 daltons, presenting thus a small size. Because of their size and lipo-solubility (soluble in fat), they can easily diffuse through target cells, having consequently intra-cellular receptors.”
http://www.gfmer.ch/Endo/Lectures_08/sexual_hormones.htm
All this from the people feeding us poison and those “protecting us”.
Please folks STOP trusting!
“Soft Drinks” are a poison designed IMO to bring ill health and worse to this “overpopulated” world. The FDA is in on the game.
“pinkwashing does not support alternative medicine or all natural food supplements or plant based chemotherapy. No money goes to supplying badly needed nutrients to people with Cancer or to Prevent Cancer.
Families have a very difficult time coming up with dollars to buy both supplements, organic whole foods, and holistic therapies that are very effective. Holistic Natural Doctors and Therapist are not funded….ever!
The Human Genome Project has proven the vitamin B6 can repair the cancer gene in parent DNA. Because of the most research on Vitamin C for over 50 years shows the reversal of Cancer given in IV forms…..we have a government agency that demands Farmers cut down cherry trees and Vitamin B6 was banned long enough for the synthetic pharmacueital nutrients to hit the market for large amounts of money.
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