Cancer sucks.
I’ve lost a parent and way too many friends to this horrific disease. I’m going to do all within my power to live a long healthy, cancer free life.
This is what a thermogram looks like.
I got a little wake up call last spring when a routine thermogram revealed a “hot spot” on my right breast. Thermograms measure heat. Cancer cells have a higher metabolism and more blood flow which causes elevated temperature in the affected area compared to surrounding breast tissue Thermography is a non-invasive screening tool that can pick up potential problems years before mammograms do.
I followed up with another thermogram 3 months later which showed that the spot had grown a little more. It was time to look deeper into what was going on. My mainstream healthcare provider is not a fan of thermography. To her credit, she spent a good amount of time listening to my concerns. Admittedly she has not done a lot of research on the issue like I have. She urged me to get a state of the art 3D mammogram along with a sonogram. She made sure I understood that both thermograms and mammography are screening tools, not diagnostic ones. A biopsy is diagnostic. So far, I had nothing to biopsy. No lump or bump, just a hot spot on a thermogram.
I did more homework and decided to not go forward with a 3D mammogram. Intuitively, it didn’t make sense to crush my boob and zap it with radiation. So I opted for just a sonogram. Considering I was paying my own money out of pocket for this, I did not expect to face problems with this request. The radiology practice refused to give me a sonogram without a mammogram. I consulted with another healthcare practitioner, a functional medicine MD, she wrote me an Rx for just a sonogram. Got the sonogram. It was negative.
So now what? What do you do when you’ve got a spot that might turn into a tumor in the years ahead? Our current medical system is of absolutely no use in this situation. Mammography and thermography are not prevention, they are a screening device for early detection.
Prevention is something that has been near and dear to me since my days as a dentist. I’m low risk for breast cancer because I am not of Jewish descent, I don’t have a family history of breast cancer, I breastfed my 3 kids, I don’t smoke, I avoid many toxins and I eat pretty darn clean most of the time. What more could I do to decrease my odds of not ending up with breast cancer?
It seemed to me that cutting out sugar would be a good place to start. I have to admit that I had come to use sugar as a drug during the 2015/2016 election season. Watching those debates, I thought my head would explode! Really good ginger cookies seemed to soothe my soul. Sugar is a slippery slope. Before I knew it, sugar had become a regular part of my life. And my clothes were more snug as a result.
I’ve been aware for some time that sugar can feed cancer. But it continues to be socially accepted “empty calorie”. The more I researched, the more committed I became to stop my sugar consumption, or at least seriously cut back. I’m now 20 pounds lighter than when I started my sugar challenge. With a new year just around the corner, I’m ready to help others to let go of the white stuff.
I invite you to join me on a 21 day sugar challenge which will start in early 2018. I’m making the fee reasonable: a dollar a day. You’ll receive information, inspiration, recipes and strategies to seriously cut back on your sugar intake. Together we can kick sugar’s butt.
