Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
- Increased Breast Vascularity
- Thermography Can Tell You the Truth About Estrogenic Foods
- Environmental Estrogens Compound the Problem
- Hormone Replacement Therapy
- “Weak” Estrogenic Foods?
- Get Off Soy and Flax!
- Herbs with a Downside
- Natural Does Not Mean Safe
- Calcium D-Glucarate for Removing Estrogen?
- DIM Supplements
- Green Drinks and Powders
- Angry? Confused?
The truth about why estrogenic foods and herbs need to be avoided by women young and old to prevent the development of excessively vascularized, precancerous breast tissue easily identified by thermography.
Is thermography your “new breast friend”? Wendy Sellens, a licensed acupuncturist and the founder of Pink Image Thermography in Solana Beach, CA, thinks it should be!
For every woman who wants to know the truth about the state of her breast health or whether those supposedly cancer-preventing supplements and estrogenic foods recommended by her doctor or holistic practitioner are actually working, her answer is simple: “Your breasts can’t lie.”
In her book Breast Cancer Boot Camp, coauthored with William B. Hobbins MD, Sellens provides striking, irrefutable visual evidence of adverse, precancerous effects on the breasts from birth control pills, hormone replacement therapies, and at least a dozen supposedly healthy estrogenic foods and herbs.
Most of these products come highly recommended by alternative doctors and other health care practitioners, yet promote angiogenesis in the breast, a known risk factor for breast cancer.
Increased Breast Vascularity
Angiogenesis refers to the formation of new blood vessels. It is crucial to form new blood vessels in the placenta during pregnancy and to replace blood vessels during recovery from an injury.
Angiogenesis has a dark side, however, when it helps fuel cancer growth. Because thermograms —unlike mammograms or breast ultrasound — show vascularization, they are highly useful for breast health screening and monitoring.
Dr. Hobbins is a former surgeon who pioneered breast cancer detection through both mammography and thermography.
Now 90, he continues to urge widespread use of thermography for initial screening and prevention because “the angiogenesis of a breast cancer is not only the earliest sign but the greatest sign for detection and prognosis in treatment.”
Back in the 1980s, when soy protein was first widely marketed as a “health food,” Dr. Hobbins noted a link between soy consumption, increased vascularity, and breast cancer development.
Sellens is a licensed acupuncturist and a protegé of Dr. Hobbins who studied with him for five years and spent seven years reviewing his thousands of cases.
She founded Pink Image Thermography in Solana Beach, CA, is president and co-founder of the Women’s Academy of Breast Thermography, president of the non-profit Pink Bow Breast Thermography research and education, and is actively pushing for rigorous nationwide certification standards for thermography.
Thermography Can Tell You the Truth About Estrogenic Foods
Thermography is an imaging technique that can detect abnormalities based on patterns of bodily heat. Because cell proliferation and cancer rarely develop without a vascular process that increases the surface temperature, thermography can identify women at risk for breast cancer or who have breast cancer in a very early stage.
In color thermograms, the cooler areas appear dark blue, purple, and black, while the warmer areas are yellow, orange, red, and white.
Grayscale thermographs show the vascularization itself. For the highest diagnostic accuracy, Hobbins and Sellens recommend both types of thermograms be done and in high resolution.
Many alternative health professionals today recommend thermography as a safe alternative to mammography, which is not only painful and expensive but can increase breast cancer risk through radiation exposure and breast tissue compression.
Thermograms are particularly helpful for the screening of women with young, dense breast tissue, and those with fibrocystic breast disease, breast implants, or scars. Another option is to get a breast sonogram.
Unlike mammograms, thermograms are useful for detecting changes in the armpit area. Thermography is also safe for women who are pregnant or lactating.
Dr. Hobbins and Sellens furthermore recommend thermography because it can help women see the effects on their breasts of the many foods, herbs, supplements, and other products commonly recommended to support breast health.
They’ve consistently seen ill effects from the following:
- Hormone replacement therapies (including bioidentical hormone replacement therapies)
- Soy, flax, red clover, alfalfa and other foods high in phytoestrogens
- Black cohosh, red clover, xiang fu and other herbs high in phytoestrogens
- Supplements such as DIM and calcium D-glucorate.
- Green drinks and powders
Environmental Estrogens Compound the Problem
Particularly worrisome is their finding of unhealthy, vascularized breasts even in young women.
Exposure to environmental estrogens from pesticides, plastics, factory-farmed meats, and tap water is part of the problem.
So is birth control pill usage.
“Breasts do not fully mature until age 25,” explains Sellens. “Breast development is adversely affected by unopposed estrogen . . . The younger the age, the higher the risk.”
Birth control pills are widely dispensed today not only for contraceptive use but to regulate and mitigate the pain of menstrual periods.
Hormone Replacement Therapy
For older women, advocates of hormone replacement therapies not only promise easy menopause with no hot flashes but the fountain of youth.
While the dangers of pharmaceutical hormone replacement therapy have been widely publicized, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is widely promoted as safe and natural.
Sadly, thermographic evidence does not bear this out. Bio-identical pills, pellets, patches, creams, all lead to increased vascularization.
“Weak” Estrogenic Foods?
Sellens and Dr. Hobbins particularly want to debunk the myth of “weak” estrogens as found in soy, black cohosh, and other plant-based products. Although less potent than pharmaceutical estrogens, “weak” estrogens are not anti-estrogens and can still feed cancer.
Back in the early 1980s, Dr. Hobbins linked increased amounts of soy in the food supply to increased rates of breast cancer.
While correlation doesn’t equal causation, thermograms confirmed his suspicions as he compared the breasts of women consuming soy to those who did not. In time, other scientific evidence emerged as well, much of which is discussed in my book The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food.
By 2005 the Israeli Health Ministry had seen enough evidence to warn women to “exercise caution” regarding soy consumption. This was particularly important for those with a diagnosis or family history of breast cancer.
The French Food Agency, German Institute of Risk Assessment, and Cornell University’s Center for Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors soon followed.
Yet, soy is still widely promoted as the ticket to breast cancer prevention, and manufacturers even give it out every October in pink containers — known as “pinkies” — at many Komen Races for the Cure.
Get Off Soy and Flax!
Soybeans — both organic and GMO — are high in the phytoestrogens known as isoflavones. Clover and alfalfa sprouts are rich in the type known as coumestans, while flaxseeds and flax oil are rich in lignans.
Although these phytoestrogenic foods are widely touted as cancer-preventing, thermograms show adverse effects on the breasts.
“Dr. Hobbins and I have gotten thousands of women off soy and flax,” says Sellen. “These estrogenic foods are not our friends, but foes.”
Herbs with a Downside
Similarly, black cohosh, red clover, evening primrose, and xiang fu (cyperus rhizome) are estrogenic herbs.
“Thermograms show how strong these phytoestrogens really are,” says Sellens. “We see many women who start taking these supposedly healthy products go from ‘at risk’ thermograms to abnormal ones in three months or less.
If these weakly estrogenic substances were ‘healthy’ for the breasts, we could expect women who regularly consume them to have non-vascular breasts, which would be evidence of a lack of stimulation and a protective effect.”
Having analyzed thousands of thermograms, Sellens reports, “This is just not the case.”
Does all this seem hard to believe? Is it too hard to sort out the science? Could my doctor, hormone specialist, or health care practitioner be so wrong? Sellens’ advice is simple: “Get a certified breast thermogram from an accredited clinic and take a look for yourself.”
Natural Does Not Mean Safe
Given that many naturopathic doctors and alternative health care practitioners regularly recommend these products, is a sobering reminder to us all that “natural” is not necessarily “safe.” Get a certified breast thermogram from an accredited clinic and see the truth staring back at you on the screen.
If women just stopped walking for a “cure” and stopped buying estrogen products, namely soy, flax, and bioidentical estrogens, breast cancer numbers would plummet.
Stop believing flax, soy, and bioidentical estrogen are healthy because they come from a plant.
Stop believing they are “weak estrogens” because they are natural.
This propaganda that estrogen keeps women young is in fact killing us.
Calcium D-Glucarate for Removing Estrogen?
But what about Calcium D-Glucarate? Can’t this bind and eliminate excess estrogen?
Calcium D-glucarate is a chemical. It is similar to a naturally occurring chemical called glucaric acid. Glucaric acid is found in our bodies as well as in fruits and vegetables such as oranges, apples, brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cabbage.
Calcium D-glucarate is made by combining glucaric acid with calcium to make supplements that people use for medicine.
This supplement is used for preventing breast, prostate, and colon cancer. It also helps remove cancer-causing agents, toxins, and steroid hormones from the body.
Calcium D-glucarate might lower estrogen levels, and this is thought to be helpful in treating some people with hormone-dependent cancers.
However, the truth is that there isn’t enough evidence to support the use of calcium D-glucarate for preventing cancer in humans.
DIM Supplements
Beware as well of DIM (Diindolylmethane) and other supplements said to bind excess estrogen or regulate estrogen metabolism.
While doctors cite some science to support that, thermographic evidence suggests that in many cases they act like estrogens and worsen vascularity.
Green Drinks and Powders
Given that DIM and similar supplements derive from compounds found in cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli, it should not be surprising that some brands of green drink concentrate powders have proven problematic as well.
While the whole foods themselves are generally fine, when in concentrated form as blended green drinks and powders, they are best avoided.
Angry? Confused?
Do it now. Schedule a thermography appointment and go and see for yourself. Look at the screen.
While your breasts are being imaged, the proof will be right before your eyes whether the therapies and supplements that you have been sold are actually working.
If soy or edamame snacks are so good for breasts, flax is so healthy, and bioidentical hormones are such a good way for women to stay young and sexy, then why do they cause these unusual vascular and precancerous changes in breast tissue?
If this nutritional and health propaganda was true, then women who ingest these supposedly healthy estrogens should have nonvascular breasts.
But nearly every woman who consumes these “good” estrogens shows an increased vascular pattern. This is precancer!
If the theories were true, then thermography would support such claims with healthy breast tissue images.
However, the hard evidence points to the exact opposite.
Settle the issue once and for all in your own mind and get a certified breast thermogram from an accredited clinic and take a look for yourself. Your breasts don’t lie!
References
(1) Breast Cancer Boot Camp
(2) The Whole Soy Story
More Information
When Breast Cancer Isn’t Bad News
Komen (Not) for the Cure: The Complete and Utter Pinkwashing of America
Thermography: A Perfect Alternative to Cancer-Causing Mammograms?
Why Even Organic Soy Formula is so Dangerous for Babies
How the Birth Control Pill Can Harm Your Future Child’s Health
Sherrie
When it comes to estrogenic foods and flax do u mean flax-seeds or flax oil? Because I was given a Essential Fatty Acid therapy for hormonal balance which includes flaxseed oil. Thank you!
NG
I hope that doesn’t mean that cruciferous vegetables are bad per se. Broccoli, kale etc. are supposed to fight cacner, not cause it…
Sara
Flax seed oil huh? What say you about the Budwig Diet/Protocol for cancer of flax seed oil/cottage cheese combo?
Meg
Dr. Daniel, Is there ever a time when bio-identical estrogen might be helpful? My estrogen levels are so low they are undetectable. I avoid all soy, flax, alfalfa, etc but by natural doc says I am at risk for cancer with levels so low. (Besides all the menopause symptoms)
moya
Did anyone tell women that having mammograms increase your chace of getting cancer ,each time by 3% . BY the tenth mammogram your caner chances have increased by 30%.
Beth
Dr. Daniel, thank you for your article. Do you know if maca or frankincense increase vascularity?
Also, is a small amount of flax oil in homemade salad dressing not advisable if one has these concerns?
Meg
I’m not a health care person but recently read that maca was one of the non- estrogenic hormone balancing herbs.
Terri
Thanks for this. I believe my breast cancer likely was a result of eating a mostly vegetarian diet high in processed soy for about thirty years. But non of the articles I’ve read on thermography address those who have been treated for breast cancer. I hate getting more radiation, but am confused.
Kaayla Daniel
In their book “Breast Cancer Boot Camp,” Sellens and Hobbins address thermography for those treated for breast cancer. They include pictures of many thermograms that show the effect of soy, flax etc after mastectomy and other treatments.
Maria
Thanks Kaayla,
But a few thermography images are not sufficient evidence for increased risk of consumption of things like cruciferous veg, Indol 3 carbinol, DIM or calcium d glucarate. How was these women’s consumption of different nutrients isolated? what else was in their diet? did they trial women only on flax and only on soy- thermography is great but it doesn’t provide enough evidence against these foods/supplements.
Sarah TheHealthyHomeEconomist
Maria, this is not a few thermography images. This is seven years worth of data and thousands of thermograms. These foods consistently demonstrate an increased vascularization of breasts which is the path to breast cancer.
Kaayla T. Daniel
Yes, thousands of thermograms. But the thermograms that matter for you are your own “before and afters.” Your breasts don’t lie. Are these products supporting your breast health or not?
Joy
Show me the research that regardless of increased vascularization from herbs and food that they cause breast cancer. There is so much of this story missing. Herbs and whole healthy foods prevent breast cancer. I will not go on and on for I do not have the time. For all interested I am a nurse and to prove my alternative approach to the Drs I work with I point them to Pub Med research. Pub Med is National Research that all my Doctors frequent and believe.. Soy is the exception and probably has to more to with it is a mostly a GMO crop and non fermented . Anyway I challenge all to do your own research starting with Pub Med. I do believe dangerously a lot of negating is to sell or promote someone’s own product or interest!
Sally
Thank you for the information BUT do you have an alternative for reducing excess estrogen? I’ve been having issues for years, been avoiding soy and estrogen foods but still have very heavy periods and spotting throughout the month. So what’s a girl to do?!! Informative blog but information about what to do would be helpful. This was not so much.
Kaayla Daniel
Many women today are overly estrogenized because of environmental estrogens and other factors. Bioidentical progesterone and/or testosterone may be appropriate depending on your individual circumstances and, of course, with the advice of your health care practitioner. (Hopefully that practitioner is familiar with — or at least open to — the concepts discussed in this article.)
Obviously, we all need take care to minimize exposure to environmental estrogens like pesticides, plastics, tap water,etc. and avoid handling BPA treated papers such as cash register receipts. And as this article explains, watch out for supposedly safe “weak” estrogens such as soy, flax, red clover, black cohosh, and products like DIM and Calcium D-glucarate promoted for “estrogen modulation” and “estrogen reduction.” Finally, thermograms may be helpful for self monitoring. Expensive yes, but
Kathryn
It seems like the author is really stretching the information from thermography by claiming that foods like flax and herbs like red clover CAUSE pre-cancerous breasts. Telling women to get thermography, and that if their breasts are vascularized it must be be caused by these substances that studies have repeatedly shown to have a protective effect against breast cancer? Come on now. This article is full of assumptions, and there is a lot of scientific evidence that shows the opposite of what is claimed in this article.
Numerous studies on the effects of flax reducing breast cancer risk:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24013641
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23354422
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15897583
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17374837
Studies on red clover & breast cancer:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17761019
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16598420
Studies on black cohosh & breast cancer:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14999145
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17980565
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16988912
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Also, it’s important to note that studies have shown that black cohosh DOES NOT contain any phytoestrogens. It does have an estrogenic effect, but no studies have been able to show that it contains any phytoestrogens whatsoever.
Sarah TheHealthyHomeEconomist
Well, here’s the thing. If these herbs and foods really did reduce breast cancer risk, wouldn’t the vascularization of the breast tissue (if it existed already) reduce over time to prove these claims that they are beneficial? And if there was no vascularization before and then it appears after these foods are introduced, best to take them out wouldn’t you say as these breast changes show that the path is toward cancer not away from it. This information is based on years of observation and thousands of thermograms. I would suggest you read the book.
Kevin
“Yes, correlation does not equal causation ”
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
“Breast Cancer Screening – Thermography is Not an Alternative to Mammography”
You should try using science instead of your gut feeling.
“A recent study looked at soy consumption in the diets of more than 9,000 breast cancer survivors who were participating in 3 studies of eating habits and other lifestyle factors after breast cancer. Two of the studies were from the U.S. and 1 was from China. Women from both the U.S. and China who consumed 10 mg/day or more of soy had a 25% lower risk of breast cancer recurrence.”