Designed to be a resource for both women who want to maintain breast health and those who've been diagnosed with breast cancer,
Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way draws on "women's wisdom," or the inner knowledge often ignored by modern medicine, as a powerful tool for healing. Author Susun Weed proposes an anticancer lifestyle, and, if cancer does enter the picture, a six-step plan for healing (sleep is at zero, or "Do Nothing"; surgery is number six, which she terms "Break and Enter"), with various complementary healing techniques included throughout.
Weed is careful to point out that supplements and herbs can hurt as much as they can help, and she lists several alternative-medicine techniques that should be avoided no matter what. The steps she does recommend--from herbal oils for breast massage to help detect lumps early to the herbs milk thistle, dandelion, and burdock for women with liver damage from tamoxifen--are explained clearly, sometimes with fascinating quotes from centuries-old books on healing.
Weed will draw ire from some readers for recommending that mammograms be avoided. She says they tend to squeeze cancer cells into the bloodstream and can't detect cancer until it's metastatic, which are reasons enough to not have them, and adds that women would be better off by making her suggested anticancer lifestyle changes, paying more attention to their breasts, and performing regular self-exams.
The warnings about the dangers of electromagnetic fields, exposure to estrogen, and organochlorides from plastics may frighten some, but Weed means to enlighten and empower. She dedicates the book to environmentalist and
Silent Spring author Rachel Carson and poet Audre Lorde, who both died of breast cancer. Extensive herbal resources, a solid glossary, and a thorough index are included.
Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way by Susun Weed is a significant contribution to the state of women's health. She has woven statistics, research results, myths and facts into a fabric that is warm and inviting. Her style of injecting motherly and grandmotherly wisdom while sharing facts is very effective. She certainly helped me to accept that breast health is important and more than correct brassiere fitting. I received the book from a friend a few days after I had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I curled up with the book and read for hours, absorbing the spiritual soothing of the letters from the "grandmothers". I was challenged to rethink what I had already experienced and where I should step next. For instance had I read Weed's book prior to the diagnostic tests, I would not have submitted to a mammogram, clearly less than six months after a previous one. I would have requested an ultrasound, since the fact of the lump had already been established. The book encouraged me to slow down and think about optons and my direction. It made me know that I was not foolish in thinking that I could choose a way that would enhance my natural healing capacities rather than compromise them. It has been invaluable as a resource during my journey.The cancer-free lifestyle outline was formidable and empowering. The levels and types of breast cancer that Weed explained equipped me to understand pathology reports and information given in consultations with surgeons and oncologists. I realized gaps in nutritional information, since I was not aware of the many cancer-fighting foods and enzymes. The book encouraged me to reassess my eating habits and to become more serious about my diet. Weed also very ably handles the existing options for women diagnosed with breast cancer. Although she is very clearly a proponent of holistic approaches to healing, she makes the women who would choose the conventional approaches know that their decisions are personal and to be respected. There is no intense politicizing of the issues such that women will feel ashamed or less than courageous if they select the usually recommended course of treatment. She is an advocate for wise behavior on the part of women. Weed has achieved an important goal by writing a book that is womanish, informative, challenging and timely. I agree with her concern that in the next century people will look back and consider our conventional way of treating breast cancer to be barbaric.
