Breast Investigators

'Forbidden' rice, also called black rice (or sometimes purple rice), is receiving a lot of buzz these days as the new 'super-food' to fight cancer. Forbidden rice gets its color from 'anthocyanins', the antioxidants which give fruits and veggies a blue-purple color (for example, blueberries). Anthocyanins help to keep disease away, as well as helping to keep our arteries in good shape.

Legend has it that the name 'forbidden rice' came about long ago in Asia, when the nobles would not allow the common people to eat black rice. Once you try it, you will understand why they wanted to keep it all for themselves!

Below is a simple recipe to get you started. The contrast of black and white foods on your plate creates a beautiful effect - with very little effort.

I've topped it all off with pink salt and pink pepper. You may be unfamiliar with these ingredients. I encourage you to try them. You can put each of these seasonings in a grinder, just as you would with other salts or peppers. However, if you'd prefer, you can just stick to your favorite salt and pepper.

'White Tiger' Forbidden Rice
(Makes 3-5 servings, depending on whatever else you plan to serve)

1 c. black rice
2 c. French onion soup (preferably a brand without artificial preservatives)
3 green onion stalks
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 bag of frozen cauliflower
1 red pepper
Topping: Pink salt and pink pepper (or salt and pepper of your choice)


Bring French onion soup to a boil. Meanwhile, slice the green onions.

As soon as soup boils, lower to simmer. Add rice, green onions, turmeric, ginger, and garlic powder. Cover and simmer until all liquid is absorbed, about 50 minutes.

While rice is cooking, cut red pepper into strips. Steam cauliflower and red pepper.

Place a portion of rice on a plate. Top with veggies. (NOTE: Do not toss them all together before serving! If you do that, the veggies will change color.)

Sprinkle with Pink Himalayan salt (or sea salt) and pink pepper (or pepper of your choice).

No. We are not saying that women get testicular Cancer.

What we are saying, is that women need to be aware of testicular cancer at least on an elementary level. Our Testicular Cancer 101 page has some basic information that all women should know because sometimes women are the ones who find their partner’s testicular cancer.

Today we are very happy to feature a story about a woman who went through testicular cancer with her boyfriend some years ago. With her permission we are posting her story, with names changed because the story is about an ex-boyfriend at this point. Her story provides some interesting insight into testicular cancer. Here is her story.

I can’t remember which one of us first found the lump. I was visiting my folks in Europe when he told me by phone that he had seen his doctor about it. However, his physician pooh-poohed it, saying that testicle size fluctuations were normal in young men. Kyle was 23, so of course we didn’t even think of cancer.

I didn’t see him for a couple months after that. On my next visit to see Kyle, during our (ahem) reunion, I was shocked by the difference between the two testicles. One was twice the size of the other. I could tell Kyle was really worried about it. When I asked him why he hadn’t gone to see the doctor again, I realized from his reaction that fear had set in. He was just avoiding it, hoping it would go away, and hadn’t told anyone about it since the doctor visit.

My reaction motivated him to go talk to his father, who, as a psychiatrist, also had a medical degree. His father immediately grasped the severity of the issue. Kyle was rushed to the doctor, and swiftly diagnosed with testicular cancer. An operating date was set for just five days away.

Now, Kyle has an identical twin brother, which means that their genetic stuff is the same. Upon examination, his brother was found to have testicular cancer as well.

Just for a minute, I want you to imagine two beautiful young men, identical in youth and verve, struggling through their last courses at University and just a few months from starting their careers. And then, poof! Cancer comes a-calling.

They were both operated upon, and in both cases it appeared the cancer had not had time to spread, though the medical team was much more confident about this in my boyfriend’s brother’s case. Kyle spent his summer getting radiation treatments.

The doctors asked Kyle if he wanted a prosthetic replacement for the removed testicle, but they accidentally matched it to the cancer-ridden one, so he was quite lopsided. This mistake became a kind of focal point for his rage and feelings of having been unmanned. He had always thought he didn’t want children, but now the prospect of infertility really upset him. The only thing that seemed to comfort Kyle was a Ben Wicks publication on cancer. It really helped him to be able to laugh about it.

I have seen many people go through sickness, before and after Kyle. I really find that it reveals a lot about a person. I also don’t think that, at 23, most people have the emotional skills necessary to deal with much, never mind cancer. Kyle took out his feelings entirely on me. On the phone with friends, he would laugh off his problems. With me, he became verbally abusive. There were days where I was called a “bitch” up to five times a day. He became physically rough, though he did never hit me. A few days after his radiation treatments ended, things had deteriorated so much that I broke up with him.

I have followed his career from afar, and I can tell you 12 years later, he is alive and has done well in his chosen field. I wonder what would have happened if he had never gotten cancer?

It is not unusual a women may be the first to find testicular cancer in their partner. If they notice any irregularities it is important they communicate with their partner. What is also important is that women keep on their partner until he sees a physician. Men seem to have an innate desire to avoid doctors at all costs. Many times we figure that whatever is bothering us will eventually go away. Unfortunately, testicular cancer doesn’t just go away. In fact, if caught early it is nearly 100% treatable. If caught in the later stages, after it has spread, it is a lot harder to treat and can lead to death.

Women also need to be able to identify common complaints men have that may be signs of testicular cancer and encourage their guys to go see the physician.

This is not a one-way street in identifying cancer in partners. Men are often the ones who find breast cancer in women. Our cancer survivor friend, Stefanie LaRue, told Self Magazine about her boyfriend finding her breast cancer in her story Living with Cancer – and Daring to Date Again.

(The following is a 4women guest blog from Liz Belilovskaya, of I Had Cancer.)

When you or someone you love is diagnosed with cancer, your natural reaction may be to want to find out as much as possible about the disease, from available treatment options, to likely side effects, to the day-to-day challenges of dealing with cancer.  Your search for answers will very likely lead you to the internet, where you will find a dizzying amount of information that instead of empowering you, could leave you feeling overwhelmed and helpless.  So what can you do about this?

You can become an “e-patient.”  The “e” stands for “empowered, engaged, equipped and enabled.”  Those wishing to take back control of their lives are proactive when it comes to cancer treatment.  They make it their priority to be as informed and involved as possible.  Of course, this is easier said than done.  How and where do you get information about cancer without getting overwhelmed by the Internet?

Patient social networks are providing solutions by building communities of people who have either had personal experience dealing with cancer or supporting someone through this disease.  They create an invaluable new source of life-changing information from existing resources and relevant personal experience - information that has the power to save lives.

Mailet Lopez, Survivor and Founder of I Had Cancer has an all too common story.  Diagnosed with breast cancer at age 33, she was preparing for her post-surgery treatment when she serendipitously encountered a stranger who told her of a new treatment option that her own doctors were unaware of.  After researching the information, Mailet decided to try the new treatment and in the end, it saved her life.

This is not uncommon.  Most patients are never informed of all their treatment options because no hospital offers all options.  From the patient perspective, the potential of social networking is unearthed when access to hard-to-come-by information is made available.  The more members sharing their knowledge and experiences, the more power every patient has to participate in and even lead their own cancer care.

Discussion threads on social networks illustrate how connecting people around shared experiences can be incredibly beneficial.  From survivorship identity issues to family relationships in the context of an illness, members can exchange experiences and regain control over their lives by engaging the support community.

One user put it this way:

“I live in a small town with no support group and my family is 800 miles away.   This [social support network] has provided me with a wonderful support group of men like me who have or had cancer and can tell me what to expect.  The unknown is the hardest part of facing any problem and this has helped me so much.”

Every patient can better engage in their own care by becoming an e-patient and tapping the knowledge and experience of others on social networks.

Liz Belilovskaya, I Had Cancer

I Had Cancer (www.ihadcancer.com) is a cancer support community that empowers its members through shared experiences by the most relevant sources, the patients.

I have been on quite a journey since my breast cancer diagnosis in October 2008.  I had been an attorney for years, slogging along, knowing I was not fulfilled in my job, but convincing myself I had no choice in the matter.  After running a marathon in mid-2007, though, I realized anything is possible, and I joined a band.  Later, in 2008, I recorded an album of songs I'd written.  Within weeks of releasing my album in 2008, however, just when I was starting to gain some attention for the songs, the doctor called to shock the hell out of me with news that I had breast cancer at age 37 and needed to undergo chemotherapy immediately.  Needless to say, I was shocked and devastated.  In addition to worrying about my life (and not wanting to leave my daughters and husband to fend for themselves), I was equally worried and horrified at the thought that my diagnosis would kill my nascent musical dreams. 

Little did I know that this terrifying diagnosis would actually serve as a wake up call, igniting an almost fanatical passion for life like nothing I'd experienced before!  The imaginary fences I'd created for myself pre-diagnosis simply did not exist.  The day I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I quit my job as an attorney. I am so glad I made the change – and by whatever means necessary I am grateful --  but why on earth did I think I needed the “permission” of a cancer diagnosis to be the real me?  

I’d always been a big dreamer as a child, certain I’d win the Oscar and write the great American novel, too.  I sang in every high school musical, and then went off to UCLA theatre school.  When I was singing and expressing my creative side, I always felt like me.  But after college, I went into the family “lawyer business” and forgot all about that little dreamer inside of me.  Even though I loved my husband and two little daughters so very much, I was totally and utterly compartmentalized.  So much of my daily life was spent fighting voraciously in court about other people’s money.  The stress and anxiety of my daily life ate me up inside – just like a cancer – until, of course, it became an actual cancer.

 

After my cancer treatments, I vowed to live my life with passion and authenticity.  And man oh man, it turns out that living passionately and authentically has abundant rewards:  I recorded my second album of songs, all written during treatments, right after treatments ended.  The album is called "I'm Still Here."  The music video for the title track has surpassed 1,000,000 hits on Youtube!  At the end of 2011, Billboard Magazine ranked me No. 5 on its list of the Top 50 emerging artists for the entire year!

 

And, I am thrilled to say, I also wrote my first book, and got a book deal!  In March 2012, my book Rocking the Pink will be released, with endorsements by Robin Roberts, Jack Black, Jennifer Griffin, Joni Rodgers, and more.   I hope my book will reach out to all those women who unexpectedly find they have suddenly, shockingly, become pink warriors.  My hope is that my book will make them feel inspired to keep fighting -- to "rock the pink!" 

I am committed to "rocking the pink" -- telling my story to raise awareness and inspire a continued fight for a cure.  I hope to be a living example to others coming after me on this road, to show them they can make it, that they are not alone, and that they can be better than ever.

If you are in Southern California, please come to my book release party on March 8 at the House of Blues San Diego.  Let's celebrate a dream coming true!

XO Laura

www.lauraroppe.com


 

 

 

 

 

 

Yoga creates harmony of mind and body. It has become center stage in the offerings of complementary therapies for breast cancer recovery. Yoga is now offered in conjunction with other standards of medical care.

Physically yoga can be an extremely important part of recovery wellness. It helps remove unwanted debris and toxins from the lungs, skin and colon.  By moving the body, stretching muscles and breathing deeply the toxins are physically released. This undoubtably helps cleanse the body. Yoga will eliminate ama (toxic residue) from the cells, move the lymph through the lymphatic system, and bring the mind into clarity. This clarity of mind encourages good decisions which then encourages more good decisions.

Emotionally yoga will remove anger, sadness and fear. It will give you a sense of inner strength, balance and mental flexibility. The Autonomic Nervous System becomes balanced especially when synchronizing with the breath and the movement. Resulting in the mind settling down and the body feeling energized.

Make sure you begin with your  physicians approval. Find a well qualified yoga teacher.  Do what you can; maybe starting with a gentle or restorative yoga practice first.

By: Diana Ross, E-RYT 500

Founder: Breast Cancer Yoga

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Who would’ve thought Barbie could rise to the pinnacle of cancer politics?  And still climbing.  In a country in which approximately 12,400 children are diagnosed with cancer each year (and the number keeps climbing), I can see why the topic of childhood cancer could and would touch on raw emotions.  It’s taken me some reflecting though to grasp how a Bald Barbie doll can come to hold the torch for that emotional eruption, especially when she has yet to even exist.

Apparently someone (a man no less) at the American Cancer Society weighed in and so fueled the eruption that we late-comers cannot even view his contribution.  The ACS has withdrawn the post and the author has replaced it with what amounts to an apology.  The comments are still there, however, and judging by them, I get the sense that this now-banished post had a good deal to do with Bald Barbie’s rapid rise to the pinnacle of cancer politics.

One of those comments gets right to the heart of Bald Barbie’s rise, expressing what I imagine is the crux of the emotional eruption that put Miss Bald Barbie in her new political position:  “He does not know who he messed with,” a commenter named Mindy writes to the ACS blogger.  “An apology on their blog is not enough.  We won’t stop until there is equity in funding for childhood cancer, and this man has a new job!”

Childhood cancers are the leading cause of death by disease among children in the U.S., and yet only 3 percent of the National Cancer Institute’s research budget is allocated to childhood cancers (note the plurality of “cancers”).  I’ve experienced so much pain and loss in my family at the dreaded hands of cancer and yet I cannot for a minute imagine the pain of losing a child to cancer.  I can easily imagine though why the parents out there who have known this pain, known such loss, are looking for any means of waking the rest of us up to their pain and to the fact that there are way too many children getting cancer.  Apparently the NCI and the pharmaceutical companies have other priorities, so if Barbie can help them (help us) to raise the funds to fund the research to develop the means that would stop cancer from taking our children, I say “I’ll take 3!”

And for the other voices out there who say, wait!!!  This is about my child, not a  petroleum-based cancer-contributing plastic mold destined for a landfill, I get that too.  I want to know, WHY is cancer on the rise among our children? Mary Tyler Mom comes through crystal clear to me when she says, “Girls with cancer need a bald doll about as much as women with breast cancer need a pink Kitchen Aid mixer.” She has known the pain of watching her toddler daughter battle cancer, so I just have to honor her feelings too.

Cancer politics aside, and as an Alopecian, my first response to a Bald Barbie was and is, I want one!!!  I’m an advocate for anything and everything that helps women and girls to self-identify as normal, feminine, and beautiful, without hair.  Okay, so she’d lack hair and yet have an unattainable version of a feminine figure (not to mention long, lush eyelashes any Alopecian would die for), but hey, I’ll take a socially evolved Barbie in small steps.

Have you been paying attention to Bald Barbie’s pre-existence rise to fame?  Are you pro-Bald Barbie, or con-Bald Barbie?  Why?

Susan Beausang, 4women.com

Could hair tests someday provide a viable alternative to mammograms?  An Australian research consortium is exploring the possibility after discovering that hair from women with breast cancer had a different cell structure to hair from women without the disease.

The technology being tested is a synchrotron particle accelerator, an x-ray machine that bombards hair strands (rather than our breasts) with x-rays.  The pattern produced by the x-rays is described as a series of arcs, while in people with breast cancer a distinctive ring is superimposed on top of the arcs.

It turns out that the first published study reporting this promising technology was back in 1999, in the journal Nature.  Unfortunately, other researchers were unable to reproduce  the results and so the work continued.  Since then, the original authors have determined that other researchers were unable to reproduce their results either because they were using hair damaged by dyes or other chemicals, or because hairs were either stretched or wrongly aligned under the beam.

An especially interesting finding in that original study was that all the hair samples from women who tested positive for a mutation of the BRCA1 gene, showed the same hair changes as those with breast cancer.

Some might be inclined to dismiss such research as pie-in-the-sky thinking, but my guess is that this is no more pie-in-the-sky than dreaming the breast cancer vaccine. I’ll happily eat my pie in the sky!  Have you ever heard about this promising test?

Susan Beausang, 4Women.com

The diaphragmatic breath is the most calming and therapeutic breath. When constant stress leads to restriction of connective and muscular tissue in the chest area; a decrease in ROM (Range of Motion) is experienced. This decrease is due in part to unconscious shallow breathing. The chest does not expand as much as it would with slower and deeper breaths. Deeper diaphragmatic breathing is efficient because of the greater amounts of oxygen being drawn in the blood which then flows in the lower lobes of the lungs. Breathe Consciously. “It is as simple as oxygen helping to nourish the body, the muscles, and organs which then provides relief from stress, fear and anxiety. Slow, deep, and relaxed breaths calm the autonomic nervous system, producing balanced stable energy.  Conscious breathing does improve the body’s immune function, and lower blood pressure. Make a conscious decision to start with 5 to 10 minutes a day of deep breathing. 

To learn yoga breathing techniques visit Breast Cancer Yoga and download our “Breast Cancer Yoga Breathing Techniques” E-book

Author & Founder: Diana Ross, E-RYT 500

January 26, 2012

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In honor of a fresh start in 2012, here is a recipe loaded with beautiful colors and flavors. It contains all the things you need to appreciate the good people and things in your life…as well as letting go of the bad!

We’re including:

• Papaya – to help your eyes see things clearly (thanks to a heap of beta-carotene)
• Spinach – to perk your mood (B vitamins are great for this)
• Coconut Milk – for a healthy heart
• Caribbean Flavor – for happiness and spice!

Have a colorful year!

‘True Colors’ Caribbean Soup
(4-5 servings)
1 15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed (or 2 c. cooked black beans)
1 15 oz. can coconut milk
2 c. vegetable broth
¼ c. pickapeppa sauce (a sweet and slightly spicy Jamaican sauce)
1 medium papaya, diced
1 red onion, diced
2 c. spinach leaves
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. allspice
sea salt to taste
2 1/2 c. cooked brown rice
Topping: hot sauce of your choice (optional)

Place all ingredients except rice & hot sauce into slow cooker. Cook on ‘low’ setting for 3-4 hours.

Place 1/2 c. cooked rice in each bowl. Ladle soup on top. Serve with hot sauce on the side.