Life's Delicate Balance
Causes and Prevention of Breast Cancer
by Janette D. Sherman, M.D.

Excerpts from Chapter 7
HORMONES ONE
Human and animal pharmaceuticals

"What are human beings without animals? If all animals ceased to exist, human beings would die of a great loneliness of the spirit. For whatever happens to the animals will happen also to human beings... All things connect."
-- said Chief Seattle

It is becoming more and more clear that ionizing radiation and biologically active chemicals are partners in crime. Major risk factors in the development of breast cancer are estrogenic hormones. Too much estrogen; estrogen too soon, as during a young girl's development; inappropriate timing of estrogen exposure; and the wrong kinds of estrogen are factors in this breast cancer epidemic

You may rightfully ask, "I never took hormones. Why should I be concerned about them?" The answer is, you may not have hormones, but you may have been with hormones, most likely without your knowledge or your consent, as a result of medications you were given, or in foods that you ate.

Why would anyone produce synthetic hormones? On the surface a number of the products appear to answer a panoply of needs, and despite known negative effects on human and animal health, they have been approved by the FDA for a number of medical "ills," and sanctioned by the Agriculture Department as animal growth agents.

One of the most widely used of the synthetic hormones is diethylstilbestrol, also called, DES. DES was prescribed to women to prevent miscarriage, to treat post menopausal "complications," to "cure" headaches, dizziness, nervousness, depression, frigidity, insomnia, muscle and joint pains, vaginitis (including gonorrhea), and infertility; and it was taken to prevent conception. DES was administered to food animals to promote weight --actually, fat-- gain. Subsequently, we consumed the meat of cattle, swine and poultry that had been dosed with DES.

DES was and is easy and cheap to manufacture, affording large profits to those companies that sell it. As a consequence, before it was finally banned from much of the meat supply, DES became administered to nearly the entire US population.

The failure to prevent the use these chemicals, and now remedy the problems resulting from synthetic estrogenic compounds in the environment is not because of lack of knowledge. The history of the development of synthetic estrogens such as DES with it's enormous commercial value has been known for decades. Understanding these historical developments is basic to understanding the development of today's epidemic of hormonally related cancers, and may help illuminate the enormous power, pressure, and profits behind this industry.