100 Perks of Having Cancer: Plus 100 Health Tips for Surviving It (45 page)

Perk #46: Cancer Forced Me to Brush Up on My Math Skills

179

●
93%—the percentage of all people, children included, who have detect -

able BPA (bisphenol-A, a chemical in plastic) in their urine.

●
83%—the number of cancers that are on the rise having to do with diges-

tion and excretion (esophagus, pancreas, liver, bile duct, kidney). What

did you have for lunch?

●
1,638,910—the number of new cases of cancer that are

expected in 2012 in the United States alone.

●
12,600,000—the number of new cancer cases that are

expected worldwide in 2012.

●
5%—your chances of getting breast cancer in your life-

time in 1960 (1 in 20).

●
13%—your chances of getting breast cancer in your life-

time in 2012 (1 in 8).

●
234,580—new cases of breast cancer expected in 2013,

an increase from 2012.

●
2%—The current amount of research money spent on stage-4 breast can-

cer (metastatic disease) even though 30% of all those diagnosed with any

stage of breast cancer will go on to develop stage 4, and it is what ulti-

mately kills.

●
800,000—the number of people who will die from heart disease in 2012

in the United States.

●
580,350—the number of people who will die from cancer in 2013 in the

United States, which is an increase over 2012’s figures.

●
100%—the number of people reading this who are literate.

Perk #47

Cancer Increased

My Vocabulary

I
nvasive ductal carcinoma. Oncologist. Tamoxifen. Adjuvant therapy.

Metastasis. Before getting cancer, I would have thought these words to be

part of a foreign language. Now they are part of my everyday vocabulary.

They are not pretty words, and some of them, I will admit, scare the living

daylights out of me! There is one word, however, that I am happy to have

learned from my cancer experience: psychoneuroimmunology. Ah, don’t ya

just love how it rolls off your tongue? Psychoneuroimmunology (pro-

nounced “kale” . . . just kiddin’, it is actually pronounced just as it is spelled)

is the study of the interaction between psychological processes and the nerv-

ous and immune systems of the body. In other words, it is the study of the

mind-body connection.

Many books have been written about the mind-body connection:
Love,

Medicine and Miracles
(Bernie Siegel, MD),
The Power of Positive Thinking

(Norman Vincent Peale), and
You Can Heal Your Life
(Louise Hay) are among

my favorites. Both Siegel and Hay propose that cancer can be caused by

underlying psychological factors. Hay says that cancer is caused by holding

on to resentment, which eats away at the spirit as cancer eats away at the

body. I think she has a good point. One of the questions that Dr. Siegel asks

his patients is “What happened to you in the two years leading up to your

diagnosis?” He believes that traumatic life events can serve as precursors to

cancer. That makes sense to me. In the two years leading up to my diagnosis,

I was under stress, and lots of it!

Some people take offense to this way of thinking. “Are you saying that

I caused my own cancer?” Well, not exactly, but according to this theory,

how you live your life, how you cope with stress, and even your personality

type can play a role in creating an environment in your body in which cancer

can grow. Here is the good news: if your mind can play a role in making

I 180 J

Perk #47: Cancer Increased My Vocabulary

181

you sick, it can also play a role in healing you. BINGO! That’s why I love

this new word, psychoneuroimmunology (I just had to say it again). It is

the reason why meditation, prayer, visualizations, affirmations, forgiveness

exercises, and gardening are all important parts of my survival plan.

If you are going to read only one book on your cancer

journey, make it this one. But if you are going to read

a second, I would suggest
Love, Medicine and Miracles.

HEALTH TIP #47

Here Are Some More Words to Add to Your Vocabulary

I
don’t know which is harder: pronouncing some of the ingredients on

package labels or figuring out what they’re doing there in the first place.

It seems like all labels—whether it’s food, household products, or cos-

metics—contain ingredients that leave us wondering if we are exposing

ourselves to something harmful or harmless.

Ingredients like methylparabens, coco-glucoside, and sodium lauryl

sulfate probably line your household shelves. Keeping in mind that there

are entire books written about all the chemical agents that we are exposed

to each day, the following are just a few that you may run across in your

day-to-day activities and a brief comment on safety and what they do.

Parabens

Methylparaben, butylparaben, ethylparaben, benzylparaben, heptylpara ben,

isobutylparaben, and propylparaben. As a rule of thumb, if it ends in “para -

ben,” it means the same thing: bad. Some cosmetic companies try to hide

the parabens by using code names like Germaben II and LiquiPar Oil.

Parabens are strong preservatives, and they are very cheap to manufacture

and use, so big companies love them because they can make millions of

bottles of their stuff and leave it on a shelf for years in some warehouse and

it won’t spoil.

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100 Perks of Having Cancer

Where is it?
Parabens are used in all types of products, like cosmetics,

lotions, shampoos, washes, some pharmaceutical syrups, and personal-care

products like deodorant and toothpaste. Heptylparabens are found in non-

carbonated soft drinks and beer.

Is it bad?
While there is no conclusive evidence that parabens
cause
can-

cer, the evidence is clear that, in the lab, parabens fuel cancer cell growth

and are estrogenic—that is, they mimic the hormone estrogen. The fact is,

parabens have been found in breast cancer tumors, and there’s a very good

chance that you have parabens in your urine right now. (Remember, your

skin is a
carrier,
not a barrier.) Parabens are synthetic chemicals and don’t

belong inside our bodies. Being exposed to so many personal-care products

from multiple areas of our lives increases the exposure. You can avoid

parabens by making different product choices, and it would benefit you to

do so. There is evidence that when different parabens are combined in one

product, they affect the growth of cancer cells exponentially. So if paraben

A grows ten cancer cells and paraben B grows ten cancer cells, and you put

paraben A and B together, instead of growing twenty cancer cells, they would

grow one hundred!

So?
Take a look at what you use every day and look for words ending

with “paraben” in the ingredients. If you are using a large number of prod-

ucts containing these questionable chemicals, it’s very easy to substitute

some healthier options. Luckily there are many natural-based companies

that are very happy to give you paraben-free products today, and larger

brand-name companies are wising up to the fact that you are getting smarter

by not only reading labels, but actually knowing what they mean.

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate

Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) is a synthetic foaming agent.

Where is it?
SLS is found in a wide variety of shampoos, body washes,

and facial cleansers. If the product needs to produce lather and suds, you’ll

probably find SLS.

Is it bad?
It can be, but there is no evidence that SLS causes cancer and

the Environmental Working Group’s Cosmetic Database confirms it. Are

Perk #47: Cancer Increased My Vocabulary

183

you surprised? Most people have heard that SLS causes cancer and are avoid-

ing it. So much so, that now natural-based companies are putting “no SLS”

on their product labels. The fact is, sodium lauryl sulfate may have been

confused with sodium
laureth
sulfate, which can contain 1,4 dioxane, a

known carcinogen. That’s not to say that down the line there won’t be a

problem with SLS, as many synthetics were first deemed “safe” only to find

that they produced harmful effects.

So?
SLS is a synthetic chemical, and it does get absorbed through your

skin. It is a potent skin irritant so if you are avoiding chemicals, avoid it.

Those with skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis or those prone to skin

allergies would be smart to avoid it. However, there is no credible evidence

to support the idea that SLS increases your risk for cancer. That said, you

should avoid Sodium Laureth Sulfate.

Caramel Coloring

It sounds so yummy and is probably making your mouth water, but the name

is very deceiving. Caramel coloring (as opposed to soft, chewy caramels) is

a synthetic coloring agent often paired with ammonia in production and

contains the chemicals 2-methylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole. We call

this “ammonia caramel coloring,” but it will probably only be listed as

“caramel coloring” on the label.

Where is it?
Found in anything that isn’t dark brown but needs to be:

cola-flavored soft drinks, beer, meat gravies, soy sauces, baked goods, and

artificial chocolate-flavored products. I even found it in my “healthy” instant

oatmeal!

Is it bad?
In 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer con-

cluded, based on current studies and research, that the chemical compounds

in caramel coloring are “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” Ammonia-

caramel coloring is also classified under California’s Proposition 65 as a car-

cinogen. California warned that products containing 29 mcg of the chemical

per serving would have to bear a health-warning label. In March 2012, testing

done on two major name-brand colas found up to 150 mcg of the contam-

inant in every can—almost five times the level that needs to bear a warning.

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100 Perks of Having Cancer

So?
Cola-flavored soft drinks colored with caramel coloring are one of