Although it was just a couple of weeks ago when my doctor looked me in the eye and called me cured of the breast cancer that had almost ended my life, I’ve actually considered myself free from cancer for quite some time. When I was diagnosed, Alan and I took a serious look at our lifestyles and our environment and made significant changes that last through today. We share many of our insights on the benefits of healthy living here on DrGreene.com, and we’ve come to embrace our good health and to enjoy our good days.

I fully believe that some of the healthiest people in the world are those who are living with a chronic disease and managing it well. Those of us who have gone through a life-changing threat to our existence have sought out information about the world we live in, the food we eat, the air we breathe… we want to do anything and everything we can to regain and maintain our health. People with diabetes who watch what they’re eating and control their disease with diet and exercise are healthier than most disease-free folks who eat junk food and spend their evenings on the couch. People with asthma who avoid second-hand smoke are exposed to fewer toxins. We survivors of diseases just seem to be more aware of what keeps us healthy and what will make us sick because if we don’t pay attention, the repercussions could be very serious.

Some days I’m really angry about what cancer stole from me. I was breastfeeding one day and, thanks to chemotherapy, two months later I’m in full blown menopause, complete with intense hot flashes. It was insult to injury because I hoped to have another child. During my treatment I opted to do everything I could to keep my breasts because I fully believed I would nurse again.

But the anger about the cancer doesn’t come close to the happiness about the cure. I was diagnosed with stage three inflammatory breast cancer. The chances that I would survive were very, very small. But survive I did, and, as another cancer patient once said to me, “Today is a great day to be alive.”

I started off with one of the strongest Western medicine available, and at the end of my treatment, I was in a very vulnerable position. The cancer was gone, but the first year after treatment has the highest risk of recurrence. And cancer that comes back during this time usually spreads very quickly and is very resistant to more treatment.

I decided I wanted to be as involved as I could in attacking this thing. I found about a trial at Stanford that the coordinators were having trouble finding participants that fit the critera. You had to have been diagnosed with stage three or stage four breast cancer, and you had to be done with treatment with no evidence of the disease. The hard truth is that they couldn’t find many eligible patients because there weren’t many of us who were surviving this disease. When I was first diagnosed Alan tried to find people online with my cancer, and he couldn’t find anybody. He just kept finding memorials for people. So I enrolled in the FGN1 trial at Stanford.  I knew I had a 50/50 chance at getting the drug, but either way, I was determined to do it. Either I got the drug, and perhaps got help, or I didn’t and hopefully helped others.

The trial was an 18-month chemotherapy treatment, but I knew right off that I was getting the actual drug and not a placebo because I had to be hospitalized because of the side effects. They adjusted my dose a couple of times because I was so sick with the side effects, and they actually asked me if I wanted to drop out. But I wound up completing the trial because I wanted to help find a treatment that would help more people than the conventional chemo.

After the trial, the doctors told me that of the six women at Stanford who were on the trial, several on the placebo had recurred and one had died. At that time the cancer had not come back in those of us who received the actual drug. I haven’t been able to track down any of the other women in the study, so I don’t have any long-term data. Unfortunately the side effects turned out to be too serious to take the drug to market, but I’m grateful I persevered and got the full treatment.

There’s no doubt that the chemotherapy is one of the major reasons I’m here to tell my story today, I’m fully convinced that my mindset played just as significant a role. When I was diagnosed, I didn’t absorb their message that I was going to die. I heard what they were saying, but I was convinced that the fatal diagnosis didn’t really apply to me. At the same time, I can remember realizing that I needed to live every moment to the fullest.

Humans are capable of two diametrically opposed ideas at the same time. I remember one morning in particular waking up and feeling totally exhausted. I felt tired on the cellular level, and all I wanted to do was just turn over and go back to sleep. But I said to myself, “You may never feel better than you do right now, so get up and get dressed and go play with that baby.” I remember feeling like I didn’t really accept this diagnosis and that I was going to make it, yet coming to the conclusion that I needed to live every moment because they might not come again.

That combination really served me well. And the take home lesson for me after treatment was that it is really important to live today and not miss today. I really learned to take advantage of opportunities… to seize the day.

What are you doing today to live this day to the fullest?

Tomorrow’s Post: Life after Breast Cancer

When I started treatment, my goal was to make sure the medical staff thought of me as the perfect patient. I was going to do exactly what they said to do and follow all the rules – and I was going to be happy about it.

The first six or seven months, that was the way I operated. I went through chemotherapy and a lumpectomy. At one point the team decided I should have a port implanted in my chest so the drugs could be administered without needles in the arm.

I preferred to undergo the surgery under conscious sedation to implant the port because I didn’t seem to recover as quickly when I was fully sedated for a surgery. The anesthesiologist was someone I knew, and we were talking before the surgery. Then they put the drape up between my face and the surgical field so I couldn’t see where they would be cutting.  I was still very aware of what was going on even though I couldn’t see it or (theoretically) feel the surgery.  I heard the anesthesiologist  say, “Ok now – no whining.” I steeled myself, “I’m going to be good and I’m going to be strong and I’m not going to whine.”

But the surgery was not what I expected at all. During one part of the procedure, when the surgeon was using what seemed like a hammer and chisel to pound the port in place inside my chest, I didn’t think I could take it. I was trying so hard to be strong, but it was awful and I felt like passing out. But I didn’t whine.

After the procedure, I told the anesthesiologist how hard it had been. And his face contorted and turned white. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he said, upset. “It’s my job to make sure you’re comfortable!”

“But you said, no whining,” I replied.

I was shocked when he said, “I was talking to one of the nurses.”

Light bulbs went off. Right then I realized that I was the only one in the room who had information about how I was feeling, and it was my job as part of the team responsible for my health to communicate that information. I needed to stop being a compliant, non-complaining patient. I needed to speak up and share the information about what was going on inside my body with the rest of the people who were working with me to try to fix it.

In the course of the next six to seven months, I completely changed how I interacted. I learned how to give myself a shot I had to take daily so I didn’t have to wait on a nurse or get an appointment. I worked with my doctor on a daily plan for my medication, which needed to be adjusted regularly when we were trying to figure out what would work. I had gotten to the place where I knew what I needed. My doctor was reviewing my suggestions, but I was making decisions. I credit that engaged, that empowered, behavior as one of the reasons I was cured.

How have you taken control of your own healthcare decisions? What do you do to prepare for a doctor’s visit? Do you feel comfortable approaching your doctor with ideas or information?

Tomorrow’s Post: Enduring the Journey, Finding the Cure

I tried for 15 years to get pregnant, and when I was told that we should prepare to welcome a baby boy, I was determined to do everything right. I was prepared for the challenges of breastfeeding, but it turns out that my son and I were the perfect nursing pair. He did a great job of latching on and sucking, and I did a great job of producing “liquid gold”. Then I developed a breast infection. Many nursing women have them -  painful, but no big deal.  I felt a lump that seemed like a clogged milk duct. But when the infection went away, the lump stayed, so I went back to the doctor.

The doctor came in and examined me. My son, then 9 months, was on my lap, and she laid one hand on my breast. Then she said abruptly, “Ok, you can get up now,” and started ordering tests. Later she told me she knew what the lump was as soon as she touched me.

I was very lucky. From the time I had the breast infection to the time I had the definitive diagnosis was six weeks. Breast cancers in breastfeeding women are rarely diagnosed this quickly because the breasts are so lumpy when you’re nursing.

But when the surgeon came in and told me I had breast cancer and I had to stop nursing, all I heard was, “YOU HAVE TO STOP NURSING.” I didn’t listen to the details about how serious this cancer was.

When you’re diagnosed with something that’s really devastating, there’s only so much you can hear. For me it was that I couldn’t breastfeed any more. All I could think of was, “How will I feed my baby?”

A couple of months later, I sat in my oncologist’s office and received more bad news. He was talking about treatment and told me I had only months to live. But before he told me my prognosis, he told me, “YOU HAVE TO HAVE REALLY STRONG CHEMOTHERAPY AND YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE YOUR HAIR.”   That’s all I heard.

If you are close to someone who has just received very tough news, she may not realize what the actual news is yet. One of the best gifts you can give this person, besides just being there, is to accompany her to the doctors’ offices and write down everything the doctors and nurses communicate. Then give the patient some time to digest the big news and schedule a quiet time to go over the other details. This is a very vital service a caregiver can provide for a patient in need.

I’m now on the board of a non-profit organization, the Society for Participatory Medicine. It’s really a movement that encourages people to be part of their own healthcare team and encourages healthcare professionals to treat patients and their families as part of the team. I was very lucky to get to that place in my treatment. Tomorrow I’ll talk about that, but first, please share your story… have you ever been on the receiving end of this type of bad news? How did you process the information you were given? Have you ever helped anyone through a similar situation? What tips can you give to help others in your shoes?

Tomorrow’s Post… Getting Treatment: How I Became an e-Patient

On September 8, 2009 I went to my doctor for my annual physical. I’m very diligent about getting my regular checkup because I have a history…

On March 22, 1996 I was diagnosed with stage three inflammatory breast cancer and given months to live. This doctor, my gynecologist, has been with me the entire time – she was my doctor even before the diagnosis, back when I was struggling with infertility and trying to have a baby. She was the very person who diagnosed the breast cancer. She is a phenomenal physician and a very trusted advisor, and now she is a friend.

During my last visit, my doctor, my friend, looked at my charts and my paperwork, then turned to me and said some of the most beautiful words I’ve ever heard.

“We can now call you cured.”

My breast cancer is gone. Done. Over. Nonexistent. We don’t have to use words like “remission” or “no evidence of disease” or talk about a “probability of recurrence.” This cancer that almost took me away from my children and my husband is truly cured. And just like I remember that day in 1996 when this same woman told me I had a deadly form of breast cancer, I will forever remember the day she told me I was cured.

I actually haven’t told many people about my latest news yet because I wanted to share it here in the DrGreene.com community. It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I know there are many women – too many women – out there right now who have concerns about breast cancers. Perhaps you’re putting off a mammogram, or maybe you’ve found a lump and are waiting for news. Some of you are probably going through treatment right now, and I’m sad to say I know more than a few of you have lost loved ones to this disease.

I wanted to tell my story publicly on DrGreene.com for a number of reasons. First, my diagnosis of breast cancer was one of the reasons Dr. Greene and I changed our lifestyles and dedicated ourselves to sharing health information via DrGreene.com. Second, my experience as a cancer patient taught me important lessons about how patients need to participate in their own healthcare. And third, because I want to spread the word that people can live through a fatal diagnosis, even when the odds seem overwhelming.

My doctor told me that when she talks to other women with breast cancer, she calls me her poster child. What I had was supposed to be fatal, and if I can beat that cancer, others can, too.

Share your story… how has breast cancer affected your life?

Tomorrow’s Post… Getting the Diagnosis: All You Hear is “Cancer”

As a father, I have a desire to teach, provide for and protect my children. For me, one way to do all three of these is to choose organic foods for my family. I now know this as a physician, but I first learned it as a father and a husband.

That’s often the way it is. Medical textbooks don’t contain all the answers. Intuition and personal experiences often pave the way for later scientific understanding.

Today there is a strong, mounting body of science that is illuminating the benefits of growing crops organically. There is also evidence showing the harm of certain chemicals used in foods. And where we just don’t know the effects of new chemicals, we can proceed with precaution and protection for our children and their world. But I didn’t always feel this way.

When my first son was born, I was still in medical school. His knowledge of food came from what we fed him and what he saw us eat. Children learn more from what we do than from what we say. As a busy medical student, intern and then resident, I ate a typical rushed American diet: convenience foods, fast foods, junk foods. I ate some fruit most days and even less in the way of vegetables.

I was more interested in nutrition than my peers and went out of my way to take additional nutrition courses to supplement the meager offerings in the core curriculum. Still, I knew little. And what I did know was pushed aside by habit and a busy schedule.

By the time my youngest son came along, I was an established pediatrician. I had learned a lot about many aspects of health and wellness. I knew that there were benefits to foods grown organically, but I didn’t believe this deeply enough for it to become a priority in my family’s life. Then everything changed…

Crashing Insight When my youngest was a baby, my wife, Cheryl, was radiant and full of life. We were enjoying parenting and working together. Life was great!

Then Cheryl was diagnosed with stage III, high-risk, inflammatory breast cancer. The prognosis was grim. She was not expected to live to see the New Year. I grappled with the question “Where does breast cancer come from?” Like so many women with breast cancer, Cheryl had no history of the disease in her family. But she grew up on a farm.

It turns out that even though farmers in the United States are healthier than the general population in many ways, they have higher rates than the American public at large for several cancers, including leukemias, lymphomas, myelomas, brain cancers, and cancers of the lip, stomach, skin and prostate. But it’s not just the farmers themselves who get sick. Their children also have higher rates of reproductive tumors, leukemias and brain cancers—kidney and bone cancers, too.

As a girl, Cheryl could hear the pesticide sprayers rumble as she lay in her bed. She drank water from a well on the farm, a water source we later learned had been contaminated with pesticides. She bathed in this water. Her family cooked with it.

Several lines of reasoning suggest that agricultural pesticides used on farms are partly responsible for the increased cancer rates we see in farm families . The structure and function of these chemicals, their effects on animals and what we are learning about their effects on people are all reasons for concern.

The first studies I read about pesticides and breast cancer were a startling wake-up call for me . If these chemicals are hurting people and animals on the farm, how might they be harming the rest of us? Why wait for science to answer this question? The enormity of what we still don’t know about their effects demands thoughtful choices.

Against all odds, Cheryl survived her cancer. Did her early toxic pesticide exposure cause her cancer? I don’t know for sure, but I do know that I don’t want our children and other children put at this risk.

A Father’s Protection Most children today don’t grow up on farms. Does choosing organic food make a difference for them? Researchers at the Department of Environmental Health in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Washington started tackling this question by measuring pesticide levels in urine samples from preschool children in suburban Seattle. They divided the children into two groups: those who were fed mostly conventional foods and those who were fed mostly organic foods.

The urine samples of children who ate what people call conventional diets had mean pesticide concentrations about nine times higher than did those of children who ate organic! The results indicated that these preschool kids had exceeded the safe pesticide exposure levels set by the EPA and that their health was at increased risk. By contrast, those children who ate organic foods were well below the EPA levels deemed to cause negligible risk. By feeding your family organic foods, you safeguard them from harm and help them build healthy bodies.

Choosing organic for my family is one way I protect it. Additionally, when we provide our children with organic foods, we are often giving them an even bigger edge—like organic blueberries instead of partially hydrogenated snacks or organic orange juice instead of high-fructose sodas. What a gift! What an important part of our responsibility!

One of the reasons I wrote Raising Baby Green was to help parents easily sort through and prioritize which baby products area healthiest and safest for their children. In the book I suggest alternatives for plastics containing Bishphenol A (BPA) – a hormone mimicker found in most baby bottles.

Within the last week BPA has been in the news as a draft report of the federal US Toxicology Program raised concern that BPA could trigger behavior problems and early puberty in children; Canada moved to ban BPA in baby bottles, citing evidence of increased risk of breast cancer, diabetes, and hyperactivity; Wal-Mart, Toys-R-US, and Nalgene announced that they are moving to phase out BPA in many products within a year; and the American Chemical Council announced that they still consider BPA safe for babies.

These are all important developments.

But BPA is found in other places besides baby bottles (such as the linings of food and formula cans). And BPA is only one of the concerning ingredients in some plastics. And plastics are only one group of concerning exposures during pregnancy and early childhood.

But there is no reason to be overwhelmed. By taking control of only a few routes of exposure you can change the impact of the environment on your child: things that go in the mouth, things that go on the skin, and fumes and aromas in the air. In each category, increasing healthy exposures and decreasing concerning ones can help tilt the odds in your child’s favor. Simple changes in each arena can make a big difference, without much cost or effort.

The Agricultural Health Study is a huge, ongoing, forward-looking analysis of the health of farmers and their families that began in 1993-4. Over 89,000 people are participating in the study. The study is sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Environmental Protection Agency. The researchers are investigating the effects of environmental, occupational, dietary, and genetic factors on the health of the farmers and their families. (And I can only imagine that the health risks of farm laborers and their families are as high or higher than farmers and their families.)

In January 2005, they published their analysis of pesticide use and breast cancer risk in the families of the farmers. This part of the Agricultural Health Study looked at farmers’ wives without a history of breast cancer who were recruited into the study between 1993 and 1997. The researchers carefully analyzed the hundreds who developed breast cancer by the year 2000. (This is short-term data, so far. It will be many years before we have the story of what happens when the children in this study grow up. But children are even more vulnerable to most toxic exposures.)

Breast cancer rates increased with the use of several specific pesticides in the study. The strongest evidence of an increased breast cancer risk was seen with the husbands’ use of 2,4,5-TP. The rates of breast cancer increased steadily as the amount of exposure increased. This was consistent for wives living in different parts of the country. Increased breast cancer rates were also found for the husbands’ use of dieldrin, captan, and 2,4,5-T.

Strikingly, even with apparently less toxic pesticides, the closer the farmers’ houses were to where the pesticides were sprayed, the higher the rates of breast cancer in their wives. The women with homes closest to areas of pesticide application had the very highest rates⁸.

Cheryl’s childhood bedroom window was just a few feet from the grapevines.

Against all odds, Cheryl survived her cancer, and is an ever more vibrant, giving woman. She is still the heart and soul of DrGreene.com. We’re grateful every day for the opportunities we’ve had since 1996. Her cancer has changed us forever.

Did her early toxic pesticide exposure cause Cheryl’s cancer when she grew up? I didn’t know then, and I probably never will. But I did know that I didn’t want other children put at this risk. Our personal medical crisis was broadening my heart as a father to include children growing up on today’s farms. And to those outside of farm communities. Pesticides drift in our wind and in our groundwater. I was also starting to see children in cities and suburbs in a new light.

More From Fathers for Organic:
Dr. Greene’s Organic Journey
Fathers for Organic – Part 1 of 7
Fathers for Organic – Part 2 of 7
Fathers for Organic – Part 3 of 7
Fathers for Organic – Part 4 of 7
Fathers for Organic – Part 5 of 7
Fathers for Organic – Part 6 of 7
Fathers for Organic – Part 7 of 7

My wife’s name is Cheryl. When my youngest was a baby, she was radiant and full of life. We were enjoying parenting together, and enjoying being partners on DrGreene.com. She was responsible for the design, the engineering, the correspondence, the heart and the soul. I was the doctor responsible for answering parents’ questions. Life was good. No, great!

…until Cheryl discovered a lump in her breast. A chill went down our spines. But many lumps prove to be benign. The results of Cheryl’s biopsy hit like a truck (I know. I’ve been hit by a truck. But that’s another story). Cheryl had cancer. Stage III, high risk, inflammatory breast cancer. The prognosis was grim. She was diagnosed on March 22, 1996, and not expected to live to see the New Year.

Our life was shaken to the core. Reeling myself, I helped Cheryl navigate through the best treatment options for her specific cancer. Over the next year, she had four surgeries, 38 radiation treatments, and ten harrowing months of intensive chemotherapy².

Meanwhile, one of the pressing questions I was grappling with was “Where does breast cancer, this monster that had stolen our simple happiness, come from?” Like so many women with breast cancer, Cheryl did not have breast cancer in her family. But she grew up on a farm.

It turns out that farmers in the United States have higher rates of several cancers than we find in the American public at large³. Even though they are healthier than the general population in many ways, farmers appear to have higher rates of leukemias, lymphomas, myelomas, brain cancers, and cancers of the lip, stomach, skin, and prostate⁴. But it’s not just the farmers themselves who get sick; it’s their families as well. Farmers’ children have higher rates of reproductive tumors, leukemias, and brain cancers – kidney and bone cancers, too⁵.

Cheryl was a farmer’s daughter. Her family grew raisins on a beautiful farm in California’s fertile central valley. She described to me lying in her bed as a little girl and listening to the exciting rumble of the pesticide sprayers outside her childhood home, as the toxic fumes filled the air. But she thought of this as fun, not as a threat. And she grew up drinking water from a well on their farm, a water source we later learned had been contaminated with pesticides. She bathed in this water. Her family cooked with it. She drank it on hot, thirsty days over ice cubes made from the same water.

Several lines of reasoning suggest that the pesticides used on farms are partly responsible for the increased cancer rates we see in farmers and their families⁶. The structure and function of these chemicals, their effects on animals, and what we are learning about their effects on people are all reasons for concern.

Several of the first studies I read about pesticides and breast cancer were a startling wake-up call for me⁷. I strongly wanted my own children not to be exposed unnecessarily to these pesticides. And when I pictured in my mind where our food was coming from, how it was grown, I found myself not wanting our family’s food choices to put my family or any farmers’ families at increased risk. And the chemicals used on the farm don’t stay on the farm. They contaminate our air and our water; they travel in the fog rolling over our hills, and in the “pure” falling snow. The herbicide Atrazine has been measured in falling rain at concentration of 40 ppb. In scientific research on frogs, a concentration of only 0.1 ppb has been shown to cause severe hormonal problems, fertility problems, and gender confusion.

If these chemicals are hurting people and animals on the farm, how might they be harming the rest of us??? What else might they be doing? The enormity of what we still don’t know about their effects calls for making thoughtful choices, or what we call the precautionary principle. We need to be wise parents now, rather than just waiting for science to answer these questions.

More From Fathers for Organic:
Dr. Greene’s Organic Journey
Fathers for Organic – Part 1 of 7
Fathers for Organic – Part 2 of 7
Fathers for Organic – Part 3 of 7
Fathers for Organic – Part 4 of 7
Fathers for Organic – Part 5 of 7
Fathers for Organic – Part 6 of 7
Fathers for Organic – Part 7 of 7

Uninterrupted hours of nighttime darkness encourage healthy melatonin levels in the blood that dramatically suppress the growth of breast tumors. On the other hand, exposure to light at night causes melatonin levels in the blood to plummet, stimulating growth of breast cancer cells – according to a groundbreaking study appearing in the December 1, 2005 Cancer Research.

Funding for this study came from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).  The study could help explain why breast cancer is up to five times more common in industrialized nations than in underdeveloped countries (nearly half of all breast cancers cannot be explained by currently accepted risk factors). It could also help explain why night shift workers have higher rates of breast cancer, and why the blind have lower rates.

We already knew that melatonin is a powerful protective substance that the body produces at night during the dark. We knew that light exposure at night can rob us of melatonin. But this study is the first to solidly connect light exposure at night to human cancer. The authors studied human breast cancers that had been grafted into rats. The rats were infused with blood collected from healthy women. Some of the blood was collected at night during the darkness (and was rich in melatonin); some of the blood was collected at the same time of night, but following 90 minutes of exposure to white light. The melatonin-rich blood collected in darkness powerfully suppressed the tumors; the blood from women exposed to light at night stimulated the tumors, and increased the tumors fat uptake. This also held true in other rats with their own liver cancers.

Over the past 100 years, increasing numbers of people have been exposed to more artificial light after sunset, both at home and in the workplace. This study suggests that minimizing nighttime light exposure, strengthening the body’s own circadian rhythm, and encouraging normal melatonin secretion could help reverse rising cancer rates. Taking steps to support the circadian rhythm makes good sense, based on what we now know. (There is a whole section on simple, proven methods to strengthen the circadian rhythm for improving sleep in my book, From First Kicks to First Steps).

The current study also suggests new areas for research – such as types of nighttime lighting that don’t suppress melatonin for those who need light at night, and types of daytime lighting that better mimic the value of natural light. Changing the eating habits of night shift workers might also prove to make a difference (they tend to eat more high fat foods at the same time their melatonin is suppressed).

But in the short run, I encourage parents to help their children learn to sleep with as little light as possible, and to begin turning down bright lights after sunset, where practical, to give your children the fullest benefit of their own remarkable melatonin.

Do you sleep with the lights on? Do your kids? Darkness at night is healing. Sleep may be even more healing than darkness. If I had a child who needed light to sleep, I might try a red night light (like a photography darkroom). I’m not sure this would help, but it looks like white light can hurt. What would you try?