Few Women Truly Understand the Risks of Mammograms

(NaturalNews) One in three breast cancers detected by mammograms would never have posed a threat to the patient's life, making all the treatments that follow unnecessary, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Nordic Cochrane Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, and published in the British Medical Journal.

"The question is no longer whether overdiagnosis occurs, but how should we react to it," said H. Gilbert Welch of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, author of an accompanying editorial. "It's not an imperative to be screened; in fact, it's a close call."

Overdiagnosis refers to the detection of a non-life threatening cancer. In general, breast cancers come in three types: aggressive cancers that spread before they can be detected, cancers that spread slowly enough to be detected and treated early, and cancers that spread so slowly they pose no threat. Unfortunately, mammograms are best at detecting cancers in the latter category and not in the first two, and there is no way to distinguish the cancers from each other without watching them progress.

In the new study, researchers examined breast cancer rates in parts of Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom both before and after national screening programs begin. If mammograms are actually saving lives, then there should have been an increase in the number of aggressive breast cancer cases being diagnosed. Yet while the rate of cancer diagnosis did increase, there was no increase in diagnosis of the dangerous kind.

The researchers estimated that for 2,000 women who receive mammograms regularly over a 10-year period, one life will be saved and 10 women will be needlessly treated for cancer -- including chemotherapy, radiation and even breast removal.

"For too long, we've taken a brain-dead approach that says the best test is the one that finds the most cancers -- but that's wrong," Welch said. "The best test is the one that finds the right cancers and nothing else."

Sources for this story include: bulletin.aarp.org.

Suzanne Somers speaks out against the conventional cancer industry: mammograms, chemotherapy vs. alternative cures

(NaturalNews) As the author of the New York Times bestseller, "Knockout: Interviews with doctors who are curing cancer," Suzanne Somers is making waves across the cancer industry. Her powerful, inspired message of informed hope is reaching millions of readers who are learning about the many safe, effective options for treating cancer that exist outside the realm of the conventional cancer industry (chemotherapy, surgery and radiation).

Recently, Suzanne Somers spoke with NaturalNews editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, to share the inspiration for her new book Knockout. "People are just starving for some new information... for other options, for hope in [treating] cancer," she explained.

The full interview with Suzanne Somers is available as a downloadable MP3 file from NaturalNews.com: http://naturalnews.com/Index-Podcas...

In it, Somers explains why she's so concerned about the current course of the cancer industry:

"In 2010, cancer will be the biggest killer in the world. I fear for everybody walking into the present cancer protocol. It's going to make billions and billions of dollars for the industry, which is already a $200 billion-a-year business. It's going to bankrupt families. It causes expensive deaths. It emaciates people and they die anyway. Why not look into the options that are offered in Knockout? Why not look into Dr. Burzynski out of Houston? Why not look into Dr. Gonzalez in New York or Dr. Forsythe out of Nevada? [They] have a different protocol that doesn't require harsh chemicals or degrading the body."

In the interview, Suzanne also explains the limitations of chemotherapy and why the cancer industry has failed the people:

"There are only three kinds of cancer that respond to chemotherapy: Testicular cancer, childhood leukemia, some lymphomas including Non-Hodgkin's," she says. "For all of us who have raised money marching, going to black-tie fundraisers, we've thrown billions and billions of dollars at pharmaceutical companies and the FDA to find a cure, and it has failed. They do not have a cure."

Mammograms causing more harm than good

In the NaturalNews interview, Somers also discusses the problems with mammograms. When asked for her thoughts on the US government's sudden change in position that now says women under 50 should never receive mammograms, Somers explained:

"I have information so shocking in Knockout about mammograms that I have been reluctant on television to even bring it up, because to say anything negative about mammograms is going against the gold standard. So I was thrilled when I saw this report yesterday. Nobody's saying the real truth [about the harm caused by mammograms]. They don't want to open Pandora's Box ...you mean a lot of the women who faithfully had mammograms got their cancer from mammograms?"

What's in the "Knockout" book

Suzanne Somers' book presents a collection of interviews from leading doctors who have developed and now apply natural cancer therapies to patients, producing outstanding results. To gather information for her book, Somers explains, "I called doctors, I interviewed their patients, I talked to hundreds of people, I interviewed science writers, PhDs, neuroscientists, nutritionists... even the scientific advisory board of Life Extension."