Annals of Family Medicine published a study that highlights a major underreported harm of breast screening programs: trauma associated with a false positive diagnosis of breast cancer. Some women with false positive diagnosis even after 3 years of being declared cancer free were found to consistently report greater negative psychosocial consequences than those with normal findings in all 12 psychosocial outcomes.
Existential and psychosocial parameters affected were: anxiety, sense of dejections, behaviour, sleep, sexuality, degree of breast self examination, feeling of attractiveness, ability to stay focused and keep mind of things, worries about cancer, inner calm, social network, and existential values.
Reported changes were as great as those reported by women with diagnosis of breast cancer 6 months after final diagnosis among those with false positive findings. This could affect the health of millions, as cumulative probability of a false positive recall or biopsy recommendation after 10 years of mammography screening is around 50%.
Observed psychosocial and existential adverse effects are not just vaguely defined mental anguish, they translate into quantifiable dire physiological consequences. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine based on data from some 6 million participants aged 30+ found the risk of suicide to be 16 times higher, and risk of heart related death was 26.9 times higher during the first week following positive diagnosis versus a negative cancer diagnosis. Trauma of diagnosis can cause a physical wound that is very real to the person in a manner similar to the well known dialectic of the placebo and nocebo effects that are powerful and irrational operative processes.
Research indicates conventional screening processes carry health risks to the mind and body which may outweigh the dangers these surveillances are believe to responsible for mitigating. The New England Journal of Medicine published a study showing 1.3 million women were overdiagnosed and overtreated within the past 30 years, these false positive were not caught and resulted in unnecessary irradiation, surgery, and chemotherapy poisoning of 43,000 women each year. When this statistic of millions of false positives being caught resulting in trauma to these women is actually looked at this preventative screening looks more like a veritable nightmare of iatrogenesis.
Sadly this doesn’t take into account the radiobiological dangers of the X-ray mammography screening process in itself which could be causing an epidemic of unacknowledged radiation induced breast cancer within this exposed population. The British Journal of Radiobiology published a study revealing the type of radiation used in X-ray mammography screening is more carcinogenic than was believed, they are 4 times and as much as 6 times more effective in causing mutational damage higher than energy X-rays, implying that risks of radiation induced breast cancer from X-ray mammography is underestimated by the same factor.
Conventional breast cancer treatment protocols have also been found to contribute to enhance cancer malignancy and increase mortality; both radiation and chemotherapy appear to enrich cancer stem cell populations. The journal Cancer published a study showing even when radiation kills half of the tumour cells, the treated surviving cells are resistant to treatment known as iBCSCs, are 30 times more likely to form tumours than non-irradiated breast cancer cells. Basically treatment gives the false appearance of working but it is actually increasing the ratio of malignant to benign cells within the tumour which can eventually lead to death.
Clearly there is need for change in how we understand, screen, prevent, and treat cancer. The time has passed where natural medical advocates did not have peer reviewed evidence to back up their understanding of how to keep the body in good health and balance. Literally tens of thousands of abstracts and articles can be found in support of a return to the medical model where the alternative is synthetic and invasive, and the norm is non-invasive using foods as medicine along with herbs, minerals, vitamins, exercise and healthy lifestyle changes to maintain, promote and regain optimal health.
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