OMNS (December 17, 2023) Breast cancer causes enormous morbidity and mortality around the world, and its traditional treatment, along with the relentless progression of the disease, greatly impacts the quality of life for both patients and their families. This cancer basically targets just women, as only a relatively minimal number of cases occur in men (roughly 1%). [1] Yet, despite its predilection for women, breast cancer is still the most common of malignancies (aside from non-melanoma skin cancers) statistically in the overall population. It continues to be the leading cause of cancer deaths across the planet. [2]
Redox Biology and Toxins
Reduction and oxidation basically refer to the movement of electrons between molecules. When a normal biomolecule with a normal electron content is depleted of one or more electrons, it becomes oxidized. And when that oxidized biomolecule can regain the lost electron(s), it returns to a normal, reduced chemical state. A reduced biomolecule functions normally, while an oxidized biomolecule either partially or completely loses its normal chemical/biological function. More oxidized biomolecules result in the accumulation of largely metabolically inert agents that only occupy space, interfering with normal chemical reactions and no longer directly supporting normal biological function. Examples of biomolecules include sugars, fats, proteins, enzymes, nucleic acids, and structural molecules.
Redox (reduction-oxidation) biology is based on the concept that all biological health is directly due to the degree of reduction versus oxidation in the biomolecules throughout the body. Higher reduction/oxidation ratios indicate good cellular health. This has led to the frequent use of the term "oxidative stress" as the premier biomarker and measuring stick of all disease.
Widely discussed in the medical and scientific literature, increased oxidative stress, or the excess presence of oxidized biomolecules, is always the primary pathophysiology of any disease under consideration. [3,4] It is characterized by a relatively low antioxidant presence and/or an increased pro-oxidant presence. At the cellular level, all diseases or medical conditions have increased oxidative stress in the cells of the affected organs or tissues. The extracellular areas are often involved as well. As pathology cannot exist in the absence of excess oxidation, there are no exceptions to this premise.
All toxins damage by directly or indirectly causing the oxidation of important biomolecules. Oxidation is the chemical process of giving up, or losing, one or more electrons to an electron-robbing toxin (pro-oxidant) that never surrenders that electron back to an oxidized biomolecule once it is acquired. Unless an agent results in the oxidation of biomolecules in the body along with the permanent retention of the electrons it has taken, it is not toxic, and it cannot be toxic. Clinical toxicity and any symptoms of toxicity cannot exist in the absence of excess oxidized biomolecules.
As excess oxidation is the basis of all disease, it logically follows that all cancers, either in the breast or elsewhere, result from excessively and chronically elevated oxidative stress at the affected tissue site. This elevated oxidative stress is always secondary to electron-depleted toxins, also known as pro-oxidants, poisons, free radicals, reactive oxygen species, or oxidizing agents.
This leads to the following two questions:
What is the source of the toxins in breast cancer, and
What is causing them to excessively accumulate?
Breast Cancer Pathophysiology
All chronic degenerative diseases, including cancer, only arise when an area of affected tissue becomes substantially inflamed and remains that way. Phrased differently, the areas in the body that have exceptionally increased and chronic oxidative stress are the areas where malignant transformation eventually takes place. Lesser degrees of increased oxidative stress, depending on their location, underlie the development and maintenance of all non-malignant diseases as well. But the highest chronic elevations of oxidative stress, both intracellularly and extracellularly, are the reasons for the initiation and evolution of cancerous growth. No cancer has ever developed in an area that was not already inflamed. While a cancer can metastatically seed abnormal cells in a previously normal tissue site, the primary cancer focus will never be initiated in normal, uninflamed tissue.
A prolonged and sizeable presence of toxins always precedes the development of cancer in the affected areas of the breast. These toxins are produced by slow-growing pathogens (colonizations), and the pathogens themselves will often be found at the cancer site as well. But toxins (highly pro-oxidant molecules) must always be present in order to provoke and sustain a state of chronic inflammation and excess oxidation.
The amount of time that such a toxin/pathogen accumulation needs to be present before a cancer develops is highly variable. Some women with exceptionally strong immune systems, high antioxidant intake, and a relatively lesser degree of toxin/pathogen presence may never demonstrate malignant transformation. Of note, benign breast lumps and other forms of breast pathology result from lesser degrees of toxin exposure.
No pathology of any kind can develop when a tissue has intracellular and extracellular levels of oxidation that are physiological in degree (from normal metabolism). Only increased levels of oxidation can result in pathology. And only extremely increased levels of oxidation result in the appearance of cancer.
In addition to a blood circulation, the body has a lymphatic circulation as well. This circulation moves lymph, the plasma-like extracellular fluid bathing the cells throughout the body, into the venous blood circulation. Under normal circumstances, this lymph flow is one-way only in the direction needed to reach the blood. [5] The primary role of the lymphatic circulation is to provide an outlet for cellular waste products, excess water, and toxins, as well as to support an immune defense against pathogens. [6] It also periodically condenses into focal bodies known as the lymph nodes.
These lymph nodes, of which there are about 500 to 600 in the body, work to concentrate B- and T-lymphocytes needed to combat the infectious agents that are encountered, such that the lymph itself is rendered sterile by the time it leaves the lymph nodes and reaches the blood. [7,8] When draining a large enough source of infection, such lymph nodes will readily enlarge and become sore where they can be felt (palpated), such as in the neck, armpits, or groin areas. Once the processed lymph finally reaches the blood circulation, multiple ways of metabolizing and excreting the remaining non-infective extracellular debris are then available.
The breasts have an extensive lymphatic circulation, and much of its lymph comes from drainage of the head and neck. A portion of the breast lymph subsequently flows into a large collecting vessel (thoracic duct), which then empties into the venous circulation. The rest of it first flows into the extensive lymphatic network in the armpits before eventually reaching the thoracic duct and the blood.
The lymphatic vessels have a limited ability to contract and promote a one-way flow of lymph. [9] However, this lymphatic movement can be slowed, stopped, or even reversed in direction by the presence of sufficient inflammation and structural damage in the tissue being drained. When there is sufficient impairment of normal lymphatic flow, tissue swelling (lymphedema) can result.
In the breast, this impairment of lymphatic drainage can result from either the chronic inflammation in the cancerous tissue, or much more commonly, following the surgical removal of cancer-laden axillary lymph nodes draining the breast. [10,11] The fewer draining lymphatic pathways available, the more likely lymph flow will slow enough to accumulate. Together, both situations result in about 20% of women with breast cancer eventually developing arm swelling due to the back-up of lymph. [12,13]
Root Canals Cause Breast Cancer
- Frequently
by Dr. Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD