Prof. Jane Plant: Respected Scientist Tells of Remarkable Breast Cancer Cure

[Guest guest]

of. Jane Plant: Respected Scientist Tells of Remarkable Breast

Cancer Cure

JoAnn Guest

Jan 06, 2004 17:52 PST

 

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Prof. Jane Plant: Respected Scientist Tells of Remarkable Breast

Cancer Cure

1.24.00

 

http://members.tripod.co.uk/AllThingsChildren/MilkCancer.htm

 

Daily Mail, Monday, May 27, 2000 Prof. Jane Plant, PhD, CBE

[ http://www.litopia.com/jplant/bio.htm ]

Why I believe that giving up milk is the key to beating breast cancer

 

 

Professor Jane Plant is a wife, a mother, and widely respected

scientist, who was made a CBE for her work in geochemistry. When she

was struck by breast cancer in 1987 at the age of 42, her happy and

productive existence seemed destined to fall apart. But despite the

disease recurring a further four times, Jane refused to give in. As

she describes in an inspiring new book, [Your Life In Your Hands]

serialised by the Mail this week, she devised a revolutionary diet

and lifestyle programme that she believes saved her life and can cut

the chances of other women falling prey to the disease.

 

Her theory remains a controversial one - but every woman should

read it and make up her own mind. Today, she explains her personal

breakthrough...

 

I had no alternative but to die or to try to find a cure for myself.

I am a scientist - surely there was a rational explanation for this

cruel illness that affects one in 12 women in the UK?

 

I had suffered the loss of one breast, and undergone radiotherapy. I

was now receiving painful chemotherapy, and had been seen by some of

the country's most eminent specialists. But, deep down, I felt

certain I was facing death.

 

I had a loving husband, a beautiful home and two young children to

care for. I desperately wanted to live. Fortunately, this desire

drove me to unearth the facts, some of which were known only to a

handful of scientists at the time.

 

Anyone who has come into contact with breast cancer will know that

certain risk factors - such as increasing age, early onset of

womanhood, late onset of menopause and a family history of breast

cancer - are completely out of our control. But there are many risk

factors, which we can control easily. These 'controllable' risk

factors readily translate into simple changes that we can all make

in our day-to-day lives to help prevent or treat breast cancer. My

message is that even advanced breast cancer can be overcome because

I have done it.

 

The first clue to understanding what was promoting my breast cancer

came when my husband Peter, who was also a scientist, arrived back

from working in China while I was being plugged in for a

chemotherapy session.

 

He had brought with him cards and letters, as well as some amazing

herbal suppositories, sent by my friends and science colleagues in

China.

 

The suppositories were sent to me as a cure for breast cancer.

Despite the awfulness of the situation, we both had a good belly

laugh, and I remember saying that this was the treatment for breast

cancer in China, then it was little wonder that Chinese women

avoided getting the disease. Those words echoed in my mind. Why

didn't Chinese women get breast cancer? I had collaborated once with

Chinese colleagues on a study of links between soil chemistry and

disease, and I remembered some of the statistics.

 

The disease was virtually non-existent throughout the whole country.

Only one in 10,000 women in China will die from it, compared to that

terrible figure of one in 12 in Britain and the even grimmer average

of one in 10 across most Western countries.

 

It is not just a matter of China being a more rural country, with

less urban pollution. In highly urbanised Hong Kong, the rate rises

to 34 women in every 10,000 but still puts the West to shame.

 

The Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have similar rates.

And remember, both cities were attacked with nuclear weapons, so in

addition to the usual pollution-related cancers, one would also

expect to find some radiation-related cases, too. The conclusion we

can draw from these statistics strikes you with some force. If a

Western woman were to move to industrialized, irradiated Hiroshima,

she would stash her risk of contracting breast cancer by half.

 

Obviously this is absurd. It seemed obvious to me that some

lifestyle factor not related to pollution, urbanization or the

environment is seriously increasing the Western woman's chance of

contracting breast cancer.

 

I then discovered that whatever causes the huge differences in

breast cancer rates between oriental and Western countries, it isn't

genetic. Scientific research showed that when Chinese or Japanese

people move to the West, within one or two generations their rates

of breast cancer approach those of their host community.

 

The same thing happens when oriental people adopt a completely

Western lifestyle in Hong Kong. In fact, the slang name for breast

cancer in China translates as 'Rich Woman's Disease'. This is

because, in China, only the better off can afford to eat what is

termed 'Hong Kong food'.

 

The Chinese describe all Western food, including everything from ice

cream and chocolate bars to spaghetti and feta cheese, as 'Hong Kong

food', because of its availability in the former British colony and

its scarcity, in the past, in mainland China.

 

So it made perfect sense to me that whatever was causing my breast

cancer and the shockingly high incidence in this country generally,

it was almost certainly something to do with our better-off, middle-

class, Western lifestyle.

 

There is an important point for men here, too. I have observed in my

research that much of the the data about prostate cancer leads to

similar conclusions.

 

According to figures from the World Health Organization, the number

of men contracting prostate cancer in rural China is negligible,

only 0.5 men in every 100,000. In England, Scotland and Wales,

however, this figure is 70 times higher.

 

Like breast cancer, it is a middle-class disease that primarily

attacks the wealthier and higher socio-economic groups - those that

can afford to eat rich foods.

 

I remember saying to my husband-- 'Come on Peter, you have just come

back from China. What is it about the Chinese way of life that is so

different. Why don't they get breast cancer?'

 

We decided to utilize our joint scientific backgrounds and approach

it logically. We examined scientific data that pointed us in the

general direction of fats in diets.

 

Researchers had discovered in the 1980s that only l4 % of calories

in the average Chinese diet were from fat, compared to almost 36% in

the West. But the diet I had been living on for years before I

contracted breast cancer was very low in fat and high in fibre.

 

Besides, I knew as a scientist that fat intake in adults has not

been shown to increase risk for breast cancer in most investigations

that have followed large groups of women for up to a dozen years.

 

Then one day something rather special happened. Peter and I have

worked together so closely over the years that I am not sure which

one of us first said: 'The Chinese don't eat dairy produce!'

 

It is hard to explain to a non-scientist the sudden mental and

emotional 'buzz' you get when you know you have had an important

insight.

 

It's as if you have had a lot of pieces of a jigsaw in your mind,

and suddenly, in a few seconds, they all fall into place and the

whole picture is clear.

 

Suddenly I recalled how many Chinese people were physically unable

to tolerate milk, how the Chinese people I had worked with had

always said that milk was only for babies, and how one of my close

friends, who is of Chinese origin, always politely turned down the

cheese course at dinner parties.

 

I knew of no Chinese people who lived a traditional Chinese life who

ever used cow or other dairy food to feed their babies. The

tradition was to use a wet nurse but never, ever, dairy products.

 

Culturally, the Chinese find our Western preoccupation with milk and

milk products very strange. I remember entertaining a large

delegation of Chinese scientists shortly after the ending of the

Cultural Revolution in the 1980s.

 

On advice from the Foreign Office, we had asked the caterer to

provide a pudding that contained a lot of ice cream. After inquiring

what the pudding consisted of, all of the Chinese, including their

interpreter, politely but firmly refused to eat it, and they could

not be persuaded to change their minds. At the time we were all

delighted and ate extra portions!

 

Milk, I discovered, is one of the most common causes of food

allergies.

 

Over 70% of the world's population are unable to digest the milk

sugar, lactose, which has led nutritionists to believe that this is

the normal condition for adults, not some sort of deficiency.

Perhaps nature is trying to tell us that we are eating the wrong

food.

 

Before I had breast cancer for the first time, I had eaten a lot of

dairy produce, such as skimmed milk, low-fat cheese and yoghurt. I

had used it as my main source of protein. I also ate cheap but lean

minced beef, which I now realized was probably often ground-up dairy

cow.

 

In order to cope with the chemotherapy I received for my fifth case

of cancer, I had been eating organic yoghurts as a way of helping my

digestive tract to recover and repopulate my gut with 'good'

bacteria.

 

Recently, I discovered that way back in 1989 yoghurt had been

implicated in ovarian cancer. Dr Daniel Cramer of Harvard University

studied hundreds of women with ovarian cancer, and had them record

in detail what they normally ate. I wish I'd been made aware of his

findings when he had first discovered them.

 

Following Peter's and my insight into the Chinese diet, I decided to

give up not just yoghurt but all dairy produce immediately. Cheese,

butter, milk and yoghurt and anything else that contained dairy

produce - it went down the sink or in the rubbish.

 

It is surprising how many products, including commercial soups,

biscuits and cakes, contain some form of dairy produce. Even many

proprietary brands of margarine marketed as soya, sunflower or olive

oil spreads can contain dairy produce. I therefore became an avid

reader of the small print on food labels.

 

Up to this point, I had been steadfastly measuring the progress of

my fifth cancerous lump with callipers and plotting the results.

Despite all the encouraging comments and positive feedback from my

doctors and nurses, my own precise observations told me the bitter

truth.

 

My first chemotherapy sessions had produced no effect - the lump

was still the same size.

 

Then I eliminated dairy products. Within days, the lump started to

shrink. About two weeks after my second chemotherapy session and

one week after giving up dairy produce, the lump in my neck started

to itch. Then it began to soften and to reduce in size. The line on

the graph, which had shown no change, was now pointing downwards as

the tumour got smaller and smaller.

 

And, very significantly, I noted that instead of declining

exponentially (a graceful curve) as cancer is meant to do, the

tumour's decrease in size was plotted on a straight line heading off

the bottom of the graph, indicating a cure, not suppression (or

remission) of the tumour.

 

One Saturday afternoon after about six weeks of excluding all dairy

produce from my diet, I practised an hour of meditation then felt

for what was left of the lump. I couldn't find it.

 

Yet I was very experienced at detecting cancerous lumps - I had

discovered all five cancers on my own. I went downstairs and asked

my husband to feel my neck. He could not find any trace of the lump

either.

 

On the following Thursday I was due to be seen by my cancer

specialist at Charing Cross Hospital in London.

 

He examined me thoroughly, especially my neck where the tumour had

been. He was initially bemused and then delighted as he said, " I

cannot find it.' None of my doctors, it appeared, had expected

someone with my type and stage of cancer (which had clearly spread

to the lymph system) to survive, let alone be so hale and hearty.

 

My specialist was as overjoyed as I was. When I first discussed my

ideas with him he was understandably skeptical. But I understand

that he now uses maps showing cancer mortality in China in his

lectures, and recommends a non-dairy diet to his cancer patients.

 

I now believe that the link between dairy produce and breast cancer

is similar to the link between smoking and lung cancer. I believe

that identifying the link between breast cancer and dairy produce,

and then developing a diet specifically targeted at maintaining the

health of my breast and hormone system, cured me.

 

It was difficult for me, as it may be for you, to accept that a

substance as 'natural' as milk might have such ominous health

implications. But I am a living proof that it works and, starting

from tomorrow, I shall reveal the secrets of my revolutionary action

plan.

 

Extracted from Your Life in Your Hands, by Professor Jane Plant, to

be published by Virgin on June 8 at £16.99. © Professor Jane Plant,

2000.

 

 

 

Evidence that reveals the dangers lurking in a pinta

 

Jane Plant's conviction that dairy products can cause cancer arises

from the complex chemical makeup of milk. All mature breast milk,

from humans or other mammals, is a medium for transporting hundreds

of chemical components.

 

It is a powerful biochemical solution, designed specifically to

provide for the individual needs of young mammals of the same

species. Jane says: " It is not that cow's milk isn't a good food. It

is a great food- for baby cows. It is not intended by nature for

consumption by any species other than baby cows. It is

nutritionally different from human breast milk, containing three

times as much protein and far more calcium.'

 

Breast milk, like cow's milk, contains chemicals designed to play an

important rote in the development of young cattle. One of these,

insulin growth factor IGF-1,causes cells to divide and reproduce.

 

IGF-1 is biologically active in humans, especially during puberty,

when growth is rapid. In young girls it stimulates breast tissue to

grow and, while its levels are high during pregnancy, the hormones

prolactin and oestrogen are also active, enlarging breast tissue and

increasing the production of milk ducts in preparation for breast-

feeding.

 

Though the concentration and secretions of these hormones in the

blood are small, they exert a powerful effect on the body. All these

hormones are present in cow's milk. IGF-1 is identical in make-up,

whether in human or cow's milk, but its levels are naturally higher

in cow's milk. It is also found in the meat of cows.

 

High levels of IGF-1 in humans are thought to be a risk factor for

breast and prostate cancer. A 1998 study of pre-menopausal women

revealed that those with the highest levels of IGF-1 in their

bloodstream ran almost three times the risk of developing breast

cancer compared with women who had low levels. Among women younger

than 50, the risk was increased seven times.

 

Other studies have shown that high circulating levels of IGF-1 In

men are a strong indicator of prostate cancer. Interestingly, recent

measures to improve milk yields have boosted IGF-1 levels in cows.

Could IGF-1 from milk and the meat of dairy animals cause a build-up

in humans, especially over a lifetime, leading to inappropriate cell

division? Though we produce our own IGF-1, could it be that the

extra amounts we ingest from dairy produce actually cause cancer?

 

Jane Plant already knew that one way the high-profile drug

tamoxifen, used in the treatment of breast cancer, is thought to

work by lowering circulating levels of IGF-1.

 

IGF-1 is not destroyed by pasteurization, but critics argue that it

is destroyed by digestion

and rendered harmless. Jane believes the main milk protein, casein,

prevents this from happening and that homogenization, which prevents

milk from separating into milk and cream, could further increase the

risk of cancer-promoting hormones and other chemicals reaching the

bloodstream.

 

She also believes there are other chemicals in cow's milk that may

be responsible for

sending muddied signals to adult tissue. Could prolactin, released

to stimulate milk production in cows, have a similar effect on human

breast tissue, effectively triggering the same response and causing

cells to become confused, stressed and start making mistakes in

replicating their own DNA? Studies have confirmed that prolactin

promotes the growth of prostate cancer cells in culture.

 

Another hormone, oestrogen, considered one of the main risk factors

for breast cancer, is present in milk in minute quantities. But even

low levels of hormones are known to cause severe biological damage.

Microscopic quantities of oestrogen in our rivers are powerful

enough to cause the feminisation of many male species of fish. While

oestrogen in milk may not pose a direct threat to tissues, it may

stimulate the expression of IGF-1, resulting in long-term tumour

growth.

 

Jane, who has found growing support for her theories from cancer

specialists, stresses

that she is not setting out to attack more orthodox approaches. She

intends her dietary programme to complement the best therapies

available from conventional medicine, not to replace them.

 

Pure but deadly: Is milk potentially fatal?

******************************************************

 

http://www.ostomyinternational.org/June2000/1124.html

Dairy-free diet and breast/colon cancer

[ IOA Archived Discussion Forum May 2000 ]

Posted By Leslie Dungan on June 19, 2000 at 17:40:01:

The following review appeared last week in the Irish Times.

 

Has anyone out there opinions or experiences relevant to Prof

Plant's approach? British scientist Jane Plant, who believes a dairy-

free diet helped her recover from breast cancer, talks to Katie

Donovan

 

Tempted by a cream bun, you talk yourself out of it with thoughts of

all that unhealthy fat clogging up your arteries. You opt for a low-

fat yoghurt instead, with skimmed milk in your tea, congratulating

yourself on your sensible self-control. Think again. According to a

ground-breaking new book about breast cancer (which kills over 600

women in Ireland annually), dairy products, whether low-fat or full

cream, should be off everyone's menu overnight. (They are also

culpable with regard to prostate cancer, so that really means

everyone).

 

Prof Jane Plant CBE, author of Your Life in Your Hands, was

diagnosed with breast cancer 13 years ago. She was 42, a successful

geochemist (she is now chief scientist of the British Geological

Survey), and led, she thought, a healthy life. There was no history

of breast cancer in her family. She discovered that " only five to 10

per cent of breast cancers are the result of inherited genes, and

the disease may not always develop, even in those carrying the

mutated gene. " Bamboozled by jargon and frozen with panic, she fell

back on her scientific training to try and figure out how she had

developed the disease, and how best to cure herself.

 

She went on the Bristol diet, she had a mastectomy, she had

radiotherapy, she had her ovaries irradiated (to induce menopause

and eliminate oestrogen), she asked questions and did lots of

research. To no avail.

 

By the time of the cancer's fifth recurrence (it spread into the

lymph), she was given a course of chemotherapy and three months to

live. She had an egg-sized tumour on the side of her neck.

 

Brainstorming one night with her fellow scientist husband about why,

in the West, one in 10 women get breast cancer (one in 14 in

Ireland), while in China it's only one woman in 10,000, the pair

came up with the simple answer: Chinese people don't eat dairy

products.

 

Plant eliminated all dairy products (including goat and sheep) from

her diet. Six weeks later, the tumour had disappeared.

 

When I meet her she is a youthful-looking woman in her mid-fifties,

quaffing mint tea and eating a tuna sandwich (no butter or

mayonnaise). She has stayed on her dairy-free diet and has remained

clear of cancer.

 

Giving up dairy products was only part of a healthy regimen she had

been following throughout her cancer, including taking folic acid

and zinc supplements, drinking filtered water and never consuming

anything that had been packaged in plastic (phthalates, harmful

carcinogenic chemicals, leak from soft plastic into food).

 

In spite of her best efforts it was only after she gave up all dairy

products that the cancer disappeared. Sixty-three other women who

had breast cancer and who came to her for advice, also recovered

after giving up dairy products.

 

So how, I ask, can dairy products-- beloved of both the Irish and

British alike, not to mention the Americans whose diet is 40 per

cent dairy-- have such a lethal effect? " Milk is designed as the

perfect food for newborn animals. They can't eat ordinary food, they

are dependent on milk to keep development and cell differentiation

going. But milk contains a chemical-- insulin-like growth factor, or

IGF-1 -- which girls have naturally as teenagers

to help their breasts develop. This chemical-- which is designed to

stimulate cell growth-- can send the wrong signal to adult breast

tissue. "

 

She quotes studies in the US and Canada in 1998 which found that pre-

menopausal women with the highest IGF-1 concentration in their blood

had a far higher risk of developing breast cancer (similar studies

have found a link between IGF-1 and prostate cancer). The drug

Tamoxifen, prescribed for women with breast cancer, is thought to

work by reducing circulating IGF-1 levels.

 

" Over 70 per cent of the world's population are unable to digest the

milk sugar, lactose, " she observes. " Lactose intolerance may be

nature's early warning system: perhaps nature is trying to tell us

that we're eating the wrong food. " Homogenization apparently only

enables cancer-producing chemicals to reach the bloodstream quicker.

 

Plant has done her homework: " Epidemiological studies have indicated

a positive correlation between dairy product consumption and breast

cancer risk going back two decades. Studies have found an increase

in breast cancer risk among women who consumed milk (especially

whole milk) and/or cheese. "

 

In 1977 scientists examining the incidence of breast cancer in Japan

found " a significant increase in both the consumption of dairy

products and the occurrence of breast cancer in urban areas " .

 

She quotes more research to suggest that " free oestrogens " -- found

in commercial pasteurized whole cow's milk and in skimmed milk-- may

stimulate expression of IGF-1 resulting in " indirect long-term

tumour growth " .

 

She lists dioxins and other damaging environmental chemicals, some

of them carcinogenic, which are often fat soluble and end

up " particularly concentrated " in milk.

 

As for the argument that we need dairy products because they contain

calcium, Plant quotes the World Health Organization's finding that

countries which have low intakes of calcium do not have an increased

incidence of osteoporosis: " Scientific studies into calcium

absorption have shown that only 18 to 36 per cent of the calcium in

milk is taken up by the body. "

 

Now that we're convinced, what should we be eating instead? Plant

recommends soya milk, herbal tea, humous, tofu, nuts and seeds, non-

farmed fish, organic eggs and lean meat (not minced beef, which

tends to be dairy cow) and plenty of fresh organic fruit and

vegetables (in salads, juiced, or lightly steamed).

 

But how can the average woman afford the time and energy it takes to

source and prepare such food? " Your priority should be good food,

not glop, " she stresses. " Put organic food first. Your health is

more important than a new car. Anyway, I don't find it too costly--

after all, I don't buy any processed food, which is very expensive. "

 

Her husband and two children have no problem following her diet. And

although she travels a lot for her job, she finds that she is able

to manage-- she includes many tips in her book about what to bring

with you on a trip (dried soya milk, herbal tea bags, kelp tablets

for iodine, etc).

 

She is about to start writing a new book, a guide for busy women who

want to stay healthy.

 

She advocates thorough and frequent self-examination of your

breasts, and, if you do develop breast cancer, self-empowerment by

working with your doctor " as a partner,

not as a victim " .

 

She is not a fan of the Louise Hay You Can Heal Your Life

philosophy: " I do believe in positive thinking, but I'm also a

scientist and I wanted a rational explanation. I have friends with

diseases like MS who have read Hay's books and feel guilty because

they can't adapt their mental attitude; or, if they have adapted,

and the disease doesn't go away, they become distressed. "

 

Plant, who is an advocate of acupuncture, has varying opinions of

alternative therapies. She is suspicious of aromatherapy, found

visualization didn't work, but took much comfort from cognitive

therapy and hypnotherapy (both of which helped her to reduce the

stress and anxiety caused by having cancer).

 

Overall, however, it was her professional research as a geochemist

into the links between disease and trace elements (such as selenium)

in the environment in China and Korea that led to her insight about

the role of dairy produce in her cancer. She finds the medical

profession particularly shortsighted about the influence of

environmental factors-- such as pollution and industrialization-- on

disease: " I think public health has done a lot for the elimination

of infectious diseases, but looking at the environment and nutrition

could do the same for a lot of degenerative diseases. "

 

Plant started writing Your Life in Your Hands for her daughter Emma

(now 25). Emma's teen years were dominated by the fear that her

mother was going to die: " The book's original title was What I Want

My Daughter to Know, " recalls Plant. " The 63 women with breast

cancer who followed my diet and survived their cancer encouraged me

to publish the book. I was reluctant at first-- I knew I'd get flak

for it, because science is an

adversarial process.

 

But morally, I felt if I had done the research and I had the

information, I should share it with others. Men and women have the

right to know what I know, and to draw their own

conclusions. "

 

Your Life in Your Hands by Jane Plant is published by Virgin at

£16.99 in UK

 

Leslie Dungan, Dublin

*******************************************************

 

 

http://www.litopia.com/jplant/

 

Welcome to BCUP's website

Breast Cancer Understanding & Prevention (BCUP)

 

BCUP is the foundation established by Professor Jane Plant CBE to

promote more widespread understanding of the insights into the

causes of breast cancer as first described in her book " Your Life In

Your Hands " , published in Britain by Virgin Publishing Ltd. BCUP is

currently in the process of acquiring charitable status in the UK.

 

Professor Jane Plant is one of Britain's most distinguished female

scientists. She has won many scientific honors, and last year was

presented with British science's highest award

-- the Lord Kilgerran Prize.

http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/Lnotmilk6.htm

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjoguest

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets.html