Ina called to ask if she could come to our house. She was so excited and wanted to share with us the “good” news after meeting her doctor.

Who is Ina?

She is our patient and also a friend. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2012, almost 3 years ago. She had a mastectomy but declined chemotherapy, radiotherapy and taking of Tamoxifen. Indeed a daring lady!

Ever since after her breast surgery to this day Ina had been under pressure from her doctor urging her to   go for follow up chemo and radiation. Ina flatly refused! Then the doctor insisted that at least she should take Tamoxifen!

Why was Ina so adamant in not wanting to follow her doctor’s advice?  

Before her breast cancer diagnosis, her mother had lung cancer.  She brought her mom to see us and was on the herbs. So Ina knew what the herbs could do! Compare that to her father who had suffered and died of cancer, at least mom was much better off with the herbs. Also, Ina (being a business woman) knows of many people who have cancer and how they suffered while undergoing chemotherapy! Some died.

Ina’s sister had lumps in her breast and had to undergo surgery a few times to remove these lumps. But after taking our herbs, she said “good bye” to her routine breast lump surgery!

Probably all these made Ina realised that there is “another way” for her.  She decided to “stick” with us.

Why was Ina so excited and wanting to see us?  

Two reasons. Reason number one — No sign of recurrence and right breast lumps were benign.

A few days before seeing her doctor, Ina came to see us. She felt a lump in her right breast. And this bothered her very much. It hurts when she lifted her right arm. As usual, our advice was, Don’t panic!  Go and see your doctor and do an USG. Find out what exactly it is. And then come back and we discuss what to do after that.  We cautioned her:  Of course, if it bothers you then have the lump removed. At the same time, do a full blood test.

Results of the blood test: 14 May 2015

Total WBC	4.2
Total RBC	4.0
Haemoglobin	12.1
Platelet count	192
ESR	7
Creatinine	66
Tumour markers
CA 125	9
CA 15.3	17.10
CA 19.9	16.66

USG of right breast: 14 May 2015

• Multiple right breast simple cysts, some of them containing inspissated fluid. The largest is a palpable lesion close to the areolar margin and at around 8 o’clock position measuring 31 mm.
• The second measures about 7.5 mm at 3 o’clock position.
• The others measure about 3 to 7 mm in sizes.
• No solid right breast mass seen.
• A benign right axillary lymph node seen measuring about 15 x 6 mm.

Based on the above report, Ina’s doctor said she is healthy and there is no cancer. Of course, like all patients, Ina was happy to hear such a positive comment. BUT, this good word was followed by a depressing statement. The doctor said, But you look thin. You must been following a special diet. No, go on and eat anything you like. Are you still on Chris Teo’s herbs?  Ina answered, YES, absolutely.

The doctor wanted to remove the big lump in her right breast. Right away, he scheduled a surgery for Wednesday — a few days away. Ina said she wanted to go home and think about it first.

When Ina told us about this, we reminded her that even before her cancer diagnosis, she already had 6 lumps in her right breast (only the lump in her left breast was malignant). It hurts when she lifted her right arm and the pain was along her bra line.

It hurts when you wear your bra? The answer is Yes. What if you don’t wear bra? Does it hurt? No! We suggest that Ina stop wearing her bra!

Another question we posed was, The doctor wanted to remove only one lump in the breast. What about the rest (5 others)? Wait for them to grow bigger and then do surgery again and again like her sister?

What if Ina were to take the herbs for breast lump for about 3 months and see what happens?

Indeed if we compare the two reports, we know that 3 years ago the largest cyst was already 2.9 cm. Perhaps this one has gown bigger. After our discussion Ina decided to defer her surgery!

Eat anything you like and grow fat!

What is most upsetting to Ina is her doctor’s insistence that she go ahead and eat anything she likes. He has been harping on this issue every time Ina went for her routine checkup (another more annoying and dangerous insistence is the need to undergo chemotherapy or taking Tamoxifen — another story to follow).

This is our message to all cancer patients

Diet plays a significant role in your healing of cancer. It plays a similar role in the recurrence of your cancer. Take care of your diet.

Is our advice on diet based on scientific evidence? Of course, there are thousands of papers in medical journals about this “sore and sick” topic on diet and cancer. What you need to do is just take time to read them. Get yourself educated. If you don’t have the time to read, at least take a few minutes to “listen” to what doctors themselves have got to say.

In this article, we asked you to look at the bigger picture. Is healing of cancer only about surgery, chemo, radiation or taking of Tamoxifen?

There is another point – make a google search using this phrase, wearing of tight bra and incidence of breast cancer. You will be surprised to find articles about this subject which your doctors may think it is just another “crazy” idea.

This is what I got after my google search.

In the “Bra and Breast Cancer Study” in the United States, it was discovered that women with breast cancer had a history of sporting tighter and longer bra-wearing than did the women who had not (yet) developed the disease. In fact, virtually all of the cancer group wore bras over 12 hours daily with 18% even sleeping with their bras which means they wore bras 24 hours daily. In contrast, the comparison groups had 25% of the women either bra-free or wearing bras less than 12 hours daily.  Only 3% of this group slept with their bras on. This study revealed a significant link between bras and breast cancer that is three times greater than the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer! http://www.health2us.com/bra.htm

Women everywhere are discovering that wearing bras can make their breasts droopy and stretched out, and also cause cysts, pain, and cancer. For some women, enough said. The bra goes. It was the first thing they took off after work, anyway. It was always so uncomfortable. And more women are becoming bra-free in the name of comfort and health. For other women, no way! The bra stays no matter what. The cancer detection and treatment industry loves these women. They want women to wear bras. With one million bras sold EACH DAY in the US alone, that’s a lot of women binding and constricting the health out of their breasts in the name of fashion. http://www.killerculture.com/breast-cancer-is-preventable/

As a breast cancer surgeon, I not infrequently have to deal with many of the common myths that have sprung up around breast cancer. Some are promoted by quacks; others are just myths that sound plausible but aren’t true … One such myth has been …. that wearing bras increases the risk of breast cancer is one of those unsinkable rubber ducks (as James Randi would put it) of a myth that just won’t die … It’s unclear where and how long ago this myth first appeared, but there’s little doubt on when it was first popularized: 1995. That was the year that a book by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer entitled Dressed to Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras was published. The central thesis of the book was that bra-wearing is a major cause of breast cancer because of its claimed effect on lymphatic circulation. Basically, the idea was (and still is) that bras interfered with lymphatic drainage and thereby, though unclear mechanisms, caused cancer. The claim was that there are all sorts of “toxins” (of course) that cause cancer and that the lymph vessels drain those “toxins” away from the breast. Thus, if you believe Singer and Grismaijer, these “toxins” are concentrated in the breast by the constriction that bras produce and result in breast cancer. https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/one-more-time-no-wearing-a-bra-does-not-cause-breast-cancer/

Okay, here we are again. Another great debate like diet and cancer! We leave it up to you to read more and find your own “truth”.

Ina said she had pains when lifting her arms because of her tight bra. She did not have this problem if she did not wear her bra. Our simple suggestion is, either wear a loose bra or don’t wear it at all! For the business minded, why not design a breast-cancer-friendly bra. That may probably cool down the debate a bit and at the same time may enrich your bank account!