Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Acting White: Why Black Women Die of Breast Cancer

The wife of a friend recently died from breast cancer. That she has been in the US for over 20 years as a first generation immigrant from Liberia made me pause a little longer over this heartbreaking event. The breast cancer rate for Liberia is less than half of the US. It is sadly ironic that by coming to the US for a better life, this Liberian woman dramatically increased her chances of dying from breast cancer.

As the chart shows, the Liberian rate is approximately 40 incidences per thousand, while in the US it is 92 per thousand, more than double. So why the dramatic difference? When cancer rates are higher there are only two places to look, external and internal. There are many external causes for breast cancer but only one internal protection, our immune system. Working properly, it turns cancerous cells off, killing them and saving our lives. It has been doing this job in humanoids for millions of years.

Assuming no extraordinary exposure to carcinogenic substances, why would the internal protection system in a woman from Liberia breakdown, exposing her to high risk? The problem is sunlight, which is different in the US than in Liberia. The latitude of the US is higher, yielding significantly less sun intensity. Liberian skin is less suited for our reduced sun and the result is a compromised immune system and higher cancer rates, due to vitamin D3 deficiency. The solution is in a little pill, sold over-the-counter at pharmacies, which cost about $0.04. It is vitamin D3.

There are numerous studies (here) and (here) on the efficacy of D3 for all women, but the medical community is moving very slow, mostly because big pharmaceutical companies do not pay doctors to push non-prescription medicines that, by definition, are not proprietary and wildly profitable. The cancer industry, people who research cures, do not care about D3 because little research is needed, therefore billions do not need to be begged, and this would mean these people would have to find other things to do with their time.

So we wait, and women like the spouse of my friend suffer and die – needlessly. It's not just breast cancer, but all forms of internal cancers that exploit our D3-compromised immune systems, prostate, colon, et al. The search for a human-made cure for cancer could be called the great medical pipe-dream, as broken cell replication is an inevitable and infintiely randomized by-product of living. Our healthy immune system evolved over millions of years to halt cancer, only begging our rightful care and feeding to do its proper job.

James C. Collier

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14 comments:

Tyrone said...

Breast cancer and such tends to show up in older people more often than younger people. Isn't it possible that the reason there is less breast cancer in Liberia is because the life expectancy for a woman born there is a mere 40 years?

The median age for white(whatever that means) women to be diagnosed with breast cancer is 62, while for African American women the median age is around 57. Many Liberian women won't reach that age, and even if they did, is the medical community on top of things enough to diagnose properly?

James C. Collier said...

Tyrone, my stats say Liberian females get 52.5 years, and males 49.6. My sister was diagnosed at 50. We are in the ball park. The CDC says 42% of US Black women are D3 deficient and 17% are severely deficient, which is way significant, particularly during gestation.

James C. Collier said...

Tyrone, your Liberian expectancy numbers are probably better than mine, although typically these numbers would be age-adjusted to avoid this very problem. I'm checking.

Tyrone said...

Mr. Collier, I checked the CIA World Factbook for Liberian life expectancy. Not sure how often that is updated so your info might be more accurate than mine. The median age for breast cancer stats come from SEER.cancer.gov.
I have an aunt and a cousin that are victims of breast cancer. It would not surprise me to find a cover-up or simple non-acknowledgment of D3s "curative" properties by the medical community.

Anonymous said...

"It would not surprise me to find a cover-up or simple non-acknowledgment of D3s "curative" properties by the medical community."

Why? What does the "medical community" have to gain from hiding this?

James C. Collier said...

Anon 3:27, The cozy financial relationship between doctors and pharma would be highly challenged by a cheap, effective drug to battle cancer. Such a drug as D3 would displace a myriad of proprietary immune system emulators (chemo drugs) and have devastating financial impact on said providers. Any doc openly pushing D3 for fighting cancer is asking for a big-time hit in their wallet.

James C. Collier said...

Adding to this... high dosage D3 (50-100K IU doses), expensive by presription-only, is a choice therapy in fighting inoperable cancers when chemo and radiation are played out, and pharma loves its big-buck price tag.

Tyrone said...

Power.
Money.
Prestige.
Job Security.
The love of unquestioning sheople who think that their life would be worse without all these doctors.

The gov will officially spend $4.74 billion this year fighting cancer (NCI Budget), but will spend an additional $909 million through the NIH, $457 million through the Dept of Veteran's Affairs, and $249 million through the Pentagon. Not to mention the 7 or 8 billion that drug companies will spend on R&D. This has been going on since the '70s. Most of the cancer researchers out there would probably murder the one that found a cure.

Tyrone said...

err... sorry, that last one was for the anonymous fellow.

Anonymous said...

The search for a cure for cancer could be called the great hoax. Our healthy immune system is the cure...This conclusion seems a bit of an overreach. Regardless, I am sorry for your loss.

Anonymous said...

There are over a hundred cancers not one silver bullet. People are simply living too long.

Lita said...

is there not a massive gap with cancer rates between all richer countries and poorer countries? lifestyle choices too, difference in diets, chemicals in our diets, in our atmosphere; life expectancy (as previously mentioned). i don't say that D3 is not a factor, but there are masses of other acknowledged ones too.

James C. Collier said...

Lita, I agree there are a myriad of factors causing cancer, depending on who you are and where you live, but our immune system is the universal protection mechanism fueled in large part by our serum D levels; levels which are significantly deficient in blacks proportionate to their distance from the equator.

Lita said...

well the appearance of rickets in black and asian kids in the north of the UK is a very interesting phenomenon...