Naturopathic Medicine meets Hi-Tech.

Today the startup that I work for Sharepractice http://sharepractice.com/ was featured in an article in Fast Company today.  Here is a link to the article http://www.fastcoexist.com/3028524/a-yelp-for-medicine-so-doctors-can-rate-whether-treatments-work   They did a good job succinctly explaining what our app does.  We allow medical professionals to rate treatments for efficacy including drugs, supplements, and procedures.

We are excited as our hard work is paying off and we are beginning to get high quality information from healthcare practitioners to other healthcare practitioners in a format that is easy to use.   Medical providers can check us out in the app store for iphone.  Check us out and put in some practice pearls!  Vote on your favorite treatments.  Tell us what you would like to see.  Dream big!

Bras contributing to breast cancer?

After my talk at the Dhyana Center last week there were some questions about whether bras contribute to breast cancer.  I have been researching it a bit and there does seem to be a link.  The theory is that bras (especially poorly fitting ones) constrict lymphatic flow in the breast to the axillary nodes in armpit.   http://www.inquisitr.com/1202191/your-bra-may-be-killing-you-scientists-call-for-boycott-of-komen/  This may be important because lymphatic flow traffics both toxins and white blood cells. 

Of note more breast cancers occur in the outer quadrant of the breast.  However some researchers do not attribute this to bras and deodorants, but to the fact that this quadrant has more tissue...  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15767185

Also of note many underarm deodorants contain parabens, substances that have estrogenic effects due to their ability to bind estrogen receptors.  Combine this with an antiperspirant and you no longer can excrete the toxins from your lymph via sweat. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12975767
I do think it is feasible to say that the combination of impaired lymph flow may contribute to breast cancer, be it via antiperspirants or bras.  Do they cause cancer in and of themselves?  Probably not.

Again, To get breast cancer 3 basic things have to happen:   1.You have to mutate key genes in the DNA that lead to uncontrolled cell growth. You have to have DNA repair mechanisms impaired.  2. You have to have growth promoters (hormones and xenoestrogens) so those cells can grow.  3.You have to have the immune system not function in getting to and killing these cells.  

Taking a look via a medical anthropologists lens, wearing a bra and deodorant is relatively new.. Roughly 2 generations out of 100,000+ years of human history.  Cultures that go bra and deodorantless have way less breast cancer (although that may be due to a multitude of other factors).   Here is a link to the book about bras and how they may contribute to cancerhttp://www.amazon.com/Dressed-To-Kill-between-Breast/dp/1930858051

In the end, I know it is a hard sell to recommend not wearing a bra, but to start I do recommend not wearing one at night.   I am not in favor of antiperspirants of any type and especially not ones with parabens or aluminum.

Keep the questions coming!

Breast Cancer Prevention

Breast Cancer Prevention is not getting a mammogram.  It is not getting your genes tested.  I am disappointed to see such things being touted as prevention on the major cancer society websites.  A few years ago Dr. Tierona Low Dog was speaking at a conference I was at and she said a very profound thing... "We'll never win the war on cancer until we agriculture and manufacturing at the table".  This blew me away.  Was she suggesting that how we live our lives, the things we make, the very things we eat may contribute to causing cancer?  It was the first time I heard it being openly spoken at a medical conference.  http://www.drlowdog.com/

Of course it does not take a PhD or MD to understand that our lifestyle is causing this.  I think most of us intuitively know this.  However, for those of us with advanced degrees, we must see proof.  That proof is here, to the tune of billions of dollars of research dollars.  Yet, the word is not getting out.  Doctors are not talking with patients (who has the time in a 15 min appointment) about these factors.  In many cases the medical system is complicit.  For most of my oncology patients, I am the only doctor to ask them why they think they got cancer.

I have decided to spend my time here in Sonoma county looking at the risk factors that have led Marin and Sonoma county to having the highest breast cancer rates in the world. http://www.zerobreastcancer.org/breast-cancer-in-marin  I think that the reasons may be due to the affluent lifestyle we enjoy here.   I intend to spend time speaking to patients and professionals about the factors and use real world solutions to mitigate these environmental factors.  

To get breast cancer 3 basic things have to happen:   1.You have to mutate key genes in the DNA that lead to uncontrolled cell growth. You have to have DNA repair mechanisms impaired.  2. You have to have growth promoters (hormones and xenoestrogens) so those cells can grow.  3.You have to have the immune system not function in killing these cells.   To resolve these issues we will have to take a look at the causes of 1,2, and 3 and have a real conversation about how those chemicals, radiation, hormones, and xenoestrogens got into our bodies.

Breast Cancer Prevention is addressing the actual factors that cause breast cancer.  It is actually addressing the environmental degradation that has led to the ever increasing toxic molecules in the air, water, and earth.  It is addressing the economic and political factors that allow such things to occur.  It is conducting research as to how xenoestrogenic compounds get into our bodies and how to get them out.   Please come to one of my talks on Breast Cancer Prevention or schedule one for more information.   See also Events and Resources on my website www.drchrisholder.com

More to come... Who is with me?

Gifts of Life. Embrace of Death. What is in between?

I am not at war with death, I embrace death.  An awkward statement to make by one who is in the medical profession.  Healing does not require life to continue unendingly.  It merely requires us to accept the gift of life in a body and accept the gift of the death of that body.  Life is a cycle of gifts.  The sun gifts us light.  The plants gift us photosynthesis and with that a plethora of unique life giving substances via fruits, vegetables, building materials, and healing compounds.  Animals gift us our lives so that we may live.  May we too gift our lives so the earth may live. I wish to make the fruits of my life a gift so others may live.  To do so I must embrace life and ultimately death.  My ceasing to exist allows for new ones to bring forth their gifts.   Often our attempts to avoid death are a great boon to the economy, yet ultimately will fail.  Death comes for us all.

All of these things in the natural world are given to us.  Yet increasingly our lives are taken over by a commoditization of everything.   Humans have figured out how to charge for everything... even yoga :)  Increasingly our lives are spent “making money” and servicing the unending debt that is required to have a “normal” life in this society.  As a descendant of slaves, I am troubled to look at my life and see the multitude of ways that I am still a slave.  I love Bob Marley’s lyrics “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds... Have no fear for atomic energy..”  Must have struck a chord as “Redemption Song” has over 29 million hits on You Tube.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFGgbT_VasI&feature=kp


In attempting to emancipate myself I ran across the book “Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in an Age of Transition”  by Charles Eisenstein.  I started it on my plane ride this morning up to Seattle and have been unable to put it down.  I am especially excited as his book promises to offer tangible solutions, not just trash on the problems with the status quo.  I look forward to hearing his thoughts and solutions... Check it out.  http://charleseisenstein.net/project/sacred-economics/
http://sacred-economics.com/film/

This exploration has lead to a newfound purpose in my life.  In the time between my birth and death, I will strive for two things:  Helping others heal themselves and the planet, and helping others emancipate themselves from financial slavery...  May our lives be a great gift to the whole.  Here’s to a great adventure! 

Gratitude

Be grateful for this life, your one beautiful life in this body.  Be gentle with yourself and with others.  Life is too short to waste on that which is not lasting, true, and beautiful.  Grieve sweetly, love fully.  Hold each other.

I am grateful for my life, its trials, tribulations, elations.  I thank all my exes for tough love, my sisters for tougher love.  I am grateful for my teachers, for my my path.  I am grateful for joy.  I am grateful for pain. 

I am grateful for my sweet love Jen... How did I get so lucky?  I am grateful for nature and all it provides.  I am grateful for emotions and how they get trapped and expressed in my body.

I am grateful for music, musicians, sirens, and audiophiles.   I am grateful for Nina Simone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUcXI2BIUOQ.

I am grateful for ted talks http://www.ted.com/talks/louie_schwartzberg_nature_beauty_gratitude.html  

I am grateful for gratitude.  http://www.ted.com/talks/david_steindl_rast_want_to_be_happy_be_grateful.html

I am grateful for you.