Am young, had breast cancer, have high cholesterol--help!

September 2, 2004

I have a problem I'm hoping someone can help me with. Any insight, personal

stories

or reliable websites would be most appreciative!

I'm a 32 year old woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago. I

underwent a lumpectomy, chemo and radiation, and then I was on tamoxifen and

zoladex (a monthly abdominal injection to severely decrease production of

estrogen--yes, that means menopause) for 2 1/2 years. Several months ago I

" quit "

tamoxifen when I became disturbed at all the possible long-term damage I was

doing

to my body (for example, tamoxifen may reduce the risk of recurrence of breast

cancer by 44%, but it increases the risk of uterine cancer by 243%; that plus

the fact

that it is on the government of California's list of known carcinogens!).

Anyway, in the last 3 or 4 months I've gone completely organic, cut out sugar

and

processed foods, take cod liver oil and many other natural supplements, and

excercise daily. I'm feeling pretty damn good (bye-bye menopause! Well, until

I'm

50...), but today my doctor phoned to tell me my cholesterol is too high! I

don't

understand. The numbers are: total: 290/ LDL: 201/ HDL:77. She wants me to " go

on

a low-cholesterol diet and exercise " (??!! isn't that what I've been doing?),

and if that

doesn't work she wants to prescribe low-cholesterol drugs (I can tell you right

now

that ain't gonna happen! I've read enough about those drugs and the drug-pushing

pharmaceutical companies to take a firm stand against popping Lipitor etc.). One

note: I've never been overweight, have exercised to some degree all my life, and

have

always eaten my fruits 'n' veggies (though not organic until recently).

The reason I mention my breast cancer is because I have heard that sometimes

high

cholesterol can be a sign that your body is trying to heal itself.

So that's my nutshell. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Selenea

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