Alternative Medicine for Breast Cancer

The alternative medicine is any of treatment that does not use the usual scientific methods of western medicine, for example one using plants instead of artificial drugs. So that Herbal medicine belongs to alternative medicine. Some alternative medicine may offer treatments in the areas where conventional approaches have not succeeded. To some extent alternative medicine give an effective low cost medicine with no side effect. In this article we will talk about herbal medicine for breast cancer. In Indonesia, government supports the doctor to give herbal recipe by issuing governmental regulation. In other words the traditional medicine by a doctor and traditional healer is governed by law and regulation.

Breast cancer is fatal disease number seven in Indonesia. Meanwhile, in United Kingdom approximately 49,900 women and around 350 men are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. Breast cancer is now the most common cancer in the UK (excluding non melanoma skin cancer) and by far the most common cancer in women. In Europe more than 250 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed and around 175.000 cases in US. According to WHO in 2000 it is estimated that 1.2 million women are diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 700.000 of them are death. Every year 44.000 patients are death in US caused by breast cancer, in Europe the number is more than 165,000. That statistic shows that cancer is very serious diseases which make people doing many research try to find any medicine to cure it. Before we discuss about how to make herbal breast cancer medicine that compounded from some herbs, let’s learn about risk and cause of breast cancer.

The risk of developing breast cancer increasing when women get older, because as we get older the cells in our body have had more chance to make mistake when they dividing. People who has family history of cancer has higher risk of developing cancer than the general population. This increased risk may be due to inherited faulty gene. But more than 20 % women who has close relative with breast cancer will never develop it. Studies generally show that after menopause women with higher levels of oestrogen and testosterone in their blood have a risk of breast cancer that is double that of women with the lowest levels. In 2003, researchers from Cancer Research showed clearly that HRT (hormone Replacement Therapy) increases the risk of breast cancer while women take it and for up to 5 years afterwards. Hormone Replacement Therapy is taken by many women in UK to reduce menopausal symptoms. Having child slightly reduces the risk of breast cancer, and the younger you are when you have your first child, the lower your risk. In fact, having periods at the early age meaning higher risk of breast cancer, conversely late menopause increases breast cancer risk. According to statistical survey in America and UK, white women have higher risk of breast cancer than women from other ethnic group. This is at least partly due to lifestyle factors. Women with dense breast tissue have less fat and more breast cells and connective tissue in their breasts, meaning they have a greater proportion of breast cells so the risk of breast cancer is higher. Having other cancer increase the risk of breast cancer, the risk further higher if they diagnosed when where young and they had radiotherapy treatment rather than chemotherapy. Smoking tobacco increases the risk of breast cancer. The risk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked. The risk is especially increased in women who started smoking before the age of 20 or before the birth of their first child. Next we will find out the symptoms and signs of breast cancer.

It is important to know about symptoms and signs of breast cancer, because as any other disease the soon we discover it the better result of treatment we will get. Take some time to look at your breast condition to see if there are any of the following symptoms and signs. Let’s learn the changes that could be due to a breast cancer. The most common first sign is a lump in the breast or thickening in an area of the breast or lump in the armpit. Any an unexplained change in size or shape of the breast, nipple that is turned slightly inward or inverted could be a sign of breast cancer. The size or shape change may be in the form of unexplained swelling or unexplained shrinkage of the breast especially if on the one side only. Other signs could be a change in the skin, namely the breast skin may become dimpled or puckered. There is a change in the pores of skin and its texture, it can be described as similar to orange peel’s texture. Any abnormal nipple discharge should be also investigated particularly clear discharge or bloody discharge. But if a woman undergoes a milky discharge when she is not breastfeeding, she must be met her doctor, although it is not linked with breast cancer. Furthermore, if you find a rash on a nipple or surrounding area, you better to check it due to it could be a signs of breast cancer too. Although all of the signs and symptoms are not necessarily mean cancer, you should see a doctor for further investigation.

Finally, we provide you a herbal medicinal mixture for cancer. This herbal formula created by Lukas Tersono Adi, a herbalist. This formula quoted from “100 Plus Herbal Indonesia”. Here are the ingredients

Leaves of Cakar Ayam (Selaginella doederleinii)      30- 50 gram dried ingredient

Leaves of Sendok (Plantago Major)                        30-50 gram dried ingredient

Leaves of Sambiloto (Andrographis paniculata) 30-50 gram dried ingredient

Pegagan (Centela asiatica)                                    30-50 gram dried ingredient

 

Procedure

Boil 30-50 gram dried ingredient in 750 ml water until 375 ml water and ingredient is left over. Drink this concoction once in a day regularly. The recent research on Selaginella doederleinii has produced finding that the herbal has antimutagenic effect with moderate level attacking benzolalpyrene. It means selagenilla doederleinii capable of reducing rate of mutation, preventing cell divide   excessively. Selaginella plana, the closed family of Selagenilla doereleinii, has also tested on T47D cell (model of breast cancer cell which sensitive to chemotherapy agent).

The recent scientific research has proved that the drug ingredient has high capability to destroy cancer cell. The drug ingredient is effective to deal with breast cancer cell. The capability to kill cancer cell is supposed to be as a result of apoptosis mechanism. Apoptosis is the process of programmed cell death (PCD) that may occur in multi cellular organisms. The active compound contained in the leaves trigger process of self-destruction on cancer cell. In this way we can expect the herbal able to kill cell cancer without damage health cell.