Dr. Maoshing Ni decided in childhood that he wanted to pursue health and healing. He learned tai chi and qigong to help him recover from an accident, and learned a great deal from his father who was a doctor of Chinese medicine and a Taoist mater.
Women's health is one of his many areas of interest. Here he looks at the problem of breast cancer, and what we can do in order to prevent it.
(Transcribed from video interview)
Dr. Mao:
I would like to talk to you about breast cancer. This is a very serious problem. Breast cancer is on a rise and despite of all the efforts, we have wonderful innovations in treatments, we’re still getting too many cases. So what can we do? I get asked by patients all the time. Should I eat certain things? Should I avoid certain things? What happens?
Well, let’s look at breast cancer and the reason behind breast cancer and their escalating rates. Well, if you look at the U.S., a very high percentage of breast cancer that’s diagnosed is the estrogen-receptor positive kind. What does that mean? Well, it means that the breast cancer is due to too much estrogen. Aha! Too much estrogen.
Well, where do we get all this estrogen? Well, we can start with a birth control pill, for one, that’s an estrogen pill, but beyond that, beyond taking estrogen, all right. In cases of hormonal replacement therapy there’s been studies that have shown that it might increase the risk of breast cancer because it stirs the pot a little bit.
There are many different types of estrogen molecules. There is the good type and then there is the bad ones. Let’s talk about the bad ones because they are the ones who causes unchecked proliferation of your breast cells.
Where do these cancer-causing agents come from? Well, our environment. Look at the water we drink, for example. All the water that we drink come from plastic bottles, and plastic bottles contain particular substances that are what they call endocrine disruptors. Fancy name for that is estrogen. They are chemical estrogens or otherwise known as xenoestrogens, and they include things like bisphenol A, which has recently been found in baby bottles.
Baby bottles – well, that caused a huge uproar because if this particular substance can disrupt the endocrine system, the hormonal system of the baby girl, what do you think is going to happen to her system? This is a serious problem. So there is that problem – water from plastic. So all the plastics have certain amount of xenoestrogens.
Dioxins and pesticides and herbicides, they all mimic estrogen in your body. So that’s why eating organic is very important. Avoiding putting chemicals into your body, especially those that mimic estrogen in your body. So living clean, helping yourself in that way is very helpful to lowering the risk of cancer. But what about things that you can do additionally to help?
About Maoshing Ni Ph.D., D.O.M., L.Ac., A.B.A.A.H.P.:
Dr. Mao, as he prefers to be called, is a 38th generation doctor of Chinese medicine, a Licensed Acupuncturist, a Diplomat of Chinese Herbology, and a Diplomat in Anti-Aging.
For over 20 years, Dr. Mao has been in general practice at Los Angeles, California’s Tao of Wellness, an acclaimed center for nutrition, Chinese medicine, and acupuncture, with special interest in immune, hormonal, and aging-related conditions. He is also the founder and Chancellor of the Yo San University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Los Angeles that is considered the premiere school for Chinese medicine outside of China.
Visit Dr. Mao at http://www.taoofwellness.com
Video:
https://www.empowher.com/breast-cancer/content/breast-cancer-what-causes-dr-mao-video