Cure for Cancer: Prevention
Written by Jan Jaben-Eilon Wednesday, June 15 2011
Snapshot: Susan Silberstein
Susan Silberstein, Ph.D., is founder and CEO of the Center for Advancement in Cancer Education (BeatCancer.org), author of Hungry for Health, narrator of the video, Breast Cancer: The Diet Connection, and creator of the Beat Cancer Kit series of books, DVDs, and guides. The mission of the Center for Advancement in Cancer education is to provide research-based education on how to prevent, cope with, and beat cancer through diet, lifestyle, and other immune-boosting alternatives.
She lectures nationally on nutrition, cancer prevention, and complementary and alternative medicine. Since 1977, she has coordinated scores of health conferences, has appeared on hundreds of radio, television, and internet talk shows, and has counseled thousands of health seekers. A Phi Beta Kappa and Fulbright scholar, Silberstein has won numerous awards for her work in cancer education. After losing her first husband to cancer, she remarried 27 years ago. She has two grown children, stepdaughters, and several grandchildren.
Womenetics: Why did you found the Center for Advancement in Cancer Education?
Susan Silberstein: Thirty-five years ago, my young husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given 12 months to live. While he was undergoing seven surgeries and the maximum chemotherapy and radiation that his body could tolerate, I was in the medical libraries and on the phone researching doctors, clinics, and therapies all over the world. I uncovered many promising resources, but my husband never got out of the hospital in time to try any of them, and he died on schedule in February of 1977, destroyed by the ravages of his treatments. He left me with two babies, a broken heart, and above all a burning desire to make a difference, to help at least one family avoid the terrible tragedy that mine had to endure. I was determined not to bury with him everything I had learned, and so a few months later I established the nonprofit Center for Advancement in Cancer Education, now known as BeatCancer.org. I am happy to say we have helped not only one family, but nearly 30,000 patients and more than 50,000 prevention seekers.
Womenetics: How does BeatCancer.org differ from other cancer organizations?
Silberstein: We differ in three important ways. First, our prevention programs focus on real prevention, not just early detection. (Early detection is better than late detection, but it is not prevention.) Our children have a one in two lifetime risk of cancer, and the scientific data tell us that healthy diet and lifestyle choices can make all the difference.
Second, most cancer treatment programs focus on destroying the tumor; we focus on building up the patients: minimizing treatment side effects, enhancing immune system function, improving nutritional status, and addressing the reasons they got sick in the first place.
Third, most cancer agencies raise money for research; we raise money for education. Enough excellent research has already been published in scientific journals worldwide. We teach people what that research says and how to apply it in their daily lives. We don't need more research for the cure; prevention IS the cure.
Womenetics: How difficult is it to found a nonprofit organization and make it sustainable?
Silberstein: In today's economy, it is a lot harder to keep a nonprofit sustainable than it is to establish one. Certainly, to get started, one needs to file papers with the IRS and the state, establish articles of incorporation and a clear mission, and create a board of directors and bylaws. But keeping things going is even harder. The fierce competition for corporate dollars, foundation grants, and public donations have made raising funds very difficult, and consequently our charity, like so many, is underfunded and understaffed.
Womenetics: How important is diet in fighting cancer?
Silberstein: Diet is huge, for prevention, prevention of recurrence, and support during or after treatment. The World Health Organization affirms that 75 to 80 percent of all disease is diet related, and the National Cancer Institute has stated that up to 70 percent of all cancer deaths could be avoided through dietary change. Thousands of research studies have been published in hundreds of biomedical journals worldwide documenting the cancer-protective properties of certain foods. The China-Oxford-Cornell Diet and Health Project – the world's largest study of diet, health, and disease ever completed – found strong correlations between increased cancer rates in China and the transition from the traditional Asian plant-based diet to a Western diet of meat, dairy, and fat.
Womenetics: Do you only focus on breast cancer?
Silberstein: No. We have helped about 12,000 breast cancer patients and trained thousands of women seeking breast cancer prevention, but we work with all kinds of cancer patients, at all stages, located all over the world.
Womenetics: Cancer patients and survivors read about all kinds of alternative methods of beating their cancer, like shark ligament and essiac tea, just to name two. How can a cancer patient know what is worthwhile to try and what isn’t?
Silberstein: It is very difficult to make that determination alone, because if you do an online search of cancer treatment alternatives, you will get more than seven million hits. That is why an organization like ours is such a good resource. We have more than 30 years of experience with 30,000 patients and many practitioners and clinics. With that kind of experience, we have been able to observe those approaches that have produced the best results for the most patients over the longest period of time.
Yet, we do nothing by protocol; everything is patient-driven. We design individualized programs tailored to each patient's personal needs and physical, financial, geographic, and logistical limitations, as well as their belief systems. We may have 10 different patients with the same disease and stage following 10 different programs and all doing well.
Womenetics: Can you tell us what foods we should or should not be eating to help us prevent cancer?
Silberstein: It is dangerous to consume fats like saturated animal fats, omega-6 rich fats, and transfats; refined carbohydrates like white sugar, flour, and corn syrup; artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose; more than 10 percent of your diet from animal protein sources like meat, cheese, and milk; and microwaved foods.
On the other hand, a heavily plant-based diet is very protective. It is important to include high fiber foods like whole grains, beans, fresh fruits, and vegetables, especially cruciferous vegetables; wild fish and other sources of omega-3 fats like flaxseeds. In addition, I recommend garlic, shitake mushrooms, and a special type of green tea.
Womenetics: How do we build our immune system?
Silberstein: Most important is to include the immune-boosting foods and avoid the immuno-suppressive foods I just mentioned. In addition, stress management, certain supplements like mushroom extracts and herbal tinctures, cereal grasses, raw vegetable juices, traditional Chinese medicine, and avoidance of toxic environmental exposures are all ways to build the immune system.
Womenetics: How important is our psychological health in dealing with cancer?
Silberstein: I, and many prestigious researchers, have found that what we're eating may be even less important that what's eating us. Cancer begins in the spirit; it ends up in the body. I highly recommend our listeners read the Cancer Report (available on our website), which discusses the powerful role that the mind, the emotions, and the spirit play in both contributing to illness and in healing from even the most terminal of cancers.
Womenetics: Years ago, people didn’t talk about cancer. They called it the "Big C." Did you know about cancer as you were growing up?
Silberstein: No, I never heard the word "cancer" until my husband was diagnosed at age 30. From then on, it became the most important vocabulary word in my life.
Womenetics: Who was the most influential person in your life?
Silberstein: My first husband, Harvey Silberstein, whose generosity to others led me to a career of service and whose horrible death to the ravages of cancer gave direction to that career. I also admire Dr. Albert Schweitzer, humanitarian, musician, and physician, whose statement about natural healing I often quote: "Each of us carries our own doctor inside us; we are at our best when we give the doctor who resides within a chance to go to work." And finally, Hippocrates, the father of medicine, whose views on nutrition and holistic medicine are reflected in this quotation with which I end every one of my lectures: "Natural forces within us are the true healers. Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food."
Womenetics: What do you do for fun?
Silberstein: I love to travel (especially when I am not on lecture tour), sing, or listen to opera (I am a trained opera singer), go to the theater, take long nature walks, and spend time with my family.
Jan Jaben-Eilon was a founding staff writer of the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Since then, she has been the international editor of Advertising Age magazine and has written for such publications as The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Washington Journalism Review, and Consumer Reports. She is the author of soon-to-be-published (There is) Life After Cancer. Jan and her husband have homes in Atlanta and Jerusalem.
