It’s no wonder that breast cancer is the biggest fear of so many women. All you hear about these days are the dismal odds: Currently, one in eight women-that’s 17 million-is expected to be diagnosed with the disease. And the treatment options are nothing short of barbaric: surgery that leaves you disfigured, radiation that leaves you swollen and tender, and chemotherapy that leaves you weak, bald, and nauseous.

Q: I am a subscriber to your health newsletter which I enjoy very much. I have been diagnosed with nerve damage in my feet.

My neurologist has been treating me for torticollis (a wry neck) with botox for six or seven years. Could botox be the cause of the damage? He says not. He also says there is no cure for the damage I have. I am not diabetic, I am a 72 year old woman in reasonably good health otherwise. I am being treated for high blood pressure too.

Q: Thank you for the interesting and useful information in “The Whole Truth about Drug Ads” in the July 2001 issue of Nutrition & Healing highlighting cod-liver oil, instead of aspirin, as an effective way to prevent blood clotting.

One morning a few years ago, I received a frantic call from the receptionist at MediHerb, my herbal clinic. Jenny had called to tell me that her brother Michael had been involved in another severe accident and was in intensive care again. Michael, you see, has a rather dangerous hobby-he competes in motorcycle track events. “Don’t worry!” I told her. And I meant it.

Someone recently gave me a label from a can of Ensure Plus, a drink that’s apparently widely advertised as a “nutritional supplement” with “concentrated calories to help maintain healthy weight.” The label says it’s “No.1 doctor recommended.” If that’s true, it just goes to show you, once again, the sorry state nutrition information and knowledge passed along by many medical schools.

The patent medicine industry has taken over so much of medicine that even the “prestigious” New England Journal of Medicine wrote recently that it’s unable to find enough authors who aren’t being paid by patent medicine companies. Now the Journal is accepting articles from authors who are paid by patent medicine companies, and “requiring” disclosure of who’s paying whom along with each article. (For more information about this announcement, please see the August 2002 issue of N&H.)

IN THIS ISSUE: Breast cancer prevention straight from the grocery store: Stop the most feared disease among women from happening to you; Are those “nutritional supplement” drinks all they’re cracked up to be?; Help your body achieve a healing miracle with five simple herbs; A breakthrough clot-buster: Sometimes even the alternatives have alternatives; Is botox to blame for nerve damage?