SPEAKERS CONTENTS INSERTS
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PLEASE NOTE: The following transcript is a portion of the official hearing record of the Committee on Government Reform. Additional material pertinent to this transcript may be found on the web site of the committee at [http://www.house.gov/reform]. Complete hearing records are available for review at the committee offices and also may be purchased at the U.S. Government Printing Office.
61–437 CC
2000
THE ROLE OF EARLY DETECTION AND COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE IN WOMEN'S CANCERS
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON
GOVERNMENT REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
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JUNE 10, 1999
Serial No. 106–61
Printed for the use of the Committee on Government Reform
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/reform
COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM
DAN BURTON, Indiana, Chairman
BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York
CONSTANCE A. MORELLA, Maryland
CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida
JOHN M. MCHUGH, New York
STEPHEN HORN, California
JOHN L. MICA, Florida
THOMAS M. DAVIS, Virginia
DAVID M. MCINTOSH, Indiana
MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana
JOE SCARBOROUGH, Florida
STEVEN C. LATOURETTE, Ohio
MARSHALL ''MARK'' SANFORD, South Carolina
BOB BARR, Georgia
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DAN MILLER, Florida
ASA HUTCHINSON, Arkansas
LEE TERRY, Nebraska
JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois
GREG WALDEN, Oregon
DOUG OSE, California
PAUL RYAN, Wisconsin
JOHN T. DOOLITTLE, California
HELEN CHENOWETH, Idaho
HENRY A. WAXMAN, California
TOM LANTOS, California
ROBERT E. WISE, Jr., West Virginia
MAJOR R. OWENS, New York
EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York
PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania
PATSY T. MINK, Hawaii
CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York
ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, Washington, DC
CHAKA FATTAH, Pennsylvania
ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland
DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio
ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH, Illinois
DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois
JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts
JIM TURNER, Texas
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THOMAS H. ALLEN, Maine
HAROLD E. FORD, Jr., Tennessee
JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois
———
BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont (Independent)
KEVIN BINGER, Staff Director
DANIEL R. MOLL, Deputy Staff Director
DAVID A. KASS, Deputy Counsel and Parliamentarian
CARLA J. MARTIN, Chief Clerk
PHIL SCHILIRO, Minority Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
Hearing held on June 10, 1999
Statement of:
Gordon, James, M.D., Center for Mind Body Medicine, Washington, DC; Susan Silver, George Washington University Integrative Medical Center; Daniel Beilin, OMD, LAC, Aptos, CA; Edward Trimble, M.D., Head, Surgery Section, Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, National Cancer Institute; and Jeffrey White, Director, Office of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National Cancer Institute
Mack, Priscilla, executive co-chair of the National Race for the Cure; and Michio Kushi, the Kushi Institute, Brookline, MA
Zarycki, Carol, New York; N. Lee Gardener, Ph.D., Raleigh, NC; and Linda Bedell-Logan, Saco, ME
Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by:
Bedell-Logan, Linda, Saco, ME, prepared statement of
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Beilin, Daniel, OMD, LAC, Aptos, CA, prepared statement of
Burton, Hon. Dan, a Representative in Congress from the State of Indiana, prepared statement of
Cummings, Hon. Elijah E., a Representative in Congress from the State of Maryland, prepared statement of
Gardener, N. Lee, Ph.D., Raleigh, NC, prepared statement of
Kushi, Michio, the Kushi Institute, Brookline, MA, prepared statement of
Mack, Priscilla, executive co-chair of the National Race for the Cure, prepared statement of
Mink, Hon. Patsy T., a Representative in Congress from the State of Hawaii, prepared statement of
Sanders, Hon. Bernard, a Representative in Congress from the State of Vermont, prepared statement of
Silver, Susan, George Washington University Integrative Medical Center, prepared statement of
Slaughter, Hon. Louise, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York, prepared statement of
Towns, Hon. Edolphus, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York, prepared statement of
Trimble, Edward, M.D., Head, Surgery Section, Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, National Cancer Institute, prepared statement of
Zarycki, Carol, New York, prepared statement of
THE ROLE OF EARLY DETECTION AND COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE IN WOMEN'S CANCERS
THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1999
House of Representatives,
Committee on Government Reform,
Washington, DC.
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The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:37 a.m., in room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Dan Burton, (chairman of the committee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Burton, Gilman, Morella, Horn, Mica, Biggert, Ose, Chenoweth, Waxman, Mink, Norton, Cummings, Kucinich, Schakowsky, and Sanders.
Staff present: Kevin Binger, staff director; Daniel R. Moll, deputy staff director; Barbara Comstock, chief counsel; David Kass, deputy counsel and parliamentarian; S. Elizabeth Clay, professional staff member; Mark Corallo, director of communications; Carla J. Martin, chief clerk; Lisa Smith-Arafune, deputy chief clerk; Laurel Grover, staff assistant; Nicole Petrocino, legislative aide; Phil Schiliro, minority staff director; Phil Barnett, minority chief counsel; Sarah Despres, minority counsel; Ellen Rayner, minority chief clerk; Jean Gosa, minority staff assistant; and Andrew Su, minority research assistant.
Mr. BURTON. Good morning. A quorum being present, the Committee on Government Reform will come to order.
I ask unanimous consent that all Members' and witnesses' written opening statements be included in the record. Without objection, so ordered.
We will have other Members—I see some of them coming in right now—joining us, so they will be coming in just a few moments.
We are here today to talk about a subject that has probably touched every family in America, cancer. Specifically, today we are going to talk about women's cancers. At hearings in the future, we will be talking about some of the major concerns that men have, prostate cancer. I have talked to Michael Milken's staff. We are going to be talking to Senator Dole's staff. We will be talking to the minority also about people that they might want to have testify about men's problems, prostate cancer and other issues, as well as diets that might assist men in fighting this dreaded disease as well.
But today, we are going to be talking about women's cancers. In this country, every 64 minutes a woman is diagnosed with a reproductive tract cancer. One in eight women today will get breast cancer, one in eight. It is an absolute epidemic. Some people believe that that figure will grow to as many as one in three or four.
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This is turning out to be a very busy week in Washington for cancer issues. Last Sunday, over 60,000 people participated in the National Race for the Cure, sponsored by the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. This foundation has done a phenomenal job raising awareness of breast cancer and raising money for research and treatment. I applaud their work, and my colleagues do as well.
Today the Government Reform Committee will receive testimony from researchers, health care providers, and patients on the role of early detection and complementary and alternative health practices in women's cancers. This coming weekend, the Center for Mind, Body, Medicine, and the University of Texas, Houston Medical School, in cooperation with the National Cancer Institute and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine is conducting the second annual comprehensive cancer conference. They will bring together researchers, practitioners, and patients, to discuss research advances and patient needs in both conventional and alternative medicine.
This week, this same week, 1,355 women in America will lose their lives to one of these cancers. Overall, more than 10,000 men, women, and children, will die from cancer in America this week, 10,000. We say to their families and loved ones, we in Congress recognize that the war on cancer declared by President Richard Nixon in 1971 is far from over. We cannot, after 28 years and tens of billions of dollars in research declare victory, because we are not yet close.
My wife suffered from breast cancer several years ago. Thankfully, she is a 5-year survivor. Last year, I lost my mother and my step-father to lung cancer. So I know, as well as many of my colleagues, what families go through when loved ones have to fight cancer. Every additional year a patient lives is a victory. Every new treatment, drug, or surgical technique is a potential victory. However, we have not won this war on cancer. But we will not give up.
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The committee has been working to break through barriers of institutional bias to get more research done in complementary and alternative therapies for cancer, and to improve the information available to the public from the Federal Government on treatment options. We cannot abide by institutional biases within the Government that says something is not acceptable because it is alternative or unconventional. We must ensure that there is a balance between genetics, drug development, natural product development, and alternative therapy research within the National Cancer Institute.
To combat this bias, I am introducing the ''Inclusion of Alternative Approaches in Cancer Research Act.'' This bill, my bill, would ensure that every advisory group of the National Cancer Institute would have at least one member who is an expert in complementary and alternative medicine. One leading drug treatment for breast cancer and ovarian cancer, Taxol, was originally derived from the yew tree and was developed through the natural products program. It is important to continue to look to nature for other opportunities for drug development. It would be a shame if reductions in funding for the natural product drug program resulted in missing the next Taxol that might save lives.
I have previously mentioned that less than 1 percent of the National Cancer Institute's $2.7 billion annual budget goes to research in complementary and alternative medicine. That is very disappointing. Unfortunately, the director of that institute does not see the need to change that ratio, and told me in December that he has no plans to extend that, even though half of America's cancer patients will include a complementary or alternative treatment in their plan to fight cancer. I believe that since we are giving them $2.7 billion, 1 percent is not enough. We will do everything in our power to make sure that more of those funds are given to alternative and complementary research.
Taxol, Tamoxifen, and other drugs are important tools in the fight against cancer, so are pap smears and mammograms, and so is an integrated treatment plan. We have been pleased with the assistance we have received from several of the professional medical associations involved in these areas, including the Society for Gynecological Oncology, and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists.
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Dr. Edward Trimble will present information on the National Cancer Institute's research in early detection and the integration of complementary and alternative health practices in women's cancers. Cancer is a disease, but its victims are heros and heroines. They are people, real people with families, jobs, and communities. They make a difference in our lives. People like Sally McClain, from Indianapolis, IN, who lost her life to breast cancer that metastasized to her spine. Sally was a friend of Claudia Keller on my staff. She also was the daughter of a man who taught me in high school, who was a good friend of mine. It is a shame that one so young should die so young because of a disease like this. But Sally didn't give up the fight, not one single day. Or Lynn Lloyd, a high school English teacher in Montgomery County, MD. After two bouts with breast cancer, she is now hospitalized with cancer in her brain and her lungs. Even when she was receiving chemotherapy last year, she scheduled it around her classes so she could keep teaching and stay involved with her students. Now that's real dedication. Most of her students didn't even realize that she was battling cancer until her most recent hospitalization.
We are honored today to have another one of those heroines with us, a lady that's a very, very good friend of mine. Her husband and I were elected to Congress together back in 1982. We are going to miss Senator Mack in the U.S. Senate. His lovely wife, Ms. Priscilla Mack, is the executive co-chair of the National Race for the Cure. As a breast cancer survivor, she knows from personal experience the importance of early detection. She has worked hard to raise awareness about women's cancer issues. With the energy that Ms. Mack brings to this fight, we will hopefully begin winning more of these battles, saving more lives, getting research funded that will get the answers about prevention, early diagnosis, treatment, and hopefully one day very soon, a cure.
Biomedical research already knows that there is not a magic bullet cure for cancer. What we do know at this time is that the earlier cancer is diagnosed, the greater the chances of long-term survival. That is why pap smears are such an effective tool in saving lives. We do know from good research and practice, that when someone develops a holistic cancer treatment plan, including attention to mind, body, and spirit, then recovery is more likely, with better quality of life and extended life as well.
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Dr. James Gordon, director of the Center for Mind Body Medicine here in Washington, and an internationally recognized leader in the field of complementary medicine and alternative medicine, will be testifying also about advances in complementary and alternative medicine cancer research.
When Jane Seymour, a very prominent movie star, testified before our committee in February, she shared the story of several of her friends who had gone the conventional route of cancer treatment and then been told by their doctors that they had done everything they could and it was in essence hopeless. They were basically told to go home and die. These women did not accept that death sentence. They sought other healthcare professionals and advice from friends and family on other approaches to treating cancer. They learned, as many others have, that in order to survive the conventional treatments for cancer, radiation and chemotherapy, that a body needs to be strengthened through good nutrition. I am delighted that Michio Kushi is here today to talk to us about the macrobiotic diet, and that the importance of nutrition is essential in cancer patients. Mr. Kushi is recognized throughout the world as the foremost authority in this field. The Smithsonian Institute has just opened the Michio Kushi family collection on the history of macrobiotics and alternative and complementary health practices at the National Museum of American History.
We'll also be hearing from Susan Silver of the new Center for Integrative Medicine at George Washington University. This center has developed a program for women in cancer treatment with an integrative approach.
Dr. Daniel Beilin is here today to update us on a new tool in the arsenal of early detection, regulation thermography. This low cost test can be used as a complement to mammography for early detection of changes in breast tissue. It has been used in Germany, I believe, for about 10 years extensively. It is also proving to be a valuable tool in detecting other cancers like ovarian cancer and prostate cancer. We are looking into advances in research in prostate cancer, as I said earlier, and we plan to have a hearing early this fall.
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We expanded this investigation to cover all women's cancers because there is so much that needs to be done in breast cancer and other areas as well. For example, there is no reliable early detection test for ovarian cancer; 75 percent of ovarian cancers are not detected until the late stage, three or four, and there is only a 25 percent survival rate of more than 5 years. However, of those that are discovered in early stages, there is a 95 percent survival rate of more than 5 years.
The symptoms of ovarian cancer are vague. They are bloating, sudden weight gain, gas, pressure, and lethargy. There is research to indicate that eating lots of meat and animal fats may increase a woman's risk of ovarian cancer. We need more good research in these areas to find solutions. The members of this committee on both sides of the aisle are very involved in these areas, including Congresswoman Mink, who introduced H.R. 961, the Ovarian Cancer Research and Information Amendments of 1999.
Linda Bedell-Logan's sister died from cancer. During her battle, Linda's sister, like many cancer patients, suffered with lymphedema. Linda, who was involved in healthcare, researched her sister's treatment options and learned about combined decongestive therapy. As a result of this experience, she has helped many cancer patients gain access to this treatment by getting their insurance companies to cover the costs. Lymphedema is a serious complication for many cancer survivors. It causes swelling, usually in an arm or leg. It can be very painful, and it reduces a cancer survivor's quality of life.
We are also going to hear from two cancer survivors. Their stories show the struggles that women face with cancer and how they go through them, the need to develop an individualized treatment plan to find reliable information on all treatment options, and to be comfortable with the treatment choices they make. Lee Gardener and Carol Zarycki are two more cancer heroines. I hope I pronounced your names correctly. If I didn't, correct me when you come forward. Even though they have faced the most daunting enemy you can imagine, they have recovered, returned to living and to helping others face cancer.
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The hearing record will remain open until July 25th for all those who wish to make written submissions on the record.
[The prepared statement of Hon. Dan Burton follows:]
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[The official committee record contains additional material here.]
Mr. BURTON. I now recognize my friend Mr. Waxman, for his opening statement.
Mr. WAXMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased that we are having this hearing on such an important issue. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among women. Cervical cancer will kill close to 5,000 women this year. At least another 20,000 women will die this year from uterine and ovarian cancers.
The real issues before us are how can we safely and effectively prevent, detect, and treat cancer, and how can we make sure that all women have access to good treatments and to accurate information about their treatment choices? Proper screening techniques can and have lowered mortality rates for breast and cervical cancer. We must continue to work hard to ensure that women have access to the screening techniques currently available, and we must continue to educate women about the importance of being screened for these cancers. But this is not enough. We also have to make sure that healthcare providers follow up with women, notify them of their test results, and encourage them to return for further tests if necessary. We also have to make sure that quality treatments are available to all women.
At the same time, we need to continue to research better ways to detect cancers. Currently there is no good test for ovarian cancer, the fifth leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States. While mammography has been proven to reduce the number of breast cancer deaths in women over 50 years old by at least 30 percent, it has not been as effective in reducing cancer deaths among younger women. We need to continue to research screening techniques.
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We should also be looking at ways to prevent cancer. In 1993, I sponsored legislation that mandated a study of why certain localities were experiencing elevated incidence of breast cancer and elevated mortality rates. Studies such as these are important tools in understanding why women get cancers and how to prevent it. We need to know whether the causes are environmental, genetic, dietary, and any other plausible theory. We need to understand what is going on, and why some localities, for no reason that we can otherwise understand, seem to produce an extraordinarily high number of breast cancers.
We must concentrate our efforts on developing safe and effective ways to prevent cancer, to detect cancer, and to cure cancer. We need to make sure that these therapies are available to all women. We have an extraordinarily high rate of Americans who lack insurance; 42 million was the last figure of uninsured people in this country. No one is served by battling over the relative merits of alternative versus traditional medicine. Instead, our goal should be to develop the most safe and effective therapies possible, regardless of how they are classified.
Mr. Chairman, I am pleased that we are going to hear from so many important witnesses today. I want to apologize in advance, because I have a conflict in my schedule. There is a markup in another committee, so I won't be here to listen to all of the witnesses. But I will have an opportunity to review the testimony, and, I look forward to doing that, and to working with you and our colleagues to accomplish the goals that we all share.
Mr. BURTON. Thank you, Mr. Waxman.
Mr. Mica.
Mr. MICA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't have a formal opening statement, but I want to congratulate you on conducting this hearing, and again reminding us of the importance of early detection, prevention, and treatment. I again compliment you on this, and also reserve some time to introduce one of our witnesses. Thank you.
Mr. BURTON. Thank you, Mr. Mica.
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Mr. Sanders.
Mr. SANDERS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I think you know as well as anybody that this has been a very contentious committee over the last couple of years. You have heard that, I know.
Mr. BURTON. You're kidding.
Mr. SANDERS. Yes, I know. You and Mr. Waxman know that. It is very nice to see us getting away from that type of partisan hostility to focus on an issue of enormous concern to every man, woman, and child in this country. I thank you very much and the staff very much for putting on this hearing.
The remarks that you have made and Mr. Waxman have made cover a lot of what my opening statement was going to be. But I just want to say a few additional words. You know, first of all, the fact that we are having a hearing on cancer today, probably 30 years ago, there would never have been a hearing like this because people said well cancer, we don't know why it happens. God strikes somebody and that's the way it goes. There is no cause for cancer. In fact, we don't even talk about cancer. It's such a terrible thing. We use the ''C'' word, but we don't even talk about it because there is just nothing that can be done about it.
So as a result of the work of a lot of people, we have come a long way. We are now beginning to take a rational look at the causes of cancer and how we can effectively treat it. Just think, not so many years ago, when you and I were younger, we watched on television and we saw physicians telling us the particular brand of cigarette they smoked. Remember that? Telling us that they liked this brand of cigarette. That was physicians advertising cigarettes. Well, we have come a long way from that ''conventional'' wisdom of doctors telling us about which cigarettes to smoke.
Twenty or thirty years ago, forty years ago, breast feeding was told to women and mothers as to be a terrible thing. You certainly don't want to do that. That was physicians. That was the norm. That was what doctors were telling mothers.
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I can remember 15 years ago in the city of Burlington, talking to one of the leading physicians at our local hospital. I said, ''Well what do you think about diet and disease?'' ''Oh, there's no connection between diet and disease. It doesn't matter what you eat.'' Now I think every American understands the important connection between diet and disease. Every day, we are learning more and more about the relationship between indoor air, between pollution in general, between stress and disease, the fact that there is not a huge gap between mind and body, as you indicated. People who are depressed, people who are under stress are more likely to come down with a variety of illnesses than other people.
We have also learned in recent years that some of those therapies and treatments that people around the world have been practicing for thousands of years are not quite as crazy as some of our ''leading specialists'' have told us. It was maybe 20 years ago—I may be wrong, it was James Reston of the New York Times ended up in China, and he was ill. They practiced acupuncture on him. Suddenly acupuncture became acceptable in the United States, where for years our leading specialists had told us what a quacky and ridiculous idea that was.
My point is that we are learning more and more about causes and treatments. I think this hearing is an important part in that process. I agree with you that we should be doing a lot more in expanding the Office of Alternative Medicine, for example. I should tell you that we had Wayne Jonas, who was the very capable head of that office in Vermont a couple of years ago. Five hundred people came out to a town meeting on alternative health in the State of Vermont on a snowy day in the central part of the State.
I am working on legislation, I know many other people are, to begin expanding complementary healthcare, making sure that Americans have access to that type of care. The other point I would make is that one of the very sad aspects of what is going on in this country today is even when there are treatments available for cancer, we have millions of people who do not have health insurance. So I would hope that we will join the rest of the industrialized world, and on this issue you and I may disagree or we may not, but the time is now that the United States should join the rest of the world and have a national healthcare system, guaranteeing healthcare to all people. What is the sense of having treatments out there if you have millions of people who cannot afford that treatment?
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Where we do agree is I think we should expand and broaden our knowledge in terms of complementary healthcare. Europe is already way ahead of us, maybe less dependency on some powerful drugs if there are natural cures out there. Mostly as I think you have indicated, let's study what's going on out there. Let's learn. Maybe the treatments don't work, fine. But there is nothing wrong with exploring all of the options that are out there.
So I really do appreciate your holding this hearing, and look forward to working with you.
[The prepared statement of Hon. Bernard Sanders follows:]
6602
INSERT OFFSET FOLIOS 5 TO 9 HERE
[The official committee record contains additional material here.]
Mr. BURTON. Thank you very much, Mr. Sanders.
Mrs. Morella.
Mrs. MORELLA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you also for holding this important hearing. During my tenure in Congress, I have been very actively involved in women's health issues, as you know, as a member of the Congressional Caucus on Women's Issues, and former chair. I have been working with my colleagues very diligently to increase the funding for women's health, including breast, ovarian, and cervical cancer research. As Chair of the Technology Subcommittee of the Science Committee, I have been working to facilitate technology transfers between Government agencies and the private sector. Efforts such as missiles to mammograms, that project between the Public Health Service, the Department of Defense, the intelligence community and NASA, are critically important in applying new technologies to the fight against breast cancer.
The Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues has spent a great number of years attempting to address the neglect of women's health research at the National Institutes of Health, which as you know, is in my district. The caucus asked the General Accounting Office back in 1989 to investigate the NIH policy regarding the inclusion of women in clinical studies. Women had been routinely excluded from many studies, such as the physicians health study, which studied the effects of aspirin on heart disease on 22,000 male physicians. Just this week, however, I found it astounding. I read in the Washington Post that ''drinking at least two cups of caffeinated coffee a day lowers a man's risk of developing gallstones.'' Now more than 46,000 men took part in this study that spanned a decade. But what about women?
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In 1990, the caucus introduced omnibus legislation, the Women's Health Equity Act, which included the establishment of the Office of Research on Women's Health, and the requirement that women and minorities be included in all the clinical trials and protocols wherever appropriate in research studies funded by NIH. That has been working. In the fall of 1990, in a meeting of caucus members, NIH announced the formation of that office and quite frankly, we codified it in Congress, so it is a permanent office. Since that time, great progress has been made in funding for women's health concerns, particularly breast, ovarian, cervical cancer, osteoporosis, and the Women's Health Initiative. For example, breast and ovarian cancer funding at NCI, the National Cancer Institute, has more than quadrupled since 1990.
Recently, I initiated a letter to the House Subcommittee on Defense Appropriations, asking for continued funding for the Department of Defense peer-reviewed breast cancer research program for fiscal year 2000. You know that we have 223 Members of this House who have signed onto that letter.
However, our job is far from over. Despite great strides in women's health research, we still have to be vigilant, have to address issues that aren't receiving public attention and research priority that they deserve. That is why I think we are all open to the suggestions and enhancing alternative medicines too.
More than 14,000 women will die of ovarian cancer this year. Early detection is essential in the treatment of ovarian cancer. Yet there is no reliable early detection test. We know that if diagnosed and treated early, the survival rate for ovarian cancer is 95 percent. However, there are no obvious signs or symptoms until late in its development, and only about 25 percent of all cases are detected at the localized stage. Congresswoman Mink has been very much involved in that project.
There are 2.6 million women living with breast cancer in the United States today. Each year, approximately 175,000 women are diagnosed, 43,300 women will die of breast cancer, which is the leading cancer among women. Despite these frightening statistics, there are only three methods for detecting breast tumors, self examination, a clinical breast exam by a physician, and the mammogram.
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I do want to comment that the first panelist is Priscilla Mack, as you mentioned. I am just very proud of the fact that she is the executive co-chair of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. I have a picture of Priscilla that was taken of my running in the race just last Saturday. It was the 10th anniversary; 67,000 people ran in that race, bringing in a great deal of money which will help with all the research projects. I am sure you will tell us about that.
As an aside, since we are all affected in some way by cancers that affect women, my sister died 23 years ago of cancer. At that time, we began raising her six children, I think successfully.
Lung cancer kills more women than breast cancer. Yet there has been very little emphasis on lung cancer in general. In 1998, 23,000 women died of lung cancer. Between 1974 and 1994, there was a 147 percent increase in women diagnosed with lung cancer. Lung cancer tends to be a silent disease, and there are no good early detection programs in place for women or for men.
So, Mr. Chairman, I applaud you for holding this important hearing on the early detection and alternative treatment of women's cancers. I look forward to the testimony from the experts and from those who have had some experience. Again, I applaud you. Thank you. I yield back.
Mr. BURTON. Thank you, Mrs. Morella. I was looking at this picture of you in the race. What was your time? [Laughter.]
Mr. Kucinich.
Mr. KUCINICH. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for your continuing leadership in this area and for the participation of members on this panel, as well as our guests here today.
Over 500 years ago, people thought the Earth was flat. It caused many not to want to go on a voyage that could cause them to fall off the corner of the Earth. Today there are still people who think that illness and disease is something that's outside of us and that we can turn our health over to other people who will then tell us how we can be healthy. But through the work of people like Michio Kushi, who is one of the panelists today, we have learned that we have the ability to take responsibility for our own health. What a miracle that is. Think about that for a moment. That the conditions which create disease may come from things that we do. So if that is in fact the truth, how empowering it is that we can have some control over the conditions which are internal to our disease and which become externalized and can cause us to have a debilitation in our quality of life.
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Mr. Kushi, in joining this panel today, brings to it a tremendous amount of experience in his work as one of the foremost proponents in the world of macrobiotics. As all of the students of Greek and of medicine know, macrobiotics comes from the word ''macros'' and ''bios'' in Greek, which means a great life or long life. That was a term that was coined by Hippocrates about 2,500 years ago.
Today people know macrobiotics in a much more popularized way through foods like brown rice and seitan, which is a wheat cutlet, whole wheat sourdough bread, vegetable sushi, and rice cakes. The standard macrobiotic diet has been practiced widely throughout history by all major civilizations and cultures. The diet centers on whole cereal grains and their products and other plant qualities.
Over the last 30 years, Michio Kushi has taught throughout the United States and abroad, giving lectures and seminars on diet, health consciousness, and the peaceful meeting of eastern and western philosophies. In 1978, Mr. Kushi and his wife, Adaline, founded the Kushi Institute, which is an educational organization for the training of future leaders of society, including macrobiotic teachers, counselors, and cooks. The Kushis in 1986 founded One Peaceful World. It is an organization which provides information on macrobiotics and helps to guide society toward world health and world peace.
Now one of the things that I think ought to be called to the attention of the Members before we begin hearing from the witnesses because many of you are already aware of this, later this year, the National Institute of Health is expected to issue a long-awaited study on the macrobiotic approach to cancer, which is currently being completed by researchers at the University of Minnesota and at Harvard University. Another report, which is a case control study from Italy, shows that macrobiotics can significantly lower the risk of breast cancer. That report is awaiting publication.
The American Cancer Society describes macrobiotics as ''the most popular anti-cancer diet'' today. On its Internet site, the American Cancer Society states,
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Macrobiotics may help prevent some cancers. It may reduce the risk in developing cancers that appear related to higher fat intake such as colon cancer and possibly some breast cancers. The macrobiotic diet, like other fat free diets, can lower blood pressure, and perhaps reduce the chance of heart disease. Taking part in a macrobiotics program may provide some sense of balance with nature and harmony with the total universe, and as such, promote a sense of calmness and reduce stress.
So when we think in terms of health today, perhaps rather than thinking in terms of simply winning a war with cancer, we can also look toward changing the analogy and talk about prevention of cancer, because some see cancer as a lack of balance. As we bring our bodies more into their natural harmony, as Mr. Kushi I'm sure will be testifying about, we can find that conditions of health can be created where some may have thought previously it was impossible to do so.
So this hearing today, through the testimony of the witnesses and through the testimony of other experts, such as Mr. Kushi, will be an exercise in raising the Nation's consciousness over the importance of looking at alternatives to healthcare, the importance of finding better ways to treat disease, and the importance of giving individuals an opportunity to reclaim power in their own lives to improve the quality of their lives, and through their courage and example, give others hope that they can do the same.
So, with that, Mr. Chairman, I thank you very much for your efforts in calling these hearings. I look forward to the testimony of the witnesses. I am awaiting a call to go to the floor for the debate on the Kosovo spending bill, so I may not be able to be here the whole time, but I appreciate being here now.
Mr. BURTON. Thank you, Mr. Kucinich. You have been a big help. I appreciate your continued assistance.
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I might just hold up before our next member speaks, that these are some of the books that Mr. Kushi has, co-written by Mr. Alex Jack. Here's a book also, ''Let Food Be Thy Medicine.'' There are a number of books out like this. I am not just touting these particular books. I don't get a commission. But I think it's really important for anybody who is watching on television, who is in the audience, to take a look at some of these books because change in diet I think has been proven, and will be proven in the future, to be a real help in preventing various forms of cancer.
With that, Ms. Norton.
Ms. NORTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. May I, like my colleagues, thank you and compliment you on your initiative in holding this hearing. As a Chair last year, along with Nancy Johnson of the Women's Caucus, I am particularly appreciative for this effort.
The Women's Caucus has perhaps devoted more of its time to cancer, and especially breast cancer but other forms as well, including ovarian cancer, than it has to any other women's issue. Last year, when Tamoxifen was announced as a drug that had proved so effective in treating breast cancer that they were stopping the trials and letting it go forward, we held a whole hearing on that with the Surgeon General, the FDA, and others coming in, including women who had participated in the trials.
The progress in dealing with women's cancers is so extraordinarily hopeful today. Just yesterday a major controversy resurfaced that arose last year about whether women should begin to have mammograms at 40 or 50, where the women in Congress took the position that they should begin at 40. Where there is some difference among the experts, then for goodness sakes, let's err on the side of the expert that may save the most lives. Now there is an additional study just announced yesterday that affirms 40 as the age that you should start mammograms.
Just today, I believe—again, I'm thinking it was yesterday, perhaps reported yesterday—a study again reported confusion among women and families about the role of estrogen. We are told that estrogen in fact does tend to be a factor in some breast cancer, but those are the breast cancers that are easiest to combat, and that apparently it is not as much of a factor as we thought.
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We all know that the most effective thing that a woman and a family can do to prevent breast cancer is early screening, and that an early mammogram could not be more important. We had come to the point where breast cancer was breaking down along income lines and insurance lines. I am very pleased at the way in which mammograms, or mammography, has become available to low income women and minority women who were being left out, and therefore, being subjected to discovery of their cancers much later, when they are often not curable.
The fact is that breast cancer, for example, and ovarian cancer are becoming curable diseases based almost entirely on early detection. Therefore, the emphasis on prevention in this hearing could not be more important. We are learning that cancer is many different diseases that act like, or at least a disease that acts like many different diseases. I am going to say for that reason, cancer is nothing to play around with. Prevention and, once the disease sets in, responsible treatment is going to be very important. The notion of alternative medicine, it seems to me, is critical here. If you believe that prevention is the best cure, the developing science on the role of fat and diet must be taken very seriously, not only with respect to women's cancers, but generally.
What I would like to leave the hearing with—and I hope to be able to stay through most of it, I am going to have to come and go because of other hearings—is with what I regard as the great need. That is a word that I will take from what the chairman said. He used the word ''integration.'' That is to say the integration of so-called alternative medicine with traditional medicine as is practiced largely in the West. The fact is, that the reason that we are able to cure so much cancer has to do with the genius of American medicine. Now if we look further into alternative medicine, we may find the genius that enables us to help prevent cancer. Then we will be able to bring the two together in a successful integration.
I would hate to see the development of polar notions of medicine, that there's alternative medicine, and then there's the other medicine. That is a tragedy. That is a false dichotomy. Moreover, we should not allow different sets of standards to develop for testing what is effective. Women have a right to know from their government what is effective, whether it comes out of nature in some pure sense or whether it is manufactured by a pharmaceutical company, and the role of government is to make sure that somehow, we can do our best work by finding safe, economical ways to integrate so-called alternative medicine with more traditional medicine so those words disappear and it's all medicine.
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Finally, Mr. Chairman, let me say that with the members of the Women's Caucus, I went to the Labor, HHS, Appropriations Committee where we go every year. Instead of talking about the diseases of women, I proposed a new program which I call LIFE. I chose that acronym for lifetime improvement in food and exercise, because I am appalled at the way in which, particularly the baby-boomers and children, are setting themselves up for cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and every deadly disease known to man through overweight and obesity. The notions of fat and diet are very important, but they are important because of the natural ways in which they prevent disease.
I look forward to what our witnesses will have to say about not only their experiences, but also about these ways of preventing similar experiences. If I could just say on a personal note that I particularly am pleased to welcome Mrs. Connie Mack, because her husband and I have worked as closely together as I have with any Member of the Senate or the House. He is not of my party. He has been extraordinary in the way in which he has used his problem-solving skills to work with me on tax matters. I know any man that is as good as that must have an awfully good woman for a wife.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. BURTON. I am sure that Priscilla guides him in everything he does.
Mrs. Mink.
Mrs. MINK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, too, want to join my colleagues in commending you for calling these hearings on such an important matter as the discussion on the needs for early detection and discussions of other kinds of preventive measures that could be taken with respect to women's health issues.
Mr. Chairman, for 8 years I have been trying to get the Congress to focus on the one issue that I thought was terribly neglected, having to do with the research necessary for finding some way in which we could detect the presence of ovarian cancer early enough to assure that the life of the woman could be saved. I discovered in 1991 through efforts by researchers at NIH and elsewhere, that only $8 million of the entire NIH budget was devoted in any respect to the research needed in ovarian cancer. Notwithstanding efforts of hundreds of women on this specific issue, we have only risen to a paltry level of $40 million. I have legislation, and Mr. Chairman, in which I invite your cosponsorship, calling for a budget of $150 million, which even by itself is modest if we are to really put the research efforts that are there to discover a reliable early detection test that could save lives.
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It is important to talk about prevention and all the other aspects of your hearing today, but it seems to me that with the scientific knowledge and the intelligence and training and research capabilities of our health researchers throughout the country, that we ought to be able to find a reliable test that could save thousands of lives of women who are diagnosed today, too late to have their lives saved. So many of these women are young, just beginning in their life situation. It is something which I feel very, very strongly about that has been neglected.
Mr. Chairman, this is really the first hearing in all these years of effort to call attention to this deplorable situation and neglect, that we have allowed. I have been to the Appropriations Committee, as my colleague here has indicated, every year, asking for earmarked money for this research effort. The Appropriations Committee has refused to earmark any money for ovarian cancer research. They have included report language, but never any earmarked money.
So I urge my colleagues to consider the legislation that is before this body, and join me in cosponsoring. I believe it is essential, and I believe that we are on the threshold of a research breakthrough. What is required is a commitment on the part of this Congress to steer our health research industry to focus on this very, very pathetic neglect. If we can clone sheep and mice and other things with our incredible intellectual capability, it seems to me that within a few short years, we ought to be able to come up with a reliable
test that could save thousands of lives each year. I implore this committee to continue this effort in calling attention to this serious health research neglect.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Hon. Patsy T. Mink follows:]
INSERT OFFSET FOLIOS 10 TO 11 HERE
[The official committee record contains additional material here.]
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Mr. BURTON. Thank you. I will be happy to cosponsor your legislation. I think Dr. Beilin may have some information that might be helpful in the research toward these cancers.
Mrs. MINK. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. BURTON. Are there any other Members that wish to be heard? Mr. Ose. Mr. Cummings.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. As I look down our list of witnesses, it makes my heart glad to know that they are all in this room. They are special people who have decided that they want to touch other people's lives and are doing so every day. So I thank them for being with us today. I look forward to your testimony.
Mr. Chairman, I am also pleased that this hearing regarding detection and treatment of women's cancers has been scheduled today. The medical and scientific community has made tremendous breakthroughs in the early detection and treatment of women's cancers in the past few years. Even with all the options currently available for the early detection and treatment, the estimates for new incidences of these cancers are unacceptable. The National Cervical Cancer Coalition estimates that 2 million American women will be diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer in the 1990's, and half a million will lose their lives. A disproportionate number of deaths will occur among minorities and women of low income.
It is interesting that in my district in Baltimore, sits Johns Hopkins Hospital. Johns Hopkins does a tremendous job of outreach, but at the same time, I know many women who are dying of these cancers every year. Virtually all of these deaths can be prevented by making life saving screening services available to all women at risk. Common barriers to early detection screening include, and this is very interesting, women attempting to escape knowledge that they have cancer, prohibitive costs and unawareness of the availability of low cost programs, lack of access to transportation to screening locations, communication barriers, lack of physician referrals, and lack of childcare.
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The Breast and Cervical Cancer Mortality Prevention Act of 1990 authorized the Center for Disease Control to implement a national cancer screening program. Through September 1996, the CDC has provided more than 1.2 million screening tests to low income, uninsured, or under-insured minority women.
Alternative and complementary approaches to treating these cancers have also gained momentum. In 1998, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine was established within the National Institutes of Health. This has effectively engaged traditional biomedical research in the evaluation of alternative medical treatment using scientific models. However, until more is known about the many alternative and complementary treatments, conventional treatment methods hold the most promise. We hope for a cure in the near future. In the absence of a cure, the ability to implement a national program to detect and treat women's cancers depends in large part on the involvement of various partners in State and local governments, physicians, national and private sector organizations, and consumers.
In the spirit of greater understanding and education of varied treatments of this disease, I look forward to hearing the experiences and opinions of today's witnesses. Thank you.
[The prepared statements of Hon. Elijah E. Cummings, Hon. Edolphus Towns, and Hon. Louise Slaughter follow:]
INSERT OFFSET FOLIOS 12 TO 20 HERE
[The official committee record contains additional material here.]
Mr. BURTON. Thank you, Mr. Cummings.
We have two votes on the floor. We should be back here in about 15 minutes. I apologize to the people who will be giving testimony, but we will get right to you, just as soon as we get back. So please excuse us. We stand in recess to the call of the gavel, about 15 minutes.
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[Recess.]
Mr. BURTON. The committee will come to order.
Sorry for the delay. We had some votes on the floor of the House. I am sure Members will be coming back in here as they leave the floor.
I would like for our first series of witnesses, Ms. Mack and Mr. Kushi, to come forward please and take their seats. Ms. Mack, you can sit on the left. Mr. Kushi can sit on the right.
I think I will recognize my colleague from Florida for an introduction.
Mr. MICA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am, indeed, delighted to have this opportunity to introduce someone very special to me. For the past two decades, I have known the Mack family. I had an opportunity to be a friend and also recently to be a colleague of Senator Mack. I think that there have been several comments already about the Mack family. Certainly Senator Mack is a gentleman. We have a gentlelady with us today, his wife. Both are very accomplished in their particular areas of endeavor.
The Mack family, like many American families, and we have also heard that among our Members of Congress cited today, have been afflicted by the rages and ravages of cancer. Their family, the Mack family, has been victimized by this disease. Mrs. Mack, Priscilla Mack is a cancer survivor. What is great about Priscilla Mack is that she took this adversity and this disease and she turned it into a personal campaign of public awareness, a public education effort to have millions and millions of American women become aware of the need for prevention, self-examination, and the problems that are related to breast cancer.
So I am, indeed, delighted and privileged to introduce a leader in our State and in our Nation. She is really our first lady in Florida in the fight against cancer, and really our first lady in the Nation who has brought to the public, to the American women, the need again for early prevention, detection, and treatment.
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So, Mr. Chairman, thank you for this honor and welcome, Mrs. Mack.
Mr. BURTON. Thank you, Mrs. Mack. I can recall back when Connie and I first got elected in 1908.
Mrs. MACK. It seems that long.
Mr. BURTON. It was 1982. Connie came over to my condo over in Alexandria. We sat on the floor and watched Chariots of Fire. You were down in Florida at the time. So Connie and I have been good friends for a long time, as well as you. I remember watching your boy grow up. So I am really happy you are here today.
Mr. Kushi, we are very happy you are here today. I am going to read your book. Hopefully that will save my life for a couple of years.
So we will start off with you, Mrs. Mack.
STATEMENTS OF PRISCILLA MACK, EXECUTIVE CO-CHAIR OF THE NATIONAL RACE FOR THE CURE; AND MICHIO KUSHI, THE KUSHI INSTITUTE, BROOKLINE, MA
Ms. MACK. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to appear before the Committee on Government Reform, and I commend you for holding this important hearing. I am here both as a breast cancer survivor, as well as executive co-chairman of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's National Race for the Cure.
In October 1991, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Prior to the time of my diagnosis, I had followed all the recommendations with regard to having annual mammograms and clinical breast exams. However, it was through breast self-exam that I discovered my lump in my left breast. I underwent a modified mastectomy, followed by 6 months of preventative chemotherapy, 5 years of Tamoxifen. In May, the following year, I completed my reconstructive surgery.
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I also want to note that I had had my mammogram 9 months before I found my lump. I had had my clinical exam 3 months before I found my lump. Early detection saved my life through my breast self-exam. Today I am a breast cancer survivor.
My goal is to share with as many women as possible the lessons I have learned as a breast cancer survivor. The most important lesson is a simple one, educate yourself. When confined to the breast, the 5-year survival rate is more than 95 percent. But women have to do three things, and through the American Cancer Society, of which I work also in Florida, we call it triple touch. You'll see when I mention these three things, why triple touch saved my life. One is your breast self exams monthly. Two, mammograms, as indicated by your physician. Three, your clinical exams. My message to women is simple but important. Early detection saved my life, and it can save yours too.
One of my efforts to help in the fight against breast cancer is my work on behalf of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's National Race for the Cure. Since its inception 10 years ago, the race has grown to the world's largest 5K walk/run. The 10th Anniversary Komen National Race for the Cure took place this last Saturday, June 5, with the record number of 66,148 participants. I also found out that 43,000 crossed the finish line. I believe Congresswoman Morella was 1 of those 43,000.
We were honored that Vice President Al Gore and Tipper Gore served as our honorary chairs for the race. Breast cancer survivors took part in a special salute to survivors which began with an inspirational walk at the foot of the Washington Monument. We also had a large bipartisan contingency of Washington lawmakers and more than 2,500 participants from 72 countries around the world. Most importantly, thousands of my breast cancer survivors, wearing pink T-shirts, all participated from all across this great land.
Last year, the Komen National Race for the Cure awarded $1.8 million in grants to 24 Washington, DC, area hospitals, research centers, breast health organizations, and the national grant programs of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. These grants provide funding for breast health programs including research, screening, treatment, and education programs.
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This year, we are pleased to announce that we will give approximately $2.5 million in grants, to be awarded from this year's race. Since its inception, the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation has raised more than $136 million through the work of its local affiliates in more than 100 communities across the country.
Once again, let me offer my heartfelt thanks to the many Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives who participate in the Komen National Race for the Cure series throughout the year. With each advance we make in finding a cure for breast cancer, we are one step closer to winning the race.
I would like to, before I close, mention to you all how cancer has touched our lives personally. Through this all, I want you to keep in mind that many of us are alive today because of early detection. My husband's mother was a 25-year breast cancer survivor. My husband's brother died of melanoma at the age of 35. His was not detected early. My daughter is a 10-year survivor of cervical cancer. Early detection saved her life. Because it was detected early, we now have a third grandson after the fact. She is in perfect health. My husband was diagnosed with melanoma right after he was elected to the Senate. Early detection and due to the profound experience we had with his brother, early detection saved my husband's life. Then I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Early detection saved my life. Unfortunately, Connie's mother died of renal cancer. Connie's father died of esophageal cancer. My stepmother died of ovarian cancer.
When we say early detection until we find a cure saves lives, meaningful things like this hearing and all that the doctors and the researchers are doing, I pray to God we'll end this dreaded disease.
Mr. Chairman, I thank you for the opportunity to appear before this committee.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Mack follows:]
INSERT OFFSET FOLIOS 21 TO 22 HERE
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[The official committee record contains additional material here.]
Mr. BURTON. Thank you very much, Priscilla. It is good seeing you again. I was not aware of all the tragedies that your family had to endure. We have had some ourselves, but, that's a lot. So you are to be commended, and Connie is to be commended, for all the extra efforts you put forth to help out.
Mr. Kushi.
Mr. KUSHI. Thank you very much for this opportunity, Mr. Chairman and committee members, I very much appreciate the fact that conventional medicine has developed its technology with the goal of diagnosing and treating various illness. We desire the continuous support of the physical and the other approaches that conventional medicine offers for the treatment of sickness.
On the other hand, the conventional approach is a symptomatic approach, and therefore, does not focus on revealing or applying understanding of the cause which underlies disease. No. 2, professionals engaged in the practice of conventional medicine often lack an understanding and support of other healthcare approaches. No. 3, conventional treatment, including its methods of diagnosis has always produced side effects. This is especially true when treatments are over-applied, and often results in the severe suffering of those who receive such treatments. Four, conventional methods of diagnosis and medical treatment are always expensive and often beyond the average person's income. As a result, costs often become the responsibility and burden of the government, the public, and the insurance systems.
Based upon these points, the tendency of individuals to search out these alternative approaches, so-called alternative and complementary health practices, has increased over the past many years beginning, commencing from about 40 years ago. Currently, approximately 50 percent of those who are suffering from disease are searching for and receiving unconventional methods of treatment.
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As a demonstration of these trends, consider the example of cancers that affect women. One, over the past 40 years, it has been my experience, as well as that of my associates, that many women are hesitant to receive chemotherapy, radiation, and the other intensive treatments. Two, many women who receive conventional care seek alternative methods as a result of intense suffering, both physical and emotional, that they experience by conventional medical treatment. They seek out milder approaches. Three, many patients desire to know the cause of the cancer from which they are suffering, yet they do not receive satisfactory answers.
The causes of women's cancer, as is true of the majority of physical and emotional sicknesses, lie in daily lifestyle and dietary practices. For example, in the case of breast cancer, the major causes are over-consumption of high-fat foods, including dairy food and simple carbohydrates such as refined sugar and sweets. In the case of ovarian cancer, the major dietary factors are the over-consumption of eggs and poultry, as are high fat, high cholesterol animal foods.
In the case of uterine cancer, dietary causes include over-consumption of animal foods and heavy dairy fats such as those found in cheese. In the case of cervical cancer, similar to prostate cancer in men, the primary dietary factors are the over-consumption of oily and greasy foods, salty foods, hard baked flour products, and heavy animal foods. In the case of thyroid cancer, the primary causes are the over-consumption of eggs, poultry, dairy fats, and hard baked flour products. In the case of pancreatic cancer, consumption of poultry, cheese, shellfish, and hard baked flour products are contributing factors.
In the case of skin cancer, causes include over-consumption of oily foods, sweets, and dairy fat, high-fat foods. In the case of leukemia and lymphoma, dietary causes include over-consumption of dairy fats, sugar, and sweets, as well as oily and greasy foods. Over-consumption of stimulants and aromatic substances, such as hot spices, alcoholic beverages, and caffeine, accelerate the spread of the cancer condition.
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Other lifestyle factors, such as cigarette smoking, physical inactivity, exposure to high levels of electromagnetic fields or radiation, and the consumption of chemically treated foods and water also contribute to the development of cancers. Non-organic chemically cultivated agriculture, irradiation, microwave cooking, and similar methods of unnatural food production and artificial processing, as well as daily unnatural lifestyle, are potential factors as well.
The macrobiotic approach, which attempts to correct these undesirable characteristics of the current American lifestyle and dietary behaviors, has been practiced by many individuals since the 1960's. Beginning as a grassroots movement, the macrobiotic approach has led to the initiation of the natural food movement and organic agriculture. The macrobiotic approach continues to gain popularity, and currently influences many millions of people. As a healthcare practice, this approach has helped to prevent disease and speed recovery times associated with numerous sicknesses, including many types of women's cancers.
Among those in today's audience, the following six or seven ladies are present that have experienced various types of cancer and also have recovered through the macrobiotic approach: Chris Akbar, a former physicist from Pennsylvania, who recovered 14 years ago from inflammatory breast cancer, which is predicted to have a lifetime of 2 or 3 months; Marlene McKenna, a mother of five, radio/television commentator, and investment broker from Rhode Island, who recovered 16 years ago from malignant melanoma spread to the small intestines; Judy MacKenney, a clothing designer from Florida, who recovered 8 years ago from non-Hodgkins lymphoma, stage 4; Kathleen Powers, Stone Mountain, GA, diagnosed in 1985 with endometrial cancer, stage 4, and diagnosed in 1993 with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, stage 3, terminal; Debora Wright, Athens, GA, diagnosed in 1995 with infiltrating ductal cancer, stage 2B; Lynn Mazur, Arlington, VA, diagnosed in 1989, Hodgkins lymphoma, stage 4B; Lizzz Klein, Tampa, FL, diagnosed in 1985, 30 various kinds of symptoms, including brain damage and breast cancer, suspected results due to breast implants; Mr. Norman Arnold, a business leader and philanthropist from South Carolina, who recovered 17 years ago from pancreatic cancer spread to the lymph and liver.
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These ladies and gentleman will be available for interview later, if you wish. Not only have they survived their illnesses, but they have actively contributed to society for many years following recovery, without recurrence of cancer. The majority of those cases were all terminal. These people are only a few examples of many who have recovered from cancer. In addition, many hundreds of women and men have received benefits from the macrobiotic approach.
The National Institutes of Health made a small grant of about $30,000 to the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. This fund was applied for the collecting of data and gathering of medical records. The data are now under review by a research group from Harvard Medical School and oncologists from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
In contrast to the conventional approaches, the macrobiotic approach also includes—not denying the conventional approach also, but also such practices as oriental herb medicine, acupuncture, moxibustion, and shiatsu massage, as well as other physical body care, emotional meditation, and psychological therapy practices, as they are necessary.
We highly recommend that the Government support the following: One, please make available public education regarding a proper healthy way of eating, mainly using grain and vegetable bases; and more natural lifestyles.
Two, increase funds available for research regarding the effectiveness of alternative and complementary approaches for both prevention and recovery, including diet and lifestyle as the base.
Three, make recommendations to all health facilities and medical schools to accommodate healthful menus and cooking instructions, as well as to teach a proper healthy lifestyle.
Four, advise selected hospitals or healthcare centers to establish a pilot plan for macrobiotic diet or similar diet and lifestyle, together with data creation as a clinical trial.
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Five, please advise medical and healthcare professionals of simple, practical ways of diagnosis, based upon oriental diagnoses of the face, pulse, meridians, and vibration, in order to effect low-cost, early detection.
Six, establish community-based and school-based educational programs, including school lunch programs and high school home economics classes, to recover home cooking and healthy lifestyles.
Seven, we would be happy to cooperate with such governmental efforts or public efforts by dispatching or sending well-experienced macrobiotic educators, counselors, and cooking instructors to any potential facilities. We recommend the funding of educational training centers at the level of college or professional schools.
Women are, in my humble opinion, strong opinion, the center of love, beauty, health, and longevity, and happiness among humankind. Home and family are the base for health and happiness. If this country establishes these ways of health and happiness, and prevents and treats physical and emotional disorders in a more natural way, America will become a symbol of health and happiness for the entire planet. America will become a leading light for all humankind, beyond the establishments of power, politics, and economies. This is the way of a great America, to open a new era
of humanity for the 21st century. In this way, America will become the creator of one peaceful world for a healthy mankind.
Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity.
[Applause.]
[The prepared statement of Mr. Kushi follows:]
INSERT OFFSET FOLIOS 23 TO 51 HERE
[The official committee record contains additional material here.]
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Mr. BURTON. Sounds like some people like you quite a bit. I don't even get that kind of applause when I go home. [Laughter.]
First of all, let me ask a few questions here.
Ms. Mack, when you had your breast cancer, did you have it in any of your lymph nodes?
Ms. MACK. No, I did not. It was diagnosed early enough. I had no lymph node involvement. Therefore, my prognosis was much better.
Mr. BURTON. Did you have any chemotherapy?
Ms. MACK. Yes, I did. I had 6 months of preventative chemotherapy. At the time I was diagnosed, the protocol for breast cancer without node, lymph node involvement, had gone to 6 months of preventive chemotherapy following a mastectomy. That wasn't done even a year before. Usually they didn't follow along with anything. And then the 5-years of Tamoxifen after that.
Mr. BURTON. Did you have radiation, too?
Ms. MACK. No, I did not.
Mr. BURTON. Did not have to have radiation?
Ms. MACK. No, I did not.
Mr. BURTON. I recall when my wife had her breast cancer and she did have it in five of her lymph nodes, and that's why the prognosis was not that good. One of the most tragic things that people go through is, when they start, women start to lose their hair after the chemotherapy. So I just wish everybody in America could have the opportunity to share the kinds of pain, mental pain, that women and their husbands go through when that sort of thing occurs, in addition to the other side effects of cancer that affect the family life.
You are to be commended for what you are doing. We really appreciate it. I am sure other Members will have questions for you.
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I do want to ask Mr. Kushi a few questions. You have—apparently a lot of these people had diseases that would have been deemed terminal illnesses before they went on your program. Some of those people you mentioned had lymphatic cancer and they also had cancer that had spread into the stomach and into the pancreas. I heard one that said the liver, which I always thought was a terminal situation. How do you account for the reversal of their problems? Is it strictly because of the macrobiotic diet you talked about?
Mr. KUSHI. All cancers are heavily related to and caused by daily eating. For example, pancreatic cancer, as I mentioned, is caused by heavy poultry eating.
Mr. BURTON. Poultry?
Mr. KUSHI. Poultry and egg eating, and also shellfish eating, and hard-baked flour, et cetera; of course heavy fatty, oily foods. So now when we approach this cancer, we must reduce, eliminate or reduce those foods which we're eating, and we are recommending more grain, vegetables, and other healthy ones. We try to eliminate as soon as possible from her body or the patient's body the effects of accumulated fat and those accumulated bad influences.
Mr. BURTON. How do you eliminate that? Some people talk about these like chelation therapy. Do you just do it by diet?
Mr. KUSHI. Through the diet, a very simple way. I would like to present maybe one example.
Mr. BURTON. Sure. Go ahead.
Ms. AKBAR. Hi. My name is Chris Akbar. I am one of Michio's assistants in Boston. In 1985, I was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer at Yale-New Haven Hospital. I was a grad. student working on a Ph.D. in physics at the time. My diet consisted primarily of ice cream, chocolate, cheese omelets, and pizzas. I was very fat. I weighed 170 pounds. Primarily dairy food and sweets.
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I discovered a red hot inflammation in my breast, very painful. I went and had penicillin for 2 weeks and nothing happened. Then I had a mammogram that showed nothing. I had ultrasound; it showed nothing. I finally had a surgical biopsy. They told me I had inflammatory breast cancer. This was in 1985. They told me I had 2 or 3 months to live. They said it was the most lethal; it was immediately in my lymphatic system.
I said ''Why do I have cancer?'' to my doctors. This was at Yale Medical School, and they had a lot of research there. They said, ''It's genetic.'' But nobody ever had cancer in my whole family.
Then I said, ''What can I eat? I am huge. I am obese. What can I eat?'' They said, ''Don't lose an ounce, because if you lose any weight, the cancer is going to be killing you even faster, if your body is starting to waste away. So have some Chocolate Ensure, which is made out of basically sugars and oils.'' They served us chocolate-covered donuts in the waiting lounge of the radiation laboratory where I was going. I thought something was a little bit strange.
Anyway, I started chemotherapy the next day. It was CAF. It was adriamycin, 5-FU, and cytoxan. Adriamycin made my hair fall out within 3 weeks, and I was devastated by that, plus nauseated. I went through menopause at the age of 33, basically, because of the drugs. Then I did radiation twice a day for 6 weeks. That was a very intense experience also.
Meanwhile, I had read a book about macrobiotics. It was by a physician from Philadelphia who had prostate cancer that had spread throughout his bones. He was basically a hopeless case. He was the chairman of Methodist Hospital. He picked up some hitchhikers who were hippies back in the late 1960's who said ''Try a macrobiotic diet, it will save your life.'' Well, he did. After 1 year of macrobiotics, he was completely cancer-free, with no other medical treatment. He was on a gourmet French diet, with heavy fats, heavy meats, heavy sauces, wine, everything. He was from Philadelphia and he went to Le Bec Fin Restaurant, basically.
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I was on a gourmet chocolate diet. I said this is the cause of my problem. I really think dairy food goes to the mammary part of my body and creates a problem. It just makes sense. I picked up a book, the Cancer Prevention Diet Book you have. It said, ''Dairy food and sweets is the primary cause of breast cancer.'' That was the main thing I was doing. It said, ''Stop those things and start taking some things to clean it out.''
Well, I came to Michio for counseling. His wife had just done her cookbook. I said this is my bible. I am just going to follow this book. I did. Michio gave me very simple remedies. He gave me a plaster made out of barley and cabbage that I just put on my breast every night. In 5 days, I felt the tumor getting smaller and softer. He gave me something to reduce my weight, simple vegetables like daikon, which is a long white radish, and carrots. I just grated them and ate that every day. I lost 50 pounds within like 2 months. All this fat came off of me.
I had a really bad pancreas from so many eggs and cheese I had eaten. He gave me a simple drink made out of cabbage, carrots, onions, and squash, called Sweet Vegetable Drink. I took that and my pancreas cleaned out. I no longer had sweet cravings. I didn't want chocolate every afternoon at 4. I had chronic constipation. I think that is often associated with breast cancer, because the toxins sort of buildup in your body and you can't eliminate them. He gave me something to strengthen my intestines, a simple like oriental drink made out of a white powder, a root powder, like a starch that strengthened my intestines.
I just did his diet. I never have touched, in 14 years since, I haven't touched any ice cream or chocolate or dairy food or meat, and I don't miss it at all, or sugar. After 2 months, I got incredible diarrhea one night. I wondered what was happening. The next morning I had realized that my entire tumor that was hanging on here was completely discharged out of my body naturally.
What had happened was in your intestines, when you eat, the nutrients from the foods that you are eating are absorbed and it changes the quality of your blood. If you are taking these things like I mentioned, these macrobiotic-type things, it actually goes through like a solvent and goes in and through your body and cleans everything out. So as I was losing all of this fat, everything was literally, along with the tumor, was just absolutely discharged out of my body. It was very effective.
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I am a scientist, so I kept very careful records of what I was doing and how my body was reacting. I found if I took any extra oils—he had told me oil is like throwing oil onto a flame, which was this inflammatory tumor—if I ate any oil, the redness would come back. In fact, it did, the inflammation. I could actually cause the inflammation to come back. I just literally eliminated all of that stuff that caused the cancer, took these things, these vegetables and grains and beans and seaweeds, and whatever, to clean out. Literally it flushed out of my body and saved my life.
So in 2 months, when I was supposed to be dead even with the medical treatments, it saved my life. It was so effective. It literally used the food as a cleaner to go through and clean out my body, very effective. I was really impressed. So I'm alive; 14 years later, here I am.
Mr. BURTON. I would guess you would be impressed.
[Applause.]
Mr. KUSHI. Those friends, besides many hundreds of other people, have been experiencing similar ways.
Mr. BURTON. Well thank you, Doctor.
My time has expired. Let me yield now to my colleague, Ms. Norton.
Ms. NORTON. Thank you very much. Both of these testimonies have been very, very impressive and very important.
I would like to know, Mr. Kushi, what is your training or your background that led you to the development of your approach?
Mr. KUSHI. Fortunately, I was not in medical school. I was a political science student, international law. After the end of the war, the World War, I wanted to have world peace. So I became a world federalist. Mr. Norman Cousins and a friend sponsored me, and I came at the age of 23 years old to America, 50 years ago. Then while I was studying in Columbia University's graduate course, accumulating various kinds of documents, the drafts of world constitutions and other related documents, I started to wonder whether even if this world government, world federation is born, how about sickness, how about love, how about sharing of people, how about prejudice or discrimination, those mental problems. And then I wondered, unless those things were corrected, there is no world peace.
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So I started to search for a solution, including visiting Dr. Einstein and Mr. Norman Cousins and various others, Thomas Mann, and so forth. But there were no active clear answers. But we have made religions, hoping to make people better. But between religions, then fights arise. Then we hoped education had high expectations, and also material prosperity; then again, unfortunately, sickness spread, crime spread.
So I started to—I gave up all political science studies and I started standing on a corner in New York's Times Square. Since I had been here, I started to watch people. What is humanity; what is humanity? It took 2 1/2 months; then I understood. Everyone had been, mankind has been made by two factors: one, environment, and two, what we eat.
What we eat is entirely in our hands, freedom. Individual people are freely choosing, freely cooking and so forth. Now if proper diet is eaten, and the environment, certain clean environment is done, then happy conditions come. If not, then sickness arises, crime arises, violence arises. So then I found that in the American diet of the 19th century, 20th century, comparing 19th century and 20th century, tremendous change occurred. More increase in animal food. More increase in dairy food. More increase in refined sugar. More increase in mass production of food, agricultural products, et cetera, and so forth.
Exactly parallel with this change of diet, heart disease is increasing, cancer is increasing, and various kinds of so-called degenerative diseases are increasing, as well as so-called virus diseases and also mental problems have increased. So I wanted to change our current way we're eating. Then we began the so-called natural food movement and cooking classes. This is my background.
Ms. NORTON. It is certainly true, particularly when studying populations of different countries, research has begun to show the associations that you indicate. I also note that in your testimony you seem to have an integrative approach as well. You indicate the debt we owe to conventional medicine, and then you indicate that there are certain things that medical schools and others can do to integrate these approaches in order to get better results for people who have the disease or to prevent the disease.
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May I ask if the people who are under your care, if you require that they not engage in conventional treatment or if some of them have also been engaged in conventional treatment while being involved with your diet?
Mr. KUSHI. Those things are up to the patient. The entirety of patients have entire freedom. However, because the cause is diet and lifestyle, so basically the cure is, basically the diet, proper diet and proper lifestyle. Then in addition to that correction, patients, if they want chemotherapy or radiation or acupuncture or herbal medicine, that's fine. They can attach these. But I hope this treatment can be mild and not overdosed. Because in my opinion, and in other people's opinions, by overdose of chemotherapy, overdose of radiation, this often affects so much the suffering of the patients, not only suffering, I wonder maybe shortening their life also. A moderate approach, I hope, the medical treatment can take.
Ms. NORTON. I just want to say to Mr. Kushi, I think increasingly many people adopt the point of view you just expressed, that the treatment is worse than the cure, and many people forego such treatments.
I just want to say in closing to Ms. Mack, how important her leadership has been, that when you have come forward and others like you have come forward, you cannot imagine the effect you have had on people who would not otherwise come forward. By doing the race, there are women whose attention we could not possibly get except through the dramatic intervention of well-known women who are first, willing to indicate that they have had the disease, and then willing to show that the disease can be defeated. I certainly want to thank you for that.
I have a sister who is now president of a college, who has had breast cancer and feels herself entirely cured. Since I am her sister, not only do I want her to be cured for that reason, but because this thing may also run in families. I certainly appreciate the leadership you have given to this work.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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Mr. BURTON. Thank you, Ms. Norton.
Mr. Mica.
Mr. MICA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mrs. Mack, I just had a couple of questions. First of all, your leadership has been tremendous in the private sector in providing awareness and also raising funds. You cited in your testimony how much money had been raised privately just by the activities you have been involved in. Maybe you could comment to the committee on your suggestions for research and for funding, and what do you think would be an appropriate private-public mix of funds?
Ms. MACK. Well, I believe the Congress is doing an awful lot in the doubling of the moneys for NIH which Connie has been involved with. Getting the funding doubled for NIH will help all diseases. I believe that all that we do in research is where we are going to find the true answer to not just cancer, but all other diseases, and through research, through alternative medicines. Research in every way is going to make the difference. Public and private, we all have to work together. It is a large problem. The Government can't do it alone, and neither can the private sector. I think whenever we can partner and whenever we can work together, the cures and the research will come to make a difference.
Mr. MICA. One of the other things that I wanted to ask about was that you had talked about awareness and self examination. There seems to be somewhat of a lack of public awareness. How do you think we should best approach these campaigns from a private sector's standpoint or public or a combination? What do you think is most effective in getting the message that you are trying to get out to women and others?
Ms. MACK. Well, I believe it is through hearings like this, through races, through advocacy, that all the women in this room, and all the people in the cancer communities do. We are blessed in this country with many generous, wonderful people who raise money in the private sector, but also our Congress and our administration, work diligently to find the answers to cancer, in particular, and diseases in particular. But I just think we have to continue. We can't sit, rest on our laurels. We have to continue to be out front and continue the fight, and to make more people aware.
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I mean, as obvious or as outfront as I have been and Dr. Kushi and everyone else, there are many, many people out there who haven't heard a word we have said. We have to continue to get to the underserved. We have to continue to get the message out that early detection, until we find a cure, is the way to deal with most diseases if you find it, or prevention through ways that have been proven to make a difference. It takes a lot of money. It takes a lot of time, and it takes a lot of heart. Through public and private, we can do it together. We cannot do it alone.
Mr. MICA. Thank you.
Mr. Kushi, you spoke quite a bit about diet and changes in lifestyle and prevention. What do you see as the role of research today and how important do you think that is in finding a cure for cancer or addressing cancer treatment?
Mr. KUSHI. There are many approaches for cancer treatment and many ways we should also examine, and research should be done. However, as I pointed out, basic problems of cancer and other disease are what we are eating and daily life. Therefore, do research to associate diet and daily life with cancer, and if more research goes there and finds what kinds of results are coming, such as test in the clinical trials, in the hospital, this and that, et cetera; and data accumulation. For example, it's very easy to confirm that blood pressure comes down or cholesterol comes down, it is very easy by changing diet. Same thing, like for diabetes, it is very easy to offset, even though insulin has been consumed. Situations are also very easy by dietary control.
In a similar way, if you subject patients to a study about this type of cancer, or just study this type of sickness, how diet is related. I suppose I or someone else, we will be very happy to confirm that this kind of diet will offset or reduce or prevent that; while, if the current way of eating continues together with any medical treatment, how different outcomes will result. It is very clear, you can see that. Then after you have accumulated those data, then you can apply these clinical tests in the hospitals, you can apply it in other health clinics. Those data can be created easily in 6 months, 1 year, or at most 2 years' time, enough data which we can convince the people who are watching the healthcare field and educational field.
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Mr. MICA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. BURTON. Thank you, Mr. Mica.
Mrs. Mink.
Mrs. MINK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to compliment both of our witnesses. You have very inspirational messages, not just to this committee and the Congress, but to the American people at large.
I detect the common theme of both of your testimonies, is a sense of personal responsibility. In your case, Mrs. Mack, your detection was by yourself through self examination. The message there is that notwithstanding all the medical instruments that are now available for detecting breast cancer, there is really no substitute for the once-a-month self-examination procedure.
In your case, Mr. Kushi, the knowledge that what you eat is what you are, I think, is an important message that we have to take very, very seriously. I do think that the points you make in your testimony, Mr. Kushi, have been well expressed by nutrition experts, by people in the medical profession who are constantly hammering on your diet, don't eat fats and stay away from this or that. So I think the general message is not that different in terms of the medical profession and what you are espousing.
The point, however, of getting the message earlier in life, particularly in places like the school lunch program in our schools and in our training programs. I have been told that medical doctors have less than one course subject on nutrition and the diet. They go out and they are treating patients with very serious illnesses, with very little perception about the importance of diet. So I think we have to carry the message to the professionals and convince them that the words they expound about diet truly have meaning. I think that that is what you have brought to this committee. I commend you for your work and for your leadership, and commend your book. I will get a copy and read it from cover to cover. Thank you very much.
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Mr. KUSHI. Thank you.
Mr. BURTON. Thank you, Mrs. Mink.
Mrs. Morella.
Mrs. MORELLA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is a pleasure to have heard both of you and to Mr. Kushi, to have had the women who have appeared here and gentleman to comment on the successes.
Priscilla Mack, you are so right. You know, over and over again, you said early diagnosis makes the difference. I am pleased that in my area with the American Cancer Society, with a number of hospitals involved, with Hadassa, we have been bringing a program called Check it Out to high schools, and inviting the 11th and 12th grade females to come together in an assembly and to learn self-examination. They ask very graphic questions. They learn it not only so they can get into the habit of doing it, but so that they can be the messenger, to bring the message to their older sisters, their mothers, their grandmothers, their friends. I guess that this is something from what you said, in terms of how you even discovered that you had a challenge, it is through the self detection.
So I want you to know how much I appreciate what you have done, and the fact that you have brought an enthusiasm and such strength to the whole concept of research and our own personal involvement, and certainly the Komen Race for the Cure. No wonder the money has doubled over the last year, because we have had inspirational people. So thank you.
I am interested, Mr. Kushi, whether or not first of all, these people who are such great testimonials to the concept of the dietary facet of it, do they come to you as a last resort? And how do they hear about you? Do you have any centers in Maryland?
Mr. KUSHI. Your home, I hope your house will become a center in the near future.
First of all, many people are coming to see me or my associates, or teachers. Many of them have already received medical treatment. They were declared—no way, terminal cases, or they themselves were dissatisfied with the results of the medical treatment. Those people come. Of those people who come, maybe 40 percent of people are this type.
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Second is the people who got sickness and got diagnosed. Then they start before they receive conventional treatment, they start to search for alternative ways and come to us. That is the second approach. That may be about 30 percent or so.
Another number of people for the sake of keeping their health, for the sake of precaution, they also come. And people who have come to us because they found at that time maybe stage one, two, or three of cancer, different stages. But as I said, and as you know, many women are hesitant to go in for drastic treatment. So before receiving treatment, they search. Otherwise, after they receive some drastic treatment, then they still are told there is no hope. Then they start to search.
Mrs. MORELLA. Do they hear about you basically through your book?
Mr. KUSHI. Yes, through words, through books.
Mrs. MORELLA. Word of mouth, words spread.
Mr. KUSHI. Yes, that's right. We are not a commercial venture, so we never advertise. But through books, through education, and also our educational center, the Kushi Institute in Massachusetts. However, through that dedication for many years, many graduates have come. I develop those teachers. Throughout the world, several thousand teachers are out there. In this country, many States, many cities have also macrobiotic teachers. They are doing cooking classes, they are doing health advice or various social work.
Mrs. MORELLA. You would, it seems to me, suggest that doctors, that all doctors, all of the health practitioners include as part of their treatment that there be the recognition of how food as well as exercise and other moderate lifestyles, the role that food plays.
Now she mentioned some of the mixtures that you made. I mean do you have to have it in mixture form? Can you just have like good vegetables and have a list of dos and don'ts? Does it have to be mixed in a certain proportion?
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Mr. KUSHI. It depends on the condition. For example, you know, like colon cancer, that more is caused by beef and pork and cheese, eggs. Eliminating that effect, then we need like grated daikon, grated carrots, green leafy vegetable juice, and so forth. More opposite factors we bring, and other factors to balance the condition. In the case of, like I would say intestinal problems, then there, traditionally the oriental countries have been using kuzu and also pickled plums, which are very good for digestion; and also, suppose, if you want to straighten out pancreatic cancer, then you better have sweet vegetables like cabbage, carrots, squash and onions: those finely chopped in equal amounts, and with three or four times water, cooked 25 minutes. That's a sweet vegetable drink. Drink every day, one cup, two cups. That makes it easy to solve the cancer.
In the same way, our approach is, No. 1, the safest approach. No. 2, cost value is low. No. 3, at home they can practice and use foods, food which they can get very easy. Using them, they make home remedies.
Mrs. MORELLA. I guess I am going to have to buy the book. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. BURTON. Mr. Cummings.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
To Ms. Mack, I want to thank you for being a leader in this area. So often what happens is, I think it was Martin Luther King, Sr., who said that you cannot lead where you do not go, and you cannot teach what you do not know. So often people go through difficulties. Once they get through their difficulties, they almost act like it never happened. But not only have you remembered, but you have acted on them to try to help other people. I think that there is no greater thing that we can do as human beings than to use our pains and our problems to turn them around and use them as a passport to help other people. So I thank you for your leadership.
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As I was looking at the statement of our good friend Mr. Kushi, I just want to ask you a few questions because I am truly fascinated. Mr. Chairman, I am so glad you had this panel because I did not expect it to be so interesting. [Laughter.]
Mr. BURTON. Are you inferring that this committee is not interesting? [Laughter and applause.]
Mr. CUMMINGS. One of the things that you talk about is cost,* [see below] that so many people, they can't get healthcare because of the cost. I guess they may not have insurance or whatever. I am sure it must be very frustrating to you and probably I'm sure you too, Ms. Mack, when you are on this mission to help people and to know that cost of treatment is something that because people can't afford certain treatments, that people are literally not only suffering, but dying. I mean that must be a very frustrating thing for you all. I just would like for you all to comment on that.
Mr. KUSHI. I agree, and for example, more in conventional medicine, doctors learn in medical school training there is no single course for nutrition, and diet; but by eating we form blood, we form our limbs, we form all sides of our bodies. Without understanding that, there is no way to understand cause.* [It seems that Mr. Kuchi heard ''cause'' instead of ''cost'' in the question of Mr. Cummings. Therefore, he addresses the frustrations of symptomatic medicine where ''cause'' is not eliminated.] Therefore, all patients are frustrated. If treated with a symptomatical approach, symptoms maybe might be temporarily eliminated; but then the cause still continues, still taking heavy meat, et cetera. Then again, symptoms come back 2 years later, 3 years later, all very shortly. Again, in the hospitals, even in hospitals, what are patients fed in there? They are fed the cause of the sickness, that beef or ice cream or whatever. This is a very ironic situation!
While trying to help sickness, they are creating more sickness, and endless heavy treatment, more increasing chemotherapy; more radiation is needed; and doctors themselves, I know, many doctors are frustrated. Why should we not open our eyes to the cause. Without knowing the cause, there is no way of cure. That's the medicine of symptoms, but not cure. But cause is, day to day our own way of eating, our own way of lifestyle! There probably, our thinking, consciousness must change. We want to have the prosperity, we want to have that. Our thinking must need to change, but at the same time, we can begin from day to day life now.
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We lost family cooking, with all outside fast food and this and that, et cetera; and together we are losing family cooking. Our family relations between father and mother and the children are becoming more and more troubled. Also in school, the concentration of students becomes troubled. The school lunch program is more fatty food, more heavy food, more sugary food. They can't concentrate in the school. Then unless we bring back to America and the entire world, which is influenced by America, good way of eating again, there is no way to solve this. America and other countries are all sinking down physically and economically.
Mr. CUMMINGS. I must tell you that you already had an impact on me. I have gone back there to the little room here to eat my potato chips, roast beef, and my Coke, and I could hardly get it down. [Laughter and applause.]
As a matter of fact, I left three-fourths of the bag of potato chips out there. I think I am going to throw them in the trash.
Mr. KUSHI. Let us think of our ancestors, your ancestors, all mankind's ancestors. Traditionally, we have been eating whole grains day to day. Right? Either bread form or rice form or whatever, and then vegetables, then beans. From beans, bean products we have been getting more vegetable quality proteins. Some countries may be getting seaweed, and so forth, a mineral source. Then we are doing home cooking. Animal food, like beef, our ancestors consumed much, much less. I have no objection to having that, animal food, but much less percentage, and not like currently, like antibiotics—or hormone-treated beef, and so forth. Then we didn't have cancer in the 19th century, 18th century. Why not? The tremendous change in the diet. Tremendous decline of what we are eating!
Mr. CUMMINGS. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. BURTON. Thank you, Mr. Cummings. I didn't know you were a standup comedian, but you are pretty good. [Laughter.]
Mrs. Biggert.
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Mrs. BIGGERT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Kushi, your diet seems to be quite the opposite of several diets that are popular right now in this country as far as losing weight.
Mr. KUSHI. For example?
Mrs. BIGGERT. Like the Zone diet or sugar busters, those high protein diets, which are high in fat, animal and dairy. But do you think that these type of diets then will contribute to greater cancer risks?
Mr. KUSHI. To certain period, for certain period, to certain symptoms they maybe contribute. But what macrobiotics recommends is very traditional, thousands of years or maybe a million years, mankind's experience, generations to generations, whole grain and vegetables, beans, et cetera. And that is the base. It then depends on climate, depends on where you live. Cooking methods change, and also combination of vegetables, combination of foods change. But the base is there, grains and vegetable base. Animal food you can add 5 percent, 10 percent, depends on your condition. Fruits also you can add, it depends on the seasons.
Suppose we didn't have in Washington, DC, our 20th century banana, because it simply didn't grow here. Now we are taking a banana every day. Or sugar, we didn't have sugar cane. We are not growing it here. All climates are different. Therefore, we need for those things to have moderation—tropical products, et cetera. That means environmental consideration is needed.
Mrs. BIGGERT. What about the role of exercise then?
Mr. KUSHI. Oh yes. The role of exercise is great. However, recently they are recommending that some special exercise is very popular now, certain types of exercises. I would say yes, you may do so. However, more important is day to day work, day to day active living. I am recommending to the sick people, the people who are sick and my associates, I am recommending every day with hot wet towel squeeze, scrubbing their whole bodies twice, morning and night, making blood circulation active, and so forth. Then take a walk at least a half hour, taking a walk if they can walk. Then if they can do any light exercise, fine. But not strenuous exercise. Then every day, singing a song, happy song—''You Are My Sunshine'' or whatever, not a depressing song—every day. That opens the chest and makes the breath and circulation better, and the emotions up. Also I am recommending people wear cotton clothing, and more cotton bedsheets and pillow case, instead of synthetic ones; and more also putting green plants in the home, which emit oxygen and keep the house better. Also, this may be a problem now, not using a computer much if you are sick.
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Mrs. BIGGERT. It sounds like a whole positive attitude.
Mr. KUSHI. Yes. Also microwave cooking is very questionable, microwave cooking. Now 75 percent of the American families are using microwave cooking. This is a big problem, question. Traditional cooking, like charcoal cooking, or the gas stove is much, much better. Furthermore, the like electromagnetic environment it is better to examine. Also, as home family cooking will be recovered, and I hope they have a chance, the whole family has a chance some evenings at dinner time, to talk to each other. They should sleep not at midnight, more like 10 or 11, and so forth. In other words, healthy, normal healthy life!
Mrs. BIGGERT. Thank you.
Mrs. Mack, I really appreciate your testimony and your presence here after the Race for the Cure last Saturday. It is amazing how across the country this type of activity is being conducted. I know in Illinois we had a big event there. I have to say that we didn't have quite the 66,000 people that were here in Washington, DC. But I think that does so much to raise the consciousness of the problem.
But in your work with breast cancer survivors, are there characteristics that you find that people have in common that are successfully overcoming their cancers?
Ms. MACK. Well, I will have to speak only for myself and the people I speak to, my impression of that. But I find like Mr. Kushi says, if you have a higher power and you do everything on your behalf that you can do to further your recovery, take care of yourself to find out what's out there to take care of it, and then what you can't do, let go and let God handle. Also, if you can do that and you have the serenity to do the right things for yourself and have that positive attitude, I find that through all of these things, we are changing the mindset that cancer is a deathnell. When we continue to do that, we also bring to that good mental health, which also affects your physical health.
Mrs. BIGGERT. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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Mr. BURTON. Well, thank you, Priscilla. You have been lovely as always, and we really appreciate your comments, especially the last ones you made. I think those are very important about having the higher power, the supreme being. A little prayer doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt a bit. It kind of calms the soul and helps stabilize everything.
Mr. Kushi, I pledge to you, every morning I am going to start singing ''You Ain't Nothing But a Hound Dog'' so I can get myself off to the right start.
Let me thank you both. I think it has been very, very enlightening. We really appreciate it. Mr. Kushi, your book, I am going to recommend it to a number of my colleagues. I think they would like to read it as well. So thank you both very much.
Mr. KUSHI. May I just add one thing about diagnosis? Very simple. For the family, to know where diagnosis is about cancer conditions, in the beginning stage. At this place,* [Mr. Kushi points to the outside edge of his hand, below the little finger] if green color comes out, then we have to suspect in the near future cancer may begin.
Mr. BURTON. Here?
Mr. KUSHI. Yes. In the case of breast cancer, this center, green straight line * [Mr. Kushi points to an imaginary line running down the center of the underside of his arm, up through the center of the palm, to his middle finger] comes, in the case of risk. This begins 6 months before cancer, one of the symptoms. This is an acupuncture meridian, the so-called ''heart governor'' meridian. It goes across this breast. If that meridian is clogged from the breast, then down the arm, it then becomes a green color in the case of cancer.
In the case of the uterine cancer or ovarian cancer, here * [Mr. Kushi grasps his chin with his thumb and index finger] if we have a very fatty, large deposit, and especially a hard one, then uterine cancer, ovarian cancer or cervical cancer is very suspected. Prostate cancer too, is very suspected for men.
Mr. BURTON. Right here under the chin?
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Mr. KUSHI. This. It's because low in the head reflects low in the body. It's very accurate. Various simple way of detection are available also, as information for home use.
Mr. BURTON. Thank you, Doctor, very much. Thank you both. We really appreciate it. Thank you all those who are applauding. I appreciate that as well.
We would like to now have Dr. Gardener, Ms. Zarycki, and Ms. Bedell-Logan come forward, please.
Dr. Gordon, since you have time constraints and you have to leave right away, you said you have a relatively brief statement you would like to make. So we will allow you to do that. Then we will go right to our ladies.
Dr. GORDON. Sure. I wanted to be able to stay around for questions though, if you would like to ask the questions too. I just was saying that I have to be back there by 3.
Mr. BURTON. In that case, if you wouldn't mind, Dr. Gordon, I think we will go ahead with this panel, and then we'll hold you, because I think we will be finished by 3.
Dr. GORDON. OK, great.
Mr. BURTON. Let's start with Ms. Zarycki. Did I pronounce that correctly?
Ms. ZARYCKI. It's Zarycki.
Mr. BURTON. Zarycki, I'm sorry.
STATEMENTS OF CAROL ZARYCKI, NEW YORK; N. LEE GARDENER, PH.D., RALEIGH, NC; AND LINDA BEDELL-LOGAN, SACO, ME
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Ms. ZARYCKI. I was going to say good morning, but it's really good afternoon.
Mr. BURTON. Well, these hearings sometimes run a little ways into the afternoon, but they are very important.
Ms. ZARYCKI. Yes, they are. Thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding complementary and alternative practices, which I will call CAM, and the role of women's cancer treatment. I am Carol Zarycki, an advocate and breast cancer survivor of 2 years. In my written testimony, I have outlined issues and instances where we as patients have had to do most of our own research in seeking out CAM protocol. I will highlight some of these points and summarize my personal approach.
I am speaking for myself and other patients and advocates whom I'll call we, to request legislation for CAM medical research and funding rather than to continue regulation of standard allopathic treatments, the costs of which are ultimately borne by the taxpayer and the Government, and which do not show an increase in cancer survivor statistics. We are tired of hearing about measures such as time to recurrence, tumor regression rate, or time to disease progression, when the real issue is preventing cancer in the first place. We would like to see a shift of funding and research attention to the review of a standard cancer protocol that is less toxic, better targeted, and more effective, while at the same time, focusing on CAM therapies.
The role of insurance coverage is a primary factor in the CAM choice process, and needs to be addressed, not just for patented drugs or diseases with a name, thereby endorsing insurance coverage, but for natural alternative treatments, so that we don't have to invent new names for new types of cancers. We need to have access to treatments and clinical trials that will work with us as individuals rather than be limited in choices. Some toxic medical procedures given routinely can leave the immune system in deep disrepair, making one more susceptible to recurring disease for this very reason. Ironically then, one would have to seek alternative treatment not covered by insurance to alleviate or attempt to alleviate this previously non-existing damage.
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Information needs to be made available so that individuals are fully informed of options and possible treatment outcomes, including quality of life and survival rates for the treatments they are choosing. Most women given Tamoxifen do not need the drug, and may even get the danger of side effects of blood clots in the legs or lungs, uterine cancer, strokes or heart attacks. A few of these women will have disease progression or recurrence anyway.
New legislation is required for alternative therapies in cases where old or even new drugs may not demonstrate an increased survival rate or even a better rate of progression-free survival.
There needs to be a recognition of chemicals in the environment and their effect on hormones from the fish we eat to our plastic-bottled drinking water. Our country regularly imports fruits, vegetables, and foods that have been treated by toxic methods, even when the imported food is labeled organic. Since it has been demonstrated that hormonal imbalances are an underlying factor in a growing number of breast and reproductive cancers, wouldn't it make sense to research natural hormones rather than add synthetic tamoxifen, raloxifine or premarin to an already overloaded hormonal system?
Evidence-based testing methods and not just scientific competition within the medical community, without regard for the population being studied, need to be employed. Trials which indicate life extension should additionally be able to demonstrate that this means for more than a few weeks, and should also discuss quality of life issues.
Non-toxic and non-invasive methods of cancer detection should be standardized, instead of encouraging mammograms which strongly increase a woman's chances of getting breast cancer in her lifetime. Also, for younger women with dense breasts and therefore, unidentifiable or undetectable ca