Dr Susan Love’s Breast Book: A Detailed Review of The Most Recognized Book on Breast Health

Dr Susan Love’s Breast Book, supposedly the best book to use on breast cancer, is not all that it’s cracked up to be. Of course, it is not a complete waste of print. However, you need to at least be aware of its shortcomings.

The number one issue is as plain as the nose on your face. That is, too much of the book covers basic anatomy of breast tissue and development instead of the information that women who read the book need the most. Women who are looking for answers do not want to have to sift through half of the book before they find them. Especially when time is of the essence, which in this case, it usually is.

The next difficulty lies in the fact that the book was published only as recently as 2005. This has to take its toll on the accuracy of the survival and mortality statistics quoted within its pages. The speed of medical advances in areas such as chemotherapy, antibodies, and hormonal therapy is usually a lot more swift than can be measured in five year increments. Because of this, there are no good statistics on ten-year survival rates.

As if that weren’t enough, Dr. Love takes a measly paragraph to guide women on reading and interpreting the statistics! This leads to feeling of fear and resgination at a time then they need to be more prepared than ever before in their lives.

Another flaw with the book is that there is much too much detail about rare complications of surgery and recurrence. At a time when most readers are looking for cold hard facts about their options in order to make treatment decisions, Dr Love agonizes over the number of lives lost as well as medical inadequacy. Again, to a woman looking for information right now: not necessary.

In the rare case that she has helpful information about the dangers of radiation, chemo, and/or surgery, Dr. Love insists on recommending it. Even though she says herself that 2-9% of non-metastatic women experience benefits from chemotherapy and that these three treatment options carry devastating and often permanent side effects!

Thanks, but I’ll pass on that advice. At least without a second or third opinion. Let’s not forget that she is a doctor, after all, and may have a detached manner of assessing treatment plans.

It is not that you can’t get some good information from the book. Dr Susan Love’s Breast Book contains a respectable amount of material on breast cancer. However, I would not put all of my time into reading it, especially if I wanted to be able to take any kind of action right away in order to save my own life.

Looking for practical information about preventing breast cancer in yourself and the women you love? Visit the preventing breast cancer page on Holistic-Medicine-MD. Better yet, check out the book Breast Cancer: Reduce Your Risk With Foods You Love by Dr. Robert Pendergrast.