Actress, ThighMaster/Ab Roller pitchwoman and best selling author of several books (including her personal perspective on weight loss), Suzanne Somers, stirred the health promotion waters again last month during an on-air visit to TV's CNN's Larry King Live show. Somers announced on the show that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She precipitated controversy when she added she had undergone a lumpectomy and received radiation but rejected chemotherapy in favor of homeopathic treatment with Iscador. She added that she'd also chosen to reject her doctor's advice to discontinue taking postmenopausal estrogen replacement therapy.

There are many issues here. Somers presents herself as a role model for self improvement. She is the author of 3 books that outline her experience in an alcoholic family. Her work in the recovery community generated the Humanitarian Award from the National Council on Alcoholism and the President's Award from the National Association of American Drug Counselors.

Recovery programs, including the one embraced by Somers, include a more spiritual perspective on life including surrender to a "higher power. " Expressing her reluctance to disclose her breast cancer experience until tabloid stories published pictures of her leaving a liposuction clinic, Somers said the clinic visit was to even out some areas caused by the lumpectomy to treat her breast cancer. "Maybe my higher power is pushing me to come out before I'm ready to come out about it (her breast cancer),"

Further inquiry by King revealed the controversial cancer treatment Somers embraced-daily abdominal injections of Iscador. Iscador is an extract of European mistletoe. The painful injections (course of treatment is five years) produce an inflammatory response. Supporters of the treatment, which is derived from the philosophy of an early 20th century Christian mystic, Rudolph Steiner, and used in Germany and Switzerland, believe the inflammatory reaction stimulates immune activity. The immune activity purportedly suppresses recurrence of the cancer.

Alternative medicine expert, Dr. Andrew Weil, in a visit to King's show after Somers' appearance said, "Now my understanding is, that in Germany no one represents Iscador as a cure for cancer. It is used as an adjunctive treatment to help stimulate the immune system and increase body defenses. Treatment for breast cancer," Weil agreed, empathizing with a growing desire by patients to replace chemotherapy with treatments that are less destructive to normal body cells, "is right in the middle of an area of great medical uncertainty and these decisions are very difficult. I would lean toward doing the chemotherapy, and using other treatments to reduce its toxicity and increase general health."

Somers acknowledged that her choice to avoid chemotherapy is because "I don't want to lose my hair." She continued, "I don't like what that drug does to people. And because I -- because I have done so much work in my books about hormones, and that hormonal balance is why people gain or lose weight, and, it was my belief that a balanced environment of hormones prevents disease, I have continued with my hormones (estrogen replacement therapy), which they (her physicians) say not to do. I haven't taken the after care drugs that they prescribe in this country because although there is a ten percent chance the cancer won't reoccur with the drugs there is a forty percent chance you will get coronary heart attack stroke and pulmonary embolism."

Somers' statistics combined with her stated love of research caught my attention. Several years ago, when Somers published her diet book, she cited her "research" to support a logical sounding but erroneous description of nutritional metabolism. She blamed excess fat on the tendency of the body's enzymes to "cancel each other out" creating a halt in the digestion process which caused weight gain. Her solution, a Byzantine process of eliminating "Funky Foods" and separating the rest into "Somersized Food Groups" for mixing and matching, has no nutritional basis. Its adoption by Somers believers demonstrated the power of television where a media personality could convince individuals to set standards for health that fly in the face of nutritional science and how we know the body really works. With that experience in mind I called my personal breast cancer guru, Dr. Marisa Weiss. Weiss is a breast cancer oncologist, author of LIVING BEYOND BREAST CANCER and founder of ibreast.org. I asked her if Somers' take on the risks of post treatment medications was accurate.

"In fact," Weiss responded when reviewing the transcript of Somers appearance, "her numbers are all off, totally wrong. Tamoxifen reduces the risk of recurrence by between 35-50% in women whose cancers have estrogen or progesterone receptors. The risk of pulmonary embolism or endometrial cancer is < 1% and there is no increased risk of any heart disease.

Adriamycin-based regimens can lower the risk of recurrence by about 10%, and the associated risk of heart disease at today's standard doses is MUCH lower than 10%. AND its not coronary heart disease, rather a weakness of the heart muscle. This type of side effect is monitored very carefully using heart studies along the way. if there is any signs of loss of heart strength, then the adriamycin is stopped, and in most cases, the heart is able to recover."

Weiss expressed empathy for Somers and suggested her confusion was a good example of how hard it is to listen, understand and remember things correctly when you're feeling scared and worried about your health and your future. Although I am aware of the pharmacy literature regarding the use of hormone replacement therapy when diagnosed with breast cancer I asked Weiss about Somers' decision to continue hormone therapy because it helped her manage her weight, Weiss said, simply "At this time, having a history of breast cancer is a contraindication to the use of postmenopausal estrogen replacement therapy."

Weiss and I continued our conversation with an exchange that concluded with the sad realization that it was possible that a media driven worship of the body, including unwillingness for women to lose hair or have their body take on post menopausal weight shifts could get in the way of how long she lives. Of course hair loss is devastating to most people. Weiss reports that for many women, loss of hair is worse than losing a breast. However, once they acknowledge that at least the hair loss is temporary, most women choose to go for the treatment and manage to come to terms with the temporary but terrible hair loss.

Both Drs. Weil and Weiss expressed openness to complementary medicine as long as there are data to support its benefits, information to understand its potential side effects, and caution that is not be used INSTEAD of proven therapies.

Like all choices in life, especially when we get that whack on the side of the head, each of us must find our own way and make the decision WE believe is best. That message from the higher power for Somers (to acknowledge her breast cancer) is different from my lens. I believe her higher power wants her to see what I see-that she is much more than her practically perfect thin figure. She is a bright and talented woman who, regardless of the course of her disease should, as all of us should, write her epitaph and live her life in keeping with her goal of how she wants to be remembered-as the beautiful blonde thin spokesperson for thighmaster, ab-roller and a book that emphasized thinness vs. health or a gifted actress, spokesperson for recovery and a woman who, in the heat of battle could go for the finish line with a strategic plan that included weighing options for what is reasonable, prudent and proven to reach that goal-in this case to get rid of the cancer and never see it again.

My life is challenged daily by my belief that we can agree to disagree. Once again, although I disagree with Somers perspective on how to get there, I hope she succeeds in her race.