Breast cancer patient develops natural care body products
Ira Kaganovsky Green launches Freedom Deodorant
Over a six-month span of 2013 and 2014, Ira Kaganovsky Green had three female friends — ages 31, 41 and 43 — diagnosed with breast cancer.
“These were healthy women and not even middle-aged,” Green said. “I wanted to know what was going on — was there something in our water? What was happening that all of these young women were getting this disease?”
Her line of questioning led her to learn that what you put on your body is just as important as what you put into it.
“My girlfriends that had been diagnosed were told by their oncologists to use natural care body products, which was a wake-up call to me,” Green said. “It does make sense, though, because our skin is our largest organ and absorbs everything that’s put onto it. … I was shocked to learn that antiperspirant is classified as an over-the-counter drug by the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) because it changes the way your body works. Even when you put on clothes from the dry cleaner, you’re exposing your skin to harmful chemicals.”
Although there is no direct link between breast cancer and these findings, Green realized that she wanted to help her friends, and herself, remove the toxins and hard chemicals from their bodies.
Green and her friends soon became frustrated with the lack of effectiveness that many natural products, especially deodorant, provided. She decided to try her hand at making a natural option in her kitchen.
“I used ingredients right out of my pantry,” she recalls. “I gave some to my friends to try and was amazed when one of them called with tears of joy! She said she actually felt normal again, and this was while she was undergoing treatment for her cancer and feeling the effects of menopause.”
It was then that Green knew she might have a game-changer on her hands. She was able to launch Freedom Deodorant at the end of 2015 and sold her financial advising business soon after. Today, Freedom Deodorant is sold at The Spa boutique at the Four Seasons Las Vegas, on her website (freedomdeo.com), at local Whole Foods stores and on Amazon.
Green said, “I named it Freedom because I want to give women a sense of freedom. Women take on so much and carry excessive amounts of stress. That’s just the way it is.”
Her business continued to grow and, in 2022, Green felt a lump in her own breast.
“I had been diligent about getting mammograms, going every six months because of my dense breast tissue,” she said. “Although I could feel a lump during my self-exam, it wasn’t able to be seen on a mammogram. Because I was familiar with my friends’ stories, I knew that I needed to be my own advocate and get it checked.”
On her way to Dubai for business on March 1, she was diagnosed with Invasive Lobular Carcinoma (ILB) Estrogen Positive Stage 2 B breast cancer with some cancer found in two lymph nodes. “It turned out that I had a 10-centimeter tumor!”
Scheduled for a double mastectomy with Comprehensive Cancer Center of Nevada’s Margaret Terhar, M.D., within the month, Green then began a chemotherapy protocol just three weeks after surgery. Oncologist Karen Jacks, M.D., of Comprehensive Cancer Centers, worked with Green’s integrative medicine doctor to help her deal with the treatment in a natural manner.
“Dr. Jacks was so open to the idea of integrative medicine and knew that I wanted to implement certain things into my own situation. I really wanted to get stronger and be able to bounce back from this faster,” Green said.
“You have to be persistent about what you feel — there’s a definite risk in not following through on your instincts,” Jacks said.
Green joked that losing her hair was probably harder than losing her breasts. “They (the breasts) tried to kill me and I didn’t need them anymore … plus, reconstructive surgery has come so far.”
“Ira has had such a positive attitude,” Jacks said. “Her persistence led to the early detection of her tumor and she was very active in supporting herself through the process. She’s currently undergoing radiation treatments, which are also targeting her armpit and lower collarbone because of what we saw in the lymph nodes. I’m pleased to report that she’s absolutely thriving today.”
Green feels that women really need to talk more to each other about their health.
“We need to de-stigmatize cancer as a death sentence,” she said. “I feel that my cancer was caused by stress but it actually forced me to become healthier.”
As the mother of three daughters, Green shares that she’s been “brutally” honest with them about her own diagnosis and treatment as they now have that family history. “They have the chance to be proactively healthier than I was,” she said.
Green believes that early detection is key, as is talking to other women about the experience. Green’s advice is to take a healthy approach to your life: Step back and breathe; follow a low-inflammation diet; exercise in moderation; cut out alcohol and just do everything in moderation.
“One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime so it shouldn’t be a surprise that I got it, too. But, please, when you talk to people who are going through this, focus on the survivors and keep it positive. More people are alive today because of constantly evolving treatments.”
“If you feel something abnormal, go get it checked. There is absolutely no more important thing you can do,” Jacks said.