Actress Angelina Jolie is in the news again for her radical approach to health.
In May 2013, she revealed the shocking news that she had opted for a double mastectomy in an attempt to ward off breast cancer.
Ms. Jolie’s reasons? Her genetic history of inheriting the defective gene BRCA1 which apparently increases her breast cancer risk to 87%.
Angelina’s own mother tragically died of ovarian cancer at the age of 56 after a courageous and hard fought 10 year battle. Jolie’s aunt died of breast cancer at the age of 61.
Both women had the defective gene BRCA1. Defective mutation of the BRCA2 gene also results in increased risk.
Now, Ms. Jolie is making headlines again for hinting that she plans additional preventative surgery. This next round of going under the knife would involve a hysterectomy and an oophorectomy to remove her ovaries. These surgeries will eliminate the estimated 50% chance she may develop ovarian cancer, again due to the BRCA1 gene.
However you may feel about Ms. Jolie’s health decisions, one thing is clear: some women will go to extreme lengths to avoid the risk of female cancers.
While I am not personally of the philosophy that we are a slave to our genes and need to remove body parts to be healthy over the long term, knowing our genetic history and biological tendencies can indeed be helpful as we navigate our life choices, including dietary and environmental influences.
While I admire Ms. Jolie’s determination and gumption, it’s not at all certain that undergoing surgery will actually prevent cancer. The harmful mutation of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes may also increase the risk of other types of cancer such as pancreatic.
Would reducing cancer risk for the breasts and ovaries by surgically removing them in fact spike the risk for the more deadly pancreatic cancer, the third most common cancer for those with a defective version of these genes? Pancreatic cancer can’t be avoided by surgically removing it as the pancreas is a vital organ. Worse, it is a silent disease with few if any symptoms and is difficult to screen for.
In fact, this is exactly what happened to one BRCA2 positive woman with a strong family history of ovarian cancer. She had her tubes and ovaries removed in what she thought was a smart preventative move only to be diagnosed with the more deadly pancreatic cancer.
Time will tell if a surgical approach for preventing cancer is truly effective, but until that time, it seems wise to manage cancer risk with appropriate diet and lifestyle choices, not by removing body parts and organs.
How to Protect Yourself With a Cancer Prevention Lifestyle
According to the Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF), Traditional Diets, which all contained both animal and plant foods farmed by nontoxic methods, are rich in factors that are highly protective against cancer. Many of these protective factors are found only in animal fats such as butter, cream, tallow, lard, egg yolks and organ meats.
Below is a list of the nutrients suggested by the WAPF that are especially critical for preventing cancer and the foods that contain them in high amounts. Please note that obtaining these nutrients via supplements manufactured in a factory setting is not an optimal way to consume them.
Co-enzyme Q10: Highly protective against cancer. Found only in animal foods.
Vitamin A: Beta carotene in plant foods is not Vitamin A, is not easily converted to Vitamin A in the body and never converted in quantities to support optimal health. True Vitamin A strengthens the immune system. Essential for mineral metabolism and endocrine function. Helps detoxify. True vitamin A is found only in animal foods such as cod liver oil; fish and shellfish; and liver, butter and egg yolks from pasture-fed animals. Traditional diets contained ten times more vitamin A than the typical modern American diet.
Vitamin C: An important antioxidant that prevents damage by free radicals. Found in many fruits and vegetables but also in certain organ meats valued by primitive peoples.
Vitamin B6: Deficiencies are associated with cancer. Contributes to the function of over 100 enzymes. Most available from animal foods especially grassfed raw milk.
Vitamin B12: Deficiencies are associated with cancer. Found only in animal foods. Liver is the best source by far.
Vitamin B17: Protects against cancer. Found in a variety of organically grown grains, legumes, nuts and berries.
Vitamin D: Required for mineral absorption. Strongly protective against breast and colon cancer. Found only in animal foods such as cod liver oil, lard, shellfish and butterfat, organ meats and egg yolks from grass-fed animals. Traditional diets contained ten times more vitamin D than the typical modern American diet.
Vitamin E: Works as an antioxidant at the cellular level. Found in unprocessed oils as well as in animal fats like butter and egg yolks.
Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA): Strongly protective against breast cancer. Found in the butterfat and meat fat of grass-fed ruminant animals.
Cholesterol: A potent antioxidant that protects against free radicals in cell membranes. Found only in animal foods.
Minerals: The body needs generous amounts of a wide variety of minerals to protect itself against cancer. Minerals like zinc, magnesium and selenium are vital components of enzymes that help the body fight carcinogens. Minerals are more easily absorbed from animal foods.
Lactic Acid and Friendly Bacteria: Contribute to the health of the digestive tract. Found in old fashioned lacto-fermented foods.
Saturated Fats: Strengthen the immune system. Needed for proper use of the essential fatty acids. The lungs cannot function without saturated fats. Found mostly in animal foods.
Long-Chain Fatty Acids: Arachidonic acid (AA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) help fight cancer on the cellular level. They are found mostly in animal foods such as butter, organ meats, cod liver oil and seafood.
Additives in Processed Foods that Can Cause Cancer
While a cancer prevention lifestyle includes eating a whole foods diet rich in the nutrients above, it is equally as important to avoid the chemicals, additives and other dangerous substances in processed foods that contribute to its development.
The list below provided by the Weston A. Price article How to Protect Yourself Against Cancer with Food summarizes what to avoid:
Trans Fatty Acids: Imitation fats in shortenings, margarines and most commercial baked goods and snack foods. Strongly associated with cancer of the lungs and reproductive organs.
Rancid fats: Industrial processing creates rancidity (free radicals) in commercial vegetable oils which are in nearly all processed cookies, crackers and chips.
Omega-6 fatty acids: Although needed in small amounts, an excess can contribute to cancer. Dangerously high levels of omega-6 fatty acids are due to the overuse of vegetable oils in modern diets.
MSG: Associated with brain cancer. Found in almost all processed foods, even when “MSG” does not appear on the label. Flavorings, spice mixes and hydrolyzed protein contain MSG.
Aspartame: Imitation sweetener in diet foods and beverages. Associated with brain cancer.
Pesticides: Associated with many types of cancer. Found in most commercial vegetable oils, fruit juices, vegetables and fruits.
Hormones: Found in animals raised in confinement on soy and grains. Plant-based hormones are plentiful in soy foods.
Artificial Flavorings and Colors: Associated with various types of cancers, especially when consumed in large amounts in a diet of junk food.
Refined Carbohydrates: Sugar, high fructose corn syrup and white flour are devoid of nutrients. The body uses up nutrients from other foods to process refined carbohydrates. Tumor growth is associated with sugar consumption.
What Do You Think?
Do you think it’s a good idea to have surgery to remove breasts and ovaries if one has a defective, mutated gene that raises cancer risk considerably? Or, is a cancer prevention lifestyle which includes emphasis on Traditional Diet a better approach?
More Information
How to Protect Yourself Against Cancer with Food
Angelina Jolie Reveals Plans for More Surgery after Double Masectomy
Would You Ever Do Chemo or Radiation for Cancer?
Life has no guarantees. Love it and live it to it’s fullest. It’s not the length but the quality. It breaks my heart for her. How much quality can exist in a life where you are so afraid of your own body.
That’s exactly the point Tracy – as a woman who made this decision myself, I wanted to stop living a life in fear of what my body would do. I watched as my mother survived one breast cancer/a unilateral mastectomy – refusing to remove her left breast at the time only because she feared (thanks to our society’s values) that it would make her “less of a woman” – and then watched as she had breast cancer of the 2nd breast with metastasis that killed her. I’ve had several lumpectomies/scares myself and didn’t want to go through that anymore. Oh, and lest you assume that I’m some under-educated “self-mutilating” “star-struck” innocent who was taken advantage by “the medical consipracy” – Nope, I fully believe in natural approaches to healthcare first – am a chiropractic physician (for 17 years) with a Masters and PhD in Nutrition and am a Registered Dietitian. I probably have the single best diet and lifestyle of anyone I know – live on a farm and eat only what we grow/harvest off our own land (all organic of course) – but I also read the science and know what the statistics tell me. And I still got a GI cancer! I didn’t want to face breast cancer as well. And for what it’s worth, these analogies to cutting out our brains, hearts, etc are ridiculous – more like having a defective toenail removed since breasts serve no biological purpose once breastfeeding is past. It’s just adipose tissue, no different than that in your belly or rear but of course, that’s not the value our society places on these particular lumps of fat.
What your oncologist doesn’t want you to know.
The Case Against BRCA Testing
In the research paper titled “The Case Against BRCA1 and 2 Testing”, published in the journal Surgery in June 2011, the four authors from the Department of Surgery, University of California explain what many oncologists don’t want to hear:
“It turns out that, like a book, a gene can be ‘read’ both backward and forward. Small sections (or chapters) within a big gene can be ‘read’ alone. The three-dimensional structure of DNA controlled by site-to-site methylation prevents many chapters from being “read” at all. In addition, short segments of RNA (22 base pair micro-RNA) can cycle back to control DNA transcription.
So, DNA is just the starting point, and like flour, you do not know whether the chef is going to cook a croissant or a tortilla with it… Are BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 unique? Or just like other genes, is their expression controlled by the inner cellular attitudes (both epigenetic and environmental) of the individual patient?
BRCA 1 and 2 code nuclear proteins, also known as tumor suppressor genes, capable of repairing damaged DNA… Both mutations increase the lifetime risk of breast cancer in a woman. Less than 5% of women diagnosed with either ductal carcinoma in situ or invasive ductal cancer are a result of inherited BRCA genes…
But BRCA 1 and 2 may speak with many voices. Polymorphisms are naturally occurring single nucleotide variations of a gene present in more than 1% of the population. Polymorphisms and other single-nucleotide variants have been identified within the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes. Indeed, more than 500 mutations in BRCA 1 alone have been documented and most render their proteins inactive—so, some BRCA genes seem to be shooting blanks. And a single nucleotide polymorphism, albeit only a single nucleotide change, can have a formidable influence on protein expression.
Sequence variant S1613G, for instance, results in increased mutational risk of BRCA 1 neoplastic expression, whereas a variation in K1183R is related inversely to cancer risk. It seems that some polymorphisms may actually have a protective effect.”
Good info here: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/05/27/angelina-jolie-double-mastectomy.aspx
I really hope your decision works for you long term. I truly do. But, it’s misguided to claim that surgery is the answer to preventing cancer for women with the BRCA mutation … it’s a long shot guess at best and any “evidence” that is claimed by doctors is not actually evidence based medicine at all. We won’t know the final word on this for quite some time. Cancer takes years even decades to develop.
She obviously has mental issues. And too much money! I think a normal person would just eat right and try to live a healthy lifestyle. She must be so afraid to get cancer that she is willing to put her body through all of that.
She should make the decisions which she thinks are best for her but what I´m afraid of is that she is such a great rolemodel for many women and could spread a panic. Maybe she herself is perfectly informed and can afford the best doctors, but other women are not in the same position and could make wrong choices…
She is either an idiot or she is mentally ill. She needs to be put in an institution to be checked out. She will never stop cancer until she has taken control of her life and eats better. She can’t stop cancer in her body….it can happen in all organs….including her brain. Maybe they need to check her brain for cancer that causes these voices in her head that keep telling to destroy her body.
It is medically unsound to think that chopping off bits of your body will prevent cancer or a recurrences of cancer. My mother had a double mastectomy and STILL has cancer deep in that area. Any doctor who would agree to keep taking bits off of this person should not be practicing medicine.
I’m sad for her but I don’t believe chopping my body up into tiny pieces will prevent a thing….let alone the suffering you do while trying to heal. She needs a healthier lifestyle and a good homeopath. ♥ then she needs to embrace life as it comes ♥
Watch your Ph levels, cancer thrives off of acidic bodies and cAnnot grow in an alkaline body??also get rid of sugar 🙂
EPIGENITICS
It sounds more like a case of self-mutilation
Great information but it seems as if everything is aiming at animal products while somehow leaving the message that these animal products are the best and the only possible option.
I eat butter, lots of healthy fat and drink raw milk but I don’t see why the nutrients that are abundant and cancer fighting in non-animal products can be given some credits. How about Plant Sterols, Plant Fiber and so on.
Is like you went our of your way not to mention any beneficial nutrients from plants.