Angelina Jolie and Breast Cancer

Much kudos to Angelina Jolie for bringing more awareness to the fight against breast cancer. Just to recap Jolie disclosed that even though she did not have breast cancer she did a double mastectomy as a precaution because she has a mutated BRCA1 gene known to raise a woman's risk of breast and ovarian cancers. My own mother underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer in 2003 and outside of the aches and pains of aging is still doing quite well.

With that being said I want to ask one question. Was Jolie’s procedure necessary? Because of her family history and mutated gene, the answer would be yes from a medical standpoint. Essentially, most inherited cases of breast cancer are associated with two abnormal genes: BRCA1 and BRCA2. Everyone has BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. The function of the BRCA genes is to repair cell damage and keep breast cells growing normally. But when these genes contain abnormalities or mutations that are passed from generation to generation, the genes don't function normally and breast cancer risk increases.

But here is one often overlooked statistic. Only about 5% to 10% of breast cancers are thought to be hereditary, caused by abnormal genes passed from parent to child. Therefore, up to 90% of women diagnosed with breast cancer, never had a history of it in their family.

So what seems to be the cause of breast cancers? Some health advocates believe that the main cause is environmental, and if you have the mutated BRCA1 gene, then of course your risk is greater. Some of these environmental risk are

1) Excess estrogens in plastic bottles, birth control, animals treated with hormones and antibiotics, cosmetics such as lotion that contain parabens, and plants such as soy.
2) Metals such as aluminum found in anti-perspirant deodorants
3) Vitamin D Deficiency
4) Excessive mammography screening according to a study done by the Harvard School of Public Health. In a nutshell the study stated that mammograms may not only be inappropriate for breast cancer screening, but may actually contribute to significant overdiagnosis of cancer that otherwise would have remained harmless.

With this being said, I ask the question again. Did Jolie need to do this procedure? My answer would be its totally up to her. But I would say to any woman (and men) reading this article, whether or not you believe that your risk is greater, look at the various factors listed above and determine how best you can remove them from your lives. For example, if possible avoid birth control, do not drink water from plastic bottle, buy organic food, use paraben free cosmetics, avoid anti-perspirants, get plenty of vitamin D sunlight or supplement it, and finally avoid routine mammograms if you are under the age of 50.

I hope you found this information useful. Stay fit and well family.

Dangers of Parabens

Parabens. It sounds like the name of a garbage collection company doesn’t it? What you may not be aware is that parabens are more a part of your world than realize, and its unfortunately not a good thing. What exactly are parabens and where do you find them? Lets start with where do you find them. Parabens can be found in personal lubricants, shampoos, commercial moisturizers, cleansing gels, shaving gels, topical pharmaceuticals, toothpaste, and possibly used in food additives.

So with that being what exactly are parabens? Simply put parabens are chemicals used as preservative. They are used to fight bacteria and fungus, are widely available, and cost very little to manufacture and use. Nearly all of the parabens used as preservatives are man-made and not naturally occurring. Because so many products we use contain some form of parabens, it can be difficult to avoid them.

No why are parabens bad? Before I answer this question, please note that there have been studies on both sides of the argument about whether parabens are bad or safe. In my opinion, because of the number of studies done regarding its dangers, I tend to avoid products with parabens. Essentially, similar to Bisphenol A found in plastics, parabens appear to mimic the hormone estrogen in the body. For those who have read many of my past tips, you will note that I often say that no one needs excess estrogen as this leads to a host of health issues such as breast cancer, fibroids, cysts, infertility, low libido, depression, weight gain, irregular menstrual cycle, and the list goes on. Researchers have found parabens in breast tumors and believe there is a relationship between the two. In addition, in the July 2002 issue of the Archives of Toxicology, Dr. S. Oishi of the Department of Toxicology, Tokyo Metropolitan Research Laboratory of Public Health reported that exposure of newborn male mammals to butylparaben “adversely affects the secretion of testosterone and the function of the male reproductive system.” FYI Researchers are still not sure how and why parabens might affect development and growth of both babies and adults.

So how do we avoid parabens and other harsh chemicals? For starters I would suggest reading labels more carefully and try to avoid products with these 10 chemicals:

1) DEA (diethanolamine)
2) Parabens Of Any Kind
3) BHT (Butylated Hydroxytoluene)
4) Propylene Glycol
5) Triclosan
6) Bisphenol A
7) Polyethylene
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate
9) 1,4-dioxane
10) Butyl Cellosolve

There are also some great companies that have signed an agreement called The Compact For Safe Cosmetics, which is a coalition effort to protect the health of consumers and workers by securing the reforms necessary to eliminate dangerous chemicals from cosmetics and personal care products. Some of these companies are Suki’s Naturals, Avalon Organics, Weleda, Tom’s of Maine, Aubrey Organics, Dr. Bronner’s, Burts Bees, California Baby, Dr.Hauschka, Terressentials, Badger, Nature’s Gate, JASON, Kiss My Face, Pangea.

I hope you found this information useful. As always stay fit and well family.