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.