'My Medical Choice'
written by Angelina Jolie.
Published
in The NY Times on May 14th 2013
"MY MOTHER fought cancer for almost a
decade and died at 56. She held out long enough
to meet the first of her grandchildren and to
hold them in her arms. But my other children
will never have the chance to know her and
experience how loving and gracious she was.
We often speak of “Mommy’s mommy,” and I find
myself trying to explain the illness that took her
away from us. They have asked if the same could
happen to me. I have always told them not to
worry, but the truth is I carry a “faulty” gene, BRCA1,
which sharply increases my risk of developing
breast cancer and ovarian cancer.
My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk
of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian
cancer, although the risk is different in the case
of each woman.
Only
a fraction of breast cancers result from an
inherited gene mutation. Those with a defect in BRCA1
have a 65 percent risk of getting it, on average.
Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to
be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I
could. I made a decision to have a preventive
double mastectomy. I started with the breasts, as
my risk of breast cancer is higher than my risk of
ovarian cancer, and the surgery is more complex.
On April 27, I finished the three months of
medical procedures that the mastectomies involved.
During that time I have been able to keep this
private and to carry on with my work. But I am
writing about it now because I hope that other
women can benefit from my experience. Cancer is
still a word that strikes fear into people’s
hearts, producing a deep sense of powerlessness.
But today it is possible to find out through a
blood test whether you are highly susceptible to
breast and ovarian cancer, and then take action.
My own process began on Feb. 2 with a procedure
known as a “nipple delay,” which rules out disease
in the breast ducts behind the nipple and draws
extra blood flow to the area. This causes some
pain and a lot of bruising, but it increases the
chance of saving the nipple.
Two weeks later I had the major
surgery, where the breast tissue is removed and
temporary fillers are put in place. The operation
can take eight hours. You wake up with drain tubes
and expanders in your breasts. It does feel like a
scene out of a science-fiction film. But days
after surgery you can be back to a normal life.
Nine weeks later, the final surgery is completed
with the reconstruction of the breasts with an
implant. There have been many advances in this
procedure in the last few years, and the results
can be beautiful.
I wanted to write this to tell other women that
the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy.
But it is one I am very happy that I made. My
chances of developing breast cancer have dropped
from 87 percent to under 5 percent. I can
tell my children that they don’t need to fear they
will lose me to breast cancer.
It is reassuring that they see nothing that makes
them uncomfortable. They can see my small scars
and that’s it. Everything else is just Mommy, the
same as she always was. And they know that I love
them and will do anything to be with them as long
as I can. On a personal note, I do not feel any
less of a woman. I feel empowered that I made a
strong choice that in no way diminishes my
femininity.
I am fortunate to have a partner,
Brad Pitt, who is so loving and supportive. So to
anyone who has a wife or girlfriend going through
this, know that you are a very important part of
the transition. Brad was at the Pink Lotus Breast
Center, where I was treated, for every minute of
the surgeries. We managed to find moments to laugh
together. We knew this was the right thing to do
for our family and that it would bring us closer.
And it has.
For any woman reading this, I hope it helps you to
know you have options. I want to encourage every
woman, especially if you have a family history of
breast or ovarian cancer, to seek out the
information and medical experts who can help you
through this aspect of your life, and to make your
own informed choices.
I acknowledge that there are many wonderful
holistic doctors working on alternatives to
surgery. My own regimen will be posted in due
course on the Web site of the Pink Lotus Breast
Center. I hope that this will be helpful to other
women.
Breast cancer alone kills some 458,000 people each
year, according to the World Health Organization,
mainly in low- and middle-income countries. It has
got to be a priority to ensure that more women can
access gene testing and lifesaving preventive
treatment, whatever their means and background,
wherever they live. The cost of testing for BRCA1
and BRCA2, at more than $3,000 in the United
States, remains an obstacle for many women.
I choose not to keep my story private because
there are many women who do not know that they
might be living under the shadow of cancer. It is
my hope that they, too, will be able to get gene
tested, and that if they have a high risk they,
too, will know that they have strong options.
Life comes with many challenges. The ones that
should not scare us are the ones we can take on
and take control of."
- Angelina Jolie is an actress and director.
Cancer
Center Website: pinklotusbreastcenter.com
After Thoughts
- the Reality of Her Choice:
Bravo to Angelina, who
made 100% the right choice for herself and her
beautiful family. However ... her body, her
genetics, her future
... they are not yours.
1) Promoting fear of breast cancer and
offering a 'brave' choice to cut off healthy
breasts, is an unnecessary choice for the majority
of women, which serves only to benefit certain
corporate profits and patent monopoly, to the tune
of trillions of dollars - Myriad Genetics to be
specific, based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
2) "Jolie
claims her doctor told her she has an "87% risk"
of developing breast cancer. But what she didn't
tell you is that this number doesn't apply to the
entire population: it's actually old data derived
almost exclusively from families that were
previously documented to have very high risks of
breast cancer to begin with. In a large room of
600 women, only ONE will likely have a BRCA
mutation in her genetic code. The actual incidence
is 0.125 to 0.25 out of 100 women, or 1 in 400 to
1 in 800." - Mike Adams, Naturalnews.com
Cancer tumors are
SYMPTOMS and not the CAUSE of cancer.
The cancer industry does not care. They want you
to spend 3-4 thousand dollars for a BRCA 1 test.
If the test is positive, they want you to have a
"heroic" double mastectomy, just like sex symbol
Angelina Jolie, afterall, if she can do it, so can
you.
The cancer industry wants you to have a mammogram
every year, which emits ionizing radiation
directly into the breast and heart tissues,
CAUSING cancer. If you develop tumors, they want
you to have chemo and radiation, which causes
cancer to proliferate as well as further destroy
the immune system, fog the mind, and cause
permanent damage to body organs.
THEY DO NOT WANT YOU TO BE HEALTHY AND CANCER
FREE. THEY REFUSE TO FIND AND ADDRESS THE CAUSE.
THEY REFUSE TO OFFER PREVENTION OPTIONS. THEY
REFUSE TO OFFER NATURAL CANCER CURES. THEY REFUSE
TO ADDRESS DIET. PROFIT FROM DISEASE IS THE ONLY
THING THAT MATTERS. YOU ARE A CUSTOMER, TAKE A
NUMBER!
QUESTION: If
a man has an alleged high risk factor for prostate
cancer, or contracts prostate cancer, does this
mean he needs to cut off his testicles?
Do you have a risk of kidney cancer?
Remove your kidneys. A risk of colon cancer?
Remove your colon. Lung cancer maybe? Remove your
lungs. How about brain cancer? Remove your brain
... just in case.
If you allow fear to
control you, the corrupt medical and
pharmaceutical corporations will get exactly what
they want. At the end of the day,
the choice is yours. EDUCATE YOURSELF.
Swiss could be first to drop
mammograms
- June 2014
Is it the beginning of the end for
mammography, the screening technology for breast
cancer? The Swiss could be the first to drop it
after independent research revealed that the risks
outweighed any benefits - and that earlier
research, which had provided the evidence to
launch national screening programs in most Western
nations, had been falsified.
Researchers from the Swiss Medical Board, an
independent health research group, first reported
on mammography’s shortcomings last February, and
one Swiss canton, Uri, is now reconsidering a move
to introduce it for routine screening.
Others may follow, and two of the board’s
researchers have spoken out this week because they
say it is ethical to do so. “It is easy to promote
mammography screening if the majority of women
believe that it prevents or reduces the risk of
getting breast cancer and saves many lives through
early detection of aggressive tumours. We would be
in favour of mammography screening if these
beliefs were valid. Unfortunately, they are not,
and we believe that women need to be told so. From
an ethical perspective, a public health program
that does not clearly produce more benefits than
harms is hard to justify. Providing clear,
unbiased information, promoting appropriate care
and preventing over-diagnosis and over-treatment
would be a better choice,” say Nikola
Biller-Andorno and Peter Juni this week.
In their earlier report, the researchers
discovered that nearly 22% of ‘cancers’ that
mammography was detecting were false
(false-positives). Despite
the false reading, many of the women went
through arduous cancer treatment, including
chemotherapy and even mastectomies, or breast
removal.
Early research, including a 50-year-old paper,
suggested that screening would save 80 lives per
1,000 women screened. However, the Swiss research
found that just one life would be saved by
mammography.
Source: New England
Journal of Medicine, 2014; doi:
10.1056/NEJMp1401875) and wddty.com
UPDATE 2016:
Top medical experts admit that
mammograpthy is outdated and harmful - Swiss
review published in The New England Journal of
Medicine. In 2014 the Canadian National Breast
Screening study concluded the same, as does
Norway.
-
www.naturalnews.com/055806_breast_cancer_mammography_harming_women.html
IMPORTANT
NOTE: There is an
alternative option to mammograms, it's called Thermography
- radiation free, safer and more accurate. Available since the 1960's,
cost is about $150-$200.
A
Thermograph.
Source:
https://breastthermography.com/breast_thermography_mf.htm
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