While listening to the most recent news about Angelina Jolie Pitt’s radical”preventative” health surgery, I almost fell off my chair. I actually had to get up and leave the room out of pure frustration. It gives a TERRIBLE message to women and for the second time in a row!
We’re all aware of how 2 years ago Angelina decided to have a “preventative” double mastectomy because she carried a mutation in the BRCA1 gene. She wanted other women at risk to know about the “options.” (Rolling my eyes)
Just recently she’s informed the press of her other “preventative” surgery about the removal of her ovaries and fallopian tubes. This surgery is less complex than the mastectomy but its effects are much more severe. It forces a woman into menopause throwing her off physically and emotionally while estrogen and progesterone go astray after its removal. (Shaking my head)
I put the words above in quotes because deciding to remove one of your internal organs is not preventative in my eyes. Changing your lifestyle and dietary habits are. While she doesn’t promote getting the surgery as the only “option” if you do carry this gene, she reminds women to take birth control pills as another. Umm, is she aware of how many women are already walking around with serious hormonal imbalances (due to poor quality/nutrient-lacking foods, environmental toxins, high stress lifestyles, and birth control use). The LAST thing she or any doctors who are defending her decision should be doing is promoting that. Hormonal birth control pills only help to further disrupt a women’s delicate hormone balance causing more harm than good for most in the long run.
A preventative measure is not simply removing organs of our bodies that may or may not cause problems as we age. That’s so traumatic to the body! Everything within us is there for a reason and serves a purpose. This has me wondering, what drastic lengths would she be going through if her mother had died from heart disease (cut out a piece of her heart) or lung cancer (a lung)?
True preventative measures in this situation would be to make lifestyle changes such as reducing plastics, switching to natural cleaners and natural cosmetic products, getting proper rest, practicing safe sun exposure, staying physically active, managing stress, keeping a positive attitude, etc. Dietary changes would be consuming an all organic diet, drastically reducing SUGAR consumption (sugar feeds cancer cells), eliminating dairy products, eliminating non-organic meats, drinking fluoride-free water, eating plenty of anti-oxidant rich vegetables and fruits, etc.
I can understand that she’s gone to such drastic actions since she lost her mother to ovarian cancer and because she’s a mother herself who doesn’t want her children to go through the loss she had to. I’m compassionate towards her for that. But to me it seems that opting for these radical surgeries stems from FEAR on her part…and acting from fear is not something to be promoted. It’s important to practice love (which eliminates fear) towards every part of our body, with every thought we think, every bite of food we choose, every person we surround ourselves with, every action that we make. LOVE HEALS.
On a similar note, I have a very close friend and colleague, Andrea, who once had precancerous cells in her uterus. Her doctor opted for a 3-month treatment of a synthetic hormone, but Andrea being a Holistic Health Coach like myself, she suggested a different course of treatment since she knew that she could target it through lifestyle/diet. She committed to practicing meditation, going to acupuncture, increased her rest and relaxation, eliminated dairy and plastics, switched to an all organic diet, and recited the daily affirmation, “I have a healthy uterus.” Within eight weeks time her precancerous cells were GONE. Now that’s a message that I wish was shared by Angelina so that she could have empowered women with the reminder of our innate ability that we all have to heal ourselves.