Imagine asking a man, would you remove your healthy prostate to avoid prostate cancer in the future?
He’ll probably say “are you crazy”?
But it seems that removing female reproductive organs to “prevent” possible cancer is very much accepted nowadays (interesting isn’t it?). Certainly Angelina Jolie’s recent public disclosure of her decision to have double mastectomy to “prevent” possible breast and ovarian cancer has raised awareness about this issue and spurred a lot of discussion on the matter.
(But prostatectomy is now being advised to men to “prevent” prostate cancer too.)
Breast cancer is a matter dear to my heart. A few women around me have passed away from breast cancer. It’s now the #1 cancer for women in the world.
I can only imagine what a tough decision it must have been for Jolie to make, as a mother, wife and woman.
I admire her intention and courage, and I also see the fear that informs this decision. And this post is NOT about whether she has made the right choice. For someone so intelligent and resourceful, I am sure she has done her research and made the right choice for herself.
While I am sad to see her decision, I am MORE SAD about the ripple effect it can create as more women may be encouraged to do so without understanding their options.
First off, the BRCA gene she has is extremely rare (it’s estimated only about 1% in the population has it.). And whether the risk factor for someone carrying the gene has 87% chance of getting breast cancer and 50% chance of getting ovarian cancer (according to her doctor) is also up for interpretation. (Check this out: http://www.genome.gov/10000939)
No one of us can act from “complete knowledge” and make the “perfect” decision. That’s an existential fact. We all can only act from the resources available to us, and act from the belief system we have.
Would Angelina Jolie (or anyone in a similar situation) have made such a decision if they are privy to more information, such as epigenetics (which means “above genetics”)?
If afterall, genetics is not the real cause of cancer, would you rush to remove your perfectly healthy body parts to avoid the possibility that you might get cancer one day?
See this video with molecular biologist and one of the world’s leading thought leaders to see what makes our genes mutate to become cancer cells:
The mainstream consciousness and our media are upholding the old paradigm that has been disproved long time ago. Imagine how medicine will be if we all knew and act according to what Dr. Lipton revealed in this interview? (And he’s only one of the many whistle blowers in this area.)
Think about standard “Breast Cancer Awareness” effort – it’s been focused on “early detection” by radioactive mammography.
No one will doubt the value of “early detection”, but about a third of all tumors discovered in routine mammography screenings are unlikely to result in illness, according to a study that says 30 years of the breast cancer exams have resulted in the overdiagnosis of 1.3 million American women. That means 70,000 women a year have their breasts either removed or disfigured, irradiated and then are treated with chemotherapy and/or hormone suppressive therapies for cancers that aren’t there. (Check out: http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/pinkwashing-hell-breast-removal-form-prevention)
And few know about thermography for example, which is a much safer breast cancer detection tool compared to mammography. (And it’s available in Hong Kong too.) And one can do it frequently without worry of radioactive damage like from mammography. None of these detection tools are perfect, but at least one is less harmful than the other one.
If our beliefs actually determines the behavior of our genes (apart from our nutrition and toxicity), what do you think is the impact of being told that you will have a high chance of getting cancer because you have a “faulty gene”? And if like many, you believe in “genetic determinism”, because your trusted authority says so.
The US medical students received an average of only 23.9 contact hours of nutrition instruction during medical school. (Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2430660/). You can’t really blame your doctor for not telling you how to change your diet to prevent cancer. It’s not their job to educate you on your diet, lifestyle or how to detox your body and your negative emotions to prevent cancer.
They do not learn epigenetics (above and beyond genetics) in the medical school, and the pharmaceutical establishment certainly do not want them to learn this. That’s why Dr. Bruce Lipton had to leave his teaching position in the medical school and become an author and speaker.
The “secret” of our DNA has long been out though – our diet, lifestyle, environmental toxins exposure, stress and negative beliefs (which shut down the immunity system) have a key role to play in any cancer or other diseases, and you won’t be hearing this from mainstream media, your doctor or our government any time just yet. But your innate intelligence probably has suspected it for a long time, and it’s not being heard and it’s probably been suppressed since when you were in school.
Indeed all the above will require a different paradigm to accommodate. It’s like changing from believing the earth is flat to believing the earth is round.
The immediate response people have when they hear a view that challenges their existing belief system is to attack it, as the left-brain controlled ego-mind will immediately see it as a personal attack and have to defend it – if you attack what I believe, you are attacking me, it says.
Changing belief takes time, and sometimes the process is painful. Some may take a lifetime to learn.
A few weeks before my father died from colon cancer, he said he wished he had listened to me earlier…
Overcoming the sadness of loss has made me more fearless and less troubled by being “unpopular”, for offending the medical “religion”.
Between being able to fit in and being able to help people so they won’t die thinking they wished they have changed earlier, I consider the latter is more important.
If it were in the medieval age, I would have been burnt alive as a heretic! But we are not in the middle age. So I guess being called a “B-I-T-C-H” is still more bearable than being called a “witch”! <smile>
So with all due respect to many well-intentioned medical professionals and their supporters out there, be warned, I may bring “bad news” to you, but please don’t shoot the messenger. And I do this out of love and respect for you and other fellow humans. I truly hope we can all accept each other and evolve together.
And my post here is really not about whether it’s right to remove healthy body parts to prevent cancer. As Lynn McTarggart says very wisely at the end The Living Matrix documentary, whatever we deeply believe will become real for us. As Jolie said, she believes her “reality” is as what her doctor predicts. So her choice of prevention to give her “peace of mind” is to remove the offending body parts. It is the best choice for her.
But if you believe doing regular coffee enema and nutritional detox will heal you, you probably will too. And if you believe healing your relationships with yourself will heal you, you probably will too!
It’s really up to us to choose what to believe, what resonate with us most. But only 5% of our consciousness is in the conscious mind, and it’s our subconscious mind that controls our physiology and healing. So whatever you choose to believe, I hope you choose the belief that is most congruent, empowering, enjoyable, and one that makes sense to both your analytical mind and your intuitive heart. And if your “mind” speaks too loud and confuses you, stop to listen to your “heart”, and trust its intelligence, as that is thousands of time wiser and more powerful.
Today is Buddha’s birthday. And I have to admit, I have been inspired by him, and he said this thousands of years ago,
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
And it’s okay to change your belief as you evolve too (as nothing is permanent really).
I wish you health, happiness and peace!
anita on wellness 