I missed having to write the local reaction/response article to Angelina Jolie’s decision to pre-emptively have both breasts removed, a double mastectomy, to reduce her risk of having breast cancer.
She made that decision after being determined to have BRCA1 gene mutation, which significantly increases a woman’s risk of developing breast and-or ovarian cancer.
One non-local response, from Helayne Waldman, co-author of The Whole Food Guide for Breast Cancer Survivors, did catch my eye.
Waldman, although agreeing this was Jolie’s very personal decision and hers alone to make, asks her to use her celebrity status to promote nutritional methods of reducing cancer risk. She reminds her, correctly, that her mastectomy hasn’t completely eliminated her risk of cancer, and urges her to incorporate “wonderful gene-altering foods such as basil, pomegranate and broccoli” into her life.
Most women who make these decisions, from dietary to surgical, will get to do it quietly, well outside the media spotlight. Jolie, having made hers public, could benefit other women with that mutation by continuing to discuss other precautions and ongoing screenings she and others in that situation face.