‘Sin City’ Actress & Environmental Advocate Jessica Alba, Whose Parents Both Battled Cancer, On Prioritizing Her Health As a Mom of Three

Speaking to Romper in an earlier interview, about what prompted her to pursue a company that focuses on healthy products, she said, “My mother had cancer at a really young age, in her early 20s. I grew up with chronic illness.

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“I had five surgeries before I was 11 years old. I had chronic allergies, and I was hospitalized a lot as a child.”

Then referring to how her first child changed her mindset, she continued, “I had this real moment of, I want to live, and thrive, and spend as much time with this little person that I’m bringing into the world as possible and stay.

“So, my health matters. I want this little person to be healthy. And it’s really freaking hard to be happy when you don’t have your health. That’s really what motivated me,”

As for how her priorities shifted from acting to making a difference, she admitted, “It was something bigger. I felt like if I was going to have this platform, then what can I do with it that could be meaningful and make a difference?

“That just felt so real when I became a mom for the first time.”

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Alba—who shares three children, Honor, Haven, and Hayes, with her ex-husband Cash Warren (the pair reportedly filed for divorce in February)—has also dedicated her time to spreading awareness for colorectal cancer.

Two years back, Alba took to Instagram to share that she lost a close friend, Michelle Hynek, to stage four colorectal cancer.

A couple of years after Hynek’s 2019 diagnosis, Alba revealed on social media that her father had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, alongside a uplifting video of her and her dad dancing.

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It’s known that Alba’s dad Mark Alba underwent radiation treatment to battle the disease, but it’s unclear is he beat the disease.

As for her mom, Catherine Alba, it also has not been made public what type of cancer she was diagnosed with and her current health status.

During Alba’s 2021 interview with Romper, she admitted that the Covid-19 pandemic was certainly “challenging,” saying, “I think you just try to take each day at a time. I’m trying to be grateful for what [my children] do have.

“Going through grief when people do get sick, and people have died in our family, just going through that, it’s all been really heavy. … Your children’s reality is really going to be dependent on your outlook and how you approach it in all this madness.”

It’s unclear what family members had passed away in Alba’s family, and what led to their deaths, but it’s understandable how becoming a mom, seeing her mom and dad’s struggle with cancer, and loss in her family, has prompted Alba to focus on her health and create a company which maintains similar values.

It’s important to note that although many people are concerned with environmental factors and family histories, we don’t know as much about Alba’s family history and the direct correlation on environmental risks as well as as the efficacy of any of her non-toxic products from The Honest Company.

We also understand that Alba is proud that her company offers non-toxic products, but it’s also vital to understand that there’s no formal evidence that there are chemicals in household or beauty products that specifically “cause” cancer, but studies have shown that some chemicals can be linked to a higher risk of the disease. The National Cancer Institute estimates that anywhere from 4% to 19% of cancers are due to environmental exposures, such as air pollution or asbestos.

“It’s often difficult to study environmental causes of cancer,” Dr. Heather Yeo, a colorectal surgeon at Weill Cornell in New York, previously told SurvivorNet. “Much of it’s done in lab, in mice, trying to look and exposing mice to different toxins. But it really takes high level. It takes a high level.”

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When it comes to beauty products, studies are still being done to conclude whether certain brands contain chemicals that are linked to increased cancer risk. One study, published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters, looked at 231 products sold in the US and Canada and found that cancer-linked toxins were present in more than 80% of the brands examined.

“The concerning thing about cosmetics is that these are products that you’re applying to your skin and face every day, so there’s the skin absorption route that’s of concern, but also incidental ingestion of cosmetics is also a concern as well,” said co-author Dr. Tom Bruton, senior scientist at the Green Science Policy Institute.

How Do Environmental Triggers Cause Cancer?

We’re exposed to carcinogens, or substances that can cause cancer, throughout our daily lives. But many people will not go on to develop the disease.

“We create carcinogens all the time in our foods when we cook them, and very few of us get cancer because our bodies can handle them,” Dr. Robert Wright, chair of the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at Mount Sinai, previously told SurvivorNet.

“But some people have susceptibilities to these environmental carcinogens, which might be genetic or might be caused by combinations of carcinogens.”

It’s important to understand that no one trigger is going to definitively cause cancer, Dr. Wright said, but it could be a combination of triggers in the environment.

“Cancer isn’t caused by one event, typically, it’s usually a series or combination of events,” he said. “So, it may be that you ate a lot of charred food, it may be that you’re also a smoker, it may be that you’ve inherited a genetic susceptibility to be a little bit more sensitive to those chemicals.”

Dr. Heather Yeo and actress Fran Drescher talk the link between toxins and cancer

How is Diet Related to Cancer Risk?

When it comes to dietary advice that applies to everyone, Dr. Wright advises to eat more vegetables and stay active.

“What we haven’t figured out for cancer is, what is the combination of risk factors that end up leading to a particular person getting cancer,” Dr. Wright said. “

The goal [in the future] is to identify those people who are more susceptible to cancer and to give them counseling and foods that they can eat and other habits like exercise that can reduce their risk. Right now, we’re not really good at predicting that.”

While some cancers do develop from inherited genes, most don’t, so researchers are working on ways to understand how lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, and chemical exposures put people at risk. With that in mind, Dr. Wright stressed that eating well and staying active are still important — for all of us.

Sugar, The Western Diet And Cancer Prevention

“In the end, prevention is actually kind of simple,” he said. “It’s what we always know. It’s exercise and eat well. That means eating more vegetables and less meats, particularly red meats.”

Some dietary basics to avoid a higher cancer risk include:

• If you can afford it, buy organic fruits and veggies
• When buying non-organic, make sure to thoroughly wash produce
• Avoid overcooking food
• Try to eat fewer red meats

Are Plastics Dangerous?

Another common concern is that being exposed to plastics, like single-use plastic water bottles, can cause cancer. Dr. Wright said it’s certainly in “the realm of possibility,” but right now, there’s no definitive research on it. However, it is an area that’s being heavily studied.

“The way the plastic chemicals work is they’re referred to as endocrine disrupters, so they’re not carcinogens in the traditional sense of causing mutation,” Dr. Wright explained.

Endocrine refers to hormones, Dr. Wright said, and endocrine disrupters work by changing the way the hormones work.

“So the ability of your body to respond appropriately to a damaged, mutated cell is affected,” Dr. Wright explained. “So, endocrine disrupters can affect that part of your body’s response and potentially increase your risk of cancer.”

Looking at Genetics & Environment Together

One of the great mysteries researchers are trying to figure out is why some people will develop cancer while others do not after being exposed to the same carcinogen. For example, why do some people who smoke cigarettes never develop lung cancer, but so many others do?

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“Most cancers are not inherited. People do have some genetic susceptibility to cancer but those genes are not working by themselves. There has to be something in the environment that triggers it,” Dr. Wright explained.

“So, if you can avoid that environmental trigger, even if you have a genetic susceptibility to cancer, you can avoid it by avoiding the environmental triggers. What we really need is research to try and understand what those environmental triggers are in people who have different sets of genes.”

There’s no cancer prevention diet, but making healthy food choices is still important. NYU’s Dr. Marleen Meyes explains. 

The next frontier, Dr. Wright said, is trying to be more precise with medicine. Ideally, doctors would be able to recommend specific lifestyle choices and tell people to avoid specific foods to greatly reduce their personal cancer risk.

“We may know that particular types of genetics actually make you at higher risk, but we don’t know why [with] two twins that have the exact same set of genes, one will get cancer and the other won’t,” he said.

“It’s the environment that’s clearly the difference in that scenario, so measuring the environment is really critical to understanding how the genetics work.”

Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

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