Alternative/Holistic Breast Cancer Survivors
As pink ribbons pop up all over this month, I want to give special tribute to those breast cancer survivors that took a road less traveled. After being diagnosed with cancer, terrified patients turn to their doctors for guidance and reassurance that things will be okay. What you do next is what will set your journey apart. The women in this series are different because they challenged the standard recommendation of just surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation and dug deep down inside for what they needed to do to beat their cancer. These are their stories.
This series will discuss a different alternative or complementary breast cancer survivor each day or so over the next few weeks. I will add the post link to this original post after I’ve written about their story or interviewed them. This post is designed as a main page for all of their stories, so keep coming back!
This is a very informative post. My story goes like this, i had breast cancer stage IV and i undertook 3 chemo sessions in two years to no avail and the tumor were still there and it even grew bigger and i was so scared which left me with the option of seeking an alternative cure which permanently changed my life for good and saved me from the cold hands of death. I read about Dr Aleta’s herbal medicine treatment which can cure breast cancer permanently without recurring. I got her contact and placed an order for the medicine which i took according to instructions and today i am cancer free. Well do not lose hope of finding a cure because there is a cure, you too can reach the doctor directly on (aletedwin @ gmail. com) for advise, and more information about the medicine. Happy new year.
Hi Cortney, I am new to your website – and loving it – thankyou. I could relate very well to Helen Cherie. I am a 36 year old mother of two who was diagnosed in oct 2009 with grade 3 breast cancer and had 6 out of 14 nodes infected. I had the mastectomy, chemo and radiation. Two years later – feeling good decided I was ready for my reconstruction, I opted for a bilateral (as didn’t want to worry about breast cancer again, unfortunately both reconstructions failed as I clotted badly, a week later the orginal scar came back with cancer cells there and another week later after scans it was revealed that I had widespread bone mets – so not only did I not get the breast back I lost but i lost the other one and had to recover from a very hard surgery (using the tummy) and deal with cancer again. Anyway in march 2012 I attended a cancer healing retreat here in New Zealand that works closely with the Gawler Foundation in Aussie and totally changed my lifestyle – mainly food etc, vegan, juicing no sugar etc etc. Now the problem I am having and getting fustrated with is finding inspirational stories from woman who have had breast cancer that has gone further than just the nodes – and regressed their cancer naturally.
Maybe I’m being too hopeful – but is there anyone out there that has done it! I’m ERPR positive and like I say its in the bones, i’ve been doing the vegan thing etc for 9 months but feel like I need to step it up a notch. Courney you have inspired me to suck it up and do the green juicers better, I cheat a little and just use barley grass, did you use a juicer to make yours or a blender, I do have an oscar which I use every day (which discards the pulp), and the Essiac tea -think i might try that!! Loved your post when your described a day in your life – it was very real, you didn’t make it out to be all wonderful etc, think i will be holding my nose when I make the green juices too!!
Hi Coralie!
I am so moved by your story and determination! Look through the series I did on holistic breast cancer survivors and draw strength and hope from their stories: https://www.anticancermom.com/alternative-breast-cancer-survivors/.
Keep me posted on your progress. You deserve the best for your body. I am so glad for where you are now! No diagnosis or prognosis defines us. (:
Cortney
Hi Cortney, I wrote to you about six months ago and I come and take a peek at your site from time to time.
I am a 13.5 yr breast cancer survivor that has mets to bones and my neck. Back then I did go the conventional route, chemo, radio & surgery and hormone therapy. I think I mentioned last time that my cancer markers were rising as my conventional meds had stopped working (armidex, femara, aromasin). Finally I found tumors in my neck last January which had been brewing and tests showed no other spread. My usual oncologist wanted me to have radiotherapy.
I have also been under the guidance of a holistic doctor since last August, and it did take me awhile to ‘get with the program’. I was due to have radiotherapy about 2 mths ago but I held off, monitoring the lumps by ultrasound every four weeks. I felt that having the radiotherapy would just have a bandaid effect and I would be worse off, because of the toxic side effects.
I found out last week from a consulting oncologist, as my regular one was away on 6 mth leave, that my cancer markers are stable (3 mths) and that the lumps had also stopped growing and are stable. She thought that having the radiotherapy was not a good idea and to leave things as they are and to keep doing what I’m doing.
What about my holistic doctor? He found that I was insulin resistant, and I had a lot of inflammation in my body. I went on the paleo diet (with a few exceptions because I can’t have sugar, eg dried fruit). I have lost over 31kg and now my fasting insulin levels have dropped by half and I am now in the normal range. I am down the gym 6 out of 7 days and I am strong. Is it coincidence that because my fasting insulin levels dropped that the lumps stopped growing? I don’t think so. This was the result that my holistic doc and I were working towards. Dr Mercola also thinks along the same lines when he talks about inflammation being the cause of chronic illness.
I feel like a brand new person. Btw I am off all cancer meds, in fact all meds, except for one which my oncologist is weaning me off at the moment. Probably when I see her next she will say it’s time to stop that one (ibandronat). You see they do not know what effect this med will have on women after 5 yrs and whilst I’m on it I am not making any new bone. My holistic doctor had already given me something natural called, Osteo Plus, to strengthen bones.
I wanted to share my latest news in the hope that it is encouraging to others who are on the cancer journey, and I wish you all peace, happiness and good health.
Hi Cherie!
What an amazing story! I agree with Dr. Mercola on the issue of inflammation. What diet can do to calm down inflammation should be just total PROOF of the cause of our chronic diseases!
I can’t imagine the fear of feeling as if you have NO CONTROL over whether your cancer comes back or not. I’m sure that’s how 99% of cancer patients feel. When you are eating and handling your stress in a way that discourages cancer growth, you have a peace and confidence!
Thank you for sharing your story publicly. I know someone will come across it who really needs to hear it. (:
Cortney
Thx for information.
Hi…did you use Bill Henderson’s coaching while fighting your cancer? i would like to…I’ve tried signing up on his website but have not been able to get it to accept my information.
Hi Terri,
It’s wonderful that you shared your experience here. I’m sure many women will see it and be comforted by it. Perhaps I should have put the word “alternative” in front of “survivors” in my comment above since the research I did for this series was on “Alternative Breast Cancer Survivors” specifically. I know there are probably many other women who have lived long lives after their cancer diagnoses after conventional treatment. I hope that they were affected minimally by the side effects associated with chemotherapy and radiation. Your story is a wonderful testiment to how diet and alternative medicine can greatly reduce this.
Cortney
Courtney,
Are you saying that you aren’t finding survivors that did chemo and radiation? I found them all over the place….15, 20, 30 years cancer free. It was inspirational.
Hi Gayle,
I did the full load of conventional treatment and responded very well – my cancer was triple positive, so I did chemo, surgery, radiation, and am now doing Herceptin and Tamoxifen. I am now basically vegan (although I do eat wild fish and the occasional organic egg). But most days, I am completely vegan. I meditate, get cardio (treadmill and rebounder), practice yoga, and have just taken up qi gong. I have a bunch of supplements that I take. When I can afford it again, I want to go back on injections of mistletoe and AveUltra. During treatment, I did acupuncture, Reiki, and massage. At some point, I will look into intravenous Vit. C and Chinese herbs. I juice almost every day. (I just can’t get into wheatgrass, though. I keep trying, but…ick.)
I did very well through treatment – my side effects weren’t too bad and my energy was generally good. I never let anyone refer to chemo as “poison” or “toxic” and I did meditations where I visualized it as “cleansing water.” My hair grew back thicker and, as far as I can tell, I don’t have any permanent side effects. Everything seems to be coming back to normal.
It’s too bad that there is so much screaming from both sides of the issue. I think both forms of treatment can be very successful and people should feel free to investigate them, because everyone’s cancer is different. I bop around between conventional boards and alternative boards, trying to glean as much information as I can.
In the spring, I am going to get certified in Integrative Nutrition, so that I can help other survivors get through treatment and build a survivorship plan that will help keep them cancer free.
I too was attacked and beat up and been the victim of deleted threads for daring to speak out about CAM on a traditional breast cancer forum. Like you, this compelled me to start my own.
Sadly, too many women put their life in the hands of others. The truth is, only your body can cure cancer. Whether this happens or not depends on what we do. There is no single answer for anyone. It takes a lot of research and self discipline. Most people just want the doctor to “fix them”. They do not want to do the heavy lifting themselves.
For me, cancer was a gift. It taught me not to take my life and my health for granted. As a result, I am happier and healthier than ever, and cancer free for 4 years. I only wish I had become more serious earlier. I wasted a lot of time thinking I as healthy when I wasn’t.
As to the comments that people did everything right and still got cancer, I once felt that that would have described me. But I did a lot of research, because I had to know why. Women need to take seriously the link to hypothyroid and breast cancer and add iodine to their daily supplement regime. We also need to get a good biological dentist. There is a link to root canals and mercury amalgams and cancer. We also need to look at our exposure to chemicals and detoxify. I was exposed to a lot of chlorine and bromine as a swimmer, and then I inhaled chlorine and that is a toxic soup that the immune system cannot fight. Even if one is not a smoker and drinker and I was not. A far infrared sauna is a must for detoxing.
And finally, women need to look into thermography. I will never have a mammo again, and I have dumped any doctor who insists I do so. I do thermograms regularly to monitor my breasts. It is safe and painless. We need to band together and fight the mammography industry to make thermograms a standard of care, and get back the insurance code they lobbied to get rid of.
I found your website through ‘How Chris Beat Cancer’ – my life has just recently slowed down enough to where I can get on my computer again. I appreciate what you are doing in interviewing breast cancer survivors.
I was diagnosed in January of this year with triple negative breast cancer. To sum up what has transpired since then, I immediately became a vegan, juiced and took many supplements for a solid three months when we realized that my tumor was growing quickly. By the time I decided to have the tumor removed, I was told that it needed to be shrunk first with chemo. So I began chemo the second week of May and continued until Aug. 15. After my first treatment, the tumor Immediately began to shrink and continued to almost disappear before I to stop due to the side effects. At this point I had a week reprieve before I started a 12 week cycle with a different drug. However, I only completed 8 weeks on this drug when we noticed that the tumor was increasing in size again. Keep in mind, throughout the chemo I maintained my vegan diet and juiced as best I could. Surgery was scheduled within a week of stopping the chemo treatments- Labor Day weekend. After a lot of research and prayer, I opted for the bilateral mastectomy. My pathology report from the surgery was favorable: The cancer had not affected my lymphatic or vascular
systems, there were three tumors- all triple negative, with clean margins all around, my chest wall was not involved. I recovered very well.
Now, I am in the midst of the radiation decision. I am currently reading How to Prevent and Treat
Cancer with Natural Medicine by Dr. Michael Murray. I am following the guidelines through this book for supplemental support for radiation therapy- to prepare myself for this next step.
Reading the responses, I have a question for Terri- What are CAM treatments?
I’m in a place right now where I need to close this up, but I would love to hear what others have to say about my situation. Thanks!
Hey Gayle- WOW, your story is amazing. I have always believed that raw foods, juicing, etc is not enough to fight most cancers. We need to do other alternative therapies along with it. CAM therapies are exactly what you’re doing- basically doing chemo, radiation, surgery alongside juicing, raw vegan diet, etc. “Complementary Alternative Medicine.” Through my research so far, it seems that MOST of the survivors I have talked to and researched have had either lumpectomies or mastectomies and then did alternative protocols while avoiding chemo and radiation. I always tell people though- it is different for each person, and you need to pray about and do what you believe is right for you. (:
I have to say, with breast cancer, surgery can be the cure in many cases, especially if it is caught early enough. I know a few people who just had surgery and then pursued alternative treatments – their tumors were on the smaller side and there was no lymph node involvement. They are cancer free today. Sadly, every women that I know who refused even surgery has either died or is now Stage IV, even if their tumor was very small. I would recommend to everyone to at least do the surgery and remove the tumor load.
Full disclosure – I did integrative treatment – conventional combined with many, many CAM treatments. I am cancer-free.
Sure… that was a little blunt…it was late.
Wendy was the soul of clean living. She never smoked or drank, didn’t eat sugar or most any processed food. She was a massage therapist and, when that got to be too much physically, she switched to providing water therapy (wat-su?) for her clients. She was the happiest, most serene person you ever met. She had the finest medical care, too. She did everything right and she still died. I have another friend, a never-smoker and general clean-liver, who turned up with a tumor in her eye that was lung cancer, metastasized already to stage 4. I think we have to be very careful about making assumptions and implied recommendations willy-nilly. Cancer is bad mojo, and if people want to throw everything at it (or do nothing), that’s up to them.
Hope that clarifies a bit…
Hi LucidGal and Barbara,
Barbara- The debate for mammogram or no mammogram is an ongoing one full of statistics for and against quoted by different organizations. I have read of many women saying that their mammogram saved their life including the ALTERNATIVE breast cancer survivor who I interviewed in today’s post (Susan Stevenson.) I have also read of some women who swear that their breast cancer was CAUSED by their mammogram (breast trauma and radiation.) So on and on goes the debate.
LucidGal- I read your comment and am truly sorry about your friend. Is there anyway you can provide a little more detail about your friends’s alternative protocol and also her staging of cancer and type?
I have heard stories like your friend’s before. I personally believe that raw foods, no sugar, juicing, and exercise are NOT enough ALONE to have an effect on MOST cancers, although they are great preventatives. As you may have read in my story, I did much more than the methods you stated in your comment. We cannot group all “Alternative” methods into one group because there are hundreds and some are more effective than others.
Can you give us more info on your friend’s type of cancer, staging, and any conventional treatment she received if any? It would be helpful towards others visiting my blog, many of whom are researching alternative protocols. Thanks!
I had that same test…hurt like hell, for about 30 seconds, and I’d have it again. I had a friend who did what you described above…completely healthy in everything she did, no alcohol, no sugar, exercised like crazy. She died.
I had a mammogram a few years ago that I swear could give a person cancer. I had gone back for a second screening (upon their behest). They compressed my breasts so radically that I cried and asked them to stop. They didn’t – it was over pretty fast but I walked away from that experience saying never again. It convinced me that they probably find things that are nothing or that your body would heal on its own. And, that the tactic they used on me could actually cause cancer. I had pain for over a year after that (intermittently) and swore NEVER AGAIN. Luckily the pain is now gone. I just hope I saw the light soon enough and that their monstrous test didn’t give me something I’ll be dealing with in the future. It really is insane and I won’t buy into the system ever again!
I exercise, eat everything organic I can get my hands on, have stopped drinking alcohol and focus mainly on eating fruits and vegetables. Heal thyself!!
Best to all of you ladies………my heart is with you.