The phone message said, “Hi. My name is Loretta. I have breast cancer and I also have chemical sensitivities. I get bad side effects from most medications and would not be able to tolerate the standard cancer protocol. The treatment itself would probably kill me. Would you be willing to take me on as your patient? I live in Albuquerque. Please call me back.” The year was 1995, two years after I left mainstream medicine.

Before returning her call, I took a few moments for reflection. Any time doctors in the US deviate significantly from the “standard of care,” they could potentially be putting themselves in some degree of legal risk, depending on what part of the country they practice in. When Loretta heard me voice my concerns, she offered to sign a piece of paper saying she “refused the ‘standard of care’ because of intolerance to most medications.” She also reassured me that she had nothing to lose by following my recommendations because, no matter what, she was not going to get surgery or chemotherapy.

During the initial visit I learned that Loretta, 48 years old, had grown up on a farm in Iowa where pesticides were applied on a regular basis, both outside on the crops and inside for cockroach control. As a young girl, she had severe allergies and eczema, and frequent upper respiratory infections. In college, she developed chronic sinusitis and chemical sensitivities after living in a moldy dormitory. In spite of her health challenges, Loretta managed to work as a high school teacher for twenty years in the Albuquerque public school system.

About a year prior to her appointment with me, Loretta felt a lump on her right breast. She went to her family doctor who did a breast exam, then sent her to get a mammogram.

Loretta never heard back from her doctor about the results. She assumed “no news is good news.” Over the next nine months, she noticed the lump getting progressively bigger, to the point where it began to distort the appearance of her breast, prompting her to go back to her family doctor.

When the doctor looked through her chart to review the results of her mammogram, he found there was no report in her chart. He called the radiology department and discovered that the report had never been sent out—a case of human error. The radiology tech immediately faxed the mammography report to Loretta’s doctor. The report read “probable malignant encapsulated tumor with both cystic and solid characteristics. Biopsy recommended for further evaluation.”

Loretta made an appointment with a malpractice attorney and a surgical oncologist. The surgeon described in detail the mastectomy surgery she needed, followed by the course of chemotherapy and radiation that was part of the standard breast cancer protocol.

She explained to the surgeon that she probably would not be getting the mastectomy because of her sensitivity to general anesthesia, nor would she be getting the chemotherapy and radiation that follow the surgery. The surgeon became visibly annoyed with her and said if she didn’t follow the protocol, she didn’t have much chance of living beyond six months.

While Loretta struggled to make a decision about her cancer care, the malpractice case settled out of court for an undisclosed sum of money. She seized this opportunity to take a leave of absence from teaching so that she could devote herself to getting well.

After the initial comprehensive history-taking, I did a complete physical exam. The lateral side of Loretta’s right breast had a visible mass distorting the contour of the breast. The mass was firm to the touch, measuring 7 cm, or approximately 2.8 inches in diameter. No lymph nodes were palpable.

Together, Loretta and I designed a protocol based on the limited information we had available to us at the time.

Scientific articles I had read about Paleolithic people revealed that cancer was virtually nonexistent before pollution and poor diets prevailed, implying that cancer is mostly manmade. If that was true, then it made sense to me to focus on the diet and reduce the body burden of chemicals.

Cancer cells have a voracious appetite for sugars. PET scans used for detecting tumors take advantage of this tendency by using radioactive glucose that is preferentially taken up by the cancer cells, causing the tumors to “light up” on the scan.

Sugar also makes the immune system’s natural killer cells sluggish and less effective at doing their job of fighting off cancer cells, bacteria, viruses, and other foreign invaders, as was dramatically shown in a German study using the electron microscope to view the activity of the natural killer cells after eating various meals. (https://www.musingsmemoirandmedicine.com/2015/07/sugar-and-the-immune-system/)

Certain foods and chemicals in the environment can create inflammation in the body. Recent research confirms what I only intuited back in the 1990s, that inflammation encourages the breast cancer cells to keep growing once they are established.

Lifestyle changes appeared to be essential in Loretta’s get-well program. I knew of no magic bullet, no way around the hard work of changing old habits.

Loretta initially thought that taking supplements and herbal remedies was all that she needed to do. She was shocked and overwhelmed when I described what a complete alternative cancer protocol entailed. I assured her that we would proceed one step at a time, at a pace she could handle.

We began with the diet, the hardest part of the program for her to implement, yet the most essential. The first step required giving up all sugars, including corn syrup, the sugar alcohols like xylitol and ethanol, “natural” sugars like honey, maple syrup and agave, and the synthetic sweeteners like aspartame (e.g. NutraSweet) and sucralose (e.g. Splenda). Loretta used her own home-grown stevia for sweetening her food, and sometimes switched to chicory root (inulin) or monk’s fruit.

The next step in reducing sugars entailed giving up her morning fruit juice because of the high fructose content, and her evening beer made from fermented sugar.

After Loretta had adjusted to the loss of sugars, she made the biggest and most difficult adjustment in her pursuit of wellness—giving up all milled or processed grains, including bread, pasta, crackers, chips, tortillas, boxed cereals, couscous, tabouli, and other processed grains. These milled grains are known as “simple carbohydrates” because they instantly turn to sugar when they are mixed with the salivary enzymes in the mouth.

Instead of her morning oatmeal, Loretta switched to oat groats, the intact oat grain that cooks like rice and is considered a starch, also known as a  “complex carbohydrate.” Over time, Loretta developed a taste for other whole grains such as quinoa, millet, barley, and buckwheat.

In hormone-related tumors such as breast and prostate cancer, dairy products should be avoided because they contain hormones. All lactating mammals have natural hormones in their milk. These hormones act like gasoline on the cancer cells, causing them to multiply at an accelerated rate. Fortunately, Loretta did not need to do anything different with dairy because she was allergic to it and paid careful attention to avoid ingesting it.

What I didn’t have available to me at that time was the data from The China Study—the most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted, published in 2005. It showed that casein, the milk protein, causes cancer cells in the petri dish to multiply at an accelerated rate. As soon as the casein is removed, the rate slows down.

A strict anti-cancer diet does not include meat. Fortunately, Loretta rarely ate meat and when she did, it was in small portions. She was careful to eat only 100% grass-fed and grass-finished meat. Animals are often grain-finished, which means they are given grains to fatten up the meat before slaughter. The label on the meat should say “100% grass-fed.”

Some of my cancer patients feel better eating small amounts of pasture-raised meat. I ask them to limit their consumption to no more than 2-3 oz a day at most. This also applies also to pasture-raised chickens and wild Alaska fish—the only fish I recommend in these polluted times we live in. Too much animal protein can cause inflammation.

Now that she had given up many of the foods she loved, we needed to focus on what she could eat that was beneficial and health-enhancing. The anti-cancer diet I designed for Loretta included all the vegetables, the good fats, nuts and seeds, nut butters, homemade nut milks, avocados, whole coconut milk and coconut oil, well-cooked beans, whole intact grains (not milled), and fruit limited to two portions a day—with the exception of lemons and limes since they are not sweet. An example of two portions would be 6 oz. of blueberries and one apple.

Below are some additional suggestions I made:

–Eat sulfur-rich foods like onion, leeks, garlic, eggs, and vegetables from the cruciferous family (e.g. kale, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli) every day because these vegetables are rich in sulfur which aids the liver in detoxification.

–Eat raw, cultured vegetables like sauerkraut and kimchi. Be sure they are not pasteurized which would kill the beneficial bacteria..

–Eat selenium-rich foods like garlic and brazil nuts because selenium is essential in staving off cancer.

–Include cooked tomatoes in the diet because of the lycopene that becomes available with the cooking.

–Eat berries such as blueberries, raspberries and strawberries daily because of their antioxidant properties.

–Occasionally include red-skinned grapes in your daily ration of fruit. The skins are high in resveratrol, another cancer-protective agent.

–Eat seaweed and kelp at least twice a week because they are rich in trace minerals, including iodine which helps mitigate the harmful effects of estrogen as well as chemicals that mimic estrogen.

–Consume a wide variety of nuts and seeds. Each kind of nut and seed offers its own special nutrients.

–Avoid peanuts because they attract a toxic mold called aflatoxin.

–Avoid unfermented soy products because of their estrogenic effects that, according to some studies, can accelerate the growth of cancer cells, although this subject is controversial.

–Drink at least 32 oz. of freshly-made vegetable juice daily. Include a lemon in the juice to help extract the minerals from the vegetables.

–Drink organic green tea.

–Avoid all alcohol. The alcohol competes with estrogen detoxification in the liver because they use the same pathway.

–Eat salads that include lots of herbs, raw vegetables like red bell peppers, grated beets and carrots, spinach, celery, spring onions, jicama, and cucumber. Include celery, parsley, cilantro, garlic, and grated ginger in the salad. Try to get 25% of your calories from raw foods.

–Avoid grilled foods which can be carcinogenic.

–Avoid fried food unless lightly sautéed.

–Use plenty of herbs and spices in the cooking because of their antioxidant properties.

–Eat ginger regularly for its anti-inflammatory properties.

–Grow your own broccoli sprouts and eat about one-fourth cup a day. They have high levels of sulforaphane, a substance that offers powerful protection against proliferation of cancer cells.

–Avoid eating processed food.

–Avoid all vegetable oils (safflower, corn, soy, canola) because they are highly processed and cause oxidative damage. Stick with coconut oil and extra virgin olive oil, and occasional butter from pasture-raised cows. If you bake with olive oil, keep the heat below 365 degrees to avoid oxidizing the oil.

–Eat organic food exclusively; avoid genetically-modified foods and foods laden with pesticides.

–Avoid eating out of cans. Find glass containers.

–Drink reverse osmosis filtered water. (AquaTru or Berkey are excellent on the counter filters)

–Avoid using plastic containers and soft plastic wrap as much as possible. Do not buy food wrapped in Saran wrap.

–Search out restaurants that serve organically-grown foods, non genetically modified.

The dietary changes initially caused significant stress for Loretta. To alleviate the stress, Loretta hired a former cancer patient of mine to coach her with implementing the dietary changes. The coach went grocery shopping with her and went to her home and taught her about food preparation and juicing.

After about two months of coaching, Loretta became enthusiastic about her diet and said she felt better than she ever had in her life. She had an abundance of energy and felt optimistic about life in general. She said she experienced moments of joy for no apparent reason.

While the diet was the most essential part of Loretta’s anti-cancer program, there were other important parts to the protocol. In the next blog post, I’ll be discussing the rest of Loretta’s protocol that includes detoxification through sauna, specific supplements, exercise, and spiritual practice. And I’ll let you know Loretta’s outcome. Stay tuned.