Along with the shrinking tumor in her breast, Loretta began experiencing a significant rise in her energy, with a heightened sense of wellbeing and optimism, thanks to the alterations she made to her diet. Now she was ready to take on a few more changes to her lifestyle. To her relief, they weren’t nearly as difficult as the dietary changes had been.

Below are a few of the supplements I recommended:

–Vitamin D with Vitamin K at high doses, so that blood levels reach 70-100 ng/ml. Vitamin D has many health-enhancing properties, one of which is protection against cancer, especially breast cancer.

–High doses of vitamin C daily, about 2,000 mg. I also urge my patients with cancer to get weekly intravenous infusions of 50 grams of vitamin C by a practitioner experienced in giving IVs to cancer patients. Vitamin C breaks down easily, generating hydrogen peroxide, a so-called reactive oxygen species (ROS) that can damage tissue and DNA. The healthy cells in the body have an enzyme called catalase that removes the damaging hydrogen peroxide. The infected or cancerous cells lack the catalase enzyme, allowing the hydrogen peroxide to destroy the damaged cells.

–Minerals, especially an absorbable form of zinc (zinc piccolinate or zinc acetate) to aid in the healing. Take the minerals with a meal so that they will cause less irritation on the stomach. Minerals need adequate stomach acid in order to be absorbed adequately.

–Methylfolate (not folic acid) 1-2 mg to aid in the detoxification pathway.

–Vitamin A 25,000 IUs.

–Vitamin E (mixed tocopherols and tocotrienols) 400 mg with food

–Melatonin, 5 mg at bedtime. Melatonin is known to have cancer-protective effects.

–Bio-available curcumin that has powerful anti-inflammatory properties. Curcumin has the most evidence-based literature for a cancer support than any other nutrient. Curcumin affects over one hundred different pathways once it gets into the cell. The supplement needs to be formulated with black pepper (piper nigrum) to enhance absorption. Take two capsules twice a day.

–DIM or diindolylmethane, derived from the cruciferous family, has anti-estrogenic and anti-cancer effects. Take 100 mg twice a day.

–Calcium D-Glucarate, derived from fruits and vegetables, helps bind to the toxins in the intestinal tract and prevents them from being reabsorbed into the body. Take 500 mg a day.

–CoQ10 in the form of Ubiquinol is known to inhibit tumor growth. Take 200 mg twice a day.

–Iodine, 1-2 mg a day, if seaweed and kelp are not tolerated. Iodine helps to block the harmful effects of estrogen.

–Medicinal mushrooms such as turkey tail, shitake, reishi and maitake are known to increase the number and activity of our natural killer cells, the body’s first line of defense against foreign invaders. Paul Stamet is one of the most highly regarded mycologist. He makes a product that includes all of the medicinal mushrooms.

–Black cohosh and artemisinin (wormwood) are herbs that are toxic to human breast cancer cells.

–Probiotics are essential for good health. The beneficial bacteria help strengthen the immune system and reduce inflammation.

To test the viability of your probiotics, warm up 6 oz. of milk (coconut milk works just as well) on the stove until the milk feels warm to your finger. Pour the warmed milk into a glass. Break open and add the contents of two capsules of probiotics to the milk and gently stir. Cover and keep warm for 24-48 hours. If the probiotics are alive, the milk will clump as though it’s trying to become yogurt. I suggest you test each bottle because the organisms are fragile. About half the tests that my patients run result in no change to the milk, suggesting that the organisms are dead, even if they are from expensive brands. Find a brand that consistently tests positive with each bottle.

–Avoid taking iron supplements unless you have iron-deficiency anemia. Iron acts as a powerful oxidizing agent. The free radicals it creates can damage cells and increase the risk of cancer. A good way to monitor your iron level is by checking the blood level of ferritin, the protein that transports the iron. The ferritin level should not be above 100. If your ferritin is high, consider donating blood to lower the levels.

–Pure frankincense essential oil, extracted without solvents, can be applied topically—directly on the tumor—for its anti-inflammatory effects.

–There is a prescription medication called Metformin that lowers the blood sugar. If the “no sugar, no simple carbohydrate diet” is followed closely, and the fasting blood sugar is consistently kept below 90 mg/dl, then there is no need to take this drug. You can buy a glucose meter and monitor your fasting blood sugar at home. If you cannot keep your fasting blood sugar below 90 mg/dl, and if you don’t want to take a prescription drug, you could take Berberine which is so effective at balancing blood sugar that both animal and human studies compare it to Metformin in its effectiveness.

–Graviola (Annona muricata), is a fruit tree that grows in tropical rainforests. People have long used its fruit, roots, seeds, and leaves to treat cancer.

At the time I saw Loretta, Ralph Moss, PhD, former National Cancer Institute researcher, had made it his crusade to evaluate promising natural treatments for cancer that had been intentionally suppressed by the cancer establishment. Loretta contacted his organization and ordered a compilation of remedies specific to her particular type of breast cancer. From the many choices, we picked out the ones that sounded the most promising, affordable, and backed by valid research—mostly found in Europe.

One of our choices included powerful digestive enzymes from Germany, called chymotrypsin, that reportedly could digest the protective capsule surrounding the tumor, allowing Loretta’s immune system to have direct access to the tumor.

We also added another digestive enzyme called Serrapeptase, an enzyme secreted by silkworms to break down their cocoons when they are ready to emerge. Cocoons are made with silk fibers, the strongest known natural fibers.

When using digestive enzymes to digest proteins of inflammation and nonliving tissue—like the capsule surrounding Loretta’s tumor—it’s important to take the enzymes about two hours away from food so they won’t be used up digesting proteins in the meal.

Loretta drove up to Santa Fe each month to have her breasts and lymph nodes checked, the tumor palpated and measured, and to discuss the details of her protocol and review her progress.

Four months after she had been following the diet and taking the supplements, her encapsulated tumor had softened and shrunk from a diameter of 7.5 cm (almost 3 inches) to 6 cm. We were thrilled—and relieved—to get such clear evidence that the lifestyle changes were making a difference.

During the appointment, Loretta said she felt better than she ever had. Looking back on her life, she realized she had been depressed with low energy since she was a child but didn’t realize it because she never experienced feeling anything different. She wondered if her diet had played a role in her depression.

Another observation she made was the effortless loss of weight. On her scale at home, she marveled as her weight dropped over the prior months, since beginning the anti-cancer diet. At her appointment with me, she had reached the weight she was when she graduated from high school. Since her college days, her weight crept up year after year. She tried countless times to lose weight, but the cravings for unhealthy food overcame her with each attempt. Eventually she gave up trying, thinking it was hopeless. After four months of following the anti-cancer diet, Loretta had lost those irresistible cravings for unhealthy food.

While Loretta was introducing the new supplements one by one, I urged her to try using the infrared sauna at one of the local spas in Albuquerque. Unlike traditional saunas that use heat to warm the air, an infrared sauna heats your body directly without warming the air around you. The heat waves penetrate deep into the body. Infrared saunas are especially useful for people who do not tolerate high heat.

After a few weeks of using the sauna, she was convinced of its benefits and bought her own sauna from Heavenly Heat Sauna, a company that meticulously avoids using toxic products such as glues and particleboard in the construction.

Sauna is very effective at lowering the body burden of toxic chemicals, including the chemicals called estrogen mimickers or endocrine disrupters, such as plastics, plasticizers, insecticides, herbicides, and solvents.

In 1995 there was not much research available about the benefits of infrared sauna. However, I had read an impressive study in a journal whose name I no longer remember that involved fat biopsies taken from a group of volunteers. The fat analysis by spectroscopy showed disturbingly high levels of toxic chemicals in all of the participants. After they followed a six-month regimen of intensive sauna, the fat biopsies were repeated. The toxic load went down on average by 50 percent.

These findings confirmed my own personal results from doing sauna on a regular basis after chronic exposures to toxic chemicals seriously impacted my health while working in a multi-specialty clinic as a mainstream doctor in the early 1990s  The more I did sauna over the ensuing months and years, the better I felt.

Not available to me at the time were the many studies over the past fifteen years that confirmed and extolled the benefits of infrared sauna. In a clinical study published in the Journal of Cancer Science and Therapy, scientists studied infrared’s effects on human cancer cells in vitro. Infrared therapy reduced tumor volumes 86% in 30 days. The tumor-suppressing effects were even seen without excessively high temperatures.

In another study, researchers in Japan discovered that whole-body hyperthermia with infrared strongly inhibited the growth of breast cancer tumors in mice without deleterious side effects. Researchers believe this therapy is “promising for long-term studies of a noninvasive treatment of breast cancer.”

On the subject of the benefits of sauna, I want to share an anecdote with you. One year after the 9/11 catastrophe, a doctor in New York City, whose name I have forgotten, called me to enquire about the feasibility of using infrared sauna in his occupational medical practice. He had dozens of patients who had been first responders during the collapse of the Twin Towers. Their exposure to toxic chemicals had left many of them permanently disabled. He said that he heard about me from a former patient of mine who had gotten well using infrared sauna.

We talked for over an hour about the benefits of sauna and the importance of following a strict protocol. I explained how the sauna facilitates excretion of toxic chemicals and heavy metals and has the additional benefit of potentially retarding the growth of cancer cells.

That was the last I heard from him. Several years after our phone conversation, I stumbled upon an article he wrote for a journal about the study he had done demonstrating the benefits of sauna as an effective method of treatment for the first responders.

In regards to Loretta, I impressed upon her the importance of beginning her sauna program at a low temperature and only staying in the sauna a few minutes. She could increase her time and temperature slowly, based on how she felt the next day. If she felt tired or achy, it meant she detoxed too quickly.

Some of my overly eager patients have experienced setbacks when they over stayed their time in the sauna. If too many toxins release at once, the detoxification system—especially the liver and kidneys—becomes overloaded. The toxins that have been pulled out of the blood and organs cannot be cleared, in effect poisoning the patient.

We also talked about staying hydrated in the sauna to protect the kidneys from being damaged by the toxins they are excreting, and we discussed the importance of taking adequate minerals to replace those lost in the sweat.

Here’s a link to a prior post about how to follow a sauna protocol. https://www.musingsmemoirandmedicine.com/2016/01/pesticide-spraying-on-airplanes-detox-after-travel/

At the eight-month check up, Loretta’s tumor had shrunk to 4 cm in diameter—about 1.5 inches—and had continued to soften. She beamed. I remember her letting out a squeal of delight and turning her head upwards and saying “Thank you, God.” I restrained myself from doing the same.

She said that her cancer had opened up a whole new culinary world for her, one in which she could find expression of her latent artistic talents through love of preparing and eating healthy food. She said she kept her eyes peeled for recipes that fit the requirements for an anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory diet.

She also said that she no longer felt burdened and stressed by the dietary restrictions. In fact, she confessed that she felt sorry for people who didn’t eat the way that she ate because she recognized that the standard American diet made people feel unwell without them even realizing it.

I asked Loretta to tell me what she had eaten the day before so that I could get a sense of her diet. Here’s what I discovered:

In the morning, Loretta had prepared my favorite morning drink with organic raw cacao, organic French pressed coffee, homemade almond nut milk, the chai spices (ginger, cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon) and sweetened with a tablespoon of chicory root. Loretta also boiled two eggs from pasture-raised chickens. Later in the morning she snacked on an apple.

Here’s a link to a post that describes the morning drink, along with simple instructions for making homemade nut milks in five minutes. https://www.musingsmemoirandmedicine.com/2015/08/my-favorite-morning-drink/

For lunch, Loretta made a hearty salad that included many raw vegetables, including grated beets and carrots, plus avocados for fat, and a cup of raw pumpkin seeds for protein. For the dressing, she used freshly-squeezed lemon juice mixed with extra virgin olive oil and finely chopped thyme, oregano, and basil, along with a pinch of Himalayan salt. She ate a handful of raw pecans for her afternoon snack.

In the early evening, Loretta ate a small portion of Alaska salmon and roasted root vegetables that included chopped parsnips, sweet potatoes, blue potatoes, onions and garlic. For her daily cruciferous quotient, she roasted cauliflower covered in a homemade ginger, tahini and lemon sauce. For dessert, she treated herself to dairy-free cream cheese she made out of cashews, probiotics and lemons.

Her only complaint involved the supplements. She had a hard time swallowing so many capsules. I suggested that she put the capsules in a blender with fresh coconut milk, a handful of blueberries, and a tablespoon of nut butter and then drink them.

In Part III, the last of this series, we’ll learn what other lifestyle changes Loretta made, what happened when she went back to see the breast surgeon, and the unexpected turn of events. Stay tuned.