Rethinking “Racing For The Cure”

2010 was supposed to be the best year ever—I got married to my best friend, I graduated as a doctor of chiropractic, and then had the honor of bringing our first child, our son, into the world. Yet come December of 2010, my life came to a crashing halt when I heard the three words no one ever wants to hear: “You have cancer.”

Over the next three months, I learned that not only did I have papillary thyroid cancer, but also it had spread to my lymph nodes and lung. I also discovered I had another cancer to concern myself with: melanoma (skin cancer). I was given an 8.5 percent survival rate for 5 years.

Based on my education, I chose to increase my chiropractic checks, and heal with one of the best established alternative cancer therapies, Gerson Therapy. I headed down to the clinic in April of 2011, determined that I would be cancer-free that year.

Come July, I had a burning desire to get working, helping other people regain and keep their own health. I remember how scared I was, thinking, “Who’s going to come to a doctor who has been diagnosed with cancer?” It was surreal to me, but I opened the clinic anyway.

Just two months after I opened, the American Cancer Society contacted me, saying I was nominated as the Hero for Hope for the upcoming Relay for Life in the small town I practice in. I was ecstatic! I was so excited to be the voice of possibilities and hope for the people at that event. It didn’t matter how I would become cancer-free, it just mattered that I made it.

Two weeks before the event I got another call from the relay organizers. Because I didn’t use conventional treatment—or as they put it, no “evidence-based means”—to heal, they said they couldn’t have me speak at the Relay for Life.

I get it. I get that people want community; I get that people want to rally around loved ones that have been diagnosed. I get it. I really do. What I don’t get is why people aren’t paying attention to the fact that cancer treatment has not changed at all since the “War on Cancer” began in the 1970s. More and more people are exploring alternative therapies when they get diagnosed, either in place of or to supplement conventional treatment. With current diagnosis rates being 1 in 2 women and 1 in 3 men, start your research now. Better yet, get under chiropractic care and buy a juicer.

Cancer isn’t what the media leads you to believe. Just six months after starting into Gerson Therapy, I was deemed “cancer free,” yet my chart won’t show it. My scans are clear. My blood work is clear. But because I didn’t do “evidence-based” treatment, my doctor cannot declare me “cancer free.”

Cancer isn’t the enemy. Just like light will illuminate a dark room, health will overtake your body if you treat it the way it needs to heal.

Be empowered. Be energized. Thrive!