Radical Remission

Radical Remission. There’s our definition.

Know this: THOUSANDS (!!!) of people have experienced Radical Remission. Every oncologist Kelly has ever spoken with has experienced AT LEAST one case.

And yet, not one of them has submitted the case study to an academic journal—which, although understandable given their workload, is unfortunate given a) the inspirational impact simply knowing about all these exemplars would be for other individuals; and, b) the wisdom we can gain by aggregating this data into a meaningful collection of replicable protocols.

When I read that passage, I immediately thought of two luminaries in positive psychology: Ellen Langer and Albert Bandura.

In Mindfulness, Langer tells us we need to focus on “the psychology of possibility.” She uses Roger Bannister and his sub-4-minute mile as a case study. It was IMPOSSIBLE to do what he did. Until he did it. Then, once he shattered the idea of its impossibility, suddenly, a bunch of people could do it and now high school runners break the 4-min mile.

Then we have Albert Bandura. He’s basically the godfather of the science of confidence—or what’s known as “self-efficacy” in science speak. One of the key ways to jack up your self-efficacy? See someone else do what you want to do.

That’s why I LOVE (!) this book and Kelly’s Radical Remission exemplars. If they can defy the odds, so can we.

btw: There are NINE “Key Factors” Kelly has identified. Each gets its own chapter.

Here they are: “Radically changing your diet; taking control of your health; following your intuition; using herbs and supplements; releasing suppressed emotions; embracing social support; deepening your spiritual connection; and having strong reasons for living.”

Welcome to the first “Key Factor” featured in Chapter #1: “Radically Changing Your Diet.”

Take a moment to imagine that five-year-old ten minutes after you give him or her a cup of coffee. Did that coffee have an immediate, direct impact? Of course it did.

To pretend otherwise is just silly.

Now, imagine your cancer cells ten, twenty, thirty, sixty minutes after you give them a can of soda or a box of candy. Then repeat that bomb all day every day with the added sugar, processed foods, etc. Did that sugar bomb and those processed foods have an affect on your cancer cells? Of course they did.

To pretend otherwise is just silly.

And, to use the metaphor loosely: If we could sneak inside your body at a microscopic level, we might just see the same level of hyperactivity in your cancer cells post sugar bomb that we saw in that five-year-old post coffee.

Which makes you wonder how it’s possible that your oncologist can say that nutrition doesn’t matter while offering candy on your check-in and a soda while delivering chemo.

(Which is why the picture of this “POP IS FOR PATIENTS ONLY PLEASE THANK YOU!” note in this chemo room both haunts me and challenges me to play my part in helping us conquer cancer.)

Alas, again, your doctor has had a week of nutrition in his or her ENTIRE medical education.

You don’t need to think about that for more than 5 seconds (at least I don’t) to scratch your head and say, “Really? Maybe that’s a contributing factor to why we’re losing the war on cancer.”

Strategically, we want to know that nutrition matters. A LOT.

Tactically, I highly recommend Nasha Winters’ The Metabolic Approach to Cancer and Miriam Kalamian’s Keto for Cancer for the nuts and bolts on what science is showing is most effective in using nutritional interventions to rehabilitate damaged energy metabolism.

P.S. Important note: In terms of the diet recommendations Kelly offers in the book, I’m 100% on board with the elimination of sugar and processed foods. And, as I said in the intro, Kelly wrote the foreword to Nasha’s book and Nasha has led the nutrition portion of her workshops on Radical Remission so I HIGHLY recommend following Nasha’s more nuanced nutritional guidance!

This Idea struck me like a lightning bolt when I first read it.

I never knew what the word “patient” literally meant. Did you?

To recap: The word “patient” comes from the Latin word pati which literally means “to suffer” and “to submit” or “to allow”?

REALLY? Pause. Reflect. Wow.

Then I thought to myself, “OK. What’s the opposite of ‘submitting’ to something?”

Then it hit me. The opposite of meekly submitting to something is to CONQUER that thing. As in, to CONQUER cancer. Not submit to it. To CONQUER it. Period.

Then, for whatever reason, I thought of the best-selling cancer book The Emperor of All Maladies. From what I’ve heard of this 571-page book, it’s a beautifully written book by a brilliant (and earnest) Rhodes Scholar/MD who practices at one of the leading institutions in the world. It is, essentially, a biographical history of our struggle against cancer with, essentially, cancer as the protagonist.

To put it bluntly: It’s about the Emperor-Cancer CONQUERING US as we weakly submit to its authority. I don’t buy that storyline.

I’ll read the book at some point but I haven’t read it yet as I’ve been more focused on helping my brother (and you) conquer cancer than paying homage to cancer’s ability to conquer us.

Part of a longer philosophical chat but if you and/or your family are fighting cancer, I HIGHLY recommend you start with the shorter and more practical intellectual overview: Tripping over the Truth. The main difference? The Emperor of All Maladies is written from the perspective of a “genetic theory” of cancer. Guess what? From that vantage point, we LOSE the battle and submit to cancer’s infinitely complex wrath. But… When we look at it from the metabolic theory (a la Tripping over the Truth), WE assume the role of Emperor and conquer cancer.

Ahem. Back to this idea. It’s from Chapter #2 which is all about “Taking Control of Your Health.”

It’s REALLY (!) important we don’t just “submit” to the doctor’s orders. Which, frankly, I’d actually be willing to do if what they did was a truly integrative, effective solution that delivered the most healing benefit with the least quality of life cost. But IT DOESN’T.

Ahem again. Kelly unpacks three basic ideas in this chapter: 1. Be ACTIVE rather than passive; 2. Be willing to make some (often radical!) changes in your lifestyle; and, 3. Cultivate your ability to deal with the inevitable resistance you WILL get from the medical establishment and family/friends who think anyone who wears a white coat is nearly as omniscient as God. (Like this.)

In short, be willing to be the “annoying” patient. Don’t submit to cancer and/or your doctor’s “authority.” Be the CEO of your own cancer care. Conquer.

The idea of dealing with mold hits home—both literally and figuratively. A few years ago, we had an undetected leak in our kitchen that led to some crazy mold that contributed to Alexandra having a couple of terrifying seizures and trips to the hospital. (She’s antifragile great now.)

Now, did we simply throw some bleach on the mold and call it a day? No. We fixed the drip that was creating the moisture that led to the mold.

As we’ve discussed, that’s what you do when you take a wise SYSTEMS approach rather than a less-than-wise SYMPTOMS approach.

It’s NOT ENOUGH to slash (surgery) and then splash the bleach (chemo).

As Nasha Winters says, we need to treat the TERRAIN not just the tumor. We need to make the environment within our bodies INHOSPITABLE to cancer.

ESPECIALLY after we’ve already had it once. It’s always nice when *primary* prevention works and we avoid cancer in the first place. And… SECONDARY prevention (making sure “the mold” that is cancer) doesn’t come back is EVEN MORE important.

Remember our wise gardeners. Quit throwing in ice cubes. Optimize your terrain.

“Epigenetics.” As we discuss in this Optimize +1, epi is Greek for “over” or “outside of” our genes.

As you know by now, I believe the primary cause of cancer is dysfunctional energy metabolism. And… When we talk about genetics, we need to focus on EPIGENETICS. We need to look “over” our genes—not just within them.

Kelly walks us through a TON of lifestyle practices we can engage in that will help us both make our genes dance the way we want them to dance AND rehabilitate our energy metabolism—which is a winning combination.

Super quick: Suppressing emotions? Not good. Allow yourself to feel the fear, doubt, overwhelm, despair. Then let it fully pass through you and move on. Build positive emotions: Be happy, joyful, grateful. Laugh, celebrate life, see the awesome: EVERY day. Connect with loved ones (hug, cuddle, hang out) and connect with something bigger than yourself (pray, meditate, etc.)!

That’s from the final key: “Having Strong Reasons for Living.”

Every chapter has some great “Action Steps.” The ones from this chapter are particularly great. Among the tips: “Write down how many years you want to live. Research conducted on people who live to be one hundred has shown that most of them always knew with deep conviction that they wanted to live to be one hundred. Keep your ideal number taped to your bathroom mirror so you see it every morning as you start your day.”

And: “Write your ideal obituary.” Plus: “Make a simple list of all your current reasons for living and enjoying life.” And: “Imagine that you have unlimited wealth (say, over three hundred billion dollars), perfect health, and are guaranteed total success in whatever you set out to do.” <— What would you do?! Cultivate your reasons for living!

This was David Servan-Schreiber’s #1 thing in Anticancer: A strong WILL TO LIVE!!! Here’s to tapping into that life force and giving it all we got, my co-Conqueror!!!