I recently did a lecture and cooking class series for Cole Haan about the important link between food and health. The idea was to help people move in a healthier direction.
In the first class, I briefly shared my own cancer recovery story. Shortly after that first session, I got an email from one of the company's managers, Scott Gill, thanking me for coming and saying he was inspired because he, too, is a cancer survivor. I was surprised to learn that he had survived stage four colon cancer by following a healthy plant-based diet and other alternative modes of treatment. It has been 20 years since Scott's diagnosis and he remains cancer-free.
I was curious to learn more about Scott, so we later met and I interviewed him about his approach to health. I was very interested in what he did diet-wise since I'm a big advocate of a plant-based way of eating and also credit my recovery to it. I know from experience, though, that healing requires a multi-pronged approach so I also wanted to know what else helped Scott with his recovery.
Scott told me that 20 years earlier, he had been studying to be a doctor while working full-time for Bath Iron Works as director of risk management to help support his two children. His then-wife worked part-time. Life was stressful and he got very little sleep and exercise. On top of all this, Scott was grieving for his father, who had just died a painful death from lung cancer. (Research proves that all of the stresses Scott was going through are known to lower your immune system.)
For several years during this time, Scott had suffered through bowel problems and multiple tests and doctor visits. By the time doctors caught the cancer, it was stage four (advanced) colon cancer. Even with the recommended chemotherapy, the prognosis was bleak. Because of his father's experience with chemo, Scott decided to forgo these treatments and live his life, however short, the best way he knew how.
He remembered back to a younger, happy, healthy life, when he exercised daily and even played minor league baseball for the Detroit Tigers. He was inspired to start running again, and began running every morning. He knew that his work situation was so stressful that it was "killing him," so he quit his job.
He happened to visit a health food store, where an employee recommended he change his way of eating. So he started cooking and eating whole grains, beans and vegetables. He had very rudimentary cooking skills, but he managed. He started mowing lawns to support himself and his family and later started managing properties, which was a lot less stressful. The stress took a toll on his marriage, and Scott and his wife divorced.
He started volunteering to coach his children's hockey teams and also volunteered helping other young people who needed a little direction (and coaching) in their life, which he enjoyed. He felt it gave him a purpose.
Scott started to meditate every day and continues to do so today, as he feels that this was also a big part of his recovery plan. And he eventually went back to school (Harvard) and got his Ph.D., in psychology, which he hopes to put to use in his retirement by perhaps becoming a youth counselor.
Scott still holds himself to a really high standard in his work as director of risk management, corporate responsibility and logistics for Cole Haan, but tries to keep it in balance with leisure time and outdoor activities on weekends with his wife, Michele.
I felt that Scott's story really reconfirmed what I did 12 years ago -- changing my diet and lifestyle to increase my odds of survival from cancer. I was impressed that he had the strength to leave his job and do the things he knew he needed to do to get well in order to save his life. He self-reflected and decided to decrease the stress and clean up his diet, looking beyond the status quo. He chose a holistic path that made sense to him looking at all the areas of his life that were contributing to his illness, not just treating the symptoms.
Scott Gill trusted himself, let go of the outcome and lived. Today, at 52, he is cancer-free and healthy. I think there's a lot to learn from his story.
Do you have a success story related to a plant-based diet, stress reduction, meditation, exercise, conventional treatment or a combination of healing modalities? Please feel free to share your story and thoughts here.
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Mark Hyman, MD: Cancer Research: New Science on How to Prevent and Treat Cancer From TEDMED 2010
Gopi Kallayil: The Practical Vegetarian
There are several phenomena that may be related to this story:
1. People who are referred to large cancer centers often find out that they do NOT have cancer after all, even after having been "diagnosed" elsewhere. This is in no small measure due to expert cancer pathologists knowing what they're looking at (pathology is not an exact science).
2. People are sometimes told that cancer is among the possibilities ensuing from their symptoms--they forget the others, and assume they have the cancer.
For all we know, he went to his doc with bloody stools and was told it might be cancer--he left without having it investigated, and it really was montezuma's revenge, hemorrhoids, or IBS.
Bottom line: if you are told you might have cancer, have it investigated and verified by an expert, and then listen to the recommendations before embarking on your own treatment course.
I know of MANY people who have died going the "natural" route thinking that they will be cured. We live longer today because of medicine. YES, we need to do all we can to be healthy and feel good. However, I am a cancer survivor who did all the "right" things just like many others I know, and still got cancer. Eating healthy, exercising, and managing stress will reduce your risk but it is not a panacea. PLEASE, anyone who reads this story, use great caution if you value your life and have been diagnosed with cancer. Complementary methods are fine, but don't believe stories of a cure by being a vegetarian. And there is research showing that supplements can even cause cancer... ones we used to think might cure it... google vit a/betacarotene and lung cancer!
Tina Traster
Author of Burb Appeal: The Collection
http://cancerissofunny.blogspot.com/
Cancer isn't cured by quitting a stressful job or switching to a plant-based diet (speaking as a vegetarian, I recognize that meat isn't the evil some make it out to be). Cancer is placed in remission by drugs and other medical means. People who live perfect lives get cancer. Food and lifestyle aren't preventatives.
You do a disservice to EVERYONE by insinuating that cancer is cured by food. If someone reads this, elects not to have chemo and then dies--are you going to foot the funeral expenses??
Lucky man. Perhaps misdiagnosis could be queried as a diagnosis?
All you readers with oncoming colon cancer would be well-advised to take up all of Ms Wolff's suggestions, plus the cancer treatment.
Do you think the extra vitamins are essential with a vegetarian, especially with a vegan, diet? I'd rather not eat meat, but I also don't think I'd like to rely on vitamins for my nutrients either.
Omnivorism is not a perfect defense against vitamin deficiencies either. Is there research that claims negative impact from multivitamins? You could just get your levels tested and supplement where you are low to avoid taking unnecessary extras.
She was widowed, and her children were grown, so she decided to sell her house and travel the world for as long as she could. After a year she came back, penniless, feeling fine, and visited her doctors. The doctors told her that the cancer had completely disappeared, and they had no idea why.
Perhaps one should conclude that an increase in frequent flier miles leads to the remission of cancer? Or maybe one should just conclude that sometimes things happen that we can't explain.
I listened to a young woman today who was the speaker at Mendocino Cares monthly event today who is a nurse practitioner who works with for an orthopedic surgeon who shared her wonderful story of her vegan life and brought her two lovely children who thrived on a vegan life in the womb and have known no other way of life. They are a lovely family of course. Well, the surgeon has so many obese patients who need joint replacement but because of their weight are at high risk for surgery so he ask his NP to devise a diet plan for his patients and sent her to Cornell where she met with T. Colin Campbell and took the classes required to become certified as a plant based nutritional provider according to the program devisee by Campbell. Obviously I'm impressed with this surgeon who has as everyone says, "rock star status" because of his popularity. Goodness but the stories just continue and progress being made by leaps and bounds it seems. Thanks for your help in making good things happen.
Hmm, I really don't know but he managed and is alive and well today. I'm guessing he payed his own insurance or medical bills if he had any with this approach. What he did certainly took a lot of guts, huh?
this once again reminds me of the importance of a plant based diet, all one has to do is look at the luminous glow from vegans and those having little dairy or egg products, the skin is clear bright and vibrant. i find juicing is my best bet. nothing like granny smith apple juice or a glass of greens and ginger...everyone in my immediate family has had cancer except me. i think reiki has alot to do with it.
I think you're right about the glow of health. And sounds like you're doing some great things, too.
I would never juice though as you need the pulp for fiber. I eat a lot of apples and have green smoothies every other morning because I lost too much weight having them every day. My liquid is hisbiscus tea with fruit and greens and fresh ginger and parseley.
Great that you are avoiding chemicals. I agree with you that chemicals are another big problem. We can avoid many chemicals in the food we eat, too. Toxins like PCB's, DDT and dioxin concentrate in the fat (ours and that of animals). Whole grains, beans and vegatables have less in comparison, because they're also much lower in fat. So, if you eat these you'll certainly get less toxins.
Other chemicals, like mercury in the environment we can't avoid, but a plant-based diet will help us fare better. This was found to be true in the China Study. The Filipino children that were studied and had been exposed to deadly toxins that ate a plant-based diet had much less cancer than the children that ate a diet high in animal protein.
But, I'm with you on a multi-pronged approach. Lifesytle issues are all important.
Well said! I like this best: "We are big believers that you should "live like you have cancer, even if you don't". It's a statement that promotes a life of maximum wellness recognizing that you shouldn't have to wait until you are ill to make lifestyle changes."
Thank you. I think it's a great story that I think everyone can get something out of.
There is a lot of science that shows the connection between what we eat and our survival rates from cancer. That said, I think people should do what they feel is right for them whether it's conventional treatment, alternative, diet & lifestyle, or a combination of all. Thanks for your valued opinion!
I Think much of our health comes from our attitudes, positive is best. Caveat, delusional is not Happy, and if your Doc says no more blood pudding or you will die,,,ya better listen. In eating a specific diet to ward off cancer the amount of chemical knowledge needed is immense, and unless you are a biomedical chemist take advice of those who are.
Good luck, and be healthy Meg. You sound like a lovely and sane person, hate to loose you.
If we didn't evolve to eat meat, why do we have canine teeth for tearing it off a carcass? Cows don't. Chimps eat meat when they can get it and insects regularly (and they are meat too). The length of our appendix is another clue that we haven't been plant eaters in a long, long time.
Also, the energy needs to undertake a pure vegetarian diet require nearly constant eating in the wild. Again, witness cows and other vegetarian animals. It is true that the earth needs 10 pounds of prey animal for every pound of carnivore. But guess who has more energy? And guess which species have more brains?
Today's vegans survive because society solves a lot of the problems that would have killed them in the wild - e.g. grocery stores collect vegetable food for them so they don't have to forage and expend energy doing so. Self-collection of plant food leaves no time for anything else. Again, herbivores do little but eat and are generally quite stold.
BB
I thought it was an uplifting (and unusual) story, too. I just kind of stumbled upon Scott and thought he and his story were amazing. Whether you do conventional treatment, alternative , or a combination of both, everyone with cancer loves to hear the success stories (I know I did!). I told another friend that's survived colon cancer about Scott's story and it brightened her day. Thanks for commenting!
Another factor to note, she always been a very positive person always looks ahead , still get astonished in little things in life.