18 Cancer Reading List.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix
18 Cancer Reading List.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Speaker1:
Welcome to the Cancer Secrets podcast. Changing the Cancer Paradigm. Hosted by Dr. Jonathan Steagall, a medical doctor and cancer specialist practicing in Atlanta, Georgia, deeply affected by his grandmother's death from stomach cancer, as well as patients he cared for in medical training, he realized there has to be a better way to treat cancer. Dr. Stegall has a unique and innovative approach to treating cancer called integrative oncology, combining modern medicine with alternative therapies personalized to each patient. This podcast is designed to educate, support and give you a positive voice you can trust. We invite you to join us on this journey as we seek to change the cancer paradigm.
Speaker2:
Hi. This is Dr. Stegall. I'm so glad you're enjoying the Cancer Secrets podcast. Do you have a question you would like answered in a future episode? If so, please go to Cancer Secrets dot com and click on podcast at the top of the page. Look for the tab on the right side of the page that says Send voice mail. You can record your question straight from your smartphone or computer with your question. Be sure to tell us your first name, where you're from, and why you listen to the show. I will choose from the best questions and answer them on the air. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Hello and welcome back to the Cancer Secrets podcast. I'm your host, Doctor Jonathan Stegall. This is season two and episode number 18. In today's episode, I'm going to share with you my current reading list of cancer books, which I feel are essential. With the Christmas holidays upon us. Now is a great time to begin reading some new books as we finish out 2018 and progress into 2019. I know there are a lot of books out there, so I'm going to share with you the essential books which I feel you must read if you're dealing with cancer or you're supporting a family member or loved one going through cancer. If you're new to the show, please go back and listen to my introductory episode to learn more about me and my vision for this podcast.
Speaker2:
As always, we encourage you to listen with a loved one or friend. Learning and enjoying the show with a community will be more impactful than doing so alone. Today's show is going to be a great one and I hope that you're going to have some downtime for the holidays, even though hopefully you'll be spending it with family and friends. Hopefully you'll have some downtime as well and can curl up and read a good book and learn some things. The first book I recommend you add to your reading list is the China Study. This is a book published in 2004 by Dr. Thomas M Campbell and Dr. T Colin Campbell. Dr. Colin Campbell is a Ph.D. and his son, Dr. Thomas Campbell, is an M.D. So they each have a unique background as it relates to nutrition and health. Now, this book is significant because it's based on one of the largest comprehensive studies of human nutrition ever conducted. And it's actually the study itself was a partnership between Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventative Medicine. This study collected data over approximately 20 years. One of the reasons this study was undertaken is because there really just wasn't a lot of high quality research on humans. A lot of different scientists and researchers had their own theories as to what a healthy diet is. But really, we didn't have much good research on humans, only on mice. So after years of controversial lab results on lab animals, these researchers in this study wanted to see what human research really showed us in terms of nutrition.
Speaker2:
So in this study, they looked at 65 counties in China and the total number of test subjects with 6500. Now, all of this test subjects were adults. They evaluated them based on blood testing and various questionnaires, and they used over 360 variables that they measured over the span of the 20 years. And the researchers said they ended up having about 8000 statistically significant associations between diet, lifestyle and disease variables, including cancer. Now, this book is a lengthy read. It's over 400 pages. It's packed with statistics and facts. And I don't want to ruin the read for you because I do think it's worth reading, especially as it relates to cancer. But one thing I do want to mention to you is that they concluded that animal protein promotes the growth of cancer. Now, this is an interesting conclusion because Dr. T Colin Campbell, who is the father of the two Campbells who wrote the book, he grew up on a dairy farm. So he was a big proponent of dairy, and he was rumored to frequently enjoy a nice glass of milk. And I'm guessing he probably ate some animal protein as well. But he looked at the results of this study and he concluded that animal protein can actually turn on the growth of cancer cells, basically due to the animal protein or milk protein known as casein.
Speaker2:
So he feels strongly that animal protein, whether it be from beef or chicken or even fish and certainly from dairy as well, is is not good if we want to effectively prevent cancer or if we want to have improved outcomes with cancer treatment. And of course, he went on to say in the book that eating a whole food plant based diet is really the way to go to greatly improve odds of preventing and surviving cancer. These benefits, of course, extend to other diseases as well, such as heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune disease, etc.. In one question a lot of people ask when we're talking about a more plant based diet is, but what about carbohydrates? What about sugar? Is it sugar bad? I've read a lot about sugar causing inflammation. I've read that cancer love sugar and don't I need to reduce the amount of sugar in my diet. And so one of the things that I thought was really valuable in the China study book is that there's a difference. So highly processed, refined carbohydrates are obviously bad for you. These are the things that are not as natural, that are usually found in a box or a bag. These are things like chips and breads and cookies and things like that. These are the highly processed, refined carbohydrates not found in nature versus naturally occurring carbohydrates, like those found in fruits, vegetables, legumes, and even some of the minimally processed grains in DRS Campbell actually feel like these low carb diets or ketogenic diets, even though they may result in some short term weight loss, that they really do sacrifice long term health.
Speaker2:
And I tend to agree and I'm someone who loves animal protein. I've I've eaten a lot in my life and I used to be a big proponent of the ketogenic diet. And the more research I read as it relates to not only cancer but just optimal health in general, the more I've come. To the conclusion that we really need to eat a plant based diet mostly fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, and really minimize the animal protein. Even good sources quote good sources of animal protein like grass fed beef, you know, free range chicken, you know, even though these are, I believe, much healthier than the mass produced beef and chicken and all those things, I don't think they're ideal. And if we go back to the Garden of Eden, you know, animal protein was not the norm. I mean, I believe Adam and Eve were we're eating mostly plants. And then it wasn't until civilization progressed that animals became more commonplace. And even then, animal protein was a delicacy. It was something that was reserved for a very special occasion, feast of some sort, and not something that people were eating on a daily or even a weekly basis. So I'll leave you with two really important conclusions from the China study. The first is you don't need to eat meat.
Speaker2:
And to quote the authors, they said there are virtually no nutrients in animal based foods that are not better provided by plants, and that includes protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals. And then the other takeaway I want to leave you with is to eat plants for health. And there was a good quote I really liked by the authors, and they said, people who ate the most animal based foods got the most chronic disease and chronic disease. We're talking about cancer, heart disease, diabetes, all of the things that we commonly see affecting Americans today. And they said people who ate the most plant based foods were the healthiest. So the question then becomes, well, do I need to go completely vegan? Is it okay to eat some dairy? Can I eat animal protein? Sometimes just fish count as animal protein. A lot of questions obviously are going to come up when it comes to this. In my advice is this if you're going through cancer, the most plant based, the most vegan you can be, probably the better. I don't like to tell people they can never have animal protein again, but I think you should make it a rarity. It depends on where you're starting. But I would say, you know, if you're someone who's eating animal protein every single day, I would say try to decrease that to, you know, once a week, maybe twice a week. If you're someone who just really loves it and then try to ultimately, you know, gradually get down to the point where you're not really eating animal protein even every week, maybe once a month or a few times a year.
Speaker2:
I think that would be a nice goal. You know, certainly if you're if you're a cancer patient right now, cut out animal protein as much as you can immediately. And that's going to be easier for some than others. If you're someone who's trying to prevent cancer, I still think it's probably best to limit animal protein. You can probably get away with a little bit more than someone who's actually fighting cancer, but it makes sense that the diet we would use, we're fighting cancer and wanting to have the best outcome possible is also the diet we want to use to prevent cancer as well as other chronic disease. So I think certainly minimizing animal protein is important. Dairy, I think is probably a little more permissible. But again, you want to make sure this is something you're not having on a regular basis. We don't really need cow's milk. If you look at other mammals, they don't drink other mammals milk. So whether it's milk or cheese, we don't really need it. I don't think it's probably quite as cancer promoting as as the actual animal protein. But I do think it's something that we really don't need and it's something we should strive to minimize. And then I do lump fish in with animal protein.
Speaker2:
You know, there are some people who feel that fish is maybe a little better. But if you look at really the constituents of animal protein we're trying to avoid, those are also present in fish. I mean, high protein levels, high methionine levels. And if you've listened to my other podcast episodes, I've mentioned methionine, the amino acid, very important that we address Methionine. It's, it's one of the constituents of protein and it's actually one of the most important things to look at because there was a study back in the 1970s which found that cancer cells and they looked at a wide variety of cancer cells absolutely needs methionine to grow normal healthy human cells don't need methionine, but cancer cells do. And so the highest methionine containing foods actually are fish and then closely behind, you know, chicken and then red meat. So, so, so animal protein has the highest methionine content and we want to try to minimize or avoid those so that cancer doesn't have them a finding that it wants. And then certainly the lowest methionine containing foods are the fruits and vegetables and legumes. So this again points back to a plant based diet and what we really need to focus on those foods and minimize the animal based foods. Another book I'd like you to consider reading is Stop Feeding Your Cancer by Dr. John Kelly. Dr. Kelly is a family practice doctor in Ireland who noticed that a lot of his patients who had cancer and were under the care of an oncologist didn't really know what they could do nutritionally to best fight their cancer.
Speaker2:
And interestingly, a friend of his recommended that he read the China study. He read it. He was immediately convinced that he needed to be giving his cancer patients nutritional advice and started recommending that they eat a Whole Foods plant based diet. He viewed animal protein as poison to his patients. And although it's a small sample size, Dr. Kelley noted across a wide number of his patients in his practice who followed a plant based diet recommendation did phenomenally well in terms of their cancer. He found that regardless of their cancer type, regardless of the other treatments they were doing, they did much better when they stuck to this plant based diet, as opposed to his cancer patients who did not follow the diet, who tended to not do well. So I recommend this book. It's a short book, it's only 150 pages. And I like it because it really puts the theory in the research findings from the cancer study into practice with real life patients. I think you'll find it to be a very easy read. Dr. Kelley has a very easy writing style and it's a very easy read. You could knock it out in an afternoon or over a weekend and to to really be able to know that that the the advice to pursue a plant based diet is is really good advice.
Speaker2:
And the Dr. Kelly was just amazed by the results he saw in his practice by simply having cancer patients who are getting cancer treatment through another doctor to simply change their diet and their lifestyle and the amazing results that he consistently saw. Another book I highly recommend is called Vital Strategies in Cancer by Dr. Jim Roach. Now, Dr. Roach is a colleague of mine. He is an integrative physician in Midway, Kentucky, just outside of Lexington. And he has a large number of cancer patients in his practice. And I, I consider him to just be one of the most brilliant physicians I've ever met. But Dr. Roach sent me an advance copy of this book recently, and it's not available, but I'm pretty sure it can be ordered on his website in advance of its release. But I was very impressed when I read the book. Dr. Roach goes into great detail about cancer and about his philosophy in treating cancer, and he uses an integrative approach. He does not use chemotherapy in his patients, in his office, but many of his patients are receiving chemotherapy elsewhere. But he really focuses a great deal on nutrition, supplementation, some off label repurposed medications. But he really dives deep with patients in terms of mindset. And I think this is really crucial, and I think most doctors don't spend nearly enough time on this. But we all know that receiving a cancer diagnosis is extremely stressful.
Speaker2:
We know that a lot of emotions go along with that fear, anxiety, worry for some even depression and addressing those emotions. And of course, all the emotions that go with treatment and navigating treatment as well as other issues that many patients are bringing with them into a cancer diagnosis, maybe from childhood or from adulthood, whether that's, you know, toxic relationships or traumatic events or just stressful situations, all of this impacts the internal environment of the body significantly. And so Dr. Roach spends a lot of time talking about emotions and emotional health and mental health and how those issues can really impact cancer treatment in a negative way. So regardless of the other treatments being pursued. Getting a handle on stress and reducing stress and for many patients, really just forgiving yourself with whatever you feel like you've done wrong or forgiving others for, for things that you feel that they've done to you is significant. So I don't mention that to minimize all of the great advice Dr. Roach has in the book. Otherwise, in terms of nutrition and supplementation and medications and all these great things, because it's packed with a lot of great information, it's over 400 pages. And he even goes into detail in terms of each type of cancer, in terms of what he recommends for his patients. But I highly recommend it for the focus on emotional health. If nothing else, I highly recommend you read this book. As I mentioned, Dr.
Speaker2:
Roach sent me an advance copy and I've just been soaking it up. It's just been a wonderful read and I highly recommend you, you check it out. And switching gears a bit, another book I consider required reading is not a cancer book per say, but I feel that it's extremely important for anyone battling cancer or anyone who wants to prevent cancer. And the name of the book is the Non Tin Foil Guide to EMFs How to Fix Our Stupid Use of Technology by Nicholas Pineau in this book deals with all of the electro smog, as we call it, that our bodies are bathing in on a regular basis. So when we talk about electromagnetic frequencies, we're talking about manmade electromagnetic fields, whether they be from cellular telephones, wireless Internet, microwaves, cell phone towers, power lines. All of these things that basically come as an unfortunate byproduct of our use of technology are a significant concern. Now, electromagnetic fields on their own aren't bad. Our bodies actually are small electromagnetic fields. The earth has its own electromagnetic field. Some of that is normal. But unfortunately, over the last 50 or so years, we've just seen an explosion in the electromagnetic waves that we're exposed to. And unfortunately, these aren't waves that we can see. These aren't normally waves that we can feel, although some people were finding are so sensitive to EMFs that they're actually having physical symptoms as a result of this exposure. I actually have a few patients who were so sensitive to electromagnetic fields.
Speaker2:
They can't be in a building that has wireless internet. They can only have wired Internet in a building such as their home to be able to function. They cannot ride in a hybrid or an electric car or they'll get symptoms in the symptoms. These very sensitive individuals experience tend to vary. For some people, it's headaches and fatigue. For other people as significant digestive issues, vision changes. So. So it's recognized that there is a small subset of people who are just extremely sensitive to these electromagnetic fields. The problem is we don't really know the long term consequences for all of us when it comes to these electromagnetic fields. And my concern just in what I've seen in my patients is that they're a definite contributor for many patients in developing cancer. And we can see this especially with brain cancer. You know, there's been talk for a while now about the safety of cell phones. You know, is it okay to be holding the cell phone up to our ear with all the electromagnetic radiation that it emits? And, of course, you know, the cell phone companies say, well, there's no proof that they're damaging, no proof that they cause cancer. But I've done a little informal study in my office and I ask every single brain tumor patient in my office if they use a cellular telephone and they say yes, and I say, okay, well, which ear do you hold the phone up to when you talk? And without fail, the ear they hold the phone up to is the same side of their head where they have a brain tumor.
Speaker2:
And there's actually some smaller studies that are showing that people who spend, you know, a significant amount of time on their cell phone, that they have an increased risk of brain cancer. And we're seeing a lot of other issues with cell phones as well. Women who stick their cell phone in a front shirt pocket have a higher risk of breast cancer in that breast where the phone is, men who put cell phones in their pocket or clipped onto their belt. We're seeing a lot more infertility in those men. And I suspect we're probably going to find that we see more testicular cancer and prostate cancer in those men as well. So, again, it's like like a lot of things. We don't have a long term study showing proof that these electromagnetic fields are directly cancer causing. There's not going to be a study for quite some time that that that knows that cell phones and wireless Internet and all of these EMF producing devices cause cancer. But I'd like to remind you that we were also told for many years that cigarettes were safe. We even had the American Medical Association and physicians promoting cigarettes as not only safe, but even healthy. But then finally, after years of of uncertainty and in smaller research, studies showing that cigarettes might not be so good for us finally had, quote, proof that they cause cancer.
Speaker2:
And so my fear is that. Emfs are the new cigarettes. And the scary thing is that we don't have long term studies showing their safety either. And I'd like to just remind you that. Just because something hasn't been shown to be damaging does not mean that it's safe. We typically will need to see something for for many, many decades, in many generations before we know for sure how it affects people's long term health. And so the electromagnetic field issue is a significant one. And I think it's something that's going to to result in a lot of harm to to us and to our children and our grandchildren. You know, over the years, they were going to find out the hard way that that they've been very damaging. So to get back to the book, The Non Tin Foil Guide to EMFs, How to Fix Our Stupid Use of Technology basically explains what EMFs are, what the sources of EMFs are, basically how our exposure to EMFs is is way more than is considered safe by a lot of organizations and researchers and then how we can reduce our exposures. So I really like that because, you know, Nicholas Pineau, who wrote the book, I mean, he's not a conspiracy theorist. He's not someone, you know, who who who believes in in all of these plots to harm us.
Speaker2:
But but he is a health journalist. And through his research, you know, he's he's developed a lot of theories about why people are getting sick. And he really feels that EMFs are a big reason why. And so I recommend you read the book. It's a very entertaining read. It does have some science in it, but I think it's necessary to understand what electromagnetic fields are and then how we can better understand what our exposures are and how to reduce those exposures. So it's been very helpful for me in my family in reducing our exposures. And then also it's been very helpful for me to better counsel patients as well because I don't only talk about how to best treat cancer in my office, but when patients go home, I need to make sure they're in a really good, healthy environment that says conducive to healing as possible. And reducing EMFs is a big key to that. Last but not least, I'd like to remind you to read my book, Cancer Secrets and Integrative Oncologist Reveals How You Can Defeat Cancer Using the best of Modern Medicine and Alternative Therapies. My book came out earlier this year here in 2018, and I wrote it because I felt that there was just a lack of really good, high quality cancer treatment information out there. As you know, there are a lot of books on cancer out there and some are very mainstream and they don't really get a lot into some of the more natural and alternative therapies.
Speaker2:
And on the other end of the spectrum, there's a lot of books that focus on, you know, cancer nutrition or cancer alternative therapies, but didn't really acknowledge conventional medicine. And so my book was based largely on a frustration with the fact that there just was not a good book out there that really embraced any and all therapies that are going to potentially help patients. And so I wrote the book from a very objective point of view in wanting to just say, okay, what's the research out there for all these different therapies that that many patients and their families have heard about? What are the truly good therapies? What do we have the most research on? And then what are the therapies that that people have heard a lot about that really don't have one ounce of research behind them? And so so my book focuses on those therapies, which I believe are the most effective and that you can trust. And so my book was written with that in mind, and I highly recommend you read it. It has over 250 references to support the recommendations that I have. And I think I think if you haven't read it and you decide to read it, you're going to find that it just really clarifies a lot of things for you and helps you really focus your efforts on the treatments that are going to to work the best.
Speaker2:
So I'm very proud of it. I strongly encourage that you read it. So as we close 2018 and progress into 2019, I just want to thank you for being a part of our podcast. We started this podcast earlier this year. We've done 18 episodes now and we've just been overwhelmed by the number of people who have reached out to us and told us what a blessing it's been to them, people from all over the world who have benefited from the things they've learned through our podcast. And so as we go into 2019, I just encourage you to remain a part of what we're doing here. Please continue to listen regularly. Subscribe if you've not subscribed, so you'll be notified when a new episode is released. And I'm very excited about the things that we have planned for 2019. I have some really great interviews. I'm in the process of lining up with some guests I think you're really going to learn a lot from. And then certainly I'll continue to share all of my knowledge that I gleaned from my patients and from research that's out there just to share the most cutting edge advanced cancer treatment approaches that we have available today. I wish you and your family all the best this holiday season. Merry Christmas, happy holidays and Happy New Year. And we'll look forward to a great 2019 full of prosperity and wonderful outcomes. So have a wonderful holiday and I look forward to next time. Bye bye.
Speaker1:
Thank you for listening to the Cancer Secrets podcast. If you were encouraged by this show, please share it with a loved one or friend. Help support the show by leaving us a rating and review on iTunes. The more reviews, the more friends like you can find the show. Finally, to learn more, visit us online at Doctor Stay Google.com. The Cancer Secrets Podcast. Changing the Cancer Paradigm.
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