Dr. David Perlmutter For his patients on chemotherapy, Perl- mutter prescribes a ketogenic diet much like the one he details in his forthcom- ing book, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth About Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar— Your Brain’s Silent Killers. Initially the nutritional foundation of Dr. Thomas Seyfried’s Cancer as a Metabolic Dis- ease: On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer, Perlmutter notes that Seyfried expanded on The Warburg Effect, a well-known theory within the medical field that all cancer is a disease of energy metabolism. “A science-based ketogenic diet provides fuel for normal cells, while significantly reducing the glucose that cancer cells require for survival. A high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet like the Atkins approach is coupled with the addition of nutritional supple- ments to provide extra ketones in the form of medium chain triglyceride (MCT), found in coconut oil. “A ketogenic diet that forces the


body to burn fats rather than carbo- hydrates is much like the Paleo Diet,


“Cancer is a last-ditch effort by the body to say,


‘Wake up! I am too toxic to function. Clean me up


so I can get back to work.’” ~Deborah Post, Wellbridges


which is based on eating wholesome foods from the food groups that our hunter-gatherer ancestors thrived on in the Paleolithic period—grass-fed meats, fish, fresh fruits, nut and seeds, as well as non-starchy vegetables. I have found that this diet is a good concept for preventing and managing cancer,” says Perlmutter, who jokes that many of his patients object to eating fat until they hear about the emphasis on good fat and why it is necessary. Few things are as bad for human health as restricting the intake of good fat. “The American Journal of Medicine reported a study in which risk of breast cancer in women who ate a low-carb, higher fat diet reduced the incidence of breast can- cer by 15 percent. Unfortunately, it’s not something you hear much about,” remarks Perlmutter, who adds that man- aging cancer with dietary changes is more humane that treating people with mustard gas derivatives and radiation. He says that it makes more sense to focus on what can be done to enhance the immune system’s ability to get rid of the cancer, which is what the ketogenic diet helps to do. Additionally, a diet high in sugar


and carbohydrates stimulates the pro- duction of insulin-like growth factor (IGF), which stimulates the replication of cancer cells.


Ursula Kaiser


Kaiser admits that her stressful situation ate up a great deal of her energy, but redirecting it under a plan to heal her- self proved to be better than suffering the side effects of chemotherapy. She lectures locally on alternative healing modalities, such as easy cleanses, de- toxing practices, nutrition, supplements and the metaphysical basics, all proto- cols she used to heal herself of cancer. Kaiser directs her audience and indi- viduals she counsels to the Internet and recommends a list of movies for view-


36 Collier/Lee Counties swfl.NaturalAwakeningsMag.com


ing. “After watching Forks Over Knives, Food Matters, and Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, people are often motivated to transition to a whole-foods, plant-based diet, which can take a while for your taste buds to get used to,” she says. “I eat as many organic foods as possible, particularly when it comes to thin-skinned fruits and vegetables,” remarks Kaiser, who was recently invited to lecture at Naples Community Hospital. “I find that while the majority of doctors have never heard about the things I did to heal myself and keep the cancer from returning, the awareness within the public is growing and people are paying attention, taking more ad- vantage of complementary and alterna- tive modalities and asking their doctors to incorporate them in their treatment regimens. I believe that how we view and treat cancer will have to change as public demand increases,” says Kaiser, who volunteers to work with cancer patients in Collier and Lee counties, as well as others throughout the world.


Lee Memorial Health System Kaiser’s prediction is very slowly coming to fruition at the Lee Memorial Health System, in Fort Myers. One of the largest healthcare systems in Florida, it began investing in the creation of a wellness culture focused on prevention in 2010. “Voluntary wellness exams for employ- ees have detected serious undiagnosed health issues, such as early stages of can- cer, high blood pressure and diabetes,” says Dr. Sal Lacagnina, vice president of health and wellness. According to Ann Holt, director of outpatient oncology, an art therapist comes weekly to work with expressive art, which has been found to relieve anxiety and stress. A yoga and medita- tion class is held once a week and the Cookies gift shop offers massage thera- pist services Monday through Friday. An oncology nutritionist also counsels patients and teaches cooking classes. Focused largely on interdisciplinary care, rather than integrative medicine, Andrew Esch, M.D., notes that a signifi- cant number of the individuals within his palliative care practice were already using complementary therapies before they became patients. At present, the only evidence-based complementary therapies that are used include acu-


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