August 22, 2025 • 65 mins
Summary:
In this episode of the Low Carb Consultant Podcast, I speak with Lisa Mary Drake, a cancer thriver and soon-to-be integrative cancer coach. Lisa shares her journey from diagnosis to her current approach to managing cancer through diet, fasting, and alternative therapies. She discusses the importance of understanding cancer metabolism, the role of a low-carb ketogenic diet, and her experiences with various treatment options. Lisa emphasizes the significance of mindset, self-advocacy, and the need for personalized approaches to cancer care. Her story is one of resilience, empowerment, and a commitment to helping others navigate their cancer journeys.
Find Lisa: https://www.instagram.com/lisamarydrake/
Email her: lisa.mary.drake@gmail.com
Takeaways:
Lisa was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in May 2023.
She declined standard care due to side effects and pursued integrative strategies.
Lisa found relief in her diagnosis, validating her symptoms.
She emphasizes the importance of a low-carb ketogenic diet in cancer management.
Fasting has been a significant part of her healing process.
Lisa has experimented with various diets, including carnivore and keto-vore.
She believes diet is crucial in influencing cancer metabolism.
Drug sensitivity testing has guided her treatment choices.
Lisa is pursuing a career as an integrative cancer coach.
Mindset shifts, including meditation, have been transformative for her.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Lisa Mary Drake's Journey
01:26 Facing Cancer: Diagnosis and Initial Reactions
05:52 Exploring Low Carb Diets and Cancer Connection
10:14 Navigating Treatment Options: A Personal Perspective
17:46 Implementing Dietary Changes and Fasting
27:23 Dietary Evolution: From Low Carb to Keto-Vore
32:35 Diet as a Central Focus in Cancer Management
38:57 The Impact of Diet on Cancer Progression
44:39 Integrative Approaches to Cancer Treatment
50:32 Mindset Shifts for Thriving After Diagnosis
55:52 Transforming Cancer into a Blessing
Keywords:
cancer, low carb diet, ketogenic diet, fasting, integrative cancer coaching, nutrition, cancer treatment, metabolic therapy, health, wellness
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
All right guys, welcome back to the Low Carb Consultant podcast.
So today I'm honored to have on Lisa Mary Drake, a Cancer
Thriver, soon to be integrative cancer coach and nutritionist.
And she's also an educator and songwriter, which is very cool.
She's known for her resilience and advocacy for metabolic
(00:32):
therapy. Lisa is transforming her
personal fight into purpose through deep nutritional
insight, faith, and raw authenticity.
So Lisa, it's an honor, a pleasure to have you on here.
Thank you so much for taking thetime.
Thank you for the opportunity and that amazing introduction.
(00:55):
Very looking forward to talking all things low carb, cans,
metabolism and whatever else comes up.
So yeah. Absolutely.
And amazing intros are for amazing people like you.
So let let's let's go into it. So I know you've had quite the
journey up to this point. Maybe for some of the listeners
(01:16):
who are not familiar with you ordon't know who you are quite
yet. Can you give the listeners just
a real brief background on yourself and how we got to this
point? So I was diagnosed with
colorectal cancer May 2023. Due to the side effects such as
infertility and a whole bunch ofother undesirable things, I
(01:38):
declined standard of care, went down a huge rabbit hole, was
already familiar with low carb dieting and just learned a whole
bunch of integrative strategies.Put them all together, should be
in advanced stages, but just very slowly over the past 2 1/2
years, shrinking the primary tumor and just learning lots
(02:00):
about cancer biology. So that's pretty much it in a
nutshell, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
And I know that's that's all pretty heavy stuff there.
I'm sure when you were sitting down with a doctor and they're
they're reading basically the diagnosis, if you don't mind me
asking, like, what was the firstthing that was going through
(02:20):
your mind? Like, OK, like, what am I doing
about this? How are we going to fight this?
Obviously, I know I'm sure therewas a ton of emotion that was
going through your head at the same time.
What was the initial thought when he first read the
diagnosis? It wasn't surprising so because
with the bowel prep that you do to basically clear out your
digestive system before a colonoscopy, there was a lot of
(02:43):
blood. There were also a lot of signs.
I was blocked many times, told Iwas too young.
So I I knew that I had cancer. It was just a matter of where in
the digestive system it was. I don't want to downplay how
difficult a cancer diagnosis is for the majority of people, but
(03:05):
for me it was actually relief. It validated all of the side
effects and the symptoms of having a rectal carcinoma, all
the gut problems. So for me, my initial relief was
like, thank goodness I'm right, my General practitioner is
wrong. I cannot wait to throw throw
(03:28):
this in his face and I actually have a valid reason and
permission to give myself time to heal.
I can take time off work. Yeah.
So my reaction was very unusual.I was relieved and and validated
basically. Yeah, no, that's that, that's,
that's wild. So it's, it sounds like you had
(03:49):
this thought in the back of yourmind when you were going in
doing all the tests. You're like, I'm pretty sure
this is what it is and it's, andit's cancer now, just for the
listeners and even myself, because it sounds like it's,
it's, it's kind of a form that I've never heard about.
So is this like it? Is it intestinal cancer or or
what was the the type again? So Bell Anal colon is all part
(04:15):
of colorectal. So my treatment is in the
rectum. So it's like in between the
colon colon and the anus. I know talking about buttholes
can be a little bit awkward, butI certainly sort of let go of
that complex very open about it.So mine is in, yeah, in the
rectum, the staging for colorectal specific is 1C, and
(04:39):
that's because I had spread to acouple of lymph nodes outside
the immediate tumor microenvironment.
But for general oncology, it would be called stage 2.
So you could either call it stage 2 cancer in general or
stage 1C rectal carcinoma. Got it.
OK, so the old listeners also know we were chatting about this
(05:01):
a little bit off offline before we start the recording.
I came across your profile Instagram.
I was reading through a bunch ofdifferent things and everything
that you were going through notice that you were leveraging
like a low carb ketogenic diet. We were talking about fasting
and and and we were talking about intermittent fasting and
you not doing that, but also doing some prolonged fasting.
So I want to get into all those different topics here because I
(05:24):
think it's important for people to understand that there are
ways in which you can leverage different low carb diet
variations to fight cancer. And this is one of the main
reasons why I, I wanted to get you on and, and I wanted to talk
to you about this today because I think if this can honestly
help so many people. And you and I were talking about
just before I kind of go into everything and, and the diet,
(05:46):
you know, I'm just going to readsome stats off of ChatGPT right
now. So in the US alone, 38.9% of men
and women will be diagnosed withcancer at some point.
And other sources estimate if it's about like 1 and 2.
So around 40 to 42% of people are going to be diagnosed with
cancer. And then worldwide it's almost,
it's one in four people. So I think these conversations
(06:09):
that you and I having, hopefullywe get a ton of value out of it
for everyone that's that's listening.
So let's let's jump into what westarted to do here in terms of
the protocol, the implementation, the diet.
Now it sounded like to me when we were chatting offline that
you were already somewhat familiar with low carb dieting,
(06:31):
ketogenic dieting before you even had the diagnosis.
Is that correct? Yeah, so I learned about low
carb dieting pretty early on. So I'm 36 now, probably from the
age of 21. The Australian sort of the the
biggest advocate for low carb dieting was Christine Grenache.
(06:55):
She was kind of the first personin Australia to put a lifestyle
spin on it as opposed to, you know, do the Atkins diet, lose
all the weight and then, you know, do what you want after the
fact. So I already somehow, and I
don't know how or why I already knew about the more simplistic
(07:18):
connection between eating sugar and cancer.
I had been on low carb diets. In saying that, as you would
know, the the range and the scope is very big.
So some people might consider a low carb diet, 150 grams of
carbs and under. I wasn't doing a ketogenic diet
(07:40):
at that time. So I think that's the biggest
change, like understanding that a ketogenic diet is not a high
protein or a low fat diet, like it's 70 to 80% fat and was
initially created for decreasinginflammation in the brain for
epilepsy. And then you have your general
(08:01):
low carb diet, which I hope to go back to when I'm in full
remission, where you can sort ofjust play around with what you
know, what your body responds to.
So I'd say yeah, growing up every, I I knew about Atkins
from the early 2000s, but the low fat dogma in Australia kind
of made it confusing. I would say I grew up the
(08:23):
majority of my life with messages about calorie counting
and worrying about fat and cholesterol.
So I had a really good a really good experience from starting to
drop the carbohydrates bef before I was diagnosed, mostly
(08:45):
because it really settled my blood sugar.
Eating more fat meant I was moresatiated.
I have had a long eating disorder history, so it also
really helped quieten those intrusive eating, just sort of
thoughts. So any viewers who have gone
through that, you'll know what Imean, that they're just always
(09:05):
there. So I think low carb diets,
therapeutically and for mental health, yeah.
All for them, yeah. For sure 100% and most people
that I've had the honor of interviewing I think would say
the same thing. Like one of the reasons why I
eat like a lower carb. I, I wouldn't say I'm, I'm
(09:28):
ketogenic. My, my protein's very high.
So when the protein's too high, you're, you're typically not
going to land in ketogenic ranges.
But when you don't have any carbs coming into the body, you
know, you're, you're, I'm, I'm probably producing trace amounts
of ketone, but I'm definitely not in a traditional ketogenic
diet. But I think most people that
I've spoken with that end up trying like a lower carb and
(09:51):
even go keto approach is one of the main things they notice is
like their brain just works better.
General sense of happiness, you know, depression, heaviness
lifted those types of things. And so I 100% agree with you.
Now I kind of want to jump into,OK, so we get the diagnosis and
I'm, I'm so sorry if I'm making you relive any of these, you
(10:15):
know, memories. Very open about it I and again,
I don't want to understate how traumatic this can be for other
people, but I in my experience Ihaven't found cancer to be
traumatizing, mostly because I learnt about what I would
(10:35):
consider the correct theory thatunderpins it, so the
mitochondrial metabolic theory. So I've never really had a fear
of it. So you can really ask me
anything. I'm very comfortable and very
open. But I appreciate your concern.
Yeah, absolutely. So, so, OK, so we get the
diagnosis and then you know thatit sounded like to me, if you,
(11:00):
based off what you said, it was almost a relief.
You were like, I knew it, this is kind of what I had.
We can basically erase all the other potential issues that we
thought it was. Now this is it.
And now we start kind of fighting it, treating it, all
those types of things. So I, I, and I'm just curious
here, was there ever a moment intime?
And I'm obviously, I'm sure you were talking with your, you
(11:22):
know, your, your doctor about these different, different
options that were available to you.
But were you considering like, Hey, I'm going to fight this
thing almost like holistically with diet and then maybe not do
the chemotherapy or do both chemotherapy and diet?
Like, were you, what was, I guess what was going through
your mind initially in terms of the game plan that you were
(11:42):
going to lay out for yourself inorder to fight this thing?
To be honest, if there if there weren't so many side effects
from having radiation to the rectum, it is near the
reproductive organs. So if it had been in my breast,
to be honest, I I probably just would have had radiation and
(12:04):
because my my mother actually had breast cancer in 2017, had
radiation, little to no side effects leaves a good quality of
life. So that sort of model with
standard of care model to me wasn't the kind of brutalizing
strong chemo. The other reason was that the
(12:27):
side effects weren't fully explained to me by the care
team. So initially I had a
radiotherapist who was also an oncologist, A colorectal
surgeon, and my General practitioner.
But it was actually through IVF because I was told I would not
be able to have a viable pregnancy.
So I would go to the top of the list for IVF.
(12:49):
So I went to an IVF, a specialist, to plan ovarian
cryopreservation. That's where they take some of
your ovary and freeze it. They also take eggs and freeze
them. But it was him who told me that
I probably can't carry a child, that my uterus would be
(13:09):
affected, that I would have sexual dysfunction, I would have
hardening of the vaginal tissue,just all these things that
weren't explained to me. So I was sort of thinking, why
is the IVF specialist telling methis and why hasn't the
oncologist told me this? So I went back to him and he
just said, oh, the nurse will talk to you about women's
(13:33):
business. I was like, this is not women's
business. This is like specific side
effects related to cancer treatment.
So I just became a little bit skeptical.
I lost trust and rapport. I also started asking questions
because I'm very much into researching and learning and I
was, I was given a lot of patronizing responses.
(13:55):
So I would say distrust and a negative experience in the
standard of care initial care team.
Very interesting. That's what basically led me
down the rabbit hole. If I had a better experience, I
probably would have just had standard of care.
So yeah, to sum up, it was not being told the full extent of
(14:19):
the side effects being patronized.
And also because my old General practitioner, I'm not sure if
you just what you call them in North America, just as in like
your everyday doctor blocked my colonoscopy, sort of gas lit me.
(14:39):
So I think, yeah, the skepticismand the lack of trust and a loss
of rapport led to the rejection and then ultimately doing all my
own research. I'm not sure if I articulated
that very well, sorry. No, no, that was great.
And, and I'm sorry that you had to go through that situation
with your, your medical team when you were trying to figure
(15:00):
out what is the best pathway to healing and that is the
treatment that you got. That sucks.
So then what? So then what did you ultimately
do then? Did you?
So it doesn't sound like you gotthe radiation.
So then we, so then did you do, did you go down the
chemotherapy? Route so I, I was recommended to
(15:21):
have radiation every day for five days a week for so five
days a week for five weeks and neo junctive chemotherapy before
surgery. And my tumour was only like 3
centimetres. So I also thought this is very
aggressive for one small tumour.So I just declined, declined it
(15:47):
all. So I haven't had any intravenous
chemo, I haven't had any radiation.
So those are the that sort of constitutes standard of care.
Like the traditional the traditional route most people
would take. I did.
Try immunotherapy. However, it wasn't recommended
to me and it was actually me in the early stages not
(16:09):
understanding really sort of intricate things about cancer
like mismatched repair, DNA. And so I went to a private
clinic, demanded all these immunotherapy drugs, spent like
15 to $20,000 of my parents money for no result.
(16:32):
So I'd also like to tell people,don't, if you're not in a
critical situation, don't rush. I've wasted so much money.
I've written a whole book about all the mistakes that I've made.
There's so much conflicting information out there.
So you really need to, if you have time, do proper research
(16:56):
and don't jump into anything anddon't start doing everything
under the sun. More is not necessarily better.
In my case, less has been more. So interesting, yeah.
Yeah, and that makes sense. And obviously, you know, every,
there's so many different forms of cancer.
Every diagnosis is different from person to person, stage to
(17:19):
stage. When, when you can, when, when
you catch it, the type. OK, so just so I understand
here, so basically after the situation that happened with
your doctors, we decided to do no chemo and then no, no
radiation. You want some immunotherapy
routes that didn't work out. So basically then were you and
the way in which you are trying to heal this or it sounds like
(17:40):
to me you're kind of doing this on your own and are you
primarily doing this now with with diet and lifestyle change?
Yeah, so after I decided I'm notdoing the chemo or radiation, I,
I, I'd heard about fasting through a lot of, I mean, at the
time there wasn't that much information out there, not like
(18:01):
now where you where metabolic therapy, fasting and all these
different approaches. You can with a touch of your
fingertips, you can just swipe on, you know, on social media
and find out this information. And it's so thick and fast that
(18:23):
the algorithm can't suppress it anymore.
But at the time I could not finda lot of information.
But for some reason, I knew about fasting induces autophagy.
So after the rejection of the care plan and the treatment plan
presented to me, I fasted for two weeks and I went up north to
(18:46):
get more because it was quite cold at this time, to get more
vitamin D. Because I knew that this was a
protective factor for people whohave cancer and even for people
who have standard of care, if their vitamin D levels are
higher, they have better outcomes.
So I just started implementing slowly things that had both the
(19:08):
support of the alternative spaceand also mainstream research.
I also got my hands on Febentazole, Ivermectin and.
Those I was going to ask. I was going to ask about
ivermectin here. Yeah, go ahead.
I didn't mean to interrupt, but.No, no, no, no, no.
I was able to get them online without a prescription.
(19:31):
I then came across the repurposing drugs and oncology,
the redo protocol, but I needed someone to prescribe me the
drugs and it wasn't going to be my former care team.
I actually found out about a integrative clinic in Melbourne
by it's going to make no sense. I found out about hyperbar
(19:55):
hyperbaric oxygen therapy. I went there in Melbourne.
The director of the clinic referred me to Dawn Lamont,
who's AUS truly integrative oncologist in Oregon.
She said I can't take you one being in Australia, but you can
go to this clinic in Melbourne and I was supported by
(20:16):
integrative Dr. So I have since got a mainstream colorectal
oncologist to sort of consult with, but I basically have the
support of my integrative Dr. toaccess the repurposing drugs to
sort of put pressure on different cancer metabolism
(20:38):
pathway. But yeah, basically my my own,
my own doctor with some prescription support from real,
real doctors. Yeah.
And just Full disclosure, I'm not advocating for people to do
DYI like do sorry, DIY do it yourself medicine experience,
(21:02):
not encouraging people to rejectmedical advice, just being clear
on that. Sure.
No, I completely understand. And I want to kind of get into
Ivermectin because I've I've heard a lot about this.
Yeah, I've also heard about ivermectin for other things like
the the C word COVI. Yes, we don't want to get shadow
(21:24):
banned. I've heard about people using
that. But like up to this point, just
just dealing with your doctors and everything that you went
through. Like what do you feel like was
the biggest lie you were told about about cancer?
Like up to this point? Because it feels like to me you
feel like you were lied to, especially about the different
(21:46):
protocols and treatments. Well, there's a lot.
I have to probably be more than one, one that I would die or
have or be in advanced stages ifI didn't act, act immediately.
And that's not true. When I went away to buy myself
time and I fasted, I had anotherMRI, there was no change.
(22:08):
So the the feeling that this is imminent, you must make a
decision now. Stop asking questions.
Yeah. So the the prediction that I
would be in a terrible situationwas.
I'm not. I'm not saying it's a lie
because it's probably based on huge randomized control trials,
but it's not based on me as an individual who's not feeding
(22:31):
cancer through smashing carbohydrate, that it's a
genetic disease. So it's been proven that not all
tumors have genetic mutations. Professor Thomas Seyfried at
Boston College University has proven this, that there are
plenty of tumors that do not have any genetic mutations.
(22:54):
So that's another lie. And that and yeah, that it was
genetically inherited. They sort of linked it.
Oh, your mum had breast cancer. Your, your grandfather had bowel
cancer. So This is why you have cancer.
As if I couldn't prevent it. Also, using the very
scientifically unprecise language, you are otherwise
(23:16):
young and healthy. It's not true. 25 years of
bulimia, working three jobs, being money hungry, just wanting
to keep increasing my property portfolio, not taking care of
myself, no circadian rhythm, no menstrual cycle.
I was not otherwise healthy. So I'd say these are the biggest
lies, that I was young and healthy, that it's genetic and
(23:40):
that if I didn't do something then and there that I was going
to die or I was going to be in advanced stages with metastasis.
Since diagnosis, the sorry, since the in initial diagnosis,
I've had no tumor mass increase,I've had no metastasis.
The spread to the lymph nodes was reversed through high high
(24:03):
dose vitamin therapy. So yeah, those are the three.
Sorry, I know you asked for one answer and I gave you.
No, no, no, no. It's I I want you to kind.
Of lies, not intentional lies, but just misunderstanding and
dogma and not wanting to consider alternative theories
which are underpinned by strong scientific evidence.
(24:25):
They're not, you know, quackery.We're not hanging out under, you
know, big Elm tree in the full moon singing kumbaya, my Lord.
Like this is scientific, scientifically published papers
on pub Med that anyone can read.So yeah.
Absolutely. And again, you know, it just
like it sounds like to me what they were trying to put upon you
(24:48):
is like a blanketed protocol that wasn't necessarily specific
to your lifestyle then your lifestyle up to that point.
And it kind of even sounds like to me they just were not
listening to you at all. No, they completely rejected any
suggestion. Suggestions of lifestyle
(25:09):
intervention. So I I asked.
Interesting. Yeah, I said look, I and and I'm
very clear on this. I don't think I will ever fully
recover from my eating disorder.It's I manage it very well now
and I have very few lapses. But back then, you know, I could
have two week full relapses. So I was asking, is there any
(25:32):
research on, you know, gut damage due to bulimia?
Is it because, you know, I'm only sleeping 3 hours a night
and I'm working, you know, I'm teaching all day at school that
I'm stacking shelves in a supermarket to 5:00 in the
morning. Like that can't be healthy.
And they were like, no, no, no, you can eat what you want.
It's, it's not a lifestyle disease.
So yeah, it it's, it's disappointing that that is still
(25:59):
the mainstream for you. Yeah, No, that is disappointing
to hear. But I, I, I think what's really
cool for people to hopefully getfrom this is there are so many
different ways. And I think more and more
research, more and more data is coming out about lifestyle
changes. You can, you can make diet
interventions, you could have fasting interventions you can
(26:21):
implement in order to like in your case, see no growth or
acceleration in the tumor size, which is awesome.
You know that that's great for you.
So I kind of want to go back to then.
All right, so it sounds like we basically rejected what the
traditional protocol would be and now we are kind of going on
(26:41):
this journey to find all right, well, how do we fight this
thing? What different things can I try
and implement? And, and, and So what in terms
of the diet, because I do want to talk about the different
things you you implemented like ivermectin and what you feel
like out of those non traditional protocols got you
(27:03):
the most results or you feel like got you the most results.
But initially, I know you said earlier too, you went on a 7 day
fast, you went up north to get some vitamin D.
How did you ultimately change the diet?
Did you almost go like strict ketogenic?
What was the main diet shift to you you you implemented for
yourself? Yeah, early on, I think because
(27:26):
my motivation was really strong and also my stubbornness to
prove those medical professionals wrong, I was on,
I'd say, an omnivore ketogenic diet.
So I would skip breakfast initially and I would eat 2
meals a day, generally some chicken or some steak with at
(27:54):
the time what I thought was healthy.
So low carb vegetables mostly like broccoli, cauliflower, and
just a lot of fat. So making a sauce out of heavy
cream butter. And I was pretty much having
those meals on repeat. But I was having some problems
(28:17):
most, and I later found out through Anthony Chafee's Plants
are Trying to Kill you. He lecture that I was yeah, I
was having some problems. And at this time the tumor was
still bleeding. So I was still getting blood in
the toilet. Then, because I have still
(28:41):
issues with restriction and anyone with an eating disorder
is is going to have these issues, I had to become a little
bit more liberal. However, through that, I was
getting a lot of oxalate dumping, which I didn't know was
a thing until I came out of the sauna, Yelled at a staff member
(29:04):
for using what I thought was just like really strong, maybe
detergent in the towels. And they were like, no, no,
you're oxalate dumping. And then we had a magnifying
glass and I saw like these shinylittle things.
And then I realized, OK, what's that?
So I googled it. I was like, OK, no more fake
(29:27):
keto, fake low carb, no more, you know, almond flour pancakes.
So my diet has evolved from, I mean, I was very plant based
before cancer. And it drives me crazy when
people are like, oh, that meat you're eating is, you know,
that's why you got cancer. It's like, mate, I was plant
based. I was eating fake vegan shit.
(29:49):
Sorry to swear. Yeah, I did not eat red meat for
so long. And I now it's ironic because I
now that's red meat makes up most, most of my diet.
So I'd go, I started off with a meat and veg kind of low carb
diet increasing the fats. Then I kind of went to a general
(30:13):
keto with all the snack crappy foods trying to make it like a
standard western diet put low carb.
Then I got really sick from all I guess the oxalates, the
lectins. I didn't get tested so this is
just a hunch just so everyone knows I'm not I'm not 100% sure.
Then I went carnivore which was really interesting.
(30:35):
So I've tried like every ketogenic, low carb diet there
is, and there's pros and cons toall of them, but definitely it's
the central part of my cancer strategy.
Interesting. So cancer cells they up regulate
glucose. Some people's cancer cells also
(30:55):
use glutamines or non essential amino acid.
Professor Thomas Seyfried talks about this in his research.
So I try not to eat too much protein because it's not great
for cancer if you have insu insulin growth like factor or
(31:16):
mtor pathway up regulation. But it's really hard because I
now love meat. So that's where I guess you have
to know a little bit about the genomic sequencing and extra
information about your cancer. Some people can probably eat
heaps of protein no problem. For me, I did a very fancy
(31:39):
sensitivity test and learned, OK, too much protein is probably
not good for me. So that's why I'm all about the
fat, yeah. And that makes sense.
So, so let's and then before we transition into some of the
different protocols that you were starting to try and what
you feel like was working. So it almost kind of sounds like
(32:00):
to me, correct me if if I'm wrong here.
Are you pretty much eating like almost like like a ketogenic
diet, basically like an animal based ketogenic diet?
Yeah, I'd say. I mean, I don't like this term.
I don't like buzzwords but I'd say I'm Ketovol.
OK. Every meal has a moderate amount
(32:21):
of protein, a lot of fat, but because I can't just eat
unlimited muscle meat, I need toeat something else.
So that's where I have low carbsthe the lower oxalate, lower
insoluble fibre vegetables. As a side, I'm really, really
fat adapted so I can actually get away with probably more then
(32:44):
most people can stay in a very high level of ketosis with low
glucose. I measure my glucose ketone
index twice a day and I encourage other people to do
that because you learn a lot about your body and everyone,
everyone is very, very different.
(33:05):
Yeah. Yeah.
And you, you had mentioned this earlier, it kind of sounds like.
So for right now, the way that you eat is like the central
focus almost of your protocol, correct?
Yeah, I basically use the drugs and nutraceuticals.
So by nutraceuticals I mean natural compounds that I tested
(33:27):
for. So you can through a liquid
biopsy. So just a blood test, send your
blood to private oncology companies who will test tested
basically in a dish against different therapies.
So I got drug sensitivity testedand also the nutraceuticals.
(33:49):
But yeah, I'd say diet and fasting is the main part.
And I just kind of use these things strategically.
So if I eat too much protein forexample, and I am worried about
my body making more glutamine, Imade drink a lot more much of
(34:11):
that day. Take some sodium phenol,
butyrate, take more phenbenzole.I've also I've managed to get my
oncologist to prescribe me capcitibine which is an anti
metabolite and a very old oral chemo drug that not many people
know about. Probably cause makes less money
(34:33):
but it means you can control thedose.
So I'll, I have that as a safetynet.
So I'm not against like I'm not one of those all natural people.
Like I, I fully believe that thetwo systems can coexist and that
someone should just use as many strategies as is appropriate for
them. So yes, to sum up, ketogenic
(34:57):
diet and fasting are the 2 main underlying things.
And then, yeah, I do the drugs and nutraceuticals orally and
strategically and also hyperbaric oxygen therapy and
sauna is very important when youtake a lot of drugs and
(35:20):
nutraceuticals to get rid of that toxicity.
Otherwise you will end up with, you know, kidney stones or
really upset microbiome. So yeah.
And I'm sure when you were doingthe, the research on oxalates,
you probably came across Sally, Sally Norton, her book Toxic
(35:40):
Super Foods. Yeah, I was, I was lucky enough
to to have her on the podcast. It was she she's great.
She's she's absolutely fantasticand super passionate, passionate
about what she does. But oxalates, plant compounds
like those those are no jokes. Like plants have defense
mechanisms that that they utilize that our bodies don't
(36:04):
necessarily like. So I I here's a question for
you. At one point when you were
trying like, like upping the protein, lowering the protein,
upping the fat, like, was there a moment when you realize that
OK diet can profoundly influencethis cancer journey, like in a
positive way? Well, yeah, because I've had
(36:25):
only results of stability. So no, no growth, no change or
regression where the tumor has gotten slightly smaller.
I just thought this can't be a coincidence.
And this has been with and without drugs.
So I've done a lot of experimenting because I don't
have metastasis. It is easier when you have a
(36:49):
primary tumor. Certainly for someone who's, you
know, got multiple tumors, you need to throw a lot more at it.
But it's not impossible. Like I, I this time last year I
spoke to a lovely lady who went to the biggest cancer clinic in
Australia. I won't name name them so and
(37:11):
I'm already being shadow banned.So I don't need, I don't need
any any more barriers or height.She didn't have a particular
breast cancer gene, so they basically excluded her from a
trial. She had like 13 different Mets.
By Mets, I mean metastases. It spread to her bones and they
(37:34):
basically told her to get her affairs in order and go home and
die essentially. I remember speaking to her and
saying if you don't have any complex about food or you don't
have any eating sort of history that has to be managed, just go
really strict keto. Like really high fat.
(37:57):
If you can afford to get your drug sensi sensitivity tested,
do hyperbaric oxygen therapy when your glucose is really low.
Your ketones are really high if you can afford to do high dose
vitamins. So I used to do that.
I used to do quercetin, vitamin C, curcumin.
(38:19):
She did all these things and within the first three months
she only had three tumors out of13 left.
I'm pretty sure now she's got noevidence of disease and she's
travelling around Europe. So I, I just think the diet is
(38:39):
what puts pressure on cancer metabolism like drives the
glucose really low. It's harder to drive down
glutamine because your body makes it every day like up to
100 grams. So you've got to do that with
either fasting or there's not that much research on natural
(39:00):
compounds inhibiting glutamine, and most people can't get their
hands on the pro drug called Donthat Professor Seyfried uses to
drive it down. But even without reducing
glutamine, this particular patient was able to just through
creating the right conditions with such a strict ketogenic
(39:23):
diet and fasting that all those other treatments were able to be
so, so much more powerful. I, I think that's why she got
such a great result. A lot of these people don't
share because they don't want tobe judged, but there's thousands
(39:44):
of people are do doing this. They just want to stay
anonymous. And I was one of those people
being anonymous until people kept dying around me and I was
just like, oh, I'm just going tosay something.
So yeah, the diet to me is the biggest enabler of success with
(40:05):
all the other strategies becauseof the restriction of glucose,
which is up regulated by cancer cells.
Sorry, that was a huge. Like no, no.
That's that's just right. Teachers are so bad at being
concise. We suck.
And I'm, and I'm so grateful that, you know, you started
speaking out online. That's how I found you.
(40:29):
I think it's fantastic. So it sounds like to me it's
traditional ketogenic diet is, is the route to go.
Now let's talk about some of thethe different drug protocols
that you were doing, like Ivermectin and I've heard a lot
about ivermectin. Joe Rogan was talking about it
on his podcast. In terms of handling the C word
virus, was there any particular drug that you experimented with
(40:54):
that you felt like got you the biggest bang for the buck or you
felt like was incredibly powerful, useful?
Was it ivermectin? Was it something else?
For me, unfortunately ivermectincame up with no sensitivity.
So This is why I think people, if they have the money, need to
invest in drug sensitivity testing.
(41:17):
So I use RGCC labs in Europe. The Australian dollar is quite
weak against the euro and it we are very far away so it was very
expensive. It cost me $4000 but I just
borrowed the money from a friendbecause I was taking so many
things and I just didn't know what was working.
(41:38):
So in terms of test data for me,vomectin is not effective.
Other popular things like the reishi mushroom is a people talk
a lot about that came up as 0%. Bicarb soda is a big thing for
(42:00):
people who believe that cancer can be treated by alkalizing the
body. Do not recommend this.
That sort of ruins the homeostasis of the body.
So please don't go smashing bicarb soda.
A little bit is OK, but that came up with 0%.
What else came up with 0% so is popular that so there's all
(42:24):
these things that are in my casenot evoking sensitivity, so I
just got rid of them. I still take ivamectin for when
I get certain sicknesses becauseit really helps the recovery
speed up the recovery period. So now when I get the spicy
(42:48):
cough, let's say when I when I took ivamectin, rather than it
lasting 5 or 6 days, it lasted maybe 2.
So ivamectin is very useful for many different things, but
because I take so many things, II stopped taking it in the
context of cancer care. I still take fambenazole, I take
(43:13):
samitidine, I take metformin, I take Celebrex.
These are all repurposed drugs as part of the repurposing drugs
for oncology international research projects.
So anybody can look that up online and present their
healthcare practitioner with theresearch and then ask them to
(43:36):
prescribe. But I still recommend forking
out the money to test that they're actually going to be
effective. So get the sensitivity test
100%. Yeah, yeah.
So I mean there, I know that there are people that I've seen
on Josh Rogan's podcast who did Ivormectin methylene blue.
(43:57):
I'm not sure what else they did.A very famous actor from my
country commented that his friends used the Ivormectin
methylene blue because it's a photos sensitizer with red light
therapy Anna and are in remission now.
(44:18):
So those are things that I'm implementing.
I actually just bought an A red light therapy their medical
Grade 1 and I'm starting to takemethylene blue.
So I'm doing more experimentation.
But I still believe that for me,the diet has been big.
(44:39):
The the biggest factor in my very slow success, It's been 2
1/2 years, yeah. Are the tumors when you're so we
know that they're not growing, is there evidence of them
shrinking? Yeah.
So I do Mris every three to fourmonths.
(45:02):
This the most recent MRI there was a a good reduction in size.
The issue I have is my tumor is not one mass.
Like it's not like a sphere thatcan be measured.
This it looks like a prawn. So I'm a numbers girl and it's
(45:23):
very frustrating that each time I get an MRI report, they can't
use the normal formula to get the volume.
So I would estimate that it's under a centimetre and it's just
been very, very slow, like, you know, half a centimetre, 1/4 of
a centimetre stable each time. But most people the tumor mass
(45:48):
is 1 mass together. And you can use a specific
formula to get the total volume.For me, that's not the case.
And I've asked the radio, the radiologist, I think that's the
profession that does the scan. Can you please just give me one
number? And he's like, I can't.
It's, it's an abnormal shape. So I know it's shrinking, but
(46:10):
it's frustrating because I wouldreally love to be able to know
exactly how much is left. I'm hoping as I'm in the next 12
weeks, when I do my next protocol, that that's it, that
it will be gone and that maybe Ijust need to get a little bit of
scraping of any polyps or anything that's left.
(46:34):
So I'd be happy to do that, but I didn't want a surgery that
resulted in a colostomy. So that's why I'm being stubborn
and I'm just trying to keep shrinking it slowly and slowly.
And then if I do have a bit of surgery, it's just for the sort
of the residual cells as opposedto a full on debulking and then
a a colostomy. Sorry, the lighting just had a
(46:57):
whole bunch of sun come in. So now the lighting's probably
terrible in the video. No, no, it's, it's, it's, it's
great. Everything looks good.
And I think that's so cool that you are taking your health and
this cancer journey into your own hands and you're doing it on
your own. I think that's really, really
cool. And I, I wanted to switch over
to because it sounds like you'reon your way to becoming an
(47:19):
integrative cancer coach almost for nutritionist based off off
of Instagram. Can you tell me a little bit
about what's going into that? I can tell that you're very
passionate about obviously beating this, beating this tumor
down. But I'm sure that's all playing
a role into you wanting to move this route with your life it
sounds like. Yeah, I was always very
(47:42):
interested in nutrition science and I would say this to anybody,
even if you think you can't do something or something is not
for you. And I just felt when I finished
high school that even though nutrition was a very big
interest because I had an eatingdisorder, I wasn't worthy to go
(48:04):
into that space. So I think cancer makes you take
opportunities, be less self deprecating and and
procrastination tendencies and all that kind of right time
right moment BS goes away. So yeah, I just decided I would
(48:28):
study nutrition mostly because Iget asked so many questions.
It would be better protection for myself and for others to
become a, an accredited nutritionist.
So that's very close to being finalized.
The cancer, the integrative cancer coaching staff also feeds
(48:50):
into that. There are a lot of people who
need support. I, I do love my job.
I'm an ESL teacher and I love that job.
But in order for me to be able to help people to burn myself
out, I'm hoping I can do all of the things I love on a part time
(49:12):
basis while also avoiding being sued.
So you have to be very careful. So I always use the first person
and I only share my experience and if I am stating something,
always using scientific evidence.
(49:34):
There are a lot of people onlinejust telling people what to do
without consequence and without having a nuanced understanding
of their situation. And that's actually really
dangerous and inappropriate and I and so I want to do things the
right way. And no, I think that's an
awesome career change, if you will, or, or maybe add on if
(49:54):
you're going to be doing it parttime.
I think that's that's a great way in which you can impact the
world. And obviously, you have the
experience of going through whatyou're going through now in
order to help a lot of people interms of just people listening
to this. Like if someone is listening to
this and they're in a dark placelike after a diagnosis, like
what's 1 mindset shift or small practical step you'd urge them
(50:21):
to take to start moving toward thriving as you would probably
call it rather than just surviving?
This is going to sound a little bit far fetched for people who
aren't already doing this, but meditation and affirmations have
(50:42):
really changed, changed me and and made me a better person.
I used to really misunderstand what meditation was like.
I thought it was the absence of thinking and just being like.
But it it's not. It's actually increased focus.
So I meditate 3 times a day. You can do it guided to start
(51:04):
off with Joe Dispenza is a great, you know, physicist,
scientist, spiritual guru like it is.
I wasn't big on spirituality. And so I get it if people are
rolling their eyes just thinkingthis is just this is bullshit.
(51:25):
But it is made a huge differenceto my life, my stress, the
physical stress that I felt in my body.
I can now mentally when when I feel it, I can shift it.
I really do believe in a lot like aligning your frequencies
and, and that kind of stuff. So if you're feeling, you know,
(51:51):
hopeless or like you can't take that first step, there's no such
thing as the perfect time or theright time or when AB and C are,
you know, are lined up, then I'll do this.
It really is all about doing really small things
incrementally each day. And that can start with, yeah,
(52:14):
with meditation, you just becomea lot more productive.
And there's science that's coming out about it, some really
scary science of people literally up regulating
protective genes and down regulating on code genes.
So cancer genes just by meditating.
(52:34):
It's nuts. So I'm really looking forward to
that coming out. And I've, I've heard a lot about
this too, like on the mindset side of things, if someone in
regards to the research that, that, that I think you're,
you're alluding to, there's a lot of research around just the
mindset of someone's that they take when they're initially
diagnosed. Like the people that give up or,
(52:58):
you know, have that mindset of like, oh, this is going to, you
know, whatever, kill me or this is going to be disastrous.
Like it will, it will ruin your,it, it'll take you down that
path. But if you take the, the path of
optimism, persistence, you know,and, and apply those elements to
your cancer journey. A lot of research is coming out
(53:19):
just in regards to mindset positivity that can help to
impact how how things progress basically.
Yeah. And it it requires practice.
I think there is a misunderstanding that, you know,
anything to do with positive psychology.
It'll, it'll fix me and then, you know, I'll be OK.
(53:40):
Someone will do it to me Is actually, it's, it's not about
that. It's you doing the work.
It's just like practicing any kind of skill.
For example, for a sport, you doit again and again and again and
then it becomes automated. Like, you have the skills, you
have the agility, you know what to do in, in certain moments.
That's what this mindset stuff is all about, which I didn't
(54:03):
understand. And it's at first it feels
uncomfortable and a waste of time.
But you do it again and again and again.
And then it just becomes part ofyour your everyday mental
practice and capacity. And I wish I'd done it sooner.
It's also amazing for eating disorder stuff because that's
(54:27):
been my biggest barrier. Eating disorder relapses are
probably why my cancer progress has been slowed down.
So pretty much anyone with any mental health challenges, you
know, a new cancer diagnosis or being stuck, yeah, just look
(54:48):
into whatever kind of mindset stuff you're comfortable with.
Joe Dispenza is very spiritual and out there and he uses very
technical rhetoric, which can bea little bit off putting.
So it's really up to people to find the right register for them
'cause it's no, not A1 size fitsall, but yeah, all for positive
(55:14):
mindset. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, Joe Dispenza is great. I I watch a lot of his videos on
YouTube. He's got a lot of like
motivational stuff too. He's great.
And I know real quick here, we're we're coming up here on
time and I want to be respectfulof what else that you've got
going on in in your day. I've got some rapid fire
questions here that I typically will like to ask guests.
(55:37):
Like as we're wrapping things upon your, your Instagram and, and
some of the posts you, you referto yourself as a cancerous
thriver, not not just a survivorto you.
What? What is the difference?
For me, cancer has been a blessing.
(55:58):
I have been able to thrive through both the ketogenic diet.
I think that ketone bodies to the brain are really
therapeutic. I wrote a whole book in 10 days
thanks to the power of ketosis. So I I think the diet helps me
(56:20):
to thrive because it's really good for my mental health.
In terms of the lifestyle intervention, I have a healthy I
am healthier now with cancer than before the diagnosis.
So I went from working three jobs, not sleeping, binge eating
junk food and going in and out of bulimia relapses to a diet
(56:45):
that is mostly consistent but with flexibility.
I'm OK with living in the grey area.
Now I know how to maintain a level of ketosis and still have
a social life. So I'm still a moderator.
I'm not an abstainer. Yeah.
So I think that for me, cancer was a wake up call and I've gone
(57:10):
from just surviving and having my priorities not in the right
areas. So, you know, just wanting to
make more money, all about me, to caring about other people,
being a better colleague, being a better daughter, being a
better person in general and just having a healthier
lifestyle. So that's to me, what thriving
means. And yeah.
(57:33):
And I mean, that's incredible. I mean, and I, I think that
would probably surprise a lot ofpeople to hear you say cancer
was a blessing. That's kind of crazy because,
because I think what you're saying is the way in which you
were living before eating, before the lifestyle habits that
you had cancer ultimately gave you a wake up call, it sounds
like. But to your point that you just
(57:54):
said the the changes that you made across the board enable you
to be almost healthier now with cancer than previously before
cancer, correct? Yeah, that's wild.
I know it sounds it was going tosound very strange and maybe
(58:16):
outrageous to some people, but Ireally do believe that unless
your exposure to, you know, something toxic or your
lifestyle up regulates your genetic predisposition, it's not
a genetic disease. It's not a done deal.
(58:37):
If that wasn't the case, then why has my lifestyle
intervention resulted in slow, but nevertheless, you know,
healing over time? So yeah, that's my, that's my
belief in hunch and I'm stickingto it.
(58:57):
No, I love it. I think it's incredible.
If you could give one piece of nutrition advice to every cancer
patient, what would it be and why?
Get a glucose ketone index device, for example a keto mojo.
(59:18):
Learn what happens to your bloodglucose in response to food.
And you don't need to follow a specific diet.
It doesn't have to be carnivore or vegan or whatever.
As Professor Thomas Seyfried says, he doesn't care what diet
you do, but you need to get the glucose ketone index down.
(59:40):
So for example, I want my glucose to be 60 or under, and I
want my ketones to be 3 or higher, and I want my overall
GKI, that's the acronym for Glucose Ketone Index to be 1.5
or less. That will put so much pressure
(01:00:01):
on cancer cell metabolism and the fermentation of glucose,
because if there ain't no glucose, generally glutamine, I
mean, that can still support. ATP for cancer cells, but not in
the same extent as if you were smashing the carbs all day long.
(01:00:23):
So that would be, yeah. The number one piece of advice
is learn about what how your body responds to different foods
and get your glucose way down and your ketones up with
whatever diet suits your ideology and that you enjoy.
That makes sense. OK, let's quite last question
here. What's the first thing you would
(01:00:46):
say to someone who just got a cancer diagnosis and feels
completely hopeless? Firstly, take a step back and
give yourself some protected time.
Often the medical professionals and, and most of them have good
(01:01:10):
intentions, but they will push you to make a decision really
quickly and they may catastrophize the situation or
or scare you. Ask questions.
Don't feel like it's offensive to ask for a second opinion or
(01:01:30):
ask all options and use the tools that we have thanks to
modern progress, artificial intelligence, even just through
a Google search. Now, because AI pulls from so
many sources, you can get an abundance of information.
So if you're feeling hopeless there, yeah, ask questions.
(01:01:57):
Don't hold anything back left unsaid because you're afraid to
offend a professional. And yeah, do your own research,
even if it's a Google search, Yeah.
That's fantastic, great advice. And Lisa, you were amazing.
(01:02:17):
I, I, I thank you so much for coming on here and and sharing
this. Thank you, this was so nice.
Yeah, this is great. And I know you you've got, we
were talking about the integrative cancer coaching that
you might be doing down the linehere.
Once you get the proper certifications, where can people
find you online? Get in contact with you, maybe
at some point when you're ready,potentially work with you.
(01:02:39):
Like where can people find you online?
So I have an e-mail ready to go with lots of information for
people who don't use social media.
So you can e-mail me on lisa.mary.drake@gmail.com if you
would like a sample of a drug sensitivity test, a sample of
(01:03:04):
what I eat in a week, the redo protocol, and links to lots of
different case reports and scientific literature about
ketogenic diets for cancer. If you're on social media, Lisa
Mary Drake is my Instagram page.I don't do Tiktok.
(01:03:28):
I feel like I'm I'm too old old for that.
But if it's necessary, I will consider it.
Facebook is more for my immediate friends and family,
but I'm also on Facebook as LisaMary.
So if anyone wants to send a message to ask questions like
I'm pretty responsive. And yeah, I, I don't really know
(01:03:55):
where, where I'm going exactly from now, except that I will
publish a book on my experience so that I can help people in a
more sort of detailed way. The coaching and stuff from
(01:04:15):
professionally probably won't start for another couple months,
but yeah, very happy to help anybody.
So through e-mail or through a message, it's not about money.
It's about just stopping unnecessary deaths from cancer.
I don't really think anyone needs to die from cancer with
(01:04:35):
the correct information, self advocacy and for the coexistence
of standard of care with metabolic therapy.
Yeah. Well said, IA, 100% agree with
you. And again, thank you so much for
for coming on the podcast with me here, Lisa, I appreciate your
(01:04:57):
time. And to everyone else out there,
thanks guys for listening to theLow Carb Consultant podcast.
We'll catch you guys on the nextone.
Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity.
All right guys, welcome back to the Low Carb Consultant podcast.
So today I'm honored to have on Lisa Mary Drake, a Cancer
Thriver, soon to be integrative cancer coach and nutritionist.
And she's also an educator and songwriter, which is very cool.
She's known for her resilience and advocacy for metabolic
(00:32):
therapy. Lisa is transforming her
personal fight into purpose through deep nutritional
insight, faith, and raw authenticity.
So Lisa, it's an honor, a pleasure to have you on here.
Thank you so much for taking thetime.
Thank you for the opportunity and that amazing introduction.
(00:55):
Very looking forward to talking all things low carb, cans,
metabolism and whatever else comes up.
So yeah. Absolutely.
And amazing intros are for amazing people like you.
So let let's let's go into it. So I know you've had quite the
journey up to this point. Maybe for some of the listeners
(01:16):
who are not familiar with you ordon't know who you are quite
yet. Can you give the listeners just
a real brief background on yourself and how we got to this
point? So I was diagnosed with
colorectal cancer May 2023. Due to the side effects such as
infertility and a whole bunch ofother undesirable things, I
(01:38):
declined standard of care, went down a huge rabbit hole, was
already familiar with low carb dieting and just learned a whole
bunch of integrative strategies.Put them all together, should be
in advanced stages, but just very slowly over the past 2 1/2
years, shrinking the primary tumor and just learning lots
(02:00):
about cancer biology. So that's pretty much it in a
nutshell, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
And I know that's that's all pretty heavy stuff there.
I'm sure when you were sitting down with a doctor and they're
they're reading basically the diagnosis, if you don't mind me
asking, like, what was the firstthing that was going through
(02:20):
your mind? Like, OK, like, what am I doing
about this? How are we going to fight this?
Obviously, I know I'm sure therewas a ton of emotion that was
going through your head at the same time.
What was the initial thought when he first read the
diagnosis? It wasn't surprising so because
with the bowel prep that you do to basically clear out your
digestive system before a colonoscopy, there was a lot of
(02:43):
blood. There were also a lot of signs.
I was blocked many times, told Iwas too young.
So I I knew that I had cancer. It was just a matter of where in
the digestive system it was. I don't want to downplay how
difficult a cancer diagnosis is for the majority of people, but
(03:05):
for me it was actually relief. It validated all of the side
effects and the symptoms of having a rectal carcinoma, all
the gut problems. So for me, my initial relief was
like, thank goodness I'm right, my General practitioner is
wrong. I cannot wait to throw throw
(03:28):
this in his face and I actually have a valid reason and
permission to give myself time to heal.
I can take time off work. Yeah.
So my reaction was very unusual.I was relieved and and validated
basically. Yeah, no, that's that, that's,
that's wild. So it's, it sounds like you had
(03:49):
this thought in the back of yourmind when you were going in
doing all the tests. You're like, I'm pretty sure
this is what it is and it's, andit's cancer now, just for the
listeners and even myself, because it sounds like it's,
it's, it's kind of a form that I've never heard about.
So is this like it? Is it intestinal cancer or or
what was the the type again? So Bell Anal colon is all part
(04:15):
of colorectal. So my treatment is in the
rectum. So it's like in between the
colon colon and the anus. I know talking about buttholes
can be a little bit awkward, butI certainly sort of let go of
that complex very open about it.So mine is in, yeah, in the
rectum, the staging for colorectal specific is 1C, and
(04:39):
that's because I had spread to acouple of lymph nodes outside
the immediate tumor microenvironment.
But for general oncology, it would be called stage 2.
So you could either call it stage 2 cancer in general or
stage 1C rectal carcinoma. Got it.
OK, so the old listeners also know we were chatting about this
(05:01):
a little bit off offline before we start the recording.
I came across your profile Instagram.
I was reading through a bunch ofdifferent things and everything
that you were going through notice that you were leveraging
like a low carb ketogenic diet. We were talking about fasting
and and and we were talking about intermittent fasting and
you not doing that, but also doing some prolonged fasting.
So I want to get into all those different topics here because I
(05:24):
think it's important for people to understand that there are
ways in which you can leverage different low carb diet
variations to fight cancer. And this is one of the main
reasons why I, I wanted to get you on and, and I wanted to talk
to you about this today because I think if this can honestly
help so many people. And you and I were talking about
just before I kind of go into everything and, and the diet,
(05:46):
you know, I'm just going to readsome stats off of ChatGPT right
now. So in the US alone, 38.9% of men
and women will be diagnosed withcancer at some point.
And other sources estimate if it's about like 1 and 2.
So around 40 to 42% of people are going to be diagnosed with
cancer. And then worldwide it's almost,
it's one in four people. So I think these conversations
(06:09):
that you and I having, hopefullywe get a ton of value out of it
for everyone that's that's listening.
So let's let's jump into what westarted to do here in terms of
the protocol, the implementation, the diet.
Now it sounded like to me when we were chatting offline that
you were already somewhat familiar with low carb dieting,
(06:31):
ketogenic dieting before you even had the diagnosis.
Is that correct? Yeah, so I learned about low
carb dieting pretty early on. So I'm 36 now, probably from the
age of 21. The Australian sort of the the
biggest advocate for low carb dieting was Christine Grenache.
(06:55):
She was kind of the first personin Australia to put a lifestyle
spin on it as opposed to, you know, do the Atkins diet, lose
all the weight and then, you know, do what you want after the
fact. So I already somehow, and I
don't know how or why I already knew about the more simplistic
(07:18):
connection between eating sugar and cancer.
I had been on low carb diets. In saying that, as you would
know, the the range and the scope is very big.
So some people might consider a low carb diet, 150 grams of
carbs and under. I wasn't doing a ketogenic diet
(07:40):
at that time. So I think that's the biggest
change, like understanding that a ketogenic diet is not a high
protein or a low fat diet, like it's 70 to 80% fat and was
initially created for decreasinginflammation in the brain for
epilepsy. And then you have your general
(08:01):
low carb diet, which I hope to go back to when I'm in full
remission, where you can sort ofjust play around with what you
know, what your body responds to.
So I'd say yeah, growing up every, I I knew about Atkins
from the early 2000s, but the low fat dogma in Australia kind
of made it confusing. I would say I grew up the
(08:23):
majority of my life with messages about calorie counting
and worrying about fat and cholesterol.
So I had a really good a really good experience from starting to
drop the carbohydrates bef before I was diagnosed, mostly
(08:45):
because it really settled my blood sugar.
Eating more fat meant I was moresatiated.
I have had a long eating disorder history, so it also
really helped quieten those intrusive eating, just sort of
thoughts. So any viewers who have gone
through that, you'll know what Imean, that they're just always
(09:05):
there. So I think low carb diets,
therapeutically and for mental health, yeah.
All for them, yeah. For sure 100% and most people
that I've had the honor of interviewing I think would say
the same thing. Like one of the reasons why I
eat like a lower carb. I, I wouldn't say I'm, I'm
(09:28):
ketogenic. My, my protein's very high.
So when the protein's too high, you're, you're typically not
going to land in ketogenic ranges.
But when you don't have any carbs coming into the body, you
know, you're, you're, I'm, I'm probably producing trace amounts
of ketone, but I'm definitely not in a traditional ketogenic
diet. But I think most people that
I've spoken with that end up trying like a lower carb and
(09:51):
even go keto approach is one of the main things they notice is
like their brain just works better.
General sense of happiness, you know, depression, heaviness
lifted those types of things. And so I 100% agree with you.
Now I kind of want to jump into,OK, so we get the diagnosis and
I'm, I'm so sorry if I'm making you relive any of these, you
(10:15):
know, memories. Very open about it I and again,
I don't want to understate how traumatic this can be for other
people, but I in my experience Ihaven't found cancer to be
traumatizing, mostly because I learnt about what I would
(10:35):
consider the correct theory thatunderpins it, so the
mitochondrial metabolic theory. So I've never really had a fear
of it. So you can really ask me
anything. I'm very comfortable and very
open. But I appreciate your concern.
Yeah, absolutely. So, so, OK, so we get the
diagnosis and then you know thatit sounded like to me, if you,
(11:00):
based off what you said, it was almost a relief.
You were like, I knew it, this is kind of what I had.
We can basically erase all the other potential issues that we
thought it was. Now this is it.
And now we start kind of fighting it, treating it, all
those types of things. So I, I, and I'm just curious
here, was there ever a moment intime?
And I'm obviously, I'm sure you were talking with your, you
(11:22):
know, your, your doctor about these different, different
options that were available to you.
But were you considering like, Hey, I'm going to fight this
thing almost like holistically with diet and then maybe not do
the chemotherapy or do both chemotherapy and diet?
Like, were you, what was, I guess what was going through
your mind initially in terms of the game plan that you were
(11:42):
going to lay out for yourself inorder to fight this thing?
To be honest, if there if there weren't so many side effects
from having radiation to the rectum, it is near the
reproductive organs. So if it had been in my breast,
to be honest, I I probably just would have had radiation and
(12:04):
because my my mother actually had breast cancer in 2017, had
radiation, little to no side effects leaves a good quality of
life. So that sort of model with
standard of care model to me wasn't the kind of brutalizing
strong chemo. The other reason was that the
(12:27):
side effects weren't fully explained to me by the care
team. So initially I had a
radiotherapist who was also an oncologist, A colorectal
surgeon, and my General practitioner.
But it was actually through IVF because I was told I would not
be able to have a viable pregnancy.
So I would go to the top of the list for IVF.
(12:49):
So I went to an IVF, a specialist, to plan ovarian
cryopreservation. That's where they take some of
your ovary and freeze it. They also take eggs and freeze
them. But it was him who told me that
I probably can't carry a child, that my uterus would be
(13:09):
affected, that I would have sexual dysfunction, I would have
hardening of the vaginal tissue,just all these things that
weren't explained to me. So I was sort of thinking, why
is the IVF specialist telling methis and why hasn't the
oncologist told me this? So I went back to him and he
just said, oh, the nurse will talk to you about women's
(13:33):
business. I was like, this is not women's
business. This is like specific side
effects related to cancer treatment.
So I just became a little bit skeptical.
I lost trust and rapport. I also started asking questions
because I'm very much into researching and learning and I
was, I was given a lot of patronizing responses.
(13:55):
So I would say distrust and a negative experience in the
standard of care initial care team.
Very interesting. That's what basically led me
down the rabbit hole. If I had a better experience, I
probably would have just had standard of care.
So yeah, to sum up, it was not being told the full extent of
(14:19):
the side effects being patronized.
And also because my old General practitioner, I'm not sure if
you just what you call them in North America, just as in like
your everyday doctor blocked my colonoscopy, sort of gas lit me.
(14:39):
So I think, yeah, the skepticismand the lack of trust and a loss
of rapport led to the rejection and then ultimately doing all my
own research. I'm not sure if I articulated
that very well, sorry. No, no, that was great.
And, and I'm sorry that you had to go through that situation
with your, your medical team when you were trying to figure
(15:00):
out what is the best pathway to healing and that is the
treatment that you got. That sucks.
So then what? So then what did you ultimately
do then? Did you?
So it doesn't sound like you gotthe radiation.
So then we, so then did you do, did you go down the
chemotherapy? Route so I, I was recommended to
(15:21):
have radiation every day for five days a week for so five
days a week for five weeks and neo junctive chemotherapy before
surgery. And my tumour was only like 3
centimetres. So I also thought this is very
aggressive for one small tumour.So I just declined, declined it
(15:47):
all. So I haven't had any intravenous
chemo, I haven't had any radiation.
So those are the that sort of constitutes standard of care.
Like the traditional the traditional route most people
would take. I did.
Try immunotherapy. However, it wasn't recommended
to me and it was actually me in the early stages not
(16:09):
understanding really sort of intricate things about cancer
like mismatched repair, DNA. And so I went to a private
clinic, demanded all these immunotherapy drugs, spent like
15 to $20,000 of my parents money for no result.
(16:32):
So I'd also like to tell people,don't, if you're not in a
critical situation, don't rush. I've wasted so much money.
I've written a whole book about all the mistakes that I've made.
There's so much conflicting information out there.
So you really need to, if you have time, do proper research
(16:56):
and don't jump into anything anddon't start doing everything
under the sun. More is not necessarily better.
In my case, less has been more. So interesting, yeah.
Yeah, and that makes sense. And obviously, you know, every,
there's so many different forms of cancer.
Every diagnosis is different from person to person, stage to
(17:19):
stage. When, when you can, when, when
you catch it, the type. OK, so just so I understand
here, so basically after the situation that happened with
your doctors, we decided to do no chemo and then no, no
radiation. You want some immunotherapy
routes that didn't work out. So basically then were you and
the way in which you are trying to heal this or it sounds like
(17:40):
to me you're kind of doing this on your own and are you
primarily doing this now with with diet and lifestyle change?
Yeah, so after I decided I'm notdoing the chemo or radiation, I,
I, I'd heard about fasting through a lot of, I mean, at the
time there wasn't that much information out there, not like
(18:01):
now where you where metabolic therapy, fasting and all these
different approaches. You can with a touch of your
fingertips, you can just swipe on, you know, on social media
and find out this information. And it's so thick and fast that
(18:23):
the algorithm can't suppress it anymore.
But at the time I could not finda lot of information.
But for some reason, I knew about fasting induces autophagy.
So after the rejection of the care plan and the treatment plan
presented to me, I fasted for two weeks and I went up north to
(18:46):
get more because it was quite cold at this time, to get more
vitamin D. Because I knew that this was a
protective factor for people whohave cancer and even for people
who have standard of care, if their vitamin D levels are
higher, they have better outcomes.
So I just started implementing slowly things that had both the
(19:08):
support of the alternative spaceand also mainstream research.
I also got my hands on Febentazole, Ivermectin and.
Those I was going to ask. I was going to ask about
ivermectin here. Yeah, go ahead.
I didn't mean to interrupt, but.No, no, no, no, no.
I was able to get them online without a prescription.
(19:31):
I then came across the repurposing drugs and oncology,
the redo protocol, but I needed someone to prescribe me the
drugs and it wasn't going to be my former care team.
I actually found out about a integrative clinic in Melbourne
by it's going to make no sense. I found out about hyperbar
(19:55):
hyperbaric oxygen therapy. I went there in Melbourne.
The director of the clinic referred me to Dawn Lamont,
who's AUS truly integrative oncologist in Oregon.
She said I can't take you one being in Australia, but you can
go to this clinic in Melbourne and I was supported by
(20:16):
integrative Dr. So I have since got a mainstream colorectal
oncologist to sort of consult with, but I basically have the
support of my integrative Dr. toaccess the repurposing drugs to
sort of put pressure on different cancer metabolism
(20:38):
pathway. But yeah, basically my my own,
my own doctor with some prescription support from real,
real doctors. Yeah.
And just Full disclosure, I'm not advocating for people to do
DYI like do sorry, DIY do it yourself medicine experience,
(21:02):
not encouraging people to rejectmedical advice, just being clear
on that. Sure.
No, I completely understand. And I want to kind of get into
Ivermectin because I've I've heard a lot about this.
Yeah, I've also heard about ivermectin for other things like
the the C word COVI. Yes, we don't want to get shadow
(21:24):
banned. I've heard about people using
that. But like up to this point, just
just dealing with your doctors and everything that you went
through. Like what do you feel like was
the biggest lie you were told about about cancer?
Like up to this point? Because it feels like to me you
feel like you were lied to, especially about the different
(21:46):
protocols and treatments. Well, there's a lot.
I have to probably be more than one, one that I would die or
have or be in advanced stages ifI didn't act, act immediately.
And that's not true. When I went away to buy myself
time and I fasted, I had anotherMRI, there was no change.
(22:08):
So the the feeling that this is imminent, you must make a
decision now. Stop asking questions.
Yeah. So the the prediction that I
would be in a terrible situationwas.
I'm not. I'm not saying it's a lie
because it's probably based on huge randomized control trials,
but it's not based on me as an individual who's not feeding
(22:31):
cancer through smashing carbohydrate, that it's a
genetic disease. So it's been proven that not all
tumors have genetic mutations. Professor Thomas Seyfried at
Boston College University has proven this, that there are
plenty of tumors that do not have any genetic mutations.
(22:54):
So that's another lie. And that and yeah, that it was
genetically inherited. They sort of linked it.
Oh, your mum had breast cancer. Your, your grandfather had bowel
cancer. So This is why you have cancer.
As if I couldn't prevent it. Also, using the very
scientifically unprecise language, you are otherwise
(23:16):
young and healthy. It's not true. 25 years of
bulimia, working three jobs, being money hungry, just wanting
to keep increasing my property portfolio, not taking care of
myself, no circadian rhythm, no menstrual cycle.
I was not otherwise healthy. So I'd say these are the biggest
lies, that I was young and healthy, that it's genetic and
(23:40):
that if I didn't do something then and there that I was going
to die or I was going to be in advanced stages with metastasis.
Since diagnosis, the sorry, since the in initial diagnosis,
I've had no tumor mass increase,I've had no metastasis.
The spread to the lymph nodes was reversed through high high
(24:03):
dose vitamin therapy. So yeah, those are the three.
Sorry, I know you asked for one answer and I gave you.
No, no, no, no. It's I I want you to kind.
Of lies, not intentional lies, but just misunderstanding and
dogma and not wanting to consider alternative theories
which are underpinned by strong scientific evidence.
(24:25):
They're not, you know, quackery.We're not hanging out under, you
know, big Elm tree in the full moon singing kumbaya, my Lord.
Like this is scientific, scientifically published papers
on pub Med that anyone can read.So yeah.
Absolutely. And again, you know, it just
like it sounds like to me what they were trying to put upon you
(24:48):
is like a blanketed protocol that wasn't necessarily specific
to your lifestyle then your lifestyle up to that point.
And it kind of even sounds like to me they just were not
listening to you at all. No, they completely rejected any
suggestion. Suggestions of lifestyle
(25:09):
intervention. So I I asked.
Interesting. Yeah, I said look, I and and I'm
very clear on this. I don't think I will ever fully
recover from my eating disorder.It's I manage it very well now
and I have very few lapses. But back then, you know, I could
have two week full relapses. So I was asking, is there any
(25:32):
research on, you know, gut damage due to bulimia?
Is it because, you know, I'm only sleeping 3 hours a night
and I'm working, you know, I'm teaching all day at school that
I'm stacking shelves in a supermarket to 5:00 in the
morning. Like that can't be healthy.
And they were like, no, no, no, you can eat what you want.
It's, it's not a lifestyle disease.
So yeah, it it's, it's disappointing that that is still
(25:59):
the mainstream for you. Yeah, No, that is disappointing
to hear. But I, I, I think what's really
cool for people to hopefully getfrom this is there are so many
different ways. And I think more and more
research, more and more data is coming out about lifestyle
changes. You can, you can make diet
interventions, you could have fasting interventions you can
(26:21):
implement in order to like in your case, see no growth or
acceleration in the tumor size, which is awesome.
You know that that's great for you.
So I kind of want to go back to then.
All right, so it sounds like we basically rejected what the
traditional protocol would be and now we are kind of going on
(26:41):
this journey to find all right, well, how do we fight this
thing? What different things can I try
and implement? And, and, and So what in terms
of the diet, because I do want to talk about the different
things you you implemented like ivermectin and what you feel
like out of those non traditional protocols got you
(27:03):
the most results or you feel like got you the most results.
But initially, I know you said earlier too, you went on a 7 day
fast, you went up north to get some vitamin D.
How did you ultimately change the diet?
Did you almost go like strict ketogenic?
What was the main diet shift to you you you implemented for
yourself? Yeah, early on, I think because
(27:26):
my motivation was really strong and also my stubbornness to
prove those medical professionals wrong, I was on,
I'd say, an omnivore ketogenic diet.
So I would skip breakfast initially and I would eat 2
meals a day, generally some chicken or some steak with at
(27:54):
the time what I thought was healthy.
So low carb vegetables mostly like broccoli, cauliflower, and
just a lot of fat. So making a sauce out of heavy
cream butter. And I was pretty much having
those meals on repeat. But I was having some problems
(28:17):
most, and I later found out through Anthony Chafee's Plants
are Trying to Kill you. He lecture that I was yeah, I
was having some problems. And at this time the tumor was
still bleeding. So I was still getting blood in
the toilet. Then, because I have still
(28:41):
issues with restriction and anyone with an eating disorder
is is going to have these issues, I had to become a little
bit more liberal. However, through that, I was
getting a lot of oxalate dumping, which I didn't know was
a thing until I came out of the sauna, Yelled at a staff member
(29:04):
for using what I thought was just like really strong, maybe
detergent in the towels. And they were like, no, no,
you're oxalate dumping. And then we had a magnifying
glass and I saw like these shinylittle things.
And then I realized, OK, what's that?
So I googled it. I was like, OK, no more fake
(29:27):
keto, fake low carb, no more, you know, almond flour pancakes.
So my diet has evolved from, I mean, I was very plant based
before cancer. And it drives me crazy when
people are like, oh, that meat you're eating is, you know,
that's why you got cancer. It's like, mate, I was plant
based. I was eating fake vegan shit.
(29:49):
Sorry to swear. Yeah, I did not eat red meat for
so long. And I now it's ironic because I
now that's red meat makes up most, most of my diet.
So I'd go, I started off with a meat and veg kind of low carb
diet increasing the fats. Then I kind of went to a general
(30:13):
keto with all the snack crappy foods trying to make it like a
standard western diet put low carb.
Then I got really sick from all I guess the oxalates, the
lectins. I didn't get tested so this is
just a hunch just so everyone knows I'm not I'm not 100% sure.
Then I went carnivore which was really interesting.
(30:35):
So I've tried like every ketogenic, low carb diet there
is, and there's pros and cons toall of them, but definitely it's
the central part of my cancer strategy.
Interesting. So cancer cells they up regulate
glucose. Some people's cancer cells also
(30:55):
use glutamines or non essential amino acid.
Professor Thomas Seyfried talks about this in his research.
So I try not to eat too much protein because it's not great
for cancer if you have insu insulin growth like factor or
(31:16):
mtor pathway up regulation. But it's really hard because I
now love meat. So that's where I guess you have
to know a little bit about the genomic sequencing and extra
information about your cancer. Some people can probably eat
heaps of protein no problem. For me, I did a very fancy
(31:39):
sensitivity test and learned, OK, too much protein is probably
not good for me. So that's why I'm all about the
fat, yeah. And that makes sense.
So, so let's and then before we transition into some of the
different protocols that you were starting to try and what
you feel like was working. So it almost kind of sounds like
(32:00):
to me, correct me if if I'm wrong here.
Are you pretty much eating like almost like like a ketogenic
diet, basically like an animal based ketogenic diet?
Yeah, I'd say. I mean, I don't like this term.
I don't like buzzwords but I'd say I'm Ketovol.
OK. Every meal has a moderate amount
(32:21):
of protein, a lot of fat, but because I can't just eat
unlimited muscle meat, I need toeat something else.
So that's where I have low carbsthe the lower oxalate, lower
insoluble fibre vegetables. As a side, I'm really, really
fat adapted so I can actually get away with probably more then
(32:44):
most people can stay in a very high level of ketosis with low
glucose. I measure my glucose ketone
index twice a day and I encourage other people to do
that because you learn a lot about your body and everyone,
everyone is very, very different.
(33:05):
Yeah. Yeah.
And you, you had mentioned this earlier, it kind of sounds like.
So for right now, the way that you eat is like the central
focus almost of your protocol, correct?
Yeah, I basically use the drugs and nutraceuticals.
So by nutraceuticals I mean natural compounds that I tested
(33:27):
for. So you can through a liquid
biopsy. So just a blood test, send your
blood to private oncology companies who will test tested
basically in a dish against different therapies.
So I got drug sensitivity testedand also the nutraceuticals.
(33:49):
But yeah, I'd say diet and fasting is the main part.
And I just kind of use these things strategically.
So if I eat too much protein forexample, and I am worried about
my body making more glutamine, Imade drink a lot more much of
(34:11):
that day. Take some sodium phenol,
butyrate, take more phenbenzole.I've also I've managed to get my
oncologist to prescribe me capcitibine which is an anti
metabolite and a very old oral chemo drug that not many people
know about. Probably cause makes less money
(34:33):
but it means you can control thedose.
So I'll, I have that as a safetynet.
So I'm not against like I'm not one of those all natural people.
Like I, I fully believe that thetwo systems can coexist and that
someone should just use as many strategies as is appropriate for
them. So yes, to sum up, ketogenic
(34:57):
diet and fasting are the 2 main underlying things.
And then, yeah, I do the drugs and nutraceuticals orally and
strategically and also hyperbaric oxygen therapy and
sauna is very important when youtake a lot of drugs and
(35:20):
nutraceuticals to get rid of that toxicity.
Otherwise you will end up with, you know, kidney stones or
really upset microbiome. So yeah.
And I'm sure when you were doingthe, the research on oxalates,
you probably came across Sally, Sally Norton, her book Toxic
(35:40):
Super Foods. Yeah, I was, I was lucky enough
to to have her on the podcast. It was she she's great.
She's she's absolutely fantasticand super passionate, passionate
about what she does. But oxalates, plant compounds
like those those are no jokes. Like plants have defense
mechanisms that that they utilize that our bodies don't
(36:04):
necessarily like. So I I here's a question for
you. At one point when you were
trying like, like upping the protein, lowering the protein,
upping the fat, like, was there a moment when you realize that
OK diet can profoundly influencethis cancer journey, like in a
positive way? Well, yeah, because I've had
(36:25):
only results of stability. So no, no growth, no change or
regression where the tumor has gotten slightly smaller.
I just thought this can't be a coincidence.
And this has been with and without drugs.
So I've done a lot of experimenting because I don't
have metastasis. It is easier when you have a
(36:49):
primary tumor. Certainly for someone who's, you
know, got multiple tumors, you need to throw a lot more at it.
But it's not impossible. Like I, I this time last year I
spoke to a lovely lady who went to the biggest cancer clinic in
Australia. I won't name name them so and
(37:11):
I'm already being shadow banned.So I don't need, I don't need
any any more barriers or height.She didn't have a particular
breast cancer gene, so they basically excluded her from a
trial. She had like 13 different Mets.
By Mets, I mean metastases. It spread to her bones and they
(37:34):
basically told her to get her affairs in order and go home and
die essentially. I remember speaking to her and
saying if you don't have any complex about food or you don't
have any eating sort of history that has to be managed, just go
really strict keto. Like really high fat.
(37:57):
If you can afford to get your drug sensi sensitivity tested,
do hyperbaric oxygen therapy when your glucose is really low.
Your ketones are really high if you can afford to do high dose
vitamins. So I used to do that.
I used to do quercetin, vitamin C, curcumin.
(38:19):
She did all these things and within the first three months
she only had three tumors out of13 left.
I'm pretty sure now she's got noevidence of disease and she's
travelling around Europe. So I, I just think the diet is
(38:39):
what puts pressure on cancer metabolism like drives the
glucose really low. It's harder to drive down
glutamine because your body makes it every day like up to
100 grams. So you've got to do that with
either fasting or there's not that much research on natural
(39:00):
compounds inhibiting glutamine, and most people can't get their
hands on the pro drug called Donthat Professor Seyfried uses to
drive it down. But even without reducing
glutamine, this particular patient was able to just through
creating the right conditions with such a strict ketogenic
(39:23):
diet and fasting that all those other treatments were able to be
so, so much more powerful. I, I think that's why she got
such a great result. A lot of these people don't
share because they don't want tobe judged, but there's thousands
(39:44):
of people are do doing this. They just want to stay
anonymous. And I was one of those people
being anonymous until people kept dying around me and I was
just like, oh, I'm just going tosay something.
So yeah, the diet to me is the biggest enabler of success with
(40:05):
all the other strategies becauseof the restriction of glucose,
which is up regulated by cancer cells.
Sorry, that was a huge. Like no, no.
That's that's just right. Teachers are so bad at being
concise. We suck.
And I'm, and I'm so grateful that, you know, you started
speaking out online. That's how I found you.
(40:29):
I think it's fantastic. So it sounds like to me it's
traditional ketogenic diet is, is the route to go.
Now let's talk about some of thethe different drug protocols
that you were doing, like Ivermectin and I've heard a lot
about ivermectin. Joe Rogan was talking about it
on his podcast. In terms of handling the C word
virus, was there any particular drug that you experimented with
(40:54):
that you felt like got you the biggest bang for the buck or you
felt like was incredibly powerful, useful?
Was it ivermectin? Was it something else?
For me, unfortunately ivermectincame up with no sensitivity.
So This is why I think people, if they have the money, need to
invest in drug sensitivity testing.
(41:17):
So I use RGCC labs in Europe. The Australian dollar is quite
weak against the euro and it we are very far away so it was very
expensive. It cost me $4000 but I just
borrowed the money from a friendbecause I was taking so many
things and I just didn't know what was working.
(41:38):
So in terms of test data for me,vomectin is not effective.
Other popular things like the reishi mushroom is a people talk
a lot about that came up as 0%. Bicarb soda is a big thing for
(42:00):
people who believe that cancer can be treated by alkalizing the
body. Do not recommend this.
That sort of ruins the homeostasis of the body.
So please don't go smashing bicarb soda.
A little bit is OK, but that came up with 0%.
What else came up with 0% so is popular that so there's all
(42:24):
these things that are in my casenot evoking sensitivity, so I
just got rid of them. I still take ivamectin for when
I get certain sicknesses becauseit really helps the recovery
speed up the recovery period. So now when I get the spicy
(42:48):
cough, let's say when I when I took ivamectin, rather than it
lasting 5 or 6 days, it lasted maybe 2.
So ivamectin is very useful for many different things, but
because I take so many things, II stopped taking it in the
context of cancer care. I still take fambenazole, I take
(43:13):
samitidine, I take metformin, I take Celebrex.
These are all repurposed drugs as part of the repurposing drugs
for oncology international research projects.
So anybody can look that up online and present their
healthcare practitioner with theresearch and then ask them to
(43:36):
prescribe. But I still recommend forking
out the money to test that they're actually going to be
effective. So get the sensitivity test
100%. Yeah, yeah.
So I mean there, I know that there are people that I've seen
on Josh Rogan's podcast who did Ivormectin methylene blue.
(43:57):
I'm not sure what else they did.A very famous actor from my
country commented that his friends used the Ivormectin
methylene blue because it's a photos sensitizer with red light
therapy Anna and are in remission now.
(44:18):
So those are things that I'm implementing.
I actually just bought an A red light therapy their medical
Grade 1 and I'm starting to takemethylene blue.
So I'm doing more experimentation.
But I still believe that for me,the diet has been big.
(44:39):
The the biggest factor in my very slow success, It's been 2
1/2 years, yeah. Are the tumors when you're so we
know that they're not growing, is there evidence of them
shrinking? Yeah.
So I do Mris every three to fourmonths.
(45:02):
This the most recent MRI there was a a good reduction in size.
The issue I have is my tumor is not one mass.
Like it's not like a sphere thatcan be measured.
This it looks like a prawn. So I'm a numbers girl and it's
(45:23):
very frustrating that each time I get an MRI report, they can't
use the normal formula to get the volume.
So I would estimate that it's under a centimetre and it's just
been very, very slow, like, you know, half a centimetre, 1/4 of
a centimetre stable each time. But most people the tumor mass
(45:48):
is 1 mass together. And you can use a specific
formula to get the total volume.For me, that's not the case.
And I've asked the radio, the radiologist, I think that's the
profession that does the scan. Can you please just give me one
number? And he's like, I can't.
It's, it's an abnormal shape. So I know it's shrinking, but
(46:10):
it's frustrating because I wouldreally love to be able to know
exactly how much is left. I'm hoping as I'm in the next 12
weeks, when I do my next protocol, that that's it, that
it will be gone and that maybe Ijust need to get a little bit of
scraping of any polyps or anything that's left.
(46:34):
So I'd be happy to do that, but I didn't want a surgery that
resulted in a colostomy. So that's why I'm being stubborn
and I'm just trying to keep shrinking it slowly and slowly.
And then if I do have a bit of surgery, it's just for the sort
of the residual cells as opposedto a full on debulking and then
a a colostomy. Sorry, the lighting just had a
(46:57):
whole bunch of sun come in. So now the lighting's probably
terrible in the video. No, no, it's, it's, it's, it's
great. Everything looks good.
And I think that's so cool that you are taking your health and
this cancer journey into your own hands and you're doing it on
your own. I think that's really, really
cool. And I, I wanted to switch over
to because it sounds like you'reon your way to becoming an
(47:19):
integrative cancer coach almost for nutritionist based off off
of Instagram. Can you tell me a little bit
about what's going into that? I can tell that you're very
passionate about obviously beating this, beating this tumor
down. But I'm sure that's all playing
a role into you wanting to move this route with your life it
sounds like. Yeah, I was always very
(47:42):
interested in nutrition science and I would say this to anybody,
even if you think you can't do something or something is not
for you. And I just felt when I finished
high school that even though nutrition was a very big
interest because I had an eatingdisorder, I wasn't worthy to go
(48:04):
into that space. So I think cancer makes you take
opportunities, be less self deprecating and and
procrastination tendencies and all that kind of right time
right moment BS goes away. So yeah, I just decided I would
(48:28):
study nutrition mostly because Iget asked so many questions.
It would be better protection for myself and for others to
become a, an accredited nutritionist.
So that's very close to being finalized.
The cancer, the integrative cancer coaching staff also feeds
(48:50):
into that. There are a lot of people who
need support. I, I do love my job.
I'm an ESL teacher and I love that job.
But in order for me to be able to help people to burn myself
out, I'm hoping I can do all of the things I love on a part time
(49:12):
basis while also avoiding being sued.
So you have to be very careful. So I always use the first person
and I only share my experience and if I am stating something,
always using scientific evidence.
(49:34):
There are a lot of people onlinejust telling people what to do
without consequence and without having a nuanced understanding
of their situation. And that's actually really
dangerous and inappropriate and I and so I want to do things the
right way. And no, I think that's an
awesome career change, if you will, or, or maybe add on if
(49:54):
you're going to be doing it parttime.
I think that's that's a great way in which you can impact the
world. And obviously, you have the
experience of going through whatyou're going through now in
order to help a lot of people interms of just people listening
to this. Like if someone is listening to
this and they're in a dark placelike after a diagnosis, like
what's 1 mindset shift or small practical step you'd urge them
(50:21):
to take to start moving toward thriving as you would probably
call it rather than just surviving?
This is going to sound a little bit far fetched for people who
aren't already doing this, but meditation and affirmations have
(50:42):
really changed, changed me and and made me a better person.
I used to really misunderstand what meditation was like.
I thought it was the absence of thinking and just being like.
But it it's not. It's actually increased focus.
So I meditate 3 times a day. You can do it guided to start
(51:04):
off with Joe Dispenza is a great, you know, physicist,
scientist, spiritual guru like it is.
I wasn't big on spirituality. And so I get it if people are
rolling their eyes just thinkingthis is just this is bullshit.
(51:25):
But it is made a huge differenceto my life, my stress, the
physical stress that I felt in my body.
I can now mentally when when I feel it, I can shift it.
I really do believe in a lot like aligning your frequencies
and, and that kind of stuff. So if you're feeling, you know,
(51:51):
hopeless or like you can't take that first step, there's no such
thing as the perfect time or theright time or when AB and C are,
you know, are lined up, then I'll do this.
It really is all about doing really small things
incrementally each day. And that can start with, yeah,
(52:14):
with meditation, you just becomea lot more productive.
And there's science that's coming out about it, some really
scary science of people literally up regulating
protective genes and down regulating on code genes.
So cancer genes just by meditating.
(52:34):
It's nuts. So I'm really looking forward to
that coming out. And I've, I've heard a lot about
this too, like on the mindset side of things, if someone in
regards to the research that, that, that I think you're,
you're alluding to, there's a lot of research around just the
mindset of someone's that they take when they're initially
diagnosed. Like the people that give up or,
(52:58):
you know, have that mindset of like, oh, this is going to, you
know, whatever, kill me or this is going to be disastrous.
Like it will, it will ruin your,it, it'll take you down that
path. But if you take the, the path of
optimism, persistence, you know,and, and apply those elements to
your cancer journey. A lot of research is coming out
(53:19):
just in regards to mindset positivity that can help to
impact how how things progress basically.
Yeah. And it it requires practice.
I think there is a misunderstanding that, you know,
anything to do with positive psychology.
It'll, it'll fix me and then, you know, I'll be OK.
(53:40):
Someone will do it to me Is actually, it's, it's not about
that. It's you doing the work.
It's just like practicing any kind of skill.
For example, for a sport, you doit again and again and again and
then it becomes automated. Like, you have the skills, you
have the agility, you know what to do in, in certain moments.
That's what this mindset stuff is all about, which I didn't
(54:03):
understand. And it's at first it feels
uncomfortable and a waste of time.
But you do it again and again and again.
And then it just becomes part ofyour your everyday mental
practice and capacity. And I wish I'd done it sooner.
It's also amazing for eating disorder stuff because that's
(54:27):
been my biggest barrier. Eating disorder relapses are
probably why my cancer progress has been slowed down.
So pretty much anyone with any mental health challenges, you
know, a new cancer diagnosis or being stuck, yeah, just look
(54:48):
into whatever kind of mindset stuff you're comfortable with.
Joe Dispenza is very spiritual and out there and he uses very
technical rhetoric, which can bea little bit off putting.
So it's really up to people to find the right register for them
'cause it's no, not A1 size fitsall, but yeah, all for positive
(55:14):
mindset. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, Joe Dispenza is great. I I watch a lot of his videos on
YouTube. He's got a lot of like
motivational stuff too. He's great.
And I know real quick here, we're we're coming up here on
time and I want to be respectfulof what else that you've got
going on in in your day. I've got some rapid fire
questions here that I typically will like to ask guests.
(55:37):
Like as we're wrapping things upon your, your Instagram and, and
some of the posts you, you referto yourself as a cancerous
thriver, not not just a survivorto you.
What? What is the difference?
For me, cancer has been a blessing.
(55:58):
I have been able to thrive through both the ketogenic diet.
I think that ketone bodies to the brain are really
therapeutic. I wrote a whole book in 10 days
thanks to the power of ketosis. So I I think the diet helps me
(56:20):
to thrive because it's really good for my mental health.
In terms of the lifestyle intervention, I have a healthy I
am healthier now with cancer than before the diagnosis.
So I went from working three jobs, not sleeping, binge eating
junk food and going in and out of bulimia relapses to a diet
(56:45):
that is mostly consistent but with flexibility.
I'm OK with living in the grey area.
Now I know how to maintain a level of ketosis and still have
a social life. So I'm still a moderator.
I'm not an abstainer. Yeah.
So I think that for me, cancer was a wake up call and I've gone
(57:10):
from just surviving and having my priorities not in the right
areas. So, you know, just wanting to
make more money, all about me, to caring about other people,
being a better colleague, being a better daughter, being a
better person in general and just having a healthier
lifestyle. So that's to me, what thriving
means. And yeah.
(57:33):
And I mean, that's incredible. I mean, and I, I think that
would probably surprise a lot ofpeople to hear you say cancer
was a blessing. That's kind of crazy because,
because I think what you're saying is the way in which you
were living before eating, before the lifestyle habits that
you had cancer ultimately gave you a wake up call, it sounds
like. But to your point that you just
(57:54):
said the the changes that you made across the board enable you
to be almost healthier now with cancer than previously before
cancer, correct? Yeah, that's wild.
I know it sounds it was going tosound very strange and maybe
(58:16):
outrageous to some people, but Ireally do believe that unless
your exposure to, you know, something toxic or your
lifestyle up regulates your genetic predisposition, it's not
a genetic disease. It's not a done deal.
(58:37):
If that wasn't the case, then why has my lifestyle
intervention resulted in slow, but nevertheless, you know,
healing over time? So yeah, that's my, that's my
belief in hunch and I'm stickingto it.
(58:57):
No, I love it. I think it's incredible.
If you could give one piece of nutrition advice to every cancer
patient, what would it be and why?
Get a glucose ketone index device, for example a keto mojo.
(59:18):
Learn what happens to your bloodglucose in response to food.
And you don't need to follow a specific diet.
It doesn't have to be carnivore or vegan or whatever.
As Professor Thomas Seyfried says, he doesn't care what diet
you do, but you need to get the glucose ketone index down.
(59:40):
So for example, I want my glucose to be 60 or under, and I
want my ketones to be 3 or higher, and I want my overall
GKI, that's the acronym for Glucose Ketone Index to be 1.5
or less. That will put so much pressure
(01:00:01):
on cancer cell metabolism and the fermentation of glucose,
because if there ain't no glucose, generally glutamine, I
mean, that can still support. ATP for cancer cells, but not in
the same extent as if you were smashing the carbs all day long.
(01:00:23):
So that would be, yeah. The number one piece of advice
is learn about what how your body responds to different foods
and get your glucose way down and your ketones up with
whatever diet suits your ideology and that you enjoy.
That makes sense. OK, let's quite last question
here. What's the first thing you would
(01:00:46):
say to someone who just got a cancer diagnosis and feels
completely hopeless? Firstly, take a step back and
give yourself some protected time.
Often the medical professionals and, and most of them have good
(01:01:10):
intentions, but they will push you to make a decision really
quickly and they may catastrophize the situation or
or scare you. Ask questions.
Don't feel like it's offensive to ask for a second opinion or
(01:01:30):
ask all options and use the tools that we have thanks to
modern progress, artificial intelligence, even just through
a Google search. Now, because AI pulls from so
many sources, you can get an abundance of information.
So if you're feeling hopeless there, yeah, ask questions.
(01:01:57):
Don't hold anything back left unsaid because you're afraid to
offend a professional. And yeah, do your own research,
even if it's a Google search, Yeah.
That's fantastic, great advice. And Lisa, you were amazing.
(01:02:17):
I, I, I thank you so much for coming on here and and sharing
this. Thank you, this was so nice.
Yeah, this is great. And I know you you've got, we
were talking about the integrative cancer coaching that
you might be doing down the linehere.
Once you get the proper certifications, where can people
find you online? Get in contact with you, maybe
at some point when you're ready,potentially work with you.
(01:02:39):
Like where can people find you online?
So I have an e-mail ready to go with lots of information for
people who don't use social media.
So you can e-mail me on lisa.mary.drake@gmail.com if you
would like a sample of a drug sensitivity test, a sample of
(01:03:04):
what I eat in a week, the redo protocol, and links to lots of
different case reports and scientific literature about
ketogenic diets for cancer. If you're on social media, Lisa
Mary Drake is my Instagram page.I don't do Tiktok.
(01:03:28):
I feel like I'm I'm too old old for that.
But if it's necessary, I will consider it.
Facebook is more for my immediate friends and family,
but I'm also on Facebook as LisaMary.
So if anyone wants to send a message to ask questions like
I'm pretty responsive. And yeah, I, I don't really know
(01:03:55):
where, where I'm going exactly from now, except that I will
publish a book on my experience so that I can help people in a
more sort of detailed way. The coaching and stuff from
(01:04:15):
professionally probably won't start for another couple months,
but yeah, very happy to help anybody.
So through e-mail or through a message, it's not about money.
It's about just stopping unnecessary deaths from cancer.
I don't really think anyone needs to die from cancer with
(01:04:35):
the correct information, self advocacy and for the coexistence
of standard of care with metabolic therapy.
Yeah. Well said, IA, 100% agree with
you. And again, thank you so much for
for coming on the podcast with me here, Lisa, I appreciate your
(01:04:57):
time. And to everyone else out there,
thanks guys for listening to theLow Carb Consultant podcast.
We'll catch you guys on the nextone.
Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.