September 9, 2025 • 35 mins
Enhancing Post-Cancer Care: Integrative Approaches with Dr. Megan Bernard
What happens after cancer treatment ends? Too often, survivors are left without a clear roadmap for long-term healing and prevention. In this episode of the Believe Big Podcast, Ivelisse sits down with Dr. Megan Bernard, a board-certified naturopathic doctor passionate about guiding patients through comprehensive cancer recovery.
Together, they talk about how mindset can shape healing, why many critical tests are often overlooked in conventional care, and the importance of personalized monitoring after treatment. Dr. Bernard shares the latest insights on functional and integrative approaches—including epigenetic testing, immune and metabolic profiling, and innovative therapies like mistletoe—that are helping patients thrive beyond survival.
Listeners will walk away with:
- Practical questions to ask your oncologist about integrative therapies
- Strategies for combining conventional and complementary care for the best outcomes
- Hope-filled insights into the future of personalized cancer recovery
Whether you’re a survivor, caregiver, or simply curious about holistic approaches to health, this episode offers empowering tools and encouragement for the journey ahead.
Learn More About Dr. Megan Bernard:
Flourish, The Roadmap to Recovery
Suggested Resources:
- Dr. Megan Bernard's Instagram
- Dr. Megan's Podcast
- Dr. Megan's Blog
- DUTCH Test - Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones
- Signatera Test - personalized cancer testing
- Summary of Helixor Studies
- Helixor - Breast Cancer literature
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ivelisse Page (00:06):
Hi, I am Ivelisse Page and thanks for listening to
the Believe Big podcast, theshow where we take deep dive
into your healing with healthexperts, integrative
practitioners, biblical faithleaders, and cancer thrivers
from around the globe.
(00:35):
Welcome to today's episode onthe Believe Big podcast.
My name is Ivelisse Page andit's always a pleasure to be
with you and spend this time.
Today's guest is Dr.
Megan Bernard, a board certifiednaturopathic doctor and founder
of Flourish (00:50):
the Roadmap to Recovery, a comprehensive cancer
recovery and prevention program,empowering women to reclaim
their health post-treatment.
With extensive experiencesupporting women through cancer
diagnosis and treatment, Dr.
Megan recognized a huge gap inpost-cancer care, driving her
(01:12):
mission to provide effectiveresearch backed solutions for
long-term wellness.
Combining years of research andclinical practice, Dr.
Megan blends conventional andholistic approaches to help
women navigate anti-cancer,nutrition, and lifestyle changes
with clarity and confidence.
She holds a Bachelor of HealthScience, a Master of Science,
(01:35):
and a Doctorate in NaturopathicMedicine, specializing in cancer
care.
Driven by a passion forempowering women, she ensures
her methods are practical andsustainable for everyday life.
Welcome to the podcast Megan.
Dr. Megan Bernard (01:50):
So excited to be here.
Ivelisse Page (01:53):
So we always start our podcast with our guest
favorite health tip, and I'msure you have many, so, but
could you share just one withus?
Dr. Megan Bernard (02:00):
Absolutely.
It's always hard to come downwith just one, but I think, I
love the mindset pieces aroundchanging your health because
sometimes we can get all thosedetails, but it's hard to figure
out like what to put into placeor it becomes overwhelming.
So if we can kind of start withmindset first, that can be very
helpful.
So something like if we can comeat our, our changes from a state
of looking at your health of theoverall body as opposed to
(02:22):
looking at just killing cancercells or being rid of cancer in
general.
That can make a big difference.
So if we can focus on buildingour health, building our bodies,
building our resilience, insteadof just focusing on killing
cancer cells, I think that canmake a big difference in all the
choices that you make.
Ivelisse Page (02:36):
I love that.
Mm-hmm.
Mindset is very, very importantin our health.
And so, today's episode I'mreally excited about because
after cancer care, you've beenmonitored very closely and let's
say you're released and, andthen you're into this new world
of how do I continue to takecare of myself?
What are certain things that Ineed to be looking out for that,
(02:57):
you know, conventional doctorsare not typically looking at,
they look at labs differently.
So I'm so excited that you arehere to talk about this
important topic.
So let's begin with, what aresome of the most vital tests
that are commonly missed inconventional cancer care?
Dr. Megan Bernard (03:14):
Well, it kind of comes down to that mindset
switch I looked at where we'relooking at the overall health of
the body, whereas a lot ofconventional care is looking at
the cancer and getting rid ofthe disease.
So whenever we're looking attesting, we always like to start
with some blood work that goesabove and beyond just the
standard.
Making sure that your liversfunctioning good, your kidneys,
kidneys are good, that yourwhite blood cell counts are
good.
We wanna go a little bit deeperthan that.
So going into blood work is kindof where we wanna look at
(03:36):
everything from.
Even inflammatory markers, whichsometimes they might be high
because you're just throughtreatment.
Inflammation might be high, butwe're gonna also look at your
nutrient markers.
We're also gonna look at yourmetabolic markers because if
we're coming at it from thisapproach, we can kind of narrow
down what's going on in theenvironment of your body so that
we can optimize your overallhealth and build that resilience
(03:56):
against cancer.
Ivelisse Page (03:57):
Yes.
Yeah.
So important.
So for example, for patientswith hormone sensitive cancers
like breast or prostate cancer.
Mm-hmm.
What hormone or estrogen testsdo you wish were part of
Standard protocol?
Mm-hmm.
From the start?
Dr. Megan Bernard (04:12):
You know, I, I was curious.
I actually don't go too far intohormone tests on blood work.
I would prefer to look that atthat, almost like from a
metabolite perspective.
So we can look at saliva testsfor that, where we would see how
does, how is estrogen gettingbroken down in the body?
Because there are certain typesof estrogen that might be a
little bit more helpful andother types that might be a
little bit more harmful, alittle bit stronger, a little
(04:33):
bit more apt to cause somedamage to cells.
So something like a saliva test,looking at the esra, estrogen
metabolites is a little bit moreeffective.
Um, and even with someone with ahormone responsive cancer.
I feel like we also wanna lookat other hormones that are
involved, like insulin, likegrowth factor.
Um, that has a big role to playin a lot of different factors
(04:54):
for inflammation in the body,potentially leading to more
inflammatory processes, cancerbeing something that starts and
feeds off of, of inflammation inthe body.
Um, but yes, we definitely likelooking at estrogen metabolites,
although I say that we work witha lot of women in menopause.
So a lot of the times wheneverwe do those tests, um, the
sample is so little becauseestrogen's gonna be so much
lower in the body due tomenopausal impacts that the
(05:16):
strength of the test isn't quitethere.
We'll still do it, um,sometimes, but um, at the same
time we take it with a grain ofsalt.
Like we just kind of considerthat perhaps the test might be
not super accurate because inmenopause a lot of the estrogen
is so low anyway, that measuringthat amount is not gonna be
super effective.
Does that make sense?
Ivelisse Page (05:32):
Yes.
Yes.
And when I know you said salivatest, do you guys use the Dutch
test, which is the urine test?
Dr. Megan Bernard (05:39):
We often, we often do epigenetic testing in
general, which is part of thatDutch test.
So we do epigenetic testing fora bunch of different things.
So we'll also look atmethylation and detoxification
and stuff like that through justa general saliva epigenetic
test.
And then if we wanna go furtherwith some people into the
estrogen metabolites, we'll justorder a straight up estrogen
hormone panel.
So we don't necessarily doDutch, although a lot of the
(05:59):
components we're looking at aregonna be on that Dutch test
just, but just because we docertain epigenetic testing with
everybody, we've already donelike 50% of what's on the Dutch
test.
So let's just get another, justestrogen metabolites and things
like that.
Ivelisse Page (06:10):
Okay.
So is the estrogen metabolitetest a lot cheaper than the
Dutch test?
Dr. Megan Bernard (06:14):
It can be 'cause'cause if we're already
paying for the epigenetic testwe're doing with everyone
anyway, then yeah, it's a lotcheaper if we just order, order
like a straight up hormonepanel, uh, alongside the
epigenetic test.
Ivelisse Page (06:24):
That's great.
Yeah.
That's great.
Yeah.
So many oncologists focus ononly imaging to track the
cancer, but what blood-basedmarkers should patients request
for cancers?
Dr. Megan Bernard (06:36):
So for cancers, there is this cool test
that's out and it's kind ofgetting a lot of news lately.
It's called the CT DNA testing,like Signaterra is one of the
companies that run that, whichwe do encourage our clients to
do after some education becauseit can be scary sometimes to get
those results back.
And it's not quite, smoothly putinto the conventional system
yet.
So if it were to come backpositive and all your tests,
(06:56):
like your scans were showingnegative, then it's not quite
sure what to do with you justyet.
Um, but it's still, I'm verymuch a database person.
I love having numbers, um, tomake decisions off of.
And from a functional medicineperspective, our, we kind of
have a method in place where wewould encourage people to retest
about four weeks later just tomake sure that the Signaterra
actually is positive.
And then, um, we would encouragea lot of like more harder
(07:18):
hitting functional medicinethings like IV vitamin C or
mistletoe injections for sure.
To kind of see what we can we doin the meantime and then retest
a little bit later to see how wenotice those numbers reduce.
Ivelisse Page (07:28):
Yeah, I do the Signaterra test and awesome.
It's great.
And I, and it's really nice thatit's actually a test that
insurance covers, you know?
Mm-hmm.
There's so much in this worldthat is not covered.
Mm-hmm.
And I was so nicely surprisedthat my conventional surgeon
actually, he asked for me to doit.
Mm-hmm.
And so it's really nice thatthat's even getting mainstream,
(07:49):
um, acknowledgement and thatmany surgeons and oncologists
know about it and are requestingit.
And can really give you a goodgame plan.
Mm-hmm.
And so you, you mentionedsomething that's really
important because if it's notzero, you know mm-hmm people get
really panicked.
And so what could alter thosenumbers that may not necessarily
(08:09):
be a cancer that you're askingpeople to retest four weeks
later?
Dr. Megan Bernard (08:15):
It's just also like with every test there
could be like a false positive,so we just wanna double check
that it's just actual a truepositive.
So just making sure that itwasn't a test error is one of
the things we wanna look at.
And then anything from, like,perhaps you exercise a lot that
day and it set off certaininflammatory markers that
might've got picked up due tothe, the test parameters.
Um, it could, could kind of justpicking those things up too.
(08:37):
Like it might act not actuallybe um, cancer cells that it's
picking up.
It's, it's a pretty specifictest, meaning that it is, has a
pretty high rate of it beingpositive.
It is positive, but at the sametime, we always wanna make sure
that we're looking at you as anindividual and just making sure
that we're getting all thenumbers we can before we make
big decisions moving forward forsure.
Does that answer that question?
Ivelisse Page (08:57):
Yeah, it sure does.
And you know, for those of youwho are out there getting your
cancer marker, traditional oneslike your CEA, C A 1 25, you
know, over the years I had minego up.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, and I panicked and I waslike, why is it so much higher?
And it wasn't that much higher.
I would say it's like two pointshigher than normal.
And, uh, realizing that myoncologist was calm and he's
(09:19):
like, let's just retest it infour weeks.
Um, it could have been aninfection you had in your body.
You could have overstressed yourbody and sure enough, I would
just come back from a missiontrip.
So yes, my body was stressed.
Dr. Megan Bernard (09:30):
Yeah, those tumor are a little bit less
specific, a little bit lessaccurate than the Signaterra
test, the CT DNA testing.
But yes, definitely with thosetumor markers, they're not even
recommended conventionally as ascreening tool because of the
potential to be impacted by somany different things.
So we definitely don't want topanic.
We definitely wanna retest andwe want to look at more trends
and numbers over time, asopposed to looking like at a one
(09:52):
of situa situation.
Although know it's easier saidthan done to not panic over
those things, for sure.
Ivelisse Page (09:57):
Yes, yes.
Mm-hmm.
So inflammation is is soimportant in cancer development
and recurrence.
You know, everything's talkingabout reduce the inflammation in
any way that you can.
It's not only for cancer, butjust in disease in general.
Mm-hmm.
So which inflammatory markerslike CRP or IL six or TNF Alpha
are most important to trackcancer such as, say, pancreatic
(10:19):
and lung cancer?
Dr. Megan Bernard (10:21):
So we don't see a lot of pancreatic cancer
'cause our recovery program is alittle bit more, um, nuanced to
like breast cancer, colon cancerin the slower growing cancer.
So I'm not exactly up to par onexactly pancreatic cancer, but
generally speaking, what wewanna look at with absolutely
everyone is something like anH-S-C-R-P.
One, it's looking at justinflammatory levels, but it's
also looking at heart healthtoo, which is impacted a lot of
(10:43):
the times by a lot ofchemotherapies, even radiation,
a lot of immunotherapies, thingslike that can impact the heart.
And then we also looking at ESRerythrocyte sedimentation rate.
Ooh, I got that out right.
I was worried of gonna trip upover that ESR, again, another
marker of inflammation in thebody.
We also find it's difficultsometimes to get something like
a TNF alpha or interleukinsdone, um, through conventional
(11:05):
labs.
But when we can get those done,they're very helpful too.
Because they are looking at alittle bit more, it's a little
bit more specific types ofinflammation as opposed to
general inflammation, whichwould be the H-S-C-R-P-E-S-R.
Um, we also look at ferritinsometimes too for inflammatory
levels.
'cause if it's really high, butyour iron panel is normal, then
that can tell us more about how,like it's more inflammatory
(11:26):
problems as opposed to an ironproblem.
Um, but does that, yeah, thatmakes sense.
Like we do like, like looking atthe TNA alpha, interleukin six,
but mostly we can get H-S-C-R-Pand ESR done very easily
through, um, the medical doctor.
And then even looking at yourCBC panel, a little bit more in
depth, looking at the ratios ofwhite blood cells, so your
neutrophil to lymphocyte ratios,your lymphocyte to monocyte
(11:47):
ratios.
Um, tracking those over time cangive us a good idea of the
strength of the immune systemand whether we've got some good
cancer fighting immune cellsbeing boosted there, or if it
might be a little bit depleted,and that gives us an idea to
focus there when it comes tospecific supplement
interventions, mistletoe or evennutrient suggestions as well.
Ivelisse Page (12:06):
Yes.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
So for patients with GI typecancers like colon or stomach
cancer.
What gut function or microbiometests would provide insight that
standard care is missing?
I know there's so many out therenow, but which ones?
You know, and I've tried many,but I'm just curious to know
which ones you feel are the bestand most accurate, you know, to
(12:26):
really look into that.
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Megan Bernard (12:29):
Yeah, test.
We absolutely love the GI Maptest just because it looks at a
broad range of things, like, sowe're seeing what is the healthy
microflora.
So it gives us a list of likeall the different types of
microflora, the bacteria thatshould be there.
Uh, it tells us a little bitabout what are the things that
shouldn't be there, so it'slooking at some pathogenic
stuff.
Or some opportunistic bacteria,which are the ones that take the
opportunity to grow whenever theother things are a little bit
(12:51):
off, when the good bacteriamight not be in strong amounts.
It also tells us about like thehealth of the gut immune system,
the gut lining.
So we would look at zonulin, forexample, for the health of the
gut lining.
You can look at something likecalprotectin, which tells us a
little bit more about theinflammation in the gut too.
And for example, like a highcalprotectin could be a sign of
either like usually irritablebowel disease or potentially we
(13:14):
wanna dig a little bit deeper tomake sure that cancer's not
growing again in a colorectalcancer situation.
So it can be an early indicator.
Um, basically it tells us alittle bit about how you digest
things as well.
So it's a very comprehensivetest.
Um, it's called a comprehensivestool test, and it tells us a
lot about where do we need tofocus.
Is it bringing up your good guthealth?
Is it killing off some of thebad, um, gut bacteria?
(13:35):
Is it mostly the lining that'simpacted there?
Are there certain foods thatmight be triggering certain
processes that are being putoff, like causing inflammation
in the gut.
Very good test.
We love it.
Ivelisse Page (13:45):
Okay, that's great.
Yeah, I've heard of the GImapping one and especially,
post, say even a, a colonoscopyto really determine how to get
the gut functioning again reallywell, because once you do have a
colonoscopy, you know, whenyou're doing your testing to
cancer prevention moving forwardit, it destroys, you know, your
(14:06):
microbiome for a whole year.
It used to be.
But now with that, it reallyhelps to direct you personally
to say, okay, this is what youreally need and can really help
to enhance that so that it's,restored in three to four months
versus the the year that it usedto be.
Have you found that?
Dr. Megan Bernard (14:22):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, because the gut is socomplex.
'cause you can have symptomsthat mean 10 different things.
So if you have bloating, itcould be because you have
trouble digesting things,'causethe digestive enzymes aren't
there.
Or because you might have amicroflora imbalance.
Um, it's not just like bloatingequals this.
It's kind of like differentsymptoms have so many different
things that could be causing theunderlying reasons and then
(14:43):
going through the treatment andthe process of going through
like a colonoscopy, um, canreally mess with a lot of
different parts of your guthealth and there's a lot of
different moving parts and that,that it's.
Just gonna understand, uh, giveus an understanding better and
more quickly of like, what isthe actual issue here?
Going at it for more of a rootcause impact as opposed to just
throwing spaghetti at the wall.
Ivelisse Page (15:03):
Yes, yes.
I love that.
So do you recommend aftercolonoscopy or should you do it
before colonoscopy?
Dr. Megan Bernard (15:09):
It depends on, um, kind of the goals of the
client and where are they at inthe beginning as well.
I would say probably after,might be a good idea and maybe
like a month or so after, justto let the body settle a little
bit as well.
Um, because if you're gonna giveit before, then they're gonna go
through the process of goingthrough, through the colonoscopy
and then it's gonna changethings again.
And we're not gonna know whereyou're at.
(15:29):
So we probably go do thecolonoscopy, maybe wait a couple
weeks or a month at least, andthen do the GI map.
Ivelisse Page (15:35):
That's great.
And so, uh, why should patientswith blood cancers like a
lymphoma or leukemia considerdeeper immune profiling beyond
standard CBC panels?
Like what should they actuallyrequest?
Dr. Megan Bernard (15:50):
So I, I just find the CBC panels often
overlooked big time where weactually get a, a breakdown of
all the different types of whiteblood cells there too.
And by looking at somethingcompared to something else, like
your neutrophil lymphocyteratio, we can see more strength
behind a lot of that.
Um, so whenever it comes tosupporting someone with any type
of cancer, and especially like ablood cell cancer, we do wanna
(16:12):
look at just not your totalwhite blood cell count.
We wanna look at what iseverything in comparison to
everything else.
Because each of those differentwhite blood cell, white blood
cells, they have different rolesto play, um, in different parts
of the immune system, indifferent parts of encouraging
certain anti-cancer processes tohappen.
So looking at your neutrophillymphocyte, your monocyte to.
(16:32):
Lymphocyte.
So your lymphocyte to monocyteratio, those two things can make
a big difference withunderstanding, alright, so we
can see that your immune systemis building back up'cause we can
look at trends over time or wecan see it's kind of staying the
same.
Um, we might want to focus in alittle bit more on building
these anti-cancer cells upwithout overstimulating them as
well.
'cause we wanna be cautious in alot of blood cancers.
Um, does that answer thatquestion there?
Ivelisse Page (16:53):
Yes.
Yes.
It sure does.
Yeah.
And so another one is the, thevitamin D and glutathione levels
are rarely checked.
Yet, I can't believe you have toask for vitamin D.
Lose my mind test.
It's like a simple test.
Yet they play such a huge rolein immunity and so why should
every patient, especially thosewith breast and prostate cancer,
insist on these tests?
Dr. Megan Bernard (17:14):
Yeah.
So even when my mom went throughbreast cancer treatment, it was
like I knew how importantVitamin D was'cause I was in the
early stages of, um, learningand things like that.
And what we had to do is we hadto say like, this is for her
bone health, because the, thedoctors get that there's a link
between, uh, decreased bone masswith cancer treatments,
especially breast cancertreatments.
So they, then they would orderit for her, but in reality I was
(17:35):
asking for it because there's awhole lot of research behind
adequate and optimal vitamin Dlevels with reducing, getting
cancer in the first place.
Um, with also helping people tosurvive cancer better throughout
treatment, whether it's reducingside effects or actually
decreasing tumor burden, meaningthat we're helping to like get
people more cancer free quickerand then also post-treatment to
help them to reduce the risk ofcancer coming back.
(17:57):
And we don't want to just aimfor that, okay range.
The research truly is on rangesthat are much higher, like in
the 75 range, basically is whatwe're gonna aim for when we're
looking at vitamin D levels.
Ivelisse Page (18:09):
That's great.
And, and you work closely withintegrative approaches.
So when a patient is interestedin, say, mistletoe therapy, what
are the labs or immune markersthat can help determine the
suitability of mistletoe forthem?
Dr. Megan Bernard (18:22):
Our big kind of like thing that's gonna
really say like mistletoe isreally gonna help you out here
is mainly that white blood,blood cell count, the CBC panel
looking at the neutrophillymphocyte ratio, the lymphocyte
to monocyte ratio.
Also we would look at the, um,the aggressiveness of the
diagnosis that they hadreceived.
If it was a little bit moreaggressive, we would wanna put
them on mistletoe.
Absolutely.
(18:42):
Like it would be a higherpriority, just to make sure that
we're getting the immune systemup and running at full capacity.
We'd also look at inflammatorymarkers too, because the
mistletoe is really great atfinding a balance of the
different types of white bloodcells.
And your white blood cells arepart of your inflammation
system, like your inflammatorysystem.
Um, and then honestly, likeanyone would be a good candidate
(19:02):
for mistletoe.
We just find it's just a matterof prioritization when it comes
to availability costs, thingslike that.
For sure.
Ivelisse Page (19:09):
Yes.
Yeah.
And, and so what, how do youhelp to educate your patients?
'cause we get this question alot is how could patients bring
this up respectfully with theironcologists who may not be
familiar with it?
And some of'em are just like,no, I don't know about it, so
don't do it.
So how can someone respectfullybut informed, you know, share
this with their oncologist, whatdo you recommend?
Dr. Megan Bernard (19:30):
Such a tough conversation because everyone's
so unique in the way that wecommunicate and receive
information and then beliefsaround medicine and stuff like
that.
So it often just comes down tolike, um, trial and error and
seeing what works for, forgetting through to certain
people.
But you just have to say, um,find a common ground.
I think just allowing theoncologist to know that I do
(19:51):
respect and believe in whatyou're, um, encouraging me to
do.
And I still wanna follow throughwith what you're encouraging me
to do, but I also want to add onthis extra layer of protection
that I truly believe has a lotof impact when it comes to the
research.
'Cause there is a lot ofresearch on it.
And if we're going to beencouraging more research backed
processes and, and, um, if yourdoctor is really research
(20:12):
backed, then there's a lot ofpapers out there that can be
very helpful for just passingonto their desk.
Also, the more you prepare forthem and the less they have to
do, probably the easier it isfor them to process the
information themselves,'causethey are very busy people, your
oncologists.
So if we can kind of give, we,we put together a bit of a
package for people where theycan have a couple papers that
are in humans,'cause again, wewanna encourage the strongest
(20:34):
research.
We want to give them a kind oflike a script around, I want you
to let your oncologist know thatwe're not getting rid of
everything that they said, thatwe're actually just gonna add on
this extra protection.
And then we just kind of seewhat happens and then respond
from there, depending on howthat communication goes.
Ivelisse Page (20:50):
Yeah, would you be willing to share those um,
flyers with us that we can addinto the show notes for sure.
Because for that is a questionwe get a lot and we actually
wanted to create something thathas the research on there and
information for a clinicianversus a patient.
We have a lot of the patientresources, but the information
for a clinician and you beingone would be so helpful for them
(21:12):
to look at it in a differentlens.
So that would be really helpful.
Dr. Megan Bernard (21:14):
Yeah.
Super easy for us to puttogether.
Yeah.
And get, and hand it off to you.
Awesome.
Ivelisse Page (21:18):
Awesome.
Thank you.
So why is testing, um, forinsulin resistance and fasting
insulin crucial in many cancers,you know, like breast cancer and
liver cancer?
Dr. Megan Bernard (21:29):
Without getting too far into the sugar
feeds cancer debate and goingtoo down, too far down that
rabbit hole for sure.
Um, we do know that like sugardoes play a role in cancer
development.
Um, we know for example, andthis might be not a perfect
stat, but people with diabeteshave a 30% increased risk of
getting cancer in theirlifetime, which tells us a
little bit about how blood sugarregulation probably plays a role
(21:51):
in inflammation and inflammatoryprocesses, if not in causing
cancer to start in the firstplace.
And we often, we, we often havea lot of women who eat very,
very healthy, um, but we dotheir blood work and we can
still see that they arepre-diabetic or they are insulin
resistant.
And by digging a little bitdeeper, we can kind of pick
(22:12):
those out.
'Cause if someone walks into themedical office and they look
healthy and they eat veggies andstuff like that, then it's not
usually likely that we're gonnago down and, and test their
blood sugar and things likethat.
It's just, we kind of assumethat everything's good.
But we've seen women who comeback with fasting insulin,
fasting glucose, and then we dotheir HOMA-IR score.
Um, it's an insulin resistancekind of measurement where they
are actually like, um, insulinresistant or almost insulin
(22:35):
resistant.
So if we can get ahead of thatbefore they continue doing
whatever they're doing, which isprobably still good, but there's
some tweaks that we can make,then we're gonna reduce the risk
of getting diabetes or creatingthis inflammatory process in
their body over time due totheir blood sugar dysregulation.
Ivelisse Page (22:49):
Yeah.
And what are some of thosethings?
'cause I am one of thoseindividuals who eat super clean,
and yet my A1C is a little underthat pre-diabetic no matter what
I do, and it's just crazy.
So, you know, I had someone whosaid, oh, your sleep can impact
that number, and other things.
So what are some of the tweaksthat you give to these
(23:09):
individuals who do eat clean,who aren't on a lot, who don't
eat sugar and all that and stillhave that high A1C or the
insulin levels?
Dr. Megan Bernard (23:20):
So there's a lot of different things, um,
that we can go for.
And then sometimes it's trialand error.
Like, we try something, did itwork?
Okay, let's go on to the nextthing.
But from, let me lemme just lista bunch of them.
Um, so one of them of course isexercise.
So we wanna build muscle.
The more muscle we build, thebetter we can burn these sugars.
Um, you kind of mentioned likewe're already doing lower
carbohydrate, low sugar to nosugar diets, and that can make a
(23:42):
difference as well.
But something like, um, wheneveryou eat your food, you're gonna
combine your healthy fats, yourprotein, your fibers, and any
potential carbs all at once.
Because if we are doing thiscombination of PHFF, uh, protein
healthy fats and fiber, thenit's going to slow the
absorption of the carbohydratesand the sugars from carbo
certain carbohydrates into thebloodstream, and it's going to
(24:04):
help them burn a little bit moreeffectively so that they don't
get stored.
And, um, over time, increaseyour HBA1C and your fasting
insulin, fasting glucose, thingslike that.
Um, there are also somesupplements as well that we
love, like berberine can be areally good one for blood sugar
regulation.
And then just focusing on makingsure that you're getting at
least 30 grams of fiber per day.
Um, these are kind of seem alittle bit basic and you might
(24:27):
even be doing them and theremight be a bit of a genetic
predisposition there as well,that we just want to monitor it
more closely over time.
So even if you're creeping up alittle bit, um, we just wanna
keep our eye on a little bitmore closely as opposed to being
super worried about it.
'cause if you're doing all thegreat things, the marker might
not be that impactful for you.
Ivelisse Page (24:44):
Yeah, those are great tips.
I, uh, someone also shared withme, which is what I started
doing as well, is, uh, aftereating dinner or eating a meal,
my husband and I will go for awalk around the block.
Fantastic.
Yeah.
And you know, they said thathelps to, to lower it as well.
Absolutely,
Dr. Megan Bernard (24:59):
yeah.
Like a 10, 15 minute walk where,um, it doesn't have to be like
super aggressive walking, but alittle bit of a nice, a nicer
walk, like a little bit fast,but at the same time, enjoy it
can be really good for yourblood sugar regulation as well.
Ivelisse Page (25:11):
Okay, good.
Yeah.
Um, another topic that we get alot of questions about and it's
very impactful when it comesespecially to disease and
cancers, heavy metals likemercury and lead can suppress
the immune function.
Are there certain cancers, um,where you strongly recommend the
toxic burden testing?
Dr. Megan Bernard (25:33):
It almost depends more on the patient's
health history.
Like, we'll have some peoplecome to us and they're like,
well, everyone in my communityis getting cancer, so we're kind
of considering is it more water,soil, air, anything like that.
Um, is it the buildings thatmaybe they've all been living in
and maybe they're a hundredsyears old or something like
that?
Um, that's kind of where I wouldconsider it more as opposed to a
cancer type.
I truly believe that cancergrows in certain environments as
(25:56):
opposed to like certain cancersdevelop because of certain
things.
It's just more like theenvironment just triggers
certain cells in certain ways.
They just an unfortunate seriesof events.
So looking at the person'shealth history gives me a little
bit more of a better idea, uh,as to what testing as opposed to
their cancer diagnosis.
Ivelisse Page (26:12):
That's great.
Do you use the NutrEval, uh, foryour heavy metal testing or what
blood blood tests, or what testsdo you use to evaluate the
amount of toxins in someone'sbody?
Dr. Megan Bernard (26:23):
In a perfect world, we'd be doing that, like
pre and post urine provocationtest.
Um, but it, where you get likethe DMSO or like certain types
of things delivered by iv andthen we test like your urine
before and after that delivery.
Um, but it's really hard to getthat done and it can be super
expensive some for some people.
So what we do mostly is the HTMAand we use Mosaic Labs, um, to
(26:45):
get those done.
It's just like a hair, hairanalysis.
Um, and that tells us, uh, alsolike the heavy metals as well as
the, the nice minerals andthings like that, that we wanna
have in the body.
Ivelisse Page (26:55):
Okay.
And what does that test cost?
Dr. Megan Bernard (26:57):
I think it's like$200 or 250 bucks.
Okay.
Like it's not too bad.
Um, I mean, there's, there'sdefinitely worse ones out there.
Ivelisse Page (27:04):
Yes.
Yeah.
The NutrEval, I was surprisedthe one that just does the
urine, um,'cause I just recentlydid, it was like$300.
So it, it's not super high, butit's also not cheap either.
So you have to kind of determinewhat are the tests that really
are gonna be most beneficial foryou at each stage.
Dr. Megan Bernard (27:20):
Yeah.
And that's the big part of likecreating this plan, whether it's
during treatment orpost-treatment is we really
wanna look at prioritizationbecause your time, your energy,
your budget should all come intoplace here.
And if we're not doing thesefoundational approaches first,
where we're looking at yourblood work, which can be a
little bit cheaper, where we'relooking at your nutrition, your
exercise, like these things havethe higher hitting impacts when
(27:40):
it comes to research.
We wanna get all those intoplace before we go a little bit
more fancy with a GI Map or anHTMA still important, but, um, I
think priority in terms of timeand budget would go into a lot
of these foundations and then webuild out from there based on
even changes that you were ableto make with the, the
foundations.
Ivelisse Page (27:57):
Yes, yes.
Yeah.
And you know, it's reallyinteresting because as we know,
less than 5% or 5% of cancersare genetic in nature.
Mm-hmm.
And yet, oh, if your mom hadbreast cancer, then you really
need to be even more watchful.
And, but, you know, most of themare metabolic in nature, um,
environmental and things thatwere, that we can actually
control or to help support ourbodies with.
(28:19):
But how would, how wouldpatients, what would you
recommend them as far as askingtheir oncologist about testing
for methylation detox capacity,like the M-T-H-F-R mutations,
especially if they have had astrong family history of cancer?
Dr. Megan Bernard (28:36):
I have to say that I don't fully believe that
it's the oncologist job to dothe whole methylation stuff at
this point and looking into thedetox processes.
It is more of a functionalmedicine kind of, I don't know,
area of expertise because youroncologist is super smart and
they have to spend all of theirbrain power, understanding the
doses and the types of chemo andradiation and all these kind of
(28:56):
things that I could never fitinto my brain.
And then to go and do the extratraining for the methylation and
the detox capacity and thenfigure it also.
What do they mean and how totreat it, is a lot of work.
It's pretty much another type ofjob.
Mm-hmm.
Um, so if you do have theopportunity to work with, uh,
any sort of functional doctor ornutritionist who has a little
bit extra training in themethylation capacities, and
(29:17):
that's usually the best route togo.
'Cause I wouldn't expect anoncologist to have to go and do
all the extra training on this,in the current situation with
their healthcare.
But if they can do something,then something as simple as even
testing your M-T-H-F-R or yourCOMT can give us good ideas
around your estrogen metabolism,as well as your DNA repair
processes with the M-T-H-F-R andthe COMT.
Ivelisse Page (29:40):
Yeah.
And recently I've even heardabout new, not newer testing,
but tests that really candetermine what conventional
treatments, would be mosteffective for you.
So instead of going down theroad where your body is crushed
and then they say, oh, thatchemo is not really working for
you, um, I've heard of the DatarTest.
Have you heard of that?
Mm-hmm.
That really, yeah.
(30:00):
Looks at not only conventionaltreatments, but it also looks at
mistletoes and even ivermectinand other things that really
helps you to determine astrategy moving forward.
Mm-hmm.
What, what would you say aboutthat test?
Dr. Megan Bernard (30:13):
I think that is great.
That is where we're getting intothe air of like more
personalized medicine as opposedto patient presents with X, we
treat with Y, we expect Z, thenwe go to A again.
Um, whereas this is looking atpatient presents with all this,
we're gonna look at that kind offlow chart of things, but also
let's do a little bit morein-depth testing because if they
come back with this, then we cando this instead.
And a lot of that testing, um,actually that is good testing,
(30:35):
good things to have done throughyour oncologist and things like
that where we're looking at howwell are medications gonna work
and what pathways are involved.
And that would kind of oftencome down to looking at your
liver enzyme capacity.
So these are called your CYPenzymes.
And even like tamoxifen forTamoxifen, for example.
Um, we can do a, I think it'sCYP 2D6 I might be incorrect on
that exact number there, but,um, they can do that through a
(30:58):
saliva test and see how likelyare you to be able to metabolize
tamoxifen in an effective way inorder for it to create the
active drug in order to, for itto actually have an impact on
your estrogen levels.
And that is also somethingthat's pretty readily available
that you can do yourself, um,where you can look at certain
saliva tests that go through abunch of different medications
from um, diabetes medications,cholesterol medications, um,
(31:22):
chemotherapeutics, things likethat.
And we go through, um, DNA labsfor a lot of that testing and
they have that available, um,patient facing, if anybody wants
to look at their drugmetabolites.
Ivelisse Page (31:32):
That's great.
We can put those links in theshow notes as well.
I'll definitely do that because,um, it's, you know, it's super
important for people to be wisein knowing what pathway to take
for themselves and mm-hmm.
And to be their own advocatesand really look into what's
gonna be best for them.
I mean, Megan, I can speak toyou all day about this.
It's so fascinating to me, and Iknow our time, um, has already
(31:56):
come to a close, but is thereanything that I didn't ask you
that you feel would be importantfor someone to know when it
comes to testing and labs andpost-cancer care?
Dr. Megan Bernard (32:04):
I think we covered a lot.
Um, overall, um, I do believethat a lot of people are so
overwhelmed and unfocused andthere's information coming at
them from all angles during andafter cancer treatment that it's
hard to understand like, what isbest for you.
And this is where testing canreally get into the nitty gritty
of what is best for you, notjust what was best for Karen on
the internet or Joe down thestreet or whatever.
(32:27):
So this testing where there'seven just blood work can give us
more focus onto like, whatnutrients are depleted.
So this is your supplementchoice.
Um, here are the best foods foryou to include on a more regular
basis.
So it gives you a little bitmore peace of mind to have that
focus, get rid of thatoverwhelm, and then also to
retest over time to make surethat whatever you're doing is
making a difference.
Another thing that it's notuncertain about often after
(32:48):
cancer treatment and we're doingall these nutrition and
supplements and things likethat, it's like, is it really
making a difference so we canget some markers, apply a
treatment, and then retest overtime?
It can really bring this goodsense of peace of mind and also
highlights what is going well inyour body too, so we can
celebrate those things that lookgood, like maybe your vitamin D
level is fantastic.
Let's be happy about that.
Ivelisse Page (33:07):
Yes.
And one last question'cause itjust came to me and I know, uh,
I had friends who had beenasking, who had not had cancer.
And if you're, say quoteunquote, a healthy person going
into your doctor, what testsshould they absolutely ask for
each year?
Dr. Megan Bernard (33:22):
Mm, vitamin D Absolutely without fault.
Like we wanna get those vitaminD and optimal levels.
If you're looking at overallcancer prevention.
Um, if we're looking honestly atcancer prevention in general, I
think the metabolic markers,especially like your fasting
insulin, which is not oftentested alongside fasting
glucose.
'cause then you can do that HOMAIR.
And then HBA1C, which is areflection of your blood sugar
(33:43):
regulation over three months isgood to have.
But fasting insulin, fastingglucose are more like what's
going on in the last like 12 to24 hours.
Um, and then inflammatorymarkers as well, although they
were probably gonna come backpretty normal, even if a cancer
diagnosis were to be in place.
But it's not bad to have themsometimes.
'cause there's certain types ofcancer that might raise that a
little bit quicker, like apancreatic cancer or a more fast
(34:04):
growing cancer.
But vitamin D is like myfavorite, vitamin D is my
favorite vitamin ever.
So.
Ivelisse Page (34:09):
That's great.
Yeah.
That's great.
Well, thank you, Megan forjoining us.
Taking time outta your day and Ireally appreciate all that you
do for the patients that weserve.
Dr. Megan Bernard (34:17):
Oh, my pleasure.
Absolutely.
I'm so glad to be here.
Believe Big (34:21):
Believe Big Integrative Cancer Symposium is
happening Saturday, September13th, 2025.
In-person registration is nowclosed, but you can still join
us.
This is your last opportunity tosecure a virtual ticket and be
part of this one of a kindevent.
It will feature top speakers inintegrative health and offer
(34:42):
practical tools you can usedaily to prevent cancer, heal
your body and thrive.
Visit believebig.org/symposiumto get your virtual ticket
today.
We would also like to extend aheartfelt thank you to Kelly
Benefits for their generoussponsorship, making it possible
(35:02):
for even more people to accessthis life changing event.
Ivelisse Page (35:14):
If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to
help support our podcast, pleasesubscribe and share it with
others.
Be sure to visit believebig.orgto access the show notes and
discover our bonus content.
Thanks again and keep BelievingBig!
Hi, I am Ivelisse Page and thanks for listening to
the Believe Big podcast, theshow where we take deep dive
into your healing with healthexperts, integrative
practitioners, biblical faithleaders, and cancer thrivers
from around the globe.
(00:35):
Welcome to today's episode onthe Believe Big podcast.
My name is Ivelisse Page andit's always a pleasure to be
with you and spend this time.
Today's guest is Dr.
Megan Bernard, a board certifiednaturopathic doctor and founder
of Flourish (00:50):
the Roadmap to Recovery, a comprehensive cancer
recovery and prevention program,empowering women to reclaim
their health post-treatment.
With extensive experiencesupporting women through cancer
diagnosis and treatment, Dr.
Megan recognized a huge gap inpost-cancer care, driving her
(01:12):
mission to provide effectiveresearch backed solutions for
long-term wellness.
Combining years of research andclinical practice, Dr.
Megan blends conventional andholistic approaches to help
women navigate anti-cancer,nutrition, and lifestyle changes
with clarity and confidence.
She holds a Bachelor of HealthScience, a Master of Science,
(01:35):
and a Doctorate in NaturopathicMedicine, specializing in cancer
care.
Driven by a passion forempowering women, she ensures
her methods are practical andsustainable for everyday life.
Welcome to the podcast Megan.
Dr. Megan Bernard (01:50):
So excited to be here.
Ivelisse Page (01:53):
So we always start our podcast with our guest
favorite health tip, and I'msure you have many, so, but
could you share just one withus?
Dr. Megan Bernard (02:00):
Absolutely.
It's always hard to come downwith just one, but I think, I
love the mindset pieces aroundchanging your health because
sometimes we can get all thosedetails, but it's hard to figure
out like what to put into placeor it becomes overwhelming.
So if we can kind of start withmindset first, that can be very
helpful.
So something like if we can comeat our, our changes from a state
of looking at your health of theoverall body as opposed to
(02:22):
looking at just killing cancercells or being rid of cancer in
general.
That can make a big difference.
So if we can focus on buildingour health, building our bodies,
building our resilience, insteadof just focusing on killing
cancer cells, I think that canmake a big difference in all the
choices that you make.
Ivelisse Page (02:36):
I love that.
Mm-hmm.
Mindset is very, very importantin our health.
And so, today's episode I'mreally excited about because
after cancer care, you've beenmonitored very closely and let's
say you're released and, andthen you're into this new world
of how do I continue to takecare of myself?
What are certain things that Ineed to be looking out for that,
(02:57):
you know, conventional doctorsare not typically looking at,
they look at labs differently.
So I'm so excited that you arehere to talk about this
important topic.
So let's begin with, what aresome of the most vital tests
that are commonly missed inconventional cancer care?
Dr. Megan Bernard (03:14):
Well, it kind of comes down to that mindset
switch I looked at where we'relooking at the overall health of
the body, whereas a lot ofconventional care is looking at
the cancer and getting rid ofthe disease.
So whenever we're looking attesting, we always like to start
with some blood work that goesabove and beyond just the
standard.
Making sure that your liversfunctioning good, your kidneys,
kidneys are good, that yourwhite blood cell counts are
good.
We wanna go a little bit deeperthan that.
So going into blood work is kindof where we wanna look at
(03:36):
everything from.
Even inflammatory markers, whichsometimes they might be high
because you're just throughtreatment.
Inflammation might be high, butwe're gonna also look at your
nutrient markers.
We're also gonna look at yourmetabolic markers because if
we're coming at it from thisapproach, we can kind of narrow
down what's going on in theenvironment of your body so that
we can optimize your overallhealth and build that resilience
(03:56):
against cancer.
Ivelisse Page (03:57):
Yes.
Yeah.
So important.
So for example, for patientswith hormone sensitive cancers
like breast or prostate cancer.
Mm-hmm.
What hormone or estrogen testsdo you wish were part of
Standard protocol?
Mm-hmm.
From the start?
Dr. Megan Bernard (04:12):
You know, I, I was curious.
I actually don't go too far intohormone tests on blood work.
I would prefer to look that atthat, almost like from a
metabolite perspective.
So we can look at saliva testsfor that, where we would see how
does, how is estrogen gettingbroken down in the body?
Because there are certain typesof estrogen that might be a
little bit more helpful andother types that might be a
little bit more harmful, alittle bit stronger, a little
(04:33):
bit more apt to cause somedamage to cells.
So something like a saliva test,looking at the esra, estrogen
metabolites is a little bit moreeffective.
Um, and even with someone with ahormone responsive cancer.
I feel like we also wanna lookat other hormones that are
involved, like insulin, likegrowth factor.
Um, that has a big role to playin a lot of different factors
(04:54):
for inflammation in the body,potentially leading to more
inflammatory processes, cancerbeing something that starts and
feeds off of, of inflammation inthe body.
Um, but yes, we definitely likelooking at estrogen metabolites,
although I say that we work witha lot of women in menopause.
So a lot of the times wheneverwe do those tests, um, the
sample is so little becauseestrogen's gonna be so much
lower in the body due tomenopausal impacts that the
(05:16):
strength of the test isn't quitethere.
We'll still do it, um,sometimes, but um, at the same
time we take it with a grain ofsalt.
Like we just kind of considerthat perhaps the test might be
not super accurate because inmenopause a lot of the estrogen
is so low anyway, that measuringthat amount is not gonna be
super effective.
Does that make sense?
Ivelisse Page (05:32):
Yes.
Yes.
And when I know you said salivatest, do you guys use the Dutch
test, which is the urine test?
Dr. Megan Bernard (05:39):
We often, we often do epigenetic testing in
general, which is part of thatDutch test.
So we do epigenetic testing fora bunch of different things.
So we'll also look atmethylation and detoxification
and stuff like that through justa general saliva epigenetic
test.
And then if we wanna go furtherwith some people into the
estrogen metabolites, we'll justorder a straight up estrogen
hormone panel.
So we don't necessarily doDutch, although a lot of the
(05:59):
components we're looking at aregonna be on that Dutch test
just, but just because we docertain epigenetic testing with
everybody, we've already donelike 50% of what's on the Dutch
test.
So let's just get another, justestrogen metabolites and things
like that.
Ivelisse Page (06:10):
Okay.
So is the estrogen metabolitetest a lot cheaper than the
Dutch test?
Dr. Megan Bernard (06:14):
It can be 'cause'cause if we're already
paying for the epigenetic testwe're doing with everyone
anyway, then yeah, it's a lotcheaper if we just order, order
like a straight up hormonepanel, uh, alongside the
epigenetic test.
Ivelisse Page (06:24):
That's great.
Yeah.
That's great.
Yeah.
So many oncologists focus ononly imaging to track the
cancer, but what blood-basedmarkers should patients request
for cancers?
Dr. Megan Bernard (06:36):
So for cancers, there is this cool test
that's out and it's kind ofgetting a lot of news lately.
It's called the CT DNA testing,like Signaterra is one of the
companies that run that, whichwe do encourage our clients to
do after some education becauseit can be scary sometimes to get
those results back.
And it's not quite, smoothly putinto the conventional system
yet.
So if it were to come backpositive and all your tests,
(06:56):
like your scans were showingnegative, then it's not quite
sure what to do with you justyet.
Um, but it's still, I'm verymuch a database person.
I love having numbers, um, tomake decisions off of.
And from a functional medicineperspective, our, we kind of
have a method in place where wewould encourage people to retest
about four weeks later just tomake sure that the Signaterra
actually is positive.
And then, um, we would encouragea lot of like more harder
(07:18):
hitting functional medicinethings like IV vitamin C or
mistletoe injections for sure.
To kind of see what we can we doin the meantime and then retest
a little bit later to see how wenotice those numbers reduce.
Ivelisse Page (07:28):
Yeah, I do the Signaterra test and awesome.
It's great.
And I, and it's really nice thatit's actually a test that
insurance covers, you know?
Mm-hmm.
There's so much in this worldthat is not covered.
Mm-hmm.
And I was so nicely surprisedthat my conventional surgeon
actually, he asked for me to doit.
Mm-hmm.
And so it's really nice thatthat's even getting mainstream,
(07:49):
um, acknowledgement and thatmany surgeons and oncologists
know about it and are requestingit.
And can really give you a goodgame plan.
Mm-hmm.
And so you, you mentionedsomething that's really
important because if it's notzero, you know mm-hmm people get
really panicked.
And so what could alter thosenumbers that may not necessarily
(08:09):
be a cancer that you're askingpeople to retest four weeks
later?
Dr. Megan Bernard (08:15):
It's just also like with every test there
could be like a false positive,so we just wanna double check
that it's just actual a truepositive.
So just making sure that itwasn't a test error is one of
the things we wanna look at.
And then anything from, like,perhaps you exercise a lot that
day and it set off certaininflammatory markers that
might've got picked up due tothe, the test parameters.
Um, it could, could kind of justpicking those things up too.
(08:37):
Like it might act not actuallybe um, cancer cells that it's
picking up.
It's, it's a pretty specifictest, meaning that it is, has a
pretty high rate of it beingpositive.
It is positive, but at the sametime, we always wanna make sure
that we're looking at you as anindividual and just making sure
that we're getting all thenumbers we can before we make
big decisions moving forward forsure.
Does that answer that question?
Ivelisse Page (08:57):
Yeah, it sure does.
And you know, for those of youwho are out there getting your
cancer marker, traditional oneslike your CEA, C A 1 25, you
know, over the years I had minego up.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, and I panicked and I waslike, why is it so much higher?
And it wasn't that much higher.
I would say it's like two pointshigher than normal.
And, uh, realizing that myoncologist was calm and he's
(09:19):
like, let's just retest it infour weeks.
Um, it could have been aninfection you had in your body.
You could have overstressed yourbody and sure enough, I would
just come back from a missiontrip.
So yes, my body was stressed.
Dr. Megan Bernard (09:30):
Yeah, those tumor are a little bit less
specific, a little bit lessaccurate than the Signaterra
test, the CT DNA testing.
But yes, definitely with thosetumor markers, they're not even
recommended conventionally as ascreening tool because of the
potential to be impacted by somany different things.
So we definitely don't want topanic.
We definitely wanna retest andwe want to look at more trends
and numbers over time, asopposed to looking like at a one
(09:52):
of situa situation.
Although know it's easier saidthan done to not panic over
those things, for sure.
Ivelisse Page (09:57):
Yes, yes.
Mm-hmm.
So inflammation is is soimportant in cancer development
and recurrence.
You know, everything's talkingabout reduce the inflammation in
any way that you can.
It's not only for cancer, butjust in disease in general.
Mm-hmm.
So which inflammatory markerslike CRP or IL six or TNF Alpha
are most important to trackcancer such as, say, pancreatic
(10:19):
and lung cancer?
Dr. Megan Bernard (10:21):
So we don't see a lot of pancreatic cancer
'cause our recovery program is alittle bit more, um, nuanced to
like breast cancer, colon cancerin the slower growing cancer.
So I'm not exactly up to par onexactly pancreatic cancer, but
generally speaking, what wewanna look at with absolutely
everyone is something like anH-S-C-R-P.
One, it's looking at justinflammatory levels, but it's
also looking at heart healthtoo, which is impacted a lot of
(10:43):
the times by a lot ofchemotherapies, even radiation,
a lot of immunotherapies, thingslike that can impact the heart.
And then we also looking at ESRerythrocyte sedimentation rate.
Ooh, I got that out right.
I was worried of gonna trip upover that ESR, again, another
marker of inflammation in thebody.
We also find it's difficultsometimes to get something like
a TNF alpha or interleukinsdone, um, through conventional
(11:05):
labs.
But when we can get those done,they're very helpful too.
Because they are looking at alittle bit more, it's a little
bit more specific types ofinflammation as opposed to
general inflammation, whichwould be the H-S-C-R-P-E-S-R.
Um, we also look at ferritinsometimes too for inflammatory
levels.
'cause if it's really high, butyour iron panel is normal, then
that can tell us more about how,like it's more inflammatory
(11:26):
problems as opposed to an ironproblem.
Um, but does that, yeah, thatmakes sense.
Like we do like, like looking atthe TNA alpha, interleukin six,
but mostly we can get H-S-C-R-Pand ESR done very easily
through, um, the medical doctor.
And then even looking at yourCBC panel, a little bit more in
depth, looking at the ratios ofwhite blood cells, so your
neutrophil to lymphocyte ratios,your lymphocyte to monocyte
(11:47):
ratios.
Um, tracking those over time cangive us a good idea of the
strength of the immune systemand whether we've got some good
cancer fighting immune cellsbeing boosted there, or if it
might be a little bit depleted,and that gives us an idea to
focus there when it comes tospecific supplement
interventions, mistletoe or evennutrient suggestions as well.
Ivelisse Page (12:06):
Yes.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
So for patients with GI typecancers like colon or stomach
cancer.
What gut function or microbiometests would provide insight that
standard care is missing?
I know there's so many out therenow, but which ones?
You know, and I've tried many,but I'm just curious to know
which ones you feel are the bestand most accurate, you know, to
(12:26):
really look into that.
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Megan Bernard (12:29):
Yeah, test.
We absolutely love the GI Maptest just because it looks at a
broad range of things, like, sowe're seeing what is the healthy
microflora.
So it gives us a list of likeall the different types of
microflora, the bacteria thatshould be there.
Uh, it tells us a little bitabout what are the things that
shouldn't be there, so it'slooking at some pathogenic
stuff.
Or some opportunistic bacteria,which are the ones that take the
opportunity to grow whenever theother things are a little bit
(12:51):
off, when the good bacteriamight not be in strong amounts.
It also tells us about like thehealth of the gut immune system,
the gut lining.
So we would look at zonulin, forexample, for the health of the
gut lining.
You can look at something likecalprotectin, which tells us a
little bit more about theinflammation in the gut too.
And for example, like a highcalprotectin could be a sign of
either like usually irritablebowel disease or potentially we
(13:14):
wanna dig a little bit deeper tomake sure that cancer's not
growing again in a colorectalcancer situation.
So it can be an early indicator.
Um, basically it tells us alittle bit about how you digest
things as well.
So it's a very comprehensivetest.
Um, it's called a comprehensivestool test, and it tells us a
lot about where do we need tofocus.
Is it bringing up your good guthealth?
Is it killing off some of thebad, um, gut bacteria?
(13:35):
Is it mostly the lining that'simpacted there?
Are there certain foods thatmight be triggering certain
processes that are being putoff, like causing inflammation
in the gut.
Very good test.
We love it.
Ivelisse Page (13:45):
Okay, that's great.
Yeah, I've heard of the GImapping one and especially,
post, say even a, a colonoscopyto really determine how to get
the gut functioning again reallywell, because once you do have a
colonoscopy, you know, whenyou're doing your testing to
cancer prevention moving forwardit, it destroys, you know, your
(14:06):
microbiome for a whole year.
It used to be.
But now with that, it reallyhelps to direct you personally
to say, okay, this is what youreally need and can really help
to enhance that so that it's,restored in three to four months
versus the the year that it usedto be.
Have you found that?
Dr. Megan Bernard (14:22):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, because the gut is socomplex.
'cause you can have symptomsthat mean 10 different things.
So if you have bloating, itcould be because you have
trouble digesting things,'causethe digestive enzymes aren't
there.
Or because you might have amicroflora imbalance.
Um, it's not just like bloatingequals this.
It's kind of like differentsymptoms have so many different
things that could be causing theunderlying reasons and then
(14:43):
going through the treatment andthe process of going through
like a colonoscopy, um, canreally mess with a lot of
different parts of your guthealth and there's a lot of
different moving parts and that,that it's.
Just gonna understand, uh, giveus an understanding better and
more quickly of like, what isthe actual issue here?
Going at it for more of a rootcause impact as opposed to just
throwing spaghetti at the wall.
Ivelisse Page (15:03):
Yes, yes.
I love that.
So do you recommend aftercolonoscopy or should you do it
before colonoscopy?
Dr. Megan Bernard (15:09):
It depends on, um, kind of the goals of the
client and where are they at inthe beginning as well.
I would say probably after,might be a good idea and maybe
like a month or so after, justto let the body settle a little
bit as well.
Um, because if you're gonna giveit before, then they're gonna go
through the process of goingthrough, through the colonoscopy
and then it's gonna changethings again.
And we're not gonna know whereyou're at.
(15:29):
So we probably go do thecolonoscopy, maybe wait a couple
weeks or a month at least, andthen do the GI map.
Ivelisse Page (15:35):
That's great.
And so, uh, why should patientswith blood cancers like a
lymphoma or leukemia considerdeeper immune profiling beyond
standard CBC panels?
Like what should they actuallyrequest?
Dr. Megan Bernard (15:50):
So I, I just find the CBC panels often
overlooked big time where weactually get a, a breakdown of
all the different types of whiteblood cells there too.
And by looking at somethingcompared to something else, like
your neutrophil lymphocyteratio, we can see more strength
behind a lot of that.
Um, so whenever it comes tosupporting someone with any type
of cancer, and especially like ablood cell cancer, we do wanna
(16:12):
look at just not your totalwhite blood cell count.
We wanna look at what iseverything in comparison to
everything else.
Because each of those differentwhite blood cell, white blood
cells, they have different rolesto play, um, in different parts
of the immune system, indifferent parts of encouraging
certain anti-cancer processes tohappen.
So looking at your neutrophillymphocyte, your monocyte to.
(16:32):
Lymphocyte.
So your lymphocyte to monocyteratio, those two things can make
a big difference withunderstanding, alright, so we
can see that your immune systemis building back up'cause we can
look at trends over time or wecan see it's kind of staying the
same.
Um, we might want to focus in alittle bit more on building
these anti-cancer cells upwithout overstimulating them as
well.
'cause we wanna be cautious in alot of blood cancers.
Um, does that answer thatquestion there?
Ivelisse Page (16:53):
Yes.
Yes.
It sure does.
Yeah.
And so another one is the, thevitamin D and glutathione levels
are rarely checked.
Yet, I can't believe you have toask for vitamin D.
Lose my mind test.
It's like a simple test.
Yet they play such a huge rolein immunity and so why should
every patient, especially thosewith breast and prostate cancer,
insist on these tests?
Dr. Megan Bernard (17:14):
Yeah.
So even when my mom went throughbreast cancer treatment, it was
like I knew how importantVitamin D was'cause I was in the
early stages of, um, learningand things like that.
And what we had to do is we hadto say like, this is for her
bone health, because the, thedoctors get that there's a link
between, uh, decreased bone masswith cancer treatments,
especially breast cancertreatments.
So they, then they would orderit for her, but in reality I was
(17:35):
asking for it because there's awhole lot of research behind
adequate and optimal vitamin Dlevels with reducing, getting
cancer in the first place.
Um, with also helping people tosurvive cancer better throughout
treatment, whether it's reducingside effects or actually
decreasing tumor burden, meaningthat we're helping to like get
people more cancer free quickerand then also post-treatment to
help them to reduce the risk ofcancer coming back.
(17:57):
And we don't want to just aimfor that, okay range.
The research truly is on rangesthat are much higher, like in
the 75 range, basically is whatwe're gonna aim for when we're
looking at vitamin D levels.
Ivelisse Page (18:09):
That's great.
And, and you work closely withintegrative approaches.
So when a patient is interestedin, say, mistletoe therapy, what
are the labs or immune markersthat can help determine the
suitability of mistletoe forthem?
Dr. Megan Bernard (18:22):
Our big kind of like thing that's gonna
really say like mistletoe isreally gonna help you out here
is mainly that white blood,blood cell count, the CBC panel
looking at the neutrophillymphocyte ratio, the lymphocyte
to monocyte ratio.
Also we would look at the, um,the aggressiveness of the
diagnosis that they hadreceived.
If it was a little bit moreaggressive, we would wanna put
them on mistletoe.
Absolutely.
(18:42):
Like it would be a higherpriority, just to make sure that
we're getting the immune systemup and running at full capacity.
We'd also look at inflammatorymarkers too, because the
mistletoe is really great atfinding a balance of the
different types of white bloodcells.
And your white blood cells arepart of your inflammation
system, like your inflammatorysystem.
Um, and then honestly, likeanyone would be a good candidate
(19:02):
for mistletoe.
We just find it's just a matterof prioritization when it comes
to availability costs, thingslike that.
For sure.
Ivelisse Page (19:09):
Yes.
Yeah.
And, and so what, how do youhelp to educate your patients?
'cause we get this question alot is how could patients bring
this up respectfully with theironcologists who may not be
familiar with it?
And some of'em are just like,no, I don't know about it, so
don't do it.
So how can someone respectfullybut informed, you know, share
this with their oncologist, whatdo you recommend?
Dr. Megan Bernard (19:30):
Such a tough conversation because everyone's
so unique in the way that wecommunicate and receive
information and then beliefsaround medicine and stuff like
that.
So it often just comes down tolike, um, trial and error and
seeing what works for, forgetting through to certain
people.
But you just have to say, um,find a common ground.
I think just allowing theoncologist to know that I do
(19:51):
respect and believe in whatyou're, um, encouraging me to
do.
And I still wanna follow throughwith what you're encouraging me
to do, but I also want to add onthis extra layer of protection
that I truly believe has a lotof impact when it comes to the
research.
'Cause there is a lot ofresearch on it.
And if we're going to beencouraging more research backed
processes and, and, um, if yourdoctor is really research
(20:12):
backed, then there's a lot ofpapers out there that can be
very helpful for just passingonto their desk.
Also, the more you prepare forthem and the less they have to
do, probably the easier it isfor them to process the
information themselves,'causethey are very busy people, your
oncologists.
So if we can kind of give, we,we put together a bit of a
package for people where theycan have a couple papers that
are in humans,'cause again, wewanna encourage the strongest
(20:34):
research.
We want to give them a kind oflike a script around, I want you
to let your oncologist know thatwe're not getting rid of
everything that they said, thatwe're actually just gonna add on
this extra protection.
And then we just kind of seewhat happens and then respond
from there, depending on howthat communication goes.
Ivelisse Page (20:50):
Yeah, would you be willing to share those um,
flyers with us that we can addinto the show notes for sure.
Because for that is a questionwe get a lot and we actually
wanted to create something thathas the research on there and
information for a clinicianversus a patient.
We have a lot of the patientresources, but the information
for a clinician and you beingone would be so helpful for them
(21:12):
to look at it in a differentlens.
So that would be really helpful.
Dr. Megan Bernard (21:14):
Yeah.
Super easy for us to puttogether.
Yeah.
And get, and hand it off to you.
Awesome.
Ivelisse Page (21:18):
Awesome.
Thank you.
So why is testing, um, forinsulin resistance and fasting
insulin crucial in many cancers,you know, like breast cancer and
liver cancer?
Dr. Megan Bernard (21:29):
Without getting too far into the sugar
feeds cancer debate and goingtoo down, too far down that
rabbit hole for sure.
Um, we do know that like sugardoes play a role in cancer
development.
Um, we know for example, andthis might be not a perfect
stat, but people with diabeteshave a 30% increased risk of
getting cancer in theirlifetime, which tells us a
little bit about how blood sugarregulation probably plays a role
(21:51):
in inflammation and inflammatoryprocesses, if not in causing
cancer to start in the firstplace.
And we often, we, we often havea lot of women who eat very,
very healthy, um, but we dotheir blood work and we can
still see that they arepre-diabetic or they are insulin
resistant.
And by digging a little bitdeeper, we can kind of pick
(22:12):
those out.
'Cause if someone walks into themedical office and they look
healthy and they eat veggies andstuff like that, then it's not
usually likely that we're gonnago down and, and test their
blood sugar and things likethat.
It's just, we kind of assumethat everything's good.
But we've seen women who comeback with fasting insulin,
fasting glucose, and then we dotheir HOMA-IR score.
Um, it's an insulin resistancekind of measurement where they
are actually like, um, insulinresistant or almost insulin
(22:35):
resistant.
So if we can get ahead of thatbefore they continue doing
whatever they're doing, which isprobably still good, but there's
some tweaks that we can make,then we're gonna reduce the risk
of getting diabetes or creatingthis inflammatory process in
their body over time due totheir blood sugar dysregulation.
Ivelisse Page (22:49):
Yeah.
And what are some of thosethings?
'cause I am one of thoseindividuals who eat super clean,
and yet my A1C is a little underthat pre-diabetic no matter what
I do, and it's just crazy.
So, you know, I had someone whosaid, oh, your sleep can impact
that number, and other things.
So what are some of the tweaksthat you give to these
(23:09):
individuals who do eat clean,who aren't on a lot, who don't
eat sugar and all that and stillhave that high A1C or the
insulin levels?
Dr. Megan Bernard (23:20):
So there's a lot of different things, um,
that we can go for.
And then sometimes it's trialand error.
Like, we try something, did itwork?
Okay, let's go on to the nextthing.
But from, let me lemme just lista bunch of them.
Um, so one of them of course isexercise.
So we wanna build muscle.
The more muscle we build, thebetter we can burn these sugars.
Um, you kind of mentioned likewe're already doing lower
carbohydrate, low sugar to nosugar diets, and that can make a
(23:42):
difference as well.
But something like, um, wheneveryou eat your food, you're gonna
combine your healthy fats, yourprotein, your fibers, and any
potential carbs all at once.
Because if we are doing thiscombination of PHFF, uh, protein
healthy fats and fiber, thenit's going to slow the
absorption of the carbohydratesand the sugars from carbo
certain carbohydrates into thebloodstream, and it's going to
(24:04):
help them burn a little bit moreeffectively so that they don't
get stored.
And, um, over time, increaseyour HBA1C and your fasting
insulin, fasting glucose, thingslike that.
Um, there are also somesupplements as well that we
love, like berberine can be areally good one for blood sugar
regulation.
And then just focusing on makingsure that you're getting at
least 30 grams of fiber per day.
Um, these are kind of seem alittle bit basic and you might
(24:27):
even be doing them and theremight be a bit of a genetic
predisposition there as well,that we just want to monitor it
more closely over time.
So even if you're creeping up alittle bit, um, we just wanna
keep our eye on a little bitmore closely as opposed to being
super worried about it.
'cause if you're doing all thegreat things, the marker might
not be that impactful for you.
Ivelisse Page (24:44):
Yeah, those are great tips.
I, uh, someone also shared withme, which is what I started
doing as well, is, uh, aftereating dinner or eating a meal,
my husband and I will go for awalk around the block.
Fantastic.
Yeah.
And you know, they said thathelps to, to lower it as well.
Absolutely,
Dr. Megan Bernard (24:59):
yeah.
Like a 10, 15 minute walk where,um, it doesn't have to be like
super aggressive walking, but alittle bit of a nice, a nicer
walk, like a little bit fast,but at the same time, enjoy it
can be really good for yourblood sugar regulation as well.
Ivelisse Page (25:11):
Okay, good.
Yeah.
Um, another topic that we get alot of questions about and it's
very impactful when it comesespecially to disease and
cancers, heavy metals likemercury and lead can suppress
the immune function.
Are there certain cancers, um,where you strongly recommend the
toxic burden testing?
Dr. Megan Bernard (25:33):
It almost depends more on the patient's
health history.
Like, we'll have some peoplecome to us and they're like,
well, everyone in my communityis getting cancer, so we're kind
of considering is it more water,soil, air, anything like that.
Um, is it the buildings thatmaybe they've all been living in
and maybe they're a hundredsyears old or something like
that?
Um, that's kind of where I wouldconsider it more as opposed to a
cancer type.
I truly believe that cancergrows in certain environments as
(25:56):
opposed to like certain cancersdevelop because of certain
things.
It's just more like theenvironment just triggers
certain cells in certain ways.
They just an unfortunate seriesof events.
So looking at the person'shealth history gives me a little
bit more of a better idea, uh,as to what testing as opposed to
their cancer diagnosis.
Ivelisse Page (26:12):
That's great.
Do you use the NutrEval, uh, foryour heavy metal testing or what
blood blood tests, or what testsdo you use to evaluate the
amount of toxins in someone'sbody?
Dr. Megan Bernard (26:23):
In a perfect world, we'd be doing that, like
pre and post urine provocationtest.
Um, but it, where you get likethe DMSO or like certain types
of things delivered by iv andthen we test like your urine
before and after that delivery.
Um, but it's really hard to getthat done and it can be super
expensive some for some people.
So what we do mostly is the HTMAand we use Mosaic Labs, um, to
(26:45):
get those done.
It's just like a hair, hairanalysis.
Um, and that tells us, uh, alsolike the heavy metals as well as
the, the nice minerals andthings like that, that we wanna
have in the body.
Ivelisse Page (26:55):
Okay.
And what does that test cost?
Dr. Megan Bernard (26:57):
I think it's like$200 or 250 bucks.
Okay.
Like it's not too bad.
Um, I mean, there's, there'sdefinitely worse ones out there.
Ivelisse Page (27:04):
Yes.
Yeah.
The NutrEval, I was surprisedthe one that just does the
urine, um,'cause I just recentlydid, it was like$300.
So it, it's not super high, butit's also not cheap either.
So you have to kind of determinewhat are the tests that really
are gonna be most beneficial foryou at each stage.
Dr. Megan Bernard (27:20):
Yeah.
And that's the big part of likecreating this plan, whether it's
during treatment orpost-treatment is we really
wanna look at prioritizationbecause your time, your energy,
your budget should all come intoplace here.
And if we're not doing thesefoundational approaches first,
where we're looking at yourblood work, which can be a
little bit cheaper, where we'relooking at your nutrition, your
exercise, like these things havethe higher hitting impacts when
(27:40):
it comes to research.
We wanna get all those intoplace before we go a little bit
more fancy with a GI Map or anHTMA still important, but, um, I
think priority in terms of timeand budget would go into a lot
of these foundations and then webuild out from there based on
even changes that you were ableto make with the, the
foundations.
Ivelisse Page (27:57):
Yes, yes.
Yeah.
And you know, it's reallyinteresting because as we know,
less than 5% or 5% of cancersare genetic in nature.
Mm-hmm.
And yet, oh, if your mom hadbreast cancer, then you really
need to be even more watchful.
And, but, you know, most of themare metabolic in nature, um,
environmental and things thatwere, that we can actually
control or to help support ourbodies with.
(28:19):
But how would, how wouldpatients, what would you
recommend them as far as askingtheir oncologist about testing
for methylation detox capacity,like the M-T-H-F-R mutations,
especially if they have had astrong family history of cancer?
Dr. Megan Bernard (28:36):
I have to say that I don't fully believe that
it's the oncologist job to dothe whole methylation stuff at
this point and looking into thedetox processes.
It is more of a functionalmedicine kind of, I don't know,
area of expertise because youroncologist is super smart and
they have to spend all of theirbrain power, understanding the
doses and the types of chemo andradiation and all these kind of
(28:56):
things that I could never fitinto my brain.
And then to go and do the extratraining for the methylation and
the detox capacity and thenfigure it also.
What do they mean and how totreat it, is a lot of work.
It's pretty much another type ofjob.
Mm-hmm.
Um, so if you do have theopportunity to work with, uh,
any sort of functional doctor ornutritionist who has a little
bit extra training in themethylation capacities, and
(29:17):
that's usually the best route togo.
'Cause I wouldn't expect anoncologist to have to go and do
all the extra training on this,in the current situation with
their healthcare.
But if they can do something,then something as simple as even
testing your M-T-H-F-R or yourCOMT can give us good ideas
around your estrogen metabolism,as well as your DNA repair
processes with the M-T-H-F-R andthe COMT.
Ivelisse Page (29:40):
Yeah.
And recently I've even heardabout new, not newer testing,
but tests that really candetermine what conventional
treatments, would be mosteffective for you.
So instead of going down theroad where your body is crushed
and then they say, oh, thatchemo is not really working for
you, um, I've heard of the DatarTest.
Have you heard of that?
Mm-hmm.
That really, yeah.
(30:00):
Looks at not only conventionaltreatments, but it also looks at
mistletoes and even ivermectinand other things that really
helps you to determine astrategy moving forward.
Mm-hmm.
What, what would you say aboutthat test?
Dr. Megan Bernard (30:13):
I think that is great.
That is where we're getting intothe air of like more
personalized medicine as opposedto patient presents with X, we
treat with Y, we expect Z, thenwe go to A again.
Um, whereas this is looking atpatient presents with all this,
we're gonna look at that kind offlow chart of things, but also
let's do a little bit morein-depth testing because if they
come back with this, then we cando this instead.
And a lot of that testing, um,actually that is good testing,
(30:35):
good things to have done throughyour oncologist and things like
that where we're looking at howwell are medications gonna work
and what pathways are involved.
And that would kind of oftencome down to looking at your
liver enzyme capacity.
So these are called your CYPenzymes.
And even like tamoxifen forTamoxifen, for example.
Um, we can do a, I think it'sCYP 2D6 I might be incorrect on
that exact number there, but,um, they can do that through a
(30:58):
saliva test and see how likelyare you to be able to metabolize
tamoxifen in an effective way inorder for it to create the
active drug in order to, for itto actually have an impact on
your estrogen levels.
And that is also somethingthat's pretty readily available
that you can do yourself, um,where you can look at certain
saliva tests that go through abunch of different medications
from um, diabetes medications,cholesterol medications, um,
(31:22):
chemotherapeutics, things likethat.
And we go through, um, DNA labsfor a lot of that testing and
they have that available, um,patient facing, if anybody wants
to look at their drugmetabolites.
Ivelisse Page (31:32):
That's great.
We can put those links in theshow notes as well.
I'll definitely do that because,um, it's, you know, it's super
important for people to be wisein knowing what pathway to take
for themselves and mm-hmm.
And to be their own advocatesand really look into what's
gonna be best for them.
I mean, Megan, I can speak toyou all day about this.
It's so fascinating to me, and Iknow our time, um, has already
(31:56):
come to a close, but is thereanything that I didn't ask you
that you feel would be importantfor someone to know when it
comes to testing and labs andpost-cancer care?
Dr. Megan Bernard (32:04):
I think we covered a lot.
Um, overall, um, I do believethat a lot of people are so
overwhelmed and unfocused andthere's information coming at
them from all angles during andafter cancer treatment that it's
hard to understand like, what isbest for you.
And this is where testing canreally get into the nitty gritty
of what is best for you, notjust what was best for Karen on
the internet or Joe down thestreet or whatever.
(32:27):
So this testing where there'seven just blood work can give us
more focus onto like, whatnutrients are depleted.
So this is your supplementchoice.
Um, here are the best foods foryou to include on a more regular
basis.
So it gives you a little bitmore peace of mind to have that
focus, get rid of thatoverwhelm, and then also to
retest over time to make surethat whatever you're doing is
making a difference.
Another thing that it's notuncertain about often after
(32:48):
cancer treatment and we're doingall these nutrition and
supplements and things likethat, it's like, is it really
making a difference so we canget some markers, apply a
treatment, and then retest overtime?
It can really bring this goodsense of peace of mind and also
highlights what is going well inyour body too, so we can
celebrate those things that lookgood, like maybe your vitamin D
level is fantastic.
Let's be happy about that.
Ivelisse Page (33:07):
Yes.
And one last question'cause itjust came to me and I know, uh,
I had friends who had beenasking, who had not had cancer.
And if you're, say quoteunquote, a healthy person going
into your doctor, what testsshould they absolutely ask for
each year?
Dr. Megan Bernard (33:22):
Mm, vitamin D Absolutely without fault.
Like we wanna get those vitaminD and optimal levels.
If you're looking at overallcancer prevention.
Um, if we're looking honestly atcancer prevention in general, I
think the metabolic markers,especially like your fasting
insulin, which is not oftentested alongside fasting
glucose.
'cause then you can do that HOMAIR.
And then HBA1C, which is areflection of your blood sugar
(33:43):
regulation over three months isgood to have.
But fasting insulin, fastingglucose are more like what's
going on in the last like 12 to24 hours.
Um, and then inflammatorymarkers as well, although they
were probably gonna come backpretty normal, even if a cancer
diagnosis were to be in place.
But it's not bad to have themsometimes.
'cause there's certain types ofcancer that might raise that a
little bit quicker, like apancreatic cancer or a more fast
(34:04):
growing cancer.
But vitamin D is like myfavorite, vitamin D is my
favorite vitamin ever.
So.
Ivelisse Page (34:09):
That's great.
Yeah.
That's great.
Well, thank you, Megan forjoining us.
Taking time outta your day and Ireally appreciate all that you
do for the patients that weserve.
Dr. Megan Bernard (34:17):
Oh, my pleasure.
Absolutely.
I'm so glad to be here.
Believe Big (34:21):
Believe Big Integrative Cancer Symposium is
happening Saturday, September13th, 2025.
In-person registration is nowclosed, but you can still join
us.
This is your last opportunity tosecure a virtual ticket and be
part of this one of a kindevent.
It will feature top speakers inintegrative health and offer
(34:42):
practical tools you can usedaily to prevent cancer, heal
your body and thrive.
Visit believebig.org/symposiumto get your virtual ticket
today.
We would also like to extend aheartfelt thank you to Kelly
Benefits for their generoussponsorship, making it possible
(35:02):
for even more people to accessthis life changing event.
Ivelisse Page (35:14):
If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to
help support our podcast, pleasesubscribe and share it with
others.
Be sure to visit believebig.orgto access the show notes and
discover our bonus content.
Thanks again and keep BelievingBig!
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