breast cancer

Dr. Cates: Hi there. I’m Dr Trevor Cates. Welcome to The Spa Dr. podcast. On today’s podcast, we’re talking about breast cancer prevention and support. My guest is Dr. Veronique. She’s also known as Dr V. Dr V. Is a founder or breast cancer conquer and creator of the seven essentials system and a step by step educational program with the goal of preventing disease and creating naturally vibrant health. Her signature process is empowering thousands of women in 39 countries around the world. The maze of Internet information can be confusing, frustrating, and overwhelming for women who are facing a breast cancer diagnosis. Dr. V’s own personal healing journey with breast cancer gives her a unique perspective to understand other women facing a healing journey. Dr V has been in the wellness industry for 40 years, beginning with her chiropractic degree that she got in 1979. Dr. V Is an Amazon number one bestselling author in nine different categories. Some of these include breast cancer, oncology, alternative medicine, health, fitness, and dieting, and women’s health. On today’s Podcast, Dr. V shares her seven essential system and important breast cancer detection tips and tools. So please enjoy this interview.

Dr. Cates Dr V. It’s great to have you back on my podcast.

Dr. V: Thank you so much for having me, Dr Trevor. I’m really excited.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, so you’ve been busy, you’ve got a lot going on. And so I wanted to have you back on because you just came out with the second edition of your book Heal Breast Cancer Naturally. And so I wanted you to come back on and explain what, what caused you to come out with a second edition. Well, a lot of things, things

Dr. V: change in medical science as you know, and just a few years. So when I, uh, finished my, my first healing journey 2004 through 2006, that’s when I really started with kind of thinking about putting a book together and was actually 2012 when I published, or no 2014 sorry, when I published the book and here we are, 2019. Well, a lot of things happened in between the first journey. Interestingly, in 2015 by then I was known as the, you know, breast cancer conqueror and my team and I, you know, I’ve coached women in 43 countries and I’ve been on big stages through the breast cancer and all these, you know, radio shows. And I basically started feeling some discomfort in my left breast again. And it was a very familiar pattern and there was a little bit of denial at first. But then I started doing my regular breast self exams and there it was, bam, another lump, in my left breast in the same place. Now when I first realized you don’t have to do some blood work and various tests, I realized, okay, I’m facing another breast cancer healing journey. There was, you know, a lot of shame, a lot of guilt, a lot of anger. I was the face of breast cancer, conqueror and all these women were depending on me to teach them how to, you know, get through a journey. And here I was facing breast cancer again. So obviously I had to ask myself, you know, why did this happen? You know, am I a fraud? Did the 7 Essentials really work. But as things calmed down and I got into the groove of my second healing journey, I really had to look at what allowed the cancer to develop again. So first of all, I was giving way too much. I wanted to, you know, bring wellness to the world and heal every woman out there that had breast cancer. And so I was working too much. So I was working from sunup to sundown. I was doing all the one on one coaching. I had, you know, my team was growing and so I was out of balance. I was just, you know, overworking, adrenal burnout. I also recognize that I had, a cavitation that I didn’t know was there. It was a new cavitation that was an infection in the bone and it’s sat on that left breast meridian. I also had something called root resorption in an upper tooth that relates to the left breast Meridian. It’s an autoimmune condition where the body literally attacks the tooth from the inside out, kind of a rare condition. But there it was on that left breast Meridian. And then the third thing was my thyroid. My thyroid was really out of balance and I had to balance all of my hormones. So it really, I created the perfect storm for developing breast cancer again. Good news is as of August of 2018, all the scans, ultrasounds, blood work, everything is clear. And so I said, well, I’ve got to put out, you know, a book come out of the closet, so to speak, and share what I learned and what I did differently in second time round to really create that vibrant health and know that this will never happen to me again.

Dr. Cates: Well I so appreciate your authenticity and you know, it’s gotta be tough to go through what you’ve been through and twice, and to be how they lead others and, and, but, you know, it’s what we need to do is to be authentic and to be open about it because otherwise we’re not being real or we’re not really leading others and not really helping other people. So, um, thank you for, for being authentic and being willing to just keep going. And okay, so what’s the learning in this? What is the next thing that I can do to continue to help women to prevent breast cancer? And also if you get breast cancer, what, you know, what all can we do to help you, help it heal it and to keep it from happening again. Right. So, and, and you have learned a lot. Um, so what would you say are some of the big things that, that are different and the second edition that some of the things that you’ve included?

Dr. V: Yeah, second edition is much more personal. It’s like I’m personally coaching the, you know, the people that are reading the women that are reading this book. There is a lot of testimonials from other women that we’ve coached, you know, insert it here and there to give women confidence that yes, you know, this system works and they’ve done it so I can do it. And you know, really what I learned along the way. Um, so I used to think that there was only one specific way to, you know, to eat in order to heal cancer. While, as I was going through my second and journey, I realized that I had to make adaptations there. I used to do a lot of juicing, let me for 30, 35 years. I used to juice a lot and I started recognizing that my blood sugar, I was having problems with blood sugar and insulin resistance. So with essential number one, let food be your medicine. I had to kind of adapt and change my eating habits a bit. So less juicing, more smoothies. I had to look at my, you know, my blood sugar, less carbs. Just really bring that insulin resistance down because that was affecting, you know, specific pathways that can drive cancer. So, you know, and the, and then there’s more genomic testing now that we didn’t have, you know, nine/ten years ago. Nutrition genome test is a great test that shows us specifically based on our GNA, what can, what certain, what foods we can eat in order to support our DNA in our health long term. Um, I, you know, dove into the Ketogenic Diet just to take a look to see, you know, how would it affect my body cause it was the big craze and I’m a research scientist nerd. I want to, you know, experiment myself, realize it wasn’t for me affected my blood lipids. And so that was a big learning curve. You know, when, when the keto people are out there saying this is the only way to eat, you know, again, there’s no cookie cutter diets. You have to adapt it to your metabolic patterns, your Dna, your lifestyle, everything. So that was a big, a big shift therefore for essential number one as far as food and other, go ahead.

Dr. Cates: Yeah and I mean I think it’s, it is really interesting that we’re seeing more and more of that. And I, I think there, we have more tools now to individualize health care and, and including the way that we live, our lifestyle, eating, exercise, all of that. Everybody is, is different to a certain, you know, some similarities. right? But definitely learning more about your body and you are genetic predispositions I think is so key. And it’s exciting to see in science and technology, the tools, the labs in the personalization that’s becoming available and the demand for it. So more and more of that is coming up. It’s great.

Dr. V: And looking at our gut, you know, looking at our whole microphone and how we should eat to feed the microbiome also. And so that was also a big part of the learning curve, you know, really doing some of the testing and understanding more of that.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. So explain more about that. What have you discovered in that journey as far as the microbiome? It’s something we talk a lot about on The Spa Dr Podcast. Cause we were talking about the skin microbiome and how the gut microbiome impacts the skin microbiome. And so what, what are some of the things that you’ve learned about the skin microbiome? I mean, that’s why the Gut microbiome,

Dr. V: Well, for one thing I discovered the Estrobolome, which is basically a subset of genes that help to methalate they may trigger certain things in the liver and in the gut to help methylator break down specific estrogens, the more aggressive estrogen so that you can release the more aggressive estrogens into UC your urine. Um, so understanding about that and how important it is to have that healthy gut and things like flax and prebiotics that help to feed the gut and to feed those, you know, those probiotics. And then doing specific testing like Ubiome a Genova stool affects Viacom. You know, I’ve tried them all and, and looked at the different patterns that I was seeing, things that I was deficient in, foods that I could eat to support my microbiome, specific probiotics. And I went through a phase after hosting a retreat in Cancun I had a little gut issue. I had Ecoli and so I had to work really hard to reimplant a lot more healthy bacteria. So doing mega doses of probiotics, prebiotics, lots of fermented foods, gunshots, all of that. And instead of taking antibiotics, I was able o clear that.

Dr. Cates: Oh, that’s great. That’s great. Okay, great. What else is there? There are seven aspects of, of the book and on the essential system. And so the first one you’ve talked about is let food be your medicine, right? So we focusd on the first one. What about some of the other ones?

Dr. V: So number two is to reduce your toxic exposure. So I dove into much more detoxification, um, systems. So coffee enemas were very important. Saunas, you know, lots of sweating, rebounding, uh, being aware of the EMS in my environment, you know, just really becoming aware of toxicity. Obviously everything clean on, on my skin, which I was doing before, but just that very particular number three is to balance your energy, which includes balancing your hormones. So I did a lot of testing, work to balance my thyroid, worked with the medical doctor and the naturopath to, you know, to really help balance the thyroid, which, you know, now I sleep better than I ever have. Um, exercise, you know, just changed my exercise patterns a little bit.

Dr. Cates: So with the thyroid, can you explain to people because they might think, okay Thyroid has nothing to do with breast health. So can you explain how that might tie into being an issue?

Dr. V: Very important because most people that have cancer have a lower basal metabolic rates, usually their temperature is much lower. And when you lower your basal temperature, body temperature, that lowers your immune system. One degree Celsius can lower your immune system by 40%. And so your, your thyroid has a lot to do with your body temperature and it also has to do with with proper sleep and for breast health. So if you’re, Iodine deficient for example, there’s going to be competition going on between the thyroid and the breast tissue. So you want to make sure that you have plenty of iodine sources. Iodione is actually anticarcinogenic. So very important to keep your iodine levels up. Um, we also know that the thyroid is important with the immune system. If your thyroid is not functioning well, again, your immune system is going to be compromised. So it’s a little, little gland that we have, but the so many important aspects of it.

Dr. Cates: So it can you tell people about iodine food sources or sources? You mentioned it’s important for people to get sources of iodine.

Dr. V: Fish is really great. Of course, obviously you know, a wild caught fish is the best and you want to
make sure that it’s clean. So, uh, wild caught salmon is really one of the better ones. The Pacific northwest so far it seems to be the cleanest. There’s a company called safe catch that, when they catch the fish, they’ve actually tested for mercury and environmental toxins. It’s too high. They put it back and if it’s clean they keep it and can it. So that’s a kind of a good source. And then seaweeds, lots of see we get can sprinkle it on your food. You can do seaweed wraps, you know, those are good sources and depending on where you are and you know, you can test to see if your iodine deficient by doing a 24 hour urine test to see if you’re dumping a lot of iodine. If you’re deficient. Then you can supplement with iodine capsules, potassium iodide and iodine together.

Dr. Cates: Okay, great. All right.

Dr. V: Then number four, that’s the big one. Healing the emotional wounds, um, came from a very dysfunctional family. Alcoholism, sexual abuse and you know, I’ve done a lot of healing on that, but realize that there was some more layers, you know, that needed to be healed. And I think the biggest takeaway from me in my second journey overall was taking the time for myself to self nurture and to self care and to learn to say no, you know, drawing boundaries because, as you know, you know, we’re busy women, right? We have professions, we want to help everybody with doctors. I just, you know, learning to pull away and if I want to take a nap in the afternoon. I do. If I, you know, I schedule play time tennis and meditation and massage, you know, those things are in my schedule so I know that I can nurture and take care of myself because you can’t give from an empty bank accounts, so to speak. Right? You’ve got to replenish the source. And so doing more things that bring me joy and less things that bring you pain. That was a big, big lesson.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, it’s, it’s easy to get wrapped up into that. It is such a just common way of life. And so you see other people doing it, it just feels like it’s normal to do it that way, but it’s certainly not the healthy way to do it. And all the things that you’re talking about here, there are important for our health in so many ways. Right. And not just for breath, breast health, but also for first skin for cardiovascular health for so many different aspects of our health and prevention, disease prevention, overall wellness, health optimization, doing these things are going to help for our bodies in so many different ways. Right.

Dr. V: Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. And then essential number five is to embrace biological dentistry, which, you know, we talked a little bit about that. So I discovered I had some, you know, additional issues. So the lesson from that is, you know, it’s never one and done. You always have to keep monitoring your, you know, your overall health, but specifically your dental health, you know, make sure that you check the gums and make sure that you don’t have, you know, too many unhealthy bacteria. Cavitations and you know, things like that could be, that could be compromising your immune system.

Dr. Cates: So how do people know for, um, for those who maybe don’t match your last podcast? Um, how do people know and how do they find somebody? I feel like oral health is something that is often overlooked or that is not looked at with a more holistic approach. And most dentists that it’s just like, do you have cavities or not? Do you have gingivitis? And that’s pretty much … do you need a root canal? Now that’s, that’s about, I feel like that’s about all that happens and it’s, and most dentists office, whereas as you know, there’s, there’s a lot more that can, you know, at dentist or oral health professional can provide.

Dr. V: Yes well there’s a whole realm of dentistry called biological dentistry and they get the connection. They understand that the teeth are connected to your organs through your acupuncture Meridian system. And so if you have a hunk of metal or root canal sitting on a specific meridian and you know, it could be for us, for example, then that could compromise the energy that chi liked force going to that Oregon. If you still have amalgam fillings, mercury is the most toxic element on the planet. Even if the filling is 25 years old, it’s still releasing methyl mercury into your system. And so looking at the chemical aspect, the energetic aspect, it’s important to work with a dentist who understands, you know, what’s going on in your mouth and there’s even a DNA test that you can do for your mouth and microbiome in your mouth to see if there’s um, you know, pathogenic bacteria that may be causing subclinical gingivitis that you’re not even aware of yet. And there’s ways to clear that with no colloidal silver and specific essential oils and oil pulling. So, you know, your oral health is going to affect a lot of things.

Dr. Cates: I think it’s overlooked so much and I know that a lot of times people have symptoms that are pretty significant and indicator like having um, you know, bad breath halitosis and it’s, it’s quite common and people will just brush your teeth more or use a mouthwash and chew gum all the time, but that’s not going to fix the issue. And that’s pretty significant side. That’s not normal. That’s not what people should be experiencing. And that’s just one sign. But it is a very common one.

Dr. V: Yes. Yes, absolutely.

Dr. Cates: And, and I, I always like to remind people that your digestive system starts in your mouth. Yes. And a lot of people don’t think about that. You’ve got in Zimas and Ph of your saliva, all of that, the oral microbiome, it all starts here. And if you’ve got problems like sores in your mouth or issues going on in your mouth, there’s probably something else going on further down your digestive track. And this is just what you might be able to see and notice first. It’s kind of like that skin, you know, I talk about skin being that outer reflection of inner health are males can be another great indicator of what’s going on with our entire digestive system.

Dr. V: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Okay essential number six is to repair your body with therapeutic plants and herbs. Well, obviously in those nine, 10 years, a lot of new information, new ways of testing things called liquid biopsies, which can, uh, look at the blood to see a specific proteins that the cancer cell is giving off. They can look at circulating cancer, DNA methylation of cancer, DNA in the bloodstream. They can count circulating tumor cells. So all these things that, you know, I didn’t have, you know, the 10 years prior to that. So use some of that testing to recognize and create a protocol that was very targeted and very specific at that would, I know would affects specifically my cancer cells. And so all kinds of, you know, vitamin C, IV infusions, all kinds of, you know, various nutrients, supplements or herbs to help weaken the cancer and boost the immune system.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. Are there any specific herbs? Do you feel like the, these are the winners, the, the, the stars of, of the current research?

Dr. V: Well there’s, yeah, there’s so many, but if we just look at like vitamin D for example, I mean that’s just the basic, but you’d be surprised at how many women come to us. You know, they had been working with an oncologist and their vitamin D level is that 20 and they haven’t told them vitamin D is so hard for you. You know, you need to get that vitamin D level upgraded so that you should be between 80 and a hundred mgs per ml and that’s going to keep your immune system and everything else, you know, working, working much better for you.

Dr. Cates: Um, honestly, just for everybody listening and watching, that is the number on the range on the blood work. So when you go see your doctor asked for them to do a 25 hydroxy vitamin D, I think everybody should have that tested. And certainly if you have breast cancer or you’ve been diagnosed with something, they absolutely want to want to ask for and ask to see your numbers. Because the doctor’s not necessarily going to tell you if it’s not in that range because that is the optimal range that you mentioned and not the flag that that shows up from the lab.

Dr. V: Right, right, right. We talked about iodine and we talked about, you know, vitamins C, and then if you get into specific supplements like wormwood and artemesiinin, bloodroot, polyMDA, auracell, which is a glyco nutrient that disables the Nageise enzyme. So it allows the immune system to really attack the cancer cells more specifically, um, risks, you know, a risk vera trawl course, a 10. I mean the list goes on and on. I mean there’s just so many. Yeah,

Dr. Cates: Yeah, yeah. That’s great. Thank you. And I’m sure you’ve got lots of information about those and your book for people to have a more understanding about, cause I know you just rattle off a whole bunch of them. We do have, we do transcribe the podcast. So you can always go to thespadr.com/podcast go to the interview and you’ll see the transcripts there. If you’re like, wait, I missed all of that. She just ran off a bunch of things. Yeah, it’s going, yes, that’s right.

Dr. V: And there’s a whole checklist and uh, there, there are over 700 cited references from, you know, pub med.org, another, you know, studies to show. So you don’t have to think that this is just woo woo, but it’s definitely evidence based medicine.

Dr. Cates: So I want to make sure you have time to talk about this new tool that you have for the public. That I think is a fantastic prevention of breast cancer prevention or early detection tool. I guess it’s not prevention, but it’s early detection, right? So, so can you explain what you, what you’ve come up with, but you have now?

Dr. V: Yes, yes. So actually good lead into essential number seven, which is to embrace a very early detection. So what I’m holding in my hand for those of you that are just listening is a silicone breast model and it looks and feels like a real breast and it has various size lumps and tumors at different depths in the model. This model was created with the help of the National Cancer Institute and the National Science Foundation many, many years ago. In fact, this model has been used for over 30 years to train medical doctors to learn how to do a proper exam. Now the company who manufactures the model and has the patent on the silicone that created the model has asked me to take this to the general public so women can learn to do a proper breast self exam because according to the American Cancer Society, the first sign or symptom of breast cancer is a lump. Most women will find their own lump. So this system called my breast friend comes in a box with an instruction booklet. It also comes with an instructional video, which is so important because you have to have that experientials effect of learning with the pads of your fingers, not your tips with the pads of your fingers and learning how to perform the exam, where to feel, and then what to feel for. So there’s three components of that exam. And so we’re, very excited. I’m very excited. I feel our mission is to save lives one breast at a time. Because if you can know the geography of your breast tissue, even if you’re doing yearly, mammograms are thermography and ultrasound and everything else, but you’re not feeling the geography. There’s still 364 days of the year where your breast tissue can change. And so we’re really encouraging women to be proactive with their own health and take responsibility. You know, your doctor’s gonna feel your breast once a year. You get to feel them every day if you want.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, I have continued to hear that it’s self breast exams as usually when breast cancer is detected, not from waiting to go see your doctor. It’s mostly women detecting on themselves. And so that is, it’s really important to be familiar with your body and, and, and any change that happens, pay attention to that. And then knowing I think this device that you have now, then you know what you’re looking for. Because I think a lot of times women are like, I don’t even know what I’m feeling for. And what I’ve always told them, I was like, just check, you know, look for cha or feel for changes. And that’s been a biggest thing but to, to actually be able to feel it and to know that sometimes it’s the depth and understand. In medical school, it’s something we spend a lot of time on. Just learning how to palpate and women, I think we, it’s not like it’s something that’s talked about. So I think you’d be a great thing if you have a book club or if you have a women’s group or something. At least get one of these and share it with your, your girlfriends and get a group together. And so watch the video, get some education on it because I think it’s so important. And you know, it’s empowering to be able to figure this out and know for yourself, right?

Dr. V: That’s right. You know, the average size lump that a woman finds by accident who doesn’t perform an exam is the size of the ping pong ball. A woman who performs a proper breast self exam, you know, based on this method can find it the size of the pea. Now we know if it’s the size of a pea and it hasn’t metastasized, your life expectancy is 15 years or more. So your chances of survival are much, much better. And just to add quick note too, as far as um, mammography versus self detection. So there was a 25 year study, it was published in a women’s health magazine and they found that 43% of the time mammography detected a lump 43% of the time women detected their own lump through a breast exam. But if you added the clinical exam on top of that, then it was bumped up to 56% touch was more effective than a machine. So whether you rely on, you know, a mammography, you know, don’t use a standalone test, always add something else because nothing is 100% accurate. I think.

Dr. Cates: I think that’s a, I think that’s a great point. I mean mammography is the still the, um, you know, standard of care for doctors that doctors basically are required to recommend to patients as the diagnostic tool and recommendations for cancer detection, breast cancer detection. But there’s, there’s a lot you don’t, you don’t want to just rely upon that and I think that’s a great point. Just don’t just wait for your mammogram and think, oh well I get a mammogram so I’m just going to wait for that. It gets good to be proactive and realize that there are also things like you mentioned thermography and sound. So I think bringing these up with your primary care doctor at, when you go get your annual exams and talk to them about different options or your nature by they can position your functional medicine doctor, you’re seeing them. That’s, that’s better to talk to them about different options as well. And certainly right. If somebody detects something, don’t wait, go and, and get help right away. Goes, go see your doctor and start seeking care right away. Right. You don’t want to, because I’ve, I’ve heard of, you know, I hear women like, Oh, maybe I’ll just wait, I’ll just clean up my diet. I’ll, I’ll do these things and try and do it myself. And it’s, it’s a shame thing. It’s embarrassing. Right?

Dr. V: Okay. If you find something suspicious, the good news is eight out of 10 of those suspicious lumps or non cancerous. If you find something suspicious, you go to your doctor and they poo pooed and say, oh, it’s nothing. Come back in six months. But your gut is telling you that just doesn’t feel right. Get another opinion and press for it. Because I’ve heard too many stories where, you know, three months, six months go by and by then, you know, the diseases spread.

Dr. Cates: Right, right. I’m sure you do hear a lot of stories about kind of crazy stories about things that were missed or I’m mistreated or all kinds of of things. So any last words of wisdom for women who want to be proactive? Any woman that’s watching The Spa Dr. Podcast cause they are proactive and taking charge of their health so any tips?

Dr. V: Yeah. The main thing I would say is just get, you know, get in touch with you, you know, just disconnect from everything at least once a day and just really take the time to connect. It’s like, you know, an example is, you know, you could be in a loud party for example. All that chatter is going on. You’ve got to speak loud to, you know, talk to somebody and quieting down your mind and your body is like getting all those people out of the house and just, you know, you connecting with source energy, whatever that is for you and just really calming down your heart and your mind and that, that alone can have such a big impact on every aspect of your health.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. It’s been great having you on, tell everybody where they can learn more about you and I think you said you have a free gift for everybody as well.

Dr. V: Yes, yes. Well they can go to breastcancerconqueror.com they can also go to breastcancerconqueror.com/free-book and they can get a section of the new book, just by downloading it. And you can also go to mybreastfriend.com to learn more about practicing very early detection, proper breast self exam.

Dr. Cates: Great. I’ll send it and we’ll have those links below the podcast interview on The Spa Dr websites so you guys can grab them there as well. Dr V Thank you. It’s so great to have you back on and hear an update. Thank you for sharing your story and all that you’ve learned the way.

Dr. V: Thank you so much for having me, Dr. Trevor, I appreciate you sharing this message of hope with your audience.

Dr. Cates: I hope you enjoyed this interview today with Dr V and you can find more information about her by going to the spa Dr Com go to the podcast page with her interview and you’ll find the information and links there. I know during her interview she talked about reducing toxins in your environment and how important that is including personal care products and I want to make sure that you know at The Spa Dr. That we have a line of skincare products that are made with natural and organic ingredients. I designed these specifically to avoid ingredients like parabens and synthetic fragrance which we know have hormone disrupting effects and their concerns about those and exposure and personal care products. So I created a four step skincare system. It’s nontoxic that contains natural actives as the perfect ph for your skin so you can make sure that you can be sure that you’re using skincare products that are clean and natural. You can actually get a sample kit of The Spa Doctor’s daily essentials for step skincare system by going to the spa Dr Com homepage and you’ll see an opportunity to get the sample kit for $9.99 plus shipping and handling. It comes in a little box with four mini pumps, which are the four different steps of the skincare system. That way you can try the entire force subsystem and know for yourself if this is something that you want to get a full system for. And then you can also get set up on auto ship, so it’s sent to your door, on a regular basis whenever you want to receive it. So want to make sure that it’s easy for you. It’s simple, it’s clean and effective. That’s our goal here at the spa doctor. So just want to make sure you know about that and I’ll see you next time on The Spa Dr. Podcast.