I'm Still Here
“Cancer didn’t bring me to my knees, it brought me to my feet”
Sunday 6 June 2021 is National Cancer Survivor’s Day
"You have cancer" are among the scariest three words you ever want to hear.
I've heard them twice.
The first time was in September 2013. That's when my urologist told me that I had prostate cancer. I've written elsewhere about my journey to wellness in the wake of this devastating diagnosis: how, instead of following the advice of my first two doctors to remove my prostate, I completely transformed my lifestyle and chased my disease into remission within 2 years. This experience ultimately led me to my purpose -- teaching people how to exert more control over their health and well-being than they ever thought possible.
I heard these words again six years later, in late 2019, when I found out that the lump in my throat was a malignant thyroid goiter: papillary carcinoma was the official diagnosis (this, it turns out, is the most benign kind of thyroid cancer, a fact for which I suppose I'm grateful).
This time I didn't have the same non-medical options available to me. No amount of kale or cycling or meditation was going to reverse my thyroid cancer. If left untreated I knew that the disease would eventually spread to my larynx and other soft neck tissue. However, I also knew that removal of my thyroid -- a total thyroidectomy -- could cure me of the disease without the need of any further treatment like chemotherapy or radiation. It was an easy decision.
So I had my thyroid removed in early January 2020 and now, like millions of others, I rely on synthetic thyroid hormones to replace what my thyroid once made naturally. A year and a half later, several rounds of blood tests and ultrasounds have revealed no evidence of disease (the best words a cancer patient can hear).
You might feel bad for me. You might be thinking "Poor guy, what shitty luck." But I'm (still) here to tell you that a cancer diagnosis (or two) isn't necessarily the death sentence it was once thought to be. Scientists are learning more and more about cancer all the time: how it hijacks and reprograms cells by preventing natural cell death (a process called apoptosis); how it creates its own blood supply (angiogenesis) to evade the body's innate immune response; how genetics play a role in only around 5-10% of cancers; and how human beings can do a lot to make their internal terrain less hospitable to the growth of cancer.
We all have our crosses to bear. I'm grateful that I have a healthy heart and brain and that I'm still fit and active for my age (I turned 57 in March 2021). But I'm now very aware that I seem to have a predisposition to cancer.
My father died of prostate cancer that became aggressive after a 13 year remission, and my mother, who's still alive, has survived 3 different cancers. This means that I do everything possible to even slightly tilt the scale in my favor. I eat a whole-food, plant-based diet, I move my body often and with bursts of intensity, I meditate daily; I surround myself with people that bring out the best in me, and I try to mitigate the sun's damaging effects.
My experience with cancer required me to learn a different way of taking care of myself, which led directly to the development of my anticancer lifestyle, the Health Warrior Way, and my mission: to scale the impact of lifestyle medicine to as many people as possible.
I'm busy with my mission because I don't know how long I have in this body. None of us do, really, though we tend to not think about it.
Until someone tells you you have cancer.
This past Sunday (6 January 2021) was National Cancer Survivors Day. If you know a cancer survivor (and chances are you know more than one), then you probably know more about cancer than you ever wanted to.
But did you know that adjusted for the increase and ageing of the world population the rate of cancer deaths has been in slow decline and 5-year survival rates (in the US) have been increasing?
This is cause for celebration. More and more people are living longer and healthier lives because of new cancer therapies and treatments. And the knowledge that we can use lifestyle interventions -- the Health Warrior Way -- to prevent disease, blunt the impact of disease, and complement medical interventions has become mainstream.
Happy National Cancer Survivors Day!