Episode 120 | From World Class Athlete to Stage 4 Cancer: The 30 Day Fast That Reset Her Healing with Jenny Davis

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[00:00:00] Dr. Katie Deming: Hello everyone. I'm Dr. Katie Deming, and this is the Born to Heal Podcast where we explore holistic practices for cancer prevention and healing. Let's welcome Jenny Davis to the show.

[00:00:11] Dr. Katie Deming: Jenny, welcome.

[00:00:12] Jenny Davis: Thank you, Katie. Hello everybody. Do you think, do you think they'll be able to cope with the Scottish accent,

[00:00:18] Dr. Katie Deming: Absolutely. Absolutely. I know. I love, so Jenny, just finished in October, was the beginning of

[00:00:27] Dr. Katie Deming: October that you finished

[00:00:28] Jenny Davis: yeah. Mid,to [00:00:30] end of oc, uh, September.

[00:00:32] Dr. Katie Deming: September. Okay, so Jenny just finished a 30 day water fast with me at the end of September and is coming on today to share her experience and really. So many levels of growth and change that Jenny has seen that I wanted her to be able to bring that back into the group. And, and I personally love the Scottish accent.

[00:00:57] Dr. Katie Deming: So I'm excited for my listeners to have [00:01:00] this. And so it's a pleasure to have you here and really, you know, a pleasure for me to have spent so much time with you throughout the fast. And I wanna jump in with like one little tidbit that I think is really interesting for people is, before you did this prolonged fast, you had trouble getting into therapeutic ketosis and getting those higher levels of ketones.

[00:01:22] Dr. Katie Deming: but you've really noticed a change since doing your 30 day fast. Can you

[00:01:27] Dr. Katie Deming: tell the listeners about that?

[00:01:28] Jenny Davis: Sure. So, I [00:01:30] think I've been a regular, faster, kind of, kind of from the sh shorter fasts, you know, like 16 hours up to. Two or three days. I, that's kind of as far as I would do intermittent fasting, as part of my cancer journey um, have a keto mojo. I was measuring blood glucose and ketones regularly just as part of that for me to help understand what my blood sugar levels were [00:02:00] like as I was going through treatment.

[00:02:03] Jenny Davis: And I just had a really hard time being able to get my co ketones high enough that it would put me into ketosis. And then nutritional ketosis, which is where, you know, all the good, the goody stuff happens. And I just thought it was, you know, I have a couple of, um, DNA snips that. Mean that could be a little bit more [00:02:30] challenging just from genetic testing. So I just thought, well, I'm ne I'm never gonna be able to get that far because I have this genetic stuff and maybe it's just the way that I am. and then, you know, as part of your program, we are testing ketones and glucose every day to measure that we're doing okay in terms of metrics. And when I came out, I wasn't doing any long fasting, but you know, I would, I would [00:03:00] go two or three days and not be able to get into nutritional ketosis.

[00:03:03] Jenny Davis: But post fast, I can get into it in like 20 hours. So what, whatever happened during the fasting period that we had together reset my metabolic blood sugar system. Which, which now means, you know, without food, or if I'm eating, eating more of a high [00:03:30] fat, lower protein, super low carb, I can get intohealing very quickly, which I didn't think

[00:03:37] Dr. Katie Deming: So this is.Yeah. Which I, I love this because, and you, you, the other thing that you're gonna learn on this, interview is that Jenny is a very accomplished athlete as well, and a very trained athlete. And so her body is conditioned and you know, this idea that, okay, well maybe it's just genetic, you know, you do all of the things, you're disciplined in all the [00:04:00] areas, but then this one thing of being able to get into ketosis, and specifically she's talking about nutritional ketosis, which is, defined as a GKI less than two, or ketones a bus four.

[00:04:12] Dr. Katie Deming: And, you know, not able to get into that range without, you know, at least a few days of, of no food. What this describes is actually the health of your mitochondria. There are really two things that play into this, getting into ketosis earlier. Number one is it means that you're a fat burning [00:04:30] machine now, right?

[00:04:30] Dr. Katie Deming: That you, you know, most of us are used to burning, glucose for fuel and can burn fat, but are not super efficient in getting into that. And with doing this prolonged fast of fasting for 30 days, what you've done is you've pruned out your mitochondria, you've gotten rid of the dysfunctional or mitochondria that are not working at the highest level, and then we've supercharged the ones that are left.

[00:04:55] Dr. Katie Deming: And so you have much more metabolic flexibility because your, your [00:05:00] mitochondria are working at a very high level. So that, that's the first thing. And then the other thing is your glycogen stores are depleted from doing a prolonged fast, and so you're likely carrying less glycogen in your liver. You know, our muscles are basically, it's pretty much fixed in terms of, you know, Well, I guess not fixed because of the amount of muscle that you have. You're gonna have more glycogen stores, but, basically, you know, you have less in the way of glycogen stores. But the big story here for everyone listening is that the mitochondria are [00:05:30] like super boosted after a fast like this, which is the whole reason why we're doing this.

[00:05:35] Dr. Katie Deming: And, you know, the, we all, we always talk about autophagy. Which is the body using, you know, diseased or, you know, basically recycling, old proteins, but then also this idea of using diseased tissue for fuel. But the thing that is really important that's coming out of a fast is mitophagy. We're pruning out those [00:06:00] mitochondria that are not functioning at an optimal level and really bringing that back to the forefront, which is the basis of our health, is our mitochondria.

[00:06:07] Dr. Katie Deming: So I loved when I saw that, in your re results of coming back after the fast. I was so excited to see that because that is a sign that we have supercharged your mitochondria. Or I shouldn't say we, I say, you, you have done this, you did all the hard work. I was just watching along the sidelines guiding you.

[00:06:26] Dr. Katie Deming: but it's, it's pretty incredible to see those simple, you know, just little [00:06:30] numbers that we can track of what's changed in

[00:06:32] Dr. Katie Deming: your body after the fast.

[00:06:33] Jenny Davis: Yeah, and it, it

[00:06:35] Jenny Davis: challenged, there were a, a number of my stories and also. You know, the people that either I was on the program with or I've heard their story since it's cha, it was challenging my beliefs about, I had a belief that was just me, that it was a genetic thing. And the reality is many of these beliefs are untrue. [00:07:00] And this program, you know, the 40 days together completely debunked all of these things for me and for other people that have gone through it so far.

[00:07:11] Dr. Katie Deming: Yeah. Well, what, tell me what are, what's another limiting belief that you had coming into the fast that you no longer believe is true?

[00:07:18] Jenny Davis: Well, I remember when we had our intake, like interview assessment,I said to you, I don't know if I can do 30 days. And I'm a tough cookie. [00:07:30] You know, I've done some really hard,

[00:07:33] Dr. Katie Deming: I'll

[00:07:33] Jenny Davis: done some really hard

[00:07:34] Dr. Katie Deming: to that

[00:07:35] Jenny Davis: so I guess there was like, oh, I can do this. there were days when I really didn't feel that great as far 'cause I was drained. our body is more capable than anyone has any concept of, and another thing I think I had a sense of this was our body knows what to do. It has innate [00:08:00] intelligence held within it. We just have to get out the way.

[00:08:03] Dr. Katie Deming: A hundred percent. I see that I, that's what I witness with the fast is just watching how people's bodies know exactly what to do and we just need to create the space for it, you know? And get, and get quiet. Which it's hard. And it's funny that you didn't think that you could make it through. 'cause I'm like, if anyone can make it through this, I would've thought you were like, you know, you've got the mindset, really you can do anything.

[00:08:29] Dr. Katie Deming: so that, that's [00:08:30] intriguing to me. Tell the audience, you know, who you are, what's your background? You know, what, what brought you to this place? Because I think that your story is quite remarkable in, in who you are. And I, and I think that it. Speaks to the, you know, you're someone who was doing all of the right things, you were disciplined.

[00:08:50] Dr. Katie Deming: I'm gonna, before you introduce yourself, I'm gonna like, I'm gonna tell the, the, the audience what, what I, you know, what I saw from you and, you know, people [00:09:00] come into the fast and from all different, you know, for different reasons and for different life experiences. But you were someone who, you had been doing a lot of the deep work.

[00:09:10] Dr. Katie Deming: You had really been focused on your health and your healing for the past, you know, at least a year when I had met you, probably longer and very disciplined, you know, doing all of the testing, you know, doing the metabolic approach really honed in. And sometimes when someone like that comes [00:09:30] in, you know, I'm like, gosh, what, what else are we gonna come out?

[00:09:32] Dr. Katie Deming: Like, what's gonna come out of this? And. What's amazing is even when you're doing so many things, the fast creates a space to open and unlock things within yourself that you don't even see coming. That's, that's the way that I would put it. So, you, do you agree with that?

[00:09:51] Dr. Katie Deming MD: I've discovered one tool that's completely transformed how my clients heal, resetting their metabolism, activating the body's natural [00:10:00] healing, and giving them incredible mental clarity. That tool is water fasting. and you can access my free workshop all about fasting as a healing modality.

[00:10:10] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Right now I cover how fasting actually works in your body, the different types of fasts, and how to know which approach is right for you, and most importantly, how to do it safely. Whether you're navigating health challenges, have tried fasting before. Or completely new to it. This workshop is for you. I'll [00:10:30] share a real success stories for my practice and give you the framework I use with my clients.

[00:10:35] Dr. Katie Deming MD: You can watch it now by accessing the link in this episode's description. This workshop could change how you think about healing entirely.

[00:10:43] Jenny Davis: 100%.

[00:10:45] Dr. Katie Deming: 100%. I love it. Okay, so tell, tell the audience please, what your background is, kind of, you know, your athletic experience and then also kind of what led you in coming in to do the fast.

[00:10:57] Jenny Davis: I think I would describe [00:11:00] myself as a super unhealthy overachiever in so many ways. . Um, now I can say that with with, with a laugh. I was a, you know, world class judo player from super young to my early twenties. Did health psychology at uni, did a talent transfer to track cycling, raced for GB in Scotland as a track cyclist on the Velodrome as a [00:11:30] sprinter type two fast, five fast twitch fibers here. I did that through till my mid thirties.

[00:11:37] Dr. Katie Deming: I think I'm gonna stop you for one second. 'cause I think most people don't know. Track cycling on a velodrome is the most frightening thing I could imagine doing. Going so fast with no breaks. Like, so you've got pedals that just, you know, they keep going and there's no breaks and you're going super fast on a slanted [00:12:00] velodrome that when I heard that she was a track cyclist, I'm like, that is terrifying.

[00:12:04] Dr. Katie Deming: I could never do that. And I'm, I'm in awe. So just, just to, I want to qualify that for people so they know that this is a terrifying sport. And then to be a sprinter, like you have to be fearless and or. If you have fear, you're gonna work through it because a very physical sport and also very mental. So there's like this beautiful convergence there of, you know, to be a track cyclist and to, compete at that level.

[00:12:28] Dr. Katie Deming: Not only do you need [00:12:30] to be very sharp, strategically it, and really thinking it's a, it's a thinking man's sport, you know, cycling in that way. And then to have this physical aspect of like, like you said, the fast twitch, like I can only imagine how big your quads were when you were, cycling. But it's a very physical and, um, mental sport that you were

[00:12:50] Dr. Katie Deming: playing.

[00:12:51] Jenny Davis: and then I had, you know, I did business transformation, um, in corporates, juggling that while I was racing 'cause I was never [00:13:00] full-time. And then, I had a stage three colon cancer. I had a bowel obstruction, which meant I needed to have emergency surgery. No one believed it was bowel cancer 'cause I was the healthiest person that everybody in my network knew.

[00:13:16] Jenny Davis: And then did traditional approach for 18 months, had my stoma reversed. 'cause I needed to have a stoma with the colostomy bags for 18 months, which was very very [00:13:30] tough to go through. And then, um, I had a secondary diagnosis was spread to liver and both lungs. Last January I had my first surgery. started to take a metabolic approach that was just wider. it was, it wasn't about saying no to conventional treatment. I still had surgeries. I still worked with all of my traditional medical doctors and consultants. I just widened out the view that I took [00:14:00] and really wanted to understand the root causes behind why cancer cells were allowed to grow in my body.

[00:14:07] Jenny Davis: So I've spent. 15 months, 16 months, working through that. Um, and ch making changes in my diet. Well, you know, all of my systems were out of balance. My immune system, I had nutritional deficiencies, my hormones were a little bit off. my blood, my blood glucose, my blood sugar wasn't balanced.there [00:14:30] were chronic in, there was chronic inflammation.

[00:14:33] Jenny Davis: I had intergenerational trauma. I had, grief from child loss before I had my, first diagnosis. So I spent 18 months doing everything I could to understand root cause with Nasha Winter's, some of her team. you know, Katie, the, it was like. Find root cause open up and, and just be open and honest and figure out what [00:15:00] it is and do the things.

[00:15:01] Jenny Davis: But there was a large part of that journey was once I found the thing, I had to reverse whatever it was. And a lot of, a lot of the reversal wasn't when it wasn't about nutrients or physical things, it was mental and emotional and spiritual. And it was a lot of it was a letting go and letting go of the past or letting grief flow or [00:15:30] letting go of old beliefs or letting go relationships or recontracting relationships.

[00:15:36] Jenny Davis: And I just, at some point in the summer, kind of found your world and was pulled, felt a pull into it. Really doing your program allowed me, it gave me permission for six weeks to turn the volume down on [00:16:00] everything As a high achiever, like I, I trained most days, I, I'm a, I'm a professional, like I good consultant.

[00:16:08] Jenny Davis: I have a good health company that's changing people's lives. I have a family, you know, I was doing all the right things and still living with a stage four cancer diagnosis and the six weeks gave me an opportunity to turn the volume on everything and work out [00:16:30] what actually is adding value and what is not.

[00:16:33] Jenny Davis: And also the stuff that's not, it's, it's not just like neutral. It's actually draining me or it's causing negative consequences. So I was kind of pulled in. And some of it was logical because of, the stories of,you know, people being able going through autophagy and shrinking some of their tumors or those disappearing.

[00:16:55] Jenny Davis: But there was a big part of, for me, of coming in with [00:17:00] curiosity and just being like, I'm open to whatever this experience is. I quite like a challenge. Clearly, I quite like pushing the boundaries to see what happens. And that's how you build resilience, right? So this was like, I've not had a big challenge like this since surgery last year, and I clearly was just, I felt pulled in and that that was, I had, I'd [00:17:30] had faith in the little voice saying, this is where I'm supposed to be at this moment in time with this person in this

[00:17:37] Dr. Katie Deming: Yeah. Well, it's interesting because I would say most of my people who find me, it's that they're like, I don't know. Yes, it, it checked the boxes, but there was something that just pulled me in. And I think that that is true of an experience like this. It's not for everyone, but those who feel called, it feels like, okay, something's pulling me into this, so I'm just gonna follow.

[00:17:58] Dr. Katie Deming: And I, and I [00:18:00] love that you trusted that, and I love the way you describe yourself as, you know, almost like pathologically, I don't know what the word even used exactly of overachiever, but I, I think that's maybe why I, I love you. You know, like I, I feel very kindred spirit with you because I've, I've lived in those spaces myself.

[00:18:17] Dr. Katie Deming: You know, I like to challenge myself. I like to push myself to the edge and see what I'm capable of, right? You don't find out what you're capable of achieving until you really push that edge. Right? So let me ask you this, you know. [00:18:30] You, you've said, you know what drew you in and you were already doing some of this deep emotional work.

[00:18:36] Dr. Katie Deming: Deep spiritual work. Can you share with the audience, like what is something that surprised you that came out of this, that maybe you had been doing work or you thought you had worked through that then came through or something that, you know, you just really weren't thinking was gonna come as part of the fast, that that has really been a big impact for you?

[00:18:57] Dr. Katie Deming: Is there something that you can think of?

[00:18:59] Jenny Davis: Sure. I, I [00:19:00] have two that I think would be help helpful that are very different. So one of them, without going through like all the details I had, I lost two children in 2020 and 2021 before my first diagnosis. And I did a lot of work right through until the summer on those. On the grief and the loss of both of those children.[00:19:30]

[00:19:30] Jenny Davis: And I as part of the experience and with some of the memos that I got, you know, some people it's like downloads or memos. I dunno what some of your other clients call that, but I, I had some memos that there was still grief there be, and it wasn't, but it wasn't grief to do with the children because I had spent three or four years processing [00:20:00] that and allowing it to flow in my body. What was left was I had grief about the relationship with myself when I was that age. And as part of this experience, because once you pass a set point, you. You have nothing left. You have no things to distract you. And the emotion starts, you know, you often talk about there's a [00:20:30] phase in your fast where there's like an emotional opening and people have an opportunity to just, you just have to be with it and let it flow.

[00:20:38] Jenny Davis: And it's okay. It, it is, it's sometimes a bit painful, but it's supposed to come out. It's supposed to flow through our bodies and not get trapped. And I had grief about me, my relationship with myself when I was that age and when that happened, we were in lockdown. I didn't have family that could [00:21:00] come and support me through that period.

[00:21:03] Jenny Davis: and after the second loss, I was, I was hospitalized three weeks later because I had a bowel obstruction and then I really was in lockdown in hospital and didn't see anybody. So part of it was, Grief that that situation in my life and that time grief has layers to it

[00:21:25] Dr. Katie Deming: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:26] Jenny Davis: and I thought, oh, I've dealt with the kids stuff [00:21:30] so I don't have any more grief.

[00:21:31] Jenny Davis: But there was still stuff there because it's layered the relationship we have with ourself, the relationship we have with our spouse, the relationship we have with the children, you know, whatever the grief and the loss is around, there's multiple connections and relationships and layers to it. So I had that as part of the experience that was released.

[00:21:55] Jenny Davis: And then on day, on the last day, everybody in the group gives a little [00:22:00] honoring to the person who's finishing. And then, and I had released some of that emotion. And then the group just gave me like the love, biggest love bomb of the year, which healed some of. The cracks. So there they're never, there was no, you'd never be able to see the cracks anymore.

[00:22:21] Jenny Davis: You know, the love that was provided to me unconditionally, no one asks for anything back. that's a massive gift that [00:22:30] I think everybody takes from the program on the last day is, so it, it helped me top and tail that experience of release and then with unconditional love that all of those people gave me just because of who I am.

[00:22:47] Jenny Davis: and I had another one relating to intergenerational trauma with my grandparents who were in the war. and I, I really struggled with this one because how, how do you [00:23:00] let intergenerational trauma flow through you when it's not your lived experience? Like I, I worried about, oh, I, I know I have this, how, how do I release it?

[00:23:14] Jenny Davis: And on my first day of Refeed, I had a dream and got a memo that they just wanted to be remembered and not forgotten because these [00:23:30] people in World War I and World War ii, they either gave their lives and if you know what, if they survived, came home with trauma and they couldn't cope, and they gave up their humanity so that we could live generations later.

[00:23:51] Jenny Davis: And I realized my grandparents. All they wanted from me was [00:24:00] to not be forgotten and for us to honor what they gave up and what they sacrificed. So, um, that, you know, I had that in September. We had Remembrance Day a few weeks ago. So that is now part of, obviously my annual routine is a lot more of that honoring space, but just being grateful for the sacrifices that others have [00:24:30] made for me so that I can be here today and to, you know, we have a saying over here, less, not forget. That is what we need to do is honor those who came before us.

[00:24:43] Dr. Katie Deming: That's beautiful. And you know, I think that. Absolutely. You, you, you said multiple things in there I wanna speak to, but number one is that grief is, you know, there's these layers to the grief, right? And even when we have [00:25:00] mainly processed it, there can be other aspects to it. And I remember so clearly your last day, so this is a tradition.

[00:25:07] Dr. Katie Deming: I don't know how it started, but I, with one client, I think it was actually. You, there was only one person who we did it with before you and it, Penelope was finishing and we're like, I feel like it's not right to just send you out. Like we should fill you up before you go out. Like fill you with love. And that's how it started.

[00:25:25] Dr. Katie Deming: And now we do that, we do a fill up. Anytime someone is leaving [00:25:30] the space of the group, so they're finishing the refeeding and you know, going back out in the real world and aren't gonna be with us every day. 'cause that's another thing is we are together every single day for 40 days. Right. So there's this connection that's, that's developed even when you're not saying much.

[00:25:45] Dr. Katie Deming: And, and Jenny, you were someone during the fast, you were a woman of very few words while you were in the fast. And, but I remember on that last day just watching you as you were being filled up and the [00:26:00] love, like even when you didn't say very much in the group. Your presence had been so clearly felt and that the other people had been touched by your presence and the, the, the, you know, you say very few words, but then you were so impactful with the things that you did say is watching you receive.

[00:26:21] Dr. Katie Deming: That was such a beautiful gift for me because I could tell that you were surprised, like you were surprised, and maybe, maybe I'm wrong, but that you had [00:26:30] touched these people literally just with your presence. Like it was mostly to you just being present that had impacted them and. Also there's this authenticity where everyone is just, you know, the one thing that I wish for everyone who comes into my fasting program is authenticity.

[00:26:47] Dr. Katie Deming: Finding your authentic self. And so they're being their authentic self, sharing with you what your authentic self means to them. And it's, it is, it's one of the most beautiful experiences. And then, you know, af afterwards when you told [00:27:00] me this about this, you know, this wound that you had, you know, you described it in your heart that you had been carrying, you know, this, I forget whether you called it like a vortex or, yeah. That was, you know, really felt open and wounded, you know, kind of still that, that aching heart. And that by having that fill at the end, it was like that piece of healing, of that grief that, that hadn't yet happened, yet that really made you feel whole again. Like [00:27:30] wholehearted

[00:27:30] Dr. Katie Deming: is,

[00:27:30] Jenny Davis: A hundred percent. And, and I, I was, you know, I, I think I did 30 days, no food, just water, and then 10 days refeed where you're pretty low calorie the last 10 days of that fast. I, I, you're right, I di I didn't, I wanted to be re really respectful of everyone, everyone needs space to be able to share and, and [00:28:00] I know I'm a resilient person.

[00:28:02] Jenny Davis: I can just get my head down and. Suffer basically, like I can suffer, be, I know I can because I'm an athlete, so I, you know, I was raised to just like, suck it up basically and get on with it, get on with life. And, and then the last 10 days of the fast, I just felt I was so drained. I had nothing to give. And I felt, because I just didn't [00:28:30] have my normal spark, because I'm a, 'cause, I'm like a powerful light being that is part of my gift to the world.

[00:28:38] Jenny Davis: And I didn't have this spark, so I really didn't say much, which is unusual. but the, the, the gift that everybody gave me over and over and over again was even when. There was no words. The spark is still delivered through energy and presence. And I kind of hold a,

[00:28:59] Jenny Davis: [00:29:00] have an ability to be able to hold a safe space for people that gives them psychological safety and allows them to open.

[00:29:10] Jenny Davis: So it was, it was humbling. And, and I, I thought part of my gift to the world and why people were drawn to me was because of what I said. And this was the one time I'd barely spoke. And yet the, the feedback was the same,

[00:29:29] Dr. Katie Deming: Mm-hmm. [00:29:30]

[00:29:30] Jenny Davis: which has been a very important lesson for me to learn about presence and energy. And sometimes the best thing you can do for some day is say nothing is just hold the space and listen.

[00:29:45] Dr. Katie Deming: Yeah. Absolutely.

[00:29:48] Dr. Katie Deming: you said something in there when you were talking about the ancestral trauma and healing that in the lineage of your family, that it came through dream. And actually this is [00:30:00] one thing that during fasting is dreaming becomes much more powerful and clear.

[00:30:06] Dr. Katie Deming: People can receive information and I love how. This awareness came through to you that what they want is they didn't want to be forgotten. And so the way that you can honor is simply by remembering and honoring their sacrifice that they have made in order for you and future generations, right? And just like [00:30:30] you know, you, you, you will play a part in your future.

[00:30:35] Dr. Katie Deming: ancestors lives as well. And, and, and that without them, we, we couldn't be here. We stand on their shoulders, but. This whole thing, the, the, the dreaming. So information coming through, dreaming and then also information coming from ancestors is something that I see consistently. And I was surprised by that because I had interviewed Gina Bria, who's the, founder of the [00:31:00] Hydration Foundation.

[00:31:00] Dr. Katie Deming: She's an anthropologist and she talked about how fasting connects you to your ancestors. And I was like, fascinated. I'm like, this is really interesting, but I haven't seen it. So I'm like, okay. I was just learning from her and she did that interview with me like last summer sometime, but I really have seen this.

[00:31:18] Dr. Katie Deming: So, and, and actually while you were fasting, several of the other fasts had family members or ancestors coming through with information with that, which I think is just. [00:31:30] So interesting and beautiful and probably the last thing that anyone is coming into a fast with. But when we heal things for ourselves, we can heal the ancestral line forward and backwards.

[00:31:42] Dr. Katie Deming: And so this healing work that you did, you know, individually was also for your, your family line, you know? And, and that piece of it that I, I wouldn't have thought was true unless I had seen this. Now I've seen it with so many people that there's clearly something [00:32:00] the ancestors come through to help bring that connection, to connect you.

[00:32:05] Dr. Katie Deming: And, and I guess it makes sense too. It's like to know who you are today, you have to, you know, know where you came from, right. And have that piece of it. So, I think that's beautiful and that you shared that because this is something that probably people aren't thinking about, but is really a potent, component of the fast.

[00:32:23] Jenny Davis: Yeah, and it, I think the, the stories that I heard from some of. The other [00:32:30] fasters in your group is, it's not a lot of the messages, like they're simple, not complicated. There, there's no big story and whoa and no. They remember all these things and it's so, it was terrible. My message was simple. Remember the sacrifice that we made and then as soon as, as soon as it came through, I was like, that is so obvious. [00:33:00] But we're just busy.

[00:33:04] Dr. Katie Deming: Yeah.

[00:33:04] Jenny Davis: busy in the moment or not in the moment. They're either stuck in the past or too busy thinking about the future they, it just bypasses and a lot of the rituals and ancestry. Things are being forgotten because people are just too busy trying to fit so much in the messages are simple.

[00:33:26] Jenny Davis: That was, that was what I took from everyone that I heard had [00:33:30] something that came through from a family line.

[00:33:33] Dr. Katie Deming: Yeah, that it was simple and that, and that's what they often have a message. This is, this is my experience. They have a message and it often is, like you said, simple but quite profound in terms of something that, that they really are wanting you to hear. so absolutely. Yeah. It's not like they're coming with complicated.

[00:33:55] Dr. Katie Deming: All of these things and like, whoa is us for having had this. It's like, no, there's none of that. [00:34:00] It's more just like this is a piece that, that would be helpful for you to know either in remembering where you came from or as guidance. And actually one of the things is around food that the, the ancestors come up the most because we're teaching people actually how to eat traditional healing foods that are a lot like what our ancestors would have eaten and the ancestors coming in and showing this is how we did things.

[00:34:27] Dr. Katie Deming: This is, you know, in connecting you. So there's this [00:34:30] beautiful connecting and through line, that the food and, and the fasting brings people, you know, connection within their lineage. So, I, I'm grateful that you brought that up because I think that it is something that I'm seeing consistently with the ancestry.

[00:34:44] Dr. Katie Deming: So I'm wondering if. We can dive into some of the physical changes. 'cause I know you're someone who, you know, had been doing a lot of metrics and measuring and, and keeping track of different lab values and metrics before the fast and then [00:35:00] also after the fast. Are there, is there something that you wanna share in terms of, we talked about the, ketosis, you being able to get into ketosis quicker, more easily, you know, 20 hours or so where it used to take you several days.

[00:35:13] Dr. Katie Deming: What are some other metrics that you had seen shift

[00:35:17] Dr. Katie Deming: through the fast.

[00:35:19] Jenny Davis: I, I had a couple of nutritional ones, so because I train a lot, uh, and, you know, we need proteins because it helps with the building blocks and the [00:35:30] repair, and I had a quite, over 18 months of measuring my total protein level in my body. And then it didn't matter what I did, it always just stayed at the super low end.

[00:35:44] Jenny Davis: And my, my doc was like, Jenny, it's just some people just can't get there. Do the fast reset the gut boom, protein lips like perfect. [00:36:00] I'm like, Hey,

[00:36:01] Dr. Katie Deming: Yeah, so your doc, your, your doctor had wanted you between 70 and 82, and you had been consistently in the like high fifties, low sixties. Yeah. And then post fast. It's been consistently, I think you

[00:36:14] Dr. Katie Deming: said

[00:36:14] Jenny Davis: yeah, 25% increase. And, and I need that, like I need it as an athlete even though I'm retired. So I had protein, I had protein, like that one blew my mind. I had a, I had [00:36:30] an eye test done, a really thorough eye test done before the fast and then had it done afterwards. I had 2020 vision for distance, and I think it was like the next level or two up post fast.

[00:36:47] Jenny Davis: Then my near sight was zero, plus 0.25. It's now 0 0 0 0.00 for vision. My, my, um, sense of smell improved. [00:37:00] I have no metrics for that. 'cause I didn't expect that. And I didn't, I don't even

[00:37:04] Dr. Katie Deming: Yeah, tell us. Tell us

[00:37:05] Dr. Katie Deming: about that with your smell.

[00:37:06] Jenny Davis: I don't even know how you would measure it, but I, I thought I had a really bad sense of smell. 'cause my mom does.

[00:37:13] Jenny Davis: People are always saying to me, do you smell? Do you smell that? And I'm like, no. Just whatever. No. I'm like, that's good. If there's a bad smell, I'm never gonna be able to smell it. And then after the fast I started smelling all of these things, [00:37:30] my sense of smell has improved.

[00:37:33] Dr. Katie Deming: Yeah, so you, it look like your senses are all heightened. So your vision, the acuity of your vision has improved, your sense of smell has improved, in taste. Obviously coming out of a fast is like you can taste everything. so I love that. And then what else? I know that you had your fasting insulin.

[00:37:52] Jenny Davis: Fast in insulin. Um, they've always been on the high end. Uh, and I don't [00:38:00] know if like insulin's obviously impacted by more than just food at, and I was having surgeries, which can spike with stress and things. but that's stabilized to being in like perfect zone for me, which again is another sign of good metabolic health and blood, blood sugar balancing. so that's stabilized. and then I had, I have a big liver scar from open surgery last January and my, where my [00:38:30] stoma hole was closed, I had a. Scar, kind of like a circular scar about an inch across and tall and a, a post fa. So I had a scar assessment done before the fast by a core and pelvic floor specialist. And my assessment, pret detox was absolutely fantastic. She was like, you'd never even know you'd had surgery, Jenny. [00:39:00] So I went, when I went back for an assessment, after I kind, I honestly, Katie, I honestly was being a little bit arrogant and thinking, well, how can I top the score? How can I be perfect? And then I walked through the door and she took one look at me and it was a mess.

[00:39:19] Jenny Davis: Short term because my body went through this intense healing on the inside, both in the [00:39:30] liver scar, which. Was 20 months old and in the stoma scar, which was almost three years old, and in the stoma scar, I had a purse knot, which is the knot that the surgeon ties. It's like a little purse that stuck out of my body because it was like bony and had a little bit of the tie around it, which is how they close it up internally.

[00:39:58] Jenny Davis: That stuck out my body [00:40:00] that's not there anymore. And so I had, I had an assessment post fast with my physio specialist, I think two weeks after the fast, and I've had to go back every three weeks to have another assessment and to have more scar tissue work done because the fas, because that intense healing.

[00:40:29] Jenny Davis: From a [00:40:30] scar tissue and fascia perspective has continued, like it's still going. I am still having to see her every two or three weeks because the fa, the fascial plane internally, every time I go to see her, it's moved and it's changed. and and I, the last time I saw her, I said, Karen, what have you learned from this experience?

[00:40:59] Jenny Davis: [00:41:00] And she was like, what I've learned is the body is a complete miracle. And years after you've had this fix in your body, it can still heal itself. And it, it's, you know, I suspect that will continue through until January, February, March. We're having to just do More More release work all the time because it, it heals then it [00:41:30] tightens 'cause that's what happens.

[00:41:31] Jenny Davis: And then, and then I'm moving, which is stretching it. And I get tired because it's having to release all the waste products. So we've kind of been going through this intense healing, um, tightening release, stretch it, train another intense healing Months.

[00:41:54] Dr. Katie Deming: But it's

[00:41:54] Dr. Katie Deming: really,

[00:41:55] Jenny Davis: worth.

[00:41:55] Dr. Katie Deming: it's so crazy 'cause it sounds like you were incredible healer before, like your body [00:42:00] healed physically really easily, but then the fast has just exponentially increased that healing to the point where you're having to work with the physio every couple weeks to adjust as this is healing up and, and improving.

[00:42:13] Dr. Katie Deming: So I just wanna clarify for the listeners that the, the, the changes that your physio is seeing are positive, but because it's that tightening it, you know, requires then releasing to adjust

[00:42:27] Dr. Katie Deming: as you're moving through that

[00:42:28] Jenny Davis: yeah. It's all, it's [00:42:30] all part of the process that the body has to go through. It's like when you cut yourself, you know, it get, once the scabs gone, it can be a little bit tight and then it needs to move, and then it gets its plasticity back and, and then hopefully if you've been able to do that, then you get full mobility.

[00:42:53] Jenny Davis: So it's the same, it's having to just work through the process, but. That whole experience with [00:43:00] you. You're right, I am a fast healer. That whole experience, it was like 10 x it, 10 xd, the,

[00:43:09] Jenny Davis: it switched the flip it, it flipped the switch on and the body was like, right team, get in there. And then I felt, I felt after the fast for like a month, I felt like I was wearing a corset because things had tightened so much.

[00:43:27] Jenny Davis: Like when we, when we saw each other at the conference, [00:43:30] I was in corset mode. just because it was healing so, so tightly and so fast, which is amazing.

[00:43:37] Dr. Katie Deming: Yeah.

[00:43:38] Dr. Katie Deming: Beautiful. I'll, you know, and those are things that I just wouldn't have known to expect, but the body does change when people are fasting. The body. Healing all kinds of things. And, and the, the scar like you were describing, that is something I see very consistently. People will have, like I remember faith had a scar in [00:44:00] her lip and it was gone by the end of the fast.

[00:44:02] Dr. Katie Deming: And people who've had scars and like even keloids where they're raised and really, you know, got a lot of scar tissue, they can completely flatten and just heal with fasting. So I know that the one question that everyone wants to know is what happened with the tumor in the lung, because I think, you know, this is when people come into the fast are like, my goal is to make the tumor go away.

[00:44:26] Dr. Katie Deming: And you know, what I've shared on the podcast before is that. [00:44:30] My experience is that in 30% we have a shrinking of the tumor. Very few people, like a handful of people have had the tumor go away completely. But there's a lot of people where the tumor itself will stay the same size when they've finished the fast.

[00:44:47] Dr. Katie Deming: And so can you share with the audience what your tumor has done and, and where, where are you with all of that?

[00:44:54] Jenny Davis: Sure. So I had, I have one tumor left that was, that's a [00:45:00] one centimeter tumor in my left lung, which, actually has been there for two in a bit years. that was tiny when I had the first surgeries so small that they missed it. but when they went back, when they, when it was big enough to grow. To be spotted on a scan.

[00:45:21] Jenny Davis: They went back and they were able to spot it. So the fact it's o it was only a centimeter after two and a [00:45:30] bit years, told me that the metabolic approach that I had taken was working. Because for some people their tumors growth rate is really, really fast. So I've had this internally, this little passenger, trying to do its best to survive.and I, I, you know, I had a scan 10 days ago or something like that. I wanted to wait because I knew that the body takes [00:46:00] time to work through. So I still have the tumor. It's still the same size, and the scan that had previously was May. So we're talking five or six months of. No change. but where, where am I head with?

[00:46:20] Jenny Davis: Where, where I'm with it now is I think when you're first given that diagnosis, [00:46:30] especially if it's a late stage, like stage three or stage four. And when I, when I got called in with my stage four, they told me, normally Jenny, because you have a spread to three other organs outside of the primary site, we just put you on palliative care. Cheers for the death sentence. But because we know you're unusual and you're an athlete, we'll give you a chance with some [00:47:00] surgeries. So I went through that process last year while I did the holistic stuff, and I realized when I had the. Stage four. When you have something like that, it feels like a tick and time bomb it's easy to panic.

[00:47:17] Jenny Davis: And the team that I started working with we're like, don't, don't panic. You know, we have time. Let's just take each day as it comes, use the [00:47:30] measures, assess, make the changes, keep going. And so that's what we did last year. And I think when I got out of the panic mode and realized that mice, internal systems, my hormone system, my immune system, my inflammation, my nervous system, my ability to be able to move from sympathetic to parasympathetic, calm, rest, and [00:48:00] digest.

[00:48:00] Jenny Davis: Where healing can take place. When all of those systems started to stabilize and we could see what those looked like in the measures, the bloods heart rate, HRV, and then going through this experience with you, that tumor that's left, it's not a ticking time bomb anymore. It's still ticking, but it's not the tumor.

[00:48:27] Jenny Davis: The ticking is a reminder [00:48:30] that that is life's timer and we all have it. We just, if we don't have it, have something like that diagnosis, we forget and we stop listening to our body 'cause we're too busy. We just take think, oh, that was a little bit of poor digestion, you know? Well, actually you've probably had that every day for the last three years, that you've normalized some of that, [00:49:00] and then you get this big serious diagnosis a few years later because you've ignored all these signs.

[00:49:05] Jenny Davis: So it sounds like a very strange thing to say that I am actually grateful for having a tumor left, because it's a constant ticking reminder to live that we have a limited time here [00:49:30] to be our authentic selves and to bring whatever special gifts that we've been given and have developed through the uniqueness of our DNA. Our upbringing and our experience and the connections that we make. That's where I am with being a stage four cancer thriver Right now, I have it, but I'm okay with that. I'm [00:50:00] grateful. It reminds me every day to keep doing. what I'm supposed to be doing.

[00:50:06] Dr. Katie Deming: Yeah. Well, I have full body chills listening to this, and this is. The healing, right? When you're able to see the diagnosis for the gift that it is the, and I love the visual that you gave there with like, this is no longer a ticking time bomb. It's my ticking reminder. It's like a [00:50:30] reminder that this life is finite.

[00:50:32] Dr. Katie Deming: That you know, now is the time for me to be authentic, to share my unique gifts, to live my life to the fullest. And I'm reminded of that because of this, you know, little presence. And you know, one of the things, I say this all the time, like if, if eradicating tumors was really the goal, then we would've been like, you know, knocking it outta the park with Western medicine.

[00:50:57] Dr. Katie Deming: But the problem is that. I think [00:51:00] it's misguided, to be honest, because if your body is no longer condu conducive to growing tumors and say that you have like a one centimeter little nodule in your lung that's not doing anything, we make that the enemy and like, we gotta go after that and we gotta fight it and we gotta do all this stuff.

[00:51:18] Dr. Katie Deming: But the truth is that this, this is me personally, and this, these are my values. And, and I don't wanna disrespect anyone else, you know, the way that they see their illness and, and I respect [00:51:30] everyone's path. But I would much rather see someone come away with what you just described and that embodying of like, what is it?

[00:51:42] Dr. Katie Deming: Like what is the meaning of all this? Why am I here? And really connecting to that and to your authentic self. Rather than eradicating all the cancer and having someone go off and live their life still disconnected from themselves and, you [00:52:00] know, looking like a success in terms of cancer's gone, but really have we solved the underlying problem?

[00:52:05] Dr. Katie Deming: And we know that illness is just a way for our bodies to speak to us. Right. And I love how you've come into relationship. That's what I heard with you, you saying this, you've come into relationship with this nodule of like, you know, this is my ticking reminder that's, that's keeping me in the present moment and really focused on what's important in my life.

[00:52:28] Dr. Katie Deming: So for me this is [00:52:30] like the ultimate, you know, this is the ultimate healing.

[00:52:32] Jenny Davis: Mm-hmm.

[00:52:33] Dr. Katie Deming: And did that, when did you come to that? Was that after the fast? 'cause I'm sure you didn't come into the fast thinking that way.

[00:52:42] Jenny Davis: I think I, I have from the day I was born, because I nearly died on the day that I was birthed because of complications. So from, from the day I was born, I've always had quite a keen sense of my [00:53:00] mortality, unusually for young kids right through, but. I didn't have the language or put all the pieces together. Probably, it probably was, has only been in the last few weeks because the, the journey and the lessons that I've learned was was hard and ev, [00:53:30] every day I have.

[00:53:34] Jenny Davis: Sat back at the end of the day and gone, what worked and what didn't. Like this was the old way. I can't do that anymore. I, I remember seeing it, one of the points later on in the, the, towards the end of the program is I am never going back to the way before it. It's not, it doesn't even feel like a choice. I completely have [00:54:00] changed. There's less pressure. I don't put as much pressure on myself. I'm still a high achiever, but I just don't have all the busyness and I don't feel pressured into having to do all the things at work or in my personal life or social life or family. I do my best every day while I'm being present, which usually means I can make better decisions, be more creative, and probably get to the thing [00:54:30] quicker.

[00:54:30] Jenny Davis: Because I'm juggling less. And, but every day I, I'm having conversations with myself about how, why did I react that way? Or what have I learned here? where did I, where did I go wrong with my energy balance today? What signal did I ignore? And I think this sense of, I never, I never, ever, I, I always felt like a sense of [00:55:00] affection with the last tumor.

[00:55:01] Jenny Davis: Like I remember saying to you at the beginning, I'd, I'd really like to just coach it and to just get back to being healthy again. ‘ cause it, there's not, it's not bad. That was just a stress, super stress cell that grew to be a giant cell. Then it had some changes. Driven by the environment and then, you know, it switches off the death signal and it grows very [00:55:30] quickly and it has cancer babies.

[00:55:33] Jenny Davis: It, it was just trying to survive. It's not trying to do anything sinister and I'd really just wanted to see, I'd rather you just join this healthy pack and, you know, we can live with it, but it's, it's chosen not to do that and that's okay. It just maybe needs some more love and some more healing. And maybe it's just supposed to be there to remind me every day, [00:56:00] because I think when I heard you're in remission two or three years ago, I just, you just let things go a little bit loose. This is my way of always holding my line to be who I'm supposed to be. It's just taken time for me to figure out how I'm going to, how I'm gonna live in the new world or the same world, but new Jenny. That's the old Jenny that's always, [00:56:30] always, should have been here. Um, that came into this world with all the light and the love.

[00:56:37] Jenny Davis: Just took a, took a few decades for me to realign with it.

[00:56:41] Dr. Katie Deming: Yeah. Well, and that I think is the one most consistent thing that I see is people feeling like they're connecting to that authentic version of themselves that they were, that they disconnected from through the busyness of life, through the achievement of life, through all the things, the [00:57:00] conditioning and that, you know?

[00:57:03] Dr. Katie Deming: And I love that how you said that. It's not like it happened during the fast or even during the refeeding, and now it's been several months actually, you know? So we're almost two months out from your fast finishing and things are still coming in. But what happened was that you connected with that. The true Jenny who was always there who maybe got lost in the shuffle and now you're in your life looking at it [00:57:30] from, okay, how was the Jenny, the busy Jenny, the overachieving, Jenny, you know, doing all the things.

[00:57:35] Dr. Katie Deming: And now that I remember who I really am, how can I come back into this life and be more present and do fewer things, but be more impactful with the things that I do? And so I love the way that you described that because that is, you know, that is what we're here to do. Like that is what this lifetime is about, is to reconnect with who we are [00:58:00] authentically so that you can be that beautiful.

[00:58:04] Dr. Katie Deming: You are a beautiful light in this world, and you do, you know, radiate that everywhere you go. And so the more you can connect with that, the bigger influence you have on the world and just, you know, even just the people who are close into you. You radiate that love because you've connected with that, you know, integral, authentic part of yourself.

[00:58:29] Jenny Davis: We need it.

[00:58:29] Jenny Davis: [00:58:30] Everybody needs that.

[00:58:31] Dr. Katie Deming: The world.

[00:58:32] Jenny Davis: needs it.

[00:58:33] Dr. Katie Deming: Everybody needs that. The world needs that. The world needs all of us to connect with that authentic light. Jenny, thank you so much for being here with us and sharing your experience. If people want to connect with you or find you, how can they find you?

[00:58:48] Jenny Davis: probably best on LinkedIn. my legal name on there is Jennifer Davis. If they put in Geno3, that's my health company as well. Be able to find me through those two things if they wanna have a

[00:58:59] Dr. Katie Deming: [00:59:00] love it.

[00:59:00] Dr. Katie Deming: I love it. Well, thank you so much for being with us today. And also, you know, for me, I really. Honor, the trust that someone like you puts into my hands to allow me to walk you through, you know, such a, a big event in your life. And so I just wanna say thank you, and it's been a hundred percent my privilege to walk with you and to watch your transformation through the fasting process, and also as you've [00:59:30] moved on into real life again.

[00:59:32] Dr. Katie Deming: So thank

[00:59:33] Dr. Katie Deming: you. you, Katie.