Free Guide – 3 Things You Need to Know About Cancer: https://www.katiedeming.com/cancer-101/
Have you ever wondered if there's more to healing than medicine offers?
Matty Lansdown from the How To Not Get Sick And Die podcast interviews Dr. Katie Deming, the Conscious Oncologist who blends Eastern wisdom with Western medicine to unlock natural healing potential. She questions conventional cancer treatments and explores intuition, emotional healing, and detoxification.
Key topics discussed:
- What is a Conscious Oncologist?
- Dr. Deming's transformative experience that changed her approach to healing
- The role of emotional healing in cancer care
- Using intuition alongside medical data to guide patients
- Practical methods for detoxification and immune system support
- Questioning if modern medicine addresses root causes
- Tapping into inner wisdom for active participation in healing
- How everyday habits may impact overall health
Listen to Dr. Deming’s holistic view of health, integrating physical, emotional and intuitive aspects of healing.
Follow the How To Not Get Sick And Die podcast with Matty Lansdown: https://redcircle.com/shows/c3e57590-dd75-4201-8ee0-296df1ebae5b
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MORE FROM KATIE DEMING M.D.
Free Guide – 3 Things You Need to Know About Cancer: https://www.katiedeming.com/cancer-101/
6 Pillars of Healing Cancer Workshop Series – Click Here to Enroll
Work with Dr. Katie: www.katiedeming.com
Follow Dr. Katie Deming on Instagram: The.Conscious.Oncologist
Take a Deeper Dive into Your Healing Journey: Dr. Katie Deming’s Linkedin Here
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Read the Transcript Below:
[00:00:36] Dr. Katie Deming MD: The link is in the episode description. And stay connected with me by following on Instagram at The Conscious Oncologist. I'll still be posting there, and we have a few surprises in store for you when we return here in September. Thank you for being part of this healing community. Remember, we're all born to heal.
[00:00:55] Dr. Katie Deming MD: So let's continue this journey together.
[00:00:58] Matty Lansdown: This is episode [00:01:00] 359. Do you have or have you had cancer? There are approximately 20 million new cases worldwide that are diagnosed every year and that number is on the rise. The problem is no one in the medical industry really talks to you about why you got cancer in the first place. or what caused it to happen?
[00:01:21] Matty Lansdown: And in my opinion, they're the most important questions that need to be asked because they hold the most necessary information that will then go on to formulate [00:01:30] a plan and a protocol for healing. On this episode, we talk with a Western medical doctor about all of the other ways that you can deal with cancer, talk about the why of cancer, what caused the cancer and all of the conversational points that we touch on in this episode.
[00:01:46] Matty Lansdown: are not things that you would expect to hear from a doctor. So I think there's great benefit in listening to this episode, whether you have experienced cancer, have it in your family, or you don't. With the way the numbers are, it's important that we should all be understanding this information and [00:02:00] have this knowledge within us.
[00:02:01] Matty Lansdown: So let's get into it. Welcome to the How to Not Get Sick and Die podcast. You've tuned in because you want to start taking your health seriously, so you don't, well, get sick and die. Here we talk all things health, nutrition, and human optimization. Let's jump into it with your host and resident scientist, Maddy Lansdown.
[00:02:22] Matty Lansdown: What's up, my healthy friends? We've got some good stuff for you today. We're talking about cancer. Yeah, that's right. The big C word. However, firstly, [00:02:30] I want to share with you that in 2024, it's my mission to coach 500 people to get control of their sugar cravings and sugar binges so they can stop yo yo dieting, stop obsessing about food, and finally create a body that they feel confident being in.
[00:02:43] Matty Lansdown: And believe it or not, the mission I have today and moving forward for both this podcast, my programs and my work was founded or inspired by my experience that I had working in cancer research, which is why I really welcome anyone that wants to come on here and talk about the very large [00:03:00] number of ways, there is a large number of ways that can help you deal with cancer that are non conventional.
[00:03:06] Matty Lansdown: And so I want to introduce you to the very lovely Katie Deming. So, Dr. Katie Deming, whom is known as the conscious oncologist, two words that you probably never expected to hear in the same sentence or phrase, conscious and oncologist, she's a radiation oncologist, inventor and TEDx speaker, who is transcending the boundaries of conventional and integrative medicine to evolve the [00:03:30] current paradigm of disease prevention, treatment and healing.
[00:03:33] Matty Lansdown: She blends conventional medicine with holistic practices and ancient wisdom, which is right up my alley, to address the hidden roots of disease and to activate the body's innate ability to hear. Katie, I'm so glad that you're here. A big warm welcome to the show.
[00:03:48] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Maddie, thank you so much for having me.
[00:03:50] Dr. Katie Deming MD: It's my pleasure to be here.
[00:03:52] So the conscious oncologist, like I said in the intro, we didn't expect to hear those words together. What is a conscious oncologist?
[00:03:59] Dr. Katie Deming MD: [00:04:00] Yeah, well, I think that I have to explain a little bit of how I got here to explain what conscious oncology is and why I use the name the conscious oncologist, but so I was a radiation oncologist and healthcare leader, practiced for 20 years.
[00:04:17] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Design led or launched and led a very large scale cancer system for a large healthcare system. So running end to end care from screening and prevention all the way through treatment, [00:04:30] end of life, or survivorship. And. believed in the work that I was doing. But in 2019, I started to have this feeling like, I was like, I don't know, something's just off here.
[00:04:40] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Like, why are people younger and younger getting cancer? And why is the population overall getting sicker? I just felt like we were not moving anything in the right direction. And I wasn't sure what it was. And I had told my husband, I think something's wrong. Like I think I'm not supposed to be practicing radiation [00:05:00] oncology and it didn't make sense because I had trained my whole life.
[00:05:03] Dr. Katie Deming MD: I didn't have my first job until I was 32. You know, what was I going to do? And I didn't know. I was like, I don't know, but I just feel like something's off. And so what happened was in 2020, the fall of 2020, I had what's called a shared death experience. And this is very near, similar to a near death experience, except that the person who has this metaphysical experience of whatever is outside [00:05:30] this reality doesn't die.
[00:05:32] Dr. Katie Deming MD: It's someone who was at the scene of when someone else died and this is most common. I knew nothing about this before, but it most commonly happens to emergency room nurses and doctors or personnel or emergency personnel. And so anyway, what happened was I experienced all the things that, you know, or not all the things, but some of the things that people who have a near death experience, the love and the light and.
[00:05:58] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Just the [00:06:00] expansive joy and love, like I just don't have words for it, but anyway, after I had that experience, I knew, I knew I needed to leave and I knew what I was doing in Western medicine was not true healing. The catch was that I didn't know what was right. So this experience kind of unraveled my world because I knew I had to leave.
[00:06:24] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And also because as an oncologist, I had spent so much time around death that I [00:06:30] knew what people say at the end of their lives. And that they say, I wish I had been myself. I wish I hadn't been afraid to just do what I knew was right. I like, I wish that I hadn't just listened to what everyone else told me to do.
[00:06:43] Dr. Katie Deming MD: I've heard that so many times that I knew that when I get to the end of my life, that if I don't live it according to what I know is true, I will be held responsible for that. And I don't mean in like some doom way. I mean to myself that I would be [00:07:00] responsible to have used my life in the highest possible way.
[00:07:04] Dr. Katie Deming MD: So basically ended up dismantling my life, got a divorce, left Western medicine, sold everything and just really simplified and then took a year and a half off. And between the time of having this event and then the time all, you know, the time that I took me to finish my practice and then take a year and a half off, I just started studying like what makes us well.
[00:07:27] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And because I had in medicine, [00:07:30] what we learn is literally only what makes us sick. We study pathophysiology, but we never are taught what actually makes someone well. And so that's what I really wanted to learn. And so I spent the past few years diving into everything that I could. And I intentionally stayed away from the traditional systems like I didn't want to do a fellowship I didn't want to go to some institution because I was honestly afraid that I was going to be taught [00:08:00] incorrect information, but just a different path.
[00:08:02] Dr. Katie Deming MD: So what I did was just pull together the things that made sense to me and then I would look for the data to support them. And it was so interesting because I discovered so many things that I was never taught in medical school. But then when I dug, I found there's data to support this, like the connection between emotions and emotional trauma and developing cancer.
[00:08:22] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And doing emotional work and healing cancer, stuff that we never hear about, but there's actually data to support it. So, anyway, [00:08:30] after researching all of that, I've launched a holistic practice for healing cancer, which basically helps people clean out and detoxify their body so that their body, and stimulate the immune system so their body can do what it's designed to do, which is heal.
[00:08:48] I'm really curious. And I know you said before you had no words for the experience that you had when you had that shared experience, but was it, like, was it auditory? Was it visual? Where [00:09:00] were you? Were you sort of like, in the hospital? And someone was like, that woman's clearly on a mushroom trip. You know, like, you know, what was it like?
[00:09:10] Dr. Katie Deming MD: How did it happen? Sure. So I'll explain. So it, mine was different than the ones where you're actually at the scene. So what happened was, is that I had a colleague. whose best friend from childhood was dying of breast cancer. And I had been helping my colleague over the past few months [00:09:30] to make sure that her friend's wishes were granted, that she could stay home, that she didn't have unnecessary treatments and, and coaching also my friend or colleague about losing a friend at age 30, right?
[00:09:44] Dr. Katie Deming MD: These, these were both women in their 30, 31. And so I was coaching her through this. Anyway, one night in meditation, I had a woman's voice come to me and say, I can't [00:10:00] leave, but it's not because of me. It's because of them. And because I've spent so much time around death, I just instinctively knew that she was dying and that she was talking about her family or friends.
[00:10:12] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And so I just started talking to her and I just talked to her like as if I was with her and this is all in my mind. So when I say she talked to me, I knew what she said, but I can't say that I auditorily heard it, you know what I'm saying? So it's very interesting the perception during an event like this.
[00:10:29] Dr. Katie Deming MD: But so [00:10:30] I sat with her and I told her, there's no rush, you'll know when it's time and I'll stay with you, you know? And so then I just sat with her. And I just basically meditated and was with her. And at some point during the meditation, I saw that it was my colleague's friend, Misty. And so then I knew it was her.
[00:10:52] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And I don't know exactly how long this went on. I, when I look back at the, my like, you know, [00:11:00] recollection from that night, it was probably 30 to 40 minutes that I was in the meditation, but. At some point, her body started to pull away, like I could feel there was something pulling away from her body. And I was like, Oh, it must be her soul pulling away.
[00:11:15] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And I felt these pops, like pop, pop, pop, pop, like strings popping. And then all of a sudden, all at once, the sky opened up and everything became the brightest light, but not in a [00:11:30] scary way, like in a beautiful, beautiful. bathing, loving light, it just engulfed everything. And so she was there. I was there and it was just love and light.
[00:11:43] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And what happened was all of a sudden she gasped and she was like, Oh, it's so beautiful. I never had to worry. And then she was gone. And I was just sitting there and I was like, [00:12:00] what is going on? I was just overwhelmed because I had no idea what had just happened. And I was there and I don't know how long because time doesn't exist in this realm.
[00:12:11] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And so I, I don't know how long I was there, but I was overwhelmed by what I experienced. And it was more of a sensation of love and just warmth. And, um, so at some point I came out of it and I finished the meditation and I went to sleep. And the next morning I [00:12:30] woke up to a text from my colleague. Saying, thank you for helping me with Misty.
[00:12:36] Dr. Katie Deming MD: She passed last night.
[00:12:37] Wow.
[00:12:39] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And I didn't have the, in the moment, I was like, well, I mean, do I tell her, do I not? I thought it was like, she's going to think I'm crazy, right? But so I was like, I know this is a weird question, but can you tell me what time she passed? And she passed like right within a few minutes of me finishing that meditation.
[00:12:57] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Or was pronounced dead at that point. [00:13:00] So for me, that was confirmation that, that what I had experienced was real. Like that really did happen. Cause I think if I hadn't got that text, I might've always wondered, like, did that happen?
[00:13:12] Yeah, that's wild. And did you find that the logical part of your brain, the doctor part was like, that didn't just happen or that can't be real or, or was you just sitting in divine intuition of, you know, complete, that was reality?
[00:13:25] Dr. Katie Deming MD: No, I was like a 3D doctor. I'm like a normal 3D [00:13:30] doctor. I was like what? And after it happened, I didn't even tell my husband when I went to sleep because I was like, he's going to think I'm doing drugs or something. And I didn't do any drugs. I didn't drink any alcohol. I was literally sober and I didn't know what to say to my husband.
[00:13:46] Dr. Katie Deming MD: I didn't tell him. And it wasn't until after I got that text. And then I decided I'm like, I should tell my friend because maybe it'd be comforting because I was comforted by what she said and what Misty, you know, [00:14:00] said to me. And, um, what I experienced, so, and ultimately it was comforting for them, and then I was able to, you know, tell my husband that it was definitely, uh, um, not, and then, and then there's time to, there, you need time to integrate that.
[00:14:15] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Like, so a lot of people after near death experiences actually have a hard time reintegrating because, you know. Once you see what is real you come back here and you're like, why do people think this is like we go to a [00:14:30] hell because this is literally the like, you know, closest thing to a hell compared to that, you know, this is the hard place to be.
[00:14:38] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And so part of it was hard for me because I could, I had these new perceptions. But yet, I was still working and then that's when it really became clear, I'm like, I have to leave the system. Like, this is making people sick and in fact, I started, I became so sensitive, I became sick in the clinic where I just wouldn't feel good and I would have to wear things to [00:15:00] protect myself from everyone's energy because it's so toxic and so much fear in a cancer clinic.
[00:15:05] Dr. Katie Deming MD: So, it was rocky after that happened.
[00:15:09] Yeah, wow, it's so interesting that you said that you had to wear things to protect your energy. I literally received in the mail today this copper bangle thing and this copper ring and it literally says on the box, protective energy devices.
[00:15:25] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Yeah.
[00:15:25] We're meant to be in this conversation.
[00:15:27] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Yeah, we are energetic beings. So [00:15:30] when we're open, like, and what happened, I didn't know this before the event, but since I've done a lot of reading and in David Hawkins book, Power Versus Force. He talks about how when people have, and he talks about frequency and emotions in that book and levels of consciousness and how emotions are tied to frequency.
[00:15:50] Dr. Katie Deming MD: But one of the things that he explains is people who have near death experience are bathed in these extremely high frequencies that are up, you know, in the peace and [00:16:00] above range. That when they come back, they're fundamentally changed from that exposure. And I believe that's what happened to me, that I was just exposed to these very high frequencies that shifted something inside of me.
[00:16:15] Do you think you weren't receptive to them before, and something must have shifted for you to be open to them? And do you know what that thing was, or that shifted you into that open state?
[00:16:29] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Well, [00:16:30] I can tell you what, why I think I was closed. I mean, I've always been a seeker. I've always been open, but, um, I think that we are all inflamed.
[00:16:40] Dr. Katie Deming MD: We're eating and not, we're eating, you know, things that are not food and not in the ways that our bodies were designed. We're not connecting with the planet that we live on with the sun and the earth and we've got toxic emotions projected at us from like everywhere, [00:17:00] media, and the way that we're taught to live our life is, you know, stress and fear and all of this stuff that, you know, It's making all of us forget who we are, like all of us have higher perceptions, but we've all been chronically inflamed and it's affecting our ability to see what's possible and see who we are.
[00:17:22] Dr. Katie Deming MD: So I really think that yes, I wasn't seeing it, but not like because I was doing anything [00:17:30] personally to block it, but this is the lifestyle that we're living. It's making us sicker. We can see in the statistics, right? Diabetes, obesity, cancer, all rising exponentially neurodegenerative disease. But the one thing we're not talking about is from a consciousness, we're becoming less conscious with all of the rise of these illnesses.
[00:17:50] Dr. Katie Deming MD: So the illnesses that are making us physically sick are also affecting the way that we're able to think and perceive. live [00:18:00] autonomously and, and really be at the fullest forms of ourselves. We're conditioned to be someone different than who we truly are.
[00:18:08] I'm curious, do you think that it was different in the past?
[00:18:13] And I mean, besides different before. big farmer and big food. Like, do you think it was different? Because when I think about, you know, this conversation, which I have a lot, because I'm someone that left the cancer industry myself and, you know, went down all of the woo woo rabbit holes and love all that stuff to varying degrees.
[00:18:29] Now, [00:18:30] myself, I'm very aware of how the average listener looks upon that kind of stuff with a amount of trepidation and skepticism and that type of thing. But I often also am aware that these conversations. fall into the rut of romanticizing the past, especially when we talk about nutrition and natural medicine, you know, like Chinese medicine and naturopathy and Ayurvedic medicine, which are all great tools.
[00:18:54] I've done training in all of them in different ways and use them on my own body all of the time. [00:19:00] But equally, I always wonder about the idea that, you know, they weren't necessarily the answer. And, you know, with consciousness, were we conscious? as conscious as we, we wished we were a thousand years ago or 10, 000 years ago, or was it just people that had access to this knowledge?
[00:19:17] And this knowledge was always protected because there was always an oppressive system trying to oppress the people, right? Whether it was mainstream medicine or whether it was the king that was trying to invade the next, So I'm just [00:19:30] curious to open this dialogue about is this like a thing we're just discovering or has it always been there and everybody had it or was it protected by smart people that knew its power?
[00:19:40] Dr. Katie Deming MD: I think all of that. So I do think that sacred knowledge has always been protected and passed down from one generation to the next through people who could. Keep that preserved and not have it in the wrong hands. And for that exact, the [00:20:00] reason why that is, is because there has always been oppression.
[00:20:05] Dr. Katie Deming MD: There's always been the desire to control the masses for power. So I think both of those are true. And then the part about, do I think a thousand years ago we were more conscious? Probably not, but there were periods on the planet where we've been way more conscious. So look at the pyramids. I mean, like, how did those get here?
[00:20:29] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Like how [00:20:30] did that happen? So, and you look at some of the ancient texts, and again, I think these were protected, so I don't think that everyone thought this way, but clearly there have been times where we have had a better awareness of who we are and what we're capable than what we as a collective believe now.
[00:20:52] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Mm
[00:20:52] hmm. Yeah. That makes sense to me. And I guess there's probably been periods of history where Everybody knew and then nobody [00:21:00] knew, or there was some kind of ice age and the knowledge vanished from the earth, just like the pyramid knowledge, since we can't seem to figure out how those things came to be.
[00:21:08] But I guess, in regards to that protected knowledge idea, I want to have a conversation about something that I found challenging, and I'm really curious to know how you navigated this, because you said you started looking into alternative ideas, you know, in the context of cancer and that there was actually data.
[00:21:24] And now, one of the things that I found challenging was, I've just started to see this industry and [00:21:30] hospital that I work in as maybe the big bad monster, like, you know, metaphorically, although I, over time, I came to see it less like that, but I was also torn at the idea that I was, I too was finding all of this data on food and nutrition and emotional healing and, and energetic healing in the context of cancer and diabetes and things like that.
[00:21:50] But I was also aware of the fact that I'm using the same scientific framework to analyze the holistic natural [00:22:00] health stuff as well. And so I was sort of thinking, Oh, does that make sense? Because now I'm just buying into the scientific idea of food as medicine or the scientific idea of consciousness, healing, rather than it coming from an entirely different school of thought.
[00:22:16] Does that make sense?
[00:22:17] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Well, the problem is there's nothing new, right? So, like, there's no new ideas on the planet. Like, all of it has been [00:22:30] there, right? But then we get taken down different paths. And so, I feel like it would be hard to find something that's, like, totally new because Say, you know, a few hundred years ago, people knew better how to feed their bodies than we do know today.
[00:22:46] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Right? So that information was there, but I think you bring up a good point. And actually this is one of the things that has really shifted for me since that shared death experience is, is that I used to go when I [00:23:00] wanted to learn something, I would go research it and I would just like research it, read it and blah, blah, blah.
[00:23:05] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And actually now the way that I find things. is much more intuitive. It's almost like my antenna has been tuned. And so I listen, and if someone's speaking, and I'm like, Ah, that's resonating. Then I go dig to see, does this make sense, does this match? And that's how I've actually come to the way I think now, [00:23:30] is more using my internal knowing of what's right and wrong, because I clearly knew that Western medicine was wrong.
[00:23:36] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Like I had a clear knowing, but I just didn't know what to do with it because it's such a, I, my whole life was wrapped up in it, you know, but so I, I use that. And, and I think actually, I, you know, I don't know if you talk about intuition very much, but using what our bodies are telling us. about food, about, you know, [00:24:00] people, about what treatments to do, that's the, we have internal knowledge within us and to use that.
[00:24:05] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And then, yes, you can use science, although you could call it, I mean, should we call it science because it's being recorded by subjective people who potentially influence, you know, that you could go down the rabbit hole so far, but basically. using your intuition to say what feels right to me and then look to see if it makes sense, you know, from a logical scientific standpoint, it's kind of a different way to approach, but actually I find that that's [00:24:30] been, I've made more progress that way than I did the old way.
[00:24:34] Yeah. I talk a little bit about intuition because in the context of the work I do, intuitive eating comes up in the conversation a little bit. However, I always start from the standpoint that, if you on day one started intuitive eating, you probably intuitively want a pizza and chocolate and wine. And I think in this world where we're so hyper distracted with noise of social media, and I include myself in this, you know, I get stuck in the doom scroll every [00:25:00] now and then as well.
[00:25:00] And, you know, the Netflix series and then porn and then food and sugar, and then, you know, work and all of it. Right. And all of it. And keeping up with the Joneses. There's no space for anybody to sit in meditation and meditation doesn't necessarily mean in this context, sitting down, you know, with your legs crossed, it just means like going for a walk without any other stimulation, right?
[00:25:22] Like that natural meditation that would have kind of happened for people a lot 50 years ago, a hundred years ago, because you couldn't take [00:25:30] your phone and you, you know, your, um, earbuds and text someone at the same time as watching Netflix is, you know, at the same time as eating as well. And so I think that, Yeah, that antenna, people have basically burnt their antenna to the ground, unintentionally, because they're just, you know, their life is being modeled around them by people doing the same thing.
[00:25:48] And so that idea that, oh, I have an inner knowing, or I have a guiding light or an idea or a concept within me that is my truth, I think a lot of people are intimidated by that and sort of write it off as hippie [00:26:00] nonsense. Because They've never had a conversation within themselves that remotely resembles anything like that.
[00:26:05] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Yes. And though So it requires space. So cultivating your own intuition and getting clear answers requires space and quiet like you described. And also if you think about it, our ancestors, when they would walk around and they didn't have all these distractions, they were actually looking to the trees and to the animals and everything [00:26:30] like that.
[00:26:30] Dr. Katie Deming MD: They believed all of it was alive and kind of speaking to them. And there were, you know, messages and all of this. And so they were really tuned in. So we're really distracted. We're really kind of taken away from ourselves, which you're describing there. And so it requires some space and quiet, but we all have that, like everyone's had an experience where they just knew they're like, just, Oh, you know, something says this is not right, but they go ahead and do it because it doesn't make sense.
[00:26:59] Dr. Katie Deming MD: [00:27:00] And then later they're like, I knew it. I knew something was not right about that. And so we all have that, but we, it's, it shows itself when it's really big. Right. But if we can quiet and create space, you can cultivate that and you can practice it so that you can have it become more reliable on a day-to-day basis.
[00:27:19] Dr. Katie Deming MD: But you're right, we are distracted.
[00:27:21] Yeah, for sure. And it's just getting worse, you know? Now we're down to the, I guess what, you know, 15 second stories and reels and. [00:27:30] You know, that's the speed at which the new dopamine hit and the emotional rollercoaster. It's like a story that can make you cry and a story that can make you laugh.
[00:27:37] And then you're just like being, you know, back and forth, like a tennis match between your emotions, which probably once upon a time, you know, going that fast between emotional states was. Very rare, unless you're in the middle of a war.
[00:27:50] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Yeah.
[00:27:51] Yeah. So I'm curious to know sort of maybe more on a, you know, looking into your history with cancer and as a doctor and combining [00:28:00] it with where you are now, I'm curious to know what a combination of things, actually, I want to talk about the innate immune system or the innate ability.
[00:28:08] for us to heal and knowing, you know, the cancer rates are huge, almost, we're almost at one in one with statistics, but one in two roughly, and that are going to experience it in some way. And so I'm curious with everything you know, what are some things that we would not expect to hear from your average western medical doctor about one's innate ability to heal?
[00:28:29] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Well, [00:28:30] I think that the body can heal cancer on its own, but when you have cancer, you have an imbalance of the immune system is knocked down and the toxicity is really high. And normally if you have, you know, toxicity, something happens with the cell is, you know, lost control and is dividing like a cancer cell.
[00:28:55] Dr. Katie Deming MD: The body's immune system takes care of that all the time, every day. This is what our body does. [00:29:00] But what happens is, is that it's like my mentor describes, it's like, if you have one pickpocket in the neighborhood, it's not a problem, right, because we can find the one pickpocket and get rid of them. If all of a sudden that guy comes back with like 200 of his friends, and the whole neighborhood is overcome by these thieves, You have a problem and your security system's not able to handle it.
[00:29:25] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And so this is what happens with our immune system. Our immune system [00:29:30] is overwhelmed by the cancer, but then also the immune system is affected by our lifestyle for the things that we've already talked about. Diet, connecting with. The sun, the earth, you know, our emotions, like being, you know, in constant fear, all of those things basically are suppressing the immune system.
[00:29:48] Dr. Katie Deming MD: So you've got this imbalance and then now the cancer is taking over, right? So that's what's going on with cancer. But interesting thing about, and you didn't ask this, but I'll say it in conventional [00:30:00] therapy, and this is one of the reasons why I decided I had to leave was when I understood that was the problem.
[00:30:06] Dr. Katie Deming MD: I looked at, okay, well, then what is cancer treatment? Let's just take chemotherapy. What does chemotherapy do? Well, it increases the toxicity, which is already the problem. And what does it do to your immune system?
[00:30:18] Suppress.
[00:30:19] Dr. Katie Deming MD: It lowers it.
[00:30:20] Yeah.
[00:30:21] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Right. So now, yes, we may have killed some cancer cells, but we've just taken the problem.
[00:30:28] Dr. Katie Deming MD: and potentially [00:30:30] worsened it. And so I really believe that when you give the body the right inputs and basically you line people up in a way that gets them connected with themselves and eating the right foods and taking care of themselves and setting boundaries with people that are toxic in their life and dealing with past trauma and doing all of that, People, their bodies are designed to heal.
[00:30:59] Dr. Katie Deming MD: You know, if you cut [00:31:00] your hand, the body heals, like you don't have to worry about it and think about how am I going to make my finger heal. Now, if you have diabetes, and you're inflamed and your body is, you know, full of sugar, you glycated yourself basically is not going to heal. And this is what is happening with cancer.
[00:31:20] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Cancer will heal also on its own, but we're so inflamed and we've got so many issues that have led to toxicity in the body. And then the immune system is lowered that we're not able to do [00:31:30] it ourselves. But if you do that, you can actually, people can heal. And Kelly Turner's, uh, work for radical remissions.
[00:31:38] Dr. Katie Deming MD: She basically studied people who cured their cancer without or without conventional therapy or without conventional therapy that would be expected to have eradicated all disease. And what she did was she studied to see are there factors that are common to these people and she found 10 factors that were common between all of them.
[00:31:57] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And that's an example. These are [00:32:00] thousands of people that have cured their cancer by doing these different things. And her list is just, you know, things that are common. It's correlation, not causation. But these are examples of real people have done this and I've seen it now in my practice. So. It can happen.
[00:32:16] Can you share some of the 10 that are common between many of them?
[00:32:20] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Sure. So, uh, changing radical changes in their diet, although interesting, like not any specific diet, just changing your diet. Another one is, um, [00:32:30] releasing past trauma or healing past trauma. Another is fostering positive emotions. I think red meat is on there, although I would, that's why I'm saying these are correlation, not causation, but red meat is on there, like basically lowering red meat.
[00:32:47] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Having a reason to live is the fifth. Laughing, finding laughter is another one. And then I can't remember all of them off the top of my head, but yes.
[00:32:58] Yeah. Interesting. Maybe [00:33:00] after we're offline, I would love to find out how I can look at that list, especially if red's meat, red meat is on there. I'd be very.
[00:33:06] interested to debate that with somebody.
[00:33:10] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Yeah. So, and that's when people quote that work, I'm like, well, you know, it's, it's correlation, not causation. So, you know, who knows?
[00:33:18] Yeah. So I'm curious now that you're sort of into this type of work. So how does the, the consciousness conversation happen? Like, you know, what, what is one sort of come to you [00:33:30] and say, I need.
[00:33:31] You know, to reverse my cancer or heal from my cancer. Like, you know, what does that look like? And I say that from the lens of thinking about people listening, right?
[00:33:39] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Sure. So, nobody comes to me wanting to talk about consciousness. People come to me because they want to cure their cancer. And so, I basically help people wherever they are.
[00:33:52] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And one of the things that's beautiful about my experience, there's a reason that I was in Western medicine and, you know, practiced [00:34:00] for 20 years. So, I can span the whole spectrum of people who want to do conventional therapy, but want to get the best outcomes and have a more holistic approach all the way to people who don't want to do conventional therapy and want a completely alternative approach.
[00:34:16] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And I just span that whole spectrum. And also a big part of my practice, a lot of what people come to see me about is how to make treatment decisions. So they've seen an oncologist or a team of oncologists and they have a treatment plan [00:34:30] and they're just not sure. And they're also like, not sure, like, is this doctor just trying to sell this treatment?
[00:34:35] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Because that's what they do. You know, if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And so they come to me and, and I can help people look at, okay, like what are the risks and benefits of these treatments? Do you really understand the potential complications and, and the potential benefits and, and then get them.
[00:34:53] Dr. Katie Deming MD: to a place where they are not afraid and they're not making the decision from fear, but making from a decision, the [00:35:00] decision from a grounded place. So that's, I do a lot of treatment decision support. I also do helping people through conventional therapy and then also root cause evaluations of helping people uncover the multiple things that may be underlying why their body grew cancer in the first place.
[00:35:18] Yeah. Thanks for sharing. As I was thinking there, and sort of your comments about Western medicine and being from a very similar place of feeling the same, I'm curious to know what at this stage of your journey, because I know it's [00:35:30] changed for me, where do you see Western medicine's value in the system of healing?
[00:35:35] Because I know I went through a phase where I was like, it's terrible and it never should have existed and it's awful. And then I sort of transitioned very slowly to being like, well, it probably should be a part of the conversation because without the research and the ability to test and diagnose to the, you know, the level, then we probably can't respond to some situations.
[00:35:54] And equally, I have this idea that sort of founded on the basis of just my own experience, [00:36:00] which is that sometimes a toxic life. Which we live an extremely toxic life, needs toxic medicine to be able to compete. And what I mean by that is that Chinese herbs are really effective when you've got something that you caught in nature, not from a body that was destroyed by artificial chemicals, artificial food, artificial ideas.
[00:36:19] And so maybe there is a place for a period of time, a life that produced toxic disease needs toxic medicine to match it. Not to say that, you know, we don't do that on day one and then every other day after that's herbs and [00:36:30] food and meditation and stuff like that, but I'm just curious, like, where do you see the value in chronic, a chronic disease setting or a cancer setting of Western medicine?
[00:36:37] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Sure. Well, I think the biggest place for Western medicine is in acute traumas and emergencies obviously plays a big role there. With cancer, it's interesting what you say that sometimes a toxic, you know, life or toxic illness requires toxic treatment, and I think you're right. And not because the body's [00:37:00] not capable of healing disease at any stage, but when someone is so inflamed, They actually aren't in a place to get their body quick enough to that place to just heal on its own.
[00:37:15] And
[00:37:16] Dr. Katie Deming MD: so sometimes killing the cancer cells, you know, in a conventional way serves a purpose. But this is, I mean, my, so my point is that not that all [00:37:30] conventional therapy is bad because actually I'm like, if for you, that's what you want to have. I support that. Like, I really believe that we all get to choose what's right for us.
[00:37:41] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And so sometimes that's right, but the thing that, and I'll tell a story from like, this was 2017, I went to a meditation retreat and we heard this parable and the parable was of the river, the village along the river. And the story went something like this, that there was a village [00:38:00] by a, like alongside a river.
[00:38:01] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And one day. The villagers saw someone drowning the river. So someone went out, rescued the person and got them to dry land. And then the next day there were two people drowning in the river. So then they sent two people out and they rescued them and they got them in. Next day there were four and then eight and 16 and every day it was doubling.
[00:38:21] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And basically this village got very organized and they created this elaborate rescue system and they had these rescue boats and [00:38:30] pulleys and all of this stuff's like amazing rescue operation. And the village elders were praising the villagers for what a wonderful job they were doing. And I looked at my friend, I was there at this, uh, meditation retreat with a good friend who's a GYN oncologist.
[00:38:46] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And I looked at her and I said, this is Western medicine and what the hell is happening upstream? What is happening? And then I said, and you know what? By the way, we're just like glorified rescue workers on the river and we're getting these people on dry land [00:39:00] and when we get them there, we have no idea why they got sick in the first place.
[00:39:04] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And then we're just sending them back up and they're probably just going to fall in again. And this for me is the point that if someone is going to do Western medicine, the Western medicine is good at killing the cancer cells. But it's also suppress immune system. So when you finish that, you need to do the other work to lay the foundation to get your body healthy again and build up the immune system and do the emotional work.
[00:39:28] Dr. Katie Deming MD: You know, you need to do [00:39:30] all these pieces to truly heal. Otherwise you're basically just walking right up that bank of that river and whatever is up there was already still there and you're going to fall back in. So this is what I want people to know is that if you do Western therapy. You have to know that that is not the end all like there's more to healing and also the way that radiation chemotherapy work is the cell kill is logarithmic.
[00:39:56] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And that what that's a fancy word to say that [00:40:00] it doesn't kill all the cancer cells. It's kind of like an antibacterial. You'll see on the bottle. It says kills 99. 9 percent of the bacteria. That's logarithmic cell kill. You never kill every last cell. bacteria, or in this case, cancer cell, you basically kill most of them.
[00:40:17] Dr. Katie Deming MD: And then the idea is that those hundred cells, thousand cells are left behind. You need a million cells to have a centimeter worth of cancer on the scan. And like a pet scan doesn't light up for [00:40:30] anything smaller than a centimeter. So you can have a scan that looks totally clear and have a thousand or a hundred thousand cells there, right?
[00:40:37] Dr. Katie Deming MD: So, cancer treatments, you can ask your doctor, your doctor will tell you, yes, this is how it happens, but they'll say, your immune system is going to take care of the rest. Well, my question is, we've just blown the immune system to smithereens by this treatment, so you don't want to rely on that. You need to then have a strategy about, okay, how am I going to rebuild my immune system?
[00:40:59] Dr. Katie Deming MD: How am I [00:41:00] going to eat to support my body to recover and actually have a healthy body? the reserves to kill these cancer cells, which your body is designed to do, but the chemo is going to impact your ability to get back there.
[00:41:12] Yeah. It's reminiscent of the moment that I had when I was working at the hospital of, and it seems so simple, but it's, we're just not taught to think this way when it comes to medicine, which is, I just realized, Oh, people get cancer out there.
[00:41:27] in the world and then they come to the hospital to get [00:41:30] fixed and then they go back out there. And so it's like, hang on, they didn't get the cancer at the hospital, right? It was that basic, right? And it's like, okay, so then the question is, what about out there? is not helpful or that cause cancer. And then we start a conversation of, you know, the makeup that I use, the food that I eat, the products that are underneath my sink and in my bathroom.
[00:41:53] Um, and you know, the, where I get my food from and what's, you know, the glyphosate on them or the, you know, and then it's like this huge conversation, the stress [00:42:00] of my job, the challenges of relationship I don't want to be in, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But it's just, it really comes to that. It's like, what is my life that produced cancer?
[00:42:08] What is possibly producing cancer in that life? How do I change it? And on the way, the hospital might be able to help.
[00:42:14] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Right. I love that analogy of like, what's happening out there. That's the same, like we have the same realization, just like a different metaphor.
[00:42:22] Yeah, totally, totally. So this is great.
[00:42:24] Like, I love, I love how open minded you are, and it's so nice that you've been on this experience and this [00:42:30] transition from sort of, yeah, that, that really clinical research scientific based thinking, and you're so open to all of this. And I think it's. Especially for people that listen to this show, it's, it's, you know, music to people's ears to know that there are other ways to think about things, other ways to do things because they're often sitting in front of doctors, absolutely terrified, feeling completely disempowered and unable to advocate, but some intuition that might be coming up.
[00:42:52] So it's, you know, it fills me with hope to know that there's people like you in the world. So I'm curious for anyone that's resonating or really loving you [00:43:00] and which is easy to do, obviously. Where can they find you on the internet? Where are they going?
[00:43:05] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Sure. Katie Deming. com. So it's K A T I E D E M I N G.
[00:43:10] Dr. Katie Deming MD: com. And my podcast is Born to Heal, and on the most recent season, starting February 13th of 2024, I started sharing my journey of why I left Western medicine, and then each week I bring on guests to teach me and my listeners all [00:43:30] the things that I should have been taught in medical school that I wasn't.
[00:43:33] Fantastic, I will put those links in the show notes below, so please scroll down, click the links and get into Katie's world. And to wrap up Katie, what is one piece of health information that you wish more people knew about?
[00:43:45] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Your body is designed to heal.
[00:43:48] Mic drop. Amazing. Thank you so much for being here.
[00:43:53] We'll catch you soon.
[00:43:54] Dr. Katie Deming MD: Thank you so much.[00:44:00]
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