Episode 146 | 20 Years in Oncology Never Taught Me THIS | Fasting, Fear, & the Path to True Healing

[00:00:00] Dr. Nasha Winters: There's a reason your body chose illness, and it's not the one you've been told. Today, I'll show you what 20 years in oncology never taught me. Welcome to Born to Heal, the podcast helping people with cancer go beyond Western medicine to heal naturally through the ancient power of prolonged water fasting, so you can ditch the toxic protocols, take control of your health, and let your body do what it's designed to do: heal. I'm your host, Dr. Katie Deming.

[00:00:30] Dr. Katie Deming: Today's episode is a little different. The conversation you're about to hear isn't one I recorded for this show. It's an interview I did as a guest on my dear friend and colleague,

[00:00:41] Dr. Katie Deming: Dr. Nasha Winters' podcast. It went somewhere so honest and so close to the heart of this work that I asked to share it with you here. So for this one, Nasha's in the host seat, and I'm the one answering the questions. By the end of this episode, you're going to know why I walked away from my career as a radiation oncologist and healthcare leader, and the experience that made staying impossible.

[00:01:06] Dr. Katie Deming: You'll also learn what actually happens inside your body across a prolonged water fast, from the first hours through the deep work that only begins after day seven. And you'll also learn the four things I've seen again and again in people who heal and why fasting is the fast track to all of them.

[00:01:26] Dr. Katie Deming: Let's dive in

[00:01:26] Dr. Nasha Winters: Dr. Katie Deming, welcome, welcome, welcome to Tend the Terrain

[00:01:32] Dr. Katie Deming: I am so excited to be here with you, Nasha

[00:01:35] Dr. Nasha Winters: I love it. We've, we've had some amazing conversations both in the podcast arena, but also in person. And you just, each time I just get in your presence, you're just a beautiful being, and I know you know that, or I hope you know that about yourself. But it just really strikes me that I always feel just a sense of groundedness and calm, but also enthusiasm when I'm around you.

[00:01:59] Dr. Katie Deming: Same. I feel the same

[00:02:02] Dr. Nasha Winters: I hope. Good. I love it. I love it.

[00:02:05] Dr. Katie Deming: Respect and a- adoration. Yeah

[00:02:08] Dr. Nasha Winters: I can't wait for people to hear a little bit more about you, and this first concept I wanna dig into is the concept of the crack in the foundation. Okay, so you spent 20-plus years in the radiation oncology world. You were trained at one of the best institutions of the world.

[00:02:26] Dr. Nasha Winters: You rose to a level honestly most clinicians can dream of, can only dream of, right? And so in 2020, something happened that you've described as a shared death experience, and I'd love for you to take us into that moment, not just what happened, but what it felt like to have the ground literally disappear beneath a life you'd care- so, so, so carefully built.

[00:02:49] Dr. Katie Deming: Yeah, so I was, you know, kind of at the height of my career at this point in the fall of 2020, and had been practicing as a radiation oncologist, serving as a healthcare leader, and had just come to this place where I had been, you know, nominated for a position nationally within my organization, and then it came down to me and one other woman, and she got it.

[00:03:13] Dr. Katie Deming: And I always trust when things don't work out in the way that, you know, we, we think we want something, it's like, “Oh, well, this is happening for a reason.” And I knew that. And then a week later, I had this experience that you're describing, and, it's called a shared-death experience, which many people are familiar with a near-death experience.

[00:03:32] Dr. Katie Deming: But a shared-death experience is different in that it happens to people who are at the scene where someone else transitions. So it can happen to healthcare professionals. It can also happen to family members or friends who are with a loved one and they pass. And what's interesting for mine is that I was not physically with the other person.

[00:03:55] Dr. Katie Deming: it happened in a meditation, but I'll explain what happened so that that way, it can speak for itself. But I was basically in meditation, and I heard this woman's voice speaking to me. And the things that she said was, “I can't let go, but it's not because of me, it's because of them.” And I don't know why, but instinctively I knew that she was dying and that she was talking about her friends or family, and that she couldn't leave because she didn't want to leave them.

[00:04:29] Dr. Katie Deming: And so because I've spent so much time, I've cared for 5,000 patients with cancer in my lifetime, and 40% of my practice was palliative. I've spent a lot of time with people who are either facing the end of their life or transitioning at the end of their life. And so I just talked to her like as if I was with a patient and, you know, said to her, “There's no rush.

[00:04:51] Dr. Katie Deming: You'll know when it's time, and I'll stay with you.” And so I just sat with her in meditation. I had no experience like this before, so this was totally new. But in the moment, I just kinda knew what to do. And so I sat with her, and at some point in the meditation, I realized who it was. That I had a colleague at work who was actually an administrator.

[00:05:16] Dr. Katie Deming: So I ran the cancer programs. I was the medical director, and she was the administrator, and so we had worked very closely together for a long time. And her best friend was dying. And her best friend– They were in, I wanna say, late 20s, early 30s, so young, this colleague of mine. And her best friend was the same age.

[00:05:37] Dr. Katie Deming: So I can't remember whether she was late 20s or early 30s, but young and had breast cancer. Her name was Misty. So my colleague's name was Brooke. The friend's name was Misty. And I had been helping Brooke, so I had been telling Brooke, “Okay, these are the things that I would do to make sure her wishes are honored.

[00:05:57] Dr. Katie Deming: You know, could she be at home?” You know, what to do about different options, and really helping my colleague navigate losing a close friend at this young age, not only to help Misty, but to also help Brooke kinda process through this. And so I was connected to her in this way, and suddenly in the meditation, I saw that it was her.

[00:06:19] Dr. Katie Deming: And I've never seen her, actually. I've never seen a picture. I just knew of her, but I knew that it was Misty. And so I just stayed with her, and I don't know how long this went on for. I feel like it was, like, a 30 minutes or so that I was in there with her, just sitting there. And at some point, I started to feel something pulling, and now I can surmise that it was her soul pulling away from her physical body.

[00:06:44] Dr. Katie Deming: But basically, I started feeling this pulling, and then I heard pops. Like pop, pop, pop, pop. And as soon as the last pop happened, it was like the sky opened up, and I was suddenly inside the sun. That's the best way I can describe it. I don't really have words for it, but it was just what people who have near-death experiences describe as that beautiful light and love that's ineffable.

[00:07:09] Dr. Katie Deming: And so I was engulfed in that, and she gasped. She said, my gosh. It's so beautiful. I never had to worry.” And I could feel, like, tears, like that she was just in tears because it was so beautiful. And she was gone, and then I was in this space for I really don't know how long, because time doesn't exist in this space, and I was just suspended there.

[00:07:39] Dr. Katie Deming: And then I came out at some point, and I was like, “What just happened?” I have no idea. I had no words for it. I had no, no experience like that before. And I was like I don't know what that is, but I went to sleep. I didn't tell my husband because I thought that he would, like, think I was doing drugs or something.

[00:07:58] Dr. Katie Deming: I was like, “I don't know what just happened.” So I went to sleep. And the morning when I woke up, I woke up to a text, and the text was from Brooke, and it said, “Thank you so much for your help. Misty died last night.” And it was a picture of Misty. And I was like, yeah. Oh, yeah, I knew that.” I was– But, but I didn't know what to say to her, and so I basically just said, you know, “I'm so sorry, and, it was my pleasure to– or privilege to really help you and serve in that way.

[00:08:28] Dr. Katie Deming: And by the way, what time did she die?” And it turned out that she transitioned within five minutes of the time when I had been in meditation. And, and I, I think that that had to happen for me to believe that something really had transpired that night, because otherwise I think I would've just blown it off and not thought that it was really anything real that had happened.

[00:08:51] Dr. Katie Deming: But obviously something real had happened, and I had connected with her as she was transitioning. And the other thing that had happened was, you know, at first I couldn't tell Brooke because I was a little sheepish. Like, I didn't wanna upset her. I didn't wanna say something that would make her feel like…

[00:09:08] Dr. Katie Deming: I, I don't know what. It would be upsetting. But in the end, when I told her, Brooke was like, “Oh, we thought that someone from the other side, like a loved one who had already transitioned, had come and helped walk her home,” because she had been so agitated for, like, five days. She was ready to transition but just couldn't let go, wouldn't let go.

[00:09:31] Dr. Katie Deming: And then all of a sudden, on this evening, she became calm and peaceful within the last 30 minutes and then– and transitioned. And so for them, it was reassuring because they knew, oh, someone had been with her. But it wasn't from the other side. It was me on this side, not even knowing that I could do that or, you know, w- what I was doing.

[00:09:51] Dr. Katie Deming: But that's what happened.

[00:09:52] Dr. Nasha Winters: Oh my gosh. Would you say this was a defining moment for you living like, I would call it like sort of, you know, pre-Katie life to post-Katie life? Is that a defining moment for you?

[00:10:05] Dr. Katie Deming: Absolutely, because just like a near-death experience, you know, the exposure to that light and love of whatever is outside this realm is life-changing. When you're exposed to that, you're changed fundamentally, and David Hawkins talks about this in Map of Consciousness about near-death experiences that, you know, if you look at the very high end of that, scale at the top of peace and enlightenment, those are the highest frequency emotions, that something happens when people have near-death experiences that bathes them in those high-frequency emotions that they can't help but be changed when they come back.

[00:10:45] Dr. Katie Deming: And for me, that was the case, you know, that I came back, but I came back different, and I didn't know what the different was, but it suddenly was clear that, oh, things are shifting for me in ways that I can't explain. So it absolutely was like a defining line for my life before and then after.

[00:11:03] Dr. Nasha Winters: Amazing. And I know it's, you know, you've shared in other environments about the changes that were happening in your personal life, but you clearly made major changes in your professional life. And you call the work you do today, conscious oncology. And I think a lot of people might hear that and assume that's just sort of a softer version of what you did before.

[00:11:24] Dr. Nasha Winters: But really, from what I've seen, it's actually more demanding, you know, the way you're showing up in this space. And so not of the patient's compliance, but of their willingness to go inward. And so can you talk a little bit about what consciousness has to do with how a body heals or doesn't heal from a cancer process?

[00:11:43] Dr. Katie Deming: Sure. So what I do now is radically different. So I left my practice as a radiation oncologist. I didn't know exactly why, I just knew that I had to leave. And I'd been getting that message for about a year before the shared-death experience, and I think the shared-death experience was kind of like that moment of really getting smacked upside the head, like, “Hey, there's something here to pay attention to.”

[00:12:04] Dr. Katie Deming: And so when I left, I started really diving into what makes us well, right? ‘ Cause in, in traditional conventional medicine, we're not taught, not taught anything about that. And so I was diving into that and really, you know, started to realize that things like emotions, we're not taught anything about this in Western medicine, but emotions, I would say that cancer is like 90-plus percent related to emotions, and started realizing that.

[00:12:34] Dr. Katie Deming: And then really the bottom line is that illness is spiritual. All healing is spiritual. And illness is simply like the body's way of communicating a message that something needs to shift, something is out of alignment. And so that could be so many things, right? And we are so disconnected from our spiritual selves in modern life, right?

[00:12:59] Dr. Katie Deming: We're toxified. We are, you know, disconnected from nature. We are, r- running around at a pace that is just not good for any of us. We're, you know, constantly exposed to emotional turmoil through the news and, you know, things that are happening in the world, and this has us really disconnected from ourselves, and it's making us sick, and we can see that in the statistics, right?

[00:13:22] Dr. Katie Deming: So, you know, cancer 100 years ago, it was like one in 33 people would get cancer in their lifetime, and today in 2026, it's one in two people. That is staggering, right? That we're not addressing this. And a lot of that comes from that we are disconnected from ourselves, that we are toxified, and that consciousness is the foundation of all of it, that we are conscious spiritual beings, and that- Balance is really what brings health back to the body.

[00:13:55] Dr. Katie Deming: And so conscious oncology or conscious medicine or conscious healing, as I would describe it, is really bringing balance back to the human being for us to remember who we are and why we are here. And it seems so silly, like people say, you know, that seems very out there. But I can tell you now that I work with people in a different way, and they– And now fasting has become like a big part of my, like actually my practice, because fasting is a way to go inside to like clean yourself and, and get in there.

[00:14:29] Dr. Katie Deming: But I've seen so many people who are sick because they're misaligned in their job, they're misaligned in relationships, they're misaligned in pretending to be someone that they're not. And I think people don't understand that that can make you sick, right? And, and that's what the foundation of this is, really helping bring people back to themselves and bring balance back into the human being to heal the human.

[00:14:54] Dr. Katie Deming: It's not about killing cancer. And that's what I did for so many years, right? For 20 years, I just killed cancer cells. But– And you can do that, and that's an effective way to get rid of cancer tumors, but it doesn't heal the underlying problem, which is, as you, you know, are the queen of the terrain and what is happening, why are we amenable to having disease, occur in the body?

[00:15:18] Dr. Nasha Winters: Amazing. I love all of this. It's so resonant here, and I know it's gonna land for others in the same way. I love that you also wove into the conversation fasting, because you are looking at ways to utilize, like, the remembering of what we've evolved from, the remembering of ourselves, remembering of our connection to everything in, on, and around us.

[00:15:38] Dr. Nasha Winters: And one of the most profound tools to do just that is fasting. So can we take a moment and talk a little bit about fasting? ‘ Cause you've developed something called the Deming Fast, which is a supervised, prolonged water fast that can take anywhere from seven to 30 days. And you're not just… You know, you're, you're doing this through watching labs, but you're also holding incredible intimate space for something that happens at the level of the mitochondria, but also at the level of the soul simultaneously.

[00:16:07] Dr. Nasha Winters: So I'd love for you to walk us through what actually happens in the body and in the person, where fasting is part of their protocol. And so maybe not just metabolically, but fundamentally. Just really would love you to share this incredible wisdom that you have now brought forth

[00:16:24] Dr. Katie Deming: Sure. Well, I first wanna say that I did not start out wanting to fast people. I was actually terrified of it because it sounded so scary as from my background in conventional medicine, it sounded crazy. But a few things that led to this that, that kind of just explains why when I fast people, we do it in the way that we do.

[00:16:45] Dr. Katie Deming: But for me, what I learned in my practice when I started working with people about healing the root cause of cancer, I found that really people who healed without conventional medicine did four things. They, number one, had a calm nervous system. Number two, they detoxed their body on all levels, so not just physically, but emotionally and mentally. They nourished themselves on all the levels with the right things, so right, a metabolic diet, of course, the foundation, but also what are we feeding ourselves emotionally and mentally and spiritually? And then the fourth thing was that they align with their authentic self And so those four things for me became the conscious healing method.

[00:17:34] Dr. Katie Deming: That was what I was doing in my one-on-one practice. And when I was, you know, you know this, when you're in a practice, and I was learning, this was all new for me, right? I practiced 20 years as a conventional oncologist, and then all of a sudden I'm out here talking about emotions and all this stuff. It was– There's so much to do in the natural space.

[00:17:53] Dr. Katie Deming: But what I found was that I had started fasting a few people based on my mentor, who basically teaches healing in the ancient ways, and he had recommended fasting. And what I found with fasting was that fasting was a way to get all of those four things accomplished. You calm the nervous system. Fasting calms the nervous system.

[00:18:15] Dr. Katie Deming: It detoxifies the body on all levels. It also detoxifies emotions and also mental, like, thought patterns that are not in alignment with your highest self. When people are fasting, they can see that. It also nourishes them, which seems so weird, but it's, it's deeply nourishing to clear yourself out in this way, and then the way that we re-feed and also what we teach in terms of emotional processing.

[00:18:40] Dr. Katie Deming: And then most importantly, it aligns them with their authentic self. There is no better way, in my mind, without using, you know, something like plant medicine to connect with your authentic self than fasting. And so what happened was that I decided to focus my whole practice on fasting, but using this conscious healing method within the fast.

[00:19:02] Dr. Katie Deming: And so when people come to fast with me, the biggest pushback that I get is I tell people, “You have to stop working, and you have to stop your world.” And the reason why is, you know, my mentor, one of the things that he talks about with, you know, we're in a pivotal time in Earth's history, right? Where there's this split happening and divide.

[00:19:24] Dr. Katie Deming: And what he says is that, you know, if people wanna change their world You first need to stop your world.

[00:19:33] Dr. Katie Deming: When you stop your world, you change your world. And when you change your world, you can change the world. But everyone wants to change the world before they've really changed their own world. And so fasting is a way, when it, when done right, and this is, you know, one of the things that I get a lot of pushback, people are like, “You don't have to rest.

[00:19:54] Dr. Katie Deming: You don't…” And true, you don't have to rest. You can fast. I mean, you're an example. You were doing the conference on day nine of your fast when I, when I saw you in October. So, you know, obviously you can fast, but you can w- you know, do things while you're fasting. But if you want this deep healing transformative experience, stopping your world as part of the fast is a crucial step.

[00:20:18] Dr. Katie Deming: And then also being guided in a way through this. Like, as the emotions come up, what is, you know, moving through you? How do we be with our emotions? How do we process emotions in a healthy way so they don't get stuck in us? How do we see our triggers as blessings to like, “Oh, someone just squeezed me.

[00:20:35] Dr. Katie Deming: Amazing. This is another layer of something that I can unfold.” And so for me, within my fasting program, I spend time with them every day, so they're with me every day for at least an hour in a group setting, and then we have other coaches who come and work with them, and we're really addressing things on a very fundamental level.

[00:20:56] Dr. Katie Deming: So fasting is, you know, beautiful in, from a metabolic perspective, right? By 24 to 48 hours, you're starting to have, lower IGF. Your s- your glucose is obviously lowering. You're starting to get into autophagy around 36 hours of recycling of intracellular proteins. By the time you get to day three, you're in ketosis, which for cancer we know is great because you're cutting off the glucose supply.

[00:21:23] Dr. Katie Deming: And then once you get past day three, you start getting into detox, right? So if you're using your fatty acids from your fat cells for fuel, you're opening those fat cells, and the toxins now are getting released, right? So it's our body's natural way to detoxify itself. So days four to seven, you have this beautiful detoxification that's happening, and then also growth hormone is coming on.

[00:21:46] Dr. Katie Deming: And this is one that I think is so beautiful because one of the biggest objections and fears about fasting is lean body mass and loss of muscle. And the studies show, and now actually I'm seeing it with my data and with my clients in fasting, muscle mass is preserved. I had someone who just finished a 30-day fast, and he already had a very low, body fat percentage.

[00:22:12] Dr. Katie Deming: His lean body mass stayed exactly the same, not one ounce loss of body mass, and his visceral fat plummeted, which is the most dangerous fat, right? So your growth hormone actually comes online to protect your lean body mass. It is, fasting is such a elegant, beautiful, sophisticated way that our body is designed to heal itself.

[00:22:35] Dr. Katie Deming: So days four to seven, you get the detoxification, and then the magic happens actually for cancer after about day seven, where then you have the body starts preferentially using disease tissue for fuel. And this is where you can have things like lipomas, fibroids, scar tissue, infections, all start to disappear because the body is using those foreign proteins and disease tissue as its primary fuel as a protective mechanism to avoid going after, you know, vital organs like your liver, your kidney, your heart, your brain, that kind of thing.

[00:23:11] Dr. Katie Deming: And so what you can have is you can have tumors go away with literally just water, and that is the body doing itself. Now, I think the one thing that's important to say to people is that everyone comes to me for this. They're like, “I want my tumor to go away, from the fasting.” And the, the thing is you can never guarantee what's going to happen.

[00:23:32] Dr. Katie Deming: You don't know, but it's possible, and I've seen that with… I've had several clients where tumors just completely go away. But even if that doesn't happen People come out, they're no longer afraid of their cancer. The fear is gone. They feel calm. They have a calm nervous system, which we know is so valuable for healing.

[00:23:55] Dr. Katie Deming: Metabolically, we've reset things, and I have a lot– Actually, now I have a lot of people who've come from your practitioners who are fasting with me, which is awesome because they have data, and they can see what their fasting insulin was and what happens after the fast, and being able to get into ketosis faster.

[00:24:11] Dr. Katie Deming: Like, you know, I have one client, she did a 30-day fast, and before she couldn't get into ketosis unless she fasted for at least three days, and now at 36 hours, she's getting into therapeutic ketosis. And her fasting glucose would not budge, and now is down in the range of where she wants it to be. So there are these things that are happening and metabolically that are so foundational, but then it's all the other pieces.

[00:24:34] Dr. Katie Deming: It's the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of it that make my fast different. So my fast is really more than just a metabolic reset, although the metabolic reset is really important. And one last thing I'll say, just 'cause I know this is important for your people, is that the way that we refeed, which refeeding is the most important part of a fast, just so that people know this.

[00:24:55] Dr. Katie Deming: The refeeding is the most dangerous part of a fast. If you fast past seven days, you need to know how to refeed because you can get into big trouble. But most of the refeeding programs for, in the fasting centers are plant-based, just because that is kind of the,

[00:25:12] Dr. Nasha Winters: Old school.

[00:25:13] Dr. Katie Deming: the old school. This is, these are the people who were fasting before were plant-based.

[00:25:17] Dr. Katie Deming: And so my program refeeds people in a metabolically appropriate way, and most importantly, giving them animal proteins and fats because those are the building blocks, right? Plants cleanse our bodies, but we've just gone through a massive cleanse with a water fast. You don't need any more cleansing. What we need now is we need rebuilding, and we need to maintain a calm nervous system and support the mitochondria.

[00:25:41] Dr. Katie Deming: And so we refeed them in a way that brings in the right microbes, doing fermented foods, you know, looking at long-cultured dairy if people can tolerate that, you know. So there are a lot of things that we do to repopulate the microbiome to support immune function, and then also refeeding in a way that's teaching people, “Okay, how, how to support my body from a metabolic perspective moving forward?”

[00:26:03] Dr. Nasha Winters: Mm-hmm. Mm, my gosh. It's like you, you know, those four pillars you talked about, it's like fasting is the fast track to all of that, which I think is really powerful. And I just wanna … you mentioned the power of ketone bodies on their impact of lowering glucose and kind of starving the cancer cells from that, particular fuel source.

[00:26:20] Dr. Nasha Winters: But I also wanna just reiterate that the studies show that it basically, ketone bodies also walk through the doorway of every hallmark of cancer, and are signaling molecules that we have co-evolved with since the beginning of time. So there's some ancient wisdom just in the ancient ketone molecule as well that I think is really worth mentioning here.

[00:26:40] Dr. Nasha Winters: And then to your point about, say, when we saw each other in October and I was on day nine of the fast, yes, I achieved a lot. And you, as a lot of the, popular conversations online say that this can actually spike cortisol in the beginning. It can. There's like a little bit of stress in the body, but then things do stabilize.

[00:26:57] Dr. Nasha Winters: And so what I got out of that nine-day by still being in the midst of moving was so much. I maybe got two or three of those things of the four pillars dealt with. But you're absolutely right that until I could sit with myself in that place. There was like a, an unfinished business, if you will. So I just appreciate your bringing that to my attention and reminding me of that in my own world.

[00:27:20] Dr. Nasha Winters: And then way back, to share a little anecdote, was when I was initially diagnosed, I didn't eat for two and a half months, so I accidentally did a 60-plus day water fast. And also with that, when Dr. Katie mentioned about how it gobbles up sort of debris, that's what helped my ascites from continuing to come back, come back, come back.

[00:27:38] Dr. Nasha Winters: In the beginning, I had to drain about every two days, and as I got deeper into the fast, I needed further and further time between and less and less fluid pulled. And now I understand what was happening, which is exactly what Dr. Katie was alluding to, was my body was taking advantage and cleaning up debris as a fuel source to change things out.

[00:27:57] Dr. Nasha Winters: And then one last thing, 'cause this is such a powerful conversation. It was something I ran across early on in my own process in the early '90s, was work by Dr. Moreschi from 1909 that showed that deep fasting 30 days lo- or longer actually, shrunk, debulked the tumor. And so we did fast our patients up until about the 1960s when someone got it in their head that this was something really dangerous and cruel to do with patients going through a cancer journey.

[00:28:27] Dr. Nasha Winters: So Dr. Katie, you've like brought it full circle, just like when Dr. Seyfried kind of dusted off and resurrected conversations from Otto Warburg and picked up the baton and ran with new information and new data to layer on, that's what you're doing with work of Dr. Moreschi and others from the early 1900s, bringing it into our modern world.

[00:28:46] Dr. Nasha Winters: I just think it's so beautiful. So grateful that you are fast-tracking us with bringing fasting as fundamental to how we can really enhance our healing on all levels of our being. So that's so cool. Perfect. Well, let's talk about this for a moment, 'cause there's gonna be a lot of people listening right now, maybe sitting with a diagnosis or they're caring for someone who is, or they're a clinician who feels that same crack that you felt forming in your own foundation back in 2020.

[00:29:15] Dr. Nasha Winters: What would you want them to know? Not, not as like this protocol that you just described, not as a prescription, but as someone who's been on both sides of this equation, what does the body know that we've been trained to ignore?

[00:29:30] Dr. Katie Deming: Well, what's interesting is that I, I think that clinicians know that something's wrong, that they know that what we're doing is, is there's something wrong. Like they– You can't put your finger on it, but when you're in the system, they feel like they're knocking their head against a wall. They, they feel so frustrated.

[00:29:54] Dr. Katie Deming: So many physicians are committing suicide. Like, you know, suicide rate among physicians is, is one of the highest behind lawyers. And m- my– I have a lot of compassion for physicians who are in the system, and, and the way that I describe it is this, is that when you're… You know, I, I don't know who this quote was from initially, but it's so true for me.

[00:30:15] Dr. Katie Deming: When you're in the bottle, you can't see what the label on the outside of the bottle reads, right? And we've been working in a system that the label on the outside of the bottle is really about making money off treating symptoms. And it does– the pharmaceutical industry does work to, treat symptoms, right?

[00:30:37] Dr. Katie Deming: So there is that result of that. But what we've not been taught intentionally is that actually illness and healing is related to something deeper in the body, and also nutrition is the foundation. Like one of the things, even if there's emotional things that are, contributing to someone being sick, until you fix the foundation of the food, [00:31:00] you really can't get to those deeper things.

[00:31:02] Dr. Katie Deming: And so for me, what I would wanna say to other people, you know, clinicians, healers who are in the space that are frustrated is that there are so many more things coming online now, and keeping an open mind. And you know, I– for me, I had to leave the system. Like that was my path because that was the message that I was receiving, and I just knew that I, I, I would not get to the end of my life and regret not doing that if that was the, the message that I was getting.

[00:31:32] Dr. Katie Deming: But the truth is we need those clinicians who are in the system to make the change. And so for me, it would be, you know, learning about diet. Like that is the most fund- foundational. And you know, I don't think it's an accident that actually doctors are taught to eat terribly. Like I'm like the worst… I had the worst eating habits.

[00:31:51] Dr. Katie Deming: My ex-husband was like, “What is wrong with you?” Like, I would like shovel things like just in my mouth, eat whatever I could find, and not sit down to eat. And in some ways, I think that's not an accident that we have not been really ful- fully nourished ourselves. So the first thing that I would say to someone is, is start to learn about metabolic health and like, and what is this whole idea about mitochondria and how can I feed myself?

[00:32:18] Dr. Katie Deming: How can I start feeding myself foods that my body truly needs to rebuild itself and to be healthy emotionally, mentally, and physically? And Starting to explore that because that's the easiest one that you can do within the system. Like, that you can, you know, start to change your own life through eating better and, you know, choosing a, a healthier way and also learning about, like, what are the toxins that we're being exposed to?

[00:32:45] Dr. Katie Deming: You know, detox sounds like this weird thing, you know, to someone in the conventional medicine, but it makes so much sense. We're exposed to so many toxins. It's like, how can you detoxify yourself? How can you start nourishing yourself? And if you do that, then you'll be able to help more people even from within the system.

[00:33:03] Dr. Katie Deming: So for me, my hope is that we can all, you know, be joining hands, and it doesn't… Like, and, and for me, it was hard to leave the system because I felt like nobody… I, I think people really thought I was losing my mind. Like, “What is going on? She went from…” And I didn't go from like… I wasn't like a burned-out physician who wasn't, you know, kind of like on my way out.

[00:33:22] Dr. Katie Deming: I was l- literally, you know, n- being considered for, like, a top position to run all of cancer care for a large healthcare organization, and then all of a sudden was just like, “I'm out.” And people are like, “What does that mean?” Like, “What's going on?” So I don't think that you need to do that, and my wish is that we can all start just working together and moving in the right direction, you know?

[00:33:45] Dr. Katie Deming: Because every doctor that starts to learn about diet as just the very foundation is gonna make a big difference for their patients. And fasting, like for example, you know, diet and fasting and within cancer, if oncologists learned that, that would change the field.

[00:34:00] Dr. Nasha Winters: I so agree. I love it. You're talking about this kind of ripple effect. If we just start there, it unlocks and sort of creates a domino effect and so many other things that we can learn or unlearn of maybe what we originally learned. So Dr. Katie, I would love for you to tell all of us what are you currently tending these days in your life?

[00:34:21] Dr. Katie Deming: it's a really challenging time on the planet right now. Energetically, it's very chaotic. We have a lot, you know, just wars and, and lots of things, and everyone's feeling that, right? So even if the war is not right here, we're all feeling the collective impact of all of that. And for me, I, you know, I believe we're all one.

[00:34:44] Dr. Katie Deming: We're all, you know, connected with nature and, and each thing that we do individually impacts the collective. And so for me, you know, I have stuff happening in my life right now, you know, personally and in my business. There's always, you know, things that are kind of stressful or, you know, challenging.

[00:35:02] Dr. Katie Deming: And for me, what I'm tending to is my response. How can I stay in peace within myself regardless of what's happening around me? And this was one of the things that I learned from my mentor, because when I left Western Medicine in July of 2022, I didn't know what I was gonna do. I knew I had to leave the system.

[00:35:23] Dr. Katie Deming: And then I was like, “Okay, I'm just gonna take three months off and then do something.” And when those three months were up, he said, “You know, you're not ready.” Like, “You're…” You know, I w- I, I wasn't sure exactly what I was gonna do, but he said to me, “You can't give anything that you don't have.” So healing requires peace, and it requires balance within ourselves.

[00:35:47] Dr. Katie Deming: And so he put me on hold for, like, a year. You know, he never would tell me what to do, but I always listen to the guidance when it makes sense. And so for a year, I really just worked on cultivating that inner peace and, and balance within myself. And so that is a full-time job at the moment, is to hold that peace and to hold the frequency so that I can be there for the people that I'm helping heal themselves, right?

[00:36:16] Dr. Katie Deming: They're healing themselves, but they need a guide who's centered and, you know, has a calm nervous system. And so for me, my job is always to be doing my own internal work regardless of what's happening in my life, in the world, because the more of us who do that, that is how we change the world.

[00:36:33] Dr. Nasha Winters: Oh, and this is why I love you. Thank you for that beautiful response, and thank you for this incredible discussion. I know it's gonna land hopefully in the hearts and souls of so many people. So Dr. Katie, thank you for taking time out of your incredibly rich life to, contribute to ours

[00:36:52] Dr. Katie Deming: Thank you, Dr. Nasha. It's my pleasure to be here

[00:36:55] Dr. Nasha Winters: So that was my conversation with Dr. Nasha Winters. And to summarize the key points we covered, we covered what it cost me to walk away from conventional oncology and what I found waiting on the other side.

[00:37:09] Dr. Katie Deming: We also covered what a prolonged water fast actually does in the body from the first 36 hours through the deep work that only begins after day seven. And we also covered the four things that I've seen in people who heal and why the body was never broken to begin with. If you take one thing away from today, let it be this: Your body is not the enemy, and your illness is not a life sentence.

[00:37:36] Dr. Katie Deming: It's a message. You are not behind, you are not failing, and you don't have to carry this with white knuckles. There's a way to heal that feels like coming home to yourself, and you are absolutely capable of it. Thank you so much for listening. I know your time and attention are valuable, and I'm grateful that you chose to spend time with me today.

[00:38:00] Dr. Katie Deming: I release episodes every Tuesday and look forward to connecting with you on the next one. Before you go, prolonged fasting at this depth is one of the most powerful things I've witnessed, and it's also not something to improvise solo. If you're looking to heal an illness like cancer with fasting, this isn't a path to push through alone.

[00:38:20] Dr. Katie Deming: Depth like this needs real support and real guidance. Your body is the authority here. My job is to give you the education so that you can make informed choices for yourself. If you're ready to understand how this actually works, I'm teaching a free class on prolonged water fasting, where I walk you through the science, the day-to-day, and what real healing can look like from the inside out.

[00:38:45] Dr. Katie Deming: The link is below. Thank you for listening, and remember, just like me, you were born to heal