Dr. Katie Deming MD: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome back to the Born to Heal podcast. I'm Dr. Katie Deming, your host. And today it's just me. So I'm doing a solo episode. And what I wanted to talk about today is my first year in practice. So I. Launched my practice in October of 2023, and it is now November of 2024. So I have passed the one year mark and I wanted to share my reflections because I've learned so many things, not just.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: On the podcast. So you have joined me for interviews with many guests who are teaching me things that I wished I had learned earlier in my career, but I'm also learning a ton through seeing clients in this new way. And so I wanted to share some of the things that I'm learning and also the ways that my [00:01:00] practice is changing as I now have a year under my belt.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: So the first thing that I really didn't expect is that when I launched this practice, I really thought that I would be helping people who are receiving conventional therapy for cancer get better results. So people who were doing chemotherapy and radiation and helping them get better results with doing some of the emotional work that needs to happen and doing the.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: I've of, um, subconscious work to help program the mind for healing and helping them with nutrition and supplements and getting their water right. And I've done that. So I started actually most of my clients were people who were having conventional therapy. But the interesting thing is that I'm finding the clients who are doing the best are the ones [00:02:00] who are not doing those therapies at all.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: Which would be Not have been what I expected and most of you know my story by now that I left Western Medicine in 2022 because I had the shared death experience and after that knew that what we were doing in Western Medicine wasn't true healing and that I needed to do something different. But I also shared in many of the interviews that you may have heard as the bonus episodes on this podcast, that I didn't know what the right answer was.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And I knew that I needed to leave the system to figure out what the answer was, but I really didn't. expect to see that in practice. I thought that people who were getting conventional therapy would get better results than people who did none of that. And I thought that it was just missing the other pieces.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And I thought that was really the problem that [00:03:00] it's not necessarily that radiation and chemotherapy are not the answer. But that we needed to be doing more to heal the underlying problem. But what I found is that especially in the metastatic setting, so many of my clients have stage four disease, which means that their cancer has spread outside of the original organ that it started in and spread past the lymph nodes to other organs.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: So say for breast cancer, it spread to the lungs or the bone or the liver or the brain. and. So with stage four, what I find is that you get on one chemotherapy and if that doesn't work or immunologic, so the other thing is that I am becoming more and more concerned. About the immunotherapies, because I think we're sold a story that they are benign and that they're better than chemotherapy.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: [00:04:00] But, what I'm finding is that they're equally as toxic, and that you can have really significant side effects from those treatments as well. But what happens is that people get on this train, And there's no exit point, there's really no place to get off. And, if you ask to get off, then there's this question from your doctor of, like, why would you try to get off this?

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And, The problem is it just never ends and people feel sick and then it's not working or it's too toxic. So then you just get switched to another drug and in trying to help people support their body to become more healthy, it is really a challenging battle and something, it's funny that I'm using battle language because I, I gave a [00:05:00] TEDx talk on not using battle language.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: So I don't usually use that, but I think that it is appropriate in this particular setting that You get into this really, really challenging situation where it's hard to stop. And so for me, I am just now making a pivot in my practice. I still do consultations with people who are doing conventional therapy or interested in getting conventional therapy.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And I do have a lot of knowledge in that area. Like I definitely can help people understand the benefits and risks and help them make decisions. But what happens in my practice is I see people in consultation and help them. Usually it's like one of three things. So I'm either doing treatment decision support, helping them make decisions about what treatments they want to do, or doing root cause evaluation to try and understand why they got sick in the first place or [00:06:00] helping them with holistic healing options.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: But once I see someone in consult, then I invite people to work with me. Over 12 weeks. So it's really like a 90 day program and I don't offer that to everyone because it's not appropriate for everyone's not Able to do the deep work that's required for this. And so everyone's not a fit for this But before when I was offering this I was offering it to do with people who were doing conventional therapy Or people who wanted to heal naturally, but I'm making the switch to Working with people who want to get off of all of that and take a break, or before they get onto it, they want to help their body reset and get well to try and heal the underlying problem.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And if you haven't heard, Many of my episodes, then I just want to explain what I think is happening. I think that we are metabolically sick as a population [00:07:00] and that our mitochondria are dysfunctional. And this is the major problem that we're facing as a population. This is why. Obesity rates are skyrocketing.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: Diabetes, neurodegenerative disease, and cancer are all skyrocketing. You know, cancer rates are one in two men and one in three women will get cancer in their lifetime. And that is. It's way higher than it was a hundred years ago, a hundred years ago, it was like one in 33 people would get cancer in their lifetime.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: So I think there is the like underlying problem is a metabolic one, and it has to do with many things like our diet. But also has to do with the lifestyle that we're living with the EMS and blue light and not connecting with nature, not connecting with other human beings, not getting enough sunlight, having emotional trauma that is not processed, shoving our emotions down, [00:08:00] not processing our emotions.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And then a lot of really bad programming in our subconscious mind that basically has us. doing things that are counterproductive for true healing and health in the body. So I believe that that is kind of the underlying problem, but then I also think that there is a big component of emotions in cancer.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And So what I'm finding is that if people are on chemotherapy, we can do some of the emotional work can be done while you're on those conventional therapies, but the other stuff of like really detoxing the body also also missed that there's, there's, You know, we're exposed to more toxins today than ever before.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: Our bodies are just inundated. And so toxicity is a huge problem. We're not being nourished properly, but we also have all these toxins that affect our mitochondria as well. But so you can do the emotional work. You can do the subconscious [00:09:00] work. Detoxing the body when someone's getting chemo is like washing your car when it's like, when you're riding through the mud.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: You know, you're like, it's raining and you're in this like muddy place. The roads are all muddy. And basically there's no point to washing the car because it basically is going to get muddy like a second later. And so I just find that we're kind of chasing our tail and. And the people who are getting the best results with the work that I do on really helping people detoxify their body and give it the nourishment that they need are the ones who are not doing that.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: This is something that I need to share with you guys because I've been transparent throughout my journey about teaching you what I'm learning. And so I want to say this, that I am becoming more and more concerned about conventional therapy and the detrimental [00:10:00] effect that it has on the body. And so now when I I see people, the ones who I'm offering to work with, are the ones who either haven't started that and are able to buy some time to try a natural approach before they do those toxic therapies, hoping that we get it.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: A clear result before they start anything. So then they don't need to kind of like Dina's episode. If you haven't listened to that episode, it's an awesome conversation with one of my clients, Dina, who she was able to convince her surgeon to give her three months to pursue a more natural approach. And then at the end of our time together, she repeated her mammogram.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And basically the breast cancer was not there. And that to me is like the. Best result ever. And so rewarding because she never had to have a mastectomy, which was what was recommended and never had to have any toxic treatments, or I'm also [00:11:00] working with people who maybe someone has metastatic disease and they're on these therapies and they want to take a break and.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: That they're able to, you know, get three months to try a different approach. And so for me, this has been a big shift because I, number one, I would never have said that a year ago. I really did not know that this was possible. And. I know that on my podcast, the clients who have shared their success have shared about doing water fasting and, and I will say that I really think water fasting is one of the most profound ways that you can heal cancer, but it's not the only thing, like these clients who've shared their stories.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: Are doing a lot of other stuff. We are doing deep emotional work. We're working on the subconscious. We're reprogramming their mind and their body and really resetting their body. So I think [00:12:00] that the reason why I. I feel like it's important to share with you is that the doctors in conventional oncology will make you think that you basically take their treatments until, you know, either you get too sick to have any more or you, Basically, they stop working and that's it, but the problem is if you stay on that train in the way that I'm viewing it now, you just get weaker and weaker, and then there isn't really the chance to do a more natural approach, and so I think it is important for you, if you feel like you want to try something natural, that you are going to have to stand up for that.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And you're going to have to say, you know what, this is my body. And especially if you have stage four disease, being willing to say this treatments, the treatments that you guys are recommending, you [00:13:00] don't think that my, Disease is curable because according to conventional oncology, stage four disease is not curable.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: You can't get rid of all the cancer. You can do treatments to hold it back, to buy you more time, but ultimately it is considered a terminal diagnosis and the things that I'm seeing are basically refuting that. And I, I do believe that even with stage four disease. You can eradicate cancer. And the problem is, is that it's not that cancer is not curable.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: The problem is, is that the approach in Western medicine is the wrong approach. And that's why you can't cure cancer with that approach. And I realized these are really bold statements, but I. Come from that world. I like, I did that for 20 years. I know what that is all about. And I am now seeing this [00:14:00] happen that the people who are able to get clean of that.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And you know, the process that I use is we start by calming the nervous system because you can't heal when your nervous system is Always on and part of the conventional machinery is not intended to promote fear. But it does promote fear because basically you are told this story that the cancer is eventually going to come back and that you'll do these treatments and we'll do them until we need to either switch to something else because it's not working or switch to something else because you're too sick.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And so then you're in constant fear of the next scan, right? And scanxiety is a real thing. really live from scan to scan and in this state of worry constantly. And actually I had a client share something with me the other day that [00:15:00] just really hit home for me about this whole fear thing. And fear is a big part of what we work on when we're calming the nervous system.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: But she said she had been doing well, she had stage four disease and had, you know, been doing a specific therapy. And had been doing well, all of her numbers were good, but she was so scared that the cancer was going to come back. Like that was like constant. The fear was just constant and she was worried about it all the time, all the time.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And then finally when her numbers started going up and her tumor markers started going up, she actually felt relief. She felt relief when the numbers went up because then she said, Oh, okay there, I knew it was going to happen. So now I know, and now I can do something about it. that is So backwards, right?

Dr. Katie Deming MD: So backwards from what we want, but actually makes so much sense because this system that we have set [00:16:00] up and the whole idea that cancer is not curable puts people in this fear state constantly. And you're just waiting for the markers to show it. And then actually having that happen, which is ultimately not what you want, brings relief because then you can do something about it.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And this is. Really, I think part of the core problem is that we've been sold this story that, especially with stage four disease, is that this is what you're waiting for. You're just waiting for that to happen. And so having it happen, then at least you have something then you can work with being in the unknown is.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: so uncomfortable and that I'll do another episode on that because this I think a lot of the mental aspect of having a cancer diagnosis is is getting comfortable with being with the unknown and and [00:17:00] Not hanging your hat on like something you can do Do something specific about, because this is part of the problem.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: It's, it's really feeding into your body, expecting something bad to happen. But so we calm the nervous system, help people really get out of that fight or flight state, and that that's done through like a multiple things. You can do that through diet. You can do that through supplements. You can do that through emotional work.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: You can do that through subconscious programming and really. addressing that from all aspects because if you don't do that, if you don't calm your nervous system, the other things that you do don't matter because you're basically constantly in this state of fight or flight, which is a stress on your body.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: So that's the first thing that we do and then work on detoxifying the body and getting rid of all of the toxins that we've been exposed to and are stored in our fat. And we all, like regardless, even if you're eating really [00:18:00] well and you've lived a relatively clean life, If even if you've done that for like, say 10 years, you've been living a totally clean life.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: There are things that are stored in your body for your whole life. And if you haven't detox those, if you haven't been able to clean out your body, you're basically carrying that all around with you. So detoxification on a physical level, but also detoxifying, Emotional trauma and detoxifying, you know, uh, negative thoughts that have been programmed into your subconscious.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: All of that is really, really important. And this is like with the conventional chemotherapy is like I said, it's like washing your car in the rain and in the mud because basically it's just your. Continuing to accumulate toxicity while you're cleaning it out. And that's why that's so challenging when you're doing it during therapy.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And then the third piece is we nourish the body, [00:19:00] learn how to nourish our bodies in the way that we were designed. And the modern lifestyle is basically one of malnourishment. We are all malnourished. We are all eating the wrong types of foods. We're all drinking water. Most of us are drinking water that is basically toxic.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: If you're drinking tap water, that's a problem. Tap water is full of pharmaceuticals, carcinogens, including chlorine and fluoride in most states. And Antibiotics, chemotherapy, uh, drugs in the water system. We have so much that we're just not even aware of that is in our water. And so at the very least you need, you know, some kind of filtration system.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: But basically, We want to nourish the body with clean, healthy foods that we were designed to eat. And I want to say something about veganism here [00:20:00] because I, most of the time I keep my mouth shut and I, I just say, you know, there's not one diet. And I do agree with that. I don't think that there's one diet, but I will say that cancer is a metabolic condition and that eating is A vegan diet is very high in carbohydrates and very inflammatory because of all of the oxalates and lectin, you know, you basically have toxins in vegetables and those are to protect the plants and fruits from us eating them.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: But if you're eating just, even if you're eating like a whole food, you know, plant based diet and not eating processed foods. It's very hard on your system. And the way that I think about this piece is that if you go back, you know, many hundreds of years and think about how we lived before we had grocery stores, [00:21:00] before we, you know, had industrialized agriculture and all of that, you could not possibly eat.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: The way that some of these people describe a plant based diet of eating all of these vegetables every day and all of these fruits and stuff, that's a modern invention. And if you look at our ancestors, they ate mostly meat. They ate fermented vegetables. And they ate Vegetables and fruits in season and that's it.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: So there's this big push around veganism in the cancer space. And I just, I have to say, I think it's a misdirect. If you understand the science of cancer as a metabolic condition, doing a fully vegan diet can be very problematic. We are not designed to be, eating only plants. It's just not the way that we were designed.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And [00:22:00] I know that probably get a bunch of hate email and comments for this, but I, I have to speak my truth. And that's like this whole experience for me of leaving Western medicine and choosing this new path is speaking my truth and being courageous enough to say. I think, frankly, the whole Western medicine system is wrong.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: So I guess I shouldn't have a problem with saying those people out there who are saying the way that you cure cancer is only by being vegan. I don't agree. I, I just don't think the science supports it. And I also have clients that Are not doing well on that from a metabolic standpoint, you know, they come to me and they're on these plant based diets and it's really inflammatory on their body.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And it's really hard. And if you want to look at this, like one of the places that's been very eyeopening for me is the work of Sean O'Mara. I hope to bring him onto the podcast, but he studies visceral fat using MRI and you can see [00:23:00] people who think they're really healthy eating vegan, like lifelong vegans and visceral fat is a marker for disease and increased risk of cardiovascular events and death.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And basically they're full of visceral fat. And Sean O'Meara's. program. He recommends, you know, eating cleanly, clean meats and proteins, healthy fats and fermented vegetables, lots of ferments to help with the microbiome. And I think that's one piece that's really important for people that, if you are eating carnival, like, you know, keto slash carnivore slash, you know, mostly meat based, you really want to make sure you're eating fermented vegetables.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And also I do fermented. dairy, like kefir as well with my clients, those are really important for your metabolic health and for your microbiome. But anyway, so I just, I [00:24:00] needed to say that as well. That's another thing that I've learned over the past year is that I think the whole vegan story is just.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: not correct. And, you can do it, you know, but it's not the way our bodies are designed. And if cancer is a problem of the mitochondria, you're going to do better if you're eating healthy meats, healthy fats, eggs, and, fermented vegetables and, and, and not a ton of vegetables, you know, and eating ones that are low.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: Lactin Lactin and low oxalate. So, you know, that's the third thing that we do is nourish. So start with calming the nervous system, detoxifying the body, nourishing the body with what it needs. And you know, water and nutrition is a big part of that, but also supplementation. And the one thing that I want to say about that, that I've learned with supplementation is that there's a difference in the holistic space.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: So you're going to find practitioners are [00:25:00] doing all different kinds of things and there's a more functional approach and then there's more of an integrative approach. And the functional approach is a lot of testing and then a lot of supplements. And I tend to favor a more integrative approach and this is my own personal opinion, but this is another thing that I've learned in this year is that the.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: Functional medicine stuff where you're doing just tons and tons of testing. It honestly ends up feeling a lot like the Western medicine approach. And I just don't think that it is necessary to do as much testing and as much supplementation. And again, I come back to, if we're getting sicker as a population, you got to look at some of the things that we're doing.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And one of them is with all of this, we're switching, you know, people are averse to conventional medicine. So then they go into functional medicine and I'm not saying all functional medicine is [00:26:00] bad, but we can get a lot of what we need through nature and we don't need to test 10, 000 things. You can assess how someone is doing based on the way their body responds.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And so my approach, and I, you know, I've, I've, Dabbled and looked at like, well, maybe I want to do more functional medicine. But for me, I really want to get back to what our bodies were designed for and our bodies are designed to get the nutrition through food. Whenever possible, and then recognizing that because we've got deficiencies and depletion of the soil with minerals and there are certain things that we can't get from nutrients alone in the food that we eat.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And so then we supplement those things. So my approach is much more of an integrative approach of less testing and more. Getting what we need through [00:27:00] whole foods and then just supplementing where needed. And that is one thing I didn't understand really the difference between functional medicine versus an integrative approach when I first started this practice.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And, and now I've seen more of that and I've realized like for me, And this is doesn't mean for you, but this is something to think about when you're looking at doctors, a functional medicine doctor is going to have a very different approach than an integrative doctor. And so if you are someone who, you know, wants all that testing and, and wants to take a ton of supplements, then functional medicine might be right for you.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: But for me and with my clients, I'm really looking to work with people who are interested in getting more back to a natural approach of, Figuring out how do we give your body what it needs through natural sources that we can eat whenever possible and receive that way. And then using the supplements as kind of [00:28:00] an adjunct to give you what you can't get through the diet.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: So that's another piece that I just wanted to address there with supplementation. So other things in nourishment is really emotional connection. Many of us are not getting the emotional connections that we need, or we may have toxic emotional connections with other people and we need to start setting boundaries.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: So we do, you know, that kind of work of, of looking at people's lives and then making sure that they become fluent with their own emotions, that they can, you know, Experience our emotions. We are emotional beings. We're designed to experience emotions. It's not about not having emotions. It's about learning how to allow those to run through you, but not, you know, basically be under the surface burning you.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And that's what a lot of people are doing. A lot of people are conditioned to. Hold down their feelings and their emotions so that everyone else [00:29:00] around them feels comfortable. But then the problem is that ultimately that takes a toll on the physical body and then mentally, you know, programming the subconscious with healthy beliefs that empower us to live the life that we.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: Came here to live that's authentic to us to also heal our body and have beliefs around our body that are empowering rather than fearing our body. So those are the things that we do with nourishment. And then the last piece of the work that I do is really aligning, helping people align spiritually. And what I mean by that is aligning with who you are authentically in all areas of your life.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: So in your relationships, in your connection to yourself, in your purpose, like what are you here to do? And then also in your work. and so basically. This is what I do over 90 days with people is I help them calm their nervous [00:30:00] system, detoxify their body, nourish their body, and align themselves. And this for me has been really eye opening to see there's so much you can do in just 90 days.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: You don't actually need to like, you know, take a whole year. You can accomplish so much. And if you're able to get just a break from those treatments, or if you're able to. Let your doctor, you know, talk your doctor into taking 90 days before you do anything. Even if the cancer didn't go away completely with doing these things, you're going to be in a better shape to tolerate anything in that state.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And that's one of the beautiful things is that I used to be in this space where I gave treatments and, you know, with breast cancer and radiation, I feel like of all the types of radiation, breast radiation is, The least toxic of all the different types of radiation that I've given over the years. But, still it was, you know, a [00:31:00] toxic therapy and there, you know, risks and side effects.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And one of the beautiful things about doing this over 90 days is like, you're going to be in better shape than you were before this, even if it doesn't eradicate all of the cancer. And then the biggest game changer that I have learned about in the past year is Water fasting. And the first time my mentor brought it up, he said that you can cure cancer with a 30 day water fast.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: I like, was falling out of my chair. I had no idea someone could water fast for 30 days. I was just totally baffled by that. And so that was something that I just couldn't even wrap my head around when I first heard about it. And so the first thing that I did was I did a six day water fast myself. I made all kinds of mistakes.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: Like I worked through that. You really need to rest if you're going to do a prolonged water fast. [00:32:00] And I only made it to six days because I was working. And that's really not the way that you're supposed to do it. If I did it again. I need to rest and take the time off, but I couldn't do that with starting a new practice.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: But now I've fasted people and The results are really incredible and the mechanism You know behind fasting I think there are a couple things that fasting do. One is a very potent detoxifier of the body because basically when you run out of nutrients and you're resting, so this is one of the most important things about water fasting.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: If you are doing a water fast to heal, you have to rest because if you don't rest, You are basically just stressing the body and resting means really not doing anything like not driving, not going anywhere, really being at your house and just like hanging out, not spending time on the screen, [00:33:00] working, or, you know, even on Instagram, we limit the amount of time that people are on screens because that can be taxing on the body and your brain.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: So basically resting during a fast is really, really important. But if you rest. And you fast and just water. So no electrolytes, no food whatsoever. What happens is the body starts utilizing it, the stored fat as fuel. And when it does that, it starts to dump the toxins that are in your fat. And you're able to excrete those and clear those from the body.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And then the second thing that the body does is the body starts preferentially Eating, it's called autophagy, it starts eating diseased tissue in the body. So this can be cysts, this can be fibroids, this can be tumors, and this can be like necrosis. So Christy's story that I shared in the spring, [00:34:00] it's one of my clients who had a brain metastasis and she had radiosurgery to the brain metastases.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And you would normally expect that after radiosurgery, at three months after radiation, you would have, maybe the area is a little bit less enhancing on an MRI, so a little bit less contrast enhancement, but still they're usually the same size, three months after the procedure, and then over time it decreases, and then eventually you just have some scar tissue there, but there's always something there on the scan, and then often, On that initial scan, you can have something called radiation necrosis, which is basically dead tissue around the tumor that is damaged from the radiation.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And that's kind of a normal expected result. But on Christie's scan at three months after her radio surgery and doing a 17 day water fast, that cavity in her brain was completely empty. There was no radiation necrosis, there was no [00:35:00] tumor, there was nothing, basically the normal brain around it had just like filled in that space.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And that to me was totally unbelievable. I just, I didn't even know that that was possible. And I, I at least expected to see the radiation necrosis, but the radiation necrosis was basically diseased tissue in the brain and the body ate that. Autophagy basically went in and ate those cells in that area that were damaged from the radiation and ate the tumor in there as well.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And so, that was my first water fast was with Christy. And then now I've done multiple since then. And the results are just amazing. Really, really incredible. And not everyone can do a water fast. So, you know, if you've lost a ton of weight already and you're really weak, it's a water fast is probably not a great idea.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: You also have to be off all medications while you're doing a water fast. So that can be a [00:36:00] tricky thing for people, but. That is one of the most powerful, tools that I have now in my practice. And that is also one of the reasons why I prefer to work with people who are off all conventional therapies, because you cannot do that while you are having chemotherapy or other, conventional therapies.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And so. I think that what, if I had to summarize my year, my first year in practice, I would say is surprising on all levels and actually kind of terrifying too. It was really scary because I didn't know what the answers were and I, I mean, I knew a lot and I knew I could help people, but I really didn't know what it was going to look like.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: Ultimately look like, like, what was my protocol going to look like? And so that was scary, just like my, you know, decision to leave Western medicine.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: I've had some incredible mentors show [00:37:00] up in my life and they say, you know, when the student is ready, the teacher arrives or something like that, the quote goes, but I really could not be doing this work without the help of and support of my mentors. And. The most important is my spiritual mentor who I have not talked about much at all, if any, on this podcast, I've talked about him on some of my external interviews on other podcasts, but I'll do an episode to explain how I came into his fear and how he is supporting the work that I'm doing.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: But. He is someone that I could not be doing this work without him. So that is the first person that I want to acknowledge. But the second is, you know, people who I read their books and started studying their work have now become friends and colleagues and mentors. And one of those is Dr. Tom Cowan, who [00:38:00] wrote.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: One of his books is called cancer and the new biology of water. And I shared at the beginning of this season, when I relaunched the podcast, I explained that his book really helped me. Learn about the fourth phase of water and Gerald Pollack's work and that opened my eyes to the importance of the science of water and healing and how all of the things that I'm doing actually tie back to.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: The water that we are, we are bodies of water. And so Tom, I, you know, now have been invited to be part of his staff meetings every week with the other physicians. And I'm just learning so much and so grateful, to have colleagues and be learning alongside people who. are interested in treating cancer naturally, you know, their, uh, clinic is not focused on cancer, but for me, [00:39:00] it's been so valuable to have colleagues that I can talk things through and I'm learning with.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: So I'm so grateful for Tom and his willing to willingness to kind of bring me into his fold, even though I'm not part of his clinic officially. And, you know, I'm so grateful to my clients. I have learned so much over the past year and they have trusted me. I thought the practice was going to look one way and obviously I have a tremendous amount of experience having practiced in conventional radiation oncology for 20 years.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And I knew I could help people get better results with conventional therapy by adding on these other pieces. And also I understand the conventional piece so well, so I can help them navigate that and then incorporate these other pieces in. But as the practice has shifted, that they have really trusted me [00:40:00] and, we have, Made shifts in what they thought they were even going to be doing with me.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And so I'm so grateful for each and every one of you who has been along this journey with me and entrusted me with your care. It, it just means so much to me because I couldn't be here today. Without you and my listeners, those of you who are along the journey and have maybe been watching from a distance and hearing me bring on the guests and learning with me.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: Thank you for coming along on this journey. And thank you for letting me share my truth and really be authentic and honest about what I'm learning. And the people that I want to thank the most though, are my team and the work that I'm doing. I could not I would not be doing this alone and I made the decision when I launched this practice that I knew if I figured this out that I would want to be able to scale it and so I didn't want to start in a [00:41:00] way that couldn't be scaled and couldn't help, you know, a lot of people.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And so I Started out actually with a team, which I think a lot of people, maybe if they were starting practice, they would just be themselves and maybe an administrator. But I have a team of eight people and actually we're growing now. It's going to be 11 as of November. So this month we're going to have 11 employees and They have made this possible.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And the, one of the reasons why I also have such a big team is because I wanted to be able to put out free content like this. I wanted to be able to make this possible to reach as many people as possible. And my team is. A team of rock stars. These people are a hundred percent believe in what I'm doing and they are the ones who are making all of this happen.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: So for all of them, I'm so grateful for the opportunity to work with them and to be supported in such a [00:42:00] powerful way. So I want to end this episode by saying, if this resonates with you, if you are interested in choosing a different path of maybe taking a break, if you're doing conventional therapy, or if you're finishing and you, you want to try a more natural approach, I would love to see you.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: I'd love to help you. And in. The new year in 2025, we're going to be working on how to scale the practice because I am full, I have a wait list. And so now we're looking at how do we make this work so that we can do it in a group setting? How do I scale it so that we can reach more people? Because this is really, you know, there is no one who has my same experience.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And protocol in the way that I've built it, it's really different because I have a unique experience and not saying my way is better than anyone else's way. But if that resonates with you, if you, you know, have so many [00:43:00] people who are asking me, do I need to take anti estrogen? Do I need to suppress my ovaries and all of this to treat breast cancer?

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And my answer is I don't think you have to do that. I, I really think you can take a more natural approach. And if that appeals to you, I would love to help you. So thank you for being here. I'm excited to see what my second year develops into, and I'm sure there'll be more changes and I'm up for it. This is not going to be a static practice.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: This is going to be something as I learn new information, I'm going to be changing and I'm going to be incorporating it. And I think this is one of the things that frustrated me. with Western medicine is that we were, you know, the changes were incremental in terms of, okay, we find another kind of targeted therapy, but you're going down the same path.

Dr. Katie Deming MD: And for me, I'm wide open when I learn something new and I see something that works better, I'm going to do it. And so thank you for being here. I look forward to another year with you and thank you so much.

[00:44:00]