Our Integrative Approach
“Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Why I Do What I Do
“Always ask the reason why”. For anyone who has ever been in my office that’s the big three-letter word with the big question mark behind it that I teach ad nausea. If there is only one thing to learn from me, it would be to ask, “Why do I have this problem?” I want you to become a Sherlock Holmes of your own healthcare, desiring to look deeper and say “why?” Never, ever, EVER be satisfied with a diagnosis.
I am eighth of nine children; born the fifth of five boys with four sisters. From an early age as a grade-schooler, even though I always hated school (there were always too many things to do at home or outside) I always had a great love and curiosity for science.
In about 6th or 7th grade I started getting horrible headaches and body aches. My mom brought me to our family doctor at that time – a medical doctor – and he took x-rays of my head and neck. His conclusion was that I was suffering from ‘growing pains’. I remember walking out of the clinic after the appointment and hearing my mom say, “He’s crazy. It doesn’t hurt to grow!” We climbed into the car and that was the last time I would go to a medical doctor for almost 25 years.
My symptoms were happening at the same time that my mother was delving into natural health care, having sought help for some issues of her own. A few years earlier she had suffered from Bell’s Palsy (a paralysis of cranial nerve 7 – your facial nerve – causing one side of your face to droop). We lived in a town with a population of about 10,000, with only one chiropractor in practice. My mother sought his help and he completely cured her Bell’s Palsy.
In effect, my mother asked the right questions, received the right answers and was able to solve her problem. Since then, both of my parents had become believers in natural health care and went to the chiropractor for various issues.
So, abandoning the medical doctor’s “growing pains” diagnosis, Mom brought me to her chiropractor and my headaches and body aches were quickly resolved. As my siblings and I grew (and became involved in school athletics), we continued to pursue chiropractic care and were always well cared for.
The largest turning-point in my life (career-wise) was when I was in 10th grade. I noticed I excelled in my science classes but I despised English class, especially when it came to reading. I would receive “A’s” in the rest of my classes but in reading I would be lucky to get a “C”. I was unable to keep pace with my fellow students and ended up being place in a remedial English class – extremely embarrassing. I just could not keep up; I couldn’t even read through a single page without forgetting everything I just read.
I finally went to a special kind of chiropractor, one who did some kinesiology work. After some neurological testing he diagnosed me as having mild dyslexia and spent time teaching me some specific brain-based therapies he knew at the time. With the chiropractor’s help, my dyslexia was miraculously corrected (within about 3-5 months), so much so that I was accepted in an Honors class that required more reading than I ever attempted – I did great and my life slowly changed.
With the healing I experienced through this chiropractor, the direction of my life also changed. I was absolutely intrigued. I thought, “I want to do this – what he is doing”, and from that point on I was committed. By the time I was a junior in High School I had my post-graduate schooling laid out - exactly what courses I needed to take to become a doctor like him. I wanted to figure people out; I wanted to help people who did not have an answer or worse, didn’t even realize they had a problem. I thought that there must be others out there like me, others who didn’t know that what they were struggling with was even a problem. I’m sure there are others, who think that, like me, “this is just the way that I am – I’m just a horrible reader, I’m just stupid, I’m just fat, I’ve just been dealt with _______”. We can easily think that we are just “stuck” with a fate in life without any possibility to change. That’s what I once thought, but I was wrong.
Cancer an Integrative Approach
I went into my whole field – my endeavor/everything that I do - partly based on the experiences I had back then. I have a desire to help people, to dig and figure out the cause, even after people and patients and other medical professionals have given up and just settled on a label. Those experiences are what brought me to where I am today – with a relentless drive to find the answers.
There is another thing that drives me: My relationship with Jesus Christ. Years ago I committed myself to Him and though I stumble daily and often fail miserably in my walk, He is faithful, always good, and chooses to use me from time to time. I believe that God is sovereign, holy, and sent His Son to become sin and the sacrifice on my behalf. I am forgiven, not because I am good, but because He is good. So I’ll be honest; this is a profession that I chose but how I practice is what He chose for me. It really wasn’t my desire to take care of patients diagnosed with cancer, it was God’s.
On average, our patients have been to a multitude of doctors, both traditional and integrative, and just can’t seem to find satisfactory answers to their problems. We are based in Minnesota and many of our patients have been to the Mayo Clinic, even turned away from Mayo because there’s nothing left that can be done to help them. It is then, I believe, that God often sends them to us.
I have to be honest in that sometimes I wish He wouldn’t because it gets to be a little excruciating. Death has not been a stranger in our clinic. Many of our patients are seemingly teeter-tottering on the edge of leaving this world, and it’s a dose of reality when some of them do. It is heartbreaking and in many ways it makes me furious. But it is also this reality that just drives me. It makes me a better person, it makes me a better doctor and it forces me to do everything I can to figure my patients out.
My belief system is this: If God brings a patient to me, He’s going to have to give me the wisdom to figure him/her out.” And it’s not like God speaks to me audibly and tells me what’s wrong, because He doesn’t. He makes me study and He makes me work and He makes me dig. My purpose as a doctor has always been toward constant, never-ending improvement. I believe I can always be better than I am right now. I can say it is God’s giftedness for me – because I enjoy it and it is my absolute passion – but it is also a serious challenge. Every day I am faced with knowing people are placing their lives, and the lives of their loved-ones, in my care. But I do love a good challenge.
It is actually kind of boring for a patient to come to me and say “I fell down and hurt my knee.” It’s boring because we already know the cause and we can fix it. That’s boring. It is much more exciting for a patient to come to me and say, “I have stage 4 cancer, the doctor sent me home to die, I have two weeks left to live, I have never, EVER, dug in to the possible reasons WHY I have it, I’ve just followed the medical route to the “T”, it hasn’t worked, and now I’m here.” Obviously, it’s not “good” considering what the person is dealing with, but it is exciting that he/she is in our office and that we have the opportunity to seek God’s face and find some answers. Those are the cases that I like: the more difficult, the better.
A few years ago I held a seminar for doctors called "The Cancer Symposium" which consisted of me lecturing, teaching, and often pleading with doctors to learn how to properly support patients with cancer. I crammed as much of my last 25 years of training into 15 hours of endless speaking. Doctors from around the country - the best of the best - flew to Minnesota right at the time our temperatures dipped to zero degrees. It didn't even faze them!
I love to teach (as I'm sure you could tell by the content on our website as well as this book) but two straight days of talking was exhausting. But it was so necessary! We need more doctors with the knowledge to help people with cancer. It seems that a search of the internet either reveals pharmaceutical companies advertising their drugs with pretty butterflies and smiling supermodels as if chemotherapy is glamorous, or "non-profit" organizations that raise hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer yet do very little to help any individuals but themselves.
We NEED an integrative approach. Sometimes chemo, radiation or surgery IS necessary to ‘debulk’ a rapidly growing tumor, but NONE of them will kill circulating tumor cells (CTCs) or cancer stem cells. Every patient with cancer, even those who have been declared "cancer free" by their oncologists STILL have CTCs and cancer stem cells. This is why it comes back!!!
An integrative approach to cancer - one that addresses root causes, requires lifestyle changes, and develops a game-plan that is realistic and self-manageable is necessary, absolutely necessary, for ultimate patient success. I know we are all going to die but it just sickens me to see the statistics of what’s going on with traditional cancer treatment alone. "We've done all we can," seems to be the mantra of the oncology demi-gods when 'all they can' consistently falls short. I am so often reminded of the movie Patch Adams, about a young man of the same name as the title, struggling with his identity, depressed and afraid, checked himself into a hospital finally realized his purpose in life when he helped fellow patient - he wanted to be a doctor and help others.
Patch went to the MD that governed the psychiatric institution to demand he be discharged to follow his 'calling'. The doctor, who ruled with a callous disposition that would rather drug a patient into oblivion then listen to them and feel their pain was obstinate about letting Patch go, "what is it that you think you want to do with your life," he sneered. "I want to help people; I want to be a doctor," Patch proudly stated. "You can't be a doctor," the MD soured, "I'm a doctor." "Yeah, but you SUCK at it," Patch pounced back with a simple honest conclusion.
Robin Williams was brilliant in his performance and if you haven't seen the movie, do so. That line, "Yeah but you SUCK at it" has resounded in my head for years. I do NOT want to be that kind of doctor but I've personally experienced dozens of them! If you've "done all you can do" then MAYBE there is SOMEONE ELSE who can DO MORE!!!
Just another ‘Reason’ why I do this
While I was writing the original edition my book, "Stop Fight Cancer and Start Treating the Cause" (several years ago), I had a sweet, little angel of a girl - 8 years old, with Medulloblastoma. She had surgery to debulk (remove all that the surgeon could) the tumor before her parents brought her to see me. Medulloblastoma is a primary, typically aggressive cancer in the fourth ventricle of the brain, just in front of the cerebellum - a horrible brain cancer that usually attacks young children.
The surgeon believed he ‘got all the cancer’, BUT, the Oncology Department at the University of Minnesota demanded that she still do FULL skull and spine radiation AND FULL chemo with 3 chemo drugs (ADULT chemo drugs!!!!!!!).
The parents were in shock and simply requested some time to think about it. That immediately prompted the Oncologists to call CPS (Child Protective Services) who would forcibly remove the child from the parent’s custody should they not proceed with the demands of the demi-gods of medicine. Is it REALLY in the ‘child’s best interest’?
I find it amazing that CPS puts abused kids back into the home of the abuser because they went through a few weeks of ‘anger management training’ and yet they can remove a child from loving parents because the pharmaceutically-controlled monopoly demands blood. If a parent dares to ask, "Hold on, we have to think about that...", we instantly become a police-state where ‘big brother’ knows better than us lower-life forms who are unable to make a rational decision. I am afraid of what this country has become!
After speaking to a new oncologist who promised to ‘work with her’, and then two weeks of adjunctive care at my office which included use of a Rife machine at home (what we do for all patients that come to us with cancer) the parents agreed to some medical testing to see if there was any progression. An MRI of her brain and microscopic testing of her cerebral-spinal fluid was next. Prior to the test, the new oncologist called me to ask if I’d help encourage the parents to proceed with the radiation and chemotherapy because she was afraid that if the testing came back clean, the parents would be against proceeding. I cannot even come close to entering into those decisions and asked the oncologist if she was trying to entrap me, for I am not an oncologist and do not treat cancer. She understood, but felt that I could help influence the parents. I asked some very pointed questions including why she would want to progress with such harsh treatment which, she was honest about, would produce some potentially horrible side-effects. It all came down to protocol.
I’m all for protocols as long as they work. Dr. Oncologist assured me that 63% of Medulloblastoma patients had a 5 year survival rate at their facility and according to her, the patient had a ZERO percent survival should the parents not follow their protocol. Zero percent is pretty bad, so I asked the same question several different times in different ways and received the same answer - in her professional experience, the patient had a zero percent cure rate if their protocol was not followed!
The next logical question was, “How many Medulloblastoma patients have you had that did NOT follow your treatment?” So I asked it. “Oh, none,” was her answer. Excuse me, did you just say none? I’m no mathematician but to claim that a parent is abusive for deciding to NOT follow your recommendations that you claim to have a 37% death rate and NOT have any REAL patients that have opted-out as a comparison is utterly ludicrous. How can they say there is a zero percent survival rate if you do not follow recommendations when they’ve never had anyone not follow those recommendations? Doesn’t that make it a 100 percent survival rate?
These are the RUBBER NUMBERS used to manipulate you into doing something! I am sick over this!!!!! I ended my conversation with Dr. Oncologist (and I at least give her credit for being nice and talking to me) after she said something like, “I believe in praying too and I believe in miracles, but miracles are few and far between.” I answered, “Maybe you should come to my office because I see them every day.”
The tests came back and there were NO traces of anything on the MRI or the CSF!!!! Hurrah!!!!! It was a short-lived celebration; CPS is at the door and demanding cooperation with the powers that be. Hundreds of hours in prayer, dozens of prayer-chains and multiple conversations with attorneys leaves the parents with little choice: either do what the establishment thinks is best or lose control of their child.
The parents felt they had NO CHOICE. Well...this past weekend she had her first 3-day, in-hospital, chemo-assault and she is NOW in my office - SICK, having SEIZURES (which were GONE for last 3 weeks since starting here), and COMPLETELY MISERABLE.
Her mom is beside herself!!!!!!!!!! I am in tears writing this and this poor, little sweetheart of a child suffers at the hands of almighty medicine. We are trying to do everything we can to protect her little body from the effects of the powerful drugs. Just please pray!!!
Understand; I am NOT saying that I know what the BEST thing to do in this case is. I AM SAYING that the oncologists with their rubber numbers ALSO do NOT know. Why can’t we let everyone (all professionals) give their BEST recommendation based upon experience, research data, and clinical certainty and then LET THE PARENTS DECIDE.
I know there are those who will argue that the parents just are not smart enough to make such a tough decision so the government must do it for them. Hogwash!
I’m reminded of the Apostle Paul when he heard that new believers were required by some to be circumcised in order to follow Christ. He was outraged: “Look out for those dogs [Judaizers, legalists], look out for those mischief-makers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh,” (Philippians 3:2)
Our purpose as a, integrative cancer clinic is to be a blessing to the people who come to us. We believe we have a responsibility to every person we accept as a patient, a responsibility to dig and figure each person out. We may not SOLVE the problem (I want to be very clear about that), but for the most-part we can figure out what’s going on or find someone who can.
These are the types stories we hear on a fairly regular basis since we committed to this type of work and quite frankly, they drive me! We are in a battle, not against cancer but against an enemy. Cancer is an outcome; cancer is awful and devastating but it is not our enemy. Our enemy is alive and active and desires to kill, steal and destroy. Our advocate is also alive and well; He is more powerful than anything the enemy can throw against us and will always, ultimately have victory! The battle may be fierce, but the victory is secure.
Cancer is a disease that sick people get; I take sick people and help them get better and sometimes the cancer, or MS, or seizures, or headaches, or Autism - goes away. It's kind of like the farmer who had a horrible problem with rats that were infiltrating his barn from a giant trash heap near the south pasture. He would spend all afternoon sitting on his tractor with his 22-gage rifle waiting for the little buggers to present themselves and he would gun them down. Several weeks and dozens of hours 'hunting' later, he asked a young man at the feed mill if he wanted to earn some extra money sitting on his tractor shooting rats. The next day the young man paid a visit and accessed the situation. After about 15 minutes he gave the farmer a proposition, "If I can get rid of all the rats, will you pay me $100?" The farmer agreed and the young man took the farmer's tractor, dug a big hole and buried all the garbage, destroying the very environment that 'fed' and nourished the rat population. The rats were gone forever.
So it is with every disease. We can chase the illusion of destruction or create a healthy environment that promotes self-healing. Cancer is no different. The purpose of care is to detoxify the body, create a healthy environment, and stimulate the body's immune function. Is cancer 'curable'? Only you can answer that. My job is to help access the dysfunctions that promoted/allowed the disease and to assist the correction of that. I have earned in a Fellowship in Integrative Cancer Therapy through The American Academy ofAnti-Aging Medicine and South Florida School of Medicine where I am privileged to crunch ideas with the brightest minds in oncology.
Learning to ask better questions is essential to successful treatment of any disease. Once a patient receives the dreaded diagnosis, there is a fearful stigma that seems almost stamped on the brain that causes many to follow traditional approaches and surrender all responsibility to a profession that has been less than successful in their treatment. The truth is: according to Oncology, a peer reviewed medical journal, the average cancer patient is worth well over $300,000 to the hospital and doctors who land the big fish. I hate to paint such a grim picture and must make it perfectly clear that I am NOT against all chemotherapy or radiation, but to ignore and often negate approaches that promote changing the patient's internal environment is malpractice. (my opinion, of course)
My heart cries to hear young and old dying from cancer that have never even attempted alternative cancer therapy approaches. Surely we all will die, some of cancer. God's sovereignty does not preclude the need to seek answers and ask for wisdom.
Below are brief descriptions of some alternative approaches for cancer that educate members on that I discuss in my book, "Stop Fighting Cancer and Start Treating the Cause". I do NOT suggest a 'shotgun' approach to cancer or any disease! I test patients out to find the exact nutritional approach that their body will best respond to. I commonly hear patients say that they are 'so confused' with the information out there and they don't know who to believe. The truth is that all these approaches DO work for SOME people. Which approach is going to be best for YOU? That's the question you want to answer; that's the question we help you with. I have test kits and supplies for these and many more 'cancer cures'. Usually a person test out positive on just one or two; you do not want to guess at the best treatment. There's too much at stake to be playing that game.
Rife Light Frequency Technology
Possibly the most impressive method of detoxification ever developed, this technology was developed in the 1920s and 1930s by one of the true geniuses of the 20th Century, a microbiologist named Dr. Royal Rife. It involved aiming specific sound frequencies (piggy-backed onto a particular carrier wave for deep penetration) at cancer patients to kill their cancer. The treatment was so easy and non-toxic, it merely involved lying or sitting in front of the light. Documented cancer recoveries that resulted were phenomenal. However, this approach was finally suppressed to the point where it became virtually impossible to find a true Rife Machine that used the exact same technology and specifications of the original creator. Since many machines are being produced today that claim to be authentic, yet are not truly effective, it is important for cancer patients to know about the history and issues revolving around this particular treatment approach (believe me, I tried many!).
The reason why Rife had his clinics shutdown by the AMA and the FDA was because he was claiming that the light frequency "killed cancer cells". Though this was his belief at the time (and no one could deny his success rate) it is NOT the current understanding of how light frequency works. We believe that since light is a photon, a particle on a waveform, it has different characteristics than other wave forms. Everything, on a quantum physics level, is made up of energy vibrating at a specific frequency. Bombarding cancer or any other particle (toxins, virus, etc.) with its own frequency simply vibrates it, making it recognizable to one's own immune system for destruction. RIFE technology does not kill cancer, it allows your body to recognize it and do its job in bringing you back to health.