In this keynote, Dr. Hanan Selim, a former chemotherapy pharmacist turned patient and health entrepreneur, shares her personal transformation after confronting precancerous ovarian cells and severe endometriosis. She questions why advanced medical technology fails to cure chronic diseases, arguing that DNA is not the primary culprit; instead, the surrounding physical, emotional, and psychological environment drives disease through epigenetic mechanisms. Selim introduces the concept of "chronic bio‑disruptors"—silent daily stressors that trigger the fight‑flight‑freeze response, release inflammatory chemicals, and lead to dis‑ease. She critiques conventional medicine’s reliance on symptom‑based diagnostics and treatments, labeling the innate self‑healing capacity as the "placebo effect" that is often dismissed. Emphasizing prevention, she advocates for a mind‑brain‑organ connection approach, empowering individuals to tap into their innate healing program, modify their environment, and choose holistic solutions over invasive procedures. The talk blends personal narrative, scientific references (e.g., Bruce Lipton’s epigenetics), and a call to focus on root causes for lasting health.
Chapters
Okay, I can't stand behind the podium, I'm too short, you won't see me, so I have to be here. Thank you. My name is Dr. Hanan Selim. I'm an international speaker, award-winning author, recognized by the Global Gurus as one of the most influential thought leaders in health and well-being. I shared the stage with people like Tony Robbins, Prince EA, Lisa Nichols, everybody from, you know, The Secret, if you ever read it. But it didn't start out that way. So I used to work as a chemotherapy pharmacist and on something called the P&T Committee, Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutics Committee. So we were the group of healthcare professionals that people went to for hard-to-diagnose, hard-to-treat conditions like cancer, diabetes, and the sort. We would see patients who were doing so well come through the hospitals, and we had to look at them and say, "You have gangrene because of diabetes." and we need to cut your toe off. Or the cancer patient who was doing so well, giving them the grave news that you have 6 months to a year to live. So it was always in the back of my mind, why is it we have the best technology, the best research, in the heart of New York, the best team, but we're not able to have the best cure or solution for our patients. Well, fast forward a few years later, and that same question popped up when I was on the cancer floor when Nurse Mercy walked in black hair, deep blue eyes, and she looked at me and she said, "Dr. Hanan, I never thought I'd see you on this side of the bed." What she meant by that is I was then the patient. I had precancer cells in my ovaries, I had endometriosis, I was 30 kg heavier than I am today. And as she looked down to me, prepping me to go into the operating room, she said, "It's going to be OK. You're going to do just fine." And I remember those words because I used to look at my patients and I said the same words, "It's going to be OK." "Dr. Hanan Selim, you're going to be just fine," and handed me the paper to sign on the dotted line to go into surgery. I signed on the dotted line, but it was to sign myself out. And to answer that question of why is it that we cannot give the cure to cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, with all the amazing technology, the research, and the medicines that we created. Just to put things into perspective, It used to be that— it used to be 5 years ago, it was 1 to 3 patients that developed cancer. Today, it's 1 in 2 patients that develop cancer. Just to bring it home, that means everyone here sitting in the crowd If the person next to you is not going to develop cancer, the chances are you are. Let's just settle that thought in for a minute. So I went on to this life-saving journey. Delved into alternative, delved into research. And the thing is, it's not your DNA that predisposes you to disease. It's your environment that you surround with physically, psychologically, and emotionally. You know how I know that? Because Dr. Bruce Lipton, the best researcher in modern medicine, says epigenetics— I'm not sure if anybody heard of that, epigenetics— but what epigenetics says, again, It's not your DNA that predisposes you to disease. It's the environment you surround yourself physically, emotionally, and psychologically that predisposes you to disease. That means the way we've been approaching these conditions is totally wrong. Think about it. We don't walk around physically carrying our brain. It's one unit. Yet, where I come from, medical medicine, we treat the symptoms. We give you the diagnostic tools. We give you the lab test, we give you the X-rays, we give you the MRIs, and we give you, based on that, the protocols, the first line of therapy. And when we treat the mind, we give you these psychological protocols, when in reality we need to bring the best of both worlds. Worlds in order to approach these conditions that are growing by the numbers worldwide. I remember watching, and I'm sure this example resonates with everyone in here, with an interview that was done by— where they had Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. And they asked a really interesting question. They said, I said, "What is the one thing to your success?" And both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett said it in the same breath: focus. How do we get focus? How do we get energy to get to our goals? And it's just that. Focusing on the root cause, focusing on what started the disease in the first place. What is it that we're surrounding ourselves on a daily basis that's triggering us on this journey of disease? I like to call it In fancier scientific terminology, chronic biode disruptors. What are chronic biode disruptors? These are the silent stressors that you surround yourself on a daily basis that compound, leading you on the journey to dis-ease. Just the terminology. There's something not ease happening. That's why we call it dis-ease. Let's dive a little bit further. I'm sure you've heard this before. There are 3 things: things you know you know, things you know you don't know, And the things you don't know, you don't know. And these are the exact things that we have become comfortable with on a daily basis that we don't really see happening, triggering us in our environment, that's leading us to dis-ease. So it's important that we find what is it on a mind that starts the whole process? What is the story? What is the emotion? What is the trigger? What is what I like to call the tiger? Because imagine if there's a tiger, what's going to happen? Fight, flight, freeze response is going to happen. And when that happens, you're going to release cortisol, norpinephrine, otherwise known as inflammatory chemicals. And they're going to target and go straight to the weakest spot in your body and organ and attack it. And that's how we develop the disease. Root causes will not be found on lab tests. It will not be found on X-rays. It will not be found on MRIs. But these are the tools we use on a daily basis to diagnose you, to treat you. And then we go into this trial and error, leading to see our patients 6 months down the road, giving them the grave diagnosis of gangrene, amputation, 6 months to a year down the road. And then we're very smart in conventional medicine. When people heal themselves and choose not to take the chemo or the medication or do the operation or go under the knife, What do we call that? The placebo effect. We can't measure it. It's not in the medical books. So it's just by chance. The placebo effect. How can we research this phenomenon called the placebo effect? How can we measure it? How can we research it? What tools do we use? And that's exactly what I went on a journey to find. What is this research called, the placebo effect? And I learned there's a program, an innate program. Everyone in this room has this program. You were born with this program. You were born with the innate resource to heal itself. I'll prove it to you. Anyone heard of the antibiotic called Augmentin? Augmentin? It's used for throat pain, it's used for skin infections, it's used for gut infections. I'm sure everybody's come across Augmentin. A doctor has prescribed Augmentin for one thing or another. When you take the pill, the Augmentin, you don't say, "OK, go to my teeth now, clear the infection." You don't talk to the pill and say, "OK, go to my gut and clear the infection. Go to my skin and clear the infection." It's a given that when you take the pill, you are 100% sure your body's genius, your body's program will do what it needs to do to heal itself. And that's the same program that we could tap into, the holistic, natural way, otherwise known as the placebo effect, that we can now take back control of our health and well-being. Look, today, we're dealing with things that we never thought we would need to deal with. The coronavirus is a wake-up call. Things from 1922 medicine is not going to help us with what we deal with today. Vaccines are temporary answers. We need to prevent before we recover. I grew up in the US, and we have a really, really great saying. We say, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." That means don't get the disease in the first place, and that's your cure. We have the power. You have the inner resources. You have the choice. Instead of medicine or going under the knife, you have the choice to control your health and well-being. It's called the mind-brain-organ connection. Just think about it. When did this condition start? What was happening? What was the environment? What could be the trigger that started that in the first place? Think about it. We're so trained to run to the doctor, "Give me medicine, give me the pill." So in my case, even though I come from the medical background, I went to 4 surgeons. And they all said hysterectomy. Think about it. You go to a surgeon, what is he gonna give you? Surgery. You go to a drug dealer like me, and I'll give you drugs. You go to a carpenter and he'll give you the carpenting. So before you go for your second opinion, third opinion, fourth opinion to a surgeon, think about it. And it's not that these doctors are giving you to make money. Yes, some are, but, but that's what their toolbox has. It's what they know, they— what they've learned, what they've been spoon-fed. So you need to be aware and listen to your body, listen to yourself. And when you're taking that prescription and walking out of the doctor's office and you have that gut feeling, this isn't going to work for me, I need to find another solution, I need to look into perhaps a holistic solution. What can I do to help even the doctor or the prescription to heal myself and be back on track? Everyone that's here today right now, even after lunch, and you guys still stayed, It means that you guys needed to hear this. It's no accident that you're here right now, sitting here, waiting and listening to me. Thank you.
