#310 What Conventional Medicine Wouldn't Tell Us About Healing Cancer with Ryan Sternagel

The information provided in this podcast is educational and not intended to diagnose or treat medical conditions. Dr. Doni Wilson struggled for decades to solve her numerous health issues and heal her body, but with focused determination, she healed herself. And in doing so, she discovered the Dr. Doni Stress Recovery Protocol. On this show, you're going to hear from doctors, nutritionists, and experts, along with Dr. Doni, who will give practical advice and wisdom to help heal your body. This is How Humans Heal. Hi, and welcome to How Humans Heal. I'm Dr. Doni Wilson, and today I'm really excited to introduce all of you to Ryan Starnagel. He is the co-founder of the Starn Method with his wife, Teddy, and they started on the path of helping others to prevent and reverse cancer because they went through their son being diagnosed with neuroblastoma. Cancer when he was just 1 year old. And so that just opened up this whole world of what else can you do to help your son who's diagnosed with cancer? And now Ryan and Teddy have continued helping others who, whether childhood or other cancers, and a community, a healing community for those who are in the process of preventing or addressing cancer. And so it's really an honor to have you here, Brian, to just hear your perspective going through this yourself and your perspective of helping so many others who are on the cancer healing journey. So thank you so much for joining us today.

Thanks for having me on, Doni. Yeah, it's been a wild ride, but it appears to be going in a pretty neat direction. So yeah, it's It's pretty cool getting to, getting to be on the other side of it and now getting to help other people get on the other side of it.

And yeah, yeah, it's amazing because that was over 10 years ago that Ryder was diagnosed, right?

Yeah, it's, uh, almost 12 years ago now. He'll be, he'll be 13 in May, and he was diagnosed 11 days before his first birthday. I can't— it's kind of crazy. Some, sometimes it feels like lifetimes ago, and sometimes it feels like just yesterday, you know. It's kind Kind of crazy, but—

And it just became like, and you and Teddy, just tell us a little bit about that. Like you just dove in headfirst in the deep end of like, what else can we do to help our son? Which is understandable, of course, how shocking to get that diagnosis.

Yeah, it was, I guess it was kind of an extra gut punch to, 'cause we were already kind of going down the getting healthy road, you know, whatever, whatever that means. We were trying different diets and eating, eating mostly organic and getting rid of chemicals in the house and EMF and all the, you know, not clearly, not nearly as much as we do now, 12 years, 12 plus years later, almost 12 years later. But I mean, compared to 90, 8% of the population. We were, we were already doing pretty good, right? Even, even before Ryder was conceived. So yeah, it was, it was a bit of a, a what the heck type thing. But, and, but you know, that being said, since we were already going down all these roads and just had gotten into watching health documentaries and that, and alternative cancer documentaries were included that in that. And so we'd already had a pretty good idea of at least where to start looking.

What was his— Ryder's treatment like? How long did that last? Was there a point where you really felt like, okay, this is behind us?

Yeah, that was a whole big thing. When we initially got the diagnosis, we said, thanks for the diagnosis. We're going to go get a second opinion. And they didn't like that very much. And but then we were actually back in the hospital a couple of days later because we did get a port placed or a Hickman line, actually, and got the biopsy. And it turned out that that as a result of that Hickman line, he went septic with, with staph. He had a bloodstream staph infection. So at that point we were in the hospital and it's like, all right, well, we'll do, we'll do a round of chemotherapy because he did. I mean, the tumor was They always make it sound like it's an emergency and you're going to die tomorrow if you don't, if you don't start the chemo. Right. But in this case, I mean, we do— we, we realized we did need to do something sooner than later because it was inside of his spine. Like you couldn't even see the spine on, on the MRI. So, and, you know, any cancer clinic we were calling or anything like that was now out the window because we were inpatient on IV antibiotics and all that stuff. So we did a round of chemo and then And then got back to, okay, where do we go from here? And at that point, Child Protective Services showed up and said, we heard you weren't complying with the hospital, but it sounds like you are now. So as long as you keep complying, we won't take your kid from you, was the long and short of that conversation. And yeah, so that—

That was stressful.

That was fun. Yeah, it's, you know, our son had just been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and then we're sitting in a CPS agent's office answering questions about, Were you sexually abused as a child? And how do you discipline your 1-year-old? And all sorts of fun questions like that.

The reality hits fast. And the reality of like, hey, here's the conventional approach. And it's like, as a parent, if you're not going to follow that, then there's questions going to be coming at you.

Hot and heavy. Yeah. And so then it was, okay, well, what are we looking for? How many rounds of chemo are you guys trying to do? What's kind of the end, end goal, end point? And they said it's going to be 4 rounds. And, uh, I said, well, what are you looking for in those 4 rounds? And they gave us some parameters. And we said, well, what if you can get there in 2 rounds? Or what if we can get there in 2 rounds? And they said, that's, that's impossible, that won't happen. But if it humors you, then sure, we'll do the scans after 2 rounds and see where you're at. And we ended up blowing those parameters out of the water.

Amazing.

Probably because we were just kind of hit the ground running, right? In terms of just opposite of paralysis by analysis.

Well, this is the thing is a lot of times when people get a cancer diagnosis, they do go into paralysis, right? Yeah. It's like the nervous system hits this overwhelm and you feel like you can't take in any more information. And yet that's right when you kind of need to be able to make a lot of changes quickly.

Yeah. And I mean, I totally get it, but that just— that was not us. I, I had our credit cards, all of our credit cards memorized. We opened many more credit cards than the one we just had. That was kind of a fun little game of how many credit cards can we open before they catch on and we can't open any more credit cards anymore. And I had all of them memorized and overnight shipping and just in any supplement that I thought could help, we were getting it. Any device that sounded like it could help and we could afford it, we were getting it. We were working with, you know, one of the best naturopathic oncologists in the country slash world who by the grace of God was right near the hospital, his practice. And thankfully we stumbled into him just looking for IV vitamin C and yeah, all these things, right? So we, we just We're hitting the IVs, the juicing, the— we got a feeding tube. That was like another argument with the hospital because we wanted to feed. We're like, well, how are we going to get all these supplements and juice and so on and so forth into him? And then we realized that, you know, that they give these kids feeding tubes. And we said, all right, can we get the feeding tube? And they said, well, that's only for the sick kids. And said, well, we don't want our kid to get sick.

We're going to try to prevent that.

Yeah. That was like a half-day argument with just, well, that's not how we do it. But anyway, we won that argument and we had Yeah, juicer in the hospital and just the, the whole thing, right? And, um, so anyway, yeah, I mean, we, the, this, after we got, after we, after we got those scans, it's, no, we never said that. It's gonna be, you gotta do the 4 rounds. And, uh, and then we got, we're coming up on round number 4 and they said, you know, we, we said, well, we're coming up on number 4. It's, we're done after this, right? And said, no, who, who said anything about 4 rounds?

They kept changing the story on you.

Yeah, it's 8:00, and we got to start talking about radiation. It's like, well, you just said he's doing better than you said was possible, and now you're doubling the treatment on us. On the way home from that appointment, my wife just looked at me in the car, Teddy, and said, "Should we just move to Utah?" I said, "Yes." And that was the end of that conversation, and we were gone under 2 weeks later and got here to Utah, where we still live here in Park City. We love it, um, couldn't imagine living anywhere else.

And, um, because what, what is it that in Utah you have more decisions?

It was— yeah, I mean, nowhere is perfect, right? There is, in terms of medical freedom and parental rights when it comes to cases like this and so on and so forth. And there's, there's stories like our story, that there's stories like that here too. But it was just kind of a, it was a hunch. It was a logical, somewhat of a logic educated guess, I guess you could say. You know, it was like, where in the country is both natural health friendly and personal liberty oriented? Like, we came from the Seattle area that's very high on the natural health friendly spectrum, very low on the personal liberty government stays outta your business type spectrum. And and there's other places in the South, right? Big on personal liberty, but yet they don't license naturopaths and stuff like that, right? So it's Utah was like, oh, they got both of those things going on. So let's, let's give it a shot. And yeah, so when we got there, it, it turned out when in, in talking to the new team that the, the standard of care for Ryder's diagnosis was always 8 rounds. That was in his chart from day one. They were just telling us whatever we needed to hear to get us to the next round sort of thing. Um, so at that point we were halfway through the standard of care and radiate— probable radiation, because when it's non-resectable, um, like it was in, in his, like, inside of and growing out of spine, then, then a lot of times they do radiation there. So yeah, we were kind of at a minimum halfway through the standard of care, probably even less. And, uh, but the, the new team was actually cool with, with backing off at that point, I think, based on how Ryder was doing. And that, that honestly actually kind of freaked us out when we, we had fought so hard to— for that, right? Right. And then we, we have a guy saying, well, I would like you to do more. If it were me, I'd, you know, if it were my kid, I'd, I'd do, I'd do the 8 rounds, but you're the parents. And so, yeah, I mean, that, that, that did kind of throw us for a loop.

Responsibility to make those decisions. Every decision along the way becomes a big decision.

Yeah, yeah. But yeah, you know, we decided we'll back off and it's, that's the other thing is, you know, even the way he put it was, okay, if you do this, then we'll just, we'll, we'll get scans every, every few months. And, you know, if, if things are looking like they are going the, the wrong way again, then we can turn on a dime and start. And so it, it doesn't have to be, and that's what, you know, we, we try to tell people today, it's making any kind of decision like this is, it doesn't have to be an all or nothing, it's gonna be this way or, or the highway type decision. It's just see how it goes for a little while and re constantly be evaluating and reevaluating and readjusting and fine tuning. And yeah, it's, it, if you, if you think you're gonna get just, it's not going to be one thing that, that solves the, that solves the, that solves the problem.

That's such an important point. It really is. To say like, just in the moment, make the decision, and then a month later or 4 months later, it could be a completely different set of variables and a completely different outcome. So I think that's a really important point for people to hear who, when you're, when you, any cancer diagnosis, right? We're referring to Ryder's case, but like, I know I see this in many with, when I work with patients with different types of cancer, it's a similar thing. You have to kind of see where are we starting from? What's the information we have at this moment in time? And let's decide based on that information, even if it might change in a month, we can make a different decision.

Yep. Yep. So yeah, that, that actually turned out to be the last conventional medicine he ever, ever had. Uh, the tumors kept on, you know, we tripled down on everything we were doing on the integrative, natural, whatever you wanna call it side. And I'd be, yeah, I mean, started, you know, to, to kept doing the let's just do everything thing and working and, and working with really good doctors at the same time. Right. And we, we'd do whatever the doctors told us and 50 other things. That was just kind of the, that was just kind of the MO work, you know, working with energy healers and just what, whatever it, whatever it was that we, we thought could potentially help, we were doing it. We, we ended up I guess being justifiably paranoid about environmental concerns, right? Your kid gets born with cancer, you start thinking something might be in the water. So we ended up buying a, buying a piece of land in the middle of the woods and building a house from the ground up with non-toxic materials. And so we could kind of create this ultimate healing environment and, and Then we started adding a bunch of animals and chickens and ducks and horses and donkeys and cats and dogs. And so now we got the little homestead-ish type thing going and got the greenhouse and turned out pretty cool.

Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, because it— so it really became like, hey, if— and I think that's such an important thing. Hey, if this is like you said, if he's— if cancer is showing up for him, at that age, then yeah, we have to look at the environment that, that he is in. And, and any decision you make would be potentially beneficial to your whole family, right? Because you're all in the same environment. So it's like, you're like, hey, let's change this environment completely so that we can create— make it most likely that the body can have a different outcome.

Yeah, yeah. And that's, it's funny, sometimes I'll even hear practitioners talk about, well, I'll, I'll clean up the— I'll get the, my patient to clean up their body, or I'll help my patient clean up their body, and then once that's all fixed, then I'll start talking to them about their environment and stuff like that. And it's like, if you've got this constant flow of stuff, you know, be it, be it heavy metals or chemicals or yeah, the PFAs. Yeah, PFAs, all, all the things, right? If, if those are all coming in just, and, and they are, if you're not actually doing something about it, right? Then how, how are you ever supposed to clean up the body? Yeah.

Is it because you're constantly getting re-exposed? So it's just a vicious cycle.

Yeah. I heard like a, a, an analogy once that I liked. It's, It's kind of like, you know, if, if you compare healing to climbing a mountain and climbing a mountain's already hard enough, but then you're gonna strap a 100-pound backpack to your back and try to climb the mountain and the, you know, the backpack's all the toxicity. Mm-hmm. Uh, then, you know, you, that's, you should probably drop the, drop the backpack if at all possible.

And, but it comes back to some of this sort of like when you get the diagnosis and, and a lot of times I see this like, Not only do we feel frozen in terms of decision-making, but sometimes we feel frozen in terms of feeling like we can't move or change. And the thought of like saying, hey, I need to consider, you know, you guys chose to move states and let alone build a new home. You know, it's like, so it's like you guys had to really be willing to let go of what was and say, hey, we want, our priority is so much that we want to help our son that we're going to let go of anything we may have been attached to and, and completely create something new. Do you think there was something that helped you to be in that state of willingness to let go and create something new?

I don't really know what that might— as far as, you know, upbringing or anything, I don't really know what, what made us different than a lot of other people I hear about who get either a diagnosis for themselves or a diagnosis for their kid and every, everything we just talked about. I'm, I'm not really sure what, what makes Teddy and I different in that regard aside from, well, I guess, I guess neither of us were, were angels growing up in terms of following rules and that sort of thing. So you are, as far as like bucking the outside the box, you were, yeah, I mean bucking the system type stuff that, that came naturally. But as, as in terms of, you know, what, what made us so willing to just pack up and leave our family and friends and just do whatever we needed to do. It was, you know, I guess it was— I'm not saying other people don't love their kids, but that's just— that's, that's all it was, is just what, what is the best possible thing for, for this scenario right now? And it was pretty obvious, and so we did it, right? Um, and there's also, you know, I guess we also did just kind of embrace that Even if I, if we couldn't quantify or, you know, elucidate it like I'm about to back then, but it was just, you know, that there's, there's seasons for things. There's, there's seasons in life, right? And the more you can just embrace that this is a different season for you and really own that, right? I mean, we'd even talk about that with, um, like fundraising. right? And just, just asking for help and accepting that you are in a position of needing help, right? It's, that's, that's really hard for people. And it's, I, I'd always prided myself on not needing anybody's help and getting by on my own and pulling myself, but up by the two bootstraps or whatever the, whatever the saying is. And we, we flipped that on its head 100% and we had the, the online fundraiser and, you know, I, I took, 20 minutes out of every day just to send messages to everybody in my Facebook list or my phone or email contacts or whatever it was and just ask them to share the fundraiser. And, you know, just whatever it was, because I guess again, it's like this— the more, the faster and the better you can embrace that you're in this season in life and whatever that is, whether it's a season of needing, a season of needing help, a season of needing to heal. The season of needing to, yeah, just let go of what you thought was important before, probably the faster you'll be out of that season, right? Because you just, you really just lean into it. That's, you're probably gonna give yourself the best chances of moving on before the devil even knows your name, whatever that country song, however that those lyrics go. Yeah.

Well, it's that it reminds me of this, you know, like, what we a lot of times we refer to in— I want to say naturopathic medicine, but I'm sure it's in other realms too— of just like whatever environment created the cancer, right? Whatever environment you were in, whatever. And what I mean by environment, it may be the house, maybe the state, might be the country, but it also is the, the, the status inside the body, right? So whatever status and of, of the of the situation in that person's body that, that allowed the cancer to happen, you want to be able to go, hey, how do I shift this? Because if it's— if we stay in the same state, then the, then the cancer is more likely to continue because that's the state that it originated in.

Yeah. Yeah. And even just aside from wanting to have more decision-making capability over what treatments he did or didn't get and all that stuff. Just that, that whole thing was also just creating an extremely stressful and toxic environment outside of, you know, the cancer diagnosis is stressful enough, right? But, and then you add, add all that on and just one tense situation with doctors or hospital staff or CPS workers, agents, whatever you call 'em, after the next. And, and then, you know, we got to thinking, it's like, what, what, what was the cause? Right? We'll, we'll never know for sure. And of course the world's a very toxic place, much more toxic than it ever was. So, and did they, that, that study or experiment or whatever it was when they ran the umbilical cords of all those kids and finding all these toxicants and dozens or over 100 of them were known carcinogens. But it— so that's the toxicity, of course, is a factor. But there was also— my wife did have an extremely stressful work situation going on while she was pregnant. And it was one of those— the, the only thing we can figure is the boss was trying to make her life so miserable that she would quit. So they wouldn't have to pay maternity leave sort of thing happening. And I mean, it worked on the making her life miserable. I saw it on her face every day, right? And talk about one regret in life is not pulling her out of that job sooner. All right. And then what do you know? Our son is born with a cancer of the nervous system. Wow.

Isn't that— and it just shows you how emotional stress can show up in this way? Because I think a lot of times we, we're not realizing that the emotional stress we might be in with a job, for example, or some other kind of relationship that's involving, you know, that degree of pressure, uh, it can show up in our health. It doesn't mean that it's always going to be cancer, but that's— it could be, you know, it could be related. Emotional stress can translate into risk of cancer. We know that from research too.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's what I did. If you wanna take the Adverse Childhood Experiences study, that whole thing, or just the, even the more of the esoteric, not even esoteric, but the, you know, Bruce, Bruce Lipton, Biology of Belief stuff, the Joe Dispenza stuff. It's, you know, the, the, they're all proving it in different ways, right? That Yeah. What, what, what you think and what happens to you and how you interpret whatever has happened to you. And it all, it all makes a very big physical difference one way or the other.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

And, and it's, you know, it's like, it kind of sucks to hear that on the one hand, cuz we've, we've all been through stuff, right? And it's, yeah, that, That's really unfortunate that just what we've been through can cause a physical disease. But it's also, you know, you flip that on its head. It's also empowering to know that there, there are, you know, it's like when, when I asked the, when I asked the hospital what, what they think caused the cancer, uh, I got a, a shrug and bad luck. You know what I mean? And that, that was really Yeah, those were the exact two words was bad luck. That was the cause.

That's just a dead end right there. Yeah.

So it's like, well, what are you supposed to do with that? You know what I mean? But when you actually like, oh, no, okay, there are real things that caused it. And if there are these real things that caused it, then you can find the reversal to those things, right?

Absolutely. That's such an important way to As a naturopathic doctor, as you know, that's a key. It's like we always want to understand what's, what's underlying, what's why, asking that question why. And even if we don't know the exact answer, like you said, we can at least consider all the possibilities and address them to decrease the likelihood. And so I wanted to just ask you, you know, more specifically related to clean home and nontoxic home, type, what did you learn along the way? Like, what is it like? Because you've researched everything and seems like tried most everything. If you had to say like, what are some of your top things that you're like, if someone asked you, what would you definitely do in your home that you feel like has made the biggest difference? If you could tell it all.

Yeah, I mean, it's, well, one, it's easier to although the world keeps getting more toxic, there are more and more non-toxic living options available by the year, whether you're talking about just, you know, non-toxic skincare products or stuff like that, on up to non-toxic building materials and, and things of this nature. So yeah, there, there's more options now than there ever was. Even, I just remembered like the, you know, the, what, what's the, the Environmental Working Group list of all their A-rated products. It was whether you're talking about skincare or cleaning or whatever it is. And it's like, that was a very small list 12 years ago or 15 years ago. And now it's, you know, now, now it's overwhelming. Like which, which of these, you know, top-rated non-toxic products do I choose? So that's cool. So it's, I mean, it's as, as far as like consumable, you know, cleaning, skincare, stuff you have around the house. I mean, it's just, that's really easy. Just don't buy anything with a word that you can't pronounce in the ingredients. And, and you can, you can geek out deeper than that, but I mean, it's, it's, it's getting, getting easier and easier. But as far as like more of the, the home, home stuff goes, I mean, and you know, if, if you're trying to build your own house, then work with a building biologist would be my top, or, or even do a remodel or something like that. Right? 'Cause it, it can get overwhelming researching all the different options and schools of thought on different building materials and all these things. Yeah, I was trying to, I was trying to research that and just do all my general cancer and implementation research and stuff for Ryder and have a day job at the same time. And I thought it was, you know, gonna have a, if all the stuff before didn't give me a breakdown, it's like choosing which building material for the I don't know, the walls or something. That was, that was gonna be the thing that broke me.

I just recently went through remodeling my home and it is a lot of decisions to make. Yeah.

Yeah. So yeah, so the seek out the help of an expert, a building biologist, that's, that's a really good idea if you're gonna be actually like building, building. But I mean, aside from that, you know, it's, it's clean air, clean water. I think a couple big things that get overlooked a lot is clean, replace your furnace filter. If most people have never thought about that before, just pause this podcast and go pop that bad boy open if you never had before and see what you've been circulating in your house. It's pretty— yeah, those things are supposed to be cleaned. Also get your—

I completely agree. It made such a difference once I figured that out. For many years, I didn't know. And then once I knew, I was like, and now I just keep ordering these filters and I keep replacing them. And, and every time the— when the guys come to service my furnace, they're so surprised that I'm actually changing the filter more often. And I'm like, of course, this is, this is the air we're breathing all the time.

Yep, yep. Uh, get your ducts cleaned every, every few years. They come with a big vacuum and just vacuum it out so that, you know, you don't encourage mold growth and stuff like that. And yeah, I mean, then just obviously get, get, if you've never had a mold test done, get, get some sort of mold inspection. It's, even if it's not growing on your walls, lots of people find out that they've had a big mold problem. That's been, that's been the source of their, at least a big source of their problems, right?

Yeah, I see that a lot too. And a lot, and I agree with you, a lot of times when I ask people, do you, Are you aware of being exposed to mold? A lot of times people will say, no, I'm not aware. But then if I— if we kind of think about it a little bit more, sometimes they start to go, well, I did see a little bit, or there's maybe something in my basement or my attic. And then one of the most common I see is air conditioning units. Maybe you see that too, right? And then you're just like— they're like, holy moly, I had no idea my air conditioner was filled with mold. So it's worth— definitely worth looking there, or like you're saying, have a good inspector come because there's a lot of mold inspectors that are not going to find anything.

Yeah. Or then now there's, I mean, there's, there's even little like kits you can do of sending in air samples and stuff like that to just a company that does that sort of thing. So yeah, there's, there's options there. And then, you know, that, that's if your house is old on the older side, if it's on the newer side, then you got to work. I mean, pretty much every default building material It's just like if you walk into a conventional grocery store and just pick whatever vegetable oil is on the shelf, that's going to be bad for you. That's how it works with building homes as well. Any default, whatever the stuff that your contractor goes and buys at the home goods store, whatever it is, it's going to be off-gassing formaldehyde and all sorts of other nasties, and that's not going to be a good thing. So I mean, there's, yes, sorry if you just bought a new house, but there's, I mean, there's a couple things you can do. What I mean, one, just every time you paint, don't get toxic paint, get nontoxic paint. But there's also one, I mean, the brand we used in particular, it's AFM Safe Coat. They're, it's not only nontoxic, but they make it to kind of like block, like block the off-gassing. So it's going back, back the other way out of your house, not, not into your house. So if you, if you feel especially motivated, you can give your— even if you don't need a new paint, paint coat right now inside, you can, you know, give it a once over with that and at least block a good deal of the off-gassing. And, and then, but just, you know, get, get an air purifier, get— you have a collection of air purifiers. We started out with one that we would literally have in Ryder's bedroom when he was sleeping, and then we'd lug it out to the living room, and he was playing in the living room. And, you know, and now we've got like a small fleet of air purifiers in the house.

I'm with you, Ryan. I'm with you. It's funny, you know, it's like it— once you realize how important it is to clean your air, you're like, I want one in every room.

Yeah. And it's, you know, a good— a lot of emphasis gets put on eating organic food and drinking clean water, and rightfully so. Right? But it's, think about how many times a day you eat or drink versus how many times a day you breathe. And then you find out that indoor air is on average 3 to 5 times more polluted than outdoor air. So whenever you're looking out at a smoggy sky or something like that, and you can kind of know that it's kind of like that every day in your house if you could actually see it unless you're do doing something about it. And, and then yeah, I mean that's just on average and then if it's, if it's a bad situation, it can be hundreds of times, right? So, and then you're literally breathing that stuff in with every breath. And yeah, so it's, it's a big deal. Open your windows even, even in the winter. Get, get a little bit of a draft going if at all possible. Yeah.

If you've recently received an abnormal Pap smear result or told that you test positive for high-risk HPV virus, I'm I'm here to empower you. Your body is powerful and it's designed to heal even from HPV. I'm Dr. Doni Wilson Wilson, and I've spent years helping women to tap into their natural healing potential. The Say Goodbye to HPV program provides you with a personalized, natural approach to support your immune system and clear HPV. This is about giving your body the boost it needs to do what it's made to do. Join the thousands of women who've taken this journey with me and start your own path to healing. Awesome. Oh my gosh, this is so helpful and so inspiring, you know, and you make it so feel like, hey, this is doable because I know sometimes people feel also overwhelmed, like, where do I begin? But I'm— I hear you saying like you just start little by little and you just Start with, you know, even start with one air filter and kind of get, you know, start to do that. You know, you can go step by step, get your air ducts clean, change your furnace filter, you know, and then you can go from there and make the next decision. It doesn't have to all happen today or this week.

Implement, implement. Yeah, a little bit of that. You know, it goes for nontoxic living. That goes for healing on all fronts, right? It's like, you know, we, we've got a, we, we've got an entire room now in our house and it was a smaller room and now we've moved it to a bigger room of just of, of all of our healing gear, right? Between two different saunas and various light therapies and bio mat and acoustic vibro acoustic mat and just got a hyperbaric, which is awesome. And, you know, people, people look at that and they're like, what the hell? I can't afford all that. I can't afford all that. You know, it's like, well, neither could we. I mean, we, we've been collecting this stuff over the past 12 years, right? And it's just, but it's been a, it's been a priority for us. We, we have not gone on any elaborate vacations with, with our kids. You know, for, for a long time we were, tens of thousands of dollars of debt. So I think we're still working some of that off, but it's, you know, we, we go on like road trip camping trip vacations and we, you know, buy hyperbaric chambers instead of, you know, it's just, uh, priorities.

You make priorities and you have values and you're like, hey, this is important to us and we'd rather have this than, yeah, than just, uh, I completely, I'm the same way, Ryan. I mean, and it's, it's hard to explain sometimes, but I think of it Because when health and yourself and your family is so much higher on a priority list, and then you look at the money in your budget and you go, "How do we want to spend this?" Well, we want to match it to what our priority is in our life. And that's what you're doing. You're saying, "Hey, this is a priority. We're going to spend our money here," versus just spending it mindlessly and then hoping for the best, right? Hoping for the best down the road.

Actually, it's funny, I think I know where the, the vacation analogy came from. I was, we were, Teddy and I were on the way on a layover back from the con, from a, from a health conference, right? And we ran into some friends of ours who live here in town and they said, where, where are you coming back from? Health conference. Where are you guys going? They had all their kids with them, right? And it's several kids and it was somewhere like some resort in Costa Rica or something like that. I'm like, oh cool. And then a few days later they reached out and asked Teddy what our whole body vibration plate was. And we said Power Plate because we think it's the best. And like, oh, that's so expensive. We can, you know, that's the most expensive one. We'd never, you know, that's crazy. You know, it's like, we just saw you get back from Costa Rica, you know, that cost 10 of those vibration plates for that trip. But yeah, I don't know.

Right, right. It is, it's a different perspective. And so even just anyone listening to just take them, take, sit down. I mean, I don't know if you practice that, Ryan, or if it just comes to you naturally. Do you ever sit down and say, here's what our values are, or here's what we, we want, how we want to prioritize our choices? And, and do you do it that intentionally, or it just comes naturally to you?

No, no. I mean, you know, for— I mean, it was kind of born out of necessity, right?

And we, we were You were pushing, you know, kind of entry-level life any way we can.

Yeah, entry-level, out of college job, young adults with not a lot in savings. And, um, yeah, and so, I mean, of course we got help from family and friends, but when you're talking about trying to afford all this stuff, it's— there's no amount of money that's really enough. And so, like I said, I mean, we were doing the fundraising thing and raising tens of thousands of dollars, and— but I mean, just all of that was going directly towards all of this stuff, and we we were scraping by on every other instance. And I mean, I was an outside sales guy and you got to dress nice as an outside sales guy, right? And that for me meant, you know, like stopping whenever I drove by a, by like a used thrift store or whatever in between appointments, I'd pop in and see if they had like a nice tie or a nice shirt or whatever for that I could buy for $5, right? It's like So, I mean, that mentality is just that kind of ordered our priorities there. And it's just, you know, now we're doing better than buying $5 shirts at the thrift store. But it's still those key priorities still just kind of remain. Yeah.

And I'm curious, and I think I've heard this before from you and Teddy, but did you notice a change in your health when you were going through this process of helping Ryder? Did you end up going, oh, wow, these other things were a benefit and to our health in the process.

Well, it depends on what exact point or yeah, point in time of the journey you're, you're referring to. Cuz yeah, I mean initially when we look back at some of those pictures, our, our joke is that we look way more like the cancer patients than, than Ryder did. Uh, cuz yeah, just staying up all night. Researching, also kind of paranoid about just everything. And, and then there was, you know, a little bit of, well, if I'm taking this supplement or drinking this juice or whatever it is, and it's taking away from that, everything should be going to Ryder.

I see.

Yeah. Right. So there was that mentality for, I, I can't tell you exactly how long, but A while, right?

Of course. You were like, we wanna pour everything into him. Yeah.

Yeah. But somewhere along the way, we, we started, we started drinking the juice ourselves and taking a few of the supplements ourselves. And, and then, you know, you come to the realization that the, the, the more healthy and high vibe and effective you are, and that's going to make you more effective right? Then that's going to, that's kind of right. That, that's only going to result in better care for your kid. And it's kind of one of those things you just have to, have to realize. It's all, I mean, that, that was the other thing that kind of, you know, is 'cause we, we were just again, learning about all aspects of everything, right? And going back to what we were talking about earlier, resolving past traumas and positive, you know, increased. Go to the, if, if, if, if anyone's not familiar with the, you know, Radical Remission, 9 Factors of Heal, that, that book that Dr. Kelly Turner wrote, that's a really good one. And most of the, like a lot of 'em are mental, right? And that's the, it was the 9 factors of, she averaged across, she analyzed thousands of cases of people healing without conventional medicine or when conventional medicine said, I'm to die or whatever it is, right? And so she put these 9 factors together and, you know, increasing positive emotions is one and releasing suppressed negative emotions. And so, you know, I found out about that and it's like, well, how, how the hell am I supposed to apply that to a 1-year-old? You know what I mean? Um, and that was frustrating. But then again, we came to the kind of realization that the more we can apply that to ourselves, we are energetically connected to him and it's gonna rub off on him and So on and so forth. So yeah, it's been a, it's been a process. And, you know, and then fast forward to today, right, where we, we've got this really awesome healing room that, um, we, we're, we just finished kind of painting the basement and upgrading our, you know, healing room to a bigger room in the house. And, and now, again, now it's a whole family thing. Everybody's using all the devices and, you know, got the, got the kind of supplement routine for everybody and It's making our healthy smoothies in the morning for the family and all the things. It's, it's really good.

And through this process, I know you then decided to create the Go Integrative membership and community. Where— tell us more about that. Like, I'm, I'm thinking this was like coming out of like how, like you're sharing here, like just wanting to share all this knowledge with others and create and create the community that you probably wished you had.

It is the community we always wanted. Um, well, actually, it's— we, we kind of— so, I mean, we, we— in leaving our family and friends and all that behind and moving states, it's that— that's actually the one thing that really kept us going, was since we were putting everything we were doing out there very publicly. Um, and that's what led to our website and podcast and then doing the online summits and just all the online health stuff that we've done over the years, right? But it was originally that kind of community that we resonated, attracted to ourselves, whatever it was. But, you know, not, not everyone wants to put their whole life out online and, and that sort of thing. So yeah, so we, as far as the community goes of, of people that are concerned with cancer for whatever reason. Are you going through it yourself? Did you have it and you don't want it to come back? Is a family member going through it and you're trying to research or whatever it is? But yeah, just that community of— because your friends and family, no matter how supportive they are of your decisions, they're still probably going to think you're weird for talking about coffee enemas and whatever it is, right? So if they haven't heard of it before, they probably will be like, what did you just say?

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So there's, there's that community aspect. And then, but then also it's just, you know, I, I started going to all these integrative cancer, like, physicians conferences early on, right? To just to learn all I could for, for my son. And then just finding the best integrative cancer doctors just kind of became a passion. And that just learning from 'em. And like I said, you know, we did the, did the online summits and so I was looking for the best doctors there and had a podcast and was looking for the best doctors there and just finding the best integrative cancer doctors in the, in the country slash world. Like again, it's just, you know, it when, and actually when we moved, it was kind of before I kind of say that's the one good thing that came outta COVID is like telemedicine laws laxed up, right? But when we moved, that was before all that. And we had a really good integrative cancer doctor in Seattle, Dr. Paul Anderson, who's, you know, like, right under God in the naturopathic doctor community, right?

Yeah. So he's been one of my instructors and mentors and still, oh my gosh, learn from him all the time. He's got, yes, so such such a good experience and so much to give in terms of helping other practitioners to also be able to help others. So, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. And so I was in his office picking his brain and I could ask any far-flung alternative cancer weird question to him. And it's like he gave me an answer like he was just researching that this morning. Right. But then I couldn't find anybody like that in Utah. Right. So it would, and that's actually kind of why we started our podcast in the first place was, well, if I, if I can't get answers from, if, if I can't get advice anymore from one of the best, then I'll just start a podcast and interview doctors and, and get, get answers that way. Yeah. But it's, you know, it's just come just with cancer especially. I mean, any chronic condition is, it can get overwhelming when you start researching from an integrative perspective cuz there's all sorts of different theories out there and conflicting points of view and dogmas and so on and so forth. But I mean, it seems to be at its height of conflicting information when it comes to cancer specifically.

Absolutely.

Yeah. And so just, yes, do your own research, but don't go it alone either because it's— yeah, it's just you're never going to catch up to the professionals who have been doing this day in, day out, seeing what works for what types of— this works for this type of patient, it doesn't work for that type of patient, so on and so forth. Just that learned experience that you can't replace. Yeah. So having a place, we get a different integrative— one of my top, top, top, top favorite integrative cancer doctors. We get them on a Q&A call every week and people just— people get— regular people get to ask whatever they want, whatever they're trying to figure out that week directly to one of the top integrative cancer doctors in the country/world. You're part of that prestigious group, Dr. Doni, even though you're like one of the handful that don't necessarily call yourself a quote unquote cancer doctor. But you do help a lot of women with cancer, and I really like your style either way, Dr. Doni. So you're part of the group. Thank you.

I mean, I realized Over time, I started to go— because I never considered myself that either. But then I started realizing, oh my gosh, I'm doing a lot of helping women to prevent cancer. And at the same time, you know, I see cases of people who already do have a diagnosis of cancer and helping them navigate that. And so it's, you know, it has— I've started to realize, oh, this is what I'm doing. I wanted to say that You know, through this, I mean, thank you so much for sharing all this because I'm hoping everybody really understands like that it's not enough to just be searching, doing, you know, going down the rabbit hole on your own and trying to figure this out, that there are actually resources like your Going Integrative membership and, and your— the guide that you created, the Guide to Strategic Supplementation, where you, you know, here you were researching all the possible supplements to help with cancer, which of course there's hundreds. I don't know, even more, probably thousands. And so, so if you're out, if someone's searching and all of a sudden they're like, oh my gosh, there's this and this and this and this and this and this. Next thing you know, you've got like a huge stack of supplements you're supposed to be taking, let alone for, for an infant. And so, you know, being able to filter that out and say, hey, again, how do we prioritize? How do we— and this is what I do with patients. I just help. I help them. I find Hey, use my brain. I've got— I've seen the research, I've seen the clinical experience. I know how to be able to go, hey, let's look at what's possible and then decide what to do first, second, third. And, and tell us more, though, is, you know, is that what people can find in the Guide to Strategic Supplementation, which I will put a link, by the way, in the notes so people can find it?

Yeah, I should. I forget if we set up a code for for the Going Integrative membership now that I— or program— now that I think about it.

Yeah, we'll put a link for that too. Absolutely.

Okay, cool. Um, but yeah, as far as that guide goes, it's— I don't know, I make the, the joke that my, my German brain is always trying to categorize and rank and, you know, create if-then scenarios and blah blah blah. So I mean, it's, it's bad.

I have some German in my brain too, Ryan, so I understand.

Yeah, but I don't know, like, you know, I, you Even if you just go to our website, thesternmethod.com, and go to, go to our what we use page and then like the supplements section from there, you can kind of see how I, I don't know, my, my, my big framework is like I break things down into Nutrify, Correct, and Protect. And Nutrify is what it sounds like, right? Just super nutrition, vitamins, minerals, amino acids. Essential fatty acids, polyphenols, so on and so forth. Just all the, all the goodness that nature has to offer, right? That is also sadly stripped out of food. So you need to, you know, you need to get it via extra food. Yeah, the food whole, we're big on like whole food-based products versus isolated vitamins and stuff like that. But yeah, you gotta, you gotta do a little extra just to say like topped up on the nutrition category and then correct is, detox, gut healing, and I throw like homeostasis adaptogen type stuff in that category as well. And then Protect is more advanced immune support, epigenetic stuff, mitochondrial support, metabolic support, things of these nature. And then, you know, kind of the more advanced healing formulations that you'd find that if you're, if you're specifically looking for, you know, I, I've got something that I really wanna turn around cancer, whatever it is, then there's, you know, the, the higher end formulations in there. And then that's probably a good place to talk about the, the product that we, yeah, that we made, which, yeah, there it is there. Our, yeah, our 7, which is kind of like, it's, you know, I, I make the joke that I, I'm, I'm a, as big of a sucker for the, the next new shiny thing when it comes to exotic formulations and stuff like that is, is I'm probably a bigger sucker for those things than the next guy is actually. But I mean, as, as far as the, this, the stuff that we've, yeah, you know, yes, we, we, we've done all in any, any crazy exotic formulation that, you know, gets talked about in alternative cancer books or whatever it is, we, we've probably done it, right? But the, the stuff that we've never, strayed away from is just the, the botanicals compounds with the thousands of studies in PubMed in relation to the particular condition that we've been talking about, right? That just, you know, that they kind of COVID the bases whether it's immune support or meta, you know, mitochondrial health or anti-inflammatory antioxidants, cardiovascular, just adaptogenic overall vitality, so on and so forth. And that's, it's kind of, so what, what are we talking about? Curcumin/turmeric, green tea, EGCG, quercetin, ginseng, astragalus, grape seed, selenium. Yeah, not, not exactly the, the most exotic stuff, but it's stuff that people, you know, that are concerned with these things are probably, they should be taking anyway under most, under most circumstances. But again, going back to the, you know, 1,000 bottle type thing, that, that's always overwhelming. So how can we simplify? Like, okay, here's the most important things that are probably gonna help no matter what the situation is. You can't really get a naturopathic doctor to say anything bad about curcumin. So it's, yeah, so let's make it convenient in and put it in one bottle and one capsule. But then it's more than that. It's the, it's the sourcing and just, we've been ultra, ultra, ultra, ultra discerning this whole time about, you know, asking for certificate of analysis for any different, any new supplement that we're considering for Ryder and looking at heavy metal levels and are you testing for glyphosate? And was there, you know, harsh, was there like acetate type chemicals, solvents used in the extracts for, for the, for the extracts? And is, are the fillers or did you see, well, are there fillers but like the excipients that the stuff that makes the stuff flow through the, the machines? Like is that magnesium stearate and silicon dioxide and titanium dioxide and all those other oxides and stearates? Or I mean in our case, you know, you have to use something a lot of the times or the machines heat up and then that heats the, and then that heats the, the nutrients up and you don't want that either. But I mean we used organic bamboo silica extract and MCT oil powder, right? And see, you know, we, we had to pay a little more for that, but that's just what we, it's, it's a no-brainer. It's, we just did this is, so it's, yeah, like going Integrative Plus is the, the, the community and resource we always wanted. R7 is the really the, the product we always, it's our first, you know, it's our, the, the, the company we started for that is Our Health Naturally. Our7 is, yeah, it's kind of our 7 ingredients that we've, we've always stayed very close to and haven't strayed away from. And we'll, we'll see where the, we'll see where the whole Our Health Naturally company goes from, from there. But yeah, we're pretty proud of this. Of this one product to start.

Yeah, I have to say, like, every time I'm looking at research and looking at, okay, what are the supplements, the top supplements I would recommend for anyone who's trying to prevent or, or heal from or recover from cancer? I come back to these same ingredients because there is the most evidence behind them. And, and they also have very good safety standards. You know, there's very low likelihood of someone becoming toxic or having a negative reaction to them. And so as a practitioner, I'm always out there going, well, how come nobody's creating a product with these in there? It's very hard to find a product that has those ingredients you just listed. I mean, sometimes you can find a product with curcumin and green tea together, but it's hard to get the astragalus along with the grapeseed extract and the curcumin and green tea in effective doses, you know. So, so when I see your product, that's what I think is like, oh my gosh, this is what I've been hoping somebody would make, because otherwise you have to have a curcumin bottle and a green tea bottle and an astragalus bottle and, you know, everything separate, selenium separate, and all of them separate. And here you go, okay, let's just have a— this— let's put them all in one bottle.

I've heard that from a few esteemed practitioners like, like yourself, Dr. Doni. And, uh, yeah, you know, on the one hand, I got nervous about well, it's, am I, am I saying that this is just good for everything? I, I don't want to be, and it replaces a doctor trying, it's like, that's not what I'm trying to say, or it's not what we're trying to say. But on the other hand, it's, I mean, the, these are pretty solid ingredients that are, are probably gonna help at least, you know, and you're looking for a place to start, right?

These same ingredients are used in longevity medicine because they can turn off genetic expression and, and yeah, just, I was actually digging, uh, digging, digging around on telomere, uh, telomere research with a lot of these, and it's like, oh wow, in particular, as is, you know, very strong on that. So if, you know, if someone's like, hey, how do I take something natural that's going to help slow down my aging, be ox— decrease oxidative stress, and reverse genetic expression that was caused by stress and trauma, this would be the ingredients you would want.

Well, thank you for saying so. Yeah, yeah. But no, it's, um, we, we've, we've been really proud of it. It's, you know, our, our audience has been loving it, and now we're starting to get it out there to the, to the wider world. And, and like you said, practitioners are getting excited about it. So yeah, and we'll And, you know, it's also like I was starting to say, it's so much of our— I'll be excited about a company for a long time and really trust their products and so on and so forth. And then, and then, you know, it's like, oh, when did they get sold to Nestlé along the way or whatever? And now, like, you know, you ask for a new certificate of analysis and either they don't give it to you or it's like loaded with lead and heavy metals and all this stuff.

And so we just, yeah, we got tired of that and just said, let's just do it. Let's make it ourselves. And yeah, that's a big— it's a big— believe me, I know because I do product review and product creation and formulation, and it takes a lot to find, to find each individual ingredient and, and a company who's going to create it for you with high standards like you've just mentioned, and using, using MCT powder instead of one of those other standard Yeah.

Yeah. And that's the funny thing is I, I, you know, we're, we're working with a big manufacturer who, I mean, they, they work with a lot of companies who you, you've seen them in big in the online health world and, and, and, and, you know, Whole Foods and whatever it is. Right. And, and we're just this little guy just, just getting started and, and I can tell like I'm the, I'm the thorn in their side asking all these questions that No, nobody else.

You should be. And I like that it's in a glass bottle too.

Yeah, yeah, you know, naturally. Um, yeah, I was just gonna— and it's, it's, yeah, that's the other thing, right, is, you know, we don't want our stuff touching plastic as much as possible, but it's odd. We also just don't want to be part of the problem. We want to be part of the solution, right? And I also just, yeah, I shake my head when ordering health stuff so much, you know, and it's like it's coming in a plastic bag and then the plastic bag is filled with plastic fillers or, you know, those plastic, plastic on top of plastic on top of plastic, plastic shrink wrap on the bottom. It's like, yeah, we even got, I'm still working on the plastic lid. That's the only thing I haven't figured out yet. The, the manufacturer said metal lids don't really work with their machines, but they think they might have a bamboo lid for us on the next one. So we'll see about that. But I mean, even like the shrink wrap on top of the plastic, or excuse me, on top of the lid. Yeah, I just like, well, what can we do about that? So I got a paper tamper strip instead of, instead of plastic wrap. And I was just complaining about it to you, Dr. Doni, because sometimes they put it on funny and it covers the logo like you're showing there. But I don't know, it's just, yeah, we, we try to do the right thing.

Well, that's it.

In all possible—

you just get the feeling like this has had a lot of care taken. I wanted to, because I didn't say it before, I want to say that those same ingredients the curcumin, green tea, astragalus, those are 3 of my top in what I'm helping women with and men with high-risk HPV virus because there's a ton of research on exactly those ingredients helping to fend off high-risk HPV and prevent cancer associated with HPV. So this, this product is also— would be consistent with what I recommend for a part of, at least part of the protocol for addressing HPV. And it's a similar scenario where when someone's diagnosed with high-risk HPV, they could find endless things they could possibly take and it can be super overwhelming. So we have to prioritize. And that's why I say these come right to the top of my prioritization to say, hey, there's significant evidence not only in research but also clinically to show that these are going to be safe and effective. Let's start there, get those going, and instead of having to order, you know, 5 bottles of different things, you can have it in 1 bottle. And then now you can more easily, if you want to add the next things on the priority list, you can more easily add them. You've got your top part of your list taken care of already. So So I think it's, to me, it's how I look at formulating a strategic protocol for patients is to look for high-quality products that allow us to be efficient and effective at the same time. So thank you for creating it.

I was just thinking after that, after that monologue, Dr. Doni, you might see your face on a Facebook ad here at some point. Thank you for all that. That was great.

It's the truth. It's what I— I said, I, as soon as I look at it, and that's what I said to my team, hey, this is, this is great. Any way that we can, we can deliver what's going to help people, but in a doable way, because otherwise people are drowning in random supplements that may or may not be effective in the dose. Most often what I see is patients are just buying random things that have a lot of marketing money behind them, but they don't even have effective dose doses, let alone quality production. And so it's just very frustrating for me to see that. And so when I can see, oh, this is actually good production and effective doses, it's like, then it's, it's such a much more clear decision.

Yeah, I guess that's, that's the other thing is, you know, you see a lot of these products that just have a little sprinkling of everything. They don't— just proprietary blend, right? What does that mean? How much of each? Yeah, so it's, it was important to us to put the put the dosages on the bottle and actually have really good dosages in there. Obviously, you know, it— one bottle's worth a month. You can do more than that if you're looking to turn things around in a bigger way or whatever. But, um, yeah, yeah, it's, uh, it's the, the, the standard dose in there is not like it's it's not a joke, right? It's, it's actually, it's actually pretty good. Yeah, so that's— we're proud of it, and I'm very grateful and appreciative of, of, uh, all the, all the kind things you just said about it there, Dr. Doni.

Yeah, absolutely, it deserves it. And I, and I have more kind things to say. I want to tell you how grateful I am for everything you've done. You've, you've taken something that happened in your family, in your life, And you, you not only helped your son and completely shifted what, you know, what you've been experiencing, but you've been sharing it with thousands of other people for them to benefit as well. And that's such reciprocity, you know, where we can, when we can go through an experience ourselves and learn some wisdom and then share it in such a humble way and say, hey, how can we, like you said, how can How can we make this a better place for all of us and not be coming at it from this perspective of trying to get or only trying to take care of ourselves? How can we actually be reciprocal and reciprocating with each other? So that's a beautiful thing that you've done and that you're still doing and that you're offering people. So thank you so much.

Appreciate it. Yeah. Kind of seemed like what we were supposed to be doing, right?

Our purpose becomes clear, right? Like, well, I guess that's my purpose.

Yeah, it's funny, I remember being standing in the, like, the parking garage of the hospital talking to this kind of cancer coach type gal that we got hooked up with, and it was maybe a couple weeks into the end of the whole thing and still just very, you know, going in a million different directions and all this stuff. But I remember her saying, you know, I, I, God just told me, or I just got a feeling, or something like this along those lines, that, that you guys are gonna beat this and not only beat it, but go on to help thousands or millions or whatever, whatever the number she used, to do the same. And, uh, at the time I just, just like, okay, that's nice to hear, but, uh, here we are. So Yeah, that's pretty neat.

Amazing, amazing. Thank you so much for, for being here today and for sharing your story and your wisdom and, and your resources with everyone. And so I'll definitely have links down below so those who are listening will be able to connect in with those resources and, and benefit from that connection with you even more. And so thank you so much again, Ryan, for joining me here today.

Thanks for having me, Dr. Doni Wilson. It's been, uh, been on a few podcasts lately, but this one's been really good, so appreciate it.

Oh, I'm so glad. And thanks everyone for joining in at How Humans Heal today. If you haven't already, I welcome you to subscribe to the podcast and to my newsletter so you don't miss the next episode. And I look forward to connecting with you all again very soon. Thanks for listening to How Humans Heal. If you liked this episode, leave a rating and a review, and for more resources, visit drdoni.com.