There is a LOT we CAN do to increase our chance of survival and heal our bodies. This is my story:

I'm a very healthy, two-time survivor of cancer – bone and then breast cancer. Doctors gave me little hope after I'd been through all the traditional medical treatments. So I gave the macrobiotic diet a try. And ... I believe it has saved my life.

In spring 1998, when I was 40, I discovered a lump in my right breast, which later was diagnosed as invasive lobular and ductal carcinoma, stage 3B. The news was devastating, as I had already lost my left leg to bone cancer seven years earlier.

After a mastectomy, chemo and radiation, a specialist in Boston told me, with a long, sad face, that the cancer likely would be back within a year. I did as recommended and tried Tamoxifin for a month but discontinued it because of extreme side effects. I felt lost and depressed.

I asked my surgeon if she knew anyone practicing conventional/alternative medicine. She gave me the name of a naturopathic doctor – Devna Krassner, who let me know that some women with breast cancer had been helped by the macrobiotic diet. I thought, “ahhh,” remembering a book I’d read years earlier about a man who had healed himself from cancer by using this plant-based diet. If there was any chance that such a diet might help me, I was all for it. And thus my healing journey began.

I found a macrobiotics/whole foods cooking teacher in my area, Lisa Silverman, and began her wonderful classes. I felt empowered by the people I met through these classes – including Louise Sharp, who I met about nine months after starting to eat this way (and who now assists me in teaching cooking classes). Louise put me in touch with the amazing Warren Kramer, a macrobiotic counselor from Boston. I met with Warren every two to four months for the next two years.

Many things started to improve in my life. I began sleeping through the night – something I’d had trouble with for five years. With my doctor’s OK, I weaned myself off heart arrhythmia medication. I lost weight, my skin got very clear, and chronic sinus problems and headaches cleared up. Ulcerative colitis that I’d dealt with for four years steadily came to an end. My thinking became sharper.