How Diet Can Affect Your Cancer Journey

Introduction and Jamie's Cancer Story 0:00

Well, welcome to the Fasting and Longevity Summit. I'm your host, Dr. David Jockers, and I'm excited about today's topic. We're going to talk to Jamie Holmes, who is a stage 3B melanoma survivor. She was able to beat stage 3B melanoma, which is an advanced case of skin cancer, naturally using natural strategies. And Jamie is a Canadian aerialist, a dancer and instructor, entertainment company and circus studio owner. Owner. She's performed all around the world. She's appeared in film and television.

She's performed for awards shows, concerts, music artists and more. And she was originally diagnosed with this stage 3B melanoma at the age of 33. This is back in 2012. She dove right into the world of natural healing. We're going to go through her story in this interview and you guys are going to learn more. But but she's been able to be healed. And ten years post diagnosis she's still thriving, still passionate, motivated and curious about the wonderful capabilities of the body and optimizing health.

You guys can check out her website JamieHolmes.com. And her book is Carrots, Coffee and Cancer. We're going to discuss her journey and why she was inspired to write this book. Carrots, Coffee and Cancer as we get into this. So without further ado, let's go into this interview. Well, Jamie, great to connect with you. And I know you have a very inspiring story, and so I'd love for you to share that with our audience. Thank you. I'm very excited to be here trying to make it, I guess, a short story.

I was diagnosed with stage 3 B melanoma, but 12 years ago I had a little more I'm a redhead, obviously. I don't have any black moles on my body. So I had a little black mole up here on my knee. I actually thought it was sort of cute at the time, but a girlfriend of mine that I had been to nutrition school pointed it out and was slightly concerned back then. I used to go to the Durham dermatologist every single year and it was sort of dismissed as nothing. No big deal, no big deal. And then I guess a few years later, I actually I was just like, you know what?

It's sort of nagging on me. Why not get it taken off? Because at that point, that's what I thought that you do with these things. Change my opinion a little bit now. But went got it off I think a day or two later I got a phone call from my derm saying that it's cancerous and that I had a bunch of appointments booked at my local cancer hospital and then it all sort of my life collapsed and imploded. And it was, you know, riddled with a ton of different appointments that were multiple hours long. Talking about my five year survival, which I didn't actually even know about at the time, what that meant.

And it just felt wrong. It all felt rushed and wrong. I was 33. I was obviously not super healthy, but but what appeared to be healthy, I had great energy. You know, I did look healthy. I had this one mill on my on my knee. But yeah. So yeah, you were an athlete. But I mean, I went. I was burning the candle at both ends. I will absolutely agree with that. And, you know, I was eating healthy for me at the time, which I definitely do not agree with now.

Diagnosis, Surgery, and Choosing a Natural Path 3:34

So there was there was lots of learning to be had. But basically I got rushed into a bunch of appointments and then call it quits after I had a wide knee excision, which was an awful experience. Awful. And I, out of fear, got some lymph nodes removed. That's my one big regret in all of that because I knew that it wasn't going to help anything and decided after that, I don't care how it comes back, I'm going a different route. This doesn't make sense to me. I watched one of my best friends die horribly from cancer due to the fear of it due to a drug trial, all that kind of stuff.

It felt amazingly wrong. So I went the polar opposite way and I could not be happier about the decision. Yeah, for sure. And I'm sure that must have been a really scary experience. You had the surgery. Did they recommend chemotherapy and radiation? What was the the conventional recommendations for you? Immunotherapy was the one that they they wanted me to go with. But I met with everyone and everyone gave me awful prognosis, like an awful, awful prognosis. So I always want to say it was around 50 something percent, but my husband always corrects me after I talked to someone that it was high thirties, that I would survive five years and I was 33 at the time.

So that was baffling to me because like I said, I felt I felt good. That being said, I had had other prior health issues up until that point and at that point in time, my brain didn't really wrap around that. It's all all one, right? Like, yes, I had a mole. I felt good, but I had had really bad stomach issues for multiple years. My menstruation cycle was a mess. Like there was other things that when I went to the alternative side and I talked to my naturopath, natural doctors iridologist went down to Gerson.

They were all very clear on the fact that, Oh, yes, this absolutely makes sense. This timeline makes sense with cancer diagnosis makes sense. So it was revamp time. Yeah. See, so you had these warning signs, which a lot of people are dealing with, but they they have no idea that those could actually be warning signs of something deeper. So you had digestive issues. You had you weren't having your menstrual cycle, or at least not regularly, which again, are warning signs that the body's not functioning at its optimal level. It's not healing properly.

Obviously, if you have digestive issues could be nutrient absorption issues going on, chronic inflammatory issues that play a role in that. And so, you know, after you got the surgery, you decided, I'm going to go talk to some natural practitioners. What was your route? How did you get involved with with Gerson? Well. I actually I had had a naturopath for years prior to who's amazing and who I had, you know, healed my gut with. Because at that point, my gut was was really good. And so I had talked to her prior to the surgery with the diagnosis, prior to going down to Gerson and and I had, you know, started going more hardcore with regards to juicing.

I implemented some fasting, high dose supplementation, more rest, more calmness, which is not really in my normal muscle. You seem like a type-A, type-A personality type. Yeah, a little bit. I've got a lot of energy. I've got a big to do less every day. So the rest, like I put in my book, the rest was the hardest part of it. I can I can set my mind to something and I can do it and I can knock it off. That's never a problem. I just sort of need to wrap my brain around it. But it's, you know, the taking a beat, slowing down, implementing, meditating, visualization, all that kind of stuff, which was the hardest, but it's the best and I know it's the best and I know, you know, when I'm not doing it, I feel it emotionally and physically and all that kind of stuff.

But yes, so I was seen I was seen my naturopath beforehand and implementing all those things. So essentially when I got to the lymph node, like the wide margin excision and then the lymph node effort, it came back positive. And I just I knew even before that I was like, I need another approach. This is not working for me. The phone ringing off the hook, every all the appointments it was not working. It was felt rushed. I didn't feel cared for. You know, I would ask some of the doctors about changing my diet and how that could help.

And that was met with a shrug. A shrug off. No, it has nothing to do with anything. And I was just like, No, this doesn't make sense because my stomach was really bad at one point in my life and it got back to being better with changing my diet and supplementation. So to me I was like, okay, that healed, so then I can heal this. I just need to find the right route. And when I looked into Gerson, Gerson had really great outcomes with melanoma, so I had actually looked into Gerson and then Dr. Gonzalez either or and I sort of put it out to the universe.

I was like, Whoever gets back to me first, that's going to be the place. And I heard back from Gerson first, and so I booked a ticket and went to town and was met with positivity and an encouragement. And it just felt so much better, so much better than the sad eyes telling me about my five year life expectancy.

Gerson Therapy and Daily Healing Routine 9:01

So yeah, yeah. And Gerson, for the listeners, you mentioned that you booked a flight, so they have a clinic in Mexico and so that's where you went. Of course, people practice kind of a form, of Gerson therapy at home as well, because it corroborates a lot of juicing. It incorporates coffee enemas, lots of rest. And you can go into obviously you were there, so you know more. I just know kind of an overview of it. And of course, your book is Carrots, Coffee and Cancer. So that's kind of Gerson's what they're known for is lots of carrot juice, lots of juicing in general, vegetable juicing in general, as well as the coffee enemas.

And so talk about, you know, your experience, what exactly they had you doing there and kind of go through like a day in the life of somebody going through Gerson therapy. Absolutely. So when you and I will I will say, because I know that, you know, it's out of reach for some people. I don't think you need to go down to the clinic to. I think that there's a lot of people that do a modified version of it. With Gerson, I went down, I believe, for because it was right before Christmas. I think they usually have people come down for two weeks, and I think I did ten or 11 days because of how it fell in the year.

And, you know, basically you're taking care of there are people bringing you 12 juices a day, three green juices, and the rest are carrot apple combo. And the food is all prepared and you do your five enemas a day and then there's different things that you can do educationally. I remember Charlotte Gerson was there at one point. We spoke with her and learned about a bunch of different things. So it was it was very immersive and it was it was for me a way to really wrap my head around how it was a way to motivate and wrap my head around what the next two years were all about for me and that I could heal.

And and I left there feeling like, yeah, this is possible. I can totally do this. It's going to be a lot of hard work, but I'm not opposed to hard work. So obviously getting back to Canada, you know, getting everything set up, trying to figure out your regular life. Plus this is a thing. But, you know, it took, I would say, a week or two and then we were into the flow of it and and it was okay. I mean, I didn't really do a lot for a year and a half to two years other than my job, which was to heal.

So, you know, wake up early in the morning and you do an animal right away or you do a juice first. I believe I meditated a little bit, probably first and then a juice. I've landed in my book. I don't have it memorized, though. Do your first enema and then you're washing, you know, the vegetables for the juice and you're preparing the soup for lunch and you're preparing the cooked vegetables. And, you know, I would sometimes sneak in appointments or to with maybe an acupuncturist or my natural path or my ear geologist or something within that range.

I would usually do some gentle like yoga in the morning. I would I bought myself a rebounder because that was one of the forms of exercise that we could do, which that was hard because I'm used to exercising a lot and intensively and I couldn't. And it was fine. It just it took some getting used to. And I also slept. I slept sort of like a toddler, like I had my two scheduled nap today and they were needed and they were at least an hour to an hour and a half long pending when the last and a more or juice was.

But yeah. 12 juices a day, five enemas a day, and then sort of getting everything organized for the next juice and a dinner with help, large help from my husband and my mother, who would come in every few months and sort of try to help relieve my husband. And that was sort of it. And it felt like groundhog Groundhog Day for a good year and a half, literally. Oh, and there was castor oil days. So those were excellent. And I say that very sarcastically because they were not excellent days in general.

I actually felt good, like I didn't have any super crazy reactions or anything like that because I did have another natural doctor that was supporting me with extra supplementation, pending what I was going through at what phase and what we were cleaning out and all that kind of stuff. So I feel like that was extremely helpful. But those castor oil days sort of kicked my butt a little bit. Basically, it was, I think, two tablespoons, I believe, of castor oil right in the morning. And then the only coffee that you were allowed to take in your mouth was sort of get it into your system and then, you know, stay by the toilet for the rest of the day.

That castor oil, especially taken orally, has very strong laxative effect. So it's really to just try to clear out your intestines and it also opens up, dilates the bile ducts, whether you apply it topically or orally. But of course, you do an orally. You're going to get a strong dilation of those bile ducts and you're going to really pump out a lot of toxins because bile is a carrier for large, oftentimes fat soluble or just large, heavy toxins that are in your system. The body gets rid of those through the bile and through the feces.

And so yeah. So you're you're doing that to help flush the system and yeah, it can be an aggressive flush. Yeah, sure. Every I forget the exact. But I remember when it got it say it was five days a week and I got taken down to three days a week. Oh it was of, it was so much nicer and so yeah. Yeah. And so like you said, it was like a year and a half where you were just focused really on this, you weren't working or anything like that. I think that's important for people to understand is that, you know, when when you have a diagnosis like this, it's going to take some time to really get your body in a state where it's healing and, you know, going going down to a place, you know, in Mexico like GERSON Or you refer people to hope for cancer as well.

Oftentimes two or three week treatments which are amazing. And they do, you know, I know hope for cancer. They're doing IVs and all different types of things. Ozone. I mean, they, you know, as as this whole field has progressed because you were down there ten years ago, they've gotten more and more and more. You know, great modalities that that they're seeing great results with. So there's a whole whole, you know, treatment center approach that that takes place. But that really jumpstarts the healing process.

And then there's, like you said, what work that you've got to do at home to follow up. And and so that's what you were doing and you were you were going through this process. And and so you said it was about a year and a half now. Were you getting labs done? Were getting blood tests? Were you getting anything to kind of measure how your body was improving? Yes, I was. And I how is it that was a bit of fun as well, because I had to go through a few doctors because obviously I wasn't doing conventional treatment.

I don't know the behind the scenes thing, but I did have doctors that were okay with it. But then because I did monthly labs for about it was about a year and a half to two years like full on for a year and a half and then sort of like a modified for the last half of that year. The definitely weren't in love with me coming to do labs each month. And you know in Canada I can they're covered which is excellent. But I remember at one point, you know, because it was hard for me to get away, so I had to leave my house, wait at the clinic, get the blood work done, come back home, which is not a big deal.

But when I was on a very rigid schedule, would sort of throw things off and then I'd have to go back, get my results, talk about them, and then come back and truthfully, I just needed the bloodwork done. So I remember one of the doctors definitely had an issue with it. I volunteered to pay for it. I didn't know if it was a money thing or not, but I had to switch people a few times until they were okay with, you know, I just need you to facilitate the blood work for me. I'm taking it to someone else.

So, yeah, I did. I did them for once a month for definitely two years and then sort of petered out down. Now I'm down till I usually do it about once or twice a year pending if I'm like, maybe I should go in now, maybe not.

Monitoring Progress with Labs and Biomarkers 17:18

But yeah, it's quite more, a lot more relaxed now at that point for sure. Now, do you remember any of the key biomarkers that any of the clinicians were looking at, or were they looking at like your C-reactive protein, or were they looking at inflammatory markers? Were they looking at any sort of like nutrient status, like vitamin D or anything like that? Absolutely. It was it was a CBC. Plus, plus, plus, plus, plus, plus, plus, plus, plus. And each time I'd go and someone was like, Why? And I would have to explain it each time that I was going through some cancers, cancer treatment and monitoring it, and then they'd sort of, you know, be okay with it.

But yeah, zinc, vitamin D, free T3, free T4. I believe they're called C-reactive protein. All inflammation markers, my liver markers, white blood cells, red blood cells. Like it was a big loss. Yeah, but I ended up as it was, it felt like a lot of blood sometimes, but I got used to it, so that's good. Yeah. You need a lot of those biomarkers to really help understand how the body's progressing and healing and to look for anything that is out of out of whack that could give signals that maybe, perhaps something needs to be changed or altered in the in the process.

So I think that's key. Now, you were doing all this juicing, right? And so what what did that feel like as you were, you know, obviously 12 juices a day. I think they do like a vegetable soup. It's pretty much pretty I'm pretty sure Gerson's vegan, is that correct and it's everything is in a very easy to digest form. So it's like what you're consuming is minimal stress in your gut. So your body, because digestion takes away from that the the actual healing process. And so the goal is there to try to get as much nutrients into the body without having to really stir up a lot of digestive function so your body can put all that energy, all of its energy into healing.

Yeah, I mean, it was it was delicious. But I guess most people would just say very bland. So you sort of had to get used to it. But but whenever you start eating better, your taste buds adjust. And you know, I remember what were treats to me back then would not be treats beforehand or now. But at the time, you know, I would make these little I don't I don't remember if they gave me the recipe or I just made it up. These little sort of oatmeal, applesauce, nugget basket things that were delightful to me.

But I mean, they were good. The juices. I love juice. I still juice one or two times per day. So they were delicious. The soup was milled, so it was very easy to digest. It also was quite delicious, to be honest, for a mentioned cooked vegetables. So it was it was like I said, it was Groundhog Day. But I'm I'm pretty easy going with regards to food I don't need extravagantly different meals every single day. So it was sort of okay and to me it was what was fixing me, right? And it was what was healing me.

So it was delicious. And I was I was game. It was I didn't get stuck in the oh, it's boring and da da da da da. I mean, of course there were days that it was boring and all I wanted was chocolate. But the outcome and what it was doing trumped that, right? Sure, of course. Yep. And you know, when it comes to juicing, I know the traditional idea of it is we're just sure I flood your body with as much nutrition as possible. And I think, you know, there's a lot of validity with that, with just trying to get just nutrients that are in a lot of these fruits and vegetables without, you know, as much of the fiber.

Even though, you know, fiber obviously has a beneficial impact, it also slows down the digestion process. It's also a little bit more challenging on on the gut. So the juicing process removes that. So you get the nutrients without the roughage, that can be a little more stressful for the gut. And there's better assimilation with that. And also there's, you know, an evolving idea or evolving theory and evolving research about this idea of structured water, which we find in fruits and vegetables, which provides coherence for the cells.

So it helps the cells communicate back and forth and helps improve intracellular dynamics. So what's happening with the mitochondria and the DNA and all of that kind of stuff?

Juicing, Nutrition, and Why It Helped 21:38

We find that naturally in fruits and vegetables. And so that form of structured water, you're in a sense, you're flooding your system with that. You know, with cancer, there's a breakdown in cell to cell communication. So the cells aren't able to communicate. Well, it's like a bad radio frequency. And and so structured water really helps to improve that process. And of course, natural way we were exposed. Structured water is, you know, like when water is flowing through rivers and things like that, actual the flowing process creates a structured form.

Of course in our society today we at we filter all of our water and many times for good purposes, right? We don't want to get bacterial infections. We don't want chlorine fluoride. You know, so from a natural perspective, we don't want the chemicals they're using. And of course we don't want to get bacterial infections and things like that. But much of our ancestors, we're going to be exposed to structured water, whether they were eating, you know, organic produce or they were drinking out of a river.

Because as the water's moving, it's providing kind of the structured form and and improving the cellular communication process. And so today's day and age, we can very easily do very little of that very little of that in our in our system. And so so I think that's one of the reasons why the juicing can be so helpful and effective there. Now, let's go back to, you know, where your lifestyle was. What do you think were some of the root cause factors for you to develop the melanoma? I mean, multiple things. I think that my gut being off for multiple years and bad, bad like it was very bad without getting into graphic details.

It was it was bad, bad. And truthfully, I remember when it started, I was early mid-twenties and one of my best friends that was going to nutrition school said, I have an edgy professor, you should probably go see him, but he's definitely going to stop making you drink alcohol. And at that point, I had worked on a cruise ship for a little while. I had worked in Las Vegas for a little while because I was a performer and and I was a bartender. So I definitely consumed a lot of alcohol. My liver was not the most happy with me, I'm sure.

So I think years of that. Yeah, for sure. And like I said, I, I burned the candle at both ends. I operate at a very quick speed. I had my own business, plus I was hustling, trying to be a performer, working a ton. I was teaching all kinds of fitness and dance and then moved into teaching circus. When I implemented that into my lifestyle, I also ran an entertainment company, you know, I was. I was. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. No rest ever. Plus, I exercise a lot, which also causes inflammation.

Right. And I have a question for you. I know for myself in my when I was in my late twenties building my career, I actually developed skin cancer as well. And I was able to heal that naturally. Now, it wasn't stage three, it was early phase and I never got it diagnosed. I was just actually metastatic melanoma is what killed my grandfather. So I have it in my family history. Ben grew up in Florida on the beach. Surfing and things like that were sunburnt more than somebody should be. So I had those risk factors, but I think a really big factor for me was I had a I had a really big fear of failure and that was a big driver.

That's why I was working so much. I actually lived in my clinic. When I first started my clinic, I was, you know, six figure debt and I was working around the clock and I just constantly driven by this fear that I was going to fail. I was wondering psychologically if, you know, because you mentioned how you were just working, you were doing all these things, if that was a factor. For sure, well, why not? Like, I mean, I'm a performer, so ego is definitely a thing. Absolutely. And I think I've always things haven't necessarily come super easily to me.

So I know if I work hard, I can figure it out. Do you know, I mean, like that's sort of how I operate and I can tend to be a little bit pushy with those kind of things. So I was like, I'll figure it out. I'm going to I'm going to do the thing. I'm going to make it happen. So yeah, for sure. Absolutely. I did not want to fail and I was loving it from all angles. I mean, I love performing because I do love it. It's my background, but there's definitely an ego component in there. And, and yeah, you don't want to fail and you want to be top of your game and all that kind of stuff.

And like you said, I'm a redhead and I and I worked on a cruise ship and I love the sun, so I've definitely been burnt too many times. And I mean, I don't think that I don't go with the sun is bad. I just think that you need to be smart with it. But yeah, I think all those contributing factors, you know, that a stomach really messed up periods of like really very heavy. Oh, not fun for multiple, multiple, multiple years, you know, which I have heard has to do with liver and liver not functioning well.

So, you know, all of those things playing in, like I said, when I, when I first met with my natural doctor and we had a five or six hour appointment, I think we went through my life, you know, how were you born?

Root Causes: Stress, Lifestyle, and Sun Exposure 26:48

What vaccines did you have? Did you break any bones, blah, blah, blah. Like it was it was very intense and very extensive. And it, you know, when you looked at it on paper, he sort of went, Yep, this leads to this and this leads to this. And then now we're here and now you're here. And it was all quite obvious to him. So lots of factors and and whenever they say stress causes disease, I feel like I used to attribute it to you're working too much and you're a banker on Wall Street. But I think I'm in stress can be so many things even if it I'm exercising all day long and then I'm going to shows at night and then I'm planning for the next show, like things that you love but that elevate you.

Right? It's not just, you know, I got a divorce and I lost a bunch of money. All those things are stressors, right? So, yeah, that definitely all contributes to absolutely. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And I think that for a lot of especially younger people developing cancer, young adults developing cancer, even teenagers, I think that there's usually either like a post traumatic stress, like maybe, you know, something happened really bad, early childhood, things like that, which oftentimes is the case or there can be kind of this highly internal this this strong internal credit critique, which I think that was the case for me, this strong internal critic, this fear of failure that's constantly driving this.

So it's like you're never really resting because even when you're sleeping, you're like your dreams are about I remember I was I was not even in school and I was I would like wake up in the middle of the night and like, my dream was about me missing a test or missing a, you know, some sort of performance related thing. And it would be like a nightmare wake up and I'd be like, Oh, I got I got to get to school. Or, you know, I'm like, Oh, I graduated two years ago, you know? And so it's it's a lot of times that kind of performance driven individual.

They may have had a great upbringing, you know what I mean? But they never really learned how to how to turn that off. And I know when I'm stressed because I have it's so funny because I transitioned to being a circus performer, early thirties or late, late twenties, early thirties. And I dance before that. And I know when I'm stressed because I have not a reoccurring dream, but but a similar ish dream where I'm backstage at a show where I'm dancing. It's never doing aerial. For some reason I don't know the choreography and I can't get my lesson.

And I mean, I can go. I left it on like a champion. I can do my stage makeup very quickly, but I can't get them right. And I don't know the Corio. And I wake up and I'm like, okay, we need to we need to pull out because you're having that kind of dream that I'm not prepared. I'm just I'm not I'm not ready. I'm a very I like I mean, obviously, it's a control. And I obviously not not related to performing like that, but I've had those same dreams. It's like, I'm not prepared. Here I am, I've got to perform and I'm not prepared.

It's that sort of internal tension, you know, and and you'll you'll see it in your dreams. So I think we have a kind of very similar story there, and I think that's important for people. Understand there's these mental emotional triggers that that are associated with different chronic diseases. And I think for cancer, that's definitely one that's definitely one that, you know, when I tell my story, I do do a lot of mental, emotional, spiritual work to create peace. Right? I get to a place where I'm at peace with myself, where I'm really resting because I'm at peace.

And and so I think that's just so critical. And I know you also talked about the sun. And yeah, a lot of people will say, well, you know, skin cancer is caused by the sun. And I think oftentimes sun is a factor because it's a source of oxidative stress. If you get too much, clearly, you know, nobody. Sunburn is not healthy. However, if your diet is really good and you've got a antioxidant reserve in a sense where you're consuming enough antioxidants and you're also keeping your blood sugar and your insulin sensitivity very good and healthy.

So your blood sugar is balanced. Your insulin, your body's very sensitive to insulin. So insulin when it's high because your body's insulin resistant, it will drive more cellular reproduction. So you're going to have more cell division. More cell division. You're going to have more of a likelihood to have abnormal cells. Right? So like your your your printer, in a sense, or your copy machine just is going crazy, right? It's increasing the amount of copies. There's a greater percentage that some of those copies are going to be blurry.

Right. They're not going to be properly the proper copy. And so it's kind of the same with your DNA. So you want to slow down that cell division process, really keep your longevity as well as preventing disease. So keeping your body very insulin sensitive. And then also a big factor is the kind of fatty acids that are in your cells. All of your cells are our fatty acids. Right. So we have this this by lipid layer of fatty acids. And if we have too much polyunsaturated damaged fats, these high omega six kind of corn oil, soybean oil, we see this in everything cottonseed oil, all the processed foods they've got these refined seed oils, these damaged oils.

And when those the fatty acids from those are making up a lot of our cell membranes, then we are going to be much more likely to sunburn. I know I get out in the sun a lot and I very rarely will ever sunburn, right? In fact, my body does just fine being in the sun for a longer period of time than when I was younger. And a lot of that has to do with my diet, lifestyle, things like that. Obviously keeping stress down under control, allowing your body to rest and recover. Well, sun has incredible benefits, obviously can get too much.

But we can't just blame the sun. I mean, like, you know, and I know you're not, but a lot of people do, they're just they blame dermatologists. They just blame the sun. But really, if you get the environment right, our ancestors were exposed to the sun even, you know, even those of us that are, you know, northern European certain seasons, we were going to be exposed to some sun and, you know, at times intense UV light for, you know, during the summer season, for hours at a time on occasion. And so we needed to have, you know, if our cells are working properly, we're going to be able to buffer that heel and respond and adapt to that.

So so I think that's important. I, you know, don't not get in the sun because you're worried about this. Get proper healthy sun exposure, but also make sure that your body is healthy on the inside. That's super critical here. And it's it's funny, I put in my book as well. The the first meeting at the cancer hospital, they handed me my little what I call it, welcome to melanoma. I don't know, gift bag with I don't know Coppertone in it Coppertone sunscreen in it. And I remember being like really, really?

And I asked them, is there carcinogens in there and, you know, negative things within that? And no, no, no. You need to wear it every single day when you're out in the sun and it's like, okay, I don't know about this place, you know? I mean, like, it was it was super. Yeah, right. Right. Like the first 5 minutes, I was like, and not that I thought that I knew more than them or anything, but it was just I was like, I'm not getting good Spidey senses about this whole thing at all. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and touch on that one more thing.

I mean, the carrots with the beta carotene, that really helps, obviously, that you're reducing carrots that can be really helpful for as like almost a natural internal sunscreen when you're doing that and then also making sure your zinc levels are optimal. I know you had mentioned that with your blood work. A lot of people are very deficient and zinc. Zinc plays a really critical role in helping protect against skin cancer formation as well as just sunburn in general. And then there are different plant based polyphenols that can be really helpful as well.

So things like resveratrol, quercetin, which we find it kind of the outer skin anthocyanins which cyan means blue, right? So it gives plants kind of a blue or purple ish. You think about blueberries, red onions, red cabbage. So these kinds of compounds that we find in the outer layer of certain pigmented plants quercetin we find in, like the skin of an apple. It's in onions. So the the outer layer there, you think about it, that's protecting the plant from high intense UV light. And that's also going to confer those benefits when we're consuming that.

So colored berries are rich in and in different phytonutrients, resveratrol, anthocyanins, different things like that. Quercetin, which again, we can find that in cranberries, Muscat Wine grapes, we find it in onions, apples, things like that. All really, really beneficial. Of course, you can take supplemental doses, right? Clinical doses. A lot of these things that will help help support your body as well too. Meric curcumin, another really good one as well. So all all really good stuff. And I know you've put together this book and let's talk a little bit more about the book.

What inspired you to to to write this and get this out? Well, like I put in the book, I once I wrapped my head around everything, which was one of my biggest things, you know, I mean, and you've you've said as well, like once you sort of are like, okay, I can do this. I'm convincing myself I can do this. And sort of the internal, you know, chatter shifts to that. Then you go full on into healing, I felt. So I found it very, very, very key to watch every single summit that came out. Find people like this, work online.

I mean, I first heard of you in The Truth About Cancer series that sort of came out right after I was diagnosed. And it was amazing to me. I mean, I think it's 12 days, 2 hours a day, 2 to 3 hours a day of, you know, different doctors that are healing and cancer and patients that have healed cancer and all. And, you know, the more the truth about the medical system and all that kind of stuff and and I sort of fed off of that. And it's like I needed it. I needed all the stories I could get to convince myself, okay, well, this person could do that.

That person can do that. I can do that. Right. And it took a little bit of time, but not not too much. And I sort of I remember someone I forget who was saying, you know, when you're visualizing each day, which every single time I didn't and my so five times a day for at least 20 minutes, I would visualize myself in the future. I would visualize myself being healthy. I would visualize myself doing something that I wanted to do.

Writing Carrots, Coffee and Cancer 37:18

At that point, it was going to Costa Rica, getting married to my husband, you know, all those kind of things to, you know, show yourself that you're going to be okay. So that was that was a big thing for me. And I remember I put it out to a few people that like Chris Walker, I think I emailed him years ago being like, I'm going to be on your show someday. And he was like, Great. And also I did that with Howard Strauss, who is a son of Charlotte Grayson, and I would listen to his podcast that he had.

And at one point, you know, I sort of Coquelin emailed him as well, and I was like, Hey, I love your stuff. I want to be on your show when I'm healed. I was just at the Arizona clinic. I'm on the right path. I'm super stoked. I'm going to be on your show. And he was like, Well, let's get you on. I was like, Oh, really? So I went on a few times sort of as a patient in the in the trenches and in the mix of everything, and then sort of nearing the end of it and chatted with them. And he was excellent, really great to chat with.

And at one point I was like, I'm going to write a book. And so I started jotting down notes. I, I go to Costa Rica every year. I run a retreat down there. It's definitely a happy place for me. I get lots of good sun down there and I started making notes with my mother and my husband about how I could structure it and what I could do. And and it's, you know, I had a lot of iterations of it a lot because I've never written a book before. My sister in law, definitely she helped me out with editing it and making it make sense.

And then pandemic hit and I was like, okay, I'm going to finish it. Let's, let's get this done. It's been sort of like here and there, and I've been working on it here and there for for a while now. So let's get it down. Let's get it out there because every story counts. And and I think, you know, someone could relate to this person and not to me or vice versa. They could be like, oh, she's sort of like me and blah, blah, blah, blah. And I've had you know, after I went on Chris's show, a lot of people reach out to me with a kindness, words ever.

And I, I remember being in that phase and seeing people that I sort of, you know, attached to it and thought that they were wonderful and convinced me that I could do this as well. And I was just so grateful. So I'm like, I'm going to do that. I'm absolutely going to do that. I'm going to get better first and then, you know, feel more confident and everything because at the beginning, I was I was very I was very fragile, you know, I mean, getting a cancer diagnosis is a thing. And I felt fragile.

And I just needed to sort of eyes on the prize and not deal with any of the external stuff. And when I got to a more secure place, I was like, Let's do this. Because I also know that, you know, it's a little controversial. It's not the mainstream people think it's woo woo and all that kind of stuff. And especially after pandemic, I'm like, I don't care. This is my story. Take it or leave it. Whoever wants and needs to hear it. Well, if you don't like it, it's fine by me and like, super cool. It's just my. Story.

Yeah. And I think it's super important because people need to hear stories. They need they need to be inspired. And I think, you know, everybody that has overcome sort of some sort of chronic illness should write their story out, even if it's a blog. Right. Even better if you can put it in a book form, because people people need to read that. We need these kind of inspiring stories. Unfortunately, you know, mainstream medicine, they're not talking about stuff like this. Right. So they're they don't even honestly really know what to do with people that are have gotten a diagnosis. And like you said, you had like a 30 something percent chance of living five years.

They don't really know what to do with people that did not disregarded what they said for you to do. Right. Didn't follow their conventional approach, did something else and then got better. They just kind of like, okay, well, I guess that worked. I don't know, you know, and that's about it. And so it's very important that we are getting that information out. And there's just not fortunately, there's just not money in publishing enough research on, you know, using natural methods. And that's the issue there.

You know, there's not a there's not some sort of payoff from some sort of, you know, blockbuster drug at the end of the day. So people aren't motivated enough to do an intensive research on a lot of these things. I mean, some of the best natural health research now is being done by Proline, who has this fasting mimicking diet because they sell you a box of food. Basically, it's it's healthy food, but it's a a it's a it's your fasting for five days, but you're actually eating, right. So you're you're not fully fasting, but it's what we call a partial fast and they just kind of have the meals set out and it's like 800 calories a day, which average individual needs about 2000 calories.

So it's a partial fast 40% of your calories in. They're doing research on people and how they're getting this amazing level of autophagy and insulin sensitivity and ketone production and and stem cell development, you know, at day five. And so they're able to kind of fund that research off of the food that that you're consuming with this fasting mimicking diet. And they're coming up with some amazing research that's showing how important it is to go through periods of time where you are calorie restricted.

Right. Which is basically Wilkerson does as well. You're not consuming a much a whole lot of calories. You're mostly just consuming nutrients right into your system. And it's allowing your body to undergo autophagy, develop stem cells and go through this whole process. So, you know, really, really interesting. But I think it's so important that we are getting stories out like like what you're doing with your book. And so I think that's powerful. Now, last question is what what are you doing now?

So obviously, you were you were doing this intensive 12 juicers a day, coffee enemas, castor oil, all that kind of stuff. What is your daily practice look like now? No castor oil, just I definitely juice at least once a day pending the season. I might do some wheatgrass, all organic. I mean, we have an amazing farm delivery that we get literally all year long, even in Canada. I mean, I get it weekly from an organic farm, about 2 hours I think away from here was just a plethora of, I don't know, some, some vegetables I don't even know.

I've never even heard of them. And they're delicious. So all organic all the time. And just whole foods, really good oils. I eat fish, I eat. I don't I don't love the texture of meat. I do know I do like the benefits of meat, but I usually just stick to organ meat because I don't I don't really like the taste of it. My husband gets really great meat all the time, good raw nuts that I keep in the freezer. What else? But it's pretty, pretty basic. I don't really eat any grains because I don't crave them.

I don't really want them or anything. I get a lot of good fats, I get a lot of good vegetables. I eat a lot of eggs, really great eggs that I meditate as soon as I wake up in the morning, I don't turn my phone on until I've been up for a few hours. And I sort of go about my my body movement. I have two wonderful pets that I sort of start my day of with them because that's lovely. And, you know, I move every single day, whether it be at my circus studio that I own doing circus stuff or do a lot of floaties, yoga, swimming. I do.

I do a lot of stuff in the pool and I just try and maintain my stress. I mean, I am I obviously am still super busy. I still do things at a very quick pace.

Current Lifestyle and Fasting Practice 44:58

But I don't I don't overextend myself anymore. Like, I know when I'm getting to the point that I'm like, I need a day. And, you know, I never sit in front of the TV for a day, but I know when I need a day to like minimize appointments, you know, maybe not get up as early or whatever. So I won't get to that point that I used to get to all the time. Like, it just it was what it was and I had to get it done and that's what it was. So I don't do that anymore. I'm still busy. I'm still tired sometimes and all that, but I won't overextend myself.

And yeah, I try and just take some time for myself. Like I go with my dog for a walk every day. It's about an hour. My phone does not come with me and it's just me and my dog by the beach or in a forest, you know, getting all those good and negative ions. And yeah, I still like to immerse myself in all things podcasts summits. I mean, they're summits all the time now, which is excellent. And yeah, I hang out with friends and just keep on keeping on, you know, I mean. Yep, love it. So very sustainable lifestyle.

Now it's you're incorporating all this into a sustainable lifestyle. Still prioritizing your rest, your mental sanity. Right. And, and, and obviously making making good choices for yourself. So anyways, Jamie, you know, it's been great interview. I obviously really enjoyed it and it's a great story. We've got to get out guys you can check her out at Jamiehomes.com and the book is Carrots Coffee Cancer. Really catchy title there Carrots, Coffee and Cancer. And Jamie, any last words, inspiration for our audience here?

One thing I did forget and because you are it has to do with fasting. I do fasts once a week so I didn't I forgot about that every Friday is when I fast that is. How do you do that? How do you go about that? I don't. Go to lunch or dinner to dinner. A to dinner. It's Thursday night after dinner. Eat until the next dinner. I also just yeah it was one of those things that I used to not be able to I'd have to eat every 2 hours. My blood sugar was obviously a bit of a mess, you know. And now if I'm if I'm on a flight, you know, to go visit my sister in Calgary, I just won't eat.

Right. So I'm, I'm I'm at that point which, which is great. I want to do more fasting, actually. I've done a few multiple day fasts sometimes with just bone broth, sometimes with just juices, sometimes with nothing at all. But I'd like to do a longer water fest. Finding the time is always, always excellent, but I at minimum do my once a week fast and it's fine. It's it's like you're doing I think you're doing great with that because you're very lean and leaner people. I don't think you necessarily need to do a three or five day fast.

If you feel like you're having a lot of symptoms, maybe your immune system's not functioning well. It could be beneficial or if you feel more inflamed. But I think, you know, having a regular practice where you're doing like a one day fast once a week or even once every two weeks, I think that's great. I think that's really good for somebody that's already lean, already very metabolically healthy, because if you're metabolically healthy, you're going to get a lot of autophagy where your body breaks down a lot of the damaged intracellular organelles.

You're going to get the ketone elevation, you are going to get the human growth hormone elevation. You're going get a lot of these very anti-aging longevity enhancements. And you're doing it regularly because you know, you're doing it a few times a month. So. So you're going to get that benefit. So I don't think I don't think, you know, I don't think you should be hardcore. So be like, I really want to do this three or five day fast. I don't know that there's a lot of magic that's going to come from that, that you're not already getting in the one day fast, maybe once a year, maybe, you know, you might might see, you know, some good benefit there.

But I don't think you need to be too hard on yourself unless you're noticing, you know, an increase in inflammation and things like that. Then possibly for like a reboot or a reset. And sometimes your body will give you the signals. I remember a few years ago I got the stomach flu and so it was like I didn't want to eat anything. So I did a five day fast and I felt amazing after that. And part of that was my body was just saying, Hey, look, I want to rest, you know, and we had young, young kids.

I was stressed out, you know, things like that. And and my body really needed that reset. So sometimes listening to your body. But I think a great ritual is what you're doing there with that one day 20, I would say 20 to 24 hour fast, one day a week. I mean, if you can get in that range, I think you get pretty incredible benefits if you're doing that regularly on a regular basis. Very, very powerful. Excellent. Well, that makes me happy. Easier for me. There you go. Excellent. Well, again, again, guys, check out her website JamieHolmes.com and the book Carrots, Coffee and Cancer.

Thanks again for your time, Jamie. And we'll see you guys on a future interview. Be blessed, everybody.