“I Questioned Everything” – My ‘Radical’ Approach To Dealing With Cancer

Introduction and Katrina's healing story 0:00

Welcome back to Everyday Ancestral, where we reconnect with what the body has always known. Does life happen to you or for you? When functional nutritionist Katrina Faux was diagnosed with breast cancer, she did something few people have the courage or support to do. She reversed it 100% naturally. No chemo, no radiation, just food, mindset and deeply ancestral practices. and she did it while homeschooling her seven kids. In this episode, Katrina shares how she turned a life-altering diagnosis into a path of deep healing, challenging everything we've been taught about disease, resilience, and what it means to trust the body's wisdom.

If you've ever questioned the limits of modern medicine or wondered if a more natural ancestral path could work for you, this conversation is your invitation to look deeper. How does it feel to you hearing that? Does it make you emotional at all about what you've done and what have you accomplished? Yeah, James, it does. It brings up a lot of stuff. I'm like, wow, who is that lady? This path has been circuitous and crazy. But it has taken me to that deeper place that I would have wanted to go, but I don't know that would've chosen that path.

Yeah. You know, as I started with that, does life happen for us or to us? And I mean, did this, the cancer diagnosis truly, was that the first time where you really changed that perspective of like, Oh no, this is an opportunity for me to look deeper and to see this as a gift versus as, uh, a death sentence, or had you already shifted to that mindset previously? That's a really good question. So I'd actually had two kind of food as medicine, health, eye-opening experiences that had already invited me.

And when I entered into it, it showed me that there's other ways to look at things and reframing it and seeing things that happen to us passively as more opportunities to dive in and investigate and learn. look for new paths already before. I don't know frankly that I would have made the choices that i chose if I hadn't had those two big health things, which are like whole other stories, happen prior. Well, let's go backwards then, because I would love to just at least touch on this path. Because I think it's really important, you know, when we're living in this modern society, we were sold this bill of goods that technology was going to simplify things, but it really hasn't.

And so I are in a place of like they're outsourcing their health, they've lost touch with what their own body needs and we're scared, particularly when something like a diagnosis of cancer comes up and more and people are getting some kind of diagnosis like this, whether it's cancer or Autoimmune diseases or something company happening from modern society and if anything are medical systems aren't supporting us they're broken and in many ways society is broken because we don't know how to support each other in this state of dis ease right.

So I would love to go backwards in your journey because I believe that's where the answers are, because you did find support. You, you are supporting others, but how did we get here? So, so let's go backward to seven kids homeschooling. Like, what's that all about? Well, I like children. And, you know, with the homeschooling, even before I had my first child, like I just wanted to spend more time with them.

Early health wake-up calls and homeschooling 4:00

So I head structured my 1st business, which is a Palati studio, so that I could, work from home and like, Have a flexible schedule. I was in charge of the schedule, I'll just put it that way. Um, and I could leverage myself cause I, was the business owner and that was kind of all from the beginning because I wanted to be with my kids. And that's where, you know, we had lots of children, but, um, she, She had some really bad tooth decay. Really, really sick. The hypermesis Gravidarum when I got pregnant with her.

Who's your first born? My firstborn. I was on suppository medication. It couldn't even take the oral medication, and even then I am super anti-medication. And she, fast forward, had some serious tooth decay. When she had to be three or four, she was like having some pain, I took her in, And I think it was eight fillings and three baby root canals. And I'm like, what are you talking about? And they looked at me like I was a bad person and they're like you need to stop feeding her soda and junk food and like she's never had soda.

I mean, I wasn't, maybe like generically healthy but I isn't eating what I now know is healthy. And so it took a lot of like three more second opinions and a whole lot digging in and I found the GAPS diet and we started cleaning everything up and stopped the tooth decay and that's kind of what got me into Weston Price and starting along this journey of like, how does our food interact with us? And what is this, you know, the right way to eat ancestrally? Um, and even before that, I had had this really interesting, um, my, uh, husband, or my fiance at the time, we were both had dogs.

I had fully vaccinated mine and he had not. And so I was going to be a good little fiance and register his dog and get her all vaccinated and took her in and she almost died from all the vaccinations. She had bronchitis really bad three times that year and it really kind of brought it to my in my face of like What is the vaccine? Why would this happen? And I started researching all this stuff and realized that I had had a vaccine injury as a child that my mom had never told me about. And like, I'm super glad knowing what I know now that didn't vaccinate my kid because especially with my oldest history and to compromise immune system, like it would have probably been a big problem.

So those together really brought it in my attention, like I need to look into things more thoroughly before I just jump in with whatever is recommended. Our cat, our first cat as a family, she also was vaccine damaged. And it was very clear that it is from the vaccine. It ended up being from It's from the vaccine they give all the animals who are outdoors. I'm forgetting the rabies shot. It was from that vaccine. And it affected her neural pathways and she would get these seizures from there on out.

She would them regularly. So it's interesting because A lot of people, it's such not a black and white situation, right? Vaccines. There really are subtleties. And yet most of society, at least in the media, don't allow for that. They're just like, no, you either are for it or against it. It's like no. there's real situations that exist. The people that are loud about this are not allowed about it randomly. We've experienced things. So that was the first occurrence of just starting to think about things that are outside of the norm.

Yeah yeah and it started my brain thinking and researching and reading all the books and starting to talk to people about it and through a lot of those resources I started to learn like hey maybe I don't want to make this choice that's just the standard everybody does it this way kind of thing and then one of these was homeschooling and you know getting to be with the kids is one benefit but then I get to teach them what I want I have more flexibility time-wise with them and what they learn and, um, all, and when they eat, that's a huge one.

Um, as a practitioner now, I, it's almost impossible to work with kids that are at school because there's so many variables outside of your control. And as homeschooler, you get a lot more control with that. How old is your oldest now? She's 18. Okay. So she's old enough and probably some of the others as well, where they're now exposed and doing things out, outside of home, obviously, and they are being influenced by the food that's outside the home. How are you navigating that? Because I know that is a little divergent from a topic, but it's one that I think so many of us as parents struggle with.

If you're following a very specific food paradigm at home that's different from what's outside the home. Usually the kids feel like they're freaks, they are treated differently, then get even more curious about the junk food and sometimes get more addicted to it. So how have you been navigating that? That's a fantastic question. Yeah, as parents, we do the best we can with what we know, and I'm big on education, whether it's with my clients or my kids. I feel like, for the most part, when people really understand the situation, they have better opportunities to take responsibility for themselves.

And I tell my kid all the time, like it your body, it is not mine. You don't get another one later in life or something. If you choose to do that. It's your choice. Now, you know, as a five-year-old, it's different than a 15- year- old. Another thing with the homeschooling is I get to, I mean, they are in the house for more meals, so they get They learned how, you know, basic skills of cooking to where then eventually they can cook whole meals and do meal planning and stuff. And I feel like that's a really important life skill that most schools leave out.

So, as they've gotten older, there's been times where we're out and they're like, I've never had this piece of junk food or whatever. I'm like yeah, let's try it. You know I want you to know what it tastes like. And a lot of times like, oh my gosh, this is so good. I'm like yeah, but it has these consequences, you know, so we discuss it all and yeah it tastes good because there's addictive chemicals in it and because it opens up really great opportunities. So I don't shelter them from everything, But overall, yeah they eat super healthy.

They know how to cook. And I let them make a lotta their own choices. We do a kinda salad bar style where they get to choose what goes on their plate. And very strict, you have to try everything. I was a very embarrassingly so picky eater as a kid. And I think it's important you to have try every thing because your taste buds change. If you don't want to eat it, fine, but you won't get anything else. Yeah. Holding boundaries actually creates a better home life and is safer for the kids. They feel more freedom with boundaries than not.

At least that's what I've found. Yeah. And I have so much fun with them now, James. Like we go out to restaurants and I get like even waiters and other tables commenting because my kids are eating things like escargot and foie gras and, and have fun because I got to eat with him and they're not wanting just chicken nuggets. Nice. Okay. So back to the journey though.

Vaccines, food, and questioning conventional wisdom 12:00

Uh, so after this health journey with your daughter, her teeth, uh, what was the next kind of catapult? Was it the cancer diagnosis? Yeah, so the teeth led us on this whole gut healing thing and we did gaps. And even despite that, I had then developed cancer, which looking back and understanding and having seen the objective lab tests, it makes sense. There were a lot of other variables. And that's kind of the thing that I would say to people with the vaccines, because a lot of people like that all vaccines cause problems and all don't.

And it's not a black and white thing. Like you were saying, just like with vaccines. You know, cancer is going to be a myriad of issues. It's never one thing and there's when we do the lab testing on all the things that cause cancer and have been shown to drive cancer, there is usually seven or eight things coming up. So it makes it trickier to like feel into like, well, what's going on? Um, and to, to see it. Cause most of the clients that come to me, they don't really have symptoms. I mean, I have some sniggly things that are no big deals, but they're not like have major life conditions.

So they were very perplexed by this. Now you, you said you were running a Pilates studio, right? When did you then transition to nutrition? Was that, even though I know while you had the Pilates suit, you were still into nutrition, right? But you took it to a whole other level. You became a functional nutritionist. Did that happen before the diagnosis, during, after? Yeah, that's a great question. So I actually still own the Pilates Studio, personalized places in Scottsdale, and I've been running it remotely for more than a decade now.

Um, so I'm not full time in it. I am the owner. But the cancer diagnosis, I'd already, like I said, done a lot of research about nutrition, but I wasn't, hadn't taken courses and training. With the Cancer Diagnosis, the whole thing was so fascinating. And I, really struggled to find understanding and get my questions answered. So I actually went to nutritional therapy association and then to do functional lab testing training and integrative oncology training where I wanted to understand. And so that was after the cancer diagnosis to get the official credentials and everything.

You got the diagnosis and it was breast cancer, right? What stage was it? I actually chose not to do the staging because the biopsies and all the scans, a lot of them can cause cancer and such and spread it. So I didn't want to opt in that way. You went truly natural. Can you walk me through what is a natural cancer diagnosis process look like? Yeah, and this is super controversial. So mammograms are radiation and then they want to do a biopsy and the biopsies, where they extract the needle with the cells of the tumor can actually leave secondary track marks where secondary tumors can grow.

So I wanted to opt out of that and there's actually technology where you can do just a basic normal blood draw and you contest for circulating tumor cells and they can actually detect from those cells like where the tissue of origin is and validate is it cancer? Is it not? As well as monitor things. So, I mean, there are lots of companies that do this. Some are more accurate than others. And at the time of my cancer, this was 10 years ago, I had two different companies that validated because I didn't really believe the first one.

I found the lump with a plug duct when I was nursing my fifth child and just thought it was part of that. And when they dug in and did some of these tests, it's like, no, that can't be right. Let's do another one to figure it out. and it kept coming back that there was something there. Yeah. And it validated, it was from the breast tissue, not somewhere else kind of thing. So then what's the next step? You know something's going on, do you immediately go into like, okay, I gotta start following ketosis or what what, what the the process of that journey?

Yeah, so the way I looked at it, I had been doing a lot. I mean, we had moved to a different state so we could raise our own meat animals, kind of extreme, a LOT. And I was like, why did this happen? Clearly something I'm doing is not right. So to make sure I didn't have some kind bias of what I learned, I put everything on the table and I'm like, okay, all this stuff I learned in Weston Price, like maybe I missing something. Maybe there's something to all these raw vegan stuff. And so I started studying all of it from scratch.

I actually went down to a cancer clinic in Mexico. They're doing Gerson as well as some other stuff and you know, that's raw vegan, lots of juicing. And I had a lot of questions because it didn't really line up with what I previously learned. I was trying to really fully understand this because, you now, we're all ultimately the masters of our own health. and I kept asking questions and they didn' have answers and by the third day down there, the director of the facility sat me down and was like, You know I think you just need to trust in the process.

And I was shocked because I felt like if I. Alternative stuff that I would get more support and, and the people would want to help me get through our understanding. And. I'm like, well, I need answers to my questions and he, um, invited me to leave. Wow. So, wow. Wait, wait, let I just want. Sit with that for a second. The alternative therapy. Also let you down like because we normally hear that kind of mentality with you know, the modern western medicine But yet yet clearly it's not just about is it alternative or modern?

That's that's our basis of is this work or not? It's Which of them is open to questions being asked to interrogation which is opened to a different perspective, right? And yeah, it wasn't yeah No, it's really about which practitioner do you gel with that allows you to ask questions and take ownership of your health versus a lot of them even in alternative health care. And this isn't always in standard of care, but a lots of in an alternative healthcare even are, do it my way, here's what you're going to do, go through the shoot.

And that's why a lot of people are stepping outside of standard of care is they want to understand.

Breast cancer diagnosis and choosing a natural path 19:00

They want own their health. And even in alternative health care, that is not always the most efficient way for them to work. So they don't allow it kind of a thing. Yeah. After that, I felt like I was free falling. I completely on my own trying to figure this out. A friend connected me with a functional practitioner. And we started running the test that I run now. And there was a lot off, James. I was shocked because I didn't have symptoms for a And so we started working on those and it just made so much sense and I didn't understand why more people weren't doing this.

And even now, 10 years later, most people are unaware of the ability that we have to run these tests because they're not covered by insurance and they are not part of our standard of care. But they really getting to the root of what's going on. Yeah. Well, and I would offer too. And I, I'm sure you agree with this is like, it's not just about running the test, but it also about working with practitioners that read the tests in what I say in an effective way, because I always say like everyone can buy jeans, like there's anyone can by jeans.

But they all, they, all fit differently and you got to find the one that fits right for you. Yeah, 100%. And there's a lot of people out there in the cancer world that can read the functional test, but they don't know how that relates in terms of cancer. Like a normal person, you look at the test and iron or copper might be indicated, But with a cancer client, You would never want to give them those because it can fuel things up. higher protein diets can stimulate those mTOR pathways. So there's a lot of these things that are okay normally, but would actually be detrimental with the cancer.

Now, actually, let's talk about that briefly because you've mentioned that previously in other conversations about how iron is not ideal, yet iron from food is okay. Can you explain that distinguishment? Yeah, so iron's a really tricky one. And in traditional oncology, I'm going to kind of back up for a second, they a lot of times just look at hemoglobin to look and assume what the iron status is, which is not a very good way of testing things. It could be a of other things that they might be missing, but that's the cheap and easy on, you know, there's CBC and metabolic panel, which is horrifying in and of itself.

So looking at the total iron and the ferritin more specifically and digging in, you can see the pattern of what's going on with the iron, and a lot of times what may first appear like This pattern like an iron deficiency or something may actually be like and anemia of chronic disease, which is super super common in cancer where the iron levels go down and the ferritin levels. Go really high as an indicator of inflammation and it's a sign. It's not a diagnosis, but it is a Sign that Things are getting worse with the cancer and we don't want to exacerbate that by giving them iron.

It would be like, you know, like pouring gasoline on a house fire. Like it's just not a good idea. And oftentimes the doctors aren't aware of this pattern going on, but we can see it really easily. And this is where adding, whether it's a supplement or a lot of times I see oncologists wanting to give iron infusions after chemotherapies that have driven the iron levels down, that's not going to fix it because that is not the problem. and it would make it worse. And I've seen that happen with clients that are working with other oncologists and such.

It's really, really hard to manage when they start doing this kind of stuff. But supplements, iron in the food is different. So when you're talking about something like having some red meat, we're not going to have too much protein. and therefore it's limiting how much iron, but also, you know, organ meats and things can be fine because then the body has a chance to decide itself how it is getting and you're not inundating it with extreme amounts of iron like in an IV or something. It's almost like the food is more well balanced and so it gives your body the room and the space to choose versus where supplements are more times than not.

an overabundance of sometimes even a synthetic vitamin or mineral that your body just is, like you said, inundated and doesn't know and overwhelmed by it. Yeah. And our standard of care doesn't seem to, and even a lot of times natural folk don't seems to distinguish what you just said about the, is it synthetic? Is it natural? Like what form, you know, has it taken in this context of having enough stomach acid to absorb it? There's all these factors that need to be looked at in conjunction as well.

Yeah, wow. So what did you change? I mean, I know talking to you previously, you focused on things like water intake and the type of water. Can you talk about some of the things that you did change in your life to get your cancer and remission? Yeah, I did a lot of diet changes. I didn't go raw vegan. Um, and I went the other way and, uh, ate, went into a ketogenic diet because when I started looking into it, the science made a lotta sense and there was a lot clinical evidence as well as research showing that a keto diet can really be helpful for cancer.

So I went super high fat, which was really outside my comfort zone. Really low carbohydrate and moderate protein. Things were already clean. So that wasn't a huge change. But there was a lot of other stuff. I needed to clean up my microbiome. It wasn' digesting things well. so I was doing some supplementation there. My hormones were really off.I was super estrogen dominant so i did use some herbs. to help with that and actually got things in range in like three months. Making sure that I was reducing my stress, clean up my sleep, hygiene, things like that.

One of the biggest ones though was the toxins. I had moved into what I didn't know was a very black mold ridden house about eight months prior to the cancer diagnosis. And in that same timeframe, there was a crescendo to a very toxic relationship that I was in. So there's all these things like brewing and working against each other, against me together with that. Yeah, the mold. That's so interesting. The toxins, that mold, like I'm just more and more hearing that. And when people start sharing their diagnoses, it's interesting because it is not the first place most practitioners or doctors look, but it tends to be when no one can figure it out.

It tends be the missing piece. Yeah, and the mold thing with cancer specifically just fascinates me, James. So at this point, I only work with the cancer clients and I always test them. They all get a choice about the molds. And I've only had two clients not have toxic levels of multiple mold strains. Now, these are known carcinogens in the research. This is not like some out there up for debate kind of thing. And it makes sense. You know, most states in the real estate industry, you can't sell a house without disclosing it.

Although the owners that we bought it from did not disclose it to us, although they did know. And, it's just kind of crazy that when somebody has cancer, we look at these known carcinogens and known testiums, so that the client goes, does their standard care, their chemo and everything, and then they come home and just cross their fingers. It's a simple p-test, it's not hard, not difficult, and not even that costly. And you can see, do we need to dig in and make sure that you're not sitting in the environment that grew the cancer in first place?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to wonder, hey, is it going to come back if they're still living in that same environment? Well, I think that word is key, right? An environment. And I know when Margaret had her melanoma scare, that's really how we looked at it. It's like, okay, it's the environment and the internal environment, and to what you're saying, also the external environment that really need to be looked

Functional testing, iron, and root-cause investigation 28:00

because it is just like if it was a weed, you don't just pull out the weed. You have to change the enviroment that is encouraging the weeds to grow. Exactly. And you have to look at both. You can't just look one because I had Warren Phillips on as a guest and he talked about this as well. It's like if you just focus on the outside of your body but don't focus what toxins are already in my body then nothing changes. 100%. And the inverse is true as well. Like if you just focus on the inside, but don't change the toxins you're getting from the outside, nothing changes.

So I love that this is coming up. Yeah, I wanna take this a step farther because along the lines of what you were saying, when a lot of clients come to me, they're doing this cleanse or that cleanse, and I think most people at some point have bought some boxed kit or something or done some process on internet. And that's fine, I guess, but I think most of the times it's a big waste of money because they're not considering where the inflow is coming in. And so like in the example of The Mold, like I tell my clients, OK, we got these test results back.

This is really helpful. Don't start TheMold protocol yet. We have to figure out is this in your house and get that stopped. Because if we just get it out of you, And it's still coming in. It's kind of a waste of money. And let's just be frank, your energy, because these protocols aren't easy. There are a lot of time, energy and money, and we want to make sure they're efficient. So, you know, doing the testing, whether it is the mold or chemicals that might be in your water, like testing to see, okay, I have XYZ chemicals, that I'm being exposed to, where are they?

And doing that detective work then of, Are they in my water? Are They in My Air? are they, you know, coming into a food product or a toiletry product? Where are They coming from before you try to get them out? You bring up such a good point, and I'm wondering if you have an answer for this, but what would you say are like the top three myths that people think, like, so they think they're being healthy, But the myth is it actually is not moving the needle at all. How would You answer that question?

Yeah, I would say, oh, that's a really good one. I mean, there's so many things coming to mind. The detoxes, weather, the parasite cleanses and stuff like that, a lot of times they need to focus on digestion, specifically stomach acid, and they're missing that. Because if you don't start from the northern spot where if eat some, say bad lettuce or sushi or something that has parasites, if have the right amount of stomach acids, You just get a little extra protein in your meal. You're not getting infested with parasites.

So again, looking upstream is really important. I would say that one's one. A lot of people are taking a lot time and energy to change out their mascara and their dish soap and things like that. And it could be really good. But when you get your chemical report of what are issues for you, you can be really specific. I need to find what has phallates in it, and that's what I needed to dig into. That's my issue. And I don't need change everything today. Let's get the biggest movers with it. And then I think the mold is enormous.

Most people just think they need to go on symptoms and they're like, I don't have any of this or that. Blood sugar is the same way. They're, like I, don t have these symptoms. I'm like please let me test your hemoglobin A1c and inevitably it's high. And I m like there are issues. Your insulin is like at 12. This is a problem. And you know, you're fasted, that should not be that high. And so a lot of it's just a matter of they don't want to, they feel like, and this is a big thing is that they should be able to trust their body and just, use their intuition of what they do.

If I had done that, I would be dead. I needed those tests to show me what was really going on. Do you think that's because you were that just everyone needs to be testing. And then the question would be, well, how often or, and, or do you think that we're just out of touch? Like we don't know how to read the signals. We're not truly in touch with our internal bodies and what's going on. So how can you be in your body when you don' even, when your disconnected? I think it's both a hundred percent.

Um, very, strongly. I feel that it is both. Yes, we need to be testing. And I. At minimum, a very extensive blood panel each year would be helpful, but, um, I call them the whispers. So your body is always giving you little signals, whispers of what's going on. Through my program, like that's where I want to connect. Like, what are you feeling? with what did you have show up on your labs. Because for me, when I had cancer, I was, like I said, about a year out of having a baby. I have some extra pounds.

A fifth baby, right? Fifth baby is key. Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt. So fifth, baby and you had some I had some extra pounds, probably, you know, 25 pounds or so extra sitting on me. I was tired, which easily could be attributed to night nursing and I wasn't losing a little hair, but I didn't feel that bad and none of that Anyone would you know even think twice about in terms of a new mom and such you'd be dismissed and our standard of care like would dismiss that if i had gone into the doctor like yeah exercise more eat less.

You know kind of stuff and this is where i feel like you no. The way we look at a doctor, we think they're going to find what's wrong when we go in. And I think people need to be educated that the doctor is trained to diagnose. So they are not going look for something unless it's like a diagnosable. It's that bad. They're not looking for the precursors of let's head this off before it is a problem or the very early signs. they aren't looking at the functional ranges on the labs. and where people are healthy, they're looking at where disease is already set in, and then where I can give you a pill.

If they can't give a you pill or something for it, then they have no tools. They're done. Tap out. And that's where we get told, you're fine, go home. So that whole process leads to us not listening to our body, not trusting ourselves, maybe going to Google, but not having a lot of alternatives. Does the practitioner in you look back at your journey with seven kids? And let's just let just pretend you can separate like loving mother, I love my kids, yada, you know, all that. Let's Just pretend we can seperate from that, do you?

Look back and go like maybe having so many kids so close to each other. is potentially can contribute to that environment? Is there any kind of truth to it? I've always been taught, well always, I should say since I got into cooking and health, That you really need women need space in between kids. And it's actually longer than what most people do. So most are doing like two, two and a half years in-between, but that they need more like three and half to four years to actually replenish themselves that every child is taking parts of you.

Right. This is a really good question. So I feel like I can objectively separate that. Personally, I like them two years apart. Like from a psychological, the kids get along kinda the dynamics of the family better. I do think that having seven kids that close together in our society the way we're taught to do things is too much. And what I mean by that is I fully believe that you can actually do it, you just have to be more intentional. she is my healthiest child, which should not be the case. But with her pregnancy, I was eating liver pate.

I knew what to test and I taking the right supplements. Um,I knew how to detox and effectively, you know, while pregnant. And I had done the work to get rid of the mold and stuff before her pregnant, like she had all the things going on that I didn't have with the previous six kids. And yet it wasn't like she was so far out. She was three years out, which is a little more than my others. But I mean, seriously, she almost 10 pounds and like off the charts in all the areas. So maybe it's less about the time in between focusing on that, but more about what tools are you applying in-between.

Exactly. And I think this is a really beautiful thing where super nourishing foods, especially organ meats, and the labs can come together and give us direction and intentionality because, you know, just to be frank, You don't know what you don' know and The Labs can help you see those blind spots. So I'd love you to mention the programs you did because I Think that will be fascinating. You already mentioned that you Did the nutritional therapy practitioner program, right? Yes. And then talk about the program you did after, and then you also did Natia Winters program.

So can you just briefly mention those just in case anyone listening is like, Oh, I want to go down this path.

Diet, toxins, mold, and environmental triggers 38:00

Cause cause I speak about these paths, but everyone thinks I'm biased because Margaret is, you know, runs one of them. But I have seen the difference. I saw the different before she did the programme and after. It's to me, it's like. Someone who kind of helps with health versus someone who's a miracle worker. Yeah, yeah, so the the nutritional therapy association was my base foundation with nutrition. And you can do a lot with that, but you're flying blind, in my opinion. Institute of Restorative Health is what Margaret runs, and I knew before I even did Nutritional Therapy Association that I wanted to do the lab testing.

And I, you know, I had already kind of picked it out ahead of time because I'd had the Lab Testing change my life. I want to that. And it was like you said, it changed my life as a person, not just as the practitioner, with what I could see and understand and how to correlate all the different labs. And I've done a lot of other programs, because I like to kind of hear from lots of voices, just that's who I am as person. A lot them are just focused on interpret the lab. And what Institute of Restorative Health is really phenomenal at is, really, okay, what do you do with that?

What does that mean for the protocol? Let's not just give them a generic one-size-fits-all protocol, let's tailor it to them. And then even further, now they're doing the protocols, how do we deal with issues that come up? Because root cause work is never super linear. It's always got some little bumps in tailoring moments to the client. Usually that's completely left out of I've never seen that in another course. And then I did, like you said, Dr. Natia Winter's training, which they're kind of restructuring right now and such, but I went through her practitioner training and that assumed that I had all the stuff I have before and then just layered on the cancer layer, where I wanted to dive in further.

So you currently focus on helping women with cancer discover why they have cancer so they can learn how to live without fear. What was the why you discovered in your own path? Oh yeah. Yeah. So that's actually my guarantee. I guarantee that my clients will know they'll have a list, a printout. These are the things that cause my cancer. We go through 10 areas and I'm just going to pick up the ones like you said for me. In the metabolic area, I was super insulin resistant, super defensive about this one because I like I am eating only healthy carbs, spaghetti squash and honey and things.

And I still was able to be very insulin resistant there. Turns out I have some genetic predispositions that were not making that easy. The mental-emotional well-being bucket, I mentioned I had a very toxic relationship that was crescendoing and such. Microbiome balance, was not digesting things well. I was like, oh, had no stomach acid, and I have some fun parasites as a result. Um, it was very inflamed. That's another one of the buckets. And in particular, my homocysteine, methylation was really off.

Again, no signs of that. My hormone balance bucket, I was super estrogen dominant, very high estrogen and low progesterone, which I corrected with herbs. Stress and circadian rhythm were actually not my weakest spots. And then the toxin load, the molds. I also had a couple heavy metals and chemicals that I had been exposed to that high levels. You know, once you get one thing, one toxin going and you're not able to detoxify it, it just opens the door for more to build up and everything. Immune modulation, I actually was doing really well and I didn't have any autoimmune or viral components at the time.

and then angiogenesis metastasis. There weren't any metasticists, meaning tumors and other places, but I did have some some high copper and pseudoplasmin that were showing that my body was being told to make more blood vessels to the tumor to get it more of its preferred fuel source and everything. And then genetics, I'm a hot mess. I've got like bad detox genes, the blood sugar regulators, don't make fat soluble vitamins very well, methylation's a mess, so all these areas were really important for me Not as like oh no now i'm gonna just be enough for lauren the rest of my life it was knowing these these jeans epigenetically i can really be empowered and make good lifestyle choices and no specifically where to monitor and where two fine tune.

I did have some low vitamin d i forgot that one. Okay, so just this kind of pull it all together. So, what we're really talking about here is that even when you think you're doing the right thing, all the right things, that there could still be an underlying conditions that are supporting the environment for cancer cells. And that testing is really something you really need to do regularly to support awareness of what's going on internally Assuming that we don't always know even though you may think you know you don' always no because you can look really great on the outside but there can be a completely different truth on inside.

My vitamin D levels are a really good example of that, James. So when I had cancer, they were super low. I'd been taking vitamin d because you're supposed to take vitamin, especially with pregnancies and things. and it took me five different therapeutic grade brands to find one that would move my vitamin D level because like I mentioned genetically I really have a problem converting and creating vitamin d levels. Now that I've gotten it up I do really well. With it but i am intentional i know how to check it actually just checked it again this week it's doing great but it.

I would never know because i had tested you bring up such that is such a good point. Because the same thing happened to Margaret and I, actually. Even when we were living in Southern California, sunny Southern, California we had low vitamin D, we we're taking one supplement grade vitamin d and our levels were still low and then we finally found one that our bodies registered with. And I think this important point you're making is that we are being taught and we assume that all these vitamins and minerals are the Just take vitamin D, just take iron, take potassium, whatever it is.

That they all operate in the same way that our bodies receive them in this way and it's just not true. Not only is the, as we mentioned earlier, whether it synthetic or natural, the form it in matter, Sometimes the formulation. So how much the different how the companies like, um, support the vitamin mineral, how they preserve it, all that kind of stuff. And so the only way to know the difference is to test, right? Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah. To your point, like I'm from Phoenix. So, you know, right up until we had moved and with the cancer diagnosis, I was living in Phoenix, now I live in Idaho where I get far less sun exposure.

And here's the interesting thing, and I'd love someone to do research on this if someone's interested. I could never get any color in my skin growing up. Now, after I've gotten my vitamin D levels up, I can get tan just very, very easily. No sunscreen and such, of course, but it's very interesting to me that shift, and I don't know how much that vitamin d plays into it. But there seems to be a very strong connection with me. I didn't burn anymore. You gotta test those vitamin D levels. They're very tricky.

That's fascinating. I know that I've heard some people talk about or experience that when they're eating like vegetable oils that have been fried or kind of rancid vegetables that they get sunburned more easily. So I've heard that as well, but that could be their deficiency or a sufficiency somewhere, I don't know, or an over-sufficiency. Wow, this has been such a cool and enlightening conversation. I wanna just delve briefly, because I know about it, But I want everyone else to hear about. Talk to us about the water changes you made, Because you did some really interesting research.

You tried some different things. And I personally am really fascinated with water quality. So could you talk about some of the things you learned? Oh yeah, and jump in if you want to direct, if there's something specific you wanted. So the water, the waters a big deal. A lot of people, you know, we're drinking city water and everything and that's where having those chemical testing you can see what's in your water. or what's in your body and then test to see if it's your water. And unfortunately, this hopefully will get fixed in a couple years.

We don't even have a test, to test everything in our water that we can test in out bodies.

Water quality, structured water, and faith 48:00

So it gets kind of tricky to figure it out. I was on well water and there's a lot of, you know, my water was perfect. It was gorgeous. I wish everyone could have the water that I had when I was cancering. But we also, I did some more research into Dr. Thomas Cowan's work in terms of structuring the war and working on that because there's a lot of really interesting connections with the fourth phase of water, the gel phase, that it has been, and once I discovered, because it was always there, but talked about more.

and research and such that i think we're missing out on and this is where. You know we talk about the juicing with cancer that can be a benefit because all that juice is gonna have structured water in it. We are also getting this huge sugar bomb and you're taking all the good fiber to feed your microbiome out of it So I never recommend juicing, but I do want that structured water for my clients and then to take it farther, the deuterium depleted water, because there's a lot of research showing that's very helpful with cancer.

And one of the best ways to make that is, well, it was just such a beautiful thing. I ran to the scientist that was creating these magnetic bed pads. Um, not grounding, um, with the, the plugs and, you know, mats and stuff, but it was magnetic and that can recharge because it's sending the negative ions up into you when you're sleeping. And this is going really far down the rabbit hole. But to me, it all of a sudden started making sense that when your in certain energy fields, this ties in with EMS and the structured water and processing of our food.

It's sometimes hard to deal with, But it makes a really big difference. You know, we're 70% water, and if the water inside of us is not structured, it doesn't work right. And this is where there's a lot of connections with cancer and such, as well as the other stuff. Again, there is never one thing. It's allot of them. Is Kagan water? Am I saying that right? Does the Kangan water apply in any of these ways? I'm not familiar with offhand with that one. There's a lot of models out there. I'd be surprised if it didn't have a structural component.

The hydrogen water is amazing because you're getting extra antioxidants, the structured water. What I don't recommend is the alkaline water because so many people will then drink it and mess with their stomach pH, especially if they're drinking it with the meal. That's when most people drink the majority of their water, and that's the worst thing you could do for your digestion. Because you need the acidic environment, as you said earlier, the hydrochloric acid. You need that to support digestion and safety of pathogens or not.

So that's a really great example where people are chasing after the stuff they hear about on the internet. They're drinking alkaline water, they're taking these minerals and stuff and eating nutrient-dense, organic, wonderful food. And they literally, because their stomach acid level isn't low enough, the pH isn' t low, enough they' re not going to be able to absorb and get those minerals. And so they think they have it because they swallowed it, but they're not actually getting it into the system.

And it's not going to make any change. Um, and this is where, again, the testing can just give us that feedback of like, am I hitting the mark? Am I missing something? Yeah. Wow. Okay. Last question. Where you mentioned when you went to that first kind of alternative therapy group in Mexico, you, mentioned that they said just trust in the system, like just trusting the process, which is in a certain way is, is a way to say like, just have faith, right? How has faith played into this process? Cause I know when people do get cancer diagnosis or Anything that feels kind of life-threatening whether it's going to jail anything like they a lot of people do turn to faith then Because they they suddenly are aware that they don't have all the answers How did faith play into your process?

I love this question. I think this is a really, really huge one. And it a lot of times will tie into dealing with the trauma. But so for me, I Think it was like leaning in on Jesus that really helped me through the whole thing. I feel like a lot of the niggling, uncomfortable, like I'm asking questions, even at that cancer clinic, was that, you know, that Holy Spirit in the background saying, hey, ask some more questions. This isn't the right fit for you kind of thing. And it wasn't that I didn't have faith, and I did have a faith in them.

Um, and it's interesting because when I got home, you know, I'm, i'm praying a lot. Um and I started to juice cleanse of all things and then then found the, the functional medicine work and after the Functional Medicine stuff, all the testing like, I got this, I am cool. I'm doing all the right things. All the stuff. Like I was very confident in me, if you will, and the testing, which I don't get me wrong. The testing is very important. My implementation of it was important, but I wasn't a little cocky, If you well.

And I invited to go to a women's conference and a retreat and I said, no, they're going to eat crappy food and drink bad water and being a snob. And this is where it gets weird. So I, uh, the whole time, every breakout session, and this was not a marriage conference, this not like a cancer conference. This was just generic women's, um, Every breakout I felt on my heart that I needed to go home and be with my husband that Sunday night. I'm wrestling with God and like, this is weird. Who does God tell to have sex with when?

This is strange. Oh, and God, by the way, I have cancer. And by way I just did a hormone test and I know what time of the month that is. That's not a good idea. I am freaking out. Long story short, that's actually when they got pregnant with number six. So I chose to get pregnant in faith, stepping out, not knowing if I would actually get pregnancy. not knowing what I would do and the whole process. So I get very sick. Like I mentioned, I couldn't eat all my good food. I could take all of my supplements.

A lot of them I, but not all them. And there's some really interesting stuff to dive into here that I still haven't teased all that out. But I got very, very anemic, a very very I believe I was in a ketogenic state because I didn't get to eat a whole lot. Um, But a month before the baby came, the tumor was gone. And this is you know it's in my breast is right there near the service it was a golf ball it is not hard to miss and it completely gone. And i talk to you several cancer specialist in the alternative space and they said that they've seen this cancer can be reverse and put remission.

With pregnancy you know pregnancy is a very detoxifying period for the woman the body does a lot of really interesting things I'm not trying to figure it out. I just know that the faith played into it Leading me to the different people that I needed to talk to The different promptings and everything it was a big deal, but I Not everyone. I don't recommend my clients get pregnant. This is not something that I put out there a whole lot, but leaning in on where God would have you take this and what he wants you to learn from it is a big deal.

You know, I was not ever planning on being a practitioner. It's a heavy field. happy joy joy. This is like heavy dealing with this and you know but this is where he wanted me and I'm so glad I listened. Every step of the way has been a good thing and now I look back and i'm like this whole journey has ben for my growth and my benefit and know I get to share that with everybody else which brings even more joy to me. And you can see it's still an emotional thing because it is such a blessing and I feel like a lot of cancer clients miss this.

Whether it s a diagnosis of a cancer or a car accident or You know, autoimmune condition or something like there's always a learning piece and a growth piece that we can take away from it. If we. You get over ourselves, so to speak. And I don't, I won't say that lightly or to dismiss the pain of going through it or the frustration, but. The way I look at it, like if I'm gonna go through that stuff, I want something good to come out of it. I don't wanna miss that. And I just hope that anyone hearing this would be able to dig into and feel into like, what can I get that's good from this?

That's beautiful, Katrina. Thank you for sharing that, you're really bringing it home. that we talked about how this knowing, do we know what's going on inside us? You know, we have an instinct, but I think what you just shared brought home that sometimes it's not about the knowing.

Lessons learned, resources, and closing reflections 58:00

It's about this surrender. Yeah. And that we sometimes confuse the two. That we don't necessarily need to feel inward. What we need do is just turn our gaze inward, listen, and then release. Or follow, or you know, you listen and respond, right? Yeah. And I think that it's like you said, it is a combination of both. I feel like a lot of times we want to do one or the other. It's just pure intuition or it just peer testing. Having both, because we can, gives you the ideal amount of validation and guidance and you do have to surrender and do your work and it all of it.

Yeah, okay. True final question, I ask this of everyone these days. If you could wave a magic wand and bring back one ancestral practice, what would it be? Oh. Hmm. That's a great question. I think I would just get rid of the food subsidies and the chemicals and clean up our food supply. Get rid the crappy oils and processing such. That would probably make the biggest impact for sure. Nice. Thank you so much for being on our podcast. How can people that wanna work with you find you? Do you work one-on-one with people or is it groups?

Can you just share kind of what does it look like for someone to reach out and work Katrina? Yeah, absolutely. So I do one-on-one work. I group work, all of it. My website is cancerfreedom.com. You can apply and you can find out more information about the program and everything there. Lots of resources, e-books and things. And I can give you the link to get the free ebook, James, for your people. Um, I'm also on Instagram. It's just my name at Katrina Faux and YouTube is at Cancer Freedom. Awesome, thank you and I'm just so grateful that you shared your journey.

And I am glad that found your why, because I think you are truly supporting and helping others and you wouldn't be in this place had you not gone on this journey, so I so am grateful you listened and said yes to what you heard. Thank you, James, it's been a pleasure getting to talk with you as always. And thank you all for participating. I don't know, there's not much to say. This was such a touching episode for me. I just wish everyone, as I always say at the end of these episodes, just stay curious.

The answers are not black and white. They're somewhere in the middle. And if we don't have that curiosity, we will not get to the truth. Thank you so much for joining me on Everyday Ancestral. If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe so you don't miss the next one. You can find the show notes, links and resources mentioned at eatpluck.com. That's E-A-T-P-L-U-C-K dot com. And hey, if you know someone who gets something out of this, share it with them too. Stay curious, live well, and keep it ancestral.