Integrate Diabetes & Cancer Care Strategies

Introduction to Dr. Kevin Conners 0:00

Hey, everyone. Welcome to this episode of The Reversing Type 2 Diabetes Summit 2.0. I'm your host, Dr. Beverly Yates. It's my distinct honor and privilege. I really looking forward this conversation with Dr. Kevin Conners. He's got lots of experience and his work is focused on cancer treatments, cancer therapy and integrative approaches to cancer and breaking out of the box of doing only the standard things and instead focusing on what can make the best difference so the person can be successful with treating cancer and then live well after they're in the midst of that fight.

Dr. Kevin Conners, welcome to our Summit. Well, thank you, Dr. Yates. I appreciate having me. And anything that we could share that could help somebody, that would be great. All right. Super, super. If you would just give us a brief overview of your background, because I know you've got lots of experience here. What are a few pieces that you'd love to share with the audience so they know that they should be listening to this? Well, you know, I've been doing this a long time. I graduated as a chiropractor back in 1986, basically doing really functional.

Better said back then I was big into the ecclesiology of nutrition, so we didn't call it functional medicine. I don't know what we called it back then, but it was definitely integrative care. So mainly a lot of people with diabetes saw a lot of people with hormonal issues. That was probably my biggest focus of my practice for many years. But I was always interested in this machine called a Wraith machine of started by royal rated and rife. Back at the throes of that, he used it on cancer patients that have.

I've studied a lot of his work while I was going through school, so I was very interested in that. But of course I don't have that cancer clinic, so I didn't. That was always in the back of my head. Like to the point where that's the Holy Spirit was just putting that on my heart for so many years that I actually did by investigation, picked out the type of machine I wanted, had the brochure up on the wall in my office. And it wasn't until the late nineties that a patient to my came in.

Background in Integrative and Functional Care 2:25

She was a retired gal when she came in, she was, I have to talk to you. I just found out I have breast cancer in both breasts, bilateral breast cancer. They said if I don't do chemo and radiation, I got three months to live. And I'm just like, I didn't even but honestly, I didn't even know how to answer her. And she said, Oh, you don't get it. I'm not doing it. I nursed my good friend through the chemo and she died five months ago. I think that's what it was. So her experience was that there's just no way she was going to do the chemo.

Well, that was just one of those Holy Spirit moments that it's like it's time to get a life machine, because that's what I do, how to treat it. I was very skilled at that pointed helping people nutritionally. But dude, I think about how to help them nutritionally with cancer. So I went and bought a rice machine. She started using the Wraith. I just dug into, studied, studied, studied, tried to help this woman. Well, she lived another 13 years and never did the chemo radiation, used the rice machine, used nutritional protocol that we put together with her that I constantly refined as I was growing and learned.

Well, then God sent me another cancer patient. Another cancer patient. This is before we even had websites, Right? So we didn't have that, did we? Right. So I really saw the writing on the wall of this was the pathway I was supposed to take. I went basically back and expanded my education. I got a degree in a fellowship at integrative cancer therapy and a fellowship in Functional Better said had just continued to learn. And that's always been my passion to constantly learn. So I always felt like my patients were my biggest teachers in the in the way that if God sent me somebody, that it was my responsibility to do everything I possibly could to figure out what was going on with them.

And I can't always do that. But, you know, you can't always heal them. But I'm not their healer. God is. But I have the responsibility as a teacher, as a doctor, to try to learn how to help them the best way I can. So that's just been the passion that God put in my heart from day one. So that said, then I bet mainly practicing integrative cancer therapy sets really fairly exclusively for the last couple dozen years. But we still see I do have a passion for autoimmune disease. I wrote a book on autoimmune disease.

I've done a course for patients to join that autoimmune disease. I'm constantly studied about that. I have a passion about Lyme disease because I had Lyme disease three times a family members with Lyme disease. So I teach a lot about that as well. All right. That's so good to know. What a wonderful background perspective. You know, I always think it's so interesting when people are faced with potentially life threatening illnesses or illnesses that can compromise the quality of life, if not the quantity of life.

It's like there's so many different paths that go down. And one of the things I really wish it was more obvious up front is what would be helpful to someone and what should they avoid? Like what are their real options and what is viable. So what is it that the integrative approach to cancer therapy can offer someone? Because I know when people listen to an episode like this, some people this information will be familiar and for other people it will be new. So what is integrative Cancer therapy. So integrative cancer therapy is is helping a patient with a diagnosis of cancer that they want more help than what standard of care gives them.

So if you're going to go down the standard of care route through your oncologist, you're going to get chemotherapy surgery or radiation should be a beautiful therapy

How Integrative Cancer Therapy Works 6:28

if it fits with your type of cancer, But that's really your only option. They don't talk about diet. They don't talk about other supportive things that you could do that even if you're going to choose to do standards of care. There's a lot of things that you could do that could enhance it and improve your odds. So a lot of people think that you have to choose one or the other, and that's a huge mistake. But I think the biggest mistake that people make when they get a diagnosis of cancer is, is they let fear control their decision making process and they and they move faster or I don't think very many people regret, hey, I wish I would have done chemo sooner.

They regret I wish I would have thought about this a little bit and made some other decisions. Maybe I wouldn't have done chemo or maybe I would have learned some other things to couple with chemo to make it work better, to heal my body, to keep my body healthier while I'm doing that. So the biggest piece of advice, first piece of advice I could give somebody that just got diagnosed with cancer is slow down. I guess I've before. In the end, this is what happens with in the cancer industry. That doesn't happen in most medical scenarios is that cancer doctors tend to use very high pressure sales.

I don't know how you know, I don't know if there's a better way to say it and be kinder. But the truth is they're kind of like used car salesmen of the past. It's just really high pressure sales. I hear this literally every day from people. You know, I had a gal last week that said I was diagnosed with breast cancer and they said they wanted to schedule me for chemotherapy. I didn't even have my husband in the office with the colleges. I said, I need to go home to talk to my husband. Doled out Schedule B.

I was walking out to the car and there at the office that I just left called and said, I'm here to schedule. I'm here to schedule you for your chemotherapy. She's I just I just left. saying I needed to talk to my husband about this. It is so high pressure and people will ask why and the apologies office will say, because we really care about the patient. But really? Yeah, I could. I had one patient who was who called me from the hospital saying that, you know, Dr. Conners, I just don't know what to do. And she was just in tears.

And this is a very strong woman. She was there with her husband in the hospital bed. call me from herself outside by the radiologist. Oncologist was just at the office and sat. If I don't do radiation immediately, I only got a couple of weeks to live. And I so I just talked her through it. I said, Well, okay, well, you know, I personally not against doing radiation to bolds what you have metastases to both. So I talked her through that that that would you know we could support her through this and so she said okay I'll agree to it.

She called it ers back in the office. And so I'm not privy to this until she calls me back a half hour later. And she was she was livid. She was you will not believe what just happened. Said what she got. So the doctor told me that I only have a couple weeks to live if I don't do radiation immediately. So then I finally agreed to it. The nurse came in the doctor came back in and goes, okay, we'll get you scheduled. And they can't get me scheduled for three weeks. Oh, wow. Okay. So that doesn't sound credible. I got it. All right.

So the just the credibility of that and she said he was okay with that. Okay. Now we're going to agree. It was she was like, I thought I was supposed to be dead in two weeks and you can't get me in for three weeks. She was that rather upset. She long story short, she did do the radiation we did supporter through which she did live another five years, but she did pass away from her cancer. But it was just a story of just how salesy they can be. So the biggest piece of advice I could give you is maybe you have little colleges that just truly in their heart wants to help you.

That's fantastic. If you don't find one that does, they're out there. But just slow down, Take some time to go home and and digest this diagnosis a little bit. Talk to your spouse about it. Talk to God about it, and pray about what you should do. You have more time that they're leading on for you to do. So just slow down and pray about this. Start educating yourself. Really the best time to start, educate yourself and before you get a diagnosis. But hopefully some people that are going to be listening to this, you know, aren't diagnosed with cancer.

They're going to start learning about making some decisions. So, okay. So that's really good to know. That's a great point that you bring up. You know, I'm thinking about my mother's journey with small cell lung cancer and the information she got, the timing of it, the cadence, the push, what to do when all the things that we were trying to support her with and what she trying to make for decisions for herself. You know, and we were able to extend the length of time she was on this planet. Eventually she did die from that diagnosis, but she lived four times five, almost five times longer than their original prognosis, the amount of time they said she had left on.

Well, I always feel like it's not up to us as human beings of whatever medical or health professional designation to say how long someone has to live. It's not in our hands, but we can sure help influence the outcome in a positive way. If that person is looking to prolong their life and hopefully get some quality of life too. Because sometimes the kinds of treatments that are offered are just so rough. Sometimes people suffer in addition to just that mortal threat of necessarily leaving this earth because of cancer.

The exit is going to be awful because the treatments can be awful, too. It's it's tough. It's a tough one. It is. And that's that's where integrative cancer could really help. So I didn't really answer your initial question about defining what integrative cancer is.

Why Patients Should Slow Down After Diagnosis 12:40

You know, we have people that come to us that they don't want to do any standard of care. You know, like my first patient ever. You know, she didn't want to do chemotherapy and she did do surgery, but she didn't want to do chemo and radiation. We get a lot of people that are in that category because of a friend's experience or their parents experience who died of the chemo, which is not uncommon. They don't want to do those things. And I get that. But I understand that. So we have some patients that want to do alternative care exclusively and we try to just be people's needs.

But integrative by definition means in conjunction with. So we have you know, I am virtually as an alternative practitioner, not against chemo and radiation and surgery. I'm not against it. I'm just against thinking that's your only option and I'm against doing that alone. I think I'll do it. Alternative care should be a given. You should be doing natural things to build up your immune system. If you're going to be using chemotherapy, it's going to just attack your immune system, you know, majorly.

And that's why they have to check your white blood cells before each chemotherapy infusion, because it damages your production of white blood cell count. So if you could do things to build that up, you know, between sessions, you're just going to do better with chemotherapy. If you could use things like Rife Technology Frequency, better said, it's going to help that chemotherapy target, the cancer. You're going to have a better result of the chemotherapy. If you could do things to protect your healthy cells between sessions of chemotherapy, you're going to do so much better.

If you could support your liver detoxification pathways, you're going to do so much better. So it only makes sense that you're tried to change the value of your body that developed cancer while you're trying to kill the cancer. So you've got kids are for a reason. There is a cause. Let's address that. Also, maybe you need to use the big dogs of surgery and keyboard radiation. But if you do need to do those things that you need to support your body as best you possibly can. Definitely it's important.

I don't think people are given enough information or support around that because you're asking the body to do a very specific thing and put a lot of healing energy towards this. The thing about many kinds of cancer, there's only a few that I can think of that aren't so aggressive. Some of them, they'll move quickly and are aggressive and as such, command a lot of resource, including they happen to love blood sugar, they love glucose as these cells reproduce in a very wanton way and take away more capacity.

And so the irony is that the rest of the body is quite healthy. Meanwhile, though, what do you do with these this cancer lesion or lesions, depending on the kind of cancer, because some of them just consume every possible resource and move quick. Some don't. Some aren't necessarily that, you know, drastic. But I don't think the general public understands the importance of supporting the body and particularly the healthy tissue. So the person, if they decide they want to do conventional treatments, can withstand the treatments and come through it.

Yeah, And it might seem odd for people that we're talking about cancer on a diabetes summit, but it's so important because people that historically you could do your research on this and realize that people with type two or Type one diabetes have a much higher incidence of cancer of all different types. And the reason is, is why don't you just touch down? Glucose is all the preferred food of all of our cells. So our cells take in glucose through mitochondria, through glycolysis, break it down. Ultimately it acetyl coenzyme goes into the Krebs cycle where you kick out all this energy, this ATP energy.

So that's how we make energy. Well, glucose is the preferred food of most cancers too. Some feed off of glutamine and with the beetle acids, but most cancers will feed off of glucose and they will gobble up your glucose. So if there is a readily ready supply of energy for a for a mass that's rapidly replicated, well, you're just fueling the cancer. So it's even more important to really look at a person's diet when they have a serious disease like cancer. Absolutely. Get their blood sugar under control as fast as you can and you're taking away a key fuel that allows that cancer to spread.

You know, you start to tip the odds so much more in your own favor and away from the continued success, if you will, of the growth of the cancer. It makes a difference. Those metabolic diseases, what they have in common, right, are these runaway processes, whether it's inflammation, whether it's cells that feed on glucose at the expense of the healthy cells, you know, the cancer cells in this case, whether it's the issues that go on with cardiovascular disease, you know, those are the big three for the metabolic concerns.

And, you know, as we look around the world, all of these problems are increasing. You know, I just I just wonder about the continued sustenance for for humans, because it just seems like we are under any number of threats and we have to get in front of it. You look at the spread of, say, and in my opinion, wild rise of the incidence of type two diabetes is that right now 500 million people, international daily. That's half a billion people. My goodness. This is not sustainable. And we know with that we have the increase with cancer.

That's not a surprise and an increase in heart disease. That's also not a surprise. Well, yes, you got the increase, you know, of all cause mortality in it.

Supporting the Body During Conventional Treatment 18:38

Even if you're just looking at the United States, it's like we rate so poorly among all countries. And you go, why do we have the best medicine? Do we have the best medical care? Medical teams, highly trained doctors. They'll come, you know, from every place of the world, will come here to train in order to go back to their own countries. And then you go, what do you what do these three diseases have in common? Well, what they do have in common is is covered causes. So what what could cause diabetes?

Well, it can be damage receptors of the cell, bad brain damage it to the to the pancreas. What causes cancer, Something that gets inside the cell, it damages the nucleus, causing the cell to go into rapid replication. What causes heart disease? Something that damages the end of the illegality and causes that inflammatory process of the endothelial lining. So, you know, what are what is that common cause? Well, toxins, heavy metals, pathogens are your three biggest things that you have to deal with.

And well, none of those things are going away any time fast. You know, we have glyphosate that sprayed everywhere of the United States. And why are cancer rates in the United States going, you know, and diabetes rates and cardiovascular rates going up. But, you know, you know, rising at an escalation rate much higher than the European countries? Well, they don't spray with glyphosate over the European countries. Well, that's at least a piece of it. Well, they use a lot of other toxins. So it's not like they're not they're doing great, but that is a big bad.

Well, the pesticides and herbicides that were exposed to now, there's a lot of people that are learning that this stuff is bad and that we need to start trying to eat organic and grow our own food and take care of ourselves better. But those are the people that are watching conferences like this and learning how to best take care of themselves that were jority of people still are still are really in the in the blind. Give me an example I I on Facebook a very little bit of fact after the whole COVID thing, I kind of got off Facebook completely, but I got back on Facebook because I realized there's these groups and I really like to do home care.

So there's this carnie group that I belong to and I really like to. I like to cook. So and my wife and I are really big into gardening. So there's these garden groups and there's this this stoop group. My daughters laugh at me because I belong to a super group over Facebook, but it's just fun to learn different recipes. But I was, you know, you start thinking that people are becoming a little bit more enlightened about health and health care. And you and I both hope that things like this are it'll like big people.

But just what you think people are wising up in my soup group the other day, somebody shared this picture of this white powder and it said, Does anybody use this in their soup? I had to use it for years and it's fantastic. And all the comments were like, Oh, yeah, that's abs. Gee, we use that now. Our soup. Oh, yes, I couldn't believe it. Like 50 comments. Some people say, Oh, my husband, what was the husband's a chef and he brings it home with him because he uses it all the time at the restaurant.

And I'm like, Oh my gosh, I didn't even dare comment that a comment that, by the way, you know, like my tag line for my day this as our clinic and it's like, I am not going to put up this discussion with these people. I know it's like how many people don't know that ABC G is bad for you all by word as just blown away. But this it it made me realize that there's a lot of people that are not getting good information yet. And part of me was it makes me sad I guess, that we're not doing our job good enough, don't we?

Got to eat more because this is what's killing us. This is what causes diabetes. This is what's causing heart disease.

Cancer, Diabetes, and Shared Metabolic Risks 23:08

This is what's causing cancer, is these chemicals that we're we're freely exposed. Eat up. You're putting this in your soul, for goodness sakes, because it tastes better. Why? Because it fires glutamate receptors. Because it stimulates neuro transmitters. That's going to burn out your brain. And that is a major cause of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease right there. But these people are just like, clueless. Yeah. There's whole industry, all the food scientists, you know, an array of folks, the regulators or lack thereof, the misinformation around this, you know, industry is one of sadly, thousands of examples.

And, you know, when people are making homemade soup, you assume, right. They're trying to make something that's healthy, that's that's really nutrient dense. So that's stuff. I totally get why you're upset about people being happy to add something like MSG and they don't understand that it is undermining their health. Right? It's like, well, same reason why people are sprayed round up on the driveway to get rid of the weeds in the cracks of the driveway. They don't realize that they are, you know, increasing their chance of lymphoma and other cancers by about a hundred fold by doing foolish things like that.

You know, you know, ignorance is that bliss when ignorance causes you to do things that lead you down a pathway that end up with a, you know, an outcome that you don't want, you know, you're someplace because of your old decisions. So the Bible is very clear. I think Paul says in the Epistles 18 times, Brother, I don't want you to be ignorant. And though he's talking about spiritual things, we could equate that to everything in our life. We're not supposed to be foolish about the decisions that we make.

We need to become educated so that we don't need to live in fear, but we need to live in wisdom. And you know, you can't use the wisdom if you haven't, you know, learned these things in the first place. So, you know, I just I just pray that, you know, your diabetes summits get it right. People's health that they could share it and information could be out So so that people have the ammunition to to to give to their friends and family that maybe don't believe them. Yeah, it makes a difference. Sometimes. We really do need to hear it from other people.

Then our closest circle, our most loved beloved people, because sometimes we discount the the voice that's telling us, Hey, there's another way, there's another option. Or did you know that, you know, this is toxic or it could be causing your problem, or maybe it is something that's boosting cravings. You know, a lot of times people have diabetes, pre-diabetes. They have cravings for things, whether it's savory, umami foods or it's really sweet tasting foods. Right. Maybe they're stressed, maybe they have poor sleep.

All of those can get that cravings complex going. And then when you add things to your food or you're eating food that has added, if you didn't make it yourself moody, things like that. Like you said, the timing is so excited in the brain and the tongue. You're talking about the other. They just get so excited. You can make a similar argument about the use of the artificial sweeteners and fake sugars. Similar thing right now. It's just it's up that halfway. It's a disaster. And then people wonder why they struggle.

Well, you know. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. You got to give yourself time to literally detox and recover. The good news is that the taste buds can indeed be retrained. And research has shown that they turn over every 10 to 14 days. I always tell people, give yourself at least three weeks to get back to your actual normal tongue, because it's going to take some time for the new taste buds to come out. That's right. That's right. Interesting. Have you noticed this? I wanted to bring this up because what you were saying, Dr.

Khan has brought this to mind. I've observed over the last I'd say decade or so, some of the smaller natural foods, natural health kinds of products have been acquired by larger entities. Some of them are larger natural entities, some not so much some of the big names in terms of food production here, at least in the U.S., the thing I've observed is often a good clue is if the packaging looks really glossy and pretty, it just looks amazing. And I always tell people if you see a big shift in a product that you've used for years and you feel is healthy for you and or you notice that you aren't feeling the same or feeling well, read that label because chances are they've changed the formulation.

Make no assumptions that that formulation that was true three years ago is today's formulation, and they might have added in something that is a negative thing for your health, whether it's your toothpaste,

Toxins, Food Additives, and Everyday Exposures 27:48

maybe it's a soup that you enjoy, perhaps is already prepared or some other prepared outside of your home product. And then if you're in your home, don't add the stuff that's toxic. You got to know what's what's not good for human health and be aware right. You know, it's not that everybody needs to be this health guru or anything. There's just some things getting back to the way your great great grandparents died. You're going to have to say great, great hypocrites live because, you know, they didn't have fluoride in their water.

They didn't have chlorinated their water. They didn't eat foods that were prepared that have chemicals in it that you can't even you know, you can't even pronounce the name of what's in your food. If you can't pronounce what's in your food, you should be eating your food. So it's it's you know, we are being we are being poisoned with this the way it is. And not to get to too conspiratorial, but it's it is true. And if you don't take that step to be responsible for your own health, that you're going to be the victim of exactly what they want you to be the victim of it.

You're going to be dependent upon medication the rest of your life and your life is going to be shortened. And it's the quality of life, like you mentioned. Is it not going to be that great? So everybody has to make their own decisions. I don't want to judge anybody, but you could just start making some little bit different decisions that the food that you're buying and you can make giant leaps and bounds changes in in your in your life by daughter. You know, I have, you know, a lot of grandkids.

So have my daughter was over today and she's talking about a friend who whose child was damaged by vaccines. So now she's anti-vax, but she goes, I just can't understand. She's she doesn't vaccinate her child, which praise God, but she gives her all this red dye and she can't figure out why she's hyperactive and feeds of all this junk food that has got all these toxins. It it it dyes it, flavorings and coloring to that. The child's brain just can't handle that. Your child's brain doesn't have a blood brain barrier until they're about three years old and you're feeding them all this stuff that's crossing the blood brain barrier that isn't there and it's causing stimulation and damage to the brain inflammation of the brain.

And that's just horrific. And those things, kid, even if they're beyond that age, can damage the blood brain barrier. So it's just making some different decisions. There are good, healthy decisions, like you said, but you do have to look at, you know, keep an eye on really did gradients because these companies are getting bought out, not just that this supplement companies are getting bought out supplements that I used to push in my office you know 20 years ago. Now I don't want to I don't want to sell at all.

I don't regret getting any recommendations for this company. It got bought out by Bayer, you know, So I don't know what they're doing with that supplement any more. I don't trust that company. And the good point that you make, you know, we just have to be vigilant. And I always tell people, you don't have to be paranoid. Just look over your shoulder, assume someone's out to get you, because frankly, they don't really have the time to be that specific. But you do need to be your own advocate and pay attention and notice how you feel.

You know, if you've used something for quite a while and then you notice, you know, I get a headache after I have this. Like I have an aunt who is very sensitive to NutraSweet right now, the artificial sweeteners, especially that one. And so if you went out to a restaurant and if somebody had put that in, she knew because within about 5 minutes she would start to get a migraine. Very sensitive to its neurotoxic potential. And if you look at the research, it showed it very clearly. So all of that to say please listen to how you're feeling and whether or not your brain and your mind is still clear.

Is your spirits still clear? Do you feel like, you know, something completely hijacked the system, in which case, look at what you ate and drank because the answer might be there. Yeah. Especially when you go out to eat, that's for sure. That you don't know what they're putting in your food. Or maybe you do. And you should be wary. Yeah, that's right. That's right. All right. Dr. Conners if people would like to connect with you. After our episode ends here, where can they find information? You could just go to our website, connersclinic.

C O N N E R S clinic. You can make it pointed with the outline. You can self schedule. Your initial appointment is called the case review and get you to fill out. It could take a week, go over your whole case, and I have multiple courses that people could join if they just want to self-study and self alerted self care for themselves.

Where to Learn More and Connect 32:28

They can order labs for those courses that they can make appointments with me through those courses as well. They're very inexpensive to participate in that because I made those really because, you know, for instance, my cancer, my stopped by the Cancer book, my last edition, which I want to do another edition. My last edition was almost 600 pages worth a lot of I don't even like to read that much, you know, I like to read, but I like to listen to audiobooks 600 page book on kids that can be a little overwhelming when you just get a diagnosis of cancer.

So I created a course with a bunch of videos so people could listen and watch and see, you know, pictorial, you know, images of of physiology so they can understand it a little bit better. I like to educate. So I just created these courses to teach people. And, you know, I feel like too much is given, much is expected and demanded. So we need to give back and try to help people learn so that we're not all ignorant. We need to keep learning, we need to keep growing. We need to take responsibility for our lives, that our children's lives.

We can't put that responsibility on to a doctor, and that's what they want you to do. So then you could be dependent upon their medication for the rest of their life. That's not good for anybody except them. And so in going to our website, you can get all this data. We give a ton of information. I think I have probably 1500 blog posts that you can read too. All of that is free. So, you know, connect with us that way. That would be the easiest way. All right, great. Thank you so much for being part of Summit.

I appreciate your time and energy and your insights. I know there will be plenty of people who will have food for thought here, but just really review the things they're doing and to determine, you know, if they are on a path that they feel is healing and helpful, where maybe it's time to reevaluate that and consider that they have some other options. Thank you so much. All right. Bye bye.