She Skipped Surgery for Breast Cancer. This Is Why

Introduction to holistic healing and organic food 0:00

Organic food is important, no question. It's important to be, and I only eat organic food. However, if you're in a stressed out place while you are eating the food, it's so interesting. Mark Furman was being interviewed, I think it was by Steve Bartlett, the podcaster, who's British. And he said, you know, Mark agreed with this. He said I have a feeling that you could have somebody whose health habits are kind of so-so. But if they have a big community around them, if their really well loved, you know, If they're also in healthy relationships, that they could actually live longer than the person who's eating organically, who is taking their supplements, doing all the stuff that is completely stressed out.

And he was absolutely, I absolutely agree with that. I do eat organically, but I also bless my food, you know, before I eat it. Welcome to the Beljansky Cancer Talk Show where integrative science and holistic healing come together. I am Sylvie Belzhanski and in each episode we explore nutrition, lifestyle, mental health and research-backed approaches to support the whole person through cancer and chronic diseases. Hello and welcome to the Belzhansky Cancer Talk Show. My guest today is Dr. Toni Gallardi and this is an extraordinary woman I cannot wait to introduce to you.

Dr. Toni Gallardiu2019s background and breast cancer journey 1:32

Dr Toni has worn many hats over the course of her 35-year career. She has a PhD in psychology. she maintains a private practice internationally with people seeking to redesign their lives out of burnout. Her path has also embraced the titles of assistant professor and media expert for How to Stay Resilient in the Mist of Likewise. I love it. With appearances on ABC, Fox and Gaia Networks. She has been a cable TV talk show host in Los Angeles, professional speaker at a myriad of conferences, advice columnist for Councilor Magazine and author of three books.

Her latest book, Breast Quake, 10 Steps to Awakening Your Breasts Cancer to Radiant Health Without Surgery, Radiation, or Chemotherapy. The book came out of her own journey where she chose to step away from taking a traditional path to healing breast cancer and went about interviewing 100 women and their relationships with their breast as part of a decision-making process. This is so amazing. So amazing! So before we get to really the meat of it, Tell me more a little bit your own journey and what happened and how you got there.

So I was fortunate in that I woke up one day and because I'm familiar with my breasts felt a small tumor. a small mass of some kind. And you know, with medicine as it is, it can take a while to get in to see a doctor. So it took me a While to finally get the mammogram ultrasound and all of that. Then a biopsy was ordered. The key turning point of my decision was standing in front of the scans with the breast cancer surgeon and she said, my God, and I'm thinking, oh my god, she sees something really horrible, right?

She said your tumor is in the shape of a heart. And it was only 1.2 centimeters, okay? And when she's said that, I thought this is because it's over the left breast. I was in the upper left breath. I thought, this is emotional. This has to be emotional, and so I decided I would do a lot of research. You know, I talked to women who'd had lumpectomies because that's what I'm going to rush into right away, but I asked her one important question, is this slow growing? And I tell women that all the time, ask that question.

If it's slow growing, you have time. You don't have to, when you hear the word cancer, people get scared and they just want the doctor to fix it. And my work is really, whether someone has breast cancer or is coming to me for other reasons, is about teaching people self-agency, like really listening and getting data, getting information. So I did a lot of research and also had gone to a place called the Optum Health Institute many years before for chronic fatigue syndrome. And I saw people with advanced cancers reversing it without surgery.

I just decided I was listening to my own guidance. As I said, I interviewed a lot of people before I made this decision and decided that I would deal with God. If I can do this, If I can apply body, mind, and spirit, which is my model, I work with functional medicine in my practice as well. I refer to functional-medicine people, but I could see when there's hormonal stuff and different things going on. And I had just finished. My second book had come out. Okay? I did not want to write another book.

The last thing in the world I wanted to do was to read another work. But I said, if I I will write the book and tell my journey, you know, and within six months. When we scheduled an MRI, I asked her to put off the MRI. They wanted to rush me into an MRI. I said, can you give me three months? And the Reardon protocol on the functional medicine level seemed to have the most data in terms of its solid background with high dose vitamin CIVs twice a week for three to four months, so they did that first.

When we tested me, the MRI came back, and of course she didn't say, wow, you know, it's reduced by 70%. She said, your tumor is 500 millimeters.

Choosing integrative treatment and tracking tumor changes 6:22

And I said well, that's a 70% reduction. She says, well we don't know for sure because we have an MRI to contrast it with. I said, so should we do another MRI in six months or something? She said oh no, it's like so confusing. No, no no. We'll just retest you with a mammogram and ultrasound in 6 months. So I had to wait another 6 month. Well, in the meantime, this is what I discovered. And I put this in a book. You can't find this on the internet now, but it was on internet at the time. Which is, at The University of Oslo, they have data that shows you cannot tell the difference necessarily between dead cells and live cells.

People don't know that. They don' t know. And the reason, and so when I questioned my breast cancer surgeon about it, she said, well, we don t concern ourselves with that because we immediately do radiation. Then we do n't check for another six months because it takes six months for it to clear the body. Well, the same thing is true because with vitamin C, for people to know this, when you introduce high doses of vitamin c into the bottom, it oxygenates the tumor. The tumor goes toward, because it loves glucose, so it goes towards that vitamin, which is pure glucose and then it's destroyed from the inside out.

Those dead cells can take six month just like radiation to clean the Yeah, we see the same thing with Paopera and Ravolfiova extracts, which are the active ingredients in Womabel and women in France. It's also very, it takes forever to get sometimes an appointment with doctors, so we have those frantic phone calls of ladies telling us, I'm just being diagnosed, and I am not going to see a doctor for three months. I don't want to have this monster growing inside me for 3 more months, We tell them to take, you know, some womabelle and then they still have surgery.

But they tell us, the doctor is surprised, everything was necrosis. Tumor was dead. It was not growing anymore, but the cells, they die and they stay there. And indeed, it takes a long time for the body to eliminate that. So I'm not surprised that It's showing as a tumor, even if it's not active anymore. Right. And people don't know that. They're going on what the doctor is telling them, which is what she said to me was, well, now it is so tiny, it would take nothing for me to go in and just scoop it out.

I said, really? Just scoop out? Well, when you open the body, is it not true that you then have to radiate, right? So these are things people don't understand. But there's also the emotional piece. I did a deep excavation with myself on childhood trauma, things, you know, I was the eldest child for children and had responsibilities at a very young age. My childhood was pretty much gone by the age of 11. And so I Did a lot of deep work. The relationship I Was in was not really in alignment. with who I was and I'm staying in keeping myself small in the relationship.

And now we know from this whole chapter I have in breast quake, there's a whole chapters I had on relationships and they did a study in China Because these studies aren't done here. If it's not a pharmaceutical company doing it, it is very hard to get a study done. So they did a studies because women suddenly in their 40s were getting breast cancer. Never before had they seen this in China before. They wanted to find out what was the common factors. It was not socioeconomic class. it was what they ate.

The thing that most of the women had in common where they were in a toxic marriage. When cancer enters your life, the questions don't stop at treatment. You start asking, why? What else? And what more can I do to support my body? At the Belzhansky Foundation, we believe cancer care deserves deeper answers, answers rooted in science, not in shortcuts.

Emotional trauma, relationships, and cancer risk 10:28

For decades, groundbreaking molecular research by Dr. Mirko Belzhansky explored how specific natural compounds selectively target cancer cells while spearing healthy ones. That work continues today through independent research, education, and global collaboration. At belgianski.org, you will find evidence-based resources, expert-led conferences, books and conversations that explore integrative approaches to cancer and chronic disease alongside conventional care. Whether you are a patient, a caregiver or practitioner, this is the place to learn, to question and to think more expansively about healing.

Visit belgianski.org to explore the research, attend upcoming events, and connect with the Belgiansky community. Because informed choices begin with credible science. And so we know, in fact, Dr. Jen Simmons, who will be one of your speakers at your conference, wrote the foreword to this book. She said that every patient that she had coming in was in some kind of very toxic relationship. So we know this plays a huge, huge role. The environmental toxins huge roll. I discovered I had, there was mold in the soil outside of the house.

People think of a house, right? Environmental toxins in your house but guess what? In places where it's hot and humid in summer and it rains like the South, very toxic estrogen-driven molds can grow in soil. Yeah. Yeah. So you have a tumor in this shaped like a heart. Yeah, I have little heart, a simple little glowing heart on the cover. But you've chosen the title of this interview and I love it. Self-injured women don't get breast cancer, healing the disease to please as part of the healing journey of breast cancers.

I absolutely love it. So what have you learned exactly by interviewing all those women? You have interviewed women with breast cancer. You've also interviewed the women who did not have breast cancers. Where did that take you and how did it change your practice? I also looked at interviews that had been done with famous women. who had had breast cancer, 35 famous women from Hollywood and leadership positions and whatnot. And what I kept hearing over and over again was they had to take a look at what they realized was how much they were overextending to others, putting others' people's needs first, and that this was a pattern.

That's why I said, I haven't seen women who really take really good care of themselves really are good at self-care and in the profession of medicine. I mean, we have a whole chapter on occupations, because I studied occupions that were the most vulnerable to breast cancer. My own gynecologist, when I gave her my book, said, I don't think I want to read this chapter. And she was right. Physicians are exponentially higher incidence of breast Because you're giving all day. And with the medical corporations now running the show, it's become a very difficult profession to be in.

A lot of burnout. In fact, orthopedic surgeons were the highest of all. Orthopedics surgeons. Women who are orthopaedic surgeon. Do you think that the workplace itself plays a role? Because it sounds like a little bit simplification. It plays a huge role because women are naturally more giving. We still make 75 cents on the dollar for the average man. That 70%, we know 70% of women or people who are below the poverty line are women, 70%. So women, the working poor are having to work a lot harder, but not just the work poor.

My clientele are people who are in advanced positions, you know, at Microsoft and various corporations, and they're having put in these long hours and then come home and take care of children. know, and take care of whatever. So putting their needs first, it's become more and more difficult. The companies out there are expecting more, more if you're going to advance, you know. But the pleaser personality is the one that I've heard over and over again, even with celebrities who have lots of money, Sheryl Crowe is an example of that.

She said she realized she was constantly over-giving. But anybody who needed her help, she giving to, you know. So this disease to please can actually be lethal. Yeah. And on top of that, some are in toxic relationships. Not only they are giving, but they're sabotaged emotionally by the relationship. Does that increase the risk of breast cancer? Is there any study about that? So the only study, as I said, that has really been a tangible study that's been done is this one in China that I found anyway that showed that these women were in relationships that these are women in their 40s, so you have to know they probably have small children, right?

So they've got a partner who is doing very little. The other thing I know clinically is that empaths—so women who tend to be sensitive, tend over givers, take care of other people—empaths often attract narcissistic personality disorder individuals. So when you see that combination over and over, I was just actually in a text conversation with a friend who has breast cancer and she chose to go because the tumor had gotten so big to let the chemotherapy, she's in Puerto Rico now, reduce the the And she said, I know the price I paid for being involved, being married to a man who absolutely was a narcissist.

Because you get hooked into, if you're an empath, you got hooked in to giving more. They take more, you give more. And that can be the dance. Now, this isn't just partners, by the way. This could be a boss. Yeah. Who's expecting this? This can your 22-year-old son or daughter who you're constantly doing or getting out of trouble or something like that. The taking stock of your relationships and how much have you let your boundaries be crossed is really key to understanding that this isn't just emotional

Detox, grief, and somatic healing 17:28

or mental health we're talking about. This can translate into cancer. Yeah, it's if life becomes too hard, too heavy, what will you do to escape that hell? You get sick and then not only you get all the attention and suddenly everybody is nice to you, but eventually you die and you escape to the problem without having to face it ever, of course. Look at, you know, when you look at all of the films on a woman who has breast cancer, What makes it a tragic, dramatic film? She loses her hair. She goes gaunt.

she looks horrible. In the face of breast cancer, in the middle of fighting breast, I have a picture of me glowing. Why was I glowing instead of my hair going? Because I detoxed. You know, I did coffee enemas, juice fast, you know just a lot of antioxidant foods, cut my meat consumption way down to like I went to being a pescatarian for that period of time, so there was a of things that just created and meant more of a meditation and clearing out emotional stuff. Well I was glowing. didn't believe me when I said I had breast cancer.

It's really, really important when you speak of detox to have both physical and emotional detox. They really go hand in hand. So we have spoken of relationships, toxic relationships. What about losing a relationship, a traumatic loss? What happens? How is that? I mean, people are responding to that. Oh, common to see breast cancers show up a year to two years. after a relationship is over, you know, and I went through that myself. So it's very common. And that's why what's important is when you get a breast cancer diagnosis or before you ever get breast, cancer, if you're going through a breakup, do the emotional work.

to grieve properly, give yourself permission to feel anger, to fell sadness, feel the entire five stages of grief. You know, my work when I was doing internships in my early career in hospice and I working in a freestanding hospices, I got a model for how important it is to grief even at the end of life. full-on breathing. I do somatic work with my clients, so I'm finding where it is in the body that it's being held. Where is that old trauma, new trauma? Whatever trauma is being hold in a body, and we want to clear that and teach people how to do it themselves.

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Food, nurturing, and self-care 21:38

And in your book, you also address the other relationship which is important in our life, which it is with food. You have a chapter called Nourishing, Nurturing, Negation. And you are saying that the relationship with the food matters even more than the quality of the foods itself, Which is kind of surprising. So can you tell us more about that and how actually you think it's important to choose organic food? you Yeah. So organic food is important. No question. It's important to be, and I only eat organic foods.

However, if you're in a stressed out place while you are eating the food, it's so interesting. Mark Furman was being interviewed, I think it was by Steve Bartlett, the podcaster, who's British. And he said, you know, Mark agreed with this. He said I have a feeling that you could have somebody whose health habits are kind of so-so. But if they have a big community around them, if their really well loved, you know, If they're also in healthy relationships, that they could actually live longer than the person who's eating organically, who is taking their supplements, doing all the stuff that is completely stressed out.

And he was absolutely, I absolutely agree with that. I do eat organically, but I also bless my food, you know, before I eat it. You know energy over, just do like a reiki energy, over my, food went before. And so taking the time to slow down, and really give time. But there's also a deeper thing that you're talking about, which is the relationship with food is very connected to the, relationship to our breasts. Okay, because the breasts are about nurturing. So are we nurturing ourselves? Do you talk to your breasts?

You know, do you love your breast? Did you do a ritual every day of loving your body? When I did this interview, I was shocked by how many women, these hundred women I interviewed, how may women had a conflicted relationship with their breasts and at eating disorder issues or had had as teenagers and young adults. So there's definitely a connection. Food is associated to stress, I mean, conspulsive eating is also associated with stress and then nurturing is therefore associated too stress. It seems like a very difficult situation to escape from.

We think nothing, if a woman has had a baby, she thinks nothing of breastfeeding on demand for two years, right? But doesn't think ever of giving that to herself, like taking the time every day. I take the times every to talk to my breasts, to tell them I love them and how much I appreciate their radiant health. That's the kind of prevention of any kind further issues. So that nurturing then translates to your relationship with food. I really believe that. So can you tell me a little bit, I mean, what is a journey with your clients?

When somebody is, listen to this podcast and says, oh, this is awesome. Absolutely want to become a patient of this doctor. What's the process? So let me just first say that if what they're specifically wanting is a functional medicine doctor, you know, to do the functional-medicine piece. I refer, there's lots of breast cancer coaches out there who have no background, and maybe because I'm a licensed professional, I am very clear about my lane. And so if somebody wants a Functional Medicine doctor to manage them, However, but I work very well in that system because I used functional medicine.

And so if somebody comes to me and what they're dealing with is the emotional impact of trying to make this decision. Throughout my book, I give women permission to whatever decision feels right for them, whatever they can get behind. I love Bernie Siegel's work, love Medicine and Miracles, because he talks about placebo effect. Get behind what you can absolutely feel good about. And so I help women figure that out. Help women to figure out what is it that is going to be in their highest good, number one.

I help them with the trauma, clearing out old trauma. The trauma that's in their life right now. And, and this is an important piece, their vocation. Are they doing something that they feel soul aligned with? It may be that what you were doing, you know, You have golden handcuff syndrome. A lot of people come to me with golden hand cuffs syndrome, which means they're getting paid very well. They have lots of benefits and it's a prison. You know, so my work is all about, I had a woman come to me, was 58 years old.

Working with Dr. Gallardi and conference details 26:48

And the first thing she said to was she was working on Wall Street, just in New York, because I work with people all over the world. She said I just want you to know I'm not leaving my job for four years. I said, fine, I don't have an agenda about when you're going to leave your job. And she was gone in a year. That came through her, through us kind of teasing out what she really wanted in her life. She has a farm in Portugal now. This was somebody who had a Central Park apartment and left that whole life behind to create a food, fruit building farm, in the Algarve.

And she's happier than a clam. So it all depends on the individual, but I can tell you that if you're miserable in your job, it's going to translate to your health. And even if decide to do a traditional, like you want to a lumpectomy or you wanna do chemotherapy or radiation, whatever you choose you to want do, if don't deal with these emotional roots, right? If you go back to the same job. It's gonna come back. And that would be true, by the way, if you did what I did. If you forego a surgery and you don't deal with the emotional roots and just do functional medicine, chances are it can come back.

So that's really key. I love what i do. i love being able to help people find what they're truly here to do in this life and at this point in their life. So about, I mean, making appointments with you and how many sessions, give me more details about how it works to become a patient of yours. I give people an opportunity to work with me in packages. So I know that we need to work together for six months. That's just, I've tried doing this in three months time and we just scratched the surface because there's often so much that hasn't been dealt with, you know?

And so I give people a deal by working with me in a package, 24 sessions. And I work by phone or Zoom. You know, I have two clients right now who are in Australia. So, you know it can be anywhere in the world. And so people can call me and someone, my assistant will get back and we'll set up an appointment. I don't know if you have my information. Share it. Sure. The website is drtonygallardi.com, which is D as in David, R as Richard, T as Tom, O as Owen. N as in Nancy, I as an Indigo, G as George, A-L-A-R-D-I, DrTonyGallardi.com.

If you were to just Google the Life Quake miracle, you'd find me. You know, you'll find me. So if you don't remember that drtonigallardi.com, You can find my through LifeQuake because I've been doing that work of Life Quake repurposing, helping people repurpose their life after it's been shattered for a long, long time. And your new book is BreastQuakes, my new- Thanks for Breaastquake. Yeah, it was on Amazon. Without surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy. And you are located near San Diego, so we are going to see you at the Beljansky Integrative Cancer Conference in San Diego.

Can you tell us a little bit more about that? It's so interesting that I moved here just as I was finding out about the Belyanski Foundation, and I'm going be attending the conference and supporting the Foundation by going the gala, which is on Saturday evening, for any doctors or whoever might be coming to the conference. I've been telling people about the Conference here who are local, so hopefully people will sign up. And I'm excited because some of the people I respect tremendously, the doctors in the field, Dr.

Jen Simmons, who I mentioned, wrote the forward to my book, will be one of Nathan Crane, who I adore, will be one of the speakers. So it's going to be an amazing opportunity to get what is going on, what has cutting edge now in the field of integrative oncology. It's wonderful. Yeah, and the proceeds of the Gala go to study breast cancer stem cells and prostate cancer cells. And cancer stems cells are those cells which are ignored by conventional medicine, but I thought to be responsible for cancer relapse.

Having a natural non-toxic solution is very, very important to be aware of those, starting from day one of diagnosis. And they will give you the time to do all the emotional work Dr. Tony Callardi is speaking about. All those things are very importantly working hand to hand. You cannot afford to skip one or the other, actually. So your body has the strength and the energy to do the work. Yes, yes. Yeah. So I'm delighted. Thank you. Thanks you again for coming to the show, sharing all this knowledge.

And we look very much forward to seeing you very soon now, next month at the Belgiansky Cancer Conference in La Rolia in San Diego. thank you Thank You. for having me. This has been a lot of fun. Thank you for listening to the Belgianski Cancer Talk Show. If this conversation supported or inspired you, please follow the podcast, share it with someone who may benefit and leave a review to help us discover these integrative perspectives. For more resources and to see what we offer, visit Belganski.org.