# Ep. 13: Taylor Dukes on Her Shocking Cancer Diagnosis + an Integrative Approach to Healing

An episode of [Grounded Wellness by Primally Pure](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1768354655), 4 Dec 2024, 43 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/11070acb8/podcast/play/117236811/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-2-20%2F420445384-44100-2-815680f93e48a.mp3

In this episode of Grounded Wellness, Taylor Dukes, Functional Nurse Practitioner discusses her shocking diagnosis, getting to the root cause of cancer, and the integrative healing approach she chose. Her redemptive story is a deeply encouraging antidote to the narratives surrounding cancer. Taylor firmly believes cancer is not a death sentence, and this conversation will show you why. Let’s dig in. Episode Resources: Taylor Dukes: Shop: https://shop.taylordukeswellness.com/ (use code PrimallyPure for 15% off) Follow: https://www.instagram.com/taylordukeswellness/ Explore more from Primally Pure: Shop: https://bit.ly/4e1HzVv Blog: https://bit.ly/4gAeIsY

## Transcript

[0:01] Welcome to Grounded Wellness, your go to podcast for
[0:04] simplified and trusted information on how to live a
[0:07] more non-toxic and holistic life.
[0:10] We're your hosts. I'm Bethany McDaniel, founder of
[0:13] Primarily Pure biohacking enthusiast and mom of three.
[0:16] And I'm Courtney O'Connor, holistic esthetician with over
[0:19] 15 years experience in the healing power of touch and
[0:23] holistic skin care rituals. In today's episode, I am so
[0:27] excited to welcome our friend Taylor Duke, Functional
[0:29] Medicine. As a Nurse practitioner.
[0:31] Two years ago, Taylor was faced with a shocking and life
[0:34] altering cancer diagnosis. She utilized a number of
[0:37] different alternative practices and treatments in addition to
[0:40] surgery to heal. In fact, she even shrunk her
[0:42] brain tumor in half without chemo or radiation.
[0:46] Taylor has such a heart for helping others experience deep
[0:49] healing and also providing approachable advice on diet and
[0:53] lifestyle. Her story is one that you will
[0:55] never forget. Let's dig in.
[1:01] Hey everyone, welcome back to Grounded Wellness.
[1:04] We are here with Taylor Dukes, my good friend and functional
[1:08] medicine provider and we're switching things up today.
[1:10] We're having Taylor Dukes Wellness lemonade mixed with
[1:13] matcha green tea. Cheers.
[1:17] OK, so just to give everyone some background, Taylor and I
[1:20] known each other for a while now.
[1:21] We've met through our mutual friend Allison Evans, who is one
[1:25] of the Branch Basics Co founders, and I know your story
[1:29] very well at this point, but I'm so excited to talk to you about
[1:32] it in even more detail and to share it with our community.
[1:36] I'm so honored to be here. Yeah, thank you.
[1:38] Getting into your background a little bit, we know that you're
[1:41] traditionally trained as a nurse practitioner.
[1:44] But before we get into your story, give us the Cliff Notes
[1:47] on why you transitioned to functional medicine after
[1:51] spending time in the world of conventional medicine.
[1:53] So I always say, and people need to understand what conventional
[1:56] and functional or integrative holistic medicine is in the
[1:59] conventional medical model. It's our traditional doctors,
[2:02] care providers, nurse practitioners, nurses.
[2:05] And, you know, we're really good at diagnosing things as far as
[2:09] coming up with a name for symptoms.
[2:11] And we have prescriptions and we have diagnostic procedures, but
[2:15] you don't really ask the why question of like, why is this
[2:17] happening? And so that's the conventional
[2:18] world. It's really, really great for
[2:19] trauma emergency situations. But then the holistic,
[2:23] integrative kind of functional side of care is more getting to
[2:26] the root cause and asking the why question.
[2:28] Like, yeah, you have all these symptoms, but why?
[2:30] And so I got into this field not because I was smart, but because
[2:33] I was sick. And I always say a lot of my
[2:35] colleagues that got into this world, we didn't get into it
[2:38] because we're like, let's be a trailblazer and be healthy and
[2:40] be different. You know, we don't learn this in
[2:41] school. We get into it because we're
[2:43] sick and we're desperate and the medical system usually fails us.
[2:46] And that was my story. And so I was sick, and that's
[2:48] how I got into it. OK, So what happened all those
[2:50] years ago? How did you get sick?
[2:53] How did you get better? What did that look like?
[2:54] Yeah, so I was a healthy kid growing up.
[2:57] I grew up in, my mom was very healthy.
[2:59] She had home cooked meals. You know, I was a traditional
[3:02] college kid and, you know, like to eat out and do the whole fast
[3:05] food thing, but I never had health issues.
[3:06] And then after I graduated from nursing school, I had the
[3:10] opportunity to do some medical mission trips abroad in both
[3:13] Africa and Ecuador. And I started getting sick
[3:16] abroad and I would have little symptoms like, you know, I, my
[3:19] stomach wasn't well and I would just be like, oh, that's
[3:21] traveler's diarrhea. That's normal.
[3:23] You know, take my Cipro that my doctor prescribed, which is an
[3:26] antibiotic to treat, you know, traveler's diarrhea.
[3:28] But it was all these little things kept adding up.
[3:30] And because I was there for a longer period of time, I just
[3:33] kept getting sicker and sicker. And then when I was in Ecuador,
[3:36] it was like getting to the point where I couldn't function.
[3:38] I couldn't eat without being in pain.
[3:40] And I ultimately ended my time there on that kind of medical
[3:42] mission trip and got flown home to the States.
[3:44] And that's when I think I realized I've always been really
[3:48] positive and kind of like a power through kind of person.
[3:50] And I couldn't. Like, I couldn't.
[3:52] And it was so confusing because I was never the sick kid growing
[3:54] up. So yeah, I just had a lot of
[3:56] symptoms. I had tons of stomach issues.
[3:59] My skin was a wreck. I never had preteen acne, but I
[4:02] had inflamed cystic acne in my face and I had joint pain.
[4:06] Like I didn't even know what my joints were like.
[4:08] I'm like, you're not supposed to feel your joints at 22 years
[4:10] old. And yeah, terrible joint pain.
[4:13] I had days where I couldn't get out of bed.
[4:14] It was, it was debilitating. And my hair was falling out.
[4:17] I just had a myriad of symptoms and so I was going from
[4:20] specialist to specialist, doctor to doctor and just kind of
[4:23] bouncing around, you know, they'd all do different.
[4:25] Well, let's order this test. This looks fine.
[4:27] So let's move to this. We'll do this intervention.
[4:28] Let's do a colonoscopy. We'll start you on this
[4:30] medicine. And I just, I felt convicted
[4:33] because here I am. I'm like a nurse, you know, I'm
[4:35] a trained RN at this point, registered nurse and my whole
[4:38] job and the purpose of my life is to advocate for my patients.
[4:41] And I can't advocate for myself. I was just lost going from
[4:44] doctor to doctor. And then I started to feel crazy
[4:46] because I'm like, well, they say it's normal and looking back,
[4:48] I'm like none of it was normal, but they just didn't have
[4:51] reasons or answers for me. So they were just shuffling out,
[4:54] let's try this prescription. Well, let's do this procedure.
[4:56] We didn't find anything. Let's do this and so.
[4:58] Yeah, just matching up a prescription with a symptom and
[5:01] trying to tackle it that way, Yes.
[5:03] And so eventually I know that you fell into the world of
[5:08] functional medicine. I How did that happen?
[5:10] How did you find out about that? Yeah.
[5:12] So I was going to doctor to doctor and specialist to
[5:14] specialist and my mom who grew up really healthy.
[5:17] And again, I was never the sick kid.
[5:18] And she at that point in my life, my mom was living in Santa
[5:21] Barbara and I was in Austin. And I remember she came to just
[5:23] kinda like help me with stuff like clean my apartment.
[5:25] And I was kinda telling her like mom, I'm not feeling good.
[5:28] I'm not able to work like my mom was just like, this is not you
[5:31] like what is going on. And when she came to see me, she
[5:35] was like, I realized just how bad you were.
[5:37] Like I couldn't even I would take naps in my car before I
[5:40] would walk upstairs to my apartment.
[5:42] Like that's how tired I was not normal.
[5:43] So my mom was the one advocating for me to go see kind of one of
[5:46] these naturopath Dr. whatevers. And I was like, that's hocus
[5:50] pocus. That's woo woo.
[5:51] I don't believe in that. There's no evidence behind that.
[5:54] But I was also desperate. So I was like, fine, what do I
[5:56] have to lose? What are they going to tell me
[5:58] to change my diet? You know what I mean?
[6:00] And, and so anyway, she ended up finding a functional medicine
[6:03] doctor in MD at that point in Austin.
[6:05] And she did all this testing. She was asking me about like,
[6:09] were you sick when you grew up? Did you have strep throat?
[6:11] Did you get the HPV vaccine? I mean, she went through all
[6:14] these different things that I'm like, I don't know, what does
[6:16] that have to do? I'm sick now.
[6:17] I wasn't sick then, but she kind of like tied all the pieces of
[6:20] the puzzle together. She changed my diet, my
[6:22] lifestyle. She finally had answers.
[6:25] You know, she was like, you have parasite overload and you have
[6:28] heavy metal toxicity. My mercury was off the charts.
[6:31] And so she was able to give me answers finally.
[6:33] And that's when I was just like, I went all in.
[6:35] I was like, I'll change my diet, I'll do anything.
[6:37] And I was able to get off all my medicine and which I think there
[6:41] are times and places for medicine.
[6:42] I'm not trying to be prideful and say, but I was thankfully
[6:44] able to get off and I felt good. I had my life back, my energy
[6:47] and I was good and I was convinced I was like this just
[6:51] like saved my life and changed my life.
[6:53] Yeah, it's amazing. And no other doctor I'm sure had
[6:55] run those same types of tests as she did.
[6:58] Yeah, and if anything, they'd be like, well, we don't really
[7:00] know. And she had so many answers,
[7:01] which was such a blessing. And it literally changed my life
[7:05] so much so that I was like, I need to do this.
[7:07] I need to figure out how I can help people in the way that I've
[7:10] been helped. And so I went back to go get
[7:12] like a nutrition certification. And I ended up being Amy Meyer.
[7:16] She's a New York Times bestselling author and medical
[7:18] doctor. And I was her nurse at her
[7:19] practice for years. And I ended up going back to
[7:21] nurse practitioner school because I'm like, I want to help
[7:23] people heal how I did. You know, I felt amazing.
[7:26] I was off these prescriptions. I changed my diet, gotten rid of
[7:28] chemicals. I was mindful of what I was
[7:30] putting on my body. And this is back in 2013 when it
[7:34] wasn't, like, super cool. Yeah.
[7:35] And so, yeah, it just changed my life and changed the trajectory
[7:38] of my career. And I, you know, opened a
[7:40] Wellness Center and started my private practice after I became
[7:43] a nurse practitioner. And life was good.
[7:45] I was like, I'm able to help people in the way that I was
[7:47] healed. And I really believed in it
[7:49] because not just changed my life, but I started seeing it
[7:51] change thousands of other people's lives, that whole body.
[7:53] Approach finally, like solving issues instead of just masking
[7:56] symptoms. So that all happened about 12
[7:59] years ago. Things were good.
[8:01] You had a thriving practice, a family, husband, two kids.
[8:05] And then about two years ago, you were given perv Ball when
[8:09] you were gifted a preventative cancer scan that ended up
[8:13] discovering a brain tumor. Tell us about that moment that
[8:17] you were diagnosed with a brain tumor.
[8:19] Where were you and what did that feel like?
[8:21] It was almost two years ago, which is crazy in a few weeks
[8:24] and we were on a family vacation.
[8:27] I had done my preventative full body scan and I didn't think
[8:30] anything of it. You know, I'm like, I have a
[8:31] baby, I'm nursing at the time and I have a three-year old.
[8:35] And we were at the beach in Texas and I was breastfeeding my
[8:38] son on the beach. It was just a normal day and it
[8:41] started raining and we were like, well, we have a bunch of
[8:42] kids. We were with the cousins, which
[8:44] was such a blessing. My mom, my sister were there and
[8:47] we're like, let's take the kids to the aquarium.
[8:48] We got energy to burn. And so we're on the way to the
[8:50] aquarium, and I got an e-mail that basically said your ponuva
[8:54] scan results are ready. And so I was like, gosh, I'm so
[8:56] excited. You know, like, I have no
[8:58] symptoms. I'm not worried about anything.
[9:00] I'm just excited to learn so that I can share with the world
[9:02] and share with my patients. And I'll never forget, I opened
[9:06] up the app and everything's either green, yellow or red.
[9:10] And there was a red thing. And it said like, abnormal
[9:12] finding with an exclamation mark.
[9:13] And I remember feeling like, what the heck?
[9:16] And no one had called me or anything.
[9:17] And so I'm just open up the app and I see like, I don't even
[9:20] remember exactly what I saw first, but I remember just
[9:22] reading everything really quickly.
[9:24] And we're driving to the aquarium and I'm like, my gosh,
[9:27] they found a brain tumor. And I look at my husband and you
[9:29] know, me, I'm like the biggest jokester ever.
[9:32] And so my husband's like, no, you're kidding.
[9:33] And I'm like, no. And so I'm scrolling and I'm
[9:36] like, my God, there's a picture like this does not take a anyone
[9:39] to like, my gosh, even if you're not a radiologist, you look at
[9:42] my brain scan, which you probably have seen at this
[9:44] point, I don't know if you have, but it's a huge white mass.
[9:46] Like it does not take a trained eye to look and be like, that's
[9:48] not normal. So I'm like, Oh my gosh, what
[9:51] the heck? Didn't know what to make of it.
[9:52] I didn't know what to think of it.
[9:53] But the differential diagnosis, which it is a list of what it
[9:55] could be. It said lymphoma, metastatic
[9:58] disease, you know, glioblastoma, oligodendroglioma, astrocytoma,
[10:05] basically this whole list and a lot of it I didn't understand at
[10:07] the time, but I know what a glioblastoma is.
[10:09] And that's like one of the scariest types of cancer you can
[10:11] get. I mean, people sometimes make it
[10:13] months, maybe a year. Sometimes people don't make it 2
[10:16] years. And so I, it was my stomach.
[10:20] It just, I was so sick to my stomach.
[10:21] I immediately called the company trying to get on the phone with
[10:23] somebody. They're like trying to find
[10:25] people that are practitioners. And so yeah, it was, it was
[10:28] scary. And I felt like life just
[10:29] stopped because I'm like, what, what just happened?
[10:32] And I think the craziest part about this whole story is that I
[10:34] never had symptoms. So I was also in denial because
[10:37] I'm like, this isn't me. And then I'm going through my
[10:39] mind. I'm like, OK, vision, hearing,
[10:41] balance, personality, memory, seizures, like I had headaches,
[10:45] nothing. I've never even had a headache
[10:46] in my leg at this point. So I'm like, this is not me.
[10:50] Like a little bit of denial, but a little bit of shock and like,
[10:52] waste my life over. Like, am I gonna make it to next
[10:54] year? So it was.
[10:56] I can only imagine how shocking and jarring that must have been.
[10:58] And I remember you even saying you thought like, this has to be
[11:01] someone else's scam, like there has to be a mistake because like
[11:04] you said, you had no symptoms. And typically people do have
[11:08] symptoms at that point. So I know that there were a lot
[11:12] of people, including first and foremost yourself, who were
[11:16] shocked to find out that you had a brain tumor when you announced
[11:20] that you had a brain tumor. But I also know that it all kind
[11:25] of makes sense to you now cuz even though you are healthy,
[11:27] there is a lot more to how brain tumors form and how that works.
[11:32] Can you walk us through that? So I think and even to this day,
[11:35] people that like I had already had an Instagram and A blog and
[11:38] a thriving practice and Wellness Center at this point in my life.
[11:40] And so people kind of look to me as like someone that can give
[11:43] health advice. And I think it was like the
[11:45] whole world was shocked, including me.
[11:47] Like, I'm like, what? I have a brain tumor.
[11:49] But what I've learned and even what my traditional, you know,
[11:52] neurosurgeon and oncologist have said is that it usually takes
[11:55] years for these tumors to form. And so I was told that it had
[11:59] likely been there eight to 10 years.
[12:01] Well, if you look back at my health timeline, that is when I
[12:03] was really sick. And so basically my immune
[12:06] system was suppressed. You know, come to find out and
[12:08] what we know a lot, you know, I had Lyme disease.
[12:10] I had, and I want people to hear me say this, just because you've
[12:12] been diagnosed with these things does not mean you're gonna get a
[12:14] brain tumor. There's a lot of fear, but it
[12:16] was the perfect storm in my story.
[12:18] You know, I had gut issues, I had Lyme disease.
[12:20] I had mono at this time when I was really sick, thyroid issues.
[12:24] I had the perfect storm and my immune system was suppressed and
[12:27] that is what allowed these, you know, abnormal cells to keep
[12:30] mutating and growing. And I also went through a lot of
[12:32] trauma at this point in my life, which also suppressed my immune
[12:34] system. People don't talk about enough
[12:36] about how the body and how trauma, it's not just something
[12:39] that affects us mentally, it's physically the body keeps the
[12:41] score. And so my story was just the
[12:43] perfect timeline. You know, these abnormal cells
[12:45] started to mutate and grow and grow and then tumor formation.
[12:49] And there's something called the cancer cascade.
[12:51] And it's like the perfect storm. And we actually all at any given
[12:56] point in time have circulating tumor cells, cancer cells, and
[13:00] basically our immune system. The job, the way that God
[13:02] designed our body is that it goes and takes care of those
[13:04] abnormal cells. But when your immune system is
[13:07] suppressed and it can't do what it's created to do, they get out
[13:09] of control. And then it takes years for
[13:11] tumors to form and then for people to become symptomatic.
[13:14] So by the time someone finds a tumor, it's been years in the
[13:16] making, right? It's not just like this happened
[13:18] overnight. And that was my story.
[13:20] And when people told me 8 to 10 years, I'm like, I didn't know a
[13:22] lot about cancer at that time because this is all new to me.
[13:24] But I would, I was able to look back and say that's exactly when
[13:27] I was really sick. And it had been growing since
[13:30] then. Now I think the question too is
[13:32] like, would I have become symptomatic?
[13:34] I don't know. Did it stop growing because of
[13:36] my lifestyle? And I never would have known if
[13:37] it weren't for this incidental thing.
[13:39] I don't know and I don't have the answers.
[13:40] I'm not God, but I'm just grateful we found it the way
[13:42] that we did and was able to take action.
[13:45] Absolutely. And I want to talk about what
[13:47] you did do and your whole treatment protocol.
[13:49] But first I I want to know what conventional cancer care gets
[13:55] wrong. Like, walk us through why you
[13:57] decided to not go the conventional route with your
[14:00] treatment. The conventional cancer route is
[14:03] surgery, chemo, radiation, immunotherapy, sometimes some
[14:07] different clinical trial drugs and things like that.
[14:09] And I am not against traditional oncology.
[14:11] I think it definitely has its times and places for certain
[14:13] types of cancer. But where I think our medical
[14:16] system and the oncology system as a whole is getting it wrong
[14:19] is no one's asking the why question like, why did this
[14:22] cancer occur? And what can we do to change the
[14:24] body to create an environment where cancer can't live in, You
[14:27] know, and that's why recurrence is so high as you see someone go
[14:30] into remission and they're healed and they ring the bell.
[14:32] And then two to five years later it comes back and it might be in
[14:35] a different organ. And I'm not negative and not,
[14:38] I'm not trying to be pessimistic.
[14:39] I'm just trying to be real and say that like, if you don't
[14:41] address why the cancer occurred in the 1st place, then of course
[14:44] it's going to come back. You know, you're, you have to
[14:46] change the entire terrain of why the cancer occurred in the 1st
[14:49] place and address any pathogens, the immune system, unresolved
[14:52] trauma, exposure to certain things.
[14:55] And so that's where I think our cancer system gets it wrong.
[14:57] I'm not against all conventional treatment.
[14:59] I mean, heck, I had brain surgery.
[15:00] That's a very conventional intervention.
[15:03] I had surgery a year ago or last year, a year and a half.
[15:06] But yeah, they don't ask the why question and they don't try to
[15:09] prevent recurrence. Yeah.
[15:11] And then they just are focused on kill, kill, kill.
[15:12] Right. And I think that's so evident in
[15:14] just the increase in cancer rates.
[15:16] I mean, there's more awareness than ever, yet we are not seeing
[15:19] an improvement and in fact, we're seeing the opposite.
[15:22] And more funding, yes, like we have more and more dollars, but
[15:26] the rates are. Off the chart, yeah.
[15:28] And even in people in the most, right in the last four years, I
[15:31] think there's been a massive increase in cancer rates in
[15:33] young people. What do you attribute that to?
[15:37] I think it's kind of a perfect storm.
[15:38] And even with my story, I don't think it's just one thing.
[15:40] I really think it's multiple drops in the bucket.
[15:43] And what I mean by that is that this day and age, we have to, we
[15:46] have to work on our health. Like we have to be mindful of
[15:48] the products we use in our skin. We have to be mindful of what we
[15:51] eat. Our food supply is not the same.
[15:53] You know, we're constantly inundated with EMS and
[15:55] technology like we were never created to do that.
[15:57] We're all stressed and working at a pace of life that we just,
[16:00] I don't think God created us to live at this pace at, you know,
[16:03] the vaccine schedule changed in 1988 and a lot more vaccines
[16:07] were added to that. You know, it's just, it's the
[16:10] perfect storm of all the chemicals, the toxins, our
[16:12] environment. But you know, very little
[16:15] cancers actually are caused by genetic mutations and there are
[16:20] cancers that are just not genetic component what we are
[16:23] believed. That cancer is almost entirely
[16:26] genetic, and that there's almost nothing we can do about it.
[16:29] And then people feel doomed and it's like, I just got these
[16:32] genetics and I'm like, no, actually you have the ability,
[16:34] it's called epigenetics, to change the expression of your
[16:37] genes through the lifestyle that you lead.
[16:39] Now, we're not God, we're not control of everything, but there
[16:41] are things that we can do. And I feel like now more than
[16:43] ever, we have to make a conscious effort to take care of
[16:45] ourselves and advocate for ourselves and minimize our toxic
[16:48] exposure and. Fuel our bodies with healthy
[16:50] foods because the government's not doing it.
[16:53] Our doctors, sadly, they're just not trained.
[16:55] I was trained through the same medical system.
[16:56] They just don't know, You know, the textbooks are outdated.
[17:00] The pharmaceutical companies have a big influence in what
[17:02] even goes into those textbooks. So there's definitely a lot
[17:06] wrong with the system. So what did you end up doing?
[17:09] Yeah, I know you have. You have a whole care team.
[17:12] How did you piece that together and what did that look like?
[17:15] When I was first diagnosed, I, you know, we were on our family
[17:18] vacation, which was a blessing. We were able to process.
[17:20] I mean, I'm like, what the heck, You know, we were able to get in
[17:22] with a neurosurgeon three to four days later locally to get
[17:25] more advanced imaging to really look at what we thought it was.
[17:28] And he was basically like, it doesn't look like leoblastoma,
[17:31] but you have a huge tumor in your brain and it's a matter of
[17:33] time before you come symptomatic.
[17:35] But like, we don't have to do surgery tomorrow.
[17:37] You know, this is a weird freak finding.
[17:39] He was like, how? Big was the tumor.
[17:41] It was the size of a plum when they took it out, which is huge.
[17:44] And I think a lot of people, they think the tumor is just
[17:45] sitting on your brain. It actually the kind that I had
[17:47] grows within your brain. So it invades healthy brain
[17:50] tissue. And so he basically was like,
[17:53] get your affairs in order. I mean, it was, I was diagnosed
[17:55] September. It was my son's 1st birthday, it
[18:00] was Thanksgiving, Christmas, our wedding anniversary, my
[18:03] birthday, all within three months.
[18:05] And so it just felt like, Oh my gosh, you know, like this is a
[18:07] lot. Were you pretty depressed?
[18:10] Were you hopeful? Were you kind of going back and
[18:12] forth between the two? I look back and I even I could
[18:16] cry because I look back at stories and I'm like, and just
[18:18] pictures and things that I posted and I'm like, I God just
[18:21] gave me supernatural faith and hope beyond my circumstances.
[18:24] Like it was not me. I like literally glory to God
[18:26] because I think I was in go mode because I was like, I'm going to
[18:29] live and I'm going to see my kids grow up and I'm going to
[18:31] fight. But I also just by the grace of
[18:33] God, I just was able to get by one day at a time.
[18:35] And I had a lot of hard days. Like of course, I feared like a
[18:38] song would come on and I'm like, Oh my gosh, am I going to be
[18:40] able to be at my son's first dance?
[18:42] You know, it was like it was a really hard time and life slowed
[18:44] down and I really was able to focus on what mattered.
[18:46] But we also had to, like, execute a living will and find a
[18:49] surgeon and all these things. But I knew that the cancer
[18:53] didn't happen overnight. And I did a deep dive on
[18:54] integrative care. And I'd always known about Hope
[18:56] for Cancer, which is, you know, an integrative holistic center
[18:59] in Mexico, which sounds so sketchy, but it's not It's
[19:03] amazing. It's this Christian healing
[19:04] center. It's just so wonderful.
[19:07] So I knew I was like, OK, it'd be awesome if we could shrink
[19:11] this brain tumor, Lord willing. But if not, at least I can
[19:14] prepare my body for surgery. And so I actually waited five
[19:17] months before surgery. Not everybody gets to do that.
[19:19] But again, because I wasn't symptomatic, I didn't feel like
[19:22] I didn't want to rush into a decision and fear.
[19:24] And I did. I slowed down, I prayed, I did
[19:26] so much research and I found the perfect care team.
[19:29] So I went there for two weeks. I flew to California to go see
[19:32] Doctor Kennelly, who's still is my doctor that I call her the
[19:34] quarterback on my care team. She just, I love her so dearly.
[19:37] She just overseas my care. She's just such a good voice of
[19:40] reason. And yeah, so she I established
[19:44] care with her. I even changed my diet more.
[19:46] I went into more of a metabolic ketosis and did all sorts of
[19:50] therapies and that was five months leading up to surgery.
[19:53] And then I found a brain surgeon out in Arizona.
[19:56] And in those five months we were actually able to shrink my brain
[19:58] tumor in half, which is truly a miracle.
[20:00] Like it's unheard of. Like even people that do chemo
[20:03] and radiation may not even have a treatment response.
[20:05] So I mean, yes. And there are some days where
[20:07] I'm like. I wish I just ate Whataburger
[20:09] and did nothing and like, could just give all the credit and
[20:11] glory to God, which it is him at the end of the day, right?
[20:13] Like, but I really do think he's using my story to show people
[20:17] that like taking an integrative approach, like there is purpose
[20:19] to it, you know? And so, yeah, I was really
[20:22] grateful. And then I had surgery a year
[20:23] and a half ago, February 1st 2023, to remove it.
[20:27] And was anyone in your life skeptical about the approach you
[20:30] were taking or did? Was there anyone that
[20:33] discouraged you from going that route?
[20:36] You know, no, not that anyone that spoke up, I'm sure people
[20:39] had those feelings and thoughts like I, I'm sure people did that
[20:42] were close to us, but I think they trusted me enough to know
[20:44] that like, OK, but some people, I did have a few people be like
[20:47] you, you really need to get this out.
[20:49] This is really serious. And I'm like, I know, but I'm
[20:51] also, I probably had this for a long time and I'm not
[20:54] symptomatic and I also didn't want to walk around with a brain
[20:57] tumor in my head. Like, of course, every time I
[20:58] drove my kids, I'd be like, I don't have a seizure, you know?
[21:01] But no one really, like, butted heads with me.
[21:03] I think they just trusted me and knew that I was going to
[21:06] ultimately get surgery. And I wasn't totally writing off
[21:08] conventional. But yeah, no one said anything
[21:11] to my face. Maybe a couple people were like,
[21:13] that's crazy. I don't know that I'd do that.
[21:14] It's incredible that you were able to shrink your tumor in
[21:16] half by just utilizing natural and alternative therapies.
[21:21] And I know you mentioned you were in ketosis, deep ketosis
[21:25] for a lot of that time. What are some of the more like
[21:27] advanced bio hacky alternative therapies that you used during
[21:33] that time? Yeah, So I incorporated a lot.
[21:35] I'm trying to think like, what would a day of my life and
[21:37] treatment be like? And so I did ozone.
[21:41] I did a lot more frequent coffee enemas rectal.
[21:44] What kind of ozone, OK. Rectal ozone and then also I did
[21:48] EBOO which is like ozone on steroids, basically filters your
[21:51] blood and ozonates it. I did that.
[21:54] I did something called Indo laser.
[21:55] It's where you do Ivs and you basically send laser frequency
[21:59] and light. I did.
[22:01] I wore a red light helmet. For those of y'all that watched
[22:03] my journey, I kind of shared a lot of it and still have a lot
[22:05] of highlights on Instagram. It just would be like another
[22:07] day in my office with my red light helmet.
[22:09] I did molecular hydrogen oxygen therapy.
[22:12] Gosh, I took I still do take quite a bit of supplements, tons
[22:16] of supplements and then sauna. I just upped my detox.
[22:21] Anything that helps support the immune system.
[22:22] High dose vitamin Civ curcumin, IV artessinate, I mean literally
[22:28] so many things. So red light bed, hyperbaric
[22:30] oxygen chamber hyperthermia. So I did a lot, but I also in
[22:35] addition to the herbs and all the therapies I did, I changed
[22:38] my diet, I did all the supplements, I did all the
[22:41] therapies. You know, I actually did a lot
[22:42] of emotional and trauma work because that's part of feeling.
[22:45] And I again, I had a lot of trauma in my life and so just
[22:48] making sure that I was addressing that.
[22:51] What else did I do? Oh, I did repurpose off label
[22:54] drugs and medications, which not a lot of people know about this,
[22:57] but there are FDA approved drugs that are not approved for the
[23:00] purpose of certain cancers, but that can affect certain
[23:03] metabolic pathways. And so for me, like I was on
[23:06] several and I still am, I still do off label drugs.
[23:09] So it's it's a drug that's approved, but it's just off
[23:12] label for the purpose of why we're using it.
[23:13] And so. And a lot of those will target
[23:16] parasites, right? And those aren't something that
[23:18] just any oncologist is going to prescribe.
[23:21] No, they would actually think that's totally crazy.
[23:23] Yeah. And but yeah, no.
[23:26] And I still, you know, I'm on a fungal and a parasite protocol
[23:28] because we know that I had a huge parasitic and fungal load,
[23:31] which do stress and tax the immune system.
[23:34] And if I want my immune system to be optimal to fight off any
[23:36] abnormal cells. And that's the other thing
[23:39] people ask me too. They're like, why?
[23:40] You're cancer free. You don't have a tumor in your
[23:42] brain. But it's like the recurrence
[23:43] rate even of what I had is so high.
[23:46] And so I'm, you know, I'm like, I'm preventing recurrence and I
[23:50] am becoming even healthier. And again, I felt good, but my
[23:53] immune system, there was something that was hindering and
[23:54] suppressing. And then a lot of it's the Lyme
[23:56] and coinfections that I've had for years too.
[23:58] Yeah. And I think you've mentioned
[23:59] this either an e-mail or social, but you're the type of parasite
[24:05] that that you had has actually been linked to brain tumors even
[24:08] by the American Cancer. Society.
[24:11] So there's something called I had multiple parasites, but one
[24:13] of the parasites that we identified, I actually drew this
[24:15] on my tap myself because I'm a provider.
[24:17] And so I'm like, I ran the whole test and this is such a God
[24:20] thing that I found this out. But basically there's a parasite
[24:23] called Toxoplasma gondi that can cross the blood brain barrier
[24:27] and the International Journal of Cancer and the American Cancer
[24:30] Society link. When you have that positive in
[24:32] your blood, the antibodies, you're more likely to have a low
[24:35] grade glioma. And that's exactly what I had.
[24:38] And it's young middle-aged people.
[24:39] And so it's like, here's conventional treatment linking
[24:42] this. And even a lot of people don't
[24:44] know this, but EBV, Epstein Barr virus, mono, that's actually a
[24:47] Class 1 carcinogen like that is a known cause of cancer.
[24:51] Wow. So again.
[24:52] I have EBV. Yeah, it's a lot of you're doing
[24:54] all the things, yes, and but it's like you.
[24:57] Have to help support your immune system and that's where ozone
[24:59] and all these supportive therapies come into play.
[25:01] Is there one or a few things that you feel like made just by
[25:06] far the biggest impact on your healing out of everything?
[25:09] You know, and it's the biggest question, the $1,000,000
[25:11] question of like, Oh my gosh, what did Taylor do that shrunk
[25:13] her brain tumor? And even Doctor Kennelly and I
[25:15] will never know because we threw the whole kitchen sink at it.
[25:18] And I don't want to guess. I don't want to know.
[25:20] I'm just grateful that I am where I am.
[25:23] But one thing I can say is that after brain surgery, I really
[25:27] struggled with overstimulation and I think I realized the value
[25:30] and importance of nervous system health, which is just a fancy
[25:32] word for managing your stress and being at peace.
[25:36] And just realizing, you know, like I owned 3 businesses at the
[25:39] time and I think it was a crossroads in my life of just
[25:41] like Taylor, just cuz you can do these things, should you?
[25:45] You know, And I think also when you're given a terminal
[25:47] diagnosis, I say that because I don't believe that yes, it's
[25:50] life limiting for everybody and all that.
[25:51] But I choose to live my life like I am healed and I am going
[25:54] to live a long life. And mindset is important.
[25:57] But it was very humbling. And it was really faced with,
[25:59] like, how do I wanna spend my days?
[26:00] Do I wanna spend them grinding? Or do I want to have flexibility
[26:04] to make memories with my children and travel and go to
[26:07] treatment facilities? And so, yeah, decreasing my
[26:10] stress load was really, really big, especially after surgery.
[26:12] I didn't have a choice. And you're recovering from brain
[26:14] surgery. Like sounds, lights,
[26:16] overcommitments, loud areas, airports, like it was just
[26:19] overload. And it was things that I've
[26:21] never struggled with. And so I feel like the biggest
[26:24] thing that I've taken away is that stress and nervous system
[26:27] health and trauma and emotional trauma can be really, really
[26:31] big. And healing from any disease,
[26:33] whether it's autoimmune, cancer, whatever it may be, it's just
[26:36] important. Yeah, absolutely.
[26:38] Especially like you mentioned in this world there is so much
[26:41] stimulation from devices, from artificial light, so many things
[26:45] like that everyone should be mindful of regardless of whether
[26:49] or not you you have a diagnosis. You mentioned that recurrence
[26:53] rate was really high for your particular type of cancer and I
[26:57] think for a lot of types of cancers what what is the reason
[27:01] for that? Because I think people just
[27:03] don't address why it occurred in the 1st place.
[27:05] You know, it kind of goes back to the terrain theory.
[27:07] You have to take care of the terrain in which the cancer grew
[27:09] in order to not prevent it to come back.
[27:11] Because if you just throw chemo and throw meds and radiation,
[27:15] then you know, like you're not really resolving, you're killing
[27:17] it. But then some of those things
[27:18] like, you know, there are certain cancer treatments like
[27:20] brain radiation. We know that radiation causes
[27:22] brain cancer, right? And it's such a high dose.
[27:25] And so some of the treatments for cancer are actually some of
[27:28] the known carcinogens. Of cancer.
[27:30] Yeah, like tamoxifen, which I'm not saying it's bad, people need
[27:33] at times and places to shut down estrogen, but it's, you know, a
[27:37] lot of people are on tamoxifen and that's a Class 1 carcinogen.
[27:39] So we have to think like, what is worth it?
[27:41] And then what can we do harm with, you know?
[27:43] And so, yeah, even when I shared like, hey, guys, I have no
[27:45] evidence of disease, like per my scans.
[27:47] And I still have clear scans and I still will do scans for the
[27:50] rest of my life. Lord willing, we'll get further
[27:53] and further out. We don't have to do them as
[27:54] frequently. But even when I shared like I'm,
[27:57] I'm healed, I have no cancer. People are like, well,
[27:58] technically you still have leftover cancer cells, so you'll
[28:00] never be cured. And I'm like, well, I don't
[28:02] choose to live my life way. I believe I'm healed.
[28:05] I have no evidence of disease. My, my, my scan says that my
[28:07] doctor's in agreement and I'm walking in that freedom and
[28:10] healing. Do you think that if you would
[28:12] have kept going with all of the the full plan, everything that
[28:17] you were doing that you might have been able to completely
[28:21] shrink the tumor eventually and and not have the surgery?
[28:25] Was that ever something you considered?
[28:27] Yeah, you know, I, so here's the crazy thing is we actually
[28:30] didn't find out that the tumor had shrunk until after surgery
[28:34] because I did a pre op MRI like the day before surgery, so the
[28:37] surgeon could map everything and get clear margins and know
[28:40] exactly like blood vessels and everything.
[28:42] And I didn't find out that it had shrunk until like a week
[28:44] after brain surgery. I was getting all my medical
[28:46] records and report. And so in my mind, I kind of
[28:49] view that like that was God's plan.
[28:51] I was supposed to get surgery and I wasn't supposed to find
[28:53] out that it shrank. And honestly, we didn't think it
[28:55] was cancer. We knew that it was a brain
[28:57] tumor, but we didn't think that it was cancerous.
[28:58] And so I'm really grateful that I did get clear margins because
[29:03] prognosis and statistics show that when you get it out, your
[29:05] survival rate is better. And so I don't know if it would
[29:08] have fully shrunk and resolved. It could have, but that wasn't
[29:11] my story. And I'm just, I'm grateful for I
[29:14] know, you know and trust that the Lord has led me through all
[29:16] the steps, even brain surgery that was so hard that I was
[29:18] supposed to have that as part of my story.
[29:20] So I know your brain surgery. Was successful, but also I can
[29:24] imagine an extremely difficult thing to go through and you were
[29:28] just mentioning to the crew offline that a chunk of your
[29:31] brain is actually missing now. So what has recovery looked like
[29:35] and what his life looked like since brain surgery?
[29:38] Yeah, I don't think anyone prepare you enough for a brain
[29:40] surgery. And you can't compare every
[29:41] case. They're not the same.
[29:42] You know, I was so fortunate I was out of surgery and in
[29:45] recovery. And my husband, he said he'll
[29:47] never forget. He almost cried because I was
[29:49] talking. I knew where I was.
[29:50] I was telling the nurses to get the catheter out.
[29:52] I'm like giving nurses orders or nurse practitioner orders.
[29:54] And you know, I was so fortunate I went to ICUI, got up and
[29:59] walked to the bathroom. And I'm also, I'm a good
[30:00] patient, but I must like, I know what it takes to get well and
[30:02] get to a step down unit. And so I was like, I want to go
[30:05] to the bathroom. This is good, Get my bowels
[30:07] moving, you know. And so anyway, I went to the
[30:09] bathroom and I was walking six hours after brain surgery and I
[30:12] was discharged straight from ICU 24 hours later, which is also
[30:16] kind of unheard of. My surgeon is amazing.
[30:18] He has a little bit more or less invasive approach and that's why
[30:21] I chose him in Arizona. But yeah, the recovery itself, I
[30:25] mean, I didn't have to go to speech OT occupational physical
[30:28] therapy. You know, some people have
[30:30] paralysis on one side. You know, there's a lot of
[30:32] variations of how someone can be after brain surgery.
[30:34] So All in all limitations, I'm so blessed and everything's been
[30:38] intact. But I'd be lying if I said it's
[30:40] just been easy and it's all good because it's not.
[30:42] It's drastically affected my life.
[30:43] And you know, I struggled with insomnia.
[30:45] I've never had sleep issues in my life.
[30:47] You know, we traveled last summer and it was so hard for me
[30:49] to sleep and over stimulation and sounds.
[30:52] You know, I had to start wearing headphones in public and
[30:54] traveling and even with my kids, you know, I have two young kids
[30:57] and the dog would bark and I just, I couldn't proofread,
[31:00] which is a huge part of my job, you know what I mean?
[31:02] Proofreading content. And yeah, so a lot of things
[31:05] felt overwhelming, but All in all, like I can function on a
[31:09] day-to-day basis. I mentioned at the time, you
[31:12] know, I did own several businesses and I was like, this
[31:14] is too much. I can't do this.
[31:15] You know, I have to heal. And they say the brain can take
[31:17] a year to heal. And that's, that's pretty true.
[31:19] And on par. I do pretty good.
[31:22] I do pretty damn good. And I'm so blessed.
[31:24] Yeah. Most people don't know.
[31:25] Ever know. Yeah.
[31:26] Ever. Unless.
[31:27] Having not known your story, yeah.
[31:29] And what are some of the things that you're doing now to
[31:31] continue to support your nervous system?
[31:33] I know we we've talked about it. We do a lot of the same things,
[31:35] but. But tell our audience what you
[31:37] do. Grounding.
[31:38] Big fan of grounding. I noticed a big shift especially
[31:41] when I travel. Travel days are still hard for
[31:42] me. Just the lights, the sound, the
[31:44] airport. Whenever there's a lot going on,
[31:46] I have a hard time with my brain processing.
[31:48] Like whenever there's a ton going on, it's just like whoa,
[31:50] you know, like a kids birthday party.
[31:52] I'm trying to watch my kids and so I noticed when I go.
[31:55] Parent for sure. Really.
[31:56] Especially I can imagine. Like see, and so many people say
[31:58] this, they're like, welcome to my everyday life.
[32:00] Like you were just. Running at such a high octane, I
[32:03] mean, and you still are, but you're just so smart and so full
[32:08] of energy, so vibrant that for you, I know you say like you
[32:12] know, that you you've gone down maybe a few levels with certain
[32:16] things, but I feel like you've probably just like normalized
[32:19] leveled up. Yeah.
[32:21] But yeah, so as far as like the nervous system, I will say
[32:23] grounding is so big for me. That's the first thing I do when
[32:25] I fly. It is like if I can get to water
[32:28] like a river, a Creek, that's amazing.
[32:30] If I can be at the beach to stay in the ocean.
[32:32] Nothing resets me like that, but day-to-day, you know, just
[32:36] grounding, getting morning sunlight, getting sunshine and
[32:38] fresh air, taking what I call brain breaks.
[32:40] You know my team like we'll be at a big team meeting.
[32:41] I'm like I'll see y'all on Slack later.
[32:43] I'm going to take a brain break. I'll go lay on my higher dose PM
[32:46] if not and just just really calming.
[32:48] I love baths are really grounding, you know, with Epsom
[32:51] salt, magnesium sulfate and yeah just really trying to disconnect
[32:56] too. That's really big for my brain.
[32:57] I feel like this day and age we're all connected, whether
[32:59] it's phones and apps and emails. And so for me just to have some
[33:02] time to disconnect is and then let us not forget my favorite
[33:06] thing ever, reflexology. I have my girl back home who
[33:09] I've been seeing. I've actually saw her almost
[33:12] weekly for two years prior to my diagnosis.
[33:14] It was like an intuitive thing, I guess.
[33:16] I mean, I saw her weekly during pregnancy and I just kind of
[33:18] kept on. And my son's now 2 1/2 and I
[33:21] love her and she's changed my life.
[33:22] And so anytime I'm feeling overwhelmed or it's a big work
[33:25] week or we've been traveling a lot, the first thing I do is go
[33:27] see my girl and she gives me a massage.
[33:30] Yeah. And I know you have your girl
[33:31] here now too. Yeah, I have my girl here and I
[33:34] saw from trip times in the last year or so.
[33:37] Now I've started going to her SO and she's the girl.
[33:40] It's not the fancy spa, but it gets the job.
[33:42] Done. Yeah.
[33:43] How do you ride the line between obsessing over preventing any
[33:49] reoccurrence and just being aware?
[33:52] So this is a good question and something I feel like I'm still
[33:54] learning. I haven't perfected it.
[33:55] And honestly, I'm not big on perfection anyway because if
[33:58] you're trying to be perfect, you're probably stressed and
[33:59] trying to control everything. But I was definitely much more
[34:02] motivated at first before surgery.
[34:04] And again, I just was in go mode.
[34:06] Like we got to get this done. I'm going to live a long life.
[34:07] I've got it was like battle mentality, like I'm in a warrior
[34:10] and I'm going to do this. And then I was really
[34:12] disciplined after surgery. And it got to a point it was
[34:15] about last summer that I was like, OK, I'm learning.
[34:18] This is going to, this is not a Sprint, this is a marathon and
[34:20] this is my life. And I'm going to have to have a
[34:22] sustainable pace, you know? And so last summer, I wasn't in
[34:25] perfect ketosis and checking my GKI and my blood sugar.
[34:28] And you know what, I decided, you know what, I'm going to go
[34:30] travel with my family. And we still eat clean when we
[34:33] travel. It's not perfect, but we're
[34:34] making memories and that's medicine too.
[34:36] And so I kind of had to let go of that last summer.
[34:38] I'm still disciplined and do a lot of my therapies, but you
[34:41] know, there are days where I don't take my supplements and
[34:43] that is OK. And I just start back the next
[34:45] day And I don't feel bad or guilty or shameful that I do
[34:48] that. And I think we've, we've done a
[34:50] lot of trips and a lot of travel and that's been medicine and
[34:52] healing for us too, even if it doesn't mean wearing my red
[34:54] light helmet every day. And I feel like I'm passionate
[34:57] about prevention and I'm motivated, but I'm also not a
[35:00] slave to it and it's not my identity and something that
[35:03] controls me. What about if someone is going
[35:06] through conventional cancer treatment and maybe they feel
[35:09] like that's their only option for whatever reason?
[35:11] Or maybe it is their only option?
[35:13] How can they still advocate for themselves?
[35:15] Even being like a traditional oncologist and going that route,
[35:19] what are some things that they can still do to support healing?
[35:22] Yeah. So I think it depends on where
[35:24] someone is in their cancer journey.
[35:25] Are they on a surveillance? Are they in remission and are
[35:27] they just getting scans? Which that is me right now.
[35:29] I still see a neuro oncologist and a neurosurgeon.
[35:32] You know, I'm not like, peace out.
[35:34] I'm out. You know, it's really important
[35:36] to maintain those relationships. I think some people go left
[35:38] field and they're like, I'm never going to do a scan.
[35:40] I'm never going to follow up. And I'm like, no, you need them.
[35:42] You need to maintain that relationship.
[35:43] I mean, everyone needs to do what they have peace about and
[35:45] what their doctors say. It's a, it's a, you're
[35:47] advocating for yourself, but also there's an expert that can
[35:50] order scans, but it depends on and if you're in the thick of
[35:53] treatment, I would definitely recommend.
[35:55] And there are times and places for conventional treatment, like
[35:57] hear me say that, you know, there are certain types of
[36:00] cancer that respond amazing, certain types of breast cancer
[36:02] that respond well to treatment, lymphoma, you know what I mean?
[36:06] So I'm not saying don't do that, but maybe find someone that can
[36:09] talk to you about diet and nutrition and what integrative
[36:12] therapies. You know, I have several mom
[36:14] friends in Fort Worth that unfortunately are all young moms
[36:16] that have breast cancer and they've all done chemo and
[36:18] surgery, but they've also gone to doctor Kennelly and Irvine
[36:21] and done all the integrative stuff.
[36:23] And even if they're doing conventional treatment, they can
[36:25] still do ozone and high dose vitamin C and coffee enemas to
[36:27] minimize side effects of their treatment and to support their
[36:31] body going through it. And so I would just say find a
[36:33] provider or a cancer advocate, Nisha Winters, who is amazing
[36:38] and wonderful. She's who referred me to my
[36:39] surgeon. She has a book called The
[36:41] Metabolic Approach to Cancer and she has a whole list and
[36:44] directory of cancer advocates that can help you.
[36:47] OK. Yeah.
[36:47] So I can see how it would be so important for someone to seek
[36:51] out additional information and additional opinions even when
[36:54] going through conventional treatment.
[36:55] I mean, I have just heard horror stories from people who have
[36:59] gone through cancer themselves or have a child that is going
[37:02] through treatment. And they're spending a lot of
[37:04] time in like the cancer wing of the hospital.
[37:07] And just there's like bowls of candy around.
[37:09] And oncologists are telling them it doesn't matter what types of
[37:13] foods you're eating, just that you're getting calories in,
[37:15] which is which is nuts because you'd shared something with me
[37:19] about what happened. Like when they scan for cancer,
[37:23] they actually have you drink. Is it drinking a sugary drink or
[37:27] so? This is interesting and I have
[37:29] never done chemo or radiation so I can't speak to an actual
[37:32] treatment floor. And actually a lot of brain
[37:33] cancer patients will do. Some will do infusions but some
[37:35] will do oral chemo. They take at home a pill, but
[37:38] I've had so many friends, you know, and warriors text me like
[37:40] I can't believe that they're serving this.
[37:41] This is the tray that they go around at the cancer treatment
[37:43] center and it's like Cheez its and granola bars and Skittles.
[37:47] And it's just to me, it's just sad.
[37:49] You know, I feel like it's like, what the heck?
[37:51] And I get it. And I have compassion and I
[37:52] can't say that I know what it's like to go through chemo and not
[37:55] have an appetite. Like I have compassion for
[37:57] people and but I'm like, let's get some creative ways of how
[37:59] you can get nutrients in that can fuel you.
[38:03] But yeah, so when most people ask their oncologist like, well,
[38:06] does sugar affect cancer? And some will say yes,
[38:09] especially in the brain world, a lot of even like traditional
[38:12] neurosurgeons, neuro oncologists are saying, yeah, there is a
[38:14] connection and ketosis can be helpful, but we're not sure.
[38:16] There's not enough data. And I don't know.
[38:18] I just don't know that that's being shown.
[38:20] But with that being said, it's not hard for me and I don't want
[38:24] to argue with anyone, but it's not hard to present the case
[38:26] that the way that someone does a PET scan is you literally drink
[38:29] a sugar solution and then cancer is like Pac-Man.
[38:32] They eat up the sugar 1st, and so when they do the scan, you
[38:35] see the places in the PET scan that light up and which shows
[38:38] that it just absorbs the sugar. And so to me, I'm like, it
[38:42] doesn't take this like really outside the box thinker to know
[38:45] that like, well, if it's taking up sugar, wouldn't that mean
[38:48] that's its food source, Right. Yes.
[38:50] Yes, exactly. Yeah.
[38:52] Seems very obvious, but maybe not to everyone.
[38:54] Yeah, OK. You have also said in the past
[38:58] that cancer is not a death sentence, which I love, but what
[39:02] would you say to anyone who is struggling with a cancer
[39:05] diagnosis right now and maybe feels like it is a death
[39:07] sentence? First of all, I just want to say
[39:09] I'm sorry. Like I've been there.
[39:10] I'm not coming and talking to you from a place of you should
[39:13] do this, you shouldn't do this. I'm opinionated.
[39:15] I've been there and I'm just sorry.
[39:18] Like it's really, really hard. And there are times where I do
[39:22] grieve what my life looked like. And I do fear, you know, I would
[39:24] be lying if I said that everything is rainbow
[39:26] butterflies. And I have faith and hope every
[39:28] single second of every single day because that's just not the
[39:30] case. Like it just comes in, I'll,
[39:32] I'll see a picture and I'm like, Oh my gosh, there are these
[39:34] moments that trigger you, you know, And So what I will say is
[39:37] grieve the life that you thought you were going to have.
[39:39] And it's OK to be sad and it's OK to be scared, but don't stay
[39:42] there and don't be stuck there. Continually renew your mind,
[39:45] have hope. I don't know what that looks
[39:46] like for everybody. For me, the Lord has given me
[39:48] hope beyond my circumstances. And this world is not my home.
[39:50] And there's a lot of sickness and brokenness and I can't wait
[39:53] for heaven one day, but I want to live here now for my kids.
[39:56] And so I would say, you know, just you do have to affirm
[39:59] yourself and you do have to. Tell yourself that you can heal
[40:02] because your body's listening. And I think one of the hardest
[40:05] things is that, you know, you get a diagnosis, whether it's
[40:08] finding a lump or getting a brain scan like me.
[40:11] And then, Oh my gosh, I can't even like I can remember because
[40:14] I know, but the pit in my stomach, the fear, the, it was
[40:17] so crippling, the anxiety, you know, I remember what that felt
[40:21] like. And so that you're scared, you
[40:23] go to the doctor, they tell you you have cancer.
[40:25] So now this is spoken over you and you start to believe it, and
[40:28] you associate cancer with death, and then you start treatment and
[40:31] you start losing your hair. And then you really are
[40:33] identifying with like, death and cancer.
[40:35] And I'm not saying that mindset's gonna carry you, but I
[40:37] think that it really is. So that is so powerful and
[40:41] resolving emotional trauma in your life that is so
[40:44] significant, you know, going to great measures to heal.
[40:47] But you, you can heal. And I'm not saying that we're
[40:49] gone. We can control everything.
[40:51] But I do believe there's a lot we can do to either mitigate
[40:54] treatments, side effects or, you know, Lord willing be that
[40:58] taking an integrative approach. Yeah.
[41:00] Absolutely. That's good advice.
[41:02] We are going to switch gears to end this to a little bit of a
[41:06] lighter note with some this or that questions.
[41:08] Love it. Let's do the fun stuff.
[41:10] OK, let's do it. All right, this or that.
[41:13] Eggs or bacon? Bacon Veggie.
[41:16] Burger or grass fed beef? Grass fed beef all day long.
[41:19] Double beef, baby. Mocktail or cocktail?
[41:22] Mocktail, hyperbaric chamber or eboo?
[41:28] That's hard. I've done so much hyperbaric but
[41:30] I'm claustrophobic lately and so I would have to say eboo.
[41:33] OK. Loungewear or dressing up?
[41:36] Loungewear all day. Resistance training or power
[41:39] walks? Resistance training.
[41:41] Cold plunge or infrared sauna. I'm a sauna girl.
[41:45] Guasha or facial cupping guasha. All right, love it that.
[41:49] Was hard. Those are all my favorite.
[41:51] Things answered them so quickly, I know.
[41:52] I'm decisive, I'm decisive. But it didn't work.
[41:57] Thank you so much for coming on the show Taylor.
[41:59] You are such a light to the world and have helped and
[42:02] encouraged so many people and you continue to do so on all of
[42:06] your platforms. Where can people follow along
[42:09] with you and also purchase your amazing Wellness products?
[42:12] Yeah, so you're sweet. I have a website.
[42:15] I'm so passionate about educating people and I was
[42:17] before cancer. It's just a different topic that
[42:19] I focus on now. But website,
[42:21] taylordukeswellness.com. I have an online store with a
[42:24] lot of protein electrolyte supplements.
[42:27] And stuff. I love the lemonade.
[42:30] We just got caring away chatting.
[42:31] We got bone broth protein. Protein.
[42:34] The chocolate and vanilla ones. Yes, it's so.
[42:36] Good. The electrolytes are amazing.
[42:38] I love the coffee Creamer. You're so sweet.
[42:40] We got coffee. But yeah, so that's
[42:42] shop.taylordukeswallness.com. And then I share a lot on my
[42:45] Instagram, Taylordukeswallness. And yeah, I'm on the interwebs.
[42:49] Yeah, check her out. She's a good one to follow along
[42:52] with. Yeah.
[42:53] So for any of y'all listening today, you guys can get a 15%
[42:56] off discount code to anything on our store using the code
[42:59] primally pure. Thanks for coming on, Taylor.

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