Hope and Health Through Dela’s Wellness: Overcoming Chronic Illnesses Such As Cancer, Obesity, and Cardiovascular Disease

By Dela Williamson, HHP, CHC

It’s not often in our lives that we experience something that truly shocks us. For someone who gets a serious illness like cancer—and maybe that’s you—it’s a big shock because it’s only natural to think it will NEVER happen to you. So many of us live as if we’re going to be around forever. We don’t stop and realize that existence in our physical bodies can end without much notice. We’re living in an era in which we’re surrounded by many products and situations that can adversely affect our health. We can’t sit idly by and take what life dishes out. It’s time we wake up, take control, and become our own best advocates. If you love yourself and appreciate the amazing potential you have as a beautiful human being on this earth, I urge you to be fully conscious of your life and the precious body you’ve been given. And this book is going to help you do it.
“… I sincerely hope that this book can guide, inspire and help you in your personal journey." A Daya MD

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Dec 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483421230

Book preview

Hope and Health

through

Dela’s Wellness

Overcoming Chronic Illnesses such as Cancer, Obesity, and Cardiovascular Disease

Dela Williamson, HHP, CHC

Certified Health Coach and Cancer Survivor

Copyright © 2014 Dela Williamson, HHP, CHC.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

Author photograph by Antonio J. Cypert,

Other photographs taken by author.

To contact the author, please email Dela Williamson at [e-mail]

ISBN: 978-1-4834-2124-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-2125-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-2123-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014919948

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

I’m offering the content of this book as general guidelines to help you live a life with overall health and wellness. Each person’s physical, emotional, and spiritual condition is unique. Please consult your health care provider for matters pertaining to your specific health and diet.

This book is not meant to diagnose or to give medical advice. What I share in this book is information and guidance based on what I’ve learned during my real life experiences and throughout my extensive studies on health, wellness, and the environment.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 12/10/2014

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword by Anil Daya, MD

Introduction

Part One

ME? CANCER? WHAT the HECK?!

Chapter 1:   Mustering Courage and Determination

You have an amazing inner strength inside of you!

Chapter 2:    Enjoying Your Life and Being Happy

Happiness can help you heal!

Chapter 3:    Preserving Your Integrity

Do only those things that feel right to you!

Chapter 4:    Be Your Best Self

Your potential for inner growth and for healing is HUGE!

Part Two

DELA’S WELLNESS

Chapter 5:    Integrative Medicine – Allopathic, Complementary, and Alternative Medicine

You can heal your body by using different healing modalities.

Chapter 6:    Guidance to Health & Wellness

You can make an effort to live happy and healthy!

Chapter 7:    Stand on Your Own Feet and Be the Best YOU can BE!

Your Body, Your Beliefs, Your Influences, Your YOU!

Chapter 8:    Connecting to Your Inner Self

What Motivates You to Live?

Chapter 9:    Our Environment

Preserving our Resources

Chapter 10:    Acceptance and Forgiveness

As Human Beings, We’re Not Perfect

DETAILED TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword by Anil Daya, MD

Introduction

Part One

ME? CANCER? WHAT the HECK?!

Chapter 1:   Mustering Courage and Determination

May 21, 2009

The Lump

Surgery

Chemotherapy

Chapter 2:    Enjoying Your Life and Being Happy

Hiking at Mt. Whitney

Camping at Yosemite National Park

Enjoying the Redwoods and the Pacific Coast

Chapter 3:    Preserving Your Integrity

Radiation

Happy New Year!

The Native American Chief

Feeding My Essence, My Inner Self

Chapter 4:    Be Your Best Self

Time to Go Back to School

Holistic Health Studies

Part Two

DELA’S WELLNESS

Chapter 5:    Integrative Medicine – Allopathic, Complementary, and Alternative Medicine

About Allopathic, Alternative, Complementary, and Integrative Medicine

Popular Healing Therapies Within Alternative Medicine

Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture

Ayurvedic Medicine (Ayurveda)

Naturopathic Medicine

Chiropractic Care

Homeopathy

Bodywork

Yoga

Aromatherapy

Botanical Medicine

Detoxification Therapy

Craniosacral Therapy

Environmental Medicine

Chapter 6:    Guidance to Health & Wellness

What’s going on that Chronic Illnesses are Taking Over?

Feeling Alive

Being Mindful … What a Beautiful Gift.

My Experience During the Mindful Walk

Self-Care

About the Importance of Self-Care

Therapeutic Body Massage

Giving Yourself a Massage

Ayurvedic Head Massage

Giving Yourself a Lymphatic Self-Massage

Facial Acupressure

Brushing Your Teeth and Flossing

Fluoride

Using a Tongue Cleaner

Taking Mineral Baths

Avoiding Food Poisoning

Preparedness for Natural Disasters

Making Your Home Eco-Clean and Allergen-Free

Dealing with Stress

Let’s Talk about Sleep

Our Immune System

The Immune System

Moving Your Body

Chapter 7:    Stand on Your Own Feet and Be the Best YOU can BE!

Taking Care of Your Precious Body

Malnutrition in Babies

What’s In Your Food?

About Sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup

Mercury in Fish

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)

Over-nutrition and Undernutrition

Eating for Health

Alkaline and Acidic Foods

We Need Dietary Fiber

Healing Spices and Herbs

Foods That Help Keep You In Shape!

Factors Affecting Obesity

Making Behavioral Changes for Good Health

My Favorite Recipes

Mental/Intellectual and Emotional Health

Our Thoughts

Our Values, Attitudes, and Beliefs

Our Emotions

Emotional Intelligence

Social Health

Being Assertive

About Conflicts

Being There for Each Other

Living in Harmony with Each Other

Coming Together as a Community

Chapter 8:    Connecting to Your Inner Self

What Motivates You to Live?

My Spiritual Journey

What’s Important to YOU?

Chapter 9:    Our Environment

Spending Time with Mother Nature

Caring for Our Environment

Chapter 10:    Acceptance and Forgiveness

Acceptance

Forgiveness

"Dela is an inspirational person who has made it her personal mission to spread the word regarding living your life in a loving, peaceful and healthy manner.

She also is a kind, giving spirit willing to share her knowledge

and experiences with everyone.

Spending time with her will lift your spirits and leave you feeling better

about yourself and mankind.

I have had the good fortune to be influenced by her warm and positive approach."

Jonathan Bill, L.Ac

Ventura, California, USA

6744501Illustration1toputbeforeendorsements.jpeg

Guidance and Inspiration for Overall Health

ENDORSEMENTS

I have been fortunate to know Dela before, during and, most wonderfully, after her cancer experience. Her challenges have been many, she has overcome and benefitted by all of them. Her heart, mind, and soul are open to give and receive love, wisdom, and joy. Dela is unfailingly kind and generous. Anyone who crosses her path in person or through this book is lifted up by her beautiful essence. Her book is not overly scientific and unreadable but it is based on science. It is not unrealistically airy fairy but it is based on her real life experiences, real recovery from multiple ailments, and years of education. Her common sense approach to recovery is for everyone from any background. To all readers, enjoy her insights and make them your own.

Valerie Cummings, PhD

Psychologist

9-8-14

Camarillo, California

I’ve known Dela from long before her cancer episode to the present. She is a strong, brave and dedicated individual working to fulfill her life. She did not just go along blindly with the treatment recommended for her illness, but used her own initiative to seek out and apply any modality she believed would help her regain her health. Dela has written this book as a gift to humanity. She has included many healing methods including allopathic, integrative, complementary and alternative. Her book covers the gamut of mental, emotional, physical, social and spiritual health.

Robert Lowis, L.Ac., MATCM

Malibu, California

What I appreciate about Dela was her abilities and willingness to create a team that supported her, and her practice of communicating with her team in a heartfelt and honest way. Of course to do this takes humility and trust. Dela has those. And Dela created a team that had many dimensions of care and expertise. This may be an important factor in the cancer journey. Ultimately the patient has to create the team that works for them, and Dela did that very well. It was a pleasure and an honor to serve her.

Dr. Ken Weizer

Portland, Oregon

Dela Williamson has shown great strength and endurance during her course of treatment and recovery. She’s an amazing person, so brave and passionate. Her treatment was quite taxing for her but she sought out an amazing team of practitioners for support and kept her course. The journey to have a deeper understanding of her own health lead her along a path of discovery more in depth than I think she even imagined it would take her. Dela’s deep passion for learning about all aspect of health that effect us all is inspiring.

Lisa Wong L.Ac. Dipl.Ac.

Ventura, California

The words you have cancer can be the most devastating words we may ever hear. While there is not a typical reaction, fear of the uncertainty is understandably very common. Dela was not an exception, except that she also chose to be empowered with pure passion to make the difference in her diagnosis. Dela placed herself into action to face the overwhelming obstacles in her path, none of which was simple. Dela chose education and discovery to reinforce her plan and left no stone unturned in her quest to return to normalcy. What a Gift to Us and the world for Dela to share what she has spent endless hours, days, months and years learning. If there was only one book for the newly diagnosed to read to calm fears and provide hope and educated guidance, this is it, for this book is complete with all the tools necessary for Wellness.

Ray Vasquez

Cancer Patient Advocate

The Cancer Center of Ventura County

St. John’s Regional Medical Center

It is so nice Dela has brought this idea of sharing her own experience and knowledge to put things forward so everyone could benefit by understanding the available options of leading a healthier and happier life. I wish peace and prosperity in everyone’s life.

Bikram Sharma, MD

New York, USA

This is a truly inspiring story with a lot of helpful, beneficial information for cancer survivors along with practitioners and the general public.

Jen Viano

Health & Lifestyle Coach

Farmington Hills, Michigan

What an amazing experience, Dela! I congratulate you for your courage and for the correct decisions that you took, even though they did not go along with your way of thinking. It’s not easy, and it requires a lot of courage!

Patricia Wieland Conroy

Direction For Social Affairs

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peru

DEDICATIONS

To that Highest Power, the Life Force, that created and sustains the universe and beyond, making it possible for me to have a human body.

To Mr. Prem Pal Singh Rawat, International Ambassador of Peace, who reminds me of how precious our lives are.

To my mother, Mrs. Marjorie Wilson Salinas, who gave me good nutrition while in her belly and through my growing years, which made my body resilient to serious illnesses.

To my father, Mr. Francisco Almenara Valdez, who gave me the genes to see every human being as the same.

To my paternal grandpa, Guillermo Almenara Irigoyen MD, a well-respected doctor in Perú, who accomplished great things for the Peruvian people while serving as Minister of Health.

And,

To my great grandpa, Francisco de Asis Almenara Butler MD, who as the pioneer of pediatrics in Peru, established the first school of pediatric medicine in Peru. I’ve inherited their big humanitarian hearts and love for medicine, which I’m deeply thankful for.

To my dear son Antonio, who gave me an opportunity to experience motherhood.

To my dear sister Patty, who has shown much care for me through the years.

To Dr. Anil Daya, who, as my primary care doctor, became my advocate. Thank you for being there during my entire cancer episode.

To all my health care providers, who formed part of my amazing team.

To Dr. Herbert Gooch and Dr. Jonathan Cordero from California Lutheran University, who encouraged me to write this book.

And, to all those wonderful human beings, who are helping people live a happy and healthy life around the world.

FOREWORD

I am Anil Daya MD, an Internal Medicine physician practicing Integrative Medicine. I have the great pleasure to be Dela’s primary care physician. It has been an honor to participate in her care for many years.

Integrative Medicine (IM) is allopathic or traditional western medicine, combined with appropriate complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). One principle is a holistic approach that has a strong collaborative partnership between the patient and their physician. The goal is to treat not just the disease but treating the whole person. At the core, the physician treats the mind, body and spirit at the same time.

The first part of this book describes Dela’s personal journey with cancer. Her strong will to fight cancer and get well, together with informed individualized integrative medicine approach was the key to her successful outcome. Her journey was not easy. She had to overcome many personal challenges and she was able to achieve this with much dignity and courage. This required a team approach.

She delves into the seven dimensions of heath in the second part of the book. Each dimension is detailed to guide the reader to prevent and treat chronic illnesses, including cancer. This requires a healthy and conscious lifestyle.

One should note that each person is unique, requiring an individualized and personalized approach to the integrated cancer treatment program. I sincerely hope that this book can guide, inspire and help you in your personal journey.

Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and fulfilled life.

Peace, Love and Joy.

A Daya MD,

Diplomate, American Board of Internal Medicine

Integrative Medicine Practitioner

Westlake Village, California, USA

September 2014

INTRODUCTION

It’s not often in our lives that we experience something that truly shocks us. For someone who gets a serious illness like cancer — and maybe that’s you — it’s a big shock because it’s only natural to think it will NEVER happen to you.

So many of us live as if we’re going to be around forever. We don’t stop and realize that existence in our physical bodies can end without much notice. Your physical body is very strong, but it’s very fragile, too. That’s because so many things have to be just right for it to exist and perform well!

So many of us take our body for granted, and what do we do? We expose it to many harmful chemicals that can damage it. We put foods in it without reflecting on their consequences. And, we live a lifestyle that kills it.

Why do we do this to our bodies? Well, many of us didn’t have an opportunity to learn how to appreciate our body. Nobody taught us how to take care of it properly. Nobody showed us that optimal health can be in our own hands and that is more than just eating healthy and exercising!

So, when a life-threatening illness comes to our own life or someone close to us, we go through terrible shock and say, How can this be possible?

Well, my friend, we’re living in an era in which we’re surrounded by many products and situations that can adversely affect our health. We can’t sit idly by and take what life dishes out. It’s time we wake up and take control. It’s time we become our own best advocates. If you love yourself and appreciate the amazing potential you have as a beautiful human being on this earth, I urge you to be fully conscious of your life and the precious body you’ve been given.

This is what I did with all of my heart and soul after suffering through some intensely frightening health crises.

Back in December 2000, I almost became crippled due to complications from deterioration in my nerves and two mini-strokes. I still have the blockage that caused one of the strokes on the left side of my brain. But, thankfully, my blood vessels rerouted around the blockage, which saved me from further harm. Then, in May 2009, a large malignant tumor manifested in my body. One day I was fine — the next day I had cancer. Can you believe that?

Well, amazing as it is, I’ve been able to survive these illnesses way beyond doctors’ expectations. I was supposed to end up in a wheelchair, and no one thought I’d live this long. But, my body did heal. The reason? I gave my body what it needed to heal.

That’s exactly what you can do, too, my friend. And this book is going to help you do it.

In Part One, you’ll learn more about my experience with cancer; I’ll share with you what I did to triumph over it. You’ll be guided and inspired to fight the good fight. If I was able to do it, I know you can, too!

In Part Two, you’ll learn about the different aspects of health and about the lifestyle choices that affect our well-being. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have become sick if I’d known about these before cancer and the other serious illnesses hit me.

Through this book, my aim is to inspire and guide the population in general, especially people who believe in prevention and those who have cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or other chronic illnesses.

So, I invite you now to settle in and allow me to guide you through the seven dimensions of health. Understanding and implementing my recommendations related to these dimensions of health will help put you on a path of better health and wellness. This book will also help you in your path of self-discovery.

Although there’s a lot of information available on each dimension of health, I’m going to keep it simple. You’ll be getting just enough information to kick-start a new healthy-living regimen that’ll move you beautifully toward a joyful life.

Here’s to a happy and healthy life!

Cheers!

Dela Williamson HHP, CHC

Part One

ME? CANCER? WHAT the HECK?!

Chapter One

Mustering Courage and Determination

May 21, 2009

Why is this date so pivotal to me? My life changed forever on this day. Let me explain.

For many years, I’ve gone to my primary care doctor’s office for annual physicals. On May 21, 2009, I walked into my doctor’s office to review the results of my extensive blood work along with results of other tests. While there, I had a Pap smear done, as well as two other tests to check my body composition and the condition of my heart. He and I carefully reviewed all the test results, and his comment to me was, Everything is normal. You’ve got nothing to worry about. I agreed. I saw all of the test results and they were just fine!

Four days later on a Tuesday morning, I went to my acupuncturist’s office for a regular maintenance treatment. You won’t believe what happened next. As I took my top off to get ready for my treatment, I saw a huge lump between my right nipple and my underarm. I thought to myself, Oh my God, what is this? It was so large it took up the entire space of my palm.

The Lump

Can you believe it?

On May 21, 2009 I was fine — no lump. Four days later, I had a massive lump on my breast. I had no idea what it was, but my acupuncturist, Dr. Lisa Wong, got very concerned. For the past few months, I’d experienced swelling in my breasts. Dr. Wong explained it might have been caused by too much estrogen in my body from hormone replacement therapy (HRT) patches that my endocrinologist recommended me to use for the past several years. Dr. Wong suggested I mention this to my endocrinologist so she could reduce the dosage. However, my endocrinologist told me everything was okay. She said I had nothing to worry about. Dr. Wong encouraged me to take an herbal supplement to help my body release some excess estrogen. While taking the herbal supplement, the swelling in my breasts did come down. But shortly after I’d finish taking the recommended dose, the swelling would come back again.

After some time had gone by without any long-term relief with supplements, Dr. Wong recommended I see my endocrinologist right away. She was really concerned. Dr. Wong insisted that too much estrogen in my body from the HRT patches was probably the cause of my swelling.

I had always trusted my endocrinologist. She’s