Cancer, Stress & Mindset: Focusing the Mind to Empower Healing and Resilience

By Brandon LaGreca

Cancer is not a battle; it's a dance—take the lead.

 

Have you been left wondering and worrying about the role of stress in your cancer diagnosis? Is there scientific evidence that stress can cause cancer?

 

Integrative clinician, speaker, and cancer patient Brandon LaGreca will be your guide to distill the related science and offer support during this challenging time. Glean insights he has used to treat countless patients during their journey back to health. Cancer, Stress & Mindset will explain the contribution of stress to the initiation and progression of cancer; how stress affects the body and mind; and simple strategies to cope with the stress of being a cancer patient, from diagnosis through remission.

 

• Part 1 examines the science of stress, including the history of stress research, the evidence for a stress-cancer connection, and mechanisms that explain how stress affects our health.
• Part 2 explores the power of cultivating an anticancer mindset. Here you will learn to leverage language and self-talk to help you make decisions from a calm and centered place. An anticancer mindset is prerequisite to success with any conventional or holistic oncology treatment.
• Part 3 focuses on therapies to counter the negative effects of stress, especially as experienced by a cancer patient. This section explores evidence-based strategies used in cancer clinics around the world and advice on optimizing sleep, exercise, and diet to build stress resilience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brandon LaGreca
• Release date: Feb 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9781732999633

Brandon LaGreca

Brandon LaGreca, LAc, MAcOM, is a licensed acupuncturist in the state of Wisconsin and nationally certified in the practice of Oriental medicine. In 2015, Brandon was diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He achieved full remission eight months later by following an integrative medicine protocol that included immunotherapy without the use of chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery. Brandon is a thought leader in the synthesis of traditional and functional medicine, having written numerous articles on the subject. You can read more of his work on his blog: www.EmpoweredPatientBlog.com.

Book preview

Cancer, Stress & Mindset

CANCER, STRESS & MINDSET

FOCUSING THE MIND TO EMPOWER HEALING AND RESILIENCE

BRANDON LAGRECA

Empowered Patient Press

Cancer, Stress & Mindset: Focusing the Mind to Empower Healing and Resilience

---

Copyright © 2021 Brandon LaGreca

E-book ISBN: 978-1-7329996-3-3

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-7329996-4-0

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-7329996-5-7

---

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the author and may not be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published.

---

Cover design: Jess Estrella

Author photograph: Tracy Carpenter

---

Medical disclaimer: This book is intended to supplement but not replace the advice of a trained health professional. If you know or suspect you have a health problem, you should consult a health professional. All efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this book as of publication. The author specifically disclaims any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, that is incurred as a direct or indirect consequence of the use and application of any of the contents of this book.

CONTENTS

Praise for Cancer, Stress & Mindset

Foreword

Introduction

Part 1—The Science of Stress

1. The History of Stress

The History of Stress Research

General Adaptation Syndrome

Polyvagal Theory

Measuring the Stress Response

2. The Neurophysiology of Stress

The Placebo and Nocebo Effect

Classic Conditioning

Psychoneuroimmunology

3. The Stress-Cancer Connection

Epidemiological Evidence

Research Controversy

Part 2—The Anticancer Mindset

4. Types of Stress

Money

Health

Relationships

Busyness

Time Management

Clutter

5. The Anticancer Mindset

The Four Fears of Cancer

The Three Questions Every Cancer Patient Must Answer

Radical Remission

How to Talk About Being a Cancer Patient

Limitations of Mindset

Part 3—Healing Flows Where the Mind Goes

6. Active Strategies

Meditation

Brain Wave Entrainment

Hypnosis

Guided Imagery

Journaling

Psychotherapy

Breathwork

7. Passive Strategies

Sleep

Exercise

Bodywork

Acupuncture

Diet

Nutrition

Adaptogens

8. Stress-Proofing

Hyperthermia

Cryotherapy

Hyperventilation

Stress in the Modern Age

Conclusion

Newsletter Subscription

Group Discussion Questions

Introduction to Cancer and EMF Radiation: How to Protect Yourself from the Silent Carcinogen of Electropollution

About Brandon LaGreca

Acknowledgments

References

PRAISE FOR CANCER, STRESS & MINDSET

It is refreshing to read such a human-centered book about the power of self-healing. I truly believe this approach will help many individuals with their journey and transformation through cancer. In the future we will look back and ask why more attention was not paid to the research of stress reduction and the overcoming of chronic diseases. I am so impressed by the volumes of stories from cancer survivors all over the world who have transformed their illness by realizing their innate immune potential and resilience through self-change. Thank you to Brandon LaGreca for opening a doorway to health that has been hidden for all too long.  

—Steven M. Johnson, DO, president of Physicians’ Association for Anthroposophic Medicine

Brandon LaGreca has created an incredible tour de force with his new book, Cancer, Stress & Mindset. As a longtime cancer physician, I have seen the deep needs of people dealing with cancer and know that world intimately. Brandon addresses these challenges by describing how and why they occur along with practical avenues for dealing with them. The book’s depth and relatability are incredible. People with cancer in their lives need this book.

—Paul S. Anderson, NMD, author of Cancer: The Journey from Diagnosis to Empowerment and coauthor of Outside the Box Cancer Therapies

As a women’s health practitioner who focuses on hormones, I saw a lot of women in my practice with a recent or past history of cancer. I can tell you, their mindset was everything when it came to their recovery. Brandon’s book is an excellent resource, not only for those on their healing path but also in their immediate community. Many of the techniques he covers I do in my own daily life. As he so eloquently states, Mindset is a lifestyle. It will carry you through the early stages of cancer treatment and nourish positive change through remission.

—Carrie Jones, ND, FABNE, MPH, medical director for Precision Analytical Inc.

So often cancer patients and families do not receive resources and guidance on how to navigate the stress of the cancer journey. Learn how to envision and frame your journey to be one of healing with wholeness as the endpoint. This book will give you the tools and understanding to transform the quality and trajectory of your cancer journey.

—Nalini Chilkov, LAc, OMD, founder of IntegrativeCancerAnswers.com

As a 17-year survivor of soft tissue sarcoma, I know cancer to be a very powerful and proficient teacher with the potential for profound transformation. The information and tools in Cancer, Stress & Mindset echo the lessons I have learned.

—Ruth Bachman, author of Growing Through the Narrow Spots

FOREWORD

BY NASHA WINTERS, ND, FABNO

During the first few decades of my life, I do not believe I once experienced true health. Digestive issues right out of the gate progressed to taking medications for indigestion at 5 years old. This was followed by the worst case of chicken pox my pediatrician had ever seen, along with a major drug reaction to the codeine they gave me to control the pain. At the age of 11, I was placed on birth control pills to manage my terrible menstrual cramps and excessive bleeding. I had skin tags (an early sign of metabolic syndrome) removed and was prescribed multiple rounds of antibiotics, leading to yeast infections that were treated with antifungals. I was given Xanax ® for severe anxiety and ate Tylenol ® like candy to deal with the chronic pain in my joints—all before the ripe old age of 19.

The year was 1991, and I was a sophomore in college. I had been in and out of the emergency room for six months complaining of unbelievable abdominal pain, intermittent bouts of severe constipation lasting weeks, bladder infections, worsening anxiety, and trouble breathing. All of these issues mirrored patterns of my previous decade of IBS, endometriosis, PCOS, and anxiety diagnoses at an intensified level. But something was different. I knew it, and no one would take my concerns seriously. They simply wrote me a script for the next anti drug and sent me on my way.

When I landed in the ER that fall with dangerously low oxygen levels, a massive bloated belly, and the inability to keep anything down when even sips of water elicited excruciating stomach pain, a doctor I had not previously seen was on call. He was concerned enough to run tests and imaging never offered before. To make a long story short, I was in end-stage organ failure secondary to metastatic ovarian cancer with a tumor the size of a grapefruit on my right ovary, several lesions on my liver, a spattering of cancer all over my abdomen, enlarged lymph nodes throughout my pelvis and groin, and a small bowel obstruction. Treatment was off the table as my kidneys and liver had decided they were done, causing fluid to build up in my body in places where it didn’t belong.

They drained about 4 liters that night (with a few more visits over subsequent weeks yielding 4.5 liters more) and found a dark brown liquid that turned out to be a swimming pool for cancer cells. The doctor who delivered the diagnosis cried as he had a daughter my age. They loaded me up on pain medication, gave me oxygen, and observed me overnight before sending me home with referrals to an oncologist and palliative care team. I was a few days shy of my 20th birthday and had no one to call with this news.

Much like the subject of one story in Brandon’s book, I was poor, driven, proud, overworked, exhausted, alone, and dealing with a tremendous amount of pain—both physical and mental. I had no family support and was putting myself through college on grants, scholarships, work study, full-time work, and student loans. Though I had spent years prior to the diagnosis wishing for an exit strategy as I saw little value in living, when met face to face with my mortality, the fantasy of a great martyred departure instead ignited the flame to live.

Though I never expected to survive and kept much of my diagnosis a secret for many years, my quest to understand my own process has led me on the most extraordinary adventure. As the adage goes, You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. While so many people are terrified to die, they forget to live. I was so afraid to live that I was ready to die. That is where my journey began, and cancer led the way to a new outlook and life. Nearly three decades later, my education, exploration, and career have led me to be a sought-after thought leader in metabolic approaches to cancer as well as a co-founder of the Believe Big Institute of Health. It will be the first terrain-centric, metabolic-forward U.S.-based nonprofit residential integrative oncology hospital and research institute.

Longevity in the United States has been on the downward slope for the past three years, prompting some analysts to refer to this as the Age of Despair. At the time of the writing this foreword, the world is at odds with a COVID-19 virus that has forever altered our collective experience, possibly forcing this longevity-killing condition to worsen. Further social isolation, financial ruin, uncertainty, and fear can lead some to find solace in opiates or contemplate suicide, both of which are direct sources for this diminished life expectancy. We are not being taught to use the tools of resilience, self-awareness, and personal responsibility or how to find resources from community and connection to take health into our own hands, even though that may be the only way out of such a crisis.

Much like the COVID-19 story, cancer has similar triggers and outcomes, and yet the real emergency of cancer may be the diagnosis itself. How one responds to the diagnosis can set the stage for improving or diminishing positive outcomes. Studies show that loss of hope may be the most devastating risk factor, leading to a poor prognosis in all cancer types and stages. That, along with a chronic stress response, leaves our immune system wasted, unable to perform basic tasks, and more vulnerable to cancer.

In 1991, Deepak Chopra’s book Quantum Healing jumped off a library shelf and landed in my hands, forever changing my life. At a time when psychoneuroimmunology was just emerging, Dr. Chopra’s book, my cancer wake-up call, and my purpose all collided at the perfect moment.

One book or research paper led to another. Over the next nearly three decades, the work of Robert Ader, Candace Pert, Lawrence LeShan, Bruce Lipton, and others on the psychosocial-emotional front along with the work of Antoine Beauchamp, Otto Warburg, Mina Bissell, Thomas Seyfried, Valter Longo, and others on the metabolic and cellular front informed my path and purpose, validating my healing process. The volumes of literature showing how stress influences our response to disease, increases risk for all-cause mortality, and generally lowers response to treatment should be enough to encourage every single clinician, practice, and hospital to have at its core a stress-mitigation department.

My book, The Metabolic Approach to Cancer, is a curated collection of all the things I have gleaned over the decades. Like adding beautiful produce to a big basket at the farmers market, I have gathered valuable research, resources, and insights from hundreds of mentors and colleagues that have crossed my path and contributed pearl after pearl of wisdom. The book focuses on the concept of what I call the Terrain Ten ™: ten so-called drops in the bucket that contribute to our health or lack thereof, including things such as epigenetics, metabolic state, microbiome, hormones, inflammation, and immune function. But the tenth and most underestimated or ignored drop in the bucket is the mental aspect. This is where Brandon’s book picks up the baton and runs with it!

In her groundbreaking research publications, Radical Remission and Radical Hope, Kelly Turner discusses the nine common factors in documented spontaneous remission cases. Though we’d like to think that diet and supplements (two of the nine) take the primary role in miraculous outcomes, success is, in fact, rooted in the mental-emotional sphere. As cliche as it sounds, we hear all the time that cancer saved my life, cancer was a gift, or cancer gave me a wake-up call, and it is the very buoyancy of this ideology that becomes the life raft in the eye of the storm.

Our culture is given a healthy dose of fear on a daily basis through media, industry, and authority figures. This perpetuates further sympathetic nervous system dominance that renders our defenses useless. Brandon speaks volumes to these very concepts in his book and draws attention to how imbalance in our stress response leads to chronic illness. He elucidates both the biology and biography of this process and helps you gain clarity on your own reactions while helping you cultivate an anticancer mindset.

What led to my own cancer etiology became obvious: trauma, poverty, fragmented family of origin, and living in survival mode manifesting as deeper emotional wounds. This resulted in self-preservation behaviors of isolation; suppression; hiding behind being busy; and addictions that often gravitated to poor choices in romantic relationships, business partnerships, friendships and self-soothing behaviors. Though I have spent decades uncovering these patterns and doing my work to recognize and change them, I still ride that razor’s edge of passion versus distraction, of self-care versus loss of self. As such, it is an important reminder to be gentle with yourself. This is a process, not an event.

Beyond the cancer card that both Brandon and I share, he is a kindred spirit. I so appreciate his blogs, ability to educate through writing, practicing what he preaches,