Welcome back to the Healing Pain Podcast with Dr. Veronique Desaulniers
Chemotherapy, radiation and surgery are traditional ways to treat cancer and we’ve been taught that this is the best way to battle the disease. Dr. Veronique Desaulniers isn’t taking away any of the truths in this, but as a cancer survivor herself, she wants people to know that there is also a natural way of curing it. During her two-year battle Dr. Desaulniers created the 7 Essential System that guides patients and takes away a lot of the confusion out of the healing process. Now retired from her clinical practice, she is busting breast cancer myths, like hormones don’t cause cancer, but exposure to chemical estrogens does. Find out what other breast cancer myths she has busted and learn her natural seven-step healing program.
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If you are like most women, you’re probably confused, frustrated and overwhelmed by all the information out there about preventing or healing breast cancer naturally. There’s no doubt cancer or cancer diagnosis can be scary, but our guest will calm any fear or doubts with sound advice and provide you with the help and support you need and deserve. It’s really interesting because as a physical therapist, you’d say, “What’s the connection with pain in breast cancer?” The truth is that upwards of 50% of women who have a mastectomy developed an awful type of neuropathic pain, which is called post-mastectomy pain. I’m very interested in talking to our guest about how we can heal breast cancer naturally and of course once you do that, you’ll heal pain naturally as well.
Our guest is Dr. Véronique Desaulniers, better known as Dr. V. She’s retired from clinical practice. She’s now dedicated to sharing her personal non-toxic healing story of surviving breast cancer. She’s had done years of research and has taken that research and culminated it into the 7 Essentials. It’s a step-by-step coaching program that has served women in 24 countries and around the globe. She’s also a number one best-selling author.
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Busting Breast Cancer Myths with Dr. Veronique Desaulniers
I’m really excited to speak to Dr. V on the Healing Pain Podcast, welcome.
Thank you, Joe. So happy to be here.
It’s a great topic. I have not ventured into this space so I’m excited that you’re here and really to be the first one on the Healing Pain Podcast to put the stake in the ground and educate everyone. What’s interesting about my platform is that chronic pain is really mostly women. This is going to be a topic that interest them and one they can share with their friends and family. Tell us about your journey around breast cancer and how it led you to where you are today.
I’d been in practice for about 25 years. I’m getting ready for work, I’m in the shower, I do a self-breast exam, and then felt that painful lump that changed the course of my professional and personal career. Interestingly, my practice was really holistic-based. I was doing a lot of bioenergetic testing. I was using homeopathy and nutrition. All of that is a result of my father’s diagnosis of pancreatic cancer twenty some odd years earlier, which the doctors gave him no hope and they sent him home to die, which he did in six weeks. I felt in my gut that there was something that could have been done for him but unfortunately for him, it was too late. I dove in, did a lot of research, and here I was in practice helping a lot of people reverse disease from cancer to autoimmune issues and of course, as a chiropractor on chronic pain.
I knew that from what I’d seen with my patients in the faith and belief in the studies that I had, I knew that I was going to do evidence-based natural medicine. That led me down the path and for two years, I was on the healing journey. I recognized that if someone like me could develop cancer, how much more so could the average woman who’s perhaps did not have all the professional experience that I had? The frustration, the overwhelm, the fears, and I wanted to be able to help women go through that in a much easier place. That’s when I created the seven-step program, the 7 Essentials System. It guides them through and it takes a lot of the confusion out of the whole process of the healing journey.
Just to back check a little bit because you mentioned that you went to “natural route,” can you describe to people what that means and what are the things that you decided potentially or you decided not to do?
First of all, I want to be clear to your audience that I’m not against traditional medicine. If there are women out there who choose traditional, conventional treatments, that’s awesome. That being said, I chose not to do that because I had seen personally the side effects on some of my patients. Many of them did not fair very well. What I did, I did everything from homeopathy. I did a lot of juicing. I did high doses of enzymes, specific herbs and nutrients that would weaken the cancer cells and boost my immune system. I did a lot of emotional work and dental work. Basically, followed that seven-step guide to really get me through on the other side.
You did not do chemotherapy, you did not do radiation and you did not have surgery?
Correct.
Those three, you did not do which you obviously chose you go on a natural route. One of the things I know that you talk about in your work are the myths. For all these chronic diseases, there are so many myths that’s developed. Some of them are I think just passed down and others are really a lack of I think informed consent for patients out there who come to providers like us who focus on natural medicine first. Can you tell us about some of the myths that have developed around natural cancer care or breast cancer itself?
One of the first myths that I really like to bust and to open wide is the fact that traditional medicine teaches women that their hormones cause cancer and same with men in prostate cancer. They tell them, “Your hormones are causing this cancer so we need to suppress the hormones.” If our hormones cause cancer, then every twenty-year-old on the planet would have cancer. It’s not the hormones per se. It’s two things. Number one, how you may be metabolizing or methylating or breaking down those hormones. Number two is your exposure to chemical estrogens from the environment. Pesticides, herbicides, plastics from plastic bottles, lotions and things you may be putting on your skin, too much food. Metal in your teeth can actually drive estrogen because mercury from amalgam fillings is classified as a metalloestrogen. Antiperspirants, aluminum is classified as a metalloestrogen. There are all these other factors that are driving excessive estrogen production in the body. If you reduce those, then it’s not a problem.
Your body produces these hormones, that have done it for eons, and your body has a natural way to clear the hormones basically. The hormones I think are the most interesting for people. What gets in the way of metabolizing and clearing hormones from a woman’s body?
There are a couple of things. Sometimes it could be genetic. There’s a genetic mutation from the MTHFR gene. If you have that weakness, then your body cannot metabolize and breakdown the estrogens into the non-aggressive metabolites. The second thing is a very toxic liver. If your liver is backed up and it’s full of toxins and chemicals, it’s not going to be able to process those estrogens very well. If you clear those, if you support that methylation pathway, which is very easy to do with supplementation and you clean up your liver, then those excessive estrogens can be secreted from the body very easily.
Get rid of anything that could potentially mimic estrogen in your life. Make sure it’s not on your body, make sure it’s not in your body, and then getting your natural detoxification processes to work efficiently. What other types of myths are out there around cancer?
Another big one was promoted by Angelina Jolie. The whole BRCA gene situation. I’m not judging her. I certainly know that she went through some major trauma. She saw her mother die in a slow horrible death because of cancer in traditional medicine. She created that Hollywood hype about, “Let’s cut off her breast and let’s take out her female organs because those are going to drive cancer because I have that gene.” What most people don’t realize is the BRCA gene is a tumor-suppressive gene. It’s a good gene. Why does it mutate? Less than 5% mutations occur genetically and the other 95% is environmental and from radiation. I wonder where they’re getting radiation from. All those mammograms, every six months, every year. That can certainly cause a mutation in the genes in the breast tissue. Understanding that our DNA is not our destiny, we now know that we can change our gene expression. Just because you have a gene that tells you you may inherit diabetes doesn’t mean that you’re going to. If you change your lifestyle and your eating habits and you manage your health properly, it will never show up, and the same for breast cancer.
It’s so interesting I think when you talk about DNA or genetics. Probably let’s say probably 30 years ago we thought, “We’ve figured out just the one gene for every single disease.” Now, we know that there is a sequelae of many, many genes that have to turn on for disease to really turn on on your body. Ultimately, your lifestyle, your epigenetics is what can turn that on and what can turn it off basically. Mammogram is the other thing you brought up which can be confusing to women. What is your stance if a patient comes to you and ask about mammogram? “Should I have one? How often should I have one? What are the risk factors for them?” What’s developed around that recently?
Mammography is very interesting. I’m not going to say, “Don’t get a mammogram.” That’s your decision to make. I personally have never had one. According to a 25-year Canadian study in over 90,000 women, they found that mammography did not decrease breast cancer mortality rate, not even by 1%. It was just as effective in finding a tumor as a self-breast exam. There you have it, the constant compression in radiation. We know radiation process cancer so if you’re exposing your breast to radiation every six months, every year, that’s not a very healthy thing. We know there are many studies especially in Europe that show that low-dose ionizing radiation from mammography can increase your risk of breast cancer. There are tools that you can look at. You can look at ultrasound. You can look at thermography, which thermography will not diagnose cancer but it will give you an idea if there is anything going on in the tissue, some inflammation for that, perhaps some blood flow that shouldn’t be there. It’s great for early detection. It can detect something the size of a tiny, little pinhead versus mammography. By the time it’s seen, it’s been there for five to ten years.
Since we know that lifestyle is such an important factor with all these chronic diseases especially with cancer, I wonder about the women who have chosen to go traditional routes where they’ve had either mastectomy or they’ve gone under some kind of chemoradiation. Now they’re told that the cancer is gone, that they’re cancer-free. Is that the right message we should be sending them?
I’m really glad you brought that up because that’s a real disservice that traditional medicine does to people in general, when they send them off on their merry way. Perhaps they don’t see anything on the PET scan. Perhaps they don’t see anything in traditional blood work and they tell them they’re now cancer-free. What they’re not addressing is the circulating tumor cells. You can cut out a tumor but you still have circulating tumor cells in your blood system. They’re also not addressing the stem cells, the baby cancer cells that are being turned on all the time. You have to really look at those factors. The good news is there are tests outside of traditional medicine that you can use in certain blood tests that will measure the presence of circulating tumor cells, will measure the presence of an enzyme that cancer cells secrete, that puts the immune system to sleep. That’s called nagalase. Then there’s also a protein called ENOX2 protein that cancer cells give off. Healthy cells don’t secrete that so if they find ENOX2 protein in your blood, you still have cancer in your body. It gives you a way to keep a pulse on your health regardless of what they may have told you traditionally.
What are the tests that someone should ask their physician for or inform themselves about as far as diagnosis and prevention?
The traditional doctor will not know about these tests. If you can actually go to some walk-in labs where you can get some of the new tests or order the kits and go to the lab and have it done. One test would be the Nagalase test that measures the enzyme that cancer cells secrete, that puts the immune system to sleep. Then there’s the ENOX2 protein. There’s also the hCG hormone. It’s called the cancer profile. It’s done by a lab in Florida. That can also give you early detection. You really need to work with an integrative doctor in order to get these tests. The other test is the RGCC test, also known as the Greece test which measures the circulating tumor cells and the different chemo agents and natural extracts that are most effective against the cancer.
Let’s shift to lifestyle. That’s going to start to lead into the 7 Essentials that you’ve developed so beautifully with all of your clients. Talk to us about the 7 Essential elements and how it integrates into someone’s lifestyle and habits.
It’s really great because it’s a simple step-by-step process. The biggest question that women have when they first come to our website or if they want some support is, “Where do I start? What do I do?” Seven easy steps. Number one, let food be your medicine. We know that food affects our health in multiple ways. Number two is to reduce your toxic exposure. We show you how to do that from an environmental point of view, from your home, from your skin, from the toxins inside your body. Number three is to balance your energy. We’re energetic beings. How do you keep your energy system balanced? Chiropractic care, acupuncture, balancing your hormones, exercise, proper sleep. All those things are very important. Number four is a very important one, which I think you understand, is the emotional aspect. In your situation with people you work with, what is the pain behind the pain? For us it’s, what is the pain behind the cancer? There are always some emotional issues that need to be resolved and learning to forgive yourself and forgive others and learn to self-nurture and self-love; such an important part of the healing journey.
Number five has to do with your mouth and your teeth, biological dentistry. If you have root canals, if you have fillings in your mouth, it’s been repeatedly shown that there’s a dental-breast cancer connection or dental disease connection, that’s such an important aspect of our health. Number six is repairing your body with therapeutic cleanse and herbs. Which nutrients work best? There are so many studies out there. There are hundreds of different supplements and nutrients that can affect the cancer and boost your immune system. Lastly, number seven is keeping a pulse on your health with early detection. That’s some of the blood work that we talked about, thermography, and really making sure that you’re applying true prevention in your life going forward.
I love when someone creates a really simple seven-step process because someone could just listen to that right now and say, “I can go back to this podcast. I can download it again. I can listen to it. I can write this down.” I just wrote them down myself because I think they’re just really wonderful to send to your friend or a family member who may be going through this. It gives them information that they may not be getting through traditional medicine. There are a couple of different points within the seven steps that I want to talk about. Let’s just talk about the emotional aspect first. We’re talking about cancer genes and cells floating around and people are like, “What do my emotions have to do with cancer?”
We now know that every thought you think creates neuropeptide or a protein that sends a message to every cell in your body. Your thoughts affect your DNA. Your thoughts affect your emotional system in the brain, which in turn also affects your nerve system which affects your flight or fight response or your relaxation response. It’s completely interconnected. There are many studies that have shown that our emotions are such an important part of healing, no matter what aspect you’re healing.
How do you point people on that journey as part of their healing journey? They’d think when you have cancer there are so many things to be concerned about. Then how do we start, “You may bring this up with someone,” and they may be open to it, “Okay, I’ll explore this a little bit.” Where do you point them in which direction?
When people join our community and they start coaching, we have them fill out a fifteen-page questionnaire. Part of that is essential number four where we ask them specific questions about their beliefs and their past traumas or where their stress level is. Depending on what we see, then we’ll start particularly in that area. We also teach people about specific tools in energy psychology such as EFT or Emotional Freedom Technique. There are so many other tools and techniques out there that we refer them to. Then we also give them a reading list of books that can be very instrumental in helping them to start peeling the layers of the onion so to speak, so that they can really get to the root cause of what may have contributed to the cancer development.
Let’s talk about plants and nutrients. People want to really know what’s the real evidence behind using plants as medicine, using certain herbs as medicine, and where does that fit in for natural breast cancer care?
Hundreds of different topics that we can get into but there are some very simple things that you can start with. If there’s one thing that I could recommend for women is to make sure they get their Vitamin D levels checked. You want to be in the optimal range between 80 and 100. Anything below that, you want to supplement with Vitamin D and K. Make sure that you check with your doctor and get that tested. Another simple nutrient would be iodine because iodine is very instrumental in supporting the thyroid and the breast tissue. Women that are on thyroid medication are twice as likely to develop breast cancer because they’re suppressing the symptoms of an inactive thyroid. There is bloodroot for example. Bloodroot is an herb that has been shown to literally kill cancer cells and to support their immune system. The list goes on and on. The key is to find what works best for you. That’s why we make sure that you test to make sure that if you’re doing something that it’s working. High dose of Vitamin C IV has also been very effective. Trace minerals like magnesium, selenium, zinc. Those things are important.
Having someone start on your method, how does it affect their family, their friends? The radius of this work is much larger and it really starts to hit people differently. Once you start to heal yourself naturally, people start to watch and they say, “What are you doing? What are you taking? Who are you working with? What are they telling you?” How does this start to affect women in their social circles?
Oftentimes, women will come to us and they don’t necessarily have that support more often than not, unfortunately because they’re getting a lot of pressure from traditional medicine. Their family and their friends are coming from a place of love. They want them to be okay. When they start walking outside of that traditional box, so to speak, it brings up fear for a lot of people. That’s why we’re here. We’re here to support them. There are some women who have very supportive families and husbands and they are onboard with them but it’s not the majority. Our goal is to really empower women so that they can explain to their family, to their friends, “This is why I’m choosing what I’m choosing.”
I have been talking to Dr. Véronique Desaulniers, better known as Dr. V. You can check out her number one best-selling book. It’s called Heal Breast Cancer Naturally. It’s a really great read and it’s got great information, reviews and a lot of the information that we spoke about. It’s a great support to this podcast. Dr. V, please tell everyone how they can learn more about you and some of the information that you have.
My website is BreastCancerConqueror.com. We also have a great fan page also called Breast Cancer Conqueror. You can get a lot of information there. There’s a free webinar that we’ll be putting up. There are eBooks. There are hundreds of blogs; I’ve been blogging for several years. A lot of information for free there.
I want to thank Dr. V. If you’re a patient, make sure to stay connected to Dr. Joe Tatta each week for new updates on the podcast. If you’re a practitioner, sign up for the mailing list at the Integrated Pain Science Institute. I want to thank everyone for being with us this week. We’ll see you next week.
About Dr. Veronique Desaulniers
Dr. Véronique Desaulniers, better known as “Dr. V,” decided to “retire” after 30 years of active practice and devote her time sharing her personal, non-toxic healing journey with Breast Cancer. Her years of experience and research have culminated as The 7 Essentials ™, a step-by-step coaching program that has served women in 24 countries around the globe.
Dr. V is a #1 best-selling author and has a # 1 Best Selling book on Amazon, Heal Breast Cancer Naturally, in 7 different categories!
The Healing Pain Podcast features expert interviews and serves as:
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If you would like to appear in an episode of The Healing Pain Podcast or know someone with an incredible story of overcoming pain contact Dr. Joe Tatta at [email protected]. Experts from the fields of medicine, physical therapy, chiropractic, nutrition, psychology, spirituality, personal development and more are welcome.
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