BANISH BREAST CANCER: How We Used Lifestyle Medicine to Help Obliterate Breast Cancer is a book that offers practical ideas on how to send breast cancer packing—how to create a hostile environment for breast cancer cells within the body. It offers evidence-based tips for steps that can be taken from the first day of diagnosis, enabling women (and men) to take control of what initially feels uncontrollable and downright devastating.
Even if you choose conventional therapies (which the author did), there are critical, practical lifestyle actions that can be taken immediately to help evict breast cancer from your body. The ideas aren’t radical. They encompass specific suggestions related to diet (primarily a whole-food plant-based diet); physical activity (it matters more than you might think!); avoidance (or total elimination) of risky substances, such as tobacco and alcohol; adequate sleep; fostering strong social connections; stress reduction and management; cultivating positive emotions; and the use of other non-drug modalities that promote health and prevent disease. The author also strongly recommends (without proselytizing) incorporating spiritual tools to undergird the efforts to eject breast cancer from your being.
The author shoots straight with the reader, weaving humor in with nitty-gritty details, such that the reader knows what to expect and how to meet the challenges head-on. The author’s husband, a retired physician, did a deep dive into the medical and scientific literature to enable them to make informed decisions. The book is heavily cited with the sources he uncovered. The book is a “how to” for anyone facing breast cancer who wants to take immediate control and actually do something herself, not just have treatment done to her. It also guides those wanting to prevent breast cancer in the first place and those who want to prevent recurrence. Despite the tough subject matter, the book is an easy read, as the author talks to the reader as if she is sitting right next to her. Anyone with breasts, cancerous or not, will benefit from this book!
