Background for Deb’s Cancer Story

When Deb was diagnosed with cancer, she said to herself “I had a feeling this might happen.” Most of her life she had an unbalanced relationship with food, and an addiction to sugar. She had a hunch that this lifelong problem was a contributing factor.

Her unbalanced relationship with food started when she was a child. Watching and listening her grandmother insult her mother about her curvy body shape began a negative self image thinking pattern. Social pressures led to disordered eating that started in college, where she became afraid to eat ‘real’ food, and most often chose quick fix sugar and processed food choices for sources of energy. As she got older, her eating patterns improved, but she often found herself falling back into bad eating patterns to cope with professional and personal stress.

Deb’s cravings for sugar and processed foods were being dictated by Candida overgrowth — a yeast that normally lives harmlessly in the body but when it overgrows due to a high sugar and carbohydrate diet, it can dictate even more sugar cravings – making it difficult to overcome.

Deb was also a workaholic. Stress drove her life. She also had years of toxic, personal relationships which promoted more stress – adding to her weakness against cancer.

Over time, these unhealthy patterns broke Deb’s critical DNA/genes inside her cells that are designed to kill cancer cells. This is called a somatic mutation – when your genes break within your lifetime due to unhealthy lifestyle choices.