#71 Heather Cooan – Cancer Survivor and Food Sensitivities

Meet Heather Cooan:

Heather is a cancer survivor, entrepreneur, and health & wellness educator. Advocating for ownership over your own health and medical treatment, Heather speaks and writes on nutrition and lifestyle interventions for healing chronic illness, managing stress, recovering from burnout, and living life on your terms. 

Show Notes:

ABOUT HEATHER

• On August of 2017, when I was 37 years old, I was diagnosed with vulvar cancer
• Usually, vulvar cancer develops post-menopausal, from HPV virus or it can be keratinizing
• Mine was keratinizing because I also had an auto-immune condition
• I had this rare interesting cancer that you don’t usually see in young women
• Back in 2007, I was also diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, after I nearly died from the flu on a trip to Boston
• I started seeing a naturopath and I found that I have food sensitivities
• Basically, I am allergic to gluten and dairy
• My dairy allergy is severe. I could not have any dairy at all
• Now, I am free of all those things
• My allergy is an actual allergy. It is not quite anaphylactic
• It is a delayed allergy
• So, I get symptoms like high fever, itchy ears, itchy palette, watery eyes, lots of mucus, my joints will swell pretty bad, soreness, stiffness or gain 8-10 pounds of water overnight
• The naturopath that I see will do 2 different types of blood tests and I have done them both
• Usually, the standard of care with this type of cancer is surgical removal
• The problem with mine though is that, the affected area was very close to my clitoris
• And my doctor wanted me to castrate in the process
• At 37 years old, I was not willing to let that kind of mutilation happen to my body
• My oncologist abided with my wishes
• And so, he got most of the tumor removed from there, but did not get all of it
• I talked to my naturopath because she helped me a lot
• She told me to not let them take my clitoris, or do radiation on me
• She referred me to a local clinic here in Phoenix
• And so, I started at the clinic and I treated with high-dose intravenous vitamin C therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy and a very strict therapeutic Ketogenic diet
• I had a lot of supplementation along with lifestyle changes
• In 3 months, the rest of the cancer was gone
  
  
• In terms of eating, I did 2 things
• I followed a therapeutic Ketogenic diet
• Keto particularly for cancer is really high fat
• I stuck to 80 to 90 percent fat on a daily basis
• I also made a keto dairy-free ice cream and it’s fantastic
• I also did intermittent fasting
• I would only eat 1 or 2 meals a day and I would usually go anywhere from 16, 18 or 20 hours fasted
• Every single meal, I really wanted a protein, vegetable and fat
• Vegetables were my vehicle for the fat
• I never really paid attention to how much protein I was getting as long as my plate equaled out to be 80% fat
  
• I changed all kinds of things in my life
• For me, stress was a really big contributing factor
• If you will just think through the root causes of my disease, it was food allergies that lead to leaky gut, that lead to inflammation, that lead to auto-immune disease, that lead to hormone disruption, and I had chronic stress on top of that, that lead to cancer
• It was kind of a chain reaction for many years
• One of the biggest things that helped me was quitting my job
• Unfortunately, one of the workplaces I was at was very toxic, so changing that was a really big relief
• I started journaling on a daily basis, daily detox rituals, oil pulling, detox bath
• I tried meditation and visualization, but I did not do good at that
• I get outside and get a lot of sunshine and did Earthing
• I really focused on good sleep with my husband
• I quit drinking alcohol and I quit smoking
• I changed all my beauty and personal care products, so I have non-toxic versions of that now
• I switched out all my cookware to stainless steel, because I used to use the Teflon stuff
• I did not change to cast iron, because cancer feeds off a ferritin, which is iron
• Switched all our Tupperware to glass and stopped drinking out of plastic cups
• I added exercise. So, I go to Zumba every single day
• I weight train 2 or 3 times a week
• More quality time with my husband and more social time with my friends
• For the detox bath, I usually put a sprinkle of Aztec clay, a couple cups of Epsom salt, and whatever soap I want because I love bubbles in my bath
• I do it every Sunday night
• I started to take some additional supplements to move my lymph instead of doing the dry brushing or oil pulling
• I was on quite a few supplements while I was treating the cancer, and I have discontinued some of those
• I still take things like digestive enzyme and probiotics
• I still take vitamin A, D and iodine. I was scientifically deficient with those 3 and they are the most cancer protective in your body
• I am taking a lot of vitamin D because I am still working with my gut trying to get my absorption issues up to date
• We have a history in America of Low-fat
• Low-fat, means you have low cholesterol, low cholesterol means you don’t have the precursor to make vitamin D when the sun hits your skin, which means that the country is chronically deficient in vitamin D, which means we get a lot higher incidence of cancer
• If you are dealing with a chronic illness or auto-immune disease, the best place to look is in your food
• When I did my very first allergy panel, I was allergic to 30 or 40 different things
• That means, I have a leaky gut because I have been eating those for years because had no idea that I am sensitive or allergic to them
• Every single person is different

FAVORITE KETO MEAL

• Brussels sprouts roasted in the oven with a lot of bacon grease and salt are my favorite
• I use a ton of different fats, because I don’t do dairy
• I do a lot of bacon grease, beef tallow, pure lard, avocado oil, coconut oil, olive oil, cacao butter, duck fat or even chicken fat
• I am grateful for Keto because I was able to preserve the integrity of my body
• Not only had I healed from all these things, but I get compliments all the time that I looked 15 years younger
• Not only did I heal, but I got healthier

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU

• Now, I am transitioning from focusing on healing myself to educating others and helping them take control of their own healing
• I want to see more people acting like they own their medical treatment
• I am hoping to get my certified nutrition therapy practitioner cert from the Nutrition Therapy Institute and I will go to their master program and after that, I want to be board certified with the NANP and hopefully, I can get through Dr. Winters certification program

WHERE CAN PEOPLE FIND YOU

• Website: heathercooan.com
• All over social media: Heather Cooan

To get Heather’s delicious Keto ice cream and other recipes, click HERE

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