Christian Healthy Lifestyle 

David Sandstrom 0:00
Here's a sample of what you'll hear on this episode of holistic health matters.

Ginny Brant 0:05
One of the doctors that saw me after my fourth chemo, he was my second opinion. He looked at me and he said, I have never seen anyone go through the chemo regimen that you're on. And after four rounds of the harshest chemo known to mankind, you are smiling. You're talking to me and you act like nothing has happened. He said, I've just never seen this and he asked me what I was doing. And so I told him what I was doing. And he started writing down things and I thought he's just being complimentary. He ends up leaving his job as an oncologist and convinces the cancer hospital to let him start a cancer prevention and wellness program and it's now up and going, and some of the same things that I was doing. He is promoting through his nurse practitioners, they're promoting that to their cancer patients.

David Sandstrom 0:56
This episode is brought to you by sauna space. If you're serious about your health and well being, then you should consider detoxifying your body effortlessly And naturally, with a sauna space home sauna. To learn more, go to my website, David sandstrom.com. forward slash resources, and click on the sauna space logo and start enjoying all the health benefits of a sauna space. Zero EMF near infrared home sauna today. Welcome to the holistic health matters podcast where it's all about maximizing your health potential by aligning your life more fully with God's design for spirit, mind and body. I'm your host, David Sandstrom, naturopathic doctor and biblical health coach, and this is episode number 29.

Today's guest is Ginny Dent Brant. Jenny is a follower of Jesus Christ. her faith guides her life. She's a cancer survivor. And she's written a book called unleash your God giving healing. eight steps to prevent and survive cancer. Jeannie has appeared on many television and radio shows and been featured in many newspapers and magazines. She's been interviewed on programs such as the Hour of Power, Christian Broadcasting Network, the 700 Club, American family, radio, and a whole lot more. Jenny, welcome to Holistic Health Matters podcast.

Ginny Brant 2:20
Thanks for having me. It's good to be here.

David Sandstrom 2:23
It's my pleasure. You've got quite a story. You are a cancer survivor. And I don't even know if you like that term. But you had cancer. And now you're cancer free. So tell us a little bit about that journey.

Ginny Brant 2:35
Well, it was not the journey I expected because there was a lot of cancer in my family, and I was already trying to prevent it. And I was diagnosed four months after my mother died from breast cancer, but both of my parents had colon cancer. And that was the cancer. I was high risk for. And I was trying to prevent and I had no idea that I could even get breast cancer. But I did learn from the journey that even though I had none of the risk factors, there's eight risk factors for the breast cancer I got. And they did genetic testing. And I had none of the genetics for it either. I did learn that we're all susceptible to this cancer because of the culture that we live in. And I was getting my mammograms I was doing the things that people tell you to do. But it's just not enough because three mammograms missed my cancer.

David Sandstrom 3:31
Wow. That's an amazing fact. Wow.

Ginny Brant 3:35
Yeah. And that's because I have dense breasts and women need to be asking their radiologist, if they have dense breasts and if they do, they may get that mammogram but they have to realize that they have to do self checks and keep up with their doctor appointments every year and look at some other avenues because mammograms just aren't really good. On dense breast. Now the 3d mammogram is better but that was invented after I was

David Sandstrom 4:02
diagnosed. How did you get the diagnosis?

Ginny Brant 4:06
I actually found the lump. I had just done the Cooper River Bridge run. It's a 10 k run that I walked. I just done it. And that night in the middle of the night. My ring got caught in my nightie and I was trying to free it. And that's when I felt the lump. So it wasn't that I was being a good girl and doing the self exams every month that I advocate now. It was as my sister says the providence of God that I found it when I did because I had no symptoms and the mammogram was not going to pick it up. Did you

David Sandstrom 4:43
Ever hear of in lieu of a mammography doing a thermography doing a temperature scan?

Ginny Brant 4:49
Yes, I do that now and I was doing it then Believe it or not, but it was like two hours to get to the nearest place and so for three or four Yours I did not get a thermogram.

David Sandstrom 5:03
But you do now

Ginny Brant 5:04
Yeah, I do now and back then my doctor's plan was for me to get a thermogram one year and a mammogram, the next. Okay. Sounds reasonable. And now I do get, within a year I get the mammogram, the 3d mammogram as ordered by my cancer hospital. And in between I do the thermogram. And pay out of pocket for that to get that done myself.

David Sandstrom 5:29
Yeah, a lot of times insurance won't pay for the more effective stuff. It's amazing. That's the way it is, though.

Ginny Brant 5:35
And I love it because it has no radiation at all.

David Sandstrom 5:38
Yeah, that's what my wife does. She does the thermography.

Ginny Brant 5:42
Yeah, it's great.

David Sandstrom 5:43
Yeah. So I want to ask you this. I know that most people, either they themselves have had an experience with cancer, or they know somebody that has, and I know that it can be pretty scary. So when you first got that diagnosis, you got the bad news from your doctor. How did you feel?

Ginny Brant 6:00
I was an absolute shock, just absolute dis belief. And I was riding the roller coaster of fear. That's exactly and that's what most people do. The cancer journey is a journey of fear as you wait in between tests in the first week, it was it's cancer. That was shocked. Number one, the next week, they told me, it's not just any cancer, it's aggressive. And then after the MRI, the doctor said, it appears that it's in your lymph nodes and has spread to other parts of your body. So I was like, Whoa, this is more bad news. And anyone can take,

David Sandstrom 6:39
Wow, those are scary words. And I'm sure it would have been really easy to let fear overwhelm you. But it sounds like you knew that that wasn't going to do any good, because fear will compromise your immune system. So it sounds to me like you actually dealt with t hat very effectively.

Ginny Brant 6:56
Yes, I was wondering what was going on. But I had to realize I had to get on top of that, because it doesn't promote healing. In the body, I had to look at what promoted healing and what didn't. And when I realized what promoted healing I had to, I had to stop living from fear to fear, because that's the way I started out. And I will admit that my husband was afraid to do it is a scary journey. You know, if someone tells you, Oh, you've got a melanoma, and the doctor can cut it off. Oh, it didn't go too deep. You're okay. That's not too scary. Yeah. But when they have to pull out every weapon of mass destruction and put your life at risk in order to save it, then you know, it is scary. Yeah, a lot of the things they do to your body are scary, but I just want people to know, I mean, I'm mentoring about 20 cancer patients right now. And, you know, it makes a difference. But I do recommend David that everyone in a serious condition like this, get a second opinion. I flew to Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Chicago. And when two surgeons and to radiologists looked at my MRI, they came back and told me they said Ma'am, we don't think it's necessarily all over your body, we don't know for sure. But this we think is inflammation that spread all over your body from a biopsy that happened to go bad. So that was the first bit of good news that I got. And they were right. Once they did the surgery, it was inflammation and that inflammation itself and what happened, could have really taken me out. So I was fortunate that it didn't, but it was such good news to know that

David Sandstrom 8:36
it wasn't all over my body. So that first diagnosis, if you would have stuck with that one opinion, would have taken you on a very different path much, far more aggressive path, medically speaking, correct.

Ginny Brant 8:49
It would have in some ways, but I felt like I was being treated like a stage four cancer patient anyway. And I actually was because I had an aggressive cancer. The difference between me and a stage four patient is the stage four patient will continue to get chemotherapy, or some kind of pill that acts as a chemo agent for the rest of their life. So that is a big difference. The Friends of mine that had stage four, they have to keep getting the infusions. And I don't think my body would have handled that for more than a year. And to keep doing that would have been very difficult. Yeah.

David Sandstrom 9:29
Wow, I've never heard of that. I thought that you got to a point where the chemotherapy did what it could and you stopped. But you're saying there's some cases they continue.

Ginny Brant 9:40
They continue. They'll use different chemo agents. You're right. They can't use the same chemotherapy, but they can use a combination of pills and chemotherapy or just pills, but they have to continue to give you something because it's not curable. And so they take you as long as they can until the chemical starts. To take you out basically, yeah. So you either die from the cancer or from the chemicals drop since Yeah, yes, side effects of the drugs orchemo agents.

David Sandstrom 10:10
So going back to that shock that week of shock, what did you experience spiritually speaking,

Ginny Brant 10:17
I have to admit that I just didn't understand why this was happening to me. Because anyone that knew me, I worked in the school system as a guidance counselor, but I helped change the school lunch program. I taught wellness to my students, I was known as the health nut of the district. And it just made absolutely no sense. But I realized that as a Christian, one of the things you have to realize is that you are an ambassador for Christ. Whether you're living, whether you're in a cancer struggle, even if you're told you're going to die, you are to be a testimony to Jesus Christ, even as you're dying. So my husband and I were adamant about, we're going to live our faith out no matter what happens. So that was kind of the journey I was on, I really thought there for a while, I was probably going to die. And I was going to die proclaiming Jesus and praising his name because I was going on to a better place. So we carefully looked at the eternal perspective. And that was secure. And we kept saying, The worst thing that could happen is I get my ticket to heaven, like my mother did, but earlier than I anticipated, and that's the way that we viewed it. And I do think that cancer patients who are Christians need to look at it that way. That if you can't beat the cancer, okay, that's your ticket to heaven?

David Sandstrom 11:43
Well, as followers of Jesus Christ, we all know, we're going to a better place, right? But it's my contention that nobody should want to leave this earth before their time.

Ginny Brant 11:53
I agree. And that's why you should fight with everything you've got.

David Sandstrom 11:57
Yes, absolutely. And one of the things I have to say, quite frequently is embracing a holistic lifestyle is yes, it will add years to your life. But that's not the main point. The main point is adding life to your years. One of the verses that spoke to me that has spoken to me very much over the years is john 1010, a company might have life and have it abundantly, and a lot of people seem to be satisfied with while I'm on my way to heaven, that's that's the first half of the abundant life. But God says that, he knows that we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And there's a lot of life to live before I leave. And I believe God has a purpose for me being here on this earth, and I want to fulfill that purpose.

Ginny Brant 12:39
And I agree with you, because I do believe in that purpose that God has given us. But what was hard for me to analyze was, what this was going to do to my body, when they told me every weapon of mass destruction would be brought out to save my life. I did want to live in a disabled state with chronic pain. And that was a concern of mine. So that's why Cancer Treatment Centers of America said, we're going to put a naturopathic doctor on your case, we're going to put a nutritionist on your case, I was like I am all in because I want to do everything I can to get through this journey, and not just kill the cancer, but return to vibrant health. Because I want to live like you said, a full, abundant life, I don't want to be living in chronic pain. And I didn't want my brain and my heart and my lungs to take a big hit on this. And that's exactly what the chemotherapy side effects said, damage to your brain, your heart, your lungs. I mean, it was like two or three pages of side effects. And then the last one was including death. And I was like, you know, I think I'll take the death over the damage to the brain and lungs. But I'm just so grateful to God that by implementing the things that I did, and a lot of it's kind of laid out in the Bible, eating sensibly hydrating, using your faith to manage your emotions by doing these eight things that are in my book, unleash your God given healing, I was able to return to vibrant health, I don't have major damage to my lungs, or my heart, or my brain. I'm not saying I didn't have brain fog from the chemo and from the medication, that I had to be on five years to get the estrogen levels down because estrogen hormone blockers pills, but I'm just so glad that I don't have permanent damage in any one of these areas. Yeah, I'm very grateful for that.

David Sandstrom 14:45
We have a good friend who had breast cancer A number of years ago quite a long time ago. I would say it probably 15 years ago. And she doesn't like to call herself a cancer survivors. He says I'm not if someone says Oh, you're a cancer survivor. She says No, I'm not. I'm a cancer thriver And I think that's a great attitude.

Ginny Brant 15:02
That is a good way to put it.

David Sandstrom 15:04
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ginny Brant 15:06
It's like me, I always say, you know, they tell me, you're not promised tomorrow because of the kind of cancer you have. And I just don't dwell on that I just live one day at a time, and I live it to the fullest. And when it's my time to go, it'll be my time to go. And I just, I can't worry about that I do. I'm concerned enough to eat properly, to exercise to manage my immune system, by doing the right things and to not let chronic stress drive my life. Because that's not going to help in any way, shape or form.

David Sandstrom 15:40
Absolutely, I couldn't agree more, I want to get into the eight steps out of your book. But before we cover that, I want to know, you were at the cancer treatment center of America, and they referred you to a naturopath and nutritionist. So it sounds like they're pretty open to the holistic methods of beating cancer. But there are doctors out there that discourage any holistic approach because they say, Well, if you start eating healthier foods, and you're you're doing those other things, you're gonna decrease the effectiveness of our treatment, the medications won't work as well. So we don't want you to do any of that stuff. until after the chemotherapy is done. In fact, in order to keep your weight on, we want you to go home and eat chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookies. So I take it that was not your experience, or did you receive some pushback from the docs,

Ginny Brant 16:27
I received no pushback at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America. And they give you these people and they provide them at their expense, because they believe they are valuable to your cancer journey. And I know that some doctors are very concerned that maybe you'll get too many antioxidants if you eat a healthy diet. But that's probably the reason you got cancer to begin with. So I think a lot of times doctors today just don't know enough about nutrition. Yeah. And that's why they just say no, because they don't know. But I will tell you this one of the doctors that saw me after my fourth chemo, he was my second opinion. He looked at me and he said, I have never seen anyone go through the chemo regimen that you're on. And after four rounds of the harshest chemo known to mankind, you're smiling. You're talking to me and you act like nothing has happened. He said, I've just never seen this. And he asked me what I was doing. And so I told him what I was doing. And he started writing down things. And I thought he's just being complimentary. He ends up leaving his job as an oncologist and convinces the cancer hospital to let him start a cancer prevention and wellness program. And it's now up and going. And some of the same things that I was doing. He is promoting through his nurse practitioners, they're promoting that to their cancer patients.

David Sandstrom 17:56
That is awesome. Well, you know, they say God will never waste your pain, right? And look at that, what a what an inspiring story. That is.

Ginny Brant 18:03
It is it's and but he was open. And I see more and more doctors, I tell a lot of cancer patients and a lot of different cities. And a lot of them will tell them look, as long as you let us know what you're doing. We don't mind if you do some of these holistic things. And then some people are just totally against it. But the doctor who wrote the book with me, Dr. Robert Elliott, he clearly says we need everything. In the battle against cancer, we need holistic medicine, we need conventional medicine, we need to pull it all out and let it work together. Because I found putting the two together can be very valuable.

David Sandstrom 18:39
Well, that's what I'm all about. This is Holistic Health Matters. And I believe that we maximize our health potential. When we align our lives more fully with God's design for spirit, mind and body. We're more than just a collection of atoms and molecules. We have a mental emotional component, we have a spiritual component. And those all need to be addressed not only for treatment, but for prevention as well.

Ginny Brant 19:04
Amen, because my book is all about prevention. I mean, if I look back, if I knew what I knew now, I don't think I would have gotten cancer.

David Sandstrom 19:12
Yeah. So let's get into your book. Your book is called Unleash Your God Given Healing, Right Steps to Prevent and Survive Cancer. So can you talk about the eight steps for us?

Ginny Brant 19:23
Sure. The first step is one of the first steps I learned and that is proper hydration because as you will know, every cell and every system in our body functions properly. When we give it enough hydration and most Americans because of the things that we drink, are dehydrated. We don't get enough of that h2o, which is an elixir that helps every chemical reaction in our body. So the first thing I've learned to do is when something goes wrong in my body is reassess. Am I hydrating, properly.

David Sandstrom 20:00
You just made me take a sip of my glass of water.

Ginny Brant 20:05
Y es.

David Sandstrom 20:07
Reverse Osmosis filtered by the way,

Ginny Brant 20:09
Mine is to.

David Sandstrom 20:10
Okay, great. All right. So step one is water hydrate.

Ginny Brant 20:14
Yes. And step two is deep sleep, it's so important to get deep sleep. Because while we're doing this interview, our body is performing miracles. But when we go to sleep at night, those miracles only intensify. And that deep sleep is where our body heals, repairs, and detoxes, as well as melatonin goes off, and that is an anti cancer hormone. And it's also a hormone that builds your immune system. So sleep is a cure to a lot of things that are wrong with us can sometimes be as close as our pillow.

David Sandstrom 20:54
Yeah, absolutely. I had an episode who I believe was episode number four with Dr. Mike Halen, and he's a chiropractic physician. And he said, we should think of sleep as a nutrient. it's that important?

Ginny Brant 21:07
Yes, it is that important. I already knew that. I had to reassess my situation on sleep. And for 15 years before I was diagnosed with cancer, I was caring for all four parents and in laws as they died, my dad with Alzheimer's, my father in law with heart disease, my mother in law with cancer, and then my mother with cancer, and on top of a full time job, because of what we were doing and running like rats on a wheel that did not help with the stress in my life. Nor did it help with getting deep sleep. Sometimes my sleep many times was interrupted, because I had to follow my father around the house all night, because he was awake all night. So I had to look back and say, This is not good. You've got to get deep sleep every night.

David Sandstrom 21:55
Yeah, hats off to you for having the selflessness and the loving, caring attitude towards relatives. But there comes a point where we need to pull back and do a little self care. Because when we are depleted ourselves, we have a hard time giving, it's my contention that we should be able to love other people and exude the fruit of the Spirit, kind of like a reservoir where this reservoir is being fed by an underground stream. And it eventually fills up and after it's full, it can spill over the sides and give away its water without being depleted itself. Its water supply is being replenished by the stream underneath. And that way it never runs dry. But when you're running around with kind of challenges that you are experiencing, I'm gathering that was probably a pretty good length of time. You get drained, and you're no longer able to give out of your abundance. We can't give what we don't have. So your body suffered as a result.

Ginny Brant 22:55
Well, one of the things I realized was that not only did I lack sleep at times because of being a caregiver, but my emotions, the emotion of grief, watching them suffer and go downhill. It's like I just couldn't get away from it. And short term grief is one thing your body can handle that but long term grief can literally shut down your immune system.

David Sandstrom 23:19
Absolutely. That's absolutely true. Yeah. So what's the next step in that process?

Ginny Brant 23:23
Exercise was something I'd always done. I'd always been a walker. But from the first moments, I was diagnosed with cancer, I used exercise to relieve the stress. And after my first surgery, I had over 100 stitches. And the doctor said, well, the nurse said basically, I can take this catheter out, start removing all these tubes attached to your body. If you can walk four rounds to the hospital floor tomorrow morning, while I was ready to go, I walked two miles on the hospital floor that morning, dragging my poles and all this medical apparatus behind me I was pole dancing. But what was amazing was when I finished and went back to my room, and my surgeon and respiratory therapist came by they were applauding me and they said do not believe what you have just done for your body. They said, first of all, we're removing not only the catheter, the nurse had already removed that we're removing all these breast tubes you were supposed to go home with for a few weeks and have your husband babysit, they said your body's taking care of all of it. It's less than your chances of blood clots, you pump the anesthesia out of your system. It's just promoted so much healing in your body. So after surgery unless your doctor tells you not to. Now, if you had surgery on your knee or your leg where it was a weight bearing place, they would tell you for the first five or six days to stay off of it as much as possible. So that would be a different direction from your doctor that you would need to listen to should In my case, it wasn't and it was the best thing I could have done. Then when it got to the chemotherapy, I didn't know about some of the research I'm going to share with you at that time. But because of stress, I walked two miles before chemotherapy had an eight hour chemotherapy day. And then I walked two miles afterwards, and two to three miles every day in between.

David Sandstrom 25:22
Wow.

Ginny Brant 25:23
And when I did so well, and the doctors were amazed that my red blood cells were staying up and that I wasn't having as many side effects. And of course, the water helped to increase hydration during chemotherapy lessens the side effects. But the doctors were so amazed that after the harsh chemo was over, my red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets were all back within normal ranges six weeks after chemotherapy, and that usually takes several

Unknown Speaker 25:52
years. Yeah.

Ginny Brant 25:53
And we look back now my doctor said, Did you see the new research in Australia? And I said, No. So I went and looked at it. And 30 entities came together. This was like two years after I finished chemo to say that the best thing a cancer patient can do is to exercise at every point of treatment. And for chemotherapy, it's helping to pump the lymphatic system, so that you can take out the chemicals in the day cancer cells and all the trash from your body. And I was constantly doing that. And it had a major impact on my body. So exercise has like 15 benefits for the cancer patient that I outlined in my book, but think about what it does for preventing cancer to begin with, right? And then the pill when you take the hormone blocking pill for five years that most women with an estrogen fed cancer have to take your bone density takes a hit. So I'm having to do yoga poses and PT exercises and weight bearing exercise to hold the line on my bone density. So I don't totally lose it and go into osteoporosis. Yeah, doctors for many years. Oh, go home lay down all week. If you don't feel good, just stay in bed. No.

I'm saying no, no.

David Sandstrom 27:12
That's exact wrong advice.

Ginny Brant 27:13
Unless there's a reason your doctors telling you like your leg is swollen and you've got a blood clot out. I mean, if you know depends on what the circumstance is. But if you can move, and your doctor says it's okay, you need to move, because that lymphatic system is doing you a favor. And it only works when you move. It's the one system that's not autonomous. So people need to know that and that Australia research study is changing the cancer world as I speak, because more and more doctors are starting to tell their cancer patients move if you can.

David Sandstrom 27:45
Yeah. Wow. So your primary form of exercise was walking.

Ginny Brant 27:50
It was but I had to do all the weight bearing and all the stretching and all the deep breathing. And I had to do all the bone density exercises to okay. I mean, I had never done yoga and deep breathing until the cancer journey, but it's so good for your body to be oxygenated. Yes, so I didn't do all the Hindu type stuff with it. I just did the exercises to Christian music and deep breathing and concentrating on a Bible verse rather than something else.

David Sandstrom 28:20
Nice. Excellent. Love it. I love to hear these stories. You know, I think you brought up a very good point. And that is that you took time to meditate on scripture and praise and worship music. You know, there's a lot of people in the health and wellness world today that will practice meditation. But what they do is they practice Eastern type Buddhist type Transcendental Meditation. And that type of meditation focuses on nothing, or perhaps your breathing, which is close to nothing, in my opinion, where in the Bible were instructed, as followers of Jesus Christ to meditate on scripture. Whenever we're told to clear our minds of any coherent thought, we are told to meditate on scripture. And it sounds like that's what you did between your worship music and the meditation on scripture.

Ginny Brant 29:11
Yes.

David Sandstrom 29:12
So what would be the next step?

Ginny Brant 29:14
Well, the next step was clearly using food as medicine. I had never done that before I ate for pleasure. My life experiences and my dad's Alzheimer's journey taught me that I needed to eat more fruits and vegetables. I was doing that. But I was still not planning my life eating food as medicine. And that's just such a drastically different approach to eating instead of just eating what I felt like eating when I wanted to eat it and making sure I got some fruits and vegetables. I am now looking at the whole array of what God's given us in nature. What helps to fight cancer, what builds the immune system, and I'm now eating superfoods and nuts and seeds and more of like a Mediterranean type diet, I also went organic as much as possible following the clean 15. And the Dirty Dozen, if something's in the Dirty Dozen list and has a lot of pesticide residue, then I eat it organic, because high levels of chemicals were found in my body.

David Sandstrom 30:20
For those that are familiar, what Jenny is referring to is the Environmental Working Group, once a year, they take a look at all the produce available, and they measure it for levels of pesticides. And they publish what they call the Dirty Dozen. And the clean 15. It's quite useful, it's a good resource, their website is called ewg.org. And I'll post a link to that in the show notes. Well, it sounds like you are embracing that what I consider to be the number one rule for healthy eating. And that is eat food as close to its God given natural form as possible. And that would mean organic. But it also means primarily minimally processed. In fact, single ingredient foods are best, right? If it comes in a box or a package, it's suspect, read those ingredients. If it's got more than four or five ingredients, you probably well served staying away from that, that product.

Ginny Brant 31:09
And when you learn to eat that way, and you eat for the nutrition and health of your body, rather than just by taste, no, don't get me wrong, I enjoy what I eat. But I've had to change a lot of things over from the more junk food processed diet. And that makes a big difference. I never did that before I got cancer.

David Sandstrom 31:31
So the next step is stress or stress reduction.

Ginny Brant 31:37
Well, it's just you know, I learned from taking care of my parents and my in laws and being that rat running on that wheel, that that was too much stress in my life. And I learned some key ways I was going to take care of my parents, there's no doubt about that. It's not that I would say no, I'm not going to do that. But for the amount of stress I was under, I was not doing enough to balance my sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. And I've now learned to get a heart coherence app on my phone. And when I'm under stress, which was the whole cancer journey, I would use that twice a day deep breathing while putting my finger on the camera of my phone, and it was taking my heart rate. And it was developing this heart rate variability, which helps to balance the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system.

David Sandstrom 32:28
Well, what's the name of that app?

Ginny Brant 32:29
It's called heart rate coherence. It's like $3.99.

David Sandstrom 32:34
Wow, check that out.

Ginny Brant 32:36
Yeah, it's a great thing to use. And the funny thing is a wellness coach at the school I was at, I wrote a grant that got some things at our school, he had told me all the teachers about it. And I said, Oh, that's nice. And I didn't do anything about it. And then I was in the cancer journey. The Cancer Hospital mentioned it to me as well. And I was like, Okay, this is the second person I think I need to listen to. So I was always going to take care of my parents and my husband's parents. But I needed to do it differently, making sure that I'm not putting too much stress on my body at one time, because stress. A lot of doctors that I've interviewed and that I've heard speak about cancer and disease clearly say it's probably the number one thing that's causing a lot of our diseases. And I have to look back and say, yeah, I think they're right. But I didn't see that first at all. Because I walked every day I thought I was fine.

David Sandstrom 33:34
Yeah. When I was writing my book, I came to this realization that almost everything we do, to embrace a healthy lifestyle involves some form of stress reduction. Now there is there is good stress. Fasting is a good stress. Exercise is a good stress. But our bodies as you were talking about the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system working in tandem. We're designed to push into stress experienced that and then back out. It's chronic stress is the problem. That's that's the enemy.

Ginny Brant 34:04
Definitely.

David Sandstrom 34:05
Yeah. All right. So number six would be thankfulness. I'm looking forward to hearing you say a few words about thankfulness.

Ginny Brant 34:13
Well, it's just amazing to me, when I looked at Paul, when he's in prison in Philippians, four, six through eight, he clearly says when you're in the middle of the trials of your life, and he's definitely in the middle of one in prison. He said, Pray about everything, give thanks in everything, and look for the good things. I'm just paraphrasing what he said. And what's so interesting is my research clearly showed when you pray and you meditate when you meditate on God's word, the promises in His Word. When you have a heart of Thanksgiving, you can look for all the things you have to be thankful for even in the middle of a life and death cancer journey. And when you concentrate on the good things that kind of Pollyanna type attitude, but look at what good happened today. You dwell on that rather than all the negatives, all those things promote healing in your body. And so I did this complete study of all the positive emotions and negative emotions, and I just got a whole new perspective on the things that we can do. Even when we're in the middle of a crisis, even if it's COVID. The things we can do laughing, singing, there's just so many things we can do that promote healing,

David Sandstrom 35:28
I think there's a lot to be said about the mental toughness component. And it will probably serve people well to study a little bit about mental discipline and mental toughness. So that when when something like this comes along those tools, I have those tools in your tool bag already would go a long way to helping you recover and be one of the survivors.

Ginny Brant 35:47
Right. And I have to admit, David, that I was determined my husband, I have this job, he said, I can't die because I do the taxes and all the finances, and I said he can't die because he does the yard work and fixes the house. And so I said, if he leaves me behind, first, I'll kill him. And he said the same. So I was like, I can't die. I can't do this. So a lot of my motivation was, I've got to, I've got to stay alive for his sake. I've just, I've got to do this. And so I just had this will. And I never thought I would be this disciplined about all these things that I do. But, you know,

David Sandstrom 36:26
I think that's great that you mentioned that because Michael Hyatt said, you'll lose your way, when you lose your why. And having a reason why you want to beat this thing is a pretty huge motivator.

It really is.

Ginny Brant 36:40
It is and I can tell you cancer patients, I work with that, say from the very beginning, I'm going to do everything I can to beat this. And I said, Well, you know what I can predict right now you're going to do very well. But when I have the cancer patients that just want to go to the doctor, and their friend wants them to listen to me, but all they want to do is go to the doctor and say doctor beat my cancer. They're not going to do too well.

Unknown Speaker 37:02
Yea.

Ginny Brant 37:03
You know, you have to be an active participant in your own health and well being.

David Sandstrom 37:07
The doctor is your advisor. You know, we have financial advisors that we take advice from we have attorneys that we get legal advice from, but a lot of people especially the older generation, has this idea of nano and doctors don't advise they give orders. It's doctor's orders, and they hand off their their responsibility for their health care to their physician. And it shouldn't be that way. We're the ones responsible. We should assemble a team as you did. We should listen to the doctor's advice, soak it all in and implement everything we can, that our heart and soul tells us it's going to be beneficial.

Ginny Brant 37:44
Amen. And it's so important that I see this clearly. Now for the cancer patient. It's usually a roller coaster ride. Instead, if we can make it a journey of faith and use all of the tools that God has given us to manage our emotions. We're going to fare better because we're giving our doctor the best terrain in which to work.

David Sandstrom 38:06
Absolutely. And you're giving your body the tools it needs to recover.

Ginny Brant 38:11
Right and to heal. Yeah, yes. Because chemo is no easy thing and all the surgeries are no easy thing and the whole cancer journey is difficult. But here, you can actually thrive in the middle of it.

David Sandstrom 38:27
Amen. That's that's really inspiring. Alright, so number seven is detoxification. What did you do there?

Ginny Brant 38:35
Oh, goodness. Well, I was looking for the reason for my cancer because I felt like if I couldn't find the reason How could I prevent it from coming back? So I went to an integrative medical doctor and had my body tested for heavy metals, toxic chemicals. And when the results came back, it was like whoa, Nelly, no wonder I got cancer. I even showed it to the cancer center and they said, Boy, this is heavy. I mean, I had high levels of glyphosate, high levels of Agent Orange pesticide, high levels of phalates you name it heavy metals. I had it and then I had all the chemicals from the chemo residue in my body as well. So even after the cancer journey, chemicals probably contributed to why I got cancer because a lot of the chemicals found in my body were hormone disrupting chemicals. So that was something I had to deal with and my doctor recommended that I get a sauna. And so I started detoxing by using a sauna.

David Sandstrom 39:42
What kind of sauna did you buy?

Ginny Brant 39:44
I bought an infrared clear I think, it's called clear light sauna.

David Sandstrom 39:50
Okay,

Ginny Brant 39:51
And I use it two to three times a week especially after chemo. Now I'm down to one to two times my husband uses it just as prevention because my book clearly shows how many chemicals were exposed to in the day in which we live. And once you realize that, you've got to keep your chemical load down, it'll never be perfect, right, because we live in an imperfect world. But God's given us five filtering systems to help us with the chemicals and things we become exposed to. My problem was my chemical load was too high, and therefore it was distracting my immune system. So now my chemical load is greatly lessened. And that's another lesson you got to learn is how not to get all these chemicals into your body, and how to get your filtering systems working as God intended, so that you're not building up this toxic full bucket of chemicals, this big load in your body?

David Sandstrom 40:49
Absolutely. I want to say this to the HHM community, Jeanie just mentioned that we have five detox systems. One of those systems is our skin. And our skin is the largest organ and is a very effective organ for detoxification. So sweating is very useful. But it's also an organ that is very permeable, and allows toxins to come in. So that's why we have to be careful about what kind of body care products we put on our body, what kind of makeup we're putting on, or for instance, sunscreen, because we can absorb toxins right through our skin, the skin is very permeable, we wouldn't be able to put a nicotine patch on someone's skin and have it be effective if the nicotine wasn't absorbed straight through the skin into the bloodstream. And the same is true with toxins.

Ginny Brant 41:32
That's exactly right. And a lot of them were coming in through my drinking water my foods and through my skin.

David Sandstrom 41:39
Yep, totally right.

Ginny Brant 41:40
So I've changed everything at home. I mean, it's it that really wasn't that hard to do. I change what I clean with I change what I put on my skin. I make a lot of my own things now. But it took me a while to figure it all out. But now I'm not overpowering my body with so many chemicals.

David Sandstrom 41:59
Yes, you gotta lighten your load.

Ginny Brant 42:01
That's exactly right.

David Sandstrom 42:02
Your total body load. That's really important. I've got I've got a lot more to share on that. But we're running out of time. So we're going to have to get to the eighth step and that is healing the gut. Oh, yes. What did you do to heal your gut?

Ginny Brant 42:14
Well, during chemotherapy, I was eating probiotic foods, and my naturopathic doctor gave me l glutamine powder to take. And I also got was the first patient at Cancer Treatment Centers of America to get vitamin C infusions 24 hours before chemotherapy.

David Sandstrom 42:33
Excellent.

Ginny Brant 42:34
And both of those things helped to protect my gut along with the probiotic foods. And then when chemotherapy was over, I went on this all out rebuilding the gut, because we know antibiotics destroy the gut. But chemo is far worse. And so most cancer patients don't do well because their gut gets compromised. And they get all these side effects for the fact that this chemotherapy if their guts not already compromised, it's either more compromised, or it is now compromised, for sure. And so your immune system goes down because your gut cells 70% are in your gut. Once I learned that, I rebuilt my gut and I now every day and I'll do this for the rest of my life. I eat three probiotic foods A DAY PLUS I take a probiotic supplement. And when you have a strong gut, even if a COVID germ lands in your gut, that lining can many times take care of it.

David Sandstrom 43:31
Absolutely. Yeah, there's there's something in there called the mucosal barrier. And when our gut bacteria are out of balance, that mucosal barrier is weakened. You know, we've all seen a dog drink dirty water out of a muddy puddle and not get sick. Why can they do that, because they have a super strong mucosal barrier. So we need to do what we can to strengthen our own to protect us from the pathogens that are inevitably going to come our way, we need to protect our body from the outside world. Even though the gut is inside the body. It kind of acts just like the skin does, and it protects us from the outside world. And what Jenny's talking about is having the right microbial balance inside the gut that makes your gut a hostile environment for undesirable microscopic organisms like COVID.

Ginny Brant 44:20
Right? There's so many, actually the eight steps in my book, if you practice that on an everyday basis, and trust me after what I've been through, I do now you're less likely to get COVID because all of them build your immune system and that's your first defense against any disease.

David Sandstrom 44:38
Absolutely. And that's the reason why I started the podcast is I was looking at the government recommendations, wear a mask, stay home, stay safe, socially distance, don't go to school. Don't even go to your doctor unless you absolutely have to. Everything was based on avoidance and that mentality just flies in the face of anatomy and physiology, God made our bodies very, very capable of defending themselves against potential pathogens. And we all read, especially this day and age should be focusing on what we can do to strengthen our systems strengthen our internal terrain. So that if we do come in contact with COVID, and by the way, we're going to come in contact with 10s of 1000s of viruses, bacteria every day, we stand a much less chance of succumbing to the illness, if we have a strong internal terrain.

Ginny Brant 45:33
Amen. And in the last eight months, I have flown several times I have done radio and TV interviews, or that I've had to travel to Florida, Atlanta, I've been all over, but I have done it cautiously. And I've done it with a strong immune system. So when you put the two together, I mean, some distancing is good. I don't go into crowds, specifically today, knowing that the COVID is out there. So I do practice social distancing to a certain degree, and I wear a mask when I'm in, in public. But when you put the two together, because you can't socially distance from everything life has got to go on kids have got to go to school, people have got to go to work. And when you put the two together, then you're not as likely to get COVID. I mean, you can go way out on a clip and live, wait a mile from everybody and you're not going to get it, you might die of loneliness. So that is extreme social distancing. And that's not necessary, humans need each other. And we have to interact in order to get food and to have everything working. And so this thing of hibernating the whole time while you're stuffing your face with potato chips, potato chip sales have gone up lately, and all these things and not getting exercise being that couch potato. Those are all the wrong things to do. You need to get up and move eat foods that build the immune system, and sleep and take extra good care of your body.

David Sandstrom 47:05
Absolutely. So let me summarize the eight steps for the for the double HM community. Step one is hydrate properly. Step two, get good sleep. Think of sleep as a nutrient. It's super important. Exercise, pick the exercise that works for you and do it regularly. It moves lymph fluid, it builds your immune system. It's great for your flexibility. It's great for bone health, nutrition, eat food as close to what's God given natural form as possible, organic when you can, minimally processed, reduce your stress. It's not selfish to take care of yourself. Because we can only give out of our abundance, we've got to sometimes pull back and take care of ourselves so that we can give better to others. spirit of thankfulness, gratefulness, that goes a long way on your mental, emotional and your spiritual component that will impact your detoxification channels and ultimately affect your physical vitality, prudent avoidance from chemicals, and doing what we can to be proactive and remove chemicals from the body doing things like a far infrared sauna, exercise, and then lastly, healing the gut paying attention to the gut microbiome. Did I get that right?

Ginny Brant 48:22
You did. And it enabled me to go through the toughest chemo regimen known to mankind and come out vibrant. On the other end, I am most grateful.

David Sandstrom 48:32
God bless you god that is that is really awesome.

Ginny Brant 48:35
I do want to let your people know that I do have a cancer prevention blog on my website at www dot djinni brandt.com. And they can go to that website to look further at the book to download chapter three on exercise and sign up for the blog.

David Sandstrom 48:53
Okay, excellent. Is there any other way that people can get ahold of you?

Ginny Brant 48:58
Well, through that website, they can actually email me asking questions. So where everything is on that website at Jenny brandt.com that's Jenny g. i n ny Brandt B as in boy. r a n t.com.

David Sandstrom 49:14
Excellent. Well, thank you for sharing your story with us today. I really appreciate you being here.

Ginny Brant 49:19
Thank you for having me.

David Sandstrom 49:22
Well, I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Jenny Brandt. She is a wealth of information. I found her story to be very inspirational. I think she's spot on with her recommendations. Once again, her book is called unleash your God given healing. eight steps to prevent and survive cancer. I think that will be well worth your time and energy to pick up and read. I will of course put a link to her book in the show notes to this episode. This is episode number 29. And please don't forget this episode has been brought to you by saunas face. If you're serious about your health and well being then you should consider detoxifying your body effortlessly and naturally. With a sauna space home sauna. To learn more, go to my website, David Sandstrom comm forward slash resources and click on the sauna space logo and start enjoying all the health benefits of a sauna space. Zero EMF near infrared home sauna today. Well that's it for now I know this episode went a little bit long, but I think it was well worth extending the time a little bit to listen to Jenny. She had so many great things to share. Once again, thank you for listening. I enjoyed serving you, and I'll talk with you next week. Be blessed

Transcribed by https://otter.ai