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Hi and welcome to the Cancer Secrets podcast. I am your Host and guide,

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Dr. Jonathan Stegall. Cancer is like a thief who

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has come to steal, kill and destroy. I have personally seen

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it wreak its havoc on patients, friends, and even my own family.

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But I am on a mission to change the cancer paradigm through the practice of

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integrative oncology cancer treatment that integrates the best of

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conventional medicine with the best of alternative therapies. Backed

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by science and personalized to each patient, you

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need a positive voice you can trust. This podcast will share valuable

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information to give you practical hope for a better outcome.

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So I invite you to join me on this journey as we seek to change

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the cancer paradigm together. Hello

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and welcome back to the Cancer Secrets podcast. I'm your host, Dr.

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Jonathan Stegall. This is season six and episode number

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91. In today's episode, we will be talking about a

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very important topic. If you have cancer or are supporting someone

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with cancer, you need to hear this. If you spend

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any time on the Internet, whether that be on social media

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or on Google, you've surely encountered various theories as

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to what cancer is, as well as how to treat it.

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Once one source tells you that cancer is a genetic disease inherited from a family

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member. Another source tells you that cancer occurs due to a

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poor diet or environmental exposures. Yet another source tells you

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that mutations which cause cancer are due to random chance seemingly

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out of one's control. Others will say that cancer is caused by a

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virus or some sort of pathogen. Who is right?

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Well, as it turns out, they all are to some degree. Research has

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shown us that cancer can occur due to a variety of causes.

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Yes, some cancer can be inherited, although these comprise a very

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small minority of cancer cases. In almost all cases,

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cancer occurs as a result of persistent damage to an otherwise

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healthy cell. This occurs over time. Our

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cells have an elaborate network of defense systems allowing them to repeatedly

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process damage and stress to which they are exposed.

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However, at some point, the cell cannot continue to withstand the damage. And

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if the cell is unable to die, a process called apoptosis,

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it will be forced to mut to survive. Over time,

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these mutations can result in what we know as cancer.

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It is important to remember that cancer cells are very smart. They

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retain the innate God given intelligence present in normal, healthy,

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high functioning cells. While cancerous mutations change the

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behavior of cells into more aggressive cells, they do not make them

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stupid. This is a critical point to understand because many

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people will tell you that getting rid of cancer is simple. Eliminating

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cancer is not as easy as changing your diet. Diet is certainly important.

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But there is nothing magical about the ketogenic diet, or a vegan diet,

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or a carnivore diet when it comes to cancer. I'd like to

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delve more into this because there are various communities online telling

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you that you only need to change your diet to beat cancer. Let's

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take a ketogenic diet for example. The rationale is that because cancer

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loves sugar, going on a ketogenic diet which is very low

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carb, will starve the cancer of its fuel source, which is glucose.

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While it's certainly true that cancer does indeed love sugar, it is vital to remember

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that cancer does not only love sugar. It turns out that cancer

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cells can easily adapt and use whatever is available for energy, whether it

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be carbohydrates, protein, fat,

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cholesterol, ketones, various hormones

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and iron. Moreover, even if cancer could only use sugar

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for energy, eating a low carbohydrate diet does not eliminate sugar from the

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body because glucose is the body's preferred energy source,

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including by normal healthy cells. When we don't obtain glucose

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from the diet, the body has several ways to make the glucose that it needs.

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This includes breaking down stored glucose, which is known as glycogen,

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as well as making glucose from other sources, including stored fat as well

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as muscle. As you can see, eating a ketogenic diet in an effort to

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starve cancer by limiting carbohydrates is misguided and it represents an

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oversimplification of just how complex cancer is. We

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can extend this line of thinking to other dietary approaches as well. While eating

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a vegan plant based diet can certainly provide some health benefits,

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it's silly to assume that cancer somehow avoids using energy and

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nutrients obtained from fruits and vegetables. While fruits and

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veggies are certainly healthy for a number of reasons, cancer is more than happy to

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use them as fuel sources as well. Again, it's fine to believe

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that nutrition is important, especially when fighting cancer. I

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absolutely agree that we need to adopt some sound nutritional principles

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in an effort to create a health with the goal of having an internal

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environment which is less hospitable to cancer. However, we must do

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so with the understanding that nutrition alone is incapable of somehow

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curing cancer. This goes for a ketogenic diet, a vegan diet,

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as well as any other purported anti cancer diet out there.

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I'd also like to add that we need to get away from this notion that

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an effective anti cancer diet needs to be overly radical. It

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might feel empowering to embark on a nutritional program that is highly restrictive,

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but such drastic measures are not necessary and can even be

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harmful. For example, juicing can be a healthy component of your

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nutrition program. But if your anti cancer diet Calls for you to basically

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live off of meals made from your juicer, you're not doing it right.

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We must also be careful not to reduce cancer to an

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immune system problem. I see many things online Mentioning

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cancer occurring Only due to a weak immune system, and that if

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we can just strengthen the immune system and boost the immune system, that

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cancer will magically go away. Yes, while the immune

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system does sometimes have a problem seeing cancer, that's less about the

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immune system somehow being weak, and it's more about the nature of cancer

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itself. We know that cancer likes to cloak itself to hide from the

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immune system. You can strengthen the immune system all day, but if

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cancer is still able to hide effectively, it doesn't matter how strong your

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immune system might be. Yes, we do need to make sure we're

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optimizing our immune function. There's a lot of ways we can do that. On the

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most basic level, we can talk about vitamin d status. We can use therapies

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Such as mistletoe lymph therapy, Even a host of really good

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supplements like beta glucan and some mushroom based supplements. These things

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are all very important, and they're an important aspect of our treatment approach.

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But we can't assume that just strengthening the immune system Means that cancer

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magically goes away. We must also be careful when we

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consider our general approach to cancer treatment. Chemotherapy has been a

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mainstay of the standard of care in the treatment of cancer for decades, and it's

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a valuable treatment. I use it regularly in my office. However,

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we must be careful not to assume that chemotherapy alone is enough.

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While chemotherapy does an outstanding job Targeting the nucleus of cancer

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cells, where the genetic material lies, we must remember that it

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only damages Actively dividing cancer cells. Cancer cells

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which are not dividing, which we know can comprise a significant portion, if

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not a majority of cancer cells in the body at any given time, Will not

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be harmed by chemotherapy. If we're restricting our treatment to

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chemotherapy alone, we're likely failing to target a proportion of the

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cancer that's present. This is why I'm a big proponent of an

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integrative approach to cancer treatment, which incorporates a proven standard

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of care treatment plan with chemotherapy, but also utilizes

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other treatments which provide different angles of attack against cancer.

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Knowing that chemotherapy addresses the nucleus of the cancer cell, we can

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tailor our therapeutic choices to also include therapies which address other

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aspects of the cancer cell, Such as the mitochondria,

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antioxidant Reserves the cell membrane, et cetera. We

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also must target the stem cells, which we know are very difficult to treat with

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chemotherapy and other standard of care treatments alone.

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And this is where the idea of repurposed medications comes into play. We

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know that there are dozens of existing medications which are FDA

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approved for non cancer purposes, but do have notable research

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showing unique anti cancer activity as well. Does

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it not make sense to include these therapies in our treatment plans as well,

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especially since they are generally safe and comp with other elements of

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the protocol? I think it does. Again, if we were restricting

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ourselves to an oversimplified view of cancer, we would not even consider

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things like repurposed medications. The same goes for nutritional

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supplements, which, like repurposed medications, allow us to attack other

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aspects of cancer aside from the work chemotherapy is doing.

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This also gets back to why I strongly caution you not to restrict

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yourself in the types of treatment you're willing to consider. This goes for

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people who are typically very conventionally minded, only valuing the standard of

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care, as well as those who are more natural and alternative minded who do

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not have much use for modern medicine. We need both, which is why

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an integrative approach to cancer treatment makes so much sense to me.

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Do not refuse a standard of care treatments such as surgery,

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chemotherapy, immunotherapy or radiation therapy simply because you

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don't like them, or perhaps view them as less than ideal. There

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are other ways to make them safer and better. And likewise,

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do not assume that therapies outside of the standard of care are worthless or hocus

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pocus just because you're not feeling with them or because they've not been mentioned in

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the major oncology journals. The overall point I want to make

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is cancer is very complicated. It arose from

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what was once a normal, healthy, highly functioning cell,

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and due to repeated damage, it was forced to mutate into a more aggressive

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type of cell which retains its innate intelligence. I

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don't tell you this to scare you, but to remind you that cancer must be

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respected. We cannot underestimate it. And that starts with an

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acknowledgment that it's smart. Therefore, we must be smart with our approach to

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as well. This should inform our treatment choices.

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There is potential value in a wide range of cancer therapies.

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Please be willing to learn more about all of them and incorporate them as

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thoroughly as you can, with the understanding that an effective treatment protocol

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is likely to be quite complex when you drill down into the details.

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In other words, don't try this at home. Seek help from a highly

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trained qualified and experienced team of professionals who also

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acknowledge that cancer must be taken seriously with a treatment protocol

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that is appropriately thorough, detailed. And remember, we

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must always apply my approach of open minded skepticism.

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We must be open to any treatment which we think can possibly help us,

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regardless of whether it comes from conventional medicine or alternative

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medicine. But we also must balance that with a healthy level of

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skepticism. We must rely on science and clinical experience

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to help guide us in terms of the treatments that are worth considering and those

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that are not. Well, I've really enjoyed this episode, and I hope you have as

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well. Thank you again for being a faithful listener of this podcast. Until

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next time, bye bye.