Brown Michael - Changing normal: how I helped my husband beat cancer

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A LSO BY M ARILU H ENNER

Total Memory Makeover

Wear Your Life Well

Healthy Holidays

Healthy Kids

Healthy Life Kitchen

I Refuse to Raise a Brat

The 30-Day Total Health Makeover

Marilu Henners Total Health Makeover

By All Means Keep On Moving

Gallery Books

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Copyright 2016 by Perpetual Motion, Inc.

This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its authors. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subjects addressed in the publication. It is sold with the understanding that the authors and publisher are not engaged in rendering medical, health, or any other kind of personal professional services in the book. The reader should consult his or her medical, health, or other competent professional before adopting any of the suggestions in this book or drawing inferences from it. The authors and publisher specifically disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss or risk, personal or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book.

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First Gallery Books hardcover edition April 2016

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Interior design by Renato Stanisic

Jacket design by Laywan Kwan

Jacket photographs by Jeff Katz Photography

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-4767-9394-8

ISBN 978-1-4767-9395-5 (ebook)

MARILU

To Michael:

For his love and trust, and, most of all, for his ability to seek the truth and do something about it.

And to my parents, Joe and Loretta: Whose lives and deaths inspire me every day to find a healthier way to live and to share what I learn with anyone who will listen.

MICHAEL

I want to dedicate this book to my parents, Bill and LaRae, who did their best with their wayward son. And to Marilu, without whom this story would not have happened, nor been told.

I first met Mike Brown in 2003 when my longtime and dear patient Marilu Henner first brought him into my practice in Los Angeles and explained that he was her new boyfriend. Although Michael is a big, strapping man, he looked pale, worn out, depleted, and his body language told me that he was sad and dejected.

With Marilu in the room, I asked Mike to describe his health issues and reasons for seeing me, an integrative medicine doctor. He explained that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer. I was shocked to learn that he had been symptomatic for two years, and yet, despite consulting with a specialist during this time, had never been properly diagnosed.

A patients body language and speech are as important as his clinical diagnosis, and Mikes body language was saying, I am a sick man .

As an integrative medicine doctor, I recognize that health is on a spectrum. At one end of the scale, we have optimal well-being, and, at the other end, degenerative disease. What we are not taught in medical school, even to this day, is that there is a gray zone in the middle. In this zone, organ dysfunction is occurring long before any clinical disease is diagnosed. These dysfunctions must be treated, whether theyre caused by cancer, diabetes, chronic fatigue, or any other chronic disease. Integrative doctors are able to address these dysfunctions to bring organs back into normal function.

The imbalances and dysfunctions of organswithout frank, identifiable diseaseoccur for years before the disease is recognized. This is why cancer is so hard to cure. For example, cancer kinetics tell us that a one-centimeter lump in a woman with breast cancer means that the cancer has been growing for about four years. Thats four years lost without a remedy.

In Michaels case, because he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer, it was very important we address his history with toxic exposures because bladder cancer is typically associated with toxic environmental exposures. Michaels personal history, as he outlines in this book, was overwhelmed by toxic exposures. From the cigarettes he smoked to all the toxins on the ships he worked on, including solvents, PCBs, phthalates, pesticides, and heavy metals, he unfortunately became a perfect candidate to develop bladder cancer.

Over the course of the ensuing months, while he was receiving traditional treatment for his bladder cancer, Michael and I looked at his blood and urine tests showing the degree of toxins he had been exposed to in his life.

All of us are exposed to some toxicity in our lives, which is called our exposome . The lifetime accumulation of a patients exposome is called total body burden. When total body burden exceeds a patients genetics and organ toleration, he will develop either inflammatory or degenerative conditions. In Michaels case, he developed cancer.

In addition, because 50 to 80 percent of our immune system is in our gut, it was very important to look at Michaels intestinal function. Over our months together, we continued to address issues such as intestinal permeability problems and dysbiosis, which developed due to his diet and lifestyle.

We also looked at his stress system. Many years ago, I routinely talked to patients with chronic illness about the role that stress played. This was considered radical by colleagues. Now, however, major universities have departments of psychoneuroimmunology that study the role that stress plays on our immune system and how that affects our health.

When I looked at Michaels stress system, through both saliva hormone tests and acupuncture meridian testing, I found his immune system and nutrient levels to be completely depleted by the years of stress he endured before his diagnosis. With herbal therapy, acupuncture treatments, nutritional supplements, and major changes in his diet, over the ensuing months, his stress system gradually became more balanced. Fortunately, Michaels girlfriendand now wifewas Marilu! Her knowledge of the role of diet, as well as her ability to prepare wholesome food for him and get him off junk food, were huge factors in turning around his health.

When the subsequent diagnosis of lung cancer came along, we were already supporting Michaels entire system. Michael was already into his new lifestyle. His immune tests, stress tests, and toxicity levels continued to improve.