Natural Cancer Cure: Woman Cures Breast Cancer with Vegan Diet

A natural cancer cure may exist; a cure for breast cancer, in the form of a vegan diet. A breast cancer survivor spoke to me and I'm convinced. She was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer 25 years ago at age 47. She refused chemotherapy and radiation, despite bone scans showing the breast cancer spread to both thigh bones and pelvis. An X-ray revealed cancer in one of her lungs.

Every year in America, about 240,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer. The death toll for breast cancer in the U.S. is 40,000 per year. Ruth Heidrich discovered a lump in her breast during a breast self-exam. Cancer was confirmed after a physician performed an excisional biopsy (surgery).

Prognosis?

It was so serious that I got second, third and fourth opinions. No doctor could tell me if I had three months, three years, or what. The oncologists all recommended chemo, radiation and tamoxifen.

Before diagnosis, what were your eating habits?

I thought I was eating the healthiest diet possible, although it was actually SAD: the Standard American Diet. I had virtually cut out red meat, increasing my fish and chicken intake to compensate for animal protein which I mistakenly thought was needed, and drank a lot of powdered skim milk. Actually, as scientific studies show, animal products are not any healthier at all.

Why did you shun chemotherapy?

Two weeks after my cancer diagnosis, I spotted an announcement in the newspaper, which was for a clinical research study to investigate the validity of the low-fat vegan diet versus standard chemo/radiation. I literally ran to the phone and found myself speaking to the study's head researcher, John McDougall, MD. When I got to his office, he showed me the bleak results of conventional medical treatment.

Describe study.

I had to agree to switch my diet to low-fat vegan, that is, 100 percent plant foods. This meant no animal foods at all. I went home and began this diet within two weeks from the biopsy.

Did you inform the doctor who diagnosed you what your plans were?

Yes, and he just shook his head in disgust, saying that "Diet has nothing to do with breast cancer."

After you started this diet, how much time went by before you returned to the diagnosing doctor to check if the cancer was still there?

It was a matter of just weeks. The initial bone scan with the "hot spots" was two weeks following diagnosis. A month later, those hot spots had significantly receded, and within three months, they were completely gone. The chest X-rays, however, to this day, still show the encapsulated tumor that's in my left lung; it hasn't grown in 25 years.

How was the cancer in your breast determined to be gone?

After that first biopsy revealed no clear margins -- they hadn't gotten all the cancer -- I had more surgery. The excisional biopsy was an attempt to get the whole thing out. A modified radical mastectomy was determined to be needed because the cancer had also spread. Realize, it's not cancer in breast tissue that kills you; it's cancer cells that metastasize to vital organs. All of the follow-up tests continue to show no recurrence.

When the bone cancer disappeared, how did the physicians react?

They had no explanation and told me that my new diet couldn't have any effect on the spread of the cancer, that I was taking a risk in continuing to refuse chemo and radiation.

Using a layperson's perspective, explain why the cancer doctors did NOT get excited about your success.

All MDs go through fairly standard training and are usually taught that diet does not cause cancer, and therefore, certainly can't cure or reverse it; that only chemo, radiation or hormone manipulation can treat it.

Of course, the pharmaceutical companies stand by, always ready to supply the chemo and hormone blockers. A physician who dares try anything different, like dietary manipulation only, violates a code. Therefore, even if an MD believes it could work, he or she takes a big risk in going against conventional protocols.

Another factor to consider, and I'm sure Dr. McDouggall will agree, is that MDs and drug companies will not make any profit treating cancer this way.

Do you stand to get any financial gain by fabricating any of this?

I don't have anything to gain financially. Fact is, I have invested a great deal of energy, time and gas, visiting cancer patients, giving talks, getting on the radio, and writing books, all to little or no avail.

Ever considered submitting your medical documentation to medical or cancer organizations?

If even physicians like John McDougall, Michael Klaper, Neal Barnard, Michael Greger, Terry Shintani, and more, and even one of the most widely respected nutrition scientists in the world, T. Colin Campbell, PhD, can't convince them, I myself really don't stand much of a chance.

I've also approached the Susan G. Komen Foundation and American Cancer Society, and got nowhere, because they rely on the mainstream medical approach.

A point to consider:

By definition, a vegan is someone who avoids all animal-derived foods. But doing such doesn't always mean a healthy diet, if this "vegan" consumes much sugar, processed/refined food, additives, preservatives and fake sweeteners.

A raw vegan diet gives the best chance of empowering the immune system to kill off marauding cancer cells.

Ruth has, to her credit, more than 900 trophies. These are from Ironman Triathlons, Half Ironmans, and dozens of marathons and ultra-marathons. She has won eight gold medals from state and national level Senior Olympics. Ruth has authored three books, and with all of her impressive racing victories, she certainly doesn't need to make up a natural cancer cure story to market those books.

Ruth E. Heidrich

RuthHeidrich.com
Author of "CHEF," "A Race for Life," and "Senior Fitness"