What's in Your Smoothie?

Friends and Family,

The question I get most often these days from other survivors is about my diet, and it’s not because I’m a master chef. My cooking is a little less Wolfgang Puck, and a little more Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. But when you are still alive with Stage IV lung cancer fourteen years after being diagnosed, people want to know why.

Most survivors are convinced it must be what I eat. I think that’s partly true, but there is much more to it. There are many other factors that are at least as important for all of us, like having loving relationships, and a great attitude. And removing the “cancers” from our lives. Having a purpose greater than ourselves. Exercise. Being your own advocate. Spirituality. There are so many things that I think are part of what works that I could write a book about it. Oh, wait! I did that already! You can find it on Amazon by clicking here.        

But let’s get to what you asked for. Here is my smoothie recipe:

·         8-10 ounces of milk or water (Discussion below.)

·         1 dollop of yogurt (*May be counterproductive if you are on immunotherapy. See below.)

·         1 splash of olive oil (Carries the goodies across the blood-brain barrier.)

·         1 scoop protein powder (I find chocolate hides the taste – of everything – better.)

·         2+ tablespoons turmeric (Laboratory studies have shown curcumin has anti-cancer effects on cancer cells.)

·         1 rounded tablespoon cinnamon (Reduces cell inflammation and lowers blood sugar.)

·         1 heaping tablespoon golden flax seed (Multiple benefits – see below.)

·         1 tablespoon reishi mushroom extract: (May have direct lung cancer-fighting as well as immune-supporting effects.)

·         1 tablespoon cordyceps mushroom extract (May have direct lung cancer-fighting as well as immune-supporting effects.)

·         1 handful of spinach, celery, or other greens (Easy way to get in another serving of greens.)

·         About 12-ish fresh ground peppercorns (High in antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, helps with blood sugar, may make chemo more effective, direct cancer-fighting, boosts absorption of nutrients like calcium and curcumin.)

Drink quickly to avoid settling, and to make it easier on your taste buds. You may also want a water chaser nearby.

Whether you can handle all of this in one drink may depend on your blender. If you have a super-blender like a Vitamix or a Blendtec, life gets easier. Our Blendtec pulverizes everything into a creamy smooth drink with no gross lumps. If your blender doesn’t do this, you may want to skip the greens. You will also need to blend the peppercorns and flaxseed in a coffee grinder separately. Grinding the pepper is what releases the piperine, which is the active ingredient in pepper. The flax seeds can pass right through your system whole if it isn’t ground.

Here is the semi-happy end result:

HERE IS WHY I USE THESE INGREDIENTS:

Dairy is a controversial topic in the lung cancer community, and I have yet to find any definitive answer. I gave up all dairy for a while, until my friend Laura Greco sent me a research article about the BENEFITS of milk. Benefits! You had me at ice cream. I couldn’t find that article for this story, but I did find an updated research article here. Without a consensus on the topic, I finally decided that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I was stable, so I was going to have my dairy.

The yogurt adds probiotics to promote immune health. NOTE: THIS IS POSSIBLY COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE IF YOU ARE ON IMMUNOTHERAPY. Here’s an article on the subject. You may want to do our own research on this.

I use protein powder because as a vegetarian, it can be hard to get enough protein in my meals. Note that even though the protein powder is made with a milk derivative, whey isolates, there is a negligible amount of casein in it. Casein is the suspect culprit in milk, for those concerned about its effects on lung cancer. Research your particular brand to be sure.

Here is just one of the many articles on the cancer-fighting benefits of turmeric (curcumin).

Cinnamon is showing up more and more as a direct anti-lung cancer agent. See just a couple of the articles here and here. It is also anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and lowers blood sugar levels. See here for just one more article about this.

Flaxseed has been shown to reduce tumor growth in breast and colon cancer. It also has omega-3  fatty acids, which reduce cancer-causing inflammation and makes it easier to tolerate heart-related side effects of radiation and chemo. Here’s a short article on the subject. It has fiber, which helps regulate blood sugar, which also helps fight cancer. There are other heart, blood pressure, cholesterol, and even eye benefits. Some people have to build up to their maximum amount because of possible bloating, gas, and diarrhea. Here are other possible risks and benefits.  I choose golden flaxseed because I like the taste better than brown.

Mushroom extract is coming more into awareness in the lung cancer community. I found a meta-study, meaning a study that summarizes all the other credible studies, on the use of mushroom extracts in fighting cancer. The results were favorable for both reishi and cordyceps mushroom extracts. Here it is. While I was trying to dig up this article, I found plenty of others about different mushroom extracts such as this one and this one. As a result of this research, I found one other mushroom extract, turkey tail, that I am adding to my smoothie. It’s because of articles like this.

Peppercorns (black pepper) contain the active ingredient piperine. Piperine is released when the pepper is ground, so grind it fresh each time to get the full benefit. Here is a nice article that describes those benefits. However, piperine can interact with medications, may have anti-platelet effects, and possibly other issues. See this caution if you have concerns.  

Now that I’ve shown you mine, how about if you show me yours?

What ingredients do you add to your smoothie that aren’t listed above? Why? Bonus points for a link to the research. Just click “Comment” at the bottom of this post. PLEASE POST HERE RATHER THAN FACEBOOK if possible, so I can keep all the ideas in one place.

Love,

Dann

Cancer Research Funding

Friends and Family,

November is lung cancer awareness month!

To honor the event, I put together this short, hopefully entertaining video clip about cancer research funding. You will be stunned! Here’s the link:

https://youtu.be/MFhvnaMhLgA

Love,

Dann

From Wounded to Warrior

Friends and Family,

Genevieve and I just got back from a two-for one trip to Washington, DC. The second part of the trip, the LUNGevity HOPE Summit, is a lung cancer conference. What gives me the biggest buzz at this conference are the people I meet.

I met one woman three years ago, just  months after she was diagnosed. Laura looked so terrified and vulnerable that I just wanted to put my arm around her and tell her everything would be alright. But that would not have been real. The best I could do was tell her my story, and to let her see by example that at least some people are still alive nine years later.

Fast-forward three years, and Genevieve and I were planning to attend a rally on Capitol Hill and do some lobbying before this year’s HOPE Summit. Laura recently had to quit her full-time job, but still has enough in the tank to put her background as an attorney to organize rallies and lobbying (on Facebook: Life and Breath – LAB). On a training video conference call she led, Laura’s two bouncy little kids, maybe five and seven years old, kept running into the room, jumping up and down in front of the camera. Laura was passionately describing the best practices for lobbying, pausing every now and then to shoo her kids out of the room. I scrolled through the video screens of the 40 other participants, and they were all trying not to snicker, just like us. Laura would get a little further through the agenda, and then another kid would pop in and photobomb. While embarrassing for mom, it was hilarious for the rest of us.

Once we got to the rally, Laura stood in front of the 200+ protesters, whipping the crowd into a frenzy of moral outrage over how lung cancer kills more people than the next three leading cancers (yes, this includes breast cancer) combined, yet the National Institutes for Health give only 6% of their cancer research dollars to lung cancer research. She had us screaming so loud that the other groups in the area, a block or more away, all turned to see what the fuss was about. Way to go, Laura! In three years, you have gone from wounded bird to cancer warrior!

But there’s more to the story. In the afternoon, we all scattered to lobby our respective elected representatives.  Genevieve, our friend Violet and I were just finishing our day of lobbying, when we ran into Laura on the street. She was fighting mad about the professional lung cancer advocacy organizations that they had coordinated with. “I told them that what they were pushing was really lame. They’re asking for one more ridiculous study that will be put on a shelf and never looked at again, and a few million dollars. That’s NOTHING to Congress. That’ not even a ROUNDING ERROR to them. I told them that’s not good enough. I’m going to be dead before my kids get out of elementary school, so your pace doesn’t work for me. It’s not about you. It’s about me!” 

I saw the tears in her eyes, along with the fire. I felt deeply for her, and for her husband standing next to us, and for those two cute little curtain-climbers that will have to learn the meaning of cancer way too soon. And I realized that, as much as I will fight it, the chances are good that what she is saying is true for me as well. If this is the pace of increase for research spending, it won’t be in time for Laura or for me.

And while Laura is right, that this funding request is completely dwarfed by the needs, it still brings crucial dollars to lung cancer research for those that follow. There have been seventeen new drugs approved for lung cancer treatment in the last three years alone. That is an explosion! There is reason for hope, which is why Genevieve and I will be back in DC in July, lobbying Congress again. That is why I am asking you to join my team for the Portland Lung Love Run/Walk on Saturday, June 23rd, or to donate to our team (Live Lung and Prosper), by following this link: https://bit.ly/2I898kl.

I thought about how Laura looked that first time I met her three years ago. And then I thought about the elected representatives Laura was about to meet. This time, I thought, it’s not going to be Laura that looks like a deer in the headlights.

Love,

Dann

What to Do on a Beautiful June Day

The Lung Love Run Walk Portland is coming up again, and I’m excited! Join us on Saturday, June 23rd, for the walk. Our goal this year is to have 30 team members, and to raise $2,500 for the Lung Cancer Alliance.

As you are aware, I am passionate about this cause. I am still alive twelve years after I was first diagnosed with lung cancer, and that has only been possible because of lung cancer research. I have been on three treatments that didn’t even exist the first time I was diagnosed, something that is not possible without lung cancer research. But there are still huge holes in the options available. I have lost friends to this deadly disease, and the next treatment needed to keep me alive may not have been invented yet. We need the research funds now.

Next Thursday, Genevieve and I will be going to Washington, DC for a lung cancer rally on Capitol Hill to raise awareness of the 433 people a day who die of lung cancer. That afternoon, we will have private appointments with Senator Ron Wyden, Senator Jeff Merkley’s staff, and Representative Suzanne Bonamici, where we will be pressing for lung cancer research funding. I was stunned to learn that the National Institutes of Health only spend 6% of their research dollars on lung cancer. Since lung cancer kills more people than the next three cancers(breast, ovarian, and prostate) combined, that is unconscionable.

We borrowed our agenda from the Lung Cancer Alliance, and will return in July with that group for an organized lobbying trip to press the agenda again. I lobbied with this group two years ago, and it was an empowering experience, having influence on our government.  

So if you would like to join us on a beautiful June morning, under the shade of the trees in gorgeous Laurelhurst park, click here, and join team Live Lung and Prosper.

If you would like to donate, click here.

And, even better, if you would like to form your own team, click here. The best way to grow an event like this is to grow the number of teams.

Thank you for your ongoing support in a million different ways.

Love,

Dann

LUNGevity HOPE Summit

I'm going to Washington!

Every year LUNGevity holds a HOPE Summit in Washington, D.C. This year it is on May 1st to May 3rd, and I'm going.

I learned about the conference last year, but didn't want to go. Just like Groucho Marx once said,  "I wouldn't belong to any club that will accept me as a member."

I thought that getting a couple of hundred people with lung cancer together in one place could lead to all kinds of negativity, despite the name of the conference. So I didn't go.

HOWEVER. Over the past year I have gotten a different view. I've looked at it with much more, well, hope after more contact with a number of bloggers, people in online open forums, and people who have commented on my blog. The view from here is looking pretty positive. Maybe it actually COULD be a Summit of Hope.

Craig https://craigblower.wordpress.com/ told me that LUNGevity was providing scholarships, including travel, accommodations in a fancy schmancy hotel, and a couple of meals a day to first-time conference attendees who simply apply. So I did, and, surprisingly, it was that easy. Free. No catches. 

If you're interested, go to http://lungevity.org/ and click on the Events tab. This is a great site for a lot of reasons, and this conference is just one of them. Look around while you're there.

I'm going to find out who actually pays for these scholarships. I have one more reason for gratitude, and I'd like to thank the benefactor.