Love, Loss, and Faith: How Grief, a Cancer Scare, and a Spiritual Journey Transformed My Life

This is the first episode of Season 2, and I want to be honest with you about why I have been away.

The last few years have included some of the hardest experiences of my life: losing my sister to triple negative breast cancer, navigating my own cancer fears, recovering from toxic mold exposure and PTSD for a third time, and watching my daughter’s confidence slowly come apart at the hands of bullies. Through all of it, something unexpected happened. My faith, which I had quietly abandoned decades ago when my mother died of pancreatic cancer, came back. Not the faith of my Catholic childhood, but something I had to build from scratch, through meditation, loss, grief, and a growing certainty that I am here to help people heal.

That is what this episode is about.

What I Cover in This Episode

Faith — losing it and finding it again. I was 29 when my mother died of pancreatic cancer within four months of her diagnosis. I believed then that no higher power could allow that kind of suffering. What brought my faith back was a combination of Dr. Joe Dispenza meditations, clarigenic medicine, EMDR therapy, and experiences I cannot fully explain but will no longer keep to myself.

Toxic mold exposure, PTSD, and trauma as a trigger for autoimmunity. I have now lost everything to mold three times. The third time triggered PTSD severe enough that I could not work or travel alone for close to a year. Symptoms like these can be associated with the kind of big-T Trauma that I now know plays a significant role in driving autoimmunity, which is why I added a full section on letting go of trauma in the revised edition of The Autoimmune Solution™. Working through that experience, including flying my EMDR therapist to Santa Fe to desensitize me room by room, changed how I think about healing.

Two years of breast screening decisions. A mammogram callback led me down a two-year path of QT scans, Prenuvo imaging, thermography, and circulating tumor cell testing. I share the decisions I made, the ones I reversed, and what I finally concluded about the limitations of CTC testing as a screening tool. I also talk about heart rate variability and how watching mine drop back into the teens every time I received a frightening test result told me something important about the connection between fear, the nervous system, and healing.

My sister. She was 30 when she was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, and 31 when she passed. We had been estranged and I showed up anyway when she called. I was on the phone with her in her final hours. I want to tell you about that — what it meant, what I learned, and why I believe a true act of love asks nothing in return.

Elle and the school that gave her back to me. My daughter spent nearly two years at a school where the bullying quietly eroded her confidence in ways I did not fully understand until she told me in the dark in Africa. Within a week of changing schools, she was a different child. The same child. My child, back.

What is coming. The revised The Autoimmune Solution™ — the most significant update since the original publication — includes new sections on trauma and the ACE score, COVID and long COVID, updated Autoimmune Spectrum™ levels with clearer guidance on reintroducing foods, and an entirely new set of success stories from people who reversed their conditions using only the book. I am also launching a new website and the Dr. Myers Inner Circle, a membership community with access to health coaches and functional medicine lab testing. Sign up for my newsletter to be among the first to know when it is available.

Resources and People Mentioned

• Episode # 22: The Devastating Effects of Toxic Mold Exposure with Ann Shippy, MD
• Episode #34: The Power of EMDR therapy: Overcoming Trauma and Anxiety with Ginger Poag
• Episode #13: The Smart Woman’s Guide to Breast Cancer with Jenn Simmons, MD
• Episode #39: The Terrain Approach to Cancer: Dr. Nasha Winters on Revolutionizing Integrative Oncology
• Dr. Joe Dispenza meditations
• Prenuvo full-body MRI (no contrast). Use this link for $300 off.
• The Autoimmune Solution™
• My Instagram video on alternatives to mammograms.
• AMMD™️products: Estroprotect, Methylation Support, Detox Bundle (including Acetyl-Glutathione, Liver Support, Charcoal Binder Complete).

Episode Timestamps

• 03:47 — Why I Took Time Off
• 04:36 — Losing Faith After My Mother’s Death
• 08:29 — Toxic Mold Exposure, Trauma, and PTSD
• 13:18 — Breast Screening and the Decisions I Made
• 18:37 — CTC Testing and My Sister’s Diagnosis
• 23:57 — Meditation, Signs, and Beginning to Heal
• 27:09 — Clarigenic Medicine and Finding My Purpose
• 30:52 — My Sister’s Final Days and Passing
• 36:52 — Fear, HRV, and the Decision to Let Go
• 40:47 — Kenya, Conservation, and What Matters
• 41:56 — Elle’s Bullying and the School Change
• 48:19 — Pancreas Cyst Scare
• 51:44 — The Real Tradeoffs of Preventive Testing
• 55:35 — How I Live Preventively Now
• 58:47 — What Is New in The Autoimmune Solution™