Mindful Chat With Ginny Brant- Unleash Your God Given Healing

https://www.ginnybrant.com/about


I grew up in the halls of power in Washington, DC where my father served a senator and three presidents. I have served on the front lines of our culture for 28 years as a teacher, counselor, and adjunct professor. My life grants me a unique perspective and a view of the world from God’s perspective.

I have a passion for studying, and teaching God’s word and missions. I served as a Trustee of the International Mission Board for eight years. My husband and/or I have participated in mission work in Yemen, Gaza, the Czech Republic, Russia, China, and Romania.

My faith defines my life. My devotion to my family defines my character. I value my freedom as my gift from God which enables me to do His will. My freedom in Christ can never be taken away. I’m in heaven bound realizing that only what’s done for Christ will matter forever.


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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Hi, how are you? This is Dr. Demaris Maria Grossman, and this is the Mindfully Integrative Show. And today we have an amazing mindful chat with Jenny Dent Brandt. She is an author and a mom and grandmother, and she has many things to talk to you about and a cancer survivor, but I know that her story is interesting and in-depth. And I know that she can give you a wealth of knowledge. So thank you so much for being on the show.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

It's great to be here from South Carolina.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

I love it. Ah, South Carolina. Beautiful. It sounds wonderful. So tell us, I always started out with a little fun fact. Tell the audience a little fun fact about yourself.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Well, I've always been known as a health nut, especially to the school district I worked for for many years as a counselor and a teacher and sometimes acting principal. I've been known as a health nut because I revamped the school lunch program along with the dietitian so that it would be more nutritious, going from French fries three times a week to I love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Oh my God, it's like dear to my heart. I love it. So tell me more before we get into your story. Tell me more.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

So, you know, I worked on that. I taught wellness to every school in the district in my um in my school, to every child in my school. And then I taught wellness to the entire district and to other school districts. So I was known as a health nut. But the shock to everyone was when this health nut was diagnosed with uh deadly and aggressive breast cancer. So that was a surprise. The health nut didn't quite go along with that, but as you'll see from my story, I learned I wasn't as healthy as I needed to be. There was more I needed to learn. I needed to take a deeper dive.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Yeah, and that that's hard, you know. And generally speaking, like to look within, it takes a little bit more, you know. Um, and then cancer itself is hard. And to have an aggressive cancer on top of that can be pretty profound.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

You know, it made it made no sense because there were eight risk factors for the breast cancer I was diagnosed with, and my doctors in Chicago went over those risk factors with me. Right. I didn't have one of them. And so they ordered extensive genetic testing, figuring that that was going to show something. Right. It didn't. Nothing. So this is what caused me to go on a quest to discover number one, what caused my cancer, and number two, what I could do to help lessen the side effects of the treatments and complement what my doctors were were doing.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

I cannot wait for you to talk about this because that it's so important that you as an individual empowered yourself to find things to complement the your treatment, to find out why, what was the root cause of your illness, you know, just not just saying, all right, I have cancer, that's it. All right, that's my that's my diagnosis. Um, and not making the diagnosis your only um solution or like it kind of stamping who you are, because you you obviously have more to a much beautiful life to live. So please let's talk about that.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

Well, I no stone would be unturned until I figured out number one, why? Because if my doctors killed my cancer, and they certainly have methods to do that, if it worked, then what was I gonna do to help that cancer from coming back? If I didn't know what caused it, how could I keep it from coming back? So I just it drove me to research. I'm talking about thousands of hours of research and interviewing doctors and nutritionists and research scientists and reading about what they were publishing in the medical journals. And I began to connect the dots between many things that we know to the unknown. And it gave us, you know, gave me a bigger picture of what is causing cancer in our culture today, because one of the first things I found out was that one in two people in our generation are getting cancer in this day for the generation born today. And in 1930, it used to be one in 30. It was someone down the street you barely knew. Right. And then in 1970, it went up to one in 10 people. And that's when President Richard Nixon um declared war on cancer by, you know, giving federal funding and grants to help do research. And all this has helped us with early diagnosis and specifically treating cancers, specifically rather than, you know, just a blank use use these three chemicals on all cancers like they used to do. So that has helped. But the interesting thing is that no one has done anything to stop the rates of cancer. And so they're predicting by 2030 it will be one in one, meaning all of us will have one or more type of. Yeah. And it might be mild, like a melanoma on the back of your hand that a doctor can take off and clear the margins and the swipe of his knife, and you're one and done, but you want to be cautious after that with sun and other things. But uh, you know, and it could be anything from mild to a stage four aggressive cancer. So, you know, we've got to wake up and realize that, you know, cancer is common in this country. And if we don't realize that, then we're sitting in the path of the of the tornado or the hurricane, not realizing that it could, it could fall on us and you know, come into our life. When I saw the MRI and it looked like a tornado had invaded my body, that became the analogy in my book to the Wizard of Oz, because I finally realized that, you know, cancer is as common in this country as tornadoes are in Kansas. You realize in Kansas you've got to have a shelter and a plan of prevention. We don't realize that. We need a plan to prevent cancer and disease for our families today, because it's not just cancer that's on the rise, it's many other diseases, Alzheimer's, autoimmune conditions. Absolutely. You know, we we've got to realize that we're doing something that's it's not enhancing our health and the immune system that God has gifted us with. And what I learned was how to how to look at my immune system and how God designed it to work, and then remove anything that's causing it to be suppressed. And that's entailed in the eight steps in my in my book. For example, if you're properly hydrated, then it enhances every cell, every system, um, every organ in your body. And that includes your immune system that fights every day on your behalf. So that you know, one of eight steps that I had to look at how is this going to help me get through the cancer journey and prevent this cancer from coming back? But then again, proper hydration can prevent you from getting cancer in the first place. So it's just simple things like that that people don't realize. We're all high risk and we need to put a plan of prevention in place.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

I could not agree with you more. I also, from one of my mentors that I have been have learned from in the integrative functional medicine space, the terrain of our bodies, and you're saying one one, everyone at some point will get some sort of cancer. Our bodies are enabled and genetically to get cancer, like it will get triggered on, or if your exposures or, but if your body and your your insides and your your overall terrain is not in optimal state, cancer wants to grow there. It's kind of like um it's like, hey, this is a party, this is this is where I want to be. It's not, you know, it's the immune system is like off and not working and then going, all right. So that you're right right there, just talking about water in itself. 100% correct, you know, that in itself. I mean, you probably have many of other things that to discuss on that, but I agree.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Yeah. Actually, there's so many things. I can give you another tip that I had to learn through the school of hard knocks. Our skin, 60 to 70 percent of what we put on this skin, whatever that we put on it, is absorbed through the skin into our bloodstream to circulate through our body. Now, that's important because high toxic chemicals were found in this health nuts' body. And it may have been coming from the water I was drinking that was not filtered. It may have come from some of the food I was eating. I don't doubt that. But when you see the chemicals in my body, it definitely came from things I was putting on my skin that contained parabens and phylate and all kinds of chemicals. And when your body gets an overload of chemicals, again, your immune system gets distracted. Your toxic load or your bucket is full, and it distracts your immune system from doing what God created it to do. So I had to get rid of that high toxic load. It came over time. Hydration is part of it, exercise is part of it. But in addition, I had to get a sauna. Some people join a sauna club, but the point is I had to sweat out a lot of these toxins that had built up in my system. And some of the toxins were endocrine disrupting hormones that helped to drive my breast cancer. So the normal risk factors that help get your estrogen levels up, I did not have, but I did have chemicals mimicking estrogen in my body that was helping to drive my cancer. So if I hadn't discovered these things, once the doctors killed it, it could have eventually come back.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

So um I on a regular talk about um the toxins within our body and the environment. Um, I know there are some people maybe listening to be like, oh, that doesn't make sense, or there's a voodoo-ness, or no, this is facts. The research is there, the endocrine receptors are being activated. And you're right, you would have had the estrogen dominant. Did you have her positive or triple net?

SPEAKER_02 11:24

I did have her positive as well. Okay. And the estrogen dominance. And estrogen dominant, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

And did you go through radiation and also um lumbectomy?

SPEAKER_02 11:36

I did do a major, major lumbectomy because my tumor had planted another tumor. At one point, they told me it was in my lymph nodes and in other parts of my body. That turned about to be inflammation that came from the biopsy. Um, one of the risk factors of the biopsy, but not very common, is that inflammation can result. And so, you know, what they saw in that MRI, they told me I was stage four aggressive and they could only extend my life. And that's why I tell people to get a second opinion. I went to a major well-known cancer center at Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Chicago, and they within three days told me, no, we don't think the cancer is necessarily all over your body. We won't know till we do the surgery. But what we're seeing here on this MRI is inflammation. And when they told me they were going to put a naturopathic doctor and a nutritionist on my case, if I was treated there, I was like, I'm in. I'm in. Because I believe in integrative medicine. And those, I felt like those were the two good fairies to help me along the journey, like you know, Dorothy had your little fairies that guide you.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

I had some in my in my journey too. So I completely got that. Like I would never have known about integrative medicine or and my own health. I'm like, if you know, there and I'm so thankful for you that you found that and in and you had hope beyond you.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Also, it seem like a wonderful woman in general with you and your family, but to be able to have well, it enabled me to be able to do the chemo knowing they were going to help me get through it with increased hydration, with certain um supplements, right? Telling me to do certain things that would lessen the side effects. And then I learned some things on my own. For example, nobody told me to exercise before and after surgeries. I had a lot of surgeries and before and after chemo. But after the first surgery, where I had about a hundred stitches, I got up the next morning because I wanted the catheter out. And the nurse said, if you walk four rounds of this hospital floor, we can take that catheter out. I walked two miles that day. It felt so good to walk. And by doing that, when my surgeon came by to make the rounds and my respiratory therapist, they said, You've oxygenated your body, you've lessened your risk of blood clots. All this has worked for your good. We're sending you home early with no breast draining tubes. Your body has already taken care of that.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

It, you know, the the most amazing part of what you're saying there is your the scary part is it probably was a little painful, right? There had some moments of uh discomfort, maybe, but some people don't want to get past that per se.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

Right. I I didn't really uh feel that much pain. I did overnight from the, but when I got up and walked, you know, it just I felt so much better. I'm a normal walker. But what was interesting was, you know, the doctor said, I just I promoted my own healing. Now they wouldn't tell someone to do that who had a weight-bearing surgery because of my stay off of it for a few days so the swelling doesn't get out of hand. But it was the best thing I could have done, and it worked so well that before chemo, I decided to walk two miles before chemo and two miles afterwards if I could. And I had an eight-hour chemo regimen with the worst uh chemicals known to mankind. And I was hydrating throughout chemotherapy, you know, increasing hydration. And I was able to walk two miles before and two miles afterwards. And my doctors did not tell me to do that. No one suggested it. But at the end of my journey, when my red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets were back within normal ranges within six weeks rather than taking two to five years, the doctor said, something you did made a huge difference here. And the research came out in Australia showing that exercise is the best thing a cancer patient can do. And so now the tendency is for these cancer patients going through chemo, if they can, to have within reason, right? Within reason, what's what's comfortable for them that they're used to doing before and after chemo, and every day in between. The research shows not only in Australia but at MD Anderson that the mice fared better when they had a moderate exercise routine during chemotherapy. And so it really helped to get the toxins out of my body, keep my bowels moving, help the um chemo to target the cancer. It just helped in so many ways. But that lymphatic system, which is your trash disposal system, I was constantly activating that. It's the only system in our body that only works when we move. So movement, we now realize, is key for these cancer patients during the cancer journey. And exercise helps to prevent cancer to begin with. And then if you don't want it coming back, you're gonna want to make daily movement and exercise a part of your routine.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Yes. I talk about mindfully and exercise. Move, move. I when anybody tells me that they are sitting all day or their work or what have, I'm like, please move, please move. You are a perfect example. I'm calling you brave because I want individuals you had cancer going through very strong treatments, and you're moving. Um, postpartum, C-sections, knee surgeries, what's the first thing we talk about? We want you to move within reason because the scar tissue buildup, the lymphatic system buildup, the inflammatory response buildup, the healing, and you're from the research, from yourself. I want people to understand that this is important. And these are things it's like if we empower just these little things, one person is hearing you now and saying they're going through their treatment or they're sick or they have had surgery and they think that they should just sit in bed.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

And that's what most people do. They do and they get sicker, not better. And and they get sicker, get sicker, and they have and so persepsis because the toxins can can build up and shut you up.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

And they get sicker, and then they end up back in the acute like circle that I treat also, and I get frustrated because it's like this cannot, this is not chronic. We can work this, but yes, you have to empower that and change the minds of change the way you think. I'm so proud of you to be able to do that and to look beyond that.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Because not everybody I did it to relieve stress, I didn't know it was going to do all those other things. I'll be perfectly honest with you. That's okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

I love but look at this on the other side. Yeah, I oh, so we're gonna talk about your book too.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

I mean, yeah, well, in my book, I have a whole chapter on the benefits of exercise for people in general, but especially for the cancer patient, because they said from those studies in Australia that if exercise were a pill, it should be prescribed to every cancer patient worldwide.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Everyone, everyone. So between the between the water, exercise, and I say yoga, but some sort of stress transformation, whether it's walking, I'm like, those are my top three. And then the the fourth is sleep.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

So well, and sleep, there's a whole chapter in my book because I knew about sleep and a lot of its benefits, but I had to take a deeper dive only to find out when you go into deep sleep, melatonin is a major immune builder and cancer fighter. But yes. So if you're able to get deep sleep while your doctor is killing your cancer with all these different mechanisms, then you're helping to kill the cancer too. Because that's and on an everyday basis, when we're trying to prevent cancer, deep sleep is what helps kill, you know, our body uh heals and repairs itself while we are sleeping. And a lot of Americans think, well, I can get ahead if I get less sleep. I'll just take from the sleep time so I can get ahead and be successful. No, absolutely not. That sleep is God's gift to you to repair your body and to fight disease and cancer. And when you real, when you realize how important sleep is, then you'll give it the proper attention. I remember my naturopathic doctor said to me, if you cannot sleep deeply during all these things your doctor is going to do to you, it's going to be hard for you to get through the cancer journey. So you have to figure out how you're going to get that deep sleep and make a sleep sanctuary in your room and figure out what works with you like natural substances, things you can do in your room like turning out the light and keeping it cool. And I have a, like I say, a whole chapter on sleep and how to get the best deep sleep because it is so beneficial and healing. And again, water, sleep, exercise, these are things we're recommending that don't cost anybody anything.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Yes. I think people need to pause and hear that. In the top five of lifestyle in the medicine world, we don't emphasize the simple stuff. Um and people brush over these simple steps and not realizing that they are almost, I'm gonna say foundation. If that's the right word.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

They are foundation, they're foundation.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

Um and I definitely want those to reach out and um get your book because you're an example of what is the right thing to do. Did you have along your journey moments where it was harder than others, like when you wanted to go for walks on your chemo or do these naturopathic um elements? Did you find that some days you didn't want to do it or you still kind of pushed through?

SPEAKER_02 21:41

I did it every day. I know some people might have to push through. I was very fortunate because I started with the chemo and the walking and the hydration. I didn't build up the toxins that make you so sick. I didn't get the mouth, fever blisters. I didn't a lot of the things people talk about, believe it or not, I never got nauseous. And the worst chemicals were used for the longest amount of time on my body. And I don't know how much of that is what I did or how much of that is just how the chemicals reacted in my body. The toughest times were doing claustrophobic things and having things done to your body that were that were scary. And when they gave me that stage four agreement. Aggressive cancer diagnosis, you know, and that kind of sends your immune system in a tizzy because your emotions or immunosuppressive hormones are going off. And I learned very quickly that I could not live from between fear and worry and keep on that emotional roller coaster. Sure, that's a part of the cancer journey, but I couldn't live like that every day because that suppresses your immune system. So, you know, in the book I taught, I have several chapters on all the things that suppress your immune system as far as stress and fear and emotions, and then what emotions build your immune system because you want to hang out in that realm while the doctor is working on your cancer. So yeah, I learned a lot through the school of hard knocks. And fortunately, I learned things in time to get through the journey and to do well, but I was learning things as I went. I would have started sooner with some things if I knew, you know, had known what I know now. So I was not eating foods that help prevent cancer at the first part of my journey. I didn't know that blueberries cut off blood supply to cancer tumors. I didn't know that cruciferous vegetables are great for all cancer patients, but especially those with estrogen-fed cancers. I now eat certain foods every day because they keep my risk of my cancer coming back. And it's a natural way of using your food as medicine to help prevent and fight cancer. Do you um uh also decrease the amount of sugar that you have in your um oh absolutely the high sugar content in our culture, you know, I believe because many doctors have said it and research has said it, that it helps to drive these cancers. It does, you know, cancer cells crave sugar, that's why they show up on a PET scan. They cancer open up to the radiated sugar, you know. So, yeah, the low carb diet, you know, I don't think we were ever meant to eat such a high carb diet as we are in this day. And that's definitely not helping, you know. But I get into all these things in the book. Let me tell you the name of the book.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

It's called Oh, yes, I want you to talk about this. I I mean I can't wait to read it myself because I have not read it yet, and I would love to. So I want to I'll have that in the show notes.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

So, yes, what is the name of your book and how your God-given healing, eight steps to prevent and survive cancer? What's interesting is the same eight steps that prevent cancer in the first place are the same eight steps that help you get through the cancer journey, and the same eight steps that help you to prevent it from coming back. I look at it this way: I try to help people to control what their doctors have no control over. We're not here to control what the doctor does because I'm not a doctor, okay? I'm here to help the patient control their lifestyle, the one thing your doctor has no control over.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

Very well said. How um how are you doing now? How many years has it been since post-cancer treatment?

SPEAKER_02 25:36

I am seven years out. Yeah, and doing very, very well. And I intend to keep it that way. I'm not going to give up my new lifestyle and go back to the way I used to eat and I used to live because I know in a matter of time I could cause another cancer, if not this one. And I'm high risk. Anytime you've been treated with chemotherapy, you're high risk that when that cancer comes back, it comes back with a vengeance. And so all the detoxing and all the things I've done, I'm hoping my body's back to a more normal state where the risk of that cancer coming back would be minimal instead of high.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Do you have any absolutes? Or in your book, you obviously discuss it. You will never go back to again.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Well, I think it's important for people to realize that our bodies were created to heal on an everyday basis. We have a wonderful and miraculous immune system, and we need to look carefully at what we're doing that's stopping it from doing its God-given job. And don't look at your doctor as the sole person to kill your cancer. Look at what you can do to help your doctors to heal your cancer with your mindset, your emotions, handling stress, what you eat, moving, hydration, all these things put together. Be a compliment to your doctor and don't just sit there and look at your doctor like it's totally their job to kill your cancer, because your part is very important too. Yes, the doctor's part may be what stops your cancer, but your part, once they stop it, can keep it from coming back and can help you fare better during the cancer journey.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

I pause because I want those to hear those words. Um, if you're hearing this, rewind back and listen to what Jenny is saying. So important. Empower yourself in your health journey. I am so grateful for you being on. I'll have your information in the show notes for those to reach out to you. And do you also have a um community or um uh because I feel like you're a cancer advocate with your book?

SPEAKER_02 27:57

Um just well, I have a website at www.genny g-in-n-y, brand, br-a-n-t.com, where you can sign up for blog posts that come out every week. Last week I posted on the eight foods this cancer survivor eats every day. Love it, love it because they are they're so powerful. So I'm constantly.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

Mine's always blueberries. Mine's always blueberries. I have an antioxidant, so I'm always blueberries. My whole family's blueberries and salmon are my top are mine usually.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Yeah. Oh, blueberries are wonderful, and salmon is great too. So there's certain foods that, like say, help to prevent cancer, and there's certain foods that help drive cancer. And so, you know, when you realize these things, it helps you to live differently. If you're one of those people who just doesn't want to go down this road, and trust me, you do not want to go down this road. And that would be my advice to people is put a prevention plan in place. If you're in the journey, compliment what your doctor's doing. If you're a cancer survivor, put a plan in place to prevent it from coming back.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

I thank you for putting those wisdom words for those listening. And even if they don't have cancer, your eight steps to just helping people live a better, healthier life. It's important.

SPEAKER_02 29:21

Very important.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

So thank you again. I really appreciate it. And those listening or watching um the show today, make sure you find a mindful way each and every day. Thanks again and have a wonderful day.