00:00Hey, so I just want to pop in really quick and talk about a book I just read. It's by a doctor
00:08called Anthony J. Sattellaro. He's from Philadelphia. The book was published in the
00:16early 80s. So anyway, he was from Philadelphia. He was in his late 40s. He was diagnosed with
00:23stage 4 prostate cancer. They had biopsied his prostate, one of his testicles, and part of his
00:32right rib, one of his right ribs, and they found it had metastasized stage 4 prostate cancer.
00:41So they removed his testicles because the testosterone would aggravate the condition.
00:47And he was put on estrogen therapy and pain meds. And he was given a very poor prognosis.
00:55So they said he would not last another five years and probably be dead sooner than that
01:03in the next maybe three years. So at the same time that this was happening, as if it wasn't enough,
01:10his father was dying of cancer. And so very soon after Anthony was diagnosed, his father passed.
01:20And needless to say then, he was going through a lot of mental anguish, a lot of trauma in his life.
01:30He was falling apart. He thought he was a goner. And on the way back from his parents,
01:35on the way back from burying his father, he picked up two hitchhikers on his way back to
01:40his home in Philadelphia. These hitchhikers talked about how they just finished a class
01:48on the macrobiotic diet, which is a diet that consists of just brown rice, sea vegetables,
01:57other vegetables, and possibly a little fruit, and some rare fish. This is a largely plant-based diet,
02:10except for the fish, which is a rare inclusion, if that at all. And so they said that Tony could
02:21get rid of his cancer by following this way of life and this diet. And so after they parted,
02:31they sent him some literature and Tony checked it out. And he decided to look into it. He attended
02:40cooking classes and instruction from the local macrobiotic community and decided to give it a try.
02:49He met up with some of the people, some of the followers of this way of life and diet. They
02:55started to eat together. He didn't like it at first, but he persisted. He felt he didn't have
03:01any other option because everything else was not working. He was experiencing a lot of pain
03:07still. So the more he ate the diet, he was getting a lot better. Pain relief,
03:19and he had a brighter outlook. He had doubts still because he came from a world that embraced,
03:28of course, the medical tradition and how it's conventionally practiced. So this was a new
03:36way of life for him. But since he was feeling a lot better by eating this new way, he wanted to hold
03:45on to it. He thought there was something to it. He thought maybe if this worked and he could get
03:50better with this food, that he could be an example for others. And soon after that, he had some lab
04:00tests done. They were markedly improved from his last values. And a repeat bone scan
04:08showed that he was negative. He had cleared up the cancer. And so he was pretty elated. He started
04:18spreading the word. The word got around. And he decided to go off his estrogen therapy.
04:24All was going well. And then he got thyroiditis. And so he was put on drugs for that. And this was
04:36a part, this was for some other reason besides the cancer. But after all of that, he did a repeat bone
04:45scan, which showed some activity in his ribs. So he started to worry, you know, is the cancer coming back?
04:51But he remained strong. He stuck to his faith, his rekindled faith. And he stuck with the advice from
05:02the macro community, especially the leader of the movement, whose name is Michio Kushi.
05:11And he remained resilient, despite the uncertainty. And it turns out that what caused the flare up or
05:24the positive results of the new bone scan was actually his body getting rid of the drugs that
05:31he was taking, the thyroiditis. The thyroiditis and the treatment was exacerbating the cancer in him
05:41that was left, even though it was small, to show this positive bone scan. And so once he had,
05:46once he whittled down and weaned off the drugs, of course, staying with the diet still,
05:52another bone scan showed negative results, no sign of cancer.
05:57So that from just being strong, sticking with his conviction, following the diet, remaining on the diet
06:05still, and keeping his faith, keeping his spirituality, and his positive attitude,
06:13he was just fine. And all the worry was for not, as long as he stuck to the good way of life,
06:23and the good way of eating, and the great thinking that he had. And the advice from his good friends.
06:32And so that's pretty much how the book ends.
06:35He really stresses in the book how he rekindled his faith. He was a Christian, and he had gave it up for
06:47some time, but after starting the new diet, he went back to his faith and really became a stronger man
06:56from it. And that, in combination with the new lifestyle and diet, how he was feeling better physically,
07:04really changed him into a new man to be less self-centered, have more humility, embrace life
07:11more and appreciate life more, and realize that everyone is blessed all the time, even though
07:20we sometimes seemingly don't deserve it, are not worthy of it. That's another thing that he stresses,
07:28that he felt he didn't deserve a second chance, but he got one. That's the generosity of God to bless us,
07:41even the unworthy, but bless us especially if we stay on a good path,
07:46and or get on a better path or get on the right path after being on the wrong one.
07:56So great book. Again, it's Recalled by Life by Dr. Anthony J. Sattelaro, MD. I recommend it to everyone. Thanks.
Comments