11 min
Prescribing a Diet to Conquer Cancer | Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation Your Stories: Conquering Cancer
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- Relationships
It’s January. Are you among the many people resolved to change your diet in the new year?
Dr. Neil Iyengar and Dr. Nadja Pinnavaia commit to promoting healthy lifestyles every day in their work to prevent cancer and keep it from returning in patients who have already conquered it.
In this episode of Your Stories, they prescribe lifestyle changes influenced by their expertise in disease intervention and share details about their partnership to simplify healthy living for breast cancer survivors.
It's January. Are you among the many people resolve to change your diet in the new year? Dr. Neil Iyengar and Dr. Nadja Pinnavaia commit to promoting healthy lifestyles every day in their work to prevent cancer and keep it from returning in patients who have already conquered it. Dr. Iyengar is a leading oncology researcher studying the links between obesity and breast cancer.
Dr. Pinnavaia left a career in finance to launch a meal and coaching service to transition people into a healthy way of life. In this episode of Your Stories, they prescribe lifestyle changes influenced by their expertise in disease intervention and share details about their partnership to simplify healthy living for breast cancer survivors.
Nadja, could you tell me a little bit about your history with cancer-- I know it's been present in your family-- and how that has colored your upbringing and your current philosophy?
Cancer touches so many of us these days and often creates a new path for us. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer 30 years ago. And she was triple negative. And she died 20 years ago. And then four years ago, my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. And she was operated. And I, at that point, went to be tested genetically. And I'm BRCA2, and I had a prophylactic double mastectomy.
Then more recently, my mother-in-law, whom I'm very close to because both my parents have passed away, was diagnosed with stage 3b kidney cancer. And that actually opened up a new world for me of research and learning about what is it that we can do on top of the great clinical strides that we're making with chemotherapy in order to help our chances of surviving cancer.
I'm curious to understand your decision making around the genetic testing and what really prompted you. I understand the family history. But what really made you decide now's the time for me to go get tested?
Cancer today is a makeup of genes and our environment. I didn't realize how much environment impacted our cancer journey. But if I have cancer coming my way, I'd rather know about it and be on the lookout for it and encompass some changes in my life.
I've been impressed with the way that you have taken your experience and really forged a way forward to take control of some of our environmental factors like diet, for example.
Well, when my mother-in-law was diagnosed with kidney cancer, it was really a stimulus to try and do something to be helpful, not just stand around and keep my fingers crossed for the chemotherapy. Up until that point, I didn't have an awareness of how much lifestyle and environment impacts our ability to stave off cancer cell growth when we have cancer and also increase our odds of survivorship.
It was a learning experience for me to understand how much nutrition, exercise, mental health, and sleep are factors that can strengthen our immune system, keep inflammation low, which are two of the major foundations behind our body that's always staving off rogue cancer cell growth until it can't. So when I learned that, it became my mission to try and help people transition their lifestyle where we can increase odds of survivorship.
I'm curious how you really got to the execution phase. You have this wonderful plant-based approach. But you also take a deeper dive into how people view their lifestyle and how you might be able to change behaviors.
First was the awareness of how much lifestyle impacts us. I was learning that sugar is not
It’s January. Are you among the many people resolved to change your diet in the new year?
Dr. Neil Iyengar and Dr. Nadja Pinnavaia commit to promoting healthy lifestyles every day in their work to prevent cancer and keep it from returning in patients who have already conquered it.
In this episode of Your Stories, they prescribe lifestyle changes influenced by their expertise in disease intervention and share details about their partnership to simplify healthy living for breast cancer survivors.
It's January. Are you among the many people resolve to change your diet in the new year? Dr. Neil Iyengar and Dr. Nadja Pinnavaia commit to promoting healthy lifestyles every day in their work to prevent cancer and keep it from returning in patients who have already conquered it. Dr. Iyengar is a leading oncology researcher studying the links between obesity and breast cancer.
Dr. Pinnavaia left a career in finance to launch a meal and coaching service to transition people into a healthy way of life. In this episode of Your Stories, they prescribe lifestyle changes influenced by their expertise in disease intervention and share details about their partnership to simplify healthy living for breast cancer survivors.
Nadja, could you tell me a little bit about your history with cancer-- I know it's been present in your family-- and how that has colored your upbringing and your current philosophy?
Cancer touches so many of us these days and often creates a new path for us. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer 30 years ago. And she was triple negative. And she died 20 years ago. And then four years ago, my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. And she was operated. And I, at that point, went to be tested genetically. And I'm BRCA2, and I had a prophylactic double mastectomy.
Then more recently, my mother-in-law, whom I'm very close to because both my parents have passed away, was diagnosed with stage 3b kidney cancer. And that actually opened up a new world for me of research and learning about what is it that we can do on top of the great clinical strides that we're making with chemotherapy in order to help our chances of surviving cancer.
I'm curious to understand your decision making around the genetic testing and what really prompted you. I understand the family history. But what really made you decide now's the time for me to go get tested?
Cancer today is a makeup of genes and our environment. I didn't realize how much environment impacted our cancer journey. But if I have cancer coming my way, I'd rather know about it and be on the lookout for it and encompass some changes in my life.
I've been impressed with the way that you have taken your experience and really forged a way forward to take control of some of our environmental factors like diet, for example.
Well, when my mother-in-law was diagnosed with kidney cancer, it was really a stimulus to try and do something to be helpful, not just stand around and keep my fingers crossed for the chemotherapy. Up until that point, I didn't have an awareness of how much lifestyle and environment impacts our ability to stave off cancer cell growth when we have cancer and also increase our odds of survivorship.
It was a learning experience for me to understand how much nutrition, exercise, mental health, and sleep are factors that can strengthen our immune system, keep inflammation low, which are two of the major foundations behind our body that's always staving off rogue cancer cell growth until it can't. So when I learned that, it became my mission to try and help people transition their lifestyle where we can increase odds of survivorship.
I'm curious how you really got to the execution phase. You have this wonderful plant-based approach. But you also take a deeper dive into how people view their lifestyle and how you might be able to change behaviors.
First was the awareness of how much lifestyle impacts us. I was learning that sugar is not
11 min