"Your body was designed to heal. Your Job is to remove what blocks it and create the conditions for freedom."

Introduction: Why This Blog Matters

Cancer is a word that strikes a chord in every single one of us. Whether it’s you, a parent, a spouse, a friend, or even a child, we all know someone whose life has been shaken by this diagnosis. It is never abstract. It is always personal.

In my own work, I’ve had clients come to me solely for therapeutic keto strategies — asking how to adjust their macros, how to fast safely, how to protect their strength while in treatment, and how to use nutrition to make chemotherapy more effective without letting their muscles waste away. Others come searching for support, needing to know that someone will step up for them when they feel too weak to do it themselves.

That’s why I wanted to write this: to gather and compile everything I’ve read, studied, and practiced into one place. My hope is simple — that even if this helps just one person feel less afraid, just one family find strength, or just one patient realize they have more options than the system has told them, then it has been worth it.

I want to be clear: I am not an oncologist. I am not here to prescribe. I am a registered nurse, a functional health practitioner, and a former palliative care coordinator. And what I learned in those palliative care years is that sometimes your strongest ally is your advocate — the person who can speak up when you can’t, who can pause the whirlwind of appointments and protocols to say: Wait. There are other avenues. There are other ways to support the body. We don’t have to accept only one narrow path.

That is the spirit behind this blog. It is not medical advice. It is what I have studied, what I have learned, and what I have lived. It is my offering to anyone ready to look outside the box — not to reject standard care, but to expand the conversation, to bring in tools that strengthen the terrain and honor the body’s own design.

Because at the end of the day, the real goal is not just to attack disease. The real goal is to help the body heal itself.

The Terrain Theory: Cancer Is Not Random

We’ve been told cancer is a roll of the dice — bad genes, bad luck. But the truth? Genes may load the gun, but environment  pulls the trigger.

They say at least 30–50% of cancers are preventable with changes in diet, toxin exposure, and lifestyle. Think about that — half of cancers could be avoided if we focused on terrain medicine instead of damage control.

What Terrain  Really Means

“Terrain” is just a fancy word for the internal soil of your body — your inflammation levels, your mitochondria, your detox capacity, your stress hormones, your circadian rhythm, your immune resilience. If the soil is dry, toxic, and inflamed, weeds grow. If the soil is rich and balanced, healthy plants thrive.

Cancer grows when terrain collapses:

• Inflammation: Molecules like NF-κB, IL-6, and TNF-α act like fire alarms stuck in the “on” position. A little inflammation protects us. Chronic inflammation creates chaos.
• Mitochondrial dysfunction: Your mitochondria are your cellular power plants. Healthy mitochondria keep energy clean and flip the “self-destruct” switch on broken cells (apoptosis). Damaged mitochondria burn dirty fuel and let broken cells linger.
• Oxidative stress: Think of it like internal rust. Free radicals spark faster than your antioxidants can catch them, and DNA gets scarred in the process.

How I Explain This to Clients

When I’m in a session with a client, I say: Picture your body like a home with good bones. But the alarms are blaring, the wiring is faulty, and the air is full of smoke. That’s inflammation, mitochondria, and oxidative stress. You can’t rest in a house like that, and your body can’t heal in it either. My job is to help you quiet the alarms, rewire the system, clear the smoke, and make your home livable again. That’s terrain medicine.

Immune Terrain

Your immune system is your body’s army, patrolling 24/7. Most of the time it clears rogue cells before they become tumors. That’s normal. That’s how you’re designed.

But modern life weakens that army. Sugar spikes, chronic stress, lack of sleep, toxins, and nutrient depletion blunt natural killer (NK) cells and T-cells. They lose precision. They hesitate. And that gives cancer a chance to grow.

The good news? This is reversible. Exercise boosts immune surveillance. Protein and minerals like zinc and selenium restore immune tools. Vitamin D is like sunlight armor for immune cells. Medicinal mushrooms like reishi and turkey tail fine-tune the immune terrain.

How I Explain This to Clients

Your immune system isn’t a number on a blood test. It’s a living, breathing army. Your NK cells are the special forces. Your T-cells are the commanders. But if they’re underfed, exhausted, and distracted, they can’t win. When we fuel them with protein, restore minerals, give them sunlight, help them sleep, and teach them calm, suddenly your army remembers how to fight again. That’s why women go from “every cold knocks me out” to “I bounced back in two days.” That’s terrain.

Epigenetics: Flipping the Switches

You are not doomed by family history. Genes are switches. Epigenetics is the hand that flips them on or off. And guess what flips them? Diet, toxins, sleep, stress, prayer, fasting, movement, sunlight, forgiveness.

Ketones,  for example, change gene expression toward repair. Fasting calms growth signals. Trauma and resentment can “mark” genes negatively, while healing and forgiveness can re-mark them positively.

How I Explain This to Clients

I look my clients in the eye and say: You don’t inherit a life sentence. You inherit switches. And your daily choices are the fingers that flip them. Eat protein, go to bed on time, sweat, pray, forgive — those are switch-flips. That’s how you take back the pen and start writing a different story than the one your family lived.

Circadian Rhythm and Melatonin: Time Is Medicine

Melatonin isn’t just a sleep hormone. It’s one of the most powerful cancer-fighting molecules your body makes. But modern life murders melatonin.

Screens at night. LEDs and Wi-Fi at all hours. Night shifts. Artificial light in the evening. All of it strips melatonin and scrambles circadian rhythm. And research is clear: night-shift workers have higher cancer rates.

Morning light is your body’s “good morning” message. True darkness at night is your repair mode. When you give your body light by day and dark by night, melatonin rises, repair genes switch on, and inflammation calms.

How I Explain This to Clients

I coach women to treat darkness like medicine. Darkness is a vitamin. It’s free. It’s simple. You just have to give it to your body. That means sunrise light on your face without sunglasses, and darkness at night with no screens and no blue light. When you honor your rhythm, your hormones fall back into place, your immune system gets its marching orders, and your body remembers how to heal.

Cancer’s Fuel Roads: Sugar, Glutamine, and Beyond

The Warburg Effect: Cancer’s Sweet Tooth

In the 1920s, Nobel-winning scientist Otto Warburg discovered something revolutionary: cancer cells prefer to ferment glucose (sugar) even when oxygen is abundant. This became known as the Warburg Effect.

In plain English? Sugar is cancer’s favorite food.

Cancer thrives on sugar because it allows fast, dirty energy production. It’s inefficient, but tumors don’t care — they just want fuel to keep growing.

• Every soda, carb-heavy snack, or “healthy” granola bar is like dumping gasoline on a fire.
• High blood sugar → high insulin → growth signals like IGF-1 and mTOR screaming “build, build, build.”
• Ketogenic and ketovore diets change the fuel mix: glucose and insulin go down, ketones go up. Healthy cells thrive on ketones. Cancer cells choke on them.

How I explain this to clients:

Think of cancer as a sugar addict. Even when oxygen is sitting right there, it chooses carbs like a junkie reaching for cookies. When we take away its sugar fix, it panics. But here’s the gift — your healthy cells are flexible. They know how to run on fat and ketones. So when you change your fuel, your healthy cells thrive, and cancer gets weaker. That’s terrain medicine at work.

The Juice Cleanse Myth

Juice cleanses look virtuous on Instagram — rows of mason jars, bright colors, promises of “detox.” But here’s the truth: most juices are liquid sugar.

• One “green juice” can spike blood sugar as much as soda.
• That means insulin spikes, inflammation surges, and tumors get fed.
• Juice strips fiber out of plants — the part that slows down sugar absorption. What’s left is a sugar bomb with a halo.

How I explain this to clients:

Detox is not about flooding your body with sugar water. Real detox is about taking out the trash. It means less poison in — ditching seed oils, plastics, pesticides, fragrance — and more power out — cruciferous veggies to support your liver, minerals to help bind toxins, clean hydration, sweat, sleep. A juice cleanse is a blood sugar roller coaster in a bottle. Terrain detox is slower, quieter, and so much more powerful.

Glutamine: Cancer’s Backup Generator

Cancer is crafty. When you shut off its sugar supply, it flips to its backup generator: glutamine.

Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in your body. You need it for gut health, immunity, and healing. But tumors hijack it to keep growing.

• Glutamine fuels anabolic growth in tumors when glucose is scarce.
• Studies are testing drugs like CB-839, DON, and even old anti-parasitics like mebendazole to block glutamine metabolism.
• Cutting sugar is step one. Understanding glutamine is step two.

How I explain this to clients:

Sugar is the freeway. When we shut it down, cancer looks for the frontage road. That frontage road is glutamine. It’s not about demonizing glutamine — your healthy cells need it. But we can slow the frontage road with strategy, stacking nutrition and sometimes off-label tools to make sure tumors don’t just reroute traffic. This is why we build a layered map, not a one-trick plan.

Jane McLelland’s Metro Map

Jane McLelland is a cancer survivor who outlived her stage IV diagnosis by hacking cancer’s fuel lines. She created the “Metro Map” to show how cancer finds different roads.

• Main road: glucose — blocked with keto, metformin, fasting.
• Backup road: glutamine — blocked with glutaminase inhibitors, mebendazole.
• Side roads: lipids, growth factors — slowed with curcumin, quercetin, resveratrol.
• Terrain supports: vitamin D, circadian repair, detoxification, emotional release.

Her message is powerful: cancer is addicted. Cut the supply lines, and you weaken the enemy.

How I explain this to clients:

Jane’s map helps women stop chasing “the” miracle supplement. There isn’t one. Instead, picture cancer like a city with roads, alleys, and backstreets. We can block the freeway, slow the alleys, cut off the side roads — while strengthening your city walls. That’s what our Warrior Wellness protocol becomes: not a silver bullet, but a siege strategy.

Off-Label and Nutraceutical Stacks

Modern research is catching up to what holistic practitioners have known: terrain matters.

That’s why so many trials are testing off-label drugs and nutraceuticals.

• Metformin: lowers insulin and glucose signals that feed tumors.
• DCA: pushes cells back into oxidative metabolism.
• Mebendazole: an old anti-parasitic that disrupts microtubules in cancer cells.
• Hydroxychloroquine: blocks autophagy, cancer’s recycling program.
• IV Vitamin C: acts as a pro-oxidant in high doses, damaging cancer cells.
• Curcumin, quercetin, resveratrol: polyphenols that slow tumor signaling.

And then there are peptides — small protein fragments that guide repair:

• BPC-157: heals gut and blood vessels.
• Thymosin alpha-1: modulates immunity.
• Epitalon: restores circadian rhythms, protects telomeres.
• GHK-Cu: supports DNA repair and regeneration.

These aren’t magic cures. But they fit the terrain model: they restore balance, repair, and resilience.

The latest evidence makes this even stronger:

- In 2024, a randomized phase-2 trial showed high-dose IV Vitamin C doubled survival in pancreatic cancer when added to chemo (8 → 16 months).
- The 2024 MISTRAL trial confirmed mistletoe therapy improves quality of life and hinted at survival benefits in pancreatic cancer patients.
- Hyperthermia has been proven to enhance outcomes in cervical, rectal, and head & neck cancers when paired with radiation or chemo.
- Early human data show HBOT (hyperbaric oxygen therapy) works synergistically with ketogenic diets by reversing tumor hypoxia.
- The Care Oncology Protocol — a strategic combination of metformin, doxycycline, statins, and mebendazole — is showing promising survival signals in real-world clinical cohorts.

How I explain this to clients:

We don’t throw the kitchen sink at you. We sequence and we stack. First we stabilize your blood sugar. Then we repair sleep. Then we feed you protein and minerals. Then we clean toxins. Only after that foundation do we layer in advanced tools with your medical team. The order matters more than the hype. Small wins stacked together change the terrain in ways one pill never could.

Why the Conventional Cancer Model Must Change

Mainstream cancer care hasn’t evolved much: surgery, chemo, radiation — cut, burn, poison. Yes, these tools can save lives. But they often damage the very terrain your body needs to heal.

• Chemo and radiation damage gut lining, hormones, immunity, mitochondria.
• Biopsies, while usually safe, may in rare cases disturb encapsulated tumors.
• Oncologists themselves often admit frustration — trapped by outdated insurance rules and rigid treatment protocols.

How I explain this to clients:

I don’t demonize oncologists — many are brilliant and compassionate. But they’re boxed in. They’re working in a system that values protocols over personalization. My role is not to fight your doctors. My role is to fortify you: strengthen your gut, restore your hormones, protect your sleep, rebuild your immune system. If all the system offers is a hammer, we make sure your body isn’t the nail.

I learned this most clearly as a palliative care nurse coordinator. My job was to sit in the room when families were exhausted and overwhelmed, and make sure the patient’s voice didn’t get lost. Too often, the system moves too fast — scan, protocol, next appointment — without ever asking what the patient actually wants, or what the body actually needs.

What I saw over and over was that sometimes the strongest ally is the advocate — the person who speaks up when the patient can’t. The one who says: “Wait. Slow down. Let’s ask about nutrition. Let’s consider support for sleep and immunity. Let’s look at other avenues.”

That spirit of advocacy is baked into my Warrior Wellness Model. You deserve more than a one-size-fits-all plan. You deserve someone reminding you that your body has a voice, too.

A Note for Those in the Fight

If you are navigating cancer treatment right now, hear me: you are not alone, and you are not the problem.

The system is the problem. Too often patients are given only three options: surgery, chemo, radiation. Ask about nutrition, detox, or integrative support? Many are dismissed, or even dropped from care.

Even oncologists are frustrated. They read the research, they know better options exist — but insurance, regulations, and fear of liability keep them from practicing freely.

Here’s the truth: there is more out there than cut, burn, poison. Nutrition, detox, nervous system balance, emotional release, and spiritual renewal are not “alternatives.” They are foundations.

How I explain this to clients:

Whatever path you choose — conventional, integrative, or both — my mission is to make your body stronger for the journey. If you’re doing chemo, we’ll support protein, hydration, electrolytes, sleep, and gentle movement so your terrain doesn’t collapse. If you’re in surgery recovery, we’ll focus on wound healing, gut repair, immune resilience. You don’t have to walk this weak. You can walk it fortified.

Screening: Mammogram, Ultrasound, and MRI

Mammograms have saved lives — no one can deny that. But here’s what isn’t said enough: mammograms also carry risks.

• Over 10 years, about half of women screened annually will experience at least one false-positive. That means callbacks, more imaging, and sometimes biopsies that turn out benign.
• Radiation adds up. A single mammogram is low-dose, but repeated annually over decades, the exposure isn’t nothing.
• Dense breasts make detection harder. About half of women have dense tissue. On a mammogram, dense tissue looks white. Tumors also look white. It’s like trying to spot a snowball in a blizzard.

This is why adjunct imaging matters.

• The J-START trial in Japan showed that adding ultrasound to mammography improved sensitivity, catching more early-stage cancers and cutting interval cancers.
• The ASTOUND-2 trial in Italy found that ultrasound picked up about five extra cancers per 1,000 women with dense breasts, compared to tomosynthesis.
• The DENSE trial in Europe showed that MRI in women with extremely dense breasts dramatically reduced interval cancers and caught tumors mammography missed.

How I explain this to clients:

If your breasts are dense, a mammogram is static. I personally do not endorse mammograms as the safest long-term option. I want you to understand your choices so you make the best informed decision for you with your physician. Ultrasound is like upgrading to HD. MRI is night vision goggles. Yes, more callbacks can happen. But I would rather have you sit through a callback than miss something serious. Screening should fit your biology. And with new FDA rules requiring breast density to be reported, you now have the right to ask about adjunct screening. Use it.

Here are words you can use in the doctor’s office:

• “My breasts are BI-RADS C/D dense. Can we discuss 3D mammography plus adjunct ultrasound?”
• “If my density is extreme, I’d like to consider MRI. I’ve read about the DENSE trial.”
• “I understand this may increase callbacks, but I want to optimize detection for my density.”

Cachexia Caution

When people hear “starve cancer,” they sometimes get reckless. They push strict keto, fasting, or calorie cuts even when their body is wasting away.

This is dangerous.

Cachexia — the severe muscle wasting that can happen in cancer — kills more patients than tumors themselves. Muscle is immunity. Muscle is recovery power. Muscle is your health savings account.

If you are in treatment and losing weight, protein and calories come first.

• Prioritize 1–1.5 g protein per kg body weight daily.
• Use collagen and whey if whole foods are hard.
• Add healthy fats if you can’t keep weight.
• Don’t push prolonged fasting or strict carb restriction if weight is plummeting.

If you’re in treatment and worried about weight loss, you can ask your team:

• “How can I make sure I’m getting enough protein during chemo to protect my muscle?”
• “What calorie or nutrition goals should I prioritize to keep my strength up?”
• Under “Warburg Effect” or “Therapeutic Keto + Fasting”:

How I explain this to clients:

This is the “bank account moment.” You can’t fight if you’re bankrupt. In cachexia, the priority is daily deposits: protein, minerals, hydration. Every meal is a deposit into your muscle bank. Don’t starve yourself in the name of starving cancer. Protect your muscle, and your body will have the strength to keep fighting.

When asking about nutrition and fasting, you might say:

• “Can we discuss whether therapeutic keto or fasting protocols could support my treatment?”
• “I want to avoid uncontrolled weight loss — how can I adjust my macros safely during chemo?”

These scripts aren’t confrontational. They’re conversation starters — the kind that remind your doctor you’re an active partner, not just a passive patient.

Toxins, Beauty Culture, and Modern Saboteurs

We live in the most toxic era in human history.

• Plastics leach xenoestrogens that mimic hormones.
• Seed oils oxidize easily, driving DNA damage and inflammation.
• PFAS “forever chemicals” sit in water, cookware, and food packaging.
• Fragrance chemicals disrupt endocrine balance.
• Botox and fillers add immune burden.
• EMFs add constant oxidative noise.
• Mold and dirty water create silent inflammation.

The toxic bucket overflows — and when it does, terrain collapses.

How I explain this to clients:

We don’t fix the whole world, we fix your world. We lighten your toxic load piece by piece. Swap seed oils for olive, avocado, tallow. Replace flaking nonstick pans with stainless or enameled cast iron. Filter your water. Crack your windows. Ditch the fragrance sprays. Simplify skincare to things you’d eat. Every swap is a rock taken out of your backpack. You’ll feel lighter and your body will have more energy to heal.

Nervous System and Emotional Terrain

Cancer doesn’t just feed on sugar. It feeds on chronic stress chemistry. You cannot heal when your body is locked in fight-or-flight.

Chronic stress keeps cortisol high, immunity low, and inflammation burning.

Terrain medicine requires nervous system retraining:

• Breathwork to lengthen exhale and activate the vagus nerve.
• Zone Technique  to reset brain-body signaling.
• Sound therapy to shift brainwaves out of hypervigilance.
• The Emotion Code to release trapped emotional energy.
• HRV training to retrain resilience.

How I explain this to clients:

I teach a 3-minute drill. Two minutes of sunlight and gratitude. One minute of slow nasal breathing with long exhale. Whisper, “God, I release what isn’t mine to carry.” Shoulders drop. Heart rate steadies. That’s your vagus nerve saying, “We are safe now. We can repair.” You cannot heal in survival mode. We retrain your body to feel safe so it can remember how to heal.

Spirit, Mindset, and Healing Energy

Healing is not only physical. It is also deeply spiritual and energetic.  Science is beginning to catch up with what both ancient wisdom and scripture have said all along: your thoughts, beliefs, and focus shape your biology.

The Law of Attraction says that what we focus on expands. Constantly repeating “I’m sick, I’m broken, I’m doomed” teaches your brain and body to stay in survival chemistry. Shifting to “I am healing, I am supported, I am safe” literally signals your nervous system to downshift into repair mode.

Meditation is not about emptying your mind — it’s about creating space for God’s presence, calming your stress hormones, and opening your heart to healing. Studies show meditation lowers cortisol, improves immune function, and even changes brain structure toward resilience.

Faith, Forgiveness, and Spirit

Science now proves what scripture has said all along: faith heals.

• Forgiveness lowers cortisol and blood pressure.
• Gratitude and prayer shift heart rhythms into coherence.
• Worship and trust anchor the nervous system in peace.

How I explain this to clients:

Forgiveness is not excusing what happened. It’s cutting the cord that keeps your nervous system braced for impact. I’ve seen women’s sleep deepen and cravings fade after forgiveness work — because their biology is no longer holding its breath. Faith is nervous-system medicine. When your spirit rests, your body hears: we are safe. We can heal now.

Healing isn’t only physical — it’s mental, emotional, and spiritual. Here are simple daily practices that shift your terrain:

• Journaling Prompt: “What burden am I carrying today that I can set down?” Write it. Rip the page. Burn it. Release.
• Gratitude Reset: Name 3 things out loud that you’re grateful for before every meal. Gratitude literally changes digestive chemistry and lowers inflammation.
• Guided Prayer Flow: Before sleep, breathe slow and whisper: “God, thank You for one thing today. God, forgive me for one thing today. God, please carry one thing for me tonight.”
• Body Safety Drill: Place your hand on your heart, take 6 slow nasal breaths with a long exhale, and say: “I am safe. My body can repair.”

These aren’t small. They are daily signals that turn off fight-or-flight and turn on repair.

FAQs

Can keto be combined with chemo?

Yes. Focus on protein, hydration, electrolytes. Don’t starve yourself; fuel yourself smart.

What if I’m underweight?

Prioritize calories and protein. Cut all sugar and make sure your calories are up with healthy fats.

Does IV Vitamin C really help cancer? Yes. A 2024 pancreatic trial doubled survival when added to chemo. 

Can mistletoe therapy make a difference?  Yes. Trials confirm better quality of life and possible survival benefit.

 
Does exercise reduce recurrence?  Absolutely. Structured exercise lowers recurrence risk and improves survival. 

What about melatonin?  High-dose melatonin (18–20 mg nightly) improves tolerance to treatment and may extend survival. 

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The Warrior Protocol Snapshot

Here’s how terrain healing becomes a lived rhythm:

Daily: protein-first meals, no sugar, no seed oils, morning light, 20–40 minutes of movement, dim evenings, prayer + breath before bed. N

Weekly: sauna or sweat, batch-cooked proteins, toxin swaps, strength day. Pay attention to everything you are putting in and on your body. Stay alcohol free.

Monthly: labs, water/air filter check, supplement review.

Always: compassion toward yourself — because your nervous system hears your self-talk.

Case Study

“K,” age 43. Dense breasts. Burnout. Sugar crashes.

We built a plan: 120 grams protein daily, no seed oils or sugar, morning light walks, vitamin D and magnesium, fragrance purge, nightly 6-breaths-per-minute practice.

Eight weeks later: energy up, cycle regular, inflammation down, A1c improved, sleep restored.

Her words: “I finally feel like my body is on my team.”

Another client, “S,” came to me after completing radiation. She was fatigued, bloated, and told me: “I feel like I survived the treatment, but my body didn’t.” Together we rebuilt her terrain: protein-first meals, elimination of seed oils, magnesium for sleep, fragrance-free home. In 12 weeks her energy returned, her cycles normalized, and she told me: “I finally recognize myself again.”

One more, “J,” a man supporting his wife through chemo, wanted to know how to help her eat without triggering nausea. We worked on small, protein-rich meals with electrolytes, using bone broth and gentle keto adjustments. Not only did she hold her weight, but her oncologist remarked: “You’re tolerating treatment better than most.” That’s terrain support in action.

The Warrior Truth and Call to Action

Cancer is smart. But so are we.

• Keto and ketovore starve its sweet tooth.
• Off-labels and nutraceuticals block its backups.
• Nervous system retraining restores repair.
• Faith and forgiveness renew spirit.

We are not treating tumors. We are treating people.

I’ve been the ER nurse at 2 a.m., holding families together through the shock of diagnosis.

I’ve been the palliative care coordinator, fighting for patients to be heard when the system wanted to rush ahead.

And I am now the Nurse Wellness Warrior, committed to showing you that your body was designed by God to heal when we stop drowning it in sugar, toxins, stress, and fear.

Cancer is smart. But so are we.

The system is loud. But your body’s whisper is louder when you know how to listen.

You are not fragile. You are fire. You are the advocate, the healer, the Warrior.

The real goal is not just to fight disease. The real goal is to awaken the body’s God-given ability to heal itself.

Start with my Free Anti-Inflammatory Reset Starter Kit in my Stan Store. Let this be your first step into terrain-based living and Warrior-level healing.

PS: Tell me one line — what part of this hit home for you? I read every reply. Your words shape what I build next.

With Love and Gratitude for you,

Nicole Kelley, RN, NC, BCHHP

The Nurse Wellness Warrior

nicole.thenursewellnesswarrior