BC-076 How 10yr Survivor, Natalie Proenca, Beat Cancer Holistically and has grown to be a Top Cancer Coach

Natalie Proenca conquered breast cancer for over 10 years. Her cancer diagnosis was in 2008 with conventional treatment. Then a few years later she had tumors in ovaries and uterus. Her oncologist confirmed that it was caused by hormonal therapy. She took this chance and used a natural approach and treated it by changing diet and exercises.

She has transformed herself using mind-body-spirit and decided to leave her Software Engineer career and was trained as a Cancer Coach with BeatCancer and TrulyHeal, and certified Holistic Integrative Health Coach with IIN. She is also a certified Plant-based Nutrition Graduate at eCornell (with T. Colin Campbell). She's helped many cancer patients recover from the treatments and even help them healed from different types of cancer such as breast cancer, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, lung cancer, kidney cancer, colon cancer, thyroid cancer, and brain cancer. She offers online programs; Colon & Kidney Detox and Beat Cancer Naturally. She has a strong passion to guide you to find the best protocol for you to fight cancer and get well. Connect with her on facebook.com/Natalie.Proenca or email at [email protected] or 508-282-6698.

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Natalie:  For someone who just found out that they've been diagnosed with cancer. What should they do? I think the very first thing you need to understand is that you have had cancer for years. You did not have cancer two days ago or two months ago, it has been for a long time. It could take seven to ten or twenty years. If you have lung cancer, it could be thirty years. So do not rush. I want you to step back and then just take a quiet moment and ask yourself, how did you get cancer and what you should do next. Most people, when they learn that they have cancer, get frustrated. They have fears. When you make decisions with fears, you make the wrong decision. I want you to learn, I want you to search, ask people who have been there, who have experience guide you, what you should do. So you have the right path. You don't want to try left and right and back and forth. You're going to lose time. Even though I said, you have been having cancer for a long time, but sometimes when you choose the wrong road, you're losing time and the cancer, it's true that it's growing all the time, but it's not as fast as when you know it. Think about two years, five years ago, you did not know that you have cancer. You never care about cancer. You never really think about it, but now you know that you have cancer, you start having fears, you start worry and that causes cancer to grow very fast.

So the first thing you should do is to just step back and ask yourself, what is the right protocol for you? You want to do conventional, or you want to do naturally or you want to do integrative? I want you to sit down and then take a piece of paper and write down pros and cons of each approach and think about what will fit your lifestyle the most, and what's best for yourself because each approach is not the best for everyone. You have to come up with your own protocol and that's the very first step that I want to suggest to anyone that has just been diagnosed with cancer.

Intro: Hello and welcome to the Beat Cancer Answer brought to you by beatcancer.org. The center for advancement in cancer education.

Carl: This is Carl Wagner. I'm here with Beat Cancer. We're here with another one of our great coaches, Natalie Parenza and I'm going to just shut up and let her speak. So Natalie, please tell us a little bit about yourself, your journey and how you came to beat cancer?

Natalie: My name is Natalie. My journey about cancer; I have been diagnosed since 2008, when my youngest son was just 10 months old. I had breast cancer and my son was just learning how to walk. At that time  I had no knowledge. I had no information about alternative medicine or alternative approaches so I don't know what to do. I just took the conventional treatment, just like a lot of people did. So I had surgery, I had chemotherapy, radiation. Then one day I saw one of my friends, she had cancer returned. She had breast cancer before and then she had cancer returned. The second time she had brain cancer and she didn't make it and I have seen a lot of people and I started to realize that conventional treatment is not the answer. I had that experience myself. I was on Tamoxifen, I was on hormone therapy for two years, then it started showing tumor in my ovaries and uterus. So the doctor kept watching the tumor growing, by that time I already told myself that I don't want to be like others, I don't want cancer to return. What should I do? I start taking control of my health and I start searching for the answer, how can I be cancer free?

So I study a lot. I started reading books, any books about cancer, I just read it and I started changing my lifestyle, changing my diet. So I told my doctor that I don't want any surgery anymore. I don't want any drugs, nothing. So I started changing, implementing a new diet. I make green smoothie every day and then start cutting meat one by one until finally I was able to switch everything. So I was on a plant based at some point. So I'm not completely vegan or vegetarian, I'm just trying to find what is best for me. So six months after that, the doctor said, what did you do? Your tumor is gone, but the doctor's still giving me Tamoxifen, I still kept taking it because she said, I'm still young. I was diagnosed when I was 36 and she said, okay, because you have an aggressive type, your cancer can come back in five years so you should be on hormone therapy. So I told my doctor that I don't want anything removed, no more surgery. So the first time the tumor was gone, she just said it was a surprise. Maybe it was something of a fault test or something. So I kept taking Tamoxifen more and more and the tumor started growing again.

The second time I was able to shrink the tumor, it happened three times until my oncologist said, okay, yes, your hormone therapy is actually causing your tumor to grow. So it took three times for my oncologist to convince me that it was the hormone of therapy that caused that. I knew that, so that time I already have knowledge, I already know what to do with my body so I was not afraid of cancer anymore. So that's my turning point, that's why I want to take control of myself and I start changing. It seems like I have my new life since then. So I have been doing this for more than 10 years now. I've been cancer free for 10 years.

Carl: Congratulations.

Natalie: Thank you so much, that's how I started to really pay attention and really interested and I want to become a cancer coach and help other people.

Carl: Yeah. Make your cancer mean something.

Natalie: It does.

Carl: Yes. So I hear many similar stories. In fact I might've shared this before with some other coaches, but my mother had breast cancer and she did radiation and I'm not sure if she did chemo, I was pretty young at the time. So she was a statistic of somebody who lived through breast cancer because she lasted more than five years. So they say you're a survivor, but she did die of cancer and it was cancer and that was in her intestinal area. It was actually on top of it. It was strange. So just like you said, the cancer came back and just like you said, a lot of people that the cancer comes back, they must change their lifestyle.

Natalie: So that was the thing that I started questioning because when I took the conventional treatment, I did not have any knowledge. My doctor did not tell me, she just said, oh, you can eat everything, but just reduce red meat to just a couple of meals per week and I hear a lot of information from my friends, from the media and it just gets confusing. At some point at the beginning, I actually refused everything because I don't trust anyone. Then I realized why a lot of people have cancer return. So conventional treatment is not the answer. Then I start searching for the truth. Then I realized that, oh my God, I have to do something because I don't want to be like others that have cancer return again. So that's what I start searching and learning and learning and here I am, I believe that my knowledge can help others and if I can save someone's life or someone can use my information, my knowledge that I have been studying for more than 10 years, I want to help other, I want to be the person who opening that door and show them and tell them here. There are so many roads, so many paths that you can choose how to get well without using a conventional treatment or if you want to integrate it both, you have to do something. You have to protect yourself, not to really get cancer again; I have seen some people, some of my clients, that they did not prepare themselves and then when they receive chemotherapy or radiation and they just get sick and sicker, and then they cannot tolerate the medicine, they cannot tolerate the drugs and they didn't make it and that is so sad.  That is why this information is not there for people to know this.

Carl: Yeah. It seems that well here in America, when somebody has any type of heart issue, anything, they usually leave the doctor's office with a laundry list of things to do, eat less salt, get more exercise, lose some weight, less red meat. But when we go to the oncology office with cancer, they don't tell you anything it seems, at least in regards to how you can participate in your own healing the way that they deal with heart issues say you get to be a participant, you get to be part of the healing process. So yeah, and what you said about integrative approach. So we don't ever say to anybody don't follow your doctor's advice that would just put us out of business in a heartbeat and set us up for liability. But we absolutely do say look with what our advice is let's change the terrain of your body. Let's get you in the best position for your body to help itself heal because the medicines and the radiation do not heal the cancer, it kills the cancer.

Natalie: And it's temporary. Those treatments kill the cancer but just for a very short time.

Carl: Right. Right. And you've got to change your lifestyle like you said, like you did, an excellent example, right. You're a role model and that's a great thing. You show how you can come back and have a vibrant life. Yeah, love it. So how did you find beat cancer?

Natalie: So I have been studying, searching, I'm always learning and I actually want more and more information. Then I took health coach training from IIN Institute for Integrative Nutrition.  When I'm done with that it gives me an overview of how to become a health coach, but then I want a specific cancer coach. Then I Google it and I have been looking for many, many places and this is it. When I watched the video, when I watched Susan talking and I was like, I have to enroll into this program and that's how I found beat cancer.org.

Carl: Oh, that's great. That's great. So what was it about the course that you feel that you gained knowledge wise that helped you over the other things that you have already learned?

Natalie: My favorite part, I have three favorites. One is the mind, body, spirit part; I never heard it from anywhere about characteristics of cancer patients, especially Susan summarized more than 30,000 patients that she interviewed and she summarized each type of cancer, breast cancer, uterus cancer, kidney and lung cancer. It’s just amazing that when I look at myself, I ask myself, yes, is this true and moreover, I try to use that information because I already started having clients before. So I start asking questions when they come to me, I ask, okay, what type of cancer do you have? And I started applying the knowledge from what I learned from Beat Cancer and every single one said it correctly, how did I know that? It seems like I'm a fortune teller, but I said based on the studies as Susan did that and I was like it is amazing for me about my body's connection about each type of cancer. So that's my first impression is my favorite information that I learned from beat cancer.

The second one is the document. Oh my God, it was just like massive, all what I want to know including diet, what to eat, what not to eat and there the chart about the mind, the spirit, the spiritual, what to do, the A-Z kinds of food, the superfood, everything, all the documentation that this organization gathered. It's so valuable, it's much more than the tuition fee that I paid. Honestly, you get a lot more. The bonus is a plus, everything that I want to learn about cancer that is always document there. So the third part that I like a lot is the example of the interview, the case study and showing real examples, how to interview and how to ask questions, how to ask the right question to clients and observation about the patient, when they respond and what we should ask and that I think is very good. I didn't learn from anywhere else. So that's my, the best favorite parts that I learned that's a lot more than that though. It's a lot, but if I pick the top three, that would be it.

Carl: Yeah. The bonus area was something I did after Susan retired. I felt like everything that we had in digital format, all the books, all the videos, all the audio recordings, I wanted our coaches to have all of that and I just threw it all in. Everything that she's ever done for 35 years I wanted you guys to have it. So I'm glad you mentioned that, that makes me feel good that you took advantage of that and enjoyed that.

Natalie: Oh, I go through everything. I cannot remember everything though. I think I have to go through that again and again, there's so much information and I'm just so excited. I was one of those people that was really crazy about learning. I never stopped learning, and this is always something for me to learn.

Carl: Yeah. It's just the beginning that our course is just the beginning. It's to set you on the right course for your journey and I don't know; where are you working at right now?

Natalie: Where am I working right now?

Carl: No, no, your country.

Natalie: Oh, I’m originally from Thailand and most of my clients, they are Thai, but they're living in the US; most of my clients they are in Thailand and I have people from all over the world. Some people, some Thai people live in Germany, New Zealand, Switzerland and some in France,.It's very exciting to be a coach and I'm able to help people around the world.

Carl: Yeah. I love it. I love it. It just seems like we get one person and all of a sudden all over the world, they're teaching people and I love it that you're teaching the Taiwanese and bringing it to the Taiwanese culture and you're just a shining example.

Natalie: Yes. Especially when I've been living in the US more than 20 years. When I talk to Thai people about cancer, they don't have information like how I have here. So I see that's why no one tell them about this. There may be cancer coaches in Thailand that I haven't met, but I see that there are some information that is very valuable, that they should know about this and I started with clients in Thailand first because I wanted to help them and I also have clients here in the US as well. I just see that Thai people need someone to really share this information, because it's a lot of information. I see that they're still; I was thinking about myself 10 years ago when I was diagnosed with cancer. Nobody tells me anything about alternatives, so I think Thailand, it just like back then there's still like, everything is about chemotherapy. You must take chemotherapy only, radiation only and you should not take any supplements because it's going to interfere with chemotherapy. So when I heard that from Thai people, I was like no, no, no, no, that's not true. All this information, I don't want to put the word that they are behind here. It's just nobody delivered this message to them. So that's why I want to tell them and I also have lots of people and friends back in Thailand that have cancer. So I start with that.

Carl: So with the cookbooks and the A-Z guide do you feel that there's enough variety in there to cook Thai style with those foods?

Natalie: Oh, that's a very good point because when I start talking about changing diet, eating plant based, people wondering what is the plant based diet. We know that we need to eat plants, but exactly how? And then when I start talking about eating salad, people would just really put that off because, oh, no, that's only food for Western. It's just the name of the dish. I said, don't think about it as a Western dish, you should eat as close as natural as possible. So it's true that the salad dish, the diet that we learn here in the US, it doesn't fit the culture in Thailand because people eat a lot of cooked food, curry. They use a lot of curry. They eat fresh, raw vegetables, but in a different way, a very different way. So when I started to eat salad, everybody thought about salad dressing in a way that you have to use eggs and oil.

Carl: Yeah. Well, maybe you'll have to come up with some great Thai recipes.

Natalie: Then I started learning more and more, also using the Thai culture, the food in Thailand, what is safe for cancer patients? So I started an online course.

Carl: Oh, great.

Natalie: Yes. So I started the online course, I started with colon and liver detoxification and introducing green juice and changing diet and doing coffee enema, helping people to get rid of the toxins. Then I launched another online course beating cancer naturally. Then I start introducing using the Gerson therapy protocol and mixed with some of the vegetables that people can use and can find in Thailand and so I use Gerson therapy as my core that's because I learned Gerson therapy before I found beat cancer.

Carl: Right. Right. And while we're not just one therapy, it seems like, I think we kind of give you a broad array of tools to use instead of just one singular approach. But you are right, we are mostly plant based and so is Gerson.

Natalie: Right, right.

Carl: Yeah. Well, that's great. You made the courses, you already beat me to it. I just didn't know about it. That's excellent. So okay, I'm going to give you the bonus question and, of course, I want you to tell people where they can find you, because if they're just listening to this on a podcast I want them to know where to find you. But the bonus question is if you could just give one tip to somebody getting started what would that be? The getting started in their cancer journey?

Natalie: For someone who just found out that they've been diagnosed with cancer, I think the very first thing you need to understand is that you have cancer for years, you did not have cancer two days ago or two months ago, it has been for a long time. It could take seven to ten or twenty years. If you have lung cancer, it could be 30 years. So do not rush. I want you to step back and then just take a quiet moment and ask yourself, how did you get cancer and what you should do next. Most people, when they learn that they have cancer, they get frustrated, they have fears. When you make a decision with fears, you make the wrong decision. I want you to learn, I want you to search, ask people who have been there, who have experience, guide you what you should do so you have the right path. You don't want to try left and right and back and forth, you're going to lose time. Even though I said you have been having cancer for a long time, sometimes when they choose the wrong road, you're losing time and the cancer, it's true that it's growing all the time, but it's not as fast as when you know it. Think about two years, five years ago, you did not know that you have cancer. You never care about cancer. You never really think about it but now you know that you have cancer you start having fears, you start worry and that causes cancer to grow very fast.

So the first thing you should do is to just step back and ask yourself, what is the right protocol for you? You want to do conventional or you want to do naturally all you want to do an integrative? I want you to sit down and then take a piece of paper and write down pros and cons of each approach and think about what will fit your lifestyle the most, and what's best for yourself because each approach is not the best for everyone. You have to come up with your own protocol and that's the very first step that I want to suggest to anyone that just diagnosed with cancer.

Carl: That's great. Just take a step back, that is a problem, people get rushed right in, hurry up and take this protocol and they don't have any time to think and the family too, the family is scared, they just want you to do what the doctor says. I think it's really good advice to slow it down. Make sure you do what's right for you. Very good, excellent advice.

Natalie: And finding the right doctor, good doctor, that's also very important. My doctor never rushed me actually, when I searched for a doctor, when I found out that I had cancer, it was very bad timing. I was about to travel to Thailand. I have a couple of days to fly and it was during the Christmas and New Year season. I'm about to fly to Thailand and my doctor called me, said the result, the tests came back and it was cancer. So I was in denial mode, I did not believe that so I thought it was a joke. So a lot of people may have that feeling. I thought it was a flu. Okay. I have a flu and a few days it will go away, until the next day I start to realize, this is no kidding. This is real. So I asked my doctor and she said, well, you are going to be on vacation, just go, a couple of weeks will not make a difference. So my doctor let me travel and enjoy my life. Enjoy my vacation, she said, when you come back then you can start thinking about a treatment. I have heard someone that have doctors told them, no, you need surgery. You need chemotherapy right away.

Carl: I've heard that too.

Natalie: And that made you even more nervous. Oh my God, I cannot wait a couple of days is going to be that bad. My life is going to end and that's when people get so frustrated. The more you rush, the more fears you have, and then you made the wrong decision.

Carl: Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes it plants a seed in your head as well. Some people just die exactly on time when their doctors say they would. They're great doctors, but they're not psychic. Why is it three months on the day or a six months on the day or one year on the day? It's an amazing thing, a power that a healer has in their hands, just by what they tell you. Your doctor told you, good, go enjoy yourself. Don't worry about it for now. Yeah. It's a bad thing to hear right before you go on vacation, but then I'll take this time to just relax and then come back and we'll talk. Yeah, that was very good. So do you have anything else that you'd like to relate to our listeners and our watchers before we close it up?

Natalie: I have some good stories to share, some of my clients.

Carl: Yeah, that would be wonderful.

Natalie: Can I share? I have been coaching many people around the world by now. I have some story that is really catchy for me. One lady, she just watched my YouTube video. She had lung cancer stage three, but her doctor told her that she would not survive more than three months. So she didn't start with stage three lung cancer. She started with stage one, as I said, when you know you have cancer, you have fears and that's how the tumor started growing really quickly. In only a few months, her tumor, her cancer grew to be stage three in a few months, it's growing really big and she went to see another doctor. So it was already stage three and the doctor said, you must do chemotherapy. If not, you will have only three months to live. Somehow, something happened, someone shared my video and she just watched that video and she said, this is it. She's going to try. She didn't want to have chemotherapy. So she went back home and started growing her own vegetables. She heard that coach Natalie said that you’ve got to eat organic vegetables and stop eating meat for her type of cancer, she did that. Three months later, she started having a checkup. Six months later, she had the test again and the doctor was surprised her tumor is gone. She did not tell me until two years after that, two more years, her sister actually sent me a message to thank me that your video saved my sister's life two years ago, my sister watched your video and she did not speak Thai properly because she's not Thai.

She understands Thai and I was like my knowledge, my information, and my video that I posted on YouTube can save someone's life and it just like, keep me going and I want to do more of this. So I actually saved someone's life by someone just watching my video on YouTube, on how to change the diet and what to do and that's one of the stories that I want to know. It's one of the style that I really want to share that in someone that no longer has hope, when the doctor said you have only three months, six months to live. Hope is powerful and I want to be the person who delivered that hope and it's not as false hope because if one person can come back from stage four from bedridden, and then they become alive again, they can heal from cancer by themselves. If one person can do it there are more people who can do it and I think you can do it too. So that's what I want to deliver this message that doesn't lose hope. There's always hope if you're still alive.

Carl: Yeah. We've seen that many times. We never say that we heal people from cancer because we don't, we just give them the tools that they need to allow their bodies to do the work that they're supposed to do.

Natalie: And I have another story. This lady, she was in my group coaching. I have a six month group coaching program that I meet them every two weeks. So this lady she's 70 years old. The first cancer diagnosis was a couple years, about four years back, she had kidney cancer. She has surgery. She had the tumor removed, but she refused chemotherapy and no radiation, but she did not change her lifestyle. She did not change the diet. So four years later, which is this year 2020, at the beginning of the year, her cancer came back second time and the tumor, it was really, really close to where she had surgery before. So this is proof that you cannot cut out cancer. You have to really treat the real cause, you have to get rid of the cancer stem cell. So when she had cancer, the second time she chose not to do surgery and again, no radiation, no chemotherapy and she found me. So she joined a group coaching program and I gave her information. I give her the tool and I give them advice on what to do. Six months after the program ended, she had herself scanned and her doctor said, your tumor is gone. You no longer have cancer. It was really, really amazing. She's 70 years old, but she's willing to learn. She's willing to change her lifestyle, which is not very easy for someone who is 70.

Carl: She really wanted it. She really wanted it. Yeah.

Natalie: So this story, it just shows me that someone 70 year old can do it so you can do it too. It just you have the right tool, you have the right information and you have to believe, you have to believe in yourself and you have to trust yourself. That's what I want to say.

Carl: Yeah. It's so hard when you're getting conflicting advice from people that are supposed to be smarter than you because they have letters after their name but like you said, you have to trust your gut. You have to trust your instinct. You have to take time to reflect and use the tools that are presented to you and I love that. I think your whole video should be called you can do it too and I think that's great. It's the truth. Yeah. Other people did it and you can do it too. Yeah. You got another one?

Natalie: I do have a lot actually, but this is my top two. You want to hear more? What type of cancer you want to hear? I actually help someone healed from cancer, many types of cancer. I started with breast cancer. I have someone really healed from breast cancer without surgery, without chemo and radiation. Then my second one uterus cancer, kidney cancer, thyroid cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, brain cancer.

Carl: Yeah. Amazing stuff. Amazing. Yeah.

Natalie: So what type of cancer do you want to hear the story?

Carl: So well, it's getting a bit long. So what we'll do is do you have videos in English or is it all in Thai?

Natalie: It's all in Thai. I haven't done it in English yet.

Carl: Okay.

Natalie: I will start that really soon.

Carl: Yeah. Yeah. And we'll connect all your videos into our we have a playlist in YouTube, so we can list your videos in our playlist we'll list. We'll list what you have in Thai, but it'll be great for you to do an English two.

Natalie: I will.

Carl: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Natalie: I will be posting the video in English soon.

Carl: Okay. So tell us podcast listeners how we can find you and your website and everything.

Natalie: If you're here in the US you can send me a text message on my cell phone, [phone] or you want to send me email [email protected]. We can provide you information right below this message, right?

Carl: Yeah. Yeah. I'll put it up. I'll put everything in the show notes

Natalie: [email protected], or you can find me on Facebook. I'm always on Facebook and Instagram, my Facebook, I have personal webpage, Natalie Proenca or you want to find me, you can search “stop cancer with Natalie” in English, or in Thai: “หยุดมะเร็งกับโค้ชนาตาลี”. Then I have this Facebook page and you can find a lot of videos about how to beat cancer naturally or integratively. If  you decide to take chemotherapy, you need to take supplements and what supplements are right for you and how the diet will help you to get through chemotherapy and get well sooner. I have a lot of information on my Facebook page and on Instagram it's Coach Natalie and YouTube channel health coach Natalie. Or you can go to my website, healthcoachnatalie.com.

Carl: Terrific. Wow. You're everywhere. Terrific. Well, thank you so much for taking some time with us today and sharing your stories. You're an inspiration and you're already an established coach, even before us. So I think that's wonderful and I love your stories of healing and your insights. Thank you so much.

Natalie: Thank you so much. Thanks for watching.

Outro: If we helped you learn just one thing today, about how to prevent cope with or beat cancer, then we have succeeded in our mission. Please remember to like, subscribe and comment. We appreciate all of your feedback and love your suggestions, your positive ratings, help us to get discovered so we can help save more lives. Thank you again for joining us and best wishes for good health from all of us beatcancer.org.