 Welcome to Healthy Planet, the show for people who care about their health and the health of our planet on Think Tech, Hawaii. I'm your host, Dr. Grace O'Neill. Joining me today is Skip Stein, prostate cancer survivor. Welcome, Skip. Hi, how you doing? Good. So tell us how long ago were you diagnosed with prostate cancer? Well, it was back in 2010. At basically back in 2010 in March, I had your regular blood work done and it came back with a PSA of 5.5. And the doctor started panicking and stuff like this and convinced me I really had to have a biopsy. And that was probably one of the worst decisions I ever made because it was the most painful experience I ever had. They did the biopsy and they stopped after 8 because I was writhing in pain because they didn't meet. And so I went home and Nancy went to the drug store to get prescription pain medication. And I went to the bathroom, sat on the toilet and hemorrhaged and was bleeding profusely. Then my blood pressure dropped, so I passed out and fell into the shower where Nancy found me. And so that started everything wrong. And from there it just went, it was just pretty bad. And so we had, and I tell this story a lot and you can pull up that slide if you want to. You can pull up that slide. Yeah. So that basically covers that territory. And my father had died of so-called prostate cancer, but it was the pellets, the chemo and the radiation I think that actually killed him. Yeah. He died at home. We brought him home because he was writhing in pain. And he literally was in a hospital in pain in a hospital bed saying, why is it so hard to die? And so we said, he's coming home. So we brought him home, got a hospital bed, and he lasted about almost three days before he finally passed on. And so that set my mind right there that if I ever had this thing, I wasn't going to do any of that crap. Yeah. Pardon my French. So Nancy and I were waiting to hear the results of the biopsy. And they forgot to call us. So it was a month later. So I was thinking, well, maybe everything's okay because they didn't call me. So I finally called them. And so we went in and see the doctor. And he said, I had aggressive prostate cancer. Police score four plus four. And he said it was encapsulated so far. So you really have to do something. And I said, well, I really don't want to do anything right now when I think about it. And then he started going through this list of my wife is sitting next to me. This list of horrendous things that are going to, he said, if you don't do this really fast, you know, you're going to be wheelchair bound. Your wife's going to be changing your diaper. You're going to be using a catheter. And he went on and on and on all these four. Meanwhile, my wife is sobbing because he's basically saying, I'm dying. Yeah. And he said, if you don't do anything quickly, you might last two to three years. And then you're going to die of horrendous painful death. I said, terrific. So we left. So. And again, you know, we had, I tell people this, there used to be a show on PBS called the incurables. That's the next slide. So anyway, there was a show called the incurables. And it talked about people and it was a TV hourly show. And it talked about how people had been told they were going to die. And they reversed their disease, you know, diabetes, all kinds of things all across the board, including cancer. And so I said, maybe we should look into this. So we did some more research and we discovered the Pekala Campbell and the China study. So I read that cover to cover. I think I read it twice. And it was unbelievable because the doctor never said anything about this, anything about nutrition. The doctor never once asked me in my lifestyle, my nutrition. The only thing he said about lifestyle, he said, well, you're too fat for surgery because I was really, really heavy. So we started exploring and we found a book called A Thousand Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson. She's a wonderful, she just wrote her own little autobiography. I haven't read it yet, but she's a wonderful book. And it was great because it had a thousand vegan recipes with no pictures. Okay. Which is a good, people say, oh my God, no picture. Yes, it was great because we had no idea what we were doing. So we didn't have any expectations of what it was going to look like. So we said, well, this must be what it, what's going to be. So that started us going. And so we basically went through the house and we went, got rid of all the meat, fish, dairy and eggs. We had two freezers, two commercial sized ice box refrigerators with all kinds of dairy and ice cream and all kinds. So, oh yeah, we had, it was loaded. And so we basically emptied them out. The neighbors gave it everything to our daughter, which I feel guilty about. I don't know if I want to give her anything. I know, I know. But all our neighbors and stuff like this. So everybody got, got food. Steins were giving away food, go over there. So we cleaned everything out and went to the grocery store and started buying some vegetables. And we used the recipe book and started just cooking that stuff. And so a year went by and I had lost like 30 pounds and was feeling great. And what was beautiful about this, and I tell people, Nancy did this with me. She just didn't cook for me. Okay. She did it with me. Basically, I followed a Gerson type approach, 90 days with raw, with juicing. And after that 90 days, we went on the plant-based menus. So then we found several other people. We were doing more research. We're kind of getting into this now. And we found Holistic Holiday at Sea, which was a cruise out of Fort Lauderdale at the time. Actually, the first one we took, we took two of them. The first one was out of Canaveral. And the second one was out of Miami. But it was a seven-day cruise. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. I have. I've heard of it. Yeah. It's a seven-day cruise. And it's basically a seven-days class. You start at nine o'clock and you go till five. And the full day of classes is, and you can pick the ones you want. Sometimes Nancy and I split up because we wanted to cover it because they didn't repeat them. They only did it once. But it was nice about it. It was interesting because we had our own dining facility. And there was like 450 people, that's all. And that we had our own chefs. Our own food supply was all organic. It was basically macrobiotic at the time. Oh, beautiful. It's not now. But you meet for breakfast, and everybody would gather around there randomly. There was no pre-arranging seating or anything. And you introduce yourselves over breakfast, right? Hi, I'm Skip Stein from Orlando, Florida. Yeah, I'm dying of prostate cancer. Somebody else would be dying of brain cancer. And we introduced it. And that was the introduction base. So we told each other why we were there, basically. And pancreatic cancer, brain cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, heart disease, all kinds of different things. Everybody was dying except for the chefs and the presenters. So it was really funny. And it was a way to break the ice because, you know, you've got to, everybody is up from there, from the death bed. So we did. So we did that for seven days and learned a tremendous amount. It meant wonderful people. We're still in touch with many of them. And we came back to Orlando and we started, you know, saying maybe we can help other people. Well, I was taking yoga. Oh, that was the other thing. When we started all this, because of some of the research, I started taking yoga classes. So I became a Reiki level two practitioner as well. And so we were into this up to our eyeballs. And we started teaching some classes in our home, you know, and we were just kind of stumbling our way through this. But anyway, the next year in 2013, we went on another, the second cruise that was out of Miami. And that's where we met the PCRM folks. Yeah. And that's where we started getting involved with them. And so, and again, we went on that cruise. It was wonderful. It was like 1200 people, maybe 1400 people then. I think now it's a holiday. It was holistic holiday as well. Pardon? Was it holistic holiday as well? Yeah, yeah, it was the same. It was the same cruise. Just they had to upgrade the ship because they got so many more people. We went on in 2012 was only like 400 or 420. The second one out of the next year in 2013 out of Miami, I mean, I think it was up to, I don't know, 1400 maybe. I think now it's like six or 8,000. I mean, it's just unbelievable. So we came back and we started, you know, like I said, teaching folks and helping folks and constantly learning. If you look at that, the one slide. Yeah, there you go. That's just a portion of Nancy's cookbooks now. And dietary books, you know, we, you know, T. Campbell and everybody's there. Dr. Gregor and you name it. They're all there. So we, yeah, this has been going now was 2013. And so wait a second. I'm not dying. The fact I lost more weight. I felt great. And so, but in the back of my mind, that doctor told me, I was going to die. I figured I got two years. I only got a year left now because I believe the doctor. Yeah. It was, okay. So I told Nancy, I said, you know, I've only got another year and it's probably going to come in and really kill me. And I don't want to die like dad did. and I'll die happy. I had seven grandkids and a beautiful daughter and a wonderful family. So I said, I'd never, I'd traveled the world. I'd worked in China, all across Europe, all across the USA, Canada, and Mexico. I was an IT consultant, auditor with financial transactions. So I had been out to all the major cities, but I'd never seen the Rocky Mountains. So I said, I want to see the Rockies before I die. So we put together or I put together a plan for a road trip. And we went on that road trip. We were gone for 43 days, 10,000 miles. And we went from Orlando, Florida, all the way across the West up to the Pacific Northwest, up to Glacier National Park, down through the Mount Rushmore in the whole Niners. We saw everything. Probably over 60 or 80 national parks and probably another 20 or 30 state parks. We learned how to hike. We bought the proper shoes. We had backpacks. We were ready to go. And so that started our trip. And we got home and I said, bye, Golly. I don't think I'm going to die after all. And so that's what we, that started this whole thing. And so then we started, I wrote a book about the road trip. And that has a lot of my background and stuff like that. And I wrote a series of essays. I have, I have 30 different websites to deal with different aspects of health, nutrition, and wellness. And Nancy writes as well. And so she wrote a series of books called Restoring America's Health. And she just wrote another one on tea. And tea and tea party and tea party planning. So that keeps us really busy. We still like to travel and road trip. We've been up through the, all through the US back and forth down to the Mexican border and Texas and Rio Grande and all that kind of stuff. So basically we're 77 years old and people say we look pretty good. And I've got plenty of energy My blood work is better than my doctors. My cholesterol is like 145, my triglycerides are 30. My A1C is, I don't know, very, very low. So all the numbers are terrific. Actually, this last blood work I got, my B12 and B3 are too high. So I've been taking too many supplements. So I got to back off a little bit. So I do take a lot of vitamins and supplements and figure what I don't use, my body will figure out and sort out and get rid of. That's where we are right now. Like I said, this has been an ongoing thing. And we're here to help people. Pardon? Did you go back and when you thought that you were saying you thought you were going to die, but then you didn't feel like you were going to die after you went on the road trip because you were hiking and everything. So after that, when you didn't think you were going to die anymore, did you go back and did you get other studies to see if the prostate cancer was gone or did you follow up? No, I figured I had prostate cancer. I still say to help people. I had prostate cancer. I don't know. I feel great. I don't really care. About five years ago, I was seeing a general practitioner because we're retired on Medicare, Medicare Plus. And the doctors said, you really need to go see an oncologist. I said, okay, fine, I'll go see an oncologist. So they made an appointment, went into the doors, got sat down, doctor came in and has his little thingy on and listened to my heart. And he said, yeah, you're still alive. And I told him my background. I had all my blood work and all my biopsy results. I was trying to be forthcoming. And he said, well, we really need to do another biopsy. I said, why the heck do you want to do another biopsy? I already know I have cancer. And so I got up and left. And that's the last time. The doctor we have now because our last doctor changed, dropped insurance policies is, I'm seeing a PA. I saw her last month. And she actually listened to me and understood what I was saying. Didn't necessarily agree with me that we were strictly plant-based and had been for almost 15 years now. And so I'm actually seeing a doctor at the end of the month, probably because my B12 is too high. And so, but again, we use doctors now mostly for just to get our blood work twice a year. And we have to see the doctor to maintain the insurance because we don't see the doctor, the insurance, you're going to give us a hassle. And so we go in and we see that we get her heart thumped and tested and to get the blood work. And they shake their head and say, you're 77 years old, your blood work is amazing. So we just keep going on with that. So before when you had the prostate cancer, did you have other medical problems? Because you mentioned your cholesterol is great now. My cholesterol was about 250. A lot of it was the LDL. I was way overweight. I was obese, really obese. I'm not technically, I'm not slim now. But I had no energy. We had issues. It was just, I didn't have a zest for life. And cancer was probably the best thing that ever happened to me because if I didn't have cancer, I probably would be dead by now because eating a standard American diet would have killed me by now. And what's lovely about this is my wife, like I said, she joined me on this diet and we eat the same food every day. She had severe arterial blockage in the ascending aorta and was due for a stent and didn't do it because she got distracted with me. And about six or eight years ago, she went in and the doctor said, we should check that out. And they checked that out again. And the arteries were clean as a whistle. And so it totally cleared everything up for her. So yeah, I say it saved my life and cured my wife. So it does amazing things. Oh, absolutely. So I'm wondering if you were to pretend you were yourself back when, before you had the cancer, if someone had ever told you that it would be good for you to go on a plant-based diet or cholesterol, you would have laughed in their face? No. To me, a meal wasn't, no, seriously. To me, if I didn't have meat at every meal, it wasn't a meal. Okay. I would, when we would go out for breakfast, if we would go out, I would have three or four eggs over easy and two or three orders of bacon and a side of sausage. Oh my gosh. Okay. No, I mean, all out. My diet was deadly. This, like I said, if I hadn't had cancer, I'd be dead now. Yeah. Best thing to ever have. Oh, yeah. Oh, seriously. It was bad. That's wonderful. So I'm wondering, I mean, I was wondering, you know, there's a lot of plant-based diets, not all are healthy. So do you guys, when you cook, do you make sure to keep the oil down? Do you cook with water? What are the things would you recommend to people who might have cancer, who don't want conventional therapy, you know, because not all plant, you know, based foods are healthy. Lots of foods are processed, you know? The thing is, most people, when you say plant-based, they think all they see these massive salads and vegetables that are probably cooked, overcooked. Broccoli is slimy and we just had cauliflower, broccoli, and tofu. They have no idea what tofu is or how it can be. And I also tell them they're gonna save 30% on your roaster bill. But the excursion into a plant-based lifestyle opens up cuisine, not just food. It is cuisine to societies around the world. Just last week, Nancy made, I guess you have to call it tofu salmon because, no, seriously. Yeah, no, I've seen it online. I've seen it on Instagram. Pardon? I've seen it on Instagram. Oh, my God. She did a version of it that was probably, and this is really hard to top, maybe one of the best meals she's made in 15 years. I mean, it was absolutely, gloriously fantastic. The thing is, your taste buds, you know, once you start this, and once you drop meat, fish, dairy, and eggs from your diet, and all of the associated oils and crap foods, it's, I say plant-based because it's not vegan. It's plant-based. Your taste buds change in 14 days or totally refreshed. So you start tasting food, real food for the first time in your life, maybe. Then people say, oh, what about the protein? Well, most Americans get too much protein, as you probably well know. And they don't realize that there is protein in every single vegetable. Okay, at some level, the beans have more than and hopefully have a lot more than, say, broccoli and cauliflower, but they all have protein. And you can't be deficient if you live in an America unless you're starving to death. So the food Nancy has, literally she has thousands of recipes online. And her books are more of an introduction to a plant-based lifestyle. Her first one discusses, you know, what is tofu, you know, how to prepare some basic, you know, plant-based meals. And then she, her Pinterest site has, I don't know, how many thousands of recipes on that. And then she posts on, she's got a Miwi site and Facebook site. And she posts meals every day. Whatever we eat is documented. And we are here to offer to help people. I do Zoom sessions with the cancer patients, mostly prostate cancer guys, because sometimes it's nice to talk to somebody, look eye to eye. And I do have a degree in psychology, so I do know something about counseling. And so I offer that kind of support. And if they want it, Nancy can help them with their dietary things. So how many people have you helped kind of follow the same pathway as yourself? I don't know how many people I've actively helped, maybe 50 in the last year, year and a half. But I mean, I have no idea how many we've helped online. Nancy has lots of people in her groups. And it's not just cancer, it's just heart. We can reverse diabetes too in 30 days. I refer everybody to pcrm.org. Because you have a great approach to diabetes too. And it's so easy, quick, and delicious. That's the thing. People have to understand how delicious this way of eating is. And Nancy makes her own chicken fried steak with seitan. We grill sirloin steak. We have people over. We've had people over for sirloin steak. And if you look at our cuisine site, she makes deviled eggs that we have served to people. And they thought they were eating eggs, even though they're made out of tofu. No, seriously, we went to, there was a gentleman who we catered, we used to cater some up in Orlando. And he was a plant-based or vegan. And he had a small group and he had those people over and we catered it. And we had delicious food and buffets and stuff like this. But there was a tray of deviled eggs on the table. Nobody touched because everybody was vegan. Okay? And they don't eat eggs. But one man who was there with his wife, she dragged him there, was off in a corner and everybody else is over here. And he would reach down and grab one of those and he ate it. And he's, oh, that's pretty good. And so he looked around again and he grabbed another and he ate one. So he's the only, he ate two. So I walked over to him and I said, you like those, huh? That was pretty good. He said, oh, God, don't tell my wife I'm eating them. I said, why not? He said, she won't let me eat eggs. I said, those aren't eggs. That's tofu. And he didn't believe me. So it's an amazing life, an amazing lifestyle and a delicious way to live, love and eat. It really, really is. And like I said, we're going on 15 years this year and don't plan on stopping. And people's, you know, I figured, yeah, maybe I'll make it to 114. Who knows? Yes. Yes. Guys, the limit. So is there, there is a slide that shows how people can get in touch with you, right? Which one? Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. I just want to show that before we go, just have that. And then I was going to ask you, do you have any takeaway for our viewers? Just live, love and be happy. You know, you know, live long and prosper as Spock said. It is, it is so easy and you save so much money and it's so simple and delicious. That's the people that you don't realize. It takes time. And it may be for many people, maybe the hardest thing they've ever done. But once you've done it, it's an amazing, self-rewarding way of life. It really, really is. And it's delicious. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. We have to wrap it up. I'm Dr. Grace O'Neill. This is Healthy Planet on ThinkTek Hawaii. I'm talking with Skip Stein who cured his prostate cancer with lifestyle changes. Thanks for being here. If you enjoyed this coverage, you're welcome. And this conversation, please hit the like button and subscribe to our channel, youtube.com slash link tech Hawaii for more great content on ThinkTek. Just sign up for our email advisories and get a complete listing of our shows or to make a donation and keep us going. Visit our website at thinktechhawaii.com. We'll be back in two weeks. So please tune in and tell your friends to tune in. Check out my website at graceandhawaii.com or Instagram or Grace will live in 365 for more information on my show guests. Thanks so much for watching. I'm your host, Dr. Grace O'Neill. Aloha everyone.