Taylor Dukes

Life was good. I have a thriving functional medicine practice of my own at this point. I've met the man of my dreams. We have two children and I got the curveball of my life. So I did the scan and they found a massive brain tumor in my right frontal lobe. And I'm like, what? You've got to be kidding because I have no symptoms.

Times and places for conventional intervention.

Oh, for sure. And it's only increasing, sadly.

It's crazy.

Yeah.

Yeah, everything's fair game. But I will also say I love what you spoke to too before I get into some of the practical. I think mindset is so huge. And I think so many people hear the word cancer and it's a death sentence. And I see it so clearly. A doctor speaks this over you. You look up on Google. You feel like your days are numbered. You start believing that. You start doing treatment.

You lose your hair. Then you identify as a cancer patient. And it's this spiral. And so I will also say mindset is everything. No man knows the number of your days. I mean, you're pretty good at statistics and prognosis and life expectancy. But who says you can't change those modifiable risk factors?

And so I also think mindset is so huge. Yeah. I am doing so many things to prevent cancer from coming back because I am cancer free. But my mindset, I live life like I'm healed, too. I can't tell my body I'm sick all the time. And I don't say my cancer diagnosis because that comes a part of my identity. I say the cancer, something that affected me that God's used and it has a purpose.

But I don't take it on as my identity. And so I think but mindset is important. You know, I've had doctors speak over me how long I'm going to live. And quite frankly, I'm not a statistic and I'm not your average American that's eating your average American diet, doing the average American treatments.

I am being proactive. When you mentioned ketosis, I think that is the way to go to get into a metabolic therapeutic state for ketosis because cancer loves sugar. So we have to cut off its food source, that first and foremost. And then we also have to look at, and getting into your question of what I did, is what could have stressed the immune system?

Because at any given point in time, we all have circulating tumor cells. But the way it got in our body is that our immune system, when it's working and strong, it will go take care of those circulating tumor cells. Right. However, when your immune system is suppressed, that's when cancer cells proliferate, go rogue and a full tumor forms. And so people always kind of freak out when they hear.

Right.

Yeah. Proactive, not reactive. Oh, shoot. It's here. It's like so everything you're doing is proactive. Right. Like, don't wait until you get a diagnosis. And I think people always hear my story and they kind of freak out a little bit because they're like, wait, you're this health and wellness person that we follow and you have this whole brand and you got cancer.

But what I always like to remind people, especially you can't live in fear. You know, like we do have to be more proactive with how toxic our society and environment is. So we can't just like be flippant about how we live our life. We have to be super mindful and conscious of all the lifestyle choices and diet and things that we do. But I think.

For me, like I was really sick and people forget that. And so when I was sick and got into functional medicine, that's when the tumor started growing.

So when you look back on my timeline, all these oncologists and all these traditional doctors and neurosurgeons were saying, well, it's probably been growing eight to 10 years. And it dawned on me. I'm like, that's when I was sick. So it's crazy to look back on the timeline.

I mean, it's crazy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I did. And I was like, I knew a lot about nutrition and that's the hard thing for me. I was already really healthy. So to feel like I had to take it up a notch was like, whoa, what does this look like? But I treated healing like a job for a period of time, especially during those five months before brain surgery. And I was like, you know what? It'd be so cool if we could shrink this brain tumor.

But if anything, I'm just preparing my body to be strong going into a brain surgery.

And so for me, I did high dose vitamin C. I had to work my way up to like 75 grams. Yeah.

And then worked our way up. I did methylene blue infusions. I did methylene blue before doing a red light helmet, like 30 minutes before to activate it. Yeah, I did oral. So I do like my methylene blue drops. 30 minutes later, I'd put on my red light helmet.

Thank you for having me. I'm so honored to be here.

I did molecular.

It's from Germany. Okay, great. So I did that. So we, you and I were offline talking about therapy stacking. Cause you got to, to be efficient. You know, you can't just all day do everything. So I would sit at my desk. I check emails. I do my methylene blue. I'd put on my red light helmet. I do my molecular hydrogen oxygen. I have a hyperbaric chamber, you know, like a soft. I do.

I have a soft chamber. I've gotten so claustrophobic though. So I haven't used it as much, but I,

have to get one of mine yeah seriously i sat in there earlier and i could do that yeah but yeah i did everything that you can imagine got into ketosis i was checking not just ketones but gki glucose ketone index pricking my finger i mean it was i did everything i was taking so many supplements cgms yeah okay and then i um yeah i'm just thinking like what else did i do i did

I mean, a lot of stuff for nervous system and stress.

So really high quality fats. And that's when people and I actually had a hard time in ketosis because I was doing lower carb, but I was doing too much protein.

So I realized I had to do a lot more healthy fat. So I was doing olive oil shots, avocado, macadamia nuts. And I really had to up my fat like I had to consciously make an effort.

They think it's like cottage cheese and T-bone steaks.

High quality protein. That's another big thing, like wild caught fish, grass fed meat. And then I would do, you know, greens, like really low carb vegetables.

Yeah.

It is next level.

It did. And for me, you know, I was living abroad, so it made a lot of sense. And another thing, and I will say drops in the bucket, it was the perfect storm for me. You know, the parasites was a huge contributing factor. I tested positive for parasites in stool. I actually, this is crazy.

I knew that I probably needed to get it out, but I was also like, okay, this has been growing for years. Same thing with functional medicine. The disease doesn't just happen overnight. It's drops in the bucket over time that lead to the full-blown manifestation of a disease and symptoms.

And for anyone listening that think parasites are woo woo, and they're like, yeah, but we don't live in a third world country. No, no. We do worm our pets like you can have exposure. And so one thing that I have to say specifically about parasites is so when I got diagnosed, I did all the lab testing you could ever imagine on myself, you know, because I had practitioners.

But I'm like, I'm going to cast the net. What are we missing here? And I actually found I was blood positive serum positive for a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii that the International Journal of Cancer and the American Cancer Society link to brain tumors. In middle-aged people.

Yes.

You know, it suppresses the immune system. So parasites, we want to talk parasites, they suppress the immune system. And so again, with cancer, we want to do anything to boost our immune system and decrease inflammation, boost immunity. And so parasites suppress the immune system because they're a foreign invader. Yes. You know, and so for me, I did ivermectin.

I did all sorts of Mabindazole, Fabindazole. I even did Alinea. I did all sorts of, actually did pharmaceuticals. I think there are times and places for it.

Yeah. Antivirals. But for me specifically, I so I did that. But then I also have done a lot of herbs. And so, you know, you can just do quarterly like my kids. I'm like, all right, kids, it's April. We're deworming. Yeah.

Yeah. And so it's really the idea is like not over cleansing, because to be honest, even in the functional medicine world, I thought it was a little overkill because I would test people for parasites. And they're really hard to detect on testing. But I've done frequency scans. I've done stool tests, blood tests, and it is consistently positive.

Yeah. So I always say that people get into kind of the integrative functional medicine world because they're sick or they're smart. You know, you're sick or they're smart. People like you are smart. But most people and a lot of my colleagues, you know, that are functional medicine providers, they're sick. And then the conventional medical model fails them.

Because you can do a lot of things to support your journey along the way.

It did. Yes. It was a miracle. That's so amazing. Which is insane. In half? Yes. Because when I got the radiology reports, I'm like- That is incredible.

He's actually in, I flew to Arizona for my brain surgery. He's at Barrows Neurological, Chris Smith, if anyone needs a recommendation. And he believes in ketosis. In Scottsdale?

Yeah. So he operates in Scottsdale and in Phoenix and we stayed in Scottsdale for me to recover, but he believes in metabolic ketosis. You know, he doesn't have the time to talk about all these things that stress the immune system because he's saving lives and doing brain surgery.

But yeah, I mean, he's all in and he's like, he's the one that told me, I don't want you doing it because mine was stage three. So it was... Stage four is the most aggressive. So it wasn't like this, you know, little tiny growing thing. It was a beast that we needed to get out of there. So I'm grateful. And that's what I also want people to hear me say.

I think it's easy to hear all the stuff that we talk about and think that it's all holistic. And I always say I like saying integrative because you take the best of the conventional, the best of the holistic, and you integrate the two for the best possible outcome.

Right. And there are times and places for acute care. You know, let's get someone out of the acute flare of ulcerative colitis. And you sometimes have to get the steroids and get the iron infusion. But then you have to figure out what caused the inflammation and caused the immune system to go rogue, not just with cancer, with anything, autoimmune disease.

And so everyone was shocked and it was truly a miracle. But I'm so glad I still did surgery to get the remainder out. And so I have a huge hole in my brain. I'm still normal. You wouldn't know, right?

And that's kind of how they go on their own and do research. And so I was sick. That was my story. I was, you know, a nursing major straight out of TCU. And I had the opportunity.

One, even people that knew me, you know, they're like, you're still the same tailor, even 24 hours. I mean, the whole thing's a miracle. And I didn't have any deficits. And I was walking six hours after brain surgery. I was like giving them orders. I'm like, get this catheter out. I'm ready to get up and get ambulating. You are, wow.

And then I was, I went home straight from ICU 24 hours after surgery. And so I really think everything I did to prepare my body.

Right here. I have a huge scar right here.

And so he's the one that said, you know, traditional oncology and that's something else, you know, when people were like, oh my gosh, but you did integrative stuff with cancer. Isn't cancer scary? And For me, I'm like, well, no, because traditional only offers chemo, surgery and radiation. And the integrative side offers all these other therapies and diet.

And as a mom that wants to see her kids live a long life, like, why wouldn't I do anything and everything? And so for me, I didn't just do what traditional offered me. I did all the other things, too. But instead of doing chemo and radiation, that's where I'm still doing things to prevent recurrence. And my neurosurgeon said, like, I want you to get into ketosis.

I want you to keep focusing on everything you're doing with your immune system.

Yeah. I just had a scan three weeks ago.

So he just probably took a little bit more around. And I love that you're asking that question. You're so educated because most people think that a brain tumor is sitting on top of your brain, but it really, it infiltrates the brain tissue.

Yeah. Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.

Yes. And so it was healthy brain tissue. And so it was the right side of my brain. I was spared any symptoms. I definitely struggled with sensory overload after brain surgery. So that's where I like I had my higher dose mat and, you know, I'd have to take a brain. I saw that. And that thing saved my life after brain surgery. I mean, I would just I would need to go low sensory.

I'd go lay in my closet and just lay on that. And it was so calming. Really? But yeah, I didn't have any deficits.

Yes, let's go. Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you.

Yeah, well, I think God's doing something. He's waking people up. There's a lot coming to light. It's really cool to see.

So I went to TCU and I had the opportunity to go on medical mission trips abroad and it was an incredible experience, but I got really sick. So I spent time in Africa and Ecuador and I ended up getting flown back from Ecuador to the state sooner than I had planned because I had all these mysterious symptoms.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

And so here I am a nurse and my whole job is to advocate for patients and I can't even advocate for myself. And so I was going from doctor to specialist. You know, they're like, try this medicine.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

So my hair was falling out. I had joint pain. And let me just back up. I was never the sick kid. So to me, it seemed like everything happened overnight. But then when I look back, it was drops in the bucket that led to full blown manifestation symptoms. But I was having really bad joint pain, super inflamed. I had full body rashes, acne. I'd never had acne in my life. Um, so tired.

Like I would just lay in bed and I was the go-go girl. I've always had energy and been super athletic, but I was really sick. And so I was going to the rheumatologist for my joint pain, you know, the gastro for my stomach. And they were all like, here, try this pill, try this prescription. We'll do a colonoscopy. And nobody really had answers. Hmm.

And so it wasn't until my mom, she kind of, I was raised in a very healthy home and we always kind of go back to our roots, you know? And so my mom was like, Taylor, this is not you. You've never been the sick kid. And so she really encouraged me to go to kind of an integrative functional medicine doctor. And at the time I thought this is woo woo. This is so out there.

Probably Unreal Snacks. Yeah, yeah, Unreal. And they're good too. And I was like, dang, they actually are fantastic.

They're made from organic coconut water. And then we, of course, do sodium, potassium, and magnesium.

It's just a powder. You put into a water bottle just like we would shake it up. But one thing for me, too, is when we were formulating these, I was like, how do we want to set ours apart? And so... I love a lot of brands out there. There are a lot of great brands on the market, but for us personally, I didn't want a bunch of natural flavors, a bunch of chemicals.

So I, we flavor ours with organic fruit juice powder. So like for our strawberry lemonade, it's organic strawberry powder and then some lemon extract. And then you get the pretty red color, you know, no food dyes. Not even beet juice to enhance it. It's just pretty. Like guava grapefruit is derived from, you know, the citrus of the grapefruit and the guava fruit. And so it's no sugar.

I think there might be one gram of sugar in the strawberry lemonade just because the strawberry. But yeah, so we formulated it of just like we wanted to just be super clean. No chemicals, just flavors from, you know, the things that are here on Earth.

right that's so that's so my kids are cool with it they know like and we try to educate them we don't try to shame you know they've had donuts they've gone to birthday parties they live their lives but they know that we make healthier decisions and and we don't view it as a control thing we really try to educate them like we don't have food dyes because they're not good for us in our brains and we want to be strong and healthy and so our kids from a young age like you could ask my kid you know do you drink gatorade and he's like no sir they have food dyes really yeah

I didn't learn any of this in nursing school, but I was so desperate that I was willing to do anything. And so she talked to me about my diet. She asked me if I was a C-section baby. She kind of traced the whole line. When you went to Africa, were you given a lot of shots? And so she really took me back and looked at the whole timeline.

I haven't listened, but I saw clips and I'm like, they're so cute.

They're passionate about it.

Yeah, we do homemade pizza nights. Like my kids aren't deprived. And that's where I think that's a power struggle. Like we can't protect our kids forever.

But we can empower them to make healthy choices, especially while they're living with us and understand why and to see how they feel, you know. And I think sometimes, you know, I have mom friends. I'm really blessed. I have a great, healthy community of mom friends.

So when we go to birthday parties, it's like, don't worry, I made the simple meals cake and I did the buttercream frosting homemade, you know, and you're like, yeah. you. But it's also cool to let our kids live. And, you know, and sometimes if they have something, they're like, that hurt my tummy. And it's like, yeah, you know, this is why we make healthy choices.

But I think there's a movement happening too. And people want to feel good and they want to boost their kids' immune systems. And the amount of kids that are you know, medicated with ADHD. And it's like, well, if I was having Froot Loops for breakfast, I'd probably have brain fog too. And then kids are bouncing off the walls.

And so we have to think about blood sugar for kids too, and setting them up for success. And, and kids don't know to say like, I have brain fog, but they'll be, they'll be hyper, you know? And so empowering them to see like, this is how, this is why we do this. And so they don't feel like they're being controlled, but they feel empowered. Like you said.

And so that ended up changing my life, my health, which changed the trajectory of my career. So after I had healed and gotten off meds, times and places- So what essentially, what did you do to heal?

That's what I say. I retired. But that's why I started my online community, because I have all these people asking. And the same thing with the formulating of things, you know, with the protein powder, it's like people are always asking me. So I'm like, well, why don't we just go and kind of create our own? And what do I like on the market and what would I change?

And so that's kind of the inspiration for a lot of the things that we're formulating. Like we have a healthy lemonade, no sugar. Remember Country Time Lemonade? Yeah, yeah. So we're just doing that healthy.

Yeah. So we're just creating healthier products, like a healthy hot chocolate, no sugar. We sweetened it with monk fruit, you know? And so I want my kids to have these normal experiences. But anyway, I was, I would be asked about, you know, these products and that was kind of, where the cancer journey was a blessing. It pivoted me to kind of get creative with my career.

And then again, people are always asking, and I don't work with people anymore one-on-one, but we have a community where they get access to functional medicine lab testing. I have nurse practitioners that do consults. So we can help people and equip them, but we don't prescribe or diagnose or anything.

Well, on Instagram, I like educating. That's like my mission. You know, it was just equipping people with information, healthy swaps. I've shared my whole cancer journey and that's just at Taylor Dukes Wellness. And then we have all of our products at shop.

T-A-Y-L-O-R. Yep. Dukes. D-U-K-E-S. Wellness. Yeah.

Yeah, it's just $39 a month. It's like no strings attached, cancel if you want. But it creates, I do live calls once a month with just them to answer questions. They get to pick my brain. And then it's really beautiful. There's this community of people all over that have connected like-minded moms. Usually most of them are moms answering, what'd you do for your kid for this?

And so it's really neat. We bring on guest experts. And then, yeah, all my products are just at shop.taylordukeswellness.com.

Yeah.

So we looked at my diet. We completely turned around my diet. And, you know, here she was asking me, like, you know, do you eat gluten? Do you eat this? And to me, I'm like, well, yeah, I always have. You know, I partied in college. Yeah. Yeah. But I never.

And allowing a place where like-minded people, you know, you can't go and do all these meetups, but you can foster a place. And I love that you do that.

I'm ready. Let's fire away.

I think it's a loaded question and I think it's not a simple answer, but I would say if I could break it down, there's the spiritual, the physical, and then kind of the mental emotional. So spiritually for me, that's having a relationship with God. And I'm so thankful that I have that relationship with him and the hope beyond my circumstances going through what I've walked through.

Like if I didn't have the hope of heaven and I'm facing a cancer diagnosis at 33. That's hard, you know, and that's where my peace comes from and my joy and my hope. And so I think spiritually that's going to look different for everybody, but that's for me personally. I think that's so, so important to know your God given purpose and your gifts.

And then physically, of course, everything we've talked about, you know, eating healthy foods, sleeping, getting back to the basics. People overcomplicate health. And I have all the fancy, not anything like Gary, let's be clear. But I have a bunch of these modalities and people, what gadgets should I buy? And I say, we have to get back to the basics when it comes to our physical health.

We have to eat healthy. We have to move our body. We have to get sleep, manage our stress. So there's a lot of things physically we can be doing. And then lastly, I would say just emotionally and mentally, you know, do you have purpose, right?

I was going to Whataburger.

community do you have like-minded people around you cheering you on and being with you in the heart you know and then are you managing your stress and are you doing and this kind of comes back to spiritually too like are you doing something that fulfills you especially if you're working because you're spending way too much time during your life working and if you're not doing something that gives you purpose that you're using your gifts i feel like mentally and emotionally you're going to be stressed and empty i totally totally agree with you wow taylor it's been amazing um one

And so for me, I was like, I've always eaten this way and I've never been sick. So it can't be the food. But man, was I wrong. And so she, you know, I had a lot of parasites from living abroad. I had heavy metal toxicity.

Let's go. We're going to fire away for the VIP people.

Yeah, exactly.

I knew enough about the body that I wasn't just going to like jump to surgery and fear. And I just felt led to take an integrative approach. I like saying integrative because you take the best of the conventional, the best of the holistic, and you integrate the two for the best possible outcome.

Yes. And everyone should. It's something that other countries do it. We deworm our pets. But why aren't we talking about in humans? Because parasites suppress our immune system.

Why why was it so taboo? Yeah.

I did all that for, you know, treatment. And so anyway, she really helped support my immune system. I also gone through a lot of stress and trauma personally in my personal life that affects our immune system. And so it was just the perfect storm. But yeah, so she changed my diet. She started talking about what was in my environment, what chemicals I was using in and on my body.

And so I just really cleaned up my entire lifestyle. And I was also doing a lot of high intensity interval training prior to getting sick. Cause that's just, you know what you do. You go to cycling classes and orange theory to max.

Yes. Yes. But at that time, since I was sick and my adrenals were tanked, you know, that was just adding another stress. Exactly. And I was gaining weight. So it was just like this never ending cortisol bomb.

So anyway, so she basically, yeah, she just changed my life. And I was like, this helped me so much. How can I use my medical degree or my nursing degree to go help others?

So that's when I went back to nurse practitioner school and I worked for Amy Myers as her nurse for years and kind of got my feet on the ground in functional medicine, you know, learning protocols and testing and treating all of those things.

That was healing 1.0.

Traditional doctor, yeah.

before your surgery did the tumor actually shrink it did it was a miracle which is insane so to give the people that are listening to this hope can you give me a little more detail about what you did on this journey i think mindset is so huge and i think so many people hear the word cancer and it's a death sentence getting into your question of what i did is

Yeah. So life was good. I've met the man of my dreams. He was an Air Force pilot. We have two children. I have a thriving functional medicine practice of my own at this point. I founded a wellness center with a partner. And I don't know if you're familiar with the Pernuvo full body MRI company.

Yeah.

2022.

So two and a half years ago. Yeah. So not too long ago. And I got the curveball of my life. And so I did the scan, you know, took the picture, put on the scrubs and. I was called and told that they found a massive brain tumor in my right frontal lobe. And I'm like, what? You've got to be kidding. This is the wrong person because I have no symptoms.

So it was a shock to say the least, but I did in fact have a huge brain tumor.

It was the size of a plum.

Truly, I can't even explain it because from a medical perspective, I mean, the brain is so symptoms, like one millimeter shift, you can have symptoms in your brain. So literally it's a God thing. I don't have no explanation because it's truly beyond my comprehension.

It did. I'll never forget. We were headed to the museum with my children and I remember opening the app and I actually didn't get a phone call. I actually have to back it up. I opened up the app because I'm the practitioner. I'm the one who saw it first. No one had told me. So it said abnormal finding and I look and it said nervous system and I'm like, that's weird.

So I went to go look at it and it was a huge picture and it does not take a radiologist or a trained medical professional. I'll show you after.

I mean, it is huge. It's this huge white mass and

So, yeah. And then I ended up calling and they confirmed that it was, in fact, me. And yeah, the craziest thing was I had no symptoms. And so I was a little bit in disbelief, like, surely this is the wrong person. And they messed up charts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But after follow up and meeting with a local neurosurgeon several days later, it was, in fact, me.

Yeah.

So when I first got diagnosed, you know, I had a 10 month old at the time and a three year old. And so it was scary as all get out, you know, and as much as I know about integrative and functional medicine at this point, I know nothing about cancer. And now I feel like I have my Ph.D.

Yes. And it's only increasing. That's the hard thing. And so I slowed down. And I prayed and I said, OK, God, like this isn't a surprise to you. You know this, you know, the number of my days. But like, what do I do? And I didn't freak out. I didn't make decisions in fear. I wasn't reactive. And I I knew that I probably needed to get it out.

But I was also like, OK, this has been growing for years. Same thing with functional medicine symptoms. A disease doesn't just happen overnight. It's drops in the bucket over time that lead to the full blown manifestation of a disease and symptoms. And so I knew enough about the body that I wasn't just going to like jump to surgery and fear. And I just felt led to take an integrative approach.

And so I started doing research and reading books and contacting integrative cancer clinics. And, you know, it was also hard. We had to execute a living will. I had to make a lot of decisions as a mom and a wife and a business owner. Like I had to get my husband access to all my business stuff because I'm like, what if something happens?

So there was the life part of me that was trying to figure things out. And I also am so blessed because most people that have a brain tumor, they have a seizure. They wake up in the emergency room. They get the next call on call neurosurgeon. You don't have time to research prey. I mean, it's like you don't pack bags. You don't send it out office email. It's go time.

And so for me, I'm like, OK, God, thank you for giving me this information. I just want to like walk this journey. Well, yeah. So I ended up going to Hope for Cancer. It's a holistic cancer center in Mexico.

I went to the cancer center for healing in California and Irvine and I did everything from hyperbaric oxygen, red light beds, methylene blue, curcumin IVs, high dose vitamin C. I mean, you name it, I've done it. And so I spent five months, um, prior to surgery, I did end up getting brain surgery, doing research, getting second opinions.

I did for a couple of weeks.

I just need to come to your place. I'm like, where were you when I went through all of this?