What if a cancer diagnosis didn’t mean surrender—but transformation?
In this powerful episode of Integrative Cancer Solutions, Dr. K sits down with bestselling author, philanthropist, and lifelong learner Glenn Sturm, who has lived—and thrived—through nearly two decades of continuous chemotherapy. Diagnosed with a rare, incurable lymphoma and given just years to live, Glenn shares how integrative, multidisciplinary cancer care helped him defy the odds and reclaim his life.
This conversation explores why silo-based oncology fails patients, how true integrative cancer care dramatically improves survival and quality of life, and why mindset, communication, movement, and purpose are as critical as chemotherapy itself. Glenn also shares deeply human stories—from surgery rooms to chemo suites—that reveal how gratitude, laughter, and patient empowerment can become some of the most powerful medicines available.
Key Takeaways:
0:00 Introduction
4:10 Why Glenn refused to let cancer define him
9:30 Integrative cancer care vs silo-based oncology
15:20 Building a multidisciplinary cancer care team
21:45 Cancer fatigue, chemo brain, and overlooked root causes
29:10 Medication interactions and why patients must stay vigilant
36:40 How mindset, purpose, and joy influence survival
44:30 Why patients—not doctors—must be the quarterbacks of care
Resources Mentioned:
Medical Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or replace professional medical advice. Always consult your physician or qualified healthcare provider regarding any medical condition or treatment decisions.
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A Better Way to Treat Cancer: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding, Preventing and Most Effectively Treating Our Biggest Health Threat
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Healing Within: Unraveling the Emotional Roots of Cancer
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Integrative Cancer Solutions was created to instill hope and empowerment. Other people have been where you are right now and have already done the research for you. Listen to their stories and journeys and apply what they learned to achieve similar outcomes as they have, cancer remission and an even more fullness of life than before the diagnosis. Guests will discuss what therapies, supplements, and practitioners they relied on to beat cancer. Once diagnosed, time is of the essence. This podcast will dramatically reduce your learning curve as you search for your own solution to cancer. To learn more about the cutting-edge integrative cancer therapies Dr. Karlfeldt offer at his center, please visit
Transcript
Dr. Karlfeldt (00:02)
Hi and welcome to Integrative Cancer Solutions with Dr. Carl Feld. The cancer diagnosis is one of the hardest slaps in the face imaginable. All of a sudden you have to become an expert in cancer and its treatments because your life depends on it. Oncologists, family, and friends are pushing you towards chemo, radiation, surgery, yet you feel there are additional solutions out there. You don’t feel confident in that only traditional therapies will take care of it. You may, as I have, seen family or friends quickly go downhill from harsh medical treatments. There is a better way. I invite you to listen to stories from real people fighting cancer successfully through powerful integrative and holistic methods. Learn what they did. This is my gift to you to make the learning curve less steep after your diagnosis. The information in this podcast could save your life as it has others.
Dr. Karlfeldt (00:55)
Well, Glenn Sturm, thank you so much for spending some time with me. I’m really excited to talk about your journey. And I mean, you’re someone that really can inspire people that going through cancer because of what you’ve gone through. So thank you so much for spending this time with me.
Glenn Sturm (01:16)
Well, thank you for having me. I respect what you’ve been doing and you’re kind of the father of this approach. So it’s wonderful to talk to you again.
Dr. Karlfeldt (01:26)
Well, thank you. So tell me a little bit about your cancer journey. I mean, where you were a successful lawyer, you were, I mean, you were, you’ve been in the military, you, and then lo and behold, here you’re diagnosed with cancer. So do you mind sharing a little bit what that looked like?
Glenn Sturm (01:45)
Oh no, it was kind of interesting. I’m at the Atlanta airport at gate B13, and maybe I shouldn’t have gone to B13. Because of the number. But my phone rang and I didn’t recognize the number, but that was back in the days that we didn’t screen calls as much as that, weren’t that many spam calls. And I answered the phone and it was my doc, one of my docs. She was a dermatologist, and, and, uh, but she’s also a triathlete, and I was doing triathlons and marathons a lot in those days. And so I thought it was a, you know, just a a call about maybe setting up a run or something. And I was getting ready to go to the University of North Carolina to give a speech. And she said, Glenn, the biopsies came back. Well, the biopsies were done in December. This was January 21st. They were done before Christmas. I had no idea what she was talking about. And she said, Glenn, they came back and they’re positive for cancer. You have lymphoma. And I was just, I couldn’t believe what she said. And then my doc friends who I worked out with, I wouldn’t have put it past him to fake something.
Glenn Sturm (02:54)
So I thought it was a joke. And I said, okay, who put you up to this? She said, Glenn, no, you don’t understand. You have cancer and we need you back here tomorrow for more tests. And I said, are you kidding me? And she said, no, Glenn. I said, well, I’m flying to North Carolina today to give a speech tonight and another one tomorrow morning. I can be back in the afternoon. So we come straight from the airport to my office. And I’ve got a fairly rare type of cancer, but it’s not curable. And what happened then was she said, I’ve got to refer you to somebody, an expert for your type of cancer. And it may be hard to get you in. And so 2 weeks later, I still hadn’t gotten an in. So Otis Brawley, who at the time was the chief medical officer and chief scientist for American Cancer, our kids went to school together. And I called him on the phone and he was in a very important thing. We would text each other normally and set up a call. And he said, what’s wrong? When he answered the phone, I told him.
Glenn Sturm (04:01)
He said, I’ll call you back in 20 minutes. And I said, 20 or 25 minutes later, he called me back and said, the best doctor in the world for this is Francine Foss at Yale. I’ve talked to her. She will see you any day, any time next week. Here’s her cell phone. So I called her up and, you know, when I got there, I was kind of hoping that it was a mistake. You know, they did it wrong. And she looked at me and did something and she looked and said, Glenn, I’ve just looked at your stuff. You’ve got cancer. We’ve got to put you on chemo today. So I was on chemo then, I’m still on chemo, so I’m right at 6,290 days of daily chemo and 630 days of IV chemo since then. The interesting thing was my daughter was told that I had probably 2 to 2.5 years to live. And here I am starting my 18th year on chemo today. So It is what it is. And, you know, I had to leave the law firm as soon as I went on IV chemo because they thought I was going to have chemo brain and the insurance companies were freaked out about it.
Glenn Sturm (05:09)
And so I was put on disability and I was 54 years old and I’m now 72. And I’m writing books and shooting eclipses all over the world, working out in the gym every morning for an hour and a half and celebrating life every day. So there’s a lot of things in between, but, but that’s kind of the overview. But again, it was a shock. And the one thing I did the first day when it was confirmed with Dr. Foss is that I am not going to let cancer define me. I mean, I’m going to work as hard and do as many things as long as I have. And I’ve kept that promise to myself. And as a result of that, I’ve been doing all these things that are now so much fun. And helping other people is the best part of it. My photography, most people don’t know this, but 100% of the proceeds of any sale goes to children’s health. I don’t take a dime. I pay all the expenses, pay all the printing costs. And when they’re auctioned off, 100% of the revenue goes to the people. Who buy it, I know, to the hospital or the organization.
Glenn Sturm (06:21)
And the other thing is I don’t sell another copy of that picture when they’re sold to support it. So they’re one-of-ones. So they’re— I think that’s true art to do it that way. And so they’re unique. And I shoot eclipses all over the world. And I also, living where I do, go to Yellowstone, Lamar Valley. And the most recent picture I got, that was fun. It put a smile on my face, was there’s a wolf who flushed a hummingbird and he tried to eat it and catch it. And I got it, got the picture with the hummingbird about 8 inches to maybe 18 inches ahead of the wolf. It’s just beautiful. And I mean, you have to celebrate life. And I’ve got all these rules about that. You know, I want the cancer to find me. One of the other ones I love telling people who are having problems is we must all give up hope for better yesterday. You can’t change that. But the other thing is only you can stop you. Nobody else can stop you. If you’re passionate and persistent, you’ll find the right team of physicians and paraprofessionals and other folks.
Glenn Sturm (07:34)
And as a result of integrated, comprehensive, integrated multidisciplinary cancer care, the mortality rates have dropped so much, it’s unbelievable. You gave me the best line last time we talked I’ve ever heard. And because my longevity now, 18 years into cancer, is 30 years. Well, how much would a drug company be worth if it could extend somebody’s life to 102 when they got the cancer at 54. Well, you said it may be worth tens of billions. I said, no, you were actually wrong about that. It’s between $700 million and $1 trillion more in market cap. I did the work on it. Took me about 8 hours to do that. And I taught corporate finance at the graduate level. I mean, it was your idea, but boy, oh boy, was, can you imagine, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars just by having a team together that can work together to fix this? I mean, it changes everything. And if you look at increased longevity, I’m talking too much right now, but if you look at the increased longevity, breast cancer is the lowest, but, Disease-free survival has gone, in the past few years, has gone from 42% to 60%.
Glenn Sturm (09:02)
My mortality rate has dropped 80%. I mean, the numbers are staggering. But if you look at silo-based practices, there’s no change. So what you started 40 years ago, I think, has resulted in the most important change in longevity and treatment and quality of life that anybody could have. And we can get into real specifics about it, but you’re kind of the father of it. I said that last time. You are. And I’m so pleased to be able to talk to you. Thank you.
Dr. Karlfeldt (09:42)
Well, thank you so much. And yeah, that’s the thing is that, you know, the most powerful medicine is that when you integrate all the components that needed, not just doing one aspect of medicine, but looking at the individual as a whole and then bringing in the tools to address that whole individual. And that is, you bring the best of both the holistic natural medicine and the best of the traditional oncology care. And I think that that is the future. Integrative care is the future because we’re going to see the change in outcome. And like you’re saying, the statistics are staggering as to how much more improved the outcome is when you integrate things.
Glenn Sturm (10:37)
Well, you just said it right. And it’s just staggering. The numbers. People who are diagnosed with cancer now— as my dogs ring the bell and want to go outside— no, I apologize. People who are diagnosed today, if you look at a fully weighted average approach to it, you look at all the cancers, all the people, and the averages of their things, the average for anybody with cancer would include the worst types of breast cancer or brain cancer, their survival rates are now 70% longer. And it’s just, it’s unbelievable. I mean, if you look at head and neck cancer, there’s a 16% improvement. Well, that’s one of the most difficult things to do. That’s for people with stage 4. There’s a 16% reduction in the mortality rate and the length of life has gone up dramatically. It’s just unbelievable what the integrated approach does. And the crazy part about it is when I was diagnosed, I didn’t know what integrated was, but I had my oncologist and then because my general practitioner, I had been diagnosed with cancer, my father died, my dog died, and then I was served with divorce papers. And so my doc said I needed to see a psychiatrist and he was so smart.
Glenn Sturm (12:10)
I said, okay, whatever. I don’t think I need one, but whatever. Well, I think the psychiatrist may be the most important practitioner in the group because, you know, cancer fatigue syndrome is a big deal. And NIH has said over and over again that fatigue, lower, higher levels of fatigue are emblematic of people losing their lives quicker. So if you have energy and you have, you know, you get rid of the fatigue issues, you can do this. So I was diagnosed when it was an accurate diagnosis with, oh boy, just a second, sleep, sleep, I was falling asleep in the middle of the day. Anyway, I was diagnosed and I was put on a drug called Provigil, or modafinil, and that gives you energy. And so I didn’t fall asleep in the middle of the day anymore. And then I was ADD, which was— everybody who knew me knew I was ADD because they all said I had the attention span of an adolescent fruit fly. And so they put me on ADD meds. Well, guess what? Cognitive-related conjunctive impairment, or CRCI, or also known as chemo brain, was gone with those two medications. And I had all the energy I needed, which means I went to the gym 6 days a week.
Glenn Sturm (13:43)
It means, you know, everything changed. And I was able to write books and shoot eclipses and do all the math that was required. I actually ended up having a liver problem and the liver problem was so bad they put me on the liver transplant list and I couldn’t figure out what was going on. So I went back and did a chart and stuff you’ve talked about, did a chart of everything I had done differently over the past 2 years and included the medicines and just behavioral issues. Well, I ran a correlation coefficient analysis and the the correlation between a drug and this problem was 0.96. I mean, that’s almost 100%. And so I told the doctors about it and they said, uh-uh, Glenn, it can’t be that. It’s been tested by everybody. It’s gotta be something else. And I said, well, we’re gonna find out about it. They said, it’s correlation, not causation. And I stopped the drug. 6 weeks later, my liver enzymes were back in normal. Well, most people can’t do a correlation coefficient. They can do trends and things and track things, but they can’t do the math. Well, you don’t have to do the math because if you just chart it out, you’ll see things.
Glenn Sturm (15:01)
I could do the math. Well, what I couldn’t do was the psychology and understand what cancer fatigue syndrome was. But anyway, back to the thing. I solved my liver problems because they had worked with— now Yale was working on it. But they were working with Oxford on it. So you’ve got two great liver doctors working on it, but they didn’t do the correlation coefficient and looked at the analysis. And I did it and figured it out. Well, that goes to one of the things I always tell people, you’re responsible. So, you know, I’ve got, I had a great gastroenterology doctor who’s a cancer for that part of the body, but he’s now the head of Yale’s gastro school. I had, you know, a psychiatrist and I had a great oncologist. And then the other thing I had was a physical therapist because I had an injury. And so the phys— my insurance company approved 5 days a week for 10 years physical therapy. And she was an exercise physiologist. And oh my gosh, it changed my life. So you think about it, I had an exercise physiologist. I’d been in pretty good shape before it started because I ran marathons, but I didn’t do a lot of weight work.
Glenn Sturm (16:17)
So I had her, I had, you know, this phenomenal psychiatrist. I had a gastro guy who did robotic surgery on me, you know, 17 years ago and had to cut out half my intestine and then had another problem and had to do it. And And then I had Dr. Foss and, you know, I had the team and then I had an acupuncturist and other people. Well, if you look at the list of all the people you might need in comprehensive cancer care team, an integrated team, it’s like 25 to 26. But the real important thing is word integrated and communications. Last year I had 3 communications failures with doctors. And I almost died. I was in ketoacidosis in the last week before my daughter basically rescued me. And I was diagnosed with amnesia and aphasia and probable dementia. Well, 6 weeks later after doing it right and getting rid of a drug that caused it, my neurologist said my mind was as fast as it was 30 years before. That my math components were faster than he could keep up with. And he said, there’s zero chance you have dementia. This was a multi-factor drug interaction problem.
Glenn Sturm (17:43)
Well, the people who prescribed the drug were the ones who saw me in the emergency room 5 days later and basically in ketoacidosis, and they didn’t realize the drug that they had prescribed had caused it. I mean, that’s just common sense to look at. Go ahead.
Dr. Karlfeldt (18:02)
And that’s the thing is that, yeah, we know that iatrogenic or properly prescribed medication is the third leading cause of death. So it is not saying that medications aren’t important, not saying that they are not needed. It is just important to be able to have the, the conversation in if you’re noticing symptoms and things that are going the wrong direction to see if there is a correlation like you were doing in regards to your liver. And, and here you have this other medication that’s impacting, uh, your, your, your brain and your mind, and, and, you know, all of a sudden you think you’re dealing with dementia, uh, when, when you’re not. Yeah, so It is important to then have several eyes, you know, several— a larger care team that can then analyze the protocol that you’re on and then be able to look at it from different angles instead of just assuming that something is safe and okay.
Glenn Sturm (19:08)
Well, I mean, I’ve got this list of everybody that’s needed, and I just added another doctor to it, a neurologist. They’re so hard to get into. And because of reimbursement systems, they’re having neurologists who are trained and board certified from schools like Harvard or, you know, or, you know, Stanford or places like that are having to change their practices to general practice because they can’t make enough money as a neurologist. And they can look at things and test you in ways you know, in 30 or 40 minutes that can identify problems or rule out things. So what caused my problem is prednisone. It almost put me into this thing. It got my blood alcohol level to 2.5, and not 0.25, which means you’re drunk, but 2.5. And so they thought I was a drunk. Well, I haven’t had any alcohol for over 30 years. My daughter was here to to attest to that. And after 2 days, it was still 2.5, and they couldn’t— they thought I was a drunk, and they finally concluded I wasn’t. So they assumed that the reason for that was the alcohol swipes they were doing on my arms. Well, that was just— that is just silly.
Glenn Sturm (20:31)
You couldn’t— I mean, how much would you have to consume to have a blood alcohol over 2.5? That’s there for 2 days. It’s impossible. Well, in, in the M&M on this, morbidity and, you know, other things, but, you know, and assessment— I didn’t die, so it wasn’t a true M&M. They should have identified the ketoacidosis when I went back to the emergency room. It’s the same emergency room that had prescribed prednisone. And prednisone has, for people over the age of 60, this is a common side effect. I mean, it caused a lot of problems. And thank goodness I’ve got this wonderful neurologist who assured my family that I wasn’t going off the deep end. So, you know, as you said, you’ve got to have the team and you got to have the right team. So the regular doctors, emergency room doctors, who I’m sure if it was a trauma issue would be phenomenal.
Dr. Karlfeldt (21:36)
Yeah, and so one of the things that, you know, you wrote a book, you’re about to release your next book, but one of the first books you wrote was, you know, it says Cancer Set Me Free, turning crisis into calm to survive anything. So, and I see that again and again in patients, that are diagnosed with cancer is that all of a sudden their back is against the wall and they have to change something because they know that whatever trajectory they’re on is leading them to an outcome they don’t want to have. And obviously, in order to be able to change outcome, you need to change what you’re doing. And so here you have— then saying such a powerful statement, cancer set me free. So can you expand on how it set you free and how you came to that conclusion as to what you needed to do?
Glenn Sturm (22:33)
Well, I immediately started reading everything I could find, like most people do or their caregiver does. And I read about a gentleman who only had 6 months. And he was so thankful for those 6 months. That he was able to, you know, heal all the relationships that weren’t, that had not been good. And he kept on going about all the things he was able to do in those 6 months. And I sat there and thought about it and I said, my gosh, I’ve been given an opportunity of a lifetime. I was lucky I had a good disability insurance policy, which helped. But I had the perfect opportunity to do something to make the world better, which is very important to me. And I had the time to find out how to do it. And what happened was, you know, I wasn’t working anymore. So I had the time to do anything. And then because of my psychiatrist, I had the energy and the cognitive function that I could achieve anything. And so in some respects, cancer was a huge blessing for me because I had been working my whole life solving other people’s problems and not doing anything to solve my own.
Glenn Sturm (24:04)
And we all have issues we can improve ourselves with. And so I focused on improving myself and doing things to help others. When you get bad news— I mean, I’ve had 55 surgeries now, so It’s not all good news, but to give you an example, one of my favorite things that happened was I was going in for a very, very severe surgical procedure on my intestine. They were gonna cut off, cut out about 18 inches. And it was, I was sepsis, I had sepsis, it had, the intestine had been perforated and I was pretty sick. So the anesthesiologists are always late for surgery. I mean, in my experiences, only one place have they not been, and that’s Mayo up in Rochester, Minnesota. But this doctor was at Yale and he was just so busy. So they’re wheeling me down to the OR and he pulls into the OR after getting me to sign a consent. Well, that’s not informed consent because they put you on a sedative. So it’s totally ineffective. But anyway, he pushed me, he got his paper signed. So he pushed me into the OR. And he said, oh, Glenn, he said, do you want to listen to music while we hook you up and everything?
Glenn Sturm (25:13)
I said, absolutely, I’d love that. So he said, what do you want to listen to? I said, Jimi Hendrix. He’s a guy a lot younger than me. He said, Jimi Hendrix? Yeah. He said, what song? And the nurses are all there doing their stuff and the techs. And I said, are you experienced? Well, they all broke into laughter. Okay, they’re laughing there. And the Doc didn’t get it. He did not get it. And it was so funny. Well, 3 weeks later, I was back at the hospital for another IV infusion, and he saw me and he said, I have a question for you. He said, how did you come up with that at that instant right before surgery where you’ve got all these family members, all these other people out here to see you, and because you may not make it. And, and I said, well, I was thinking about that, and I said, if the last thing I do in my life before they turn the lights off— I mean, when they go into surgery, literally they turn the lights off and it’s gone, and you don’t even realize it’s gone. Um, if the last thing I do is get a bunch of nice people to laugh and have smiles on their faces, if I don’t make it, I’ve done good.
Glenn Sturm (26:25)
And he just said, amazing. And I said, well, you turn lights on, I don’t know if you’re gonna turn them back on, so let’s have a laugh and then it’s great. I mean, that’s what I did, but that’s how you make, turn crisis into calm. And then let’s think about the effect on the people who were laughing. And you think about it, if you reduce the stress for all the people in the OR, they’re going to perform better. So I didn’t do it for that reason, but even if you, even if you’re not doing it just to be nice, if you’re doing it for the other reasons, the chances of you having a better result are really high. So have some fun with it before they turn the lights out, because if that’s the last thing they do, that you do, they’re going to be talking about you for a long time. And they’re going to talk about the nice person who didn’t make it. And oh, by the way, you’ve helped other people’s lives. What could be better? So that’s turning crisis into calm.
Dr. Karlfeldt (27:33)
Yeah, I love that. And that’s the thing is that we don’t realize the impact that our kind words are making people, you know, laugh, you know, the impact it has on other people’s lives. But we live in an environment, we live, it’s not like we’re disconnected from these other people. So when we share that joy, we share that love, you know, we exist within that field, we exist within that love, and that will then have regenerative, restorative impact on us as individuals. And to me it’s just phenomenal. I mean, you’ve essentially been on chemo for how many years now?
Glenn Sturm (28:23)
I’m starting my 18th year of continuous chemo about 4 weeks ago.
Dr. Karlfeldt (28:29)
And some people, I mean, they have a tough time going through a course of chemo and you’ve been doing it for 18 years. So to be able to have a mindset to navigate all and 55 surgeries. To have the mindset to be able to navigate that still with a smile and still being able as a photographer, see the beautiful things in nature. And like you’re talking about the wolf and the hummingbird, to be able to see those little details, the beauty around us when you are going through so many challenging times. And that to me, shifting that mindset is so important. And you’re doing that.
Glenn Sturm (29:15)
Well, let me tell you the other thing I do. And how do you say thank you to your caregivers in the hospital? How do you say thank you? So I’m a relatively good photographer. Well, starting about 14 years ago, I had what I call the cancer collection. And every person that works in Infusion 7 and every person in the hospital at Yale that touches me, the people now at Mayo did the surgery last year, And it starts at the janitors, the, you know, the techs that clean the place. They all get a signed framed picture of mine. And last Christmas I wasn’t able to deliver them. Well, next week I’ll be framing 140 pictures in New Haven and taking them to everybody. Uh, because Dr. Foss told me they were all upset that I wasn’t there. They wanted to make sure I was okay. And then they know that when I come back, they’re gonna get those pictures because it’s, it’s, you can’t stop giving them. But the other thing about it is the best, some of the best events of the year for me is somebody, and, and the people don’t realize what they’re doing when they do it to me.
Glenn Sturm (30:29)
They’ll show me a picture of their living room or their dining room where they’ve got 10 pictures or 14 pictures I’ve given them on the wall. And it means that it’s registering that I really care about them. And one of the guys was in the Marines and he got called to active duty. Well, I was a fairly senior guy in the military for a long time because I was in total of 37 years. And I knew some very senior Marines even though I’m an Army guy. I called somebody and said, this is the most amazing, he’s Radar. I call him Radar from the movie M*A*S*H or the TV show. Because he does that. I mean, he fixes everything. And I said, you got Radar. And so when Radar got to the war zone, a four-star knew who he was. And he was they didn’t take him out of his combat role, but they made sure he had everything he needed. And when Radar got back, he thanked me, but what the most fun I had with that was he didn’t realize everything I’d done, but in the military we give people coins. And the guy I worked with on this issue was the Vice Commandant, number 2 in the Marine Corps, and I had his coin and I shook hands with Radar and gave him the coin.
Glenn Sturm (31:57)
Vice’s coin. Well, Radar, they bet on who has the highest coin, and Radar wins all the bets in all the bars because nobody else has a 4-star. And so, you know, he has a smile on his face all the time from that little coin. And it was a 4-star doing me a favor, sending me the coin to shake hands with Radar. I did one other thing that was great. I mean, during the Battle of the Bulge, my dad was a 19-year-old first lieutenant, and the battalion headquarters was wiped out. Well, he took over command of a battalion as a first lieutenant at the age of 19, and he did the job for 3 months, and they brought a colonel in to take over. But one of the nurses was telling me that her dad had died in the Battle of the Bulge. And he was a battalion commander, and the whole battalion headquarters was wiped out. And that sounded too familiar to what might happen to my dad. So I got the Green Book, which is the U.S. Army history of World War II, and I got the Battle of the Bulge book, and I went through and looked it up and looked up the battalion.
Glenn Sturm (33:09)
It was my dad’s battalion. And so I got a pristine copy of the book, put a little, you know, like sign here sticky on the top to the right chapter. And 3 weeks later when I went back for chemo, and the time before was her first time giving her chemo, um, I gave her the book and showed her what it was. And she, she teared up and everything. And, and I said, you know, I’m sorry you lost your dad, but he’s a hero, and here’s the book that proves it. And, um, And, you know, she told me, you know, the next time I came after that, that she and her son had read the whole book together and knew everything about it and knew everything about her dad who had passed. And that was a simple thing to do because I knew what to do. But when you know what to do, you have to do it, to do other things, because you will put a smile on somebody’s face or help them put something to bed. And, uh, it’s simple because they, they’re the ones who keep me alive. And these small tokens of appreciation mean a lot.
Glenn Sturm (34:20)
And when they get their smile on their face, what happens to me? I get a smile on mine. And the positive effect of that situation in life, uh, goes through you and makes you healthier. It just does. And, you know, the endorphins are real and it’s like, you know, be around water and good clean water, the positive effects of that are just stunning. And the use of Eastern, I guess is the right way to describe it, medicine where they take into account all these other things other than just pumping drugs. Are really important. And my oncologist goes to Tibet and, you know, China all the time. She speaks in China all the time. But she brings back those things. And so she sees my team that I put together and she said, you’re spot on. Well, I mean, it’s why aren’t, why isn’t everybody doing this? Is my question. And so I was recently asked by a family whose daughter had stage 4 metastatic breast cancer at the age of 25. Glenn, where’s the best place to go? Well, I’ve done some computer programming and stuff, so I developed some algorithms to help identify all the issues that I thought were important.
Glenn Sturm (35:52)
And it came up to me that I concluded that University of San Francisco Medical Center was the best because when you looked at their team approach, it was holistic. I’d never seen anything like it. And I mean, it was just, I couldn’t believe what they were doing. I mean, what I’m writing about, they had done everything I’m writing about. So why? And if you look at their statistical results, off the charts better. And, you know, why aren’t other people doing it? Well, the solo practitioners don’t like it because they don’t have 100% control anymore. And so the medical, you know, the drug companies don’t like it in a lot of cases because They’re afraid of the impact it may have on their demand for medicines. The insurance companies don’t like it because you’re going to live longer.
Dr. Karlfeldt (36:56)
Yeah, exactly. And, and the thing is that, you know, when you deal with cancer, the control should be with the patient. You know, it should not be with the doctor. You know, the, the patient should be the one that is the quarterback. And we know studies show again and again that when the patient feels like they are the ones that’s driving the process, that they are in control of their own destiny, they’re always going to do better. Yeah, so it should not be the doctors that are in complete control, it should be the, the patient. It is their body, and then the team should work together to support the patient and their decisions.
Glenn Sturm (37:36)
Well, I have a question for you. About that. I agree with that issue. So if somebody doesn’t know a lot about it, one of the things I’ve been thinking about is, is the guide or the patient navigator internally, shouldn’t they be the one who’s in charge? Because their job is to holistically approach things and solve problems, not just cancer. And, and, you know, if you don’t have the edge— I mean, I was my own navigator, I think, for a long time. Um, but I mean, how do you break the cycle on this? How do you get the patient in charge? Because the doctor’s always there.
Dr. Karlfeldt (38:25)
Yeah, and I think the, the key is to— it’s, it’s actually the patients that need to know that they are empowered. So I, I think as the public is more educated, you know, with like the book that you’re coming out with in just a little bit, when people understand the impact of integrating medicine and, and feeling like they are looked at from all different angles, not just, you know, the traditional oncology route, but What should you eat? How should you exercise? Where’s your mindset? Are there other natural therapies that can support what you’re doing with the traditional oncology? When you’re doing those things like at University of San Francisco, I believe Dr. Abrams is one of the head oncologists over there, then you’re going to have a different outcome. I see that again and again with my patients. It’s phenomenal how different the patients that come to me and utilizing some of the services that we offer while at the same time doing traditional oncology. When they sit in that chemo room, it’s night and day what they look like and how they feel like compared to the other people that, you know, look like they’re on death’s door.
Glenn Sturm (39:51)
Well, let me give you an analogy. From a lawyer, as a lawyer from a law firm in litigation. A lot of times in litigation, there’s a huge mistake the lawyer makes because they think it’s their case. It’s not their case. Okay? It’s the client’s case. And lawyers who think it’s their case run up expensive fees and do things and don’t solve the problem. And that’s just like the, the silo-based oncology situation. It is, you know, no matter how good the oncologist is, the result is, I mean, there’s studies by NIH on this that they’re not going to do as well as they do with a not as good oncologist, but who’s part of a team. I mean, it is stunning how important the team is. And the other thing, the most critical part of the team part is communication. If they talk to each other. So if the psychiatrist and the oncologist talk, if the physical therapist and the psychologist talk, and they all have the same phone number. In my case, all of my docs have the same phone, have each other’s cell phone number and their email addresses. And we all can text to each other.
Glenn Sturm (41:11)
And there’s a group text set up. From the team. I mean, it changes everything. And my oncologist, you know, my physical therapist sometimes, because my cancer will present on the skin sometimes, will take a picture of my back and text it to the oncologist. 30 minutes later, the oncologist calls and says, Gwen, you’re taking 3 of these pills. I want you to increase it to 4. So it’s real time. Okay, physical therapist is in Jackson, Wyoming. The oncologist is in New Haven, Connecticut. And the hematologist has already looked at the stuff to make sure. And then my pharmacist, okay, which is somebody who needs to be on the list, um, the pharmacist checks it off. I mean, I’ve had two situations where the pharmacist has said, Glenn, you can’t take that pill, it’ll kill you. My resting pulse rate is in the 50s. And they wanted to do a check on a heart test, you know, just see function and things. So they wanted to get my heart rate below 70. Well, it’s already 50, for goodness sakes. Well, if they’d given me that pill and I’d taken that pill, my heart might have stopped.
Glenn Sturm (42:32)
And the pharmacist knows everything. And so he says, stop, you can’t take that. And I’ll call the doc, but you need to call him also. It’s totally unnecessary. I mean, if you don’t have the communication, you know, I could have just, you know, been looking up at, you know, roots that night. So, I mean, no, it’s critical. Yeah.
Dr. Karlfeldt (42:56)
Yeah, looked at the grass from the wrong direction. Yeah, and we don’t want that. Yeah, no, we don’t. Glenn, thank you. Thank you so much for what you’re bringing to the world and the kind of change of attitude considering what you’ve gone through and still focuses on— you focus on bringing joy and laughter to people around you. Thank you so much for spending this time with me. I really, really appreciate it and for people listening, you can go to glennsturm.com. I also have a phenomenal book, you know, that’s already published, Cancer Set Me Free: Turning Crisis into Calm to Survive Anything. And I have an upcoming book here in just a month or so. So Glenn, thank you so much for spending this time.
Glenn Sturm (43:51)
Thank you, sir. And people need to understand that you are the father of this and you are, you’re the one who set this up and it is changing the world. It’s taken a long time for people to listen, but it’s changing the world. Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Dr. Karlfeldt (44:05)
Thank you.
Glenn Sturm (44:05)
Thank you.
Dr. Karlfeldt (44:06)
The information in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not designed to diagnose or treat any disease. If you’d like to know more about what my center offers, please visit thecarlfeldcenter.com. Please join us next week for another live consultation with a patient diagnosed with cancer. On Integrative Cancer Solutions with Dr. Carl Feld.