Former MTV VJ Ananda Lewis has been residing with breast most cancers for practically six years and has taken holistic and conventional approaches to treating the illness. Some of his tumors, he says, are actually undetectable.
“If you extended your life, you gained,” Lewis mentioned this week in a round table conversation with CNN’s Stephanie Elam, who’s one in all her greatest mates, and fellow breast most cancers survivor Sara Sidner, additionally a CNN reporter. “No one will get out of right here alive. This will simply occur. Your capability and accountability are how you’ll thrive. The high quality of my life is essential to me. … I do know myself, me Want eager to be right here. So I needed to do it a sure approach for me.
The 51-year-old, who rose to fame on BET’s “Teen Summit” and hosted “The Ananda Lewis Show” within the early aughts, discovered a lump in her breast in January 2019. She mentioned it was in all probability “rising for fairly some time.” . whereas,” and initially rigorously pursued various therapies that might assist maintain the illness at bay. But finally “she received lazy,” she mentioned, and ran out of cash, leading to her shifting to Phase 4 final yr.
“When you discuss our girls, Black girls, who’re the almost certainly to die from this, there are a whole lot of issues tied collectively in these two issues that make that statistic make a bit little bit of sense,” Lewis mentioned.
“Our incapacity to really feel comfy round medical doctors goes again a very long time. We have a righteous distrust of the medical trade that we have to overcome, however we’re not going to disclaim that it got here from someplace and that it is actual.”
Breast most cancers is the most typical most cancers in girls within the United States, aside from pores and skin cancers American Cancer Society. It accounts for about 1 in 3 new feminine cancers every year, and Black girls are disproportionately affected by the illness. The common age at analysis is barely youthful for black girls (60) than white girls (64), and black girls usually tend to die from breast most cancers than another racial or ethnic group.
After studying concerning the tumor, Lewis mentioned her most cancers had progressed to the purpose that her medical doctors — who she described as “conventional oncologists” — advisable she have a double mastectomy. Lewis determined to attempt various therapies despite the fact that her mates, household and her sister, who’s a health care provider and most cancers survivor, gave her grief about it.
“I do know individuals who (surgical procedure and aggressive therapies) have labored for. But this journey may be very private and you must do what works for you and solely you,” Lewis mentioned. “My physique did this, there’s one thing to determine there.”
Lewis mentioned she needed to “determine it out” for herself and scale back the environmental toxins, emotional stress and “all of the whys of most cancers” that contribute to the onset of the illness. “If we do not begin addressing these points, the opposite issues to me are a half measure, which is why I have never performed it,” she mentioned of avoiding surgical procedure, chemotherapy and different typical breast most cancers therapies.
At first, her plan was to remove “extra toxins” from herself as a result of she believes our bodies are “good” and “brilliantly made and we spoil them.” She determined to “maintain” her tumor and remove it from her physique otherwise, by detoxing, utterly altering her weight-reduction plan and dealing on her “emotional landscapes”.
He took meticulous notes on what he ate, how he felt, and even how he breathed. This resulted in “a interval of slowing down” which she mentioned was very efficient. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and none of her sources have been accessible anymore.
Meanwhile the tumor continued to develop.
Lewis moved to Arizona and built-in typical and pure approaches to deal with the illness. He instantly insulin-enhanced chemotherapyshe detoxed and did various therapies that took the most cancers to stage 2 in 2021. But, she mentioned, she “ran out of cash” and insurance coverage did not cowl her holistic method.
When she could not sustain with the prescribed routine, she mentioned, “I simply began letting my life be regular once more, and that takes every part away from me, and I needed one thing in return,” she mentioned. “Cancer has a humorous approach of constant to develop.”
In October 2023, her scans confirmed that the most cancers had metastasized down her backbone, via her hips, into her lymph nodes and “virtually in all places besides her mind.”
“It was the worst I’ve ever felt,” he mentioned, including that after having a bone scan, he felt the worst ache he’d ever had. It was additionally the primary time she “had a dialog with demise,” feeling annoyed and a bit indignant with herself.
Through tears, Lewis informed Elam and Sidner that she had damaged her hip resulting from bone issues she was experiencing and could not get off the bed for eight weeks. When he received his insurance coverage again, he resumed therapy and was capable of profit from new varieties of medication.
Lewis mentioned he has maintained “the integrative aspect” of his therapy method, which he says helps scale back the unwanted effects of some medicines and has shrunk his tumors. Some of them are actually undetectable.
For Sidner, it was stage 3 breast most cancers, found final yr at age 51. She took a very completely different method to Lewis: she was decided to “kill it, chemo-kill it, combat it, burn it.” to hell,” wanting a right away response. Although the most cancers was in a single breast, she underwent a double mastectomy.
“What I instantly discovered – a really laborious lesson for Sara Sidner – was that it wasn’t going to be rapid and I needed to take care of it. And I used to be pissed,” he mentioned.
Both girls expressed how essential it’s for girls to do self-examination, know their our bodies, and advocate for themselves.
Elam, who known as Lewis and Sidner her sisters and “chosen household,” delved into each girls’s experiences in hopes it might assist others.
“We are there for one another via thick and skinny. So after they each began their breast most cancers journey, I did not know the way to greatest help them and I additionally realized that I had no thought what trendy most cancers therapies have been like,” Elam he wrote on Instagram.
The TV journalist mentioned she was grateful for his or her willingness to speak to her and “open up utterly to the world.”
“If we are able to get only one lady to get a mammogram via this dialog, then that is successful. I need everybody to reside an extended and wholesome life,” he wrote.
Lewis signed up his answer within the feedback part of the publish.
“Wow Chile! The rush of (sic) dying is REAL! It was superb to have this dialog with you @stephelamtv and @sarasidnertv I hope for one of the best outcomes for EVERYONE dealing with life with most cancers Love you!”
