Cancer is the second cause of death worldwide, and cases are set to increase to 35 million over the next two decades. Even though we’ve made great strides in research and therapeutic advances, the risk of cancer is still high.

That doesn’t mean we have to just accept that cancer will happen to more of us. There are steps we can take to prevent it and increase our survivorship if we do get it.

It has been proven that lifestyle choices can reduce your risk of cancer. What we eat and how active we are can have a huge impact on the likelihood of getting cancer. By far, things like our weight and our habits are the most modifiable risk factors, and the good news is, they are entirely in our control.

Why has there been a rise in the global cancer burden? How can we reduce our risk? In this episode, I’m joined by the Director of Breast Oncology and Cancer Survivorship at the Mass General Cancer Center in Waltham, Dr. Amy Comander. She shares how we can address the rising global cancer burden by changing our lifestyles.

30-40% of cancers can be prevented by avoiding risk factors and applying good and healthy lifestyle choices to our own lives. -Dr. Amy Comander

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-Why your lifestyle choices matter

If certain lifestyle choices increase the risk of cancer, that means our choices can also reduce it. How can we combat the disease by implementing good lifestyle choices?

-The bad news about the genetics (and the good news)

Genetics and hereditary alterations are known factors that increase the risks of cancer. Can lifestyle choices protect those who are predisposed to cancer, and even stop it from transmitting to the next generation?

-This lifestyle change will reduce your risk of cancer

Excess fat cells have been found to be a risk factor for cancer. How do fat cells propagate the development of cancer cells?

Guest Bio

Dr. Amy Comander specializes in the care of women with breast cancer. Dr. Comander is Medical Director of the Mass General Cancer Center in Waltham, where she also serves as Director of Breast Oncology and Cancer Survivorship at the Mass General Cancer Center in Waltham and at Newton Wellesley Hospital. She is director of Lifestyle Medicine at the Mass General Cancer Center, and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She received her undergraduate degree and a master's degree in Neuroscience at Harvard University. She received her medical degree at Yale University School of Medicine. She completed her Internal Medicine residency training and Hematology-Oncology fellowship training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. She is board-certified in Hematology and Medical Oncology, and she is a Diplomat of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. Dr. Comander is well-known for her compassionate care and passionate devotion to her patients. She has served as a medical advisor to Oneinforty, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating people of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage about the one-in-forty chance of having inherited a BRCA mutation. She is proud to serve on the board of the Ellie Fund, a non-profit that provides services and support to women diagnosed with breast cancer in Massachusetts. Dr. Comander has a strong interest in improving the quality of life and outcome of cancer survivors through important lifestyle interventions, including physical activity, diet, and mind/body interventions. She promotes healthy lifestyles for both her active treatment patients as well as those in the survivorship phase of care. She has launched PAVING the Path to Wellness, a 12-week lifestyle medicine-based survivorship program for women with breast cancer. Connect with Dr. Comander on LinkedIn.

Go to https://www.aicr.org/cancer-prevention/how-to-prevent-cancer/ to read about the 10 cancer prevention recommendations.

When it comes to metabolic health, high blood sugar isn’t the only cause for concern. If your blood sugar is in between normal and diabetic, you’re prediabetic and at risk for heart attacks and other challenges.

Prediabetes doesn’t have overt symptoms, so it’s really easy for it to be missed. That’s what makes it so dangerous. Unless you’re intentional and vigilant about checking for it, the condition can fly under the radar of your health.

Like diabetes, prediabetes is a reflection of the metabolic condition of your body. Genetics and even ethnicity are risk factors for prediabetes, but the good news is it can be prevented and even reversed once you have it.

What causes prediabetes? Can we stop prediabetes from becoming diabetes? In this episode, I talk about how to combat a condition a lot of people don’t know they have.

One of the problems with prediabetes is that it has no symptoms. Unless you or your healthcare provider go the extra mile to identify it, it can be easily missed. -Dr. Deepa Grandon

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-The dangerous thing about prediabetes

Prediabetes doesn’t have symptoms making it really easy to get missed. Who is at the highest risk of having it? How do you know you need to get screened for it?

-The most powerful ways to correct prediabetes

How do we dial in our diet and exercise in order to combat insulin resistance, inflammation and other metabolic abnormalities?

-How to use fasting to mitigate prediabetes

Intermittent fasting has a plethora of benefits that aid in the prevention or even reversal of prediabetes. What makes it so effective at tackling prediabetes risk factors?

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women worldwide. Yet the general public and even medical practitioners still believe it’s not common in women.

The result: women remain underdiagnosed and undertreated. It’s hardly surprising that 50% of women who have heart attacks weren’t even aware they had risk factors the whole time.

From an anatomical perspective, women are more prone to fatal heart attacks, but that’s not all. Lifestyle choices, mental health, menopause and even pregnancy - all these factors can make you more prone to heart disease.

How do you know you need to be screened for heart disease? What steps can you take to protect your heart? In this episode, I talk about the heart disease crisis women are facing and how we can combat it.

Women are often misdiagnosed and undertreated due to the misconceptions that heart disease is uncommon in women. -Dr. Deepa Grandon

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-The anatomy of heart disease

Women’s heart health is an under-researched and under-treated area. What are the differences between men and women when it comes to heart health?

-Hidden signs of heart disease

Most people are aware of the common signs of heart attacks. Why does heart disease manifest differently in women?

-How to protect your heart

How can we use intentional lifestyle choices to preserve our heart health and mitigate risk factors?

Being thankful at all times may not come easily or naturally, but it benefits us in every key area of our lives. A posture and practice of gratitude doesn’t just give us higher levels of emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being - it impacts our physical health too.

From heart health to sleep, practicing gratitude has been proven to reduce stress, lower chronic illness, and even prevent disease.

In an age of high anxiety, depression, and burnout, gratitude is a powerful antidote. Through the practice, we get to truly surrender to God’s will and that can give us an immense amount of peace.

Our brains aren’t naturally inclined to appreciate, so we must develop a gratitude muscle rather than treat it as a one-time behavior.

Considering that our brains aren’t naturally wired for gratitude, how do we intentionally make it our posture? Why is gratitude so closely connected to surrender?

In this episode, I’m joined by physician, scientist, and my brother, Dr. Joe Parambil. We talk about the positive impacts of gratitude and how to make it a part of our daily lives.

Gratitude goes hand-in-hand with the process of submission. You can’t be grateful if you have your expectations, ambitions, and agendas that have to be met. -Dr. Joe Parambil

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-The connection between science and faith

How do we see God’s hand orchestrating the incredible miracles of science?

-Gratitude goes hand-in-hand with submission and surrender

How do we maintain a posture of thankfulness even when we’re not getting what we want?

-The health benefits of thankfulness

How does gratitude affect physical health and even neural pathways?

Guest Bio

Dr. Joe Parambil is a physician, scientist, and man of faith. Dr. Parambil is a Staff Member in the Department of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner College of Medicine. He is currently the Director of the Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia Center of Excellence.

Since its inception, social media hasn’t just become a huge part of our daily lives. For many people, especially young people, it has infiltrated identity, sense of self, and mental well-being.

It has exacerbated and even triggered many emotional difficulties people face, from anxiety and depression to addiction and self-harm.

It’s really hard not to be online, so it’s not as simple as deliminating social media from our lives altogether. There are, however, steps we can take to use it more healthily and mitigate some of its negative effects.

How does social media affect our thinking, mood, and behavior? What can we do to make social media a more positive and healthier experience?

In this episode, I’m joined by Consultant Clinical Psychologist, DBT Therapist, and Mindfulness Teacher, Dr. Arlene Cooke. She shares how social media impacts your mental health, and how to shift our use of it.

See social media as a tool and think of how you can use it in a healthier way. -Dr. Arlene Cooke

Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

-Social media’s impact on identity

How does social media affect an individual’s sense of self, especially in adolescence?

-The downstream effects of social media

The harm of social media isn’t just in spending too much time on it. How does it uproot us from activities that promote health and mental well-being?

-A measured and moderate approach

It wouldn’t be realistic to banish social media from our lives forever, so what’s a better way to deal with it?

-It starts with you

Are children and teens modeling online behaviors they see at home, and how do we influence healthier behaviors?

Guest Bio

Dr. Arlene Cooke is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, DBT Therapist and Mindfulness Teacher. She has 25+ years of wide-ranging clinical experience in both outpatient and inpatient settings located nationally and internationally. As a psychologist, Dr. Cooke specializes in treating mental health difficulties such as emotional dysregulation, identity issues, depression, anxiety, life transition challenges, and relationship issues. Connect with Dr. Cooke on LinkedIn.

As Christians, we’re called to lead the abundant life God intended for us. We’re meant to walk in the power and victory that the Bible says is already ours, and our health is part of that.

We must be good stewards of what God has given us, including our bodies, minds, and souls. Many of us face challenges living up to this expectation. We struggle to find the deep healing and stability that come from being close to God.

Physical ailments and emotional wounds can threaten our mental well-being. But, we can gain power from our relationship with God. It drives our actions and lets us create abundant lives.

How do we become the people He wants us to be in every facet of our lives? How do we live in commitment, not emotion, and how does that help us achieve our goals?

In this first episode of Time to Transform, I share my journey and how God and a healthy lifestyle changed my life. I also share the coaching strategy I use.

As Christians, we’re mandated by God to be good stewards of what He has given us, especially our bodies, which house the Spirit of God. - 2 Corinthians 6:16

Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

• How can we use lifestyle measures to regain control of our physical and mental well-being?

• Motivation is short-lived; commitment keeps us on track.

• Why do our emotions have so much power over us, and what can we do to take action regardless?

Six Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine:

1. Plant-based nutrition,

2. Physical activity,

3. Stress management,

4. Avoidance of risky substances,

5. Restorative sleep, and

6. Social connections.

TLC’s Six Pillars:

1. Spirituality

2. Mental Health

3. Unprocess your diet

4. Movement

5. Sunshine, relaxation and sleep

6. Eliminate substance use and create loving communities.

Time to Transform is designed for Christians to get the practical support and tools you need to build your spiritual, mental, and physical well-being.

So you’ll have the knowledge to prevent or reverse lifestyle diseases like…

• obesity
• depression
• heart disease

..and lead the best life that God intended for you to have.

This is the resource you’ve always been looking for to guide you on your journey to health and wholeness based on evidence-based lifestyle medicine and God’s word.

Hosted by Dr Deepa Grandon, MD MBA, triple board-certified physician with over 23 years of experience working as a Physician Consultant for influential organizations worldwide. Dr Grandon is the founder of Transformational Life Consulting (TLC) and an outspoken faith-based leader in evidenced-based lifestyle medicine and alternative medicine.

If you have read books by Dr Michael Roizen or listened to podcasts like Feel Better Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee, you’ll love Time to Transform!