5. From Hodgkins to Healthmaker w/ Kylene Terhune

Kylene Terhune 0:03

It boils down to being proactive instead of reactive. Just be willing to make whatever changes that you need to make whether or not you feel bad or not. It's not about that this cancer didn't start my body yesterday it started like 10 years ago. If I had known 10 years ago when I was binge eating on half gallons of ice cream that it was going to turn into a cancer when I was 32 years old. Maybe I would have put that on.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 0:27

Welcome to the longevity blueprint podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Stephanie gray. My number one goal with the show is to help you discover your personalized plan to build your dream health and live a longer, happier, truly healthier life. You know, when you meet one of those people who just make you smile? Well, you're about to hear from one of them kylene Turkey and specifically, who has overcome Hodgkin's lymphoma and launched your book healthy through Hodgkin's. I encourage you to listen in here even if you haven't had cancer because cancer is becoming more prevalent and we all know someone's seriously impacted by it. So whether you've had cancer or not, there are plenty of tips coming right up and Including the importance of forgiveness for health and longevity. Let's learn more and get into the episode.

So welcome to another episode of the longevity blueprint podcast today I am super pumped to be able to interview a great friend Kylie interviewing. Kylie Dragoon is a Functional Diagnostic nutrition practitioner, wife, Mom, dog, Mom and foodie, a former opera singer turned health nerd she runs a virtual health coaching practice working with women who struggle with chronic digestive symptoms, including functional lab testing lifestyle changes, nutrition and supplementation to support their body to better health. Her mission is to empower women in the home to go from Homemakers to health makers through education, action and simple lifelong changes. After getting diagnosed with Hodgkin's and using an integrative treatment approach to protect her body and support her recovery. She is now an author of the book healthy through Hodgkins and an advocate for integrative cancer care within the Hodgkin's community in order to help women support their bodies Avoid side effects and recover quickly. So Kylie and welcome, welcome. Welcome to the show.

Kylene Terhune 2:05

Hey, Stephanie, thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here. I just love you so much. And this is so fun.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 2:11

So you may recognize her name because we have collaborated before. Back when I launched my book. And it was 2017 or 2018. She actually interviewed me on a brand that she had built that tiny fit diva. So you may recognize her from that now, shortly after you interviewed me. I was following your social media and you actually found a lump on your neck. And so I kind of followed you. I didn't know you very well, but I kind of followed your journey on social media. And then last October I had the opportunity to meet you in person. So we were at a healthcare entrepreneurial conference in beautiful San Diego and I thought I needed to go meet this girl in person. And we immediately became friends and hit it off. She actually even took me to target because I needed to get another suitcase to break

Unknown Speaker 2:54

we had so much fun. Oh my god.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 2:56

I mean, yeah, I apparently shopped too much. I need another one. case to bring everything home with. But we left the conference, which was just so inspiring, with the plan to hold each other accountable to some goals that we had. Her goal was to write her book healthy through Hodgkins, which is right here. My goal was to launch my longevity blueprint course. Needless to say she met her goal first.

It took a while. And then, most importantly, we both did accomplish our goals. But she launched this book so quickly. She was just so passionate to get her story on paper that she actually wrote this book in nearly a weekend. So I am very proud. I love it when my friends accomplish goals. I'm just very happy and very proud that she has this book available. And so we're going to talk about this today. You may recognize her from also from a post that I had on my social media when she when she launched this book. Obviously we're friends and as I read the book, I felt like she was speaking to me but if you don't know her, I think one of her attempts through the book was really to just be a guide and be a friend. As you read it, you're going to feel like your friend is talking to you.

And I think that's a real gift through your writing, but not everybody has. And so it's a very easy read. And so I just want to compliment you on that that skill with this book, Chapter Eight of my book is about supporting the immune system. So I'm comparing the protective roof of the home to the immune system in the body. And while I don't dive into cancer, specifically, I do talk about ways to support the immune system to fight off things like infections, and part of living in aging well is either preventing infections in cancer or treating them if we if we develop them. So that's why I brought you on the show to expand more on that topic of human health which is also pertinent to our current, you know, situation. So please, I'm going to hand the mic over to you tell us your story. Where does your quest for health kind of begin and when were you diagnosed with cancer, so kind of tell us your journey?

Kylene Terhune 4:49

I'm gonna try and make a short story because it has so many ins and outs and ups and downs and twists and turns, but the short version of it is, you know, I was sort of always aware of health to some level, my dad had been a national athlete, and then my parents had, you know, sort of gotten on a health kick maybe like in their mid 40s or something like that. And so they started eating healthier and so there's like this consciousness of it a little bit in my background, but not really too much. You know, I have a personal engagement with it. I went to college, I ate horrible foods, I would just like you know, basically eat whatever I want.

One of my favorite things to do was at school around lunchtime to go get like a Snickers bar and a Pepsi and like, the combination of that was horrible for me, but it was magical at the time. And so really, my awareness started to become personal in about 2012. I started feeling a lot of fatigue. I had gone back to school and I was realizing I was in my mid 20s. And just getting way too tired, like more than what was normal. I would come home and crash for like hours of time and just feel a lot of fatigue. And so my mom recommended that I go to like this chiropractor acupuncturist nutritious guy. And so I started kind of getting interested in that world and getting my blood drawn and trying to figure out naturally like what's going on in my body? Well, fast forward to 2015, we had made some dietary changes and, you know, seeing some improvements in our health from that across the board. And I started getting really interested in the health world from the nutrition perspective.

But then I had this complete total physical crash where I spent about two weeks in just a chronic panic attack that really wouldn't go away total insomnia. It had intrusive thoughts, it was really scary. I mean, really, really, to the point where I was, you know, this close to going to a psych ward because I just didn't know what to do. The second time I went to my doctor for support, she was able to offer me an antidepressant and that was all but I had sort of gotten into this world of listening to podcasts and, you know, connecting with different bloggers And always spirit things that were more in this sort of natural, holistic paleo world. And so I knew enough at that point enough had kind of sort of come into my consciousness to ask her if I should get my hormones tested. And she said, Well, not if you're still cycling, I don't really see a need for it. And so I left really with her from her with no hope. But I did decide to kind of listen to my gut and pursue hormone testing, which was ultimately the trigger for me because it helped me so much.

So my progesterone was postmenopausal level which obviously can induce extreme anxiety which was happening. And so being able to kind of get support to get out of that, you know, pit so to speak, really just triggered my curiosity and I was like, how can I support my body? How can I learn more about this? So that just started my journey into my own education, my own certifications, wanting ultimately to heal my body, but then Kind of turning into wanting to wanting it to actually be my career and help everyone else because at the time I was a personal trainer. And yes, you get all these people coming to you that have all these health conditions. And I was really starting to understand that telling them, you know, to eat less and exercise more was not going to be the answer for most of them. That's not what they needed for me. So that started my educational journey and became an fcn continue to do functional lab testing on myself got healthier and healthier and healthier, felt better and better. And then one day, I discovered a lump in my neck.

And, you know, after really being in the deep end, and really living this lifestyle, hardcore, and really work on my health for several years at that point. It was surprising and it was really devastating. And I had to really come to grips with, you know, what I wanted to do and how I was going to view this and what treatment was I going to pursue. And so one of the things I think that really helped me was understanding that these sorts of diseases don't develop overnight. I think Found the lump when God wanted me to see it, which was after I had the education and the connections and the resources to make the decisions that I ultimately made. But when I kind of learned that it could have been developing in my body 710 years prior is probably when it initially started to break down and develop.

Then I was like, well, this, there's no way this lump just like showed up, you know, so I look back through my phone and I found pictures. The earliest like of mine was about two years prior to when I discovered it. And so I knew it was there. And, and so from there, I just had to, you know, embrace the fact that I had been living a healthy life and doing my best and if anything that probably slowed the progression, I had zero symptoms. And so ultimately, I was like, You know what, this is going to help me stay in remission. And so that's kind of how I, how I thought about it from from then on.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 9:52

That's a unique perspective that you bet you say we both share similar faith as viewers will hear Through the podcasts, many of the guests, I've met at conferences, but he also shares similar faith. So I think that's a unique perspective that you're taking this counting this as a blessing that you found this when God wanted you to find it. And thankfully, you had gotten your body in better health because I guarantee that had delayed the progression of this and got you even in the right mindset to handle this this challenge at hand. Now, one thing that you explored was integrative medicine. So kind of tell me where that comes in with your treatment and why that was important for you.

Kylene Terhune 10:32

Yeah, so when people get diagnosed with cancer, it is scary because all we hear about is therapies like chemotherapy and radiation that are, you know, truly toxic to the body with with the benefit of hopefully getting the cancer out, but really breaking down your body, you know, in some cases to the brink of death, in order to save your life. And so it's a very, very scary thing. You don't know how you're gonna react to it. You don't no different cancers have different durations of treatment, they have different intensities.

You know, some are getting treatment, you know, all day every, you know, every single day, multiple days a week and others like mine were a treatment, you know, with a break for about two weeks in between. So I just it's a very scary thing to comprehend. And so I had to do research and being in the functional medicine world and working as a health coach. It was really important to me that I came to decision I felt really confident was going to heal my body.

It was going to work and that I could tolerate. And I really needed to think about it and take time to figure out what my options were. So I, you know, was contacting a lot of alternative care facilities. I was doing a lot of research into what my options were, and there are a lot of options out there. But what I was particularly looking for, and sometimes this is hard with functional medicine, but what I was particularly looking for was you know, can I find Cases of women with Hodgkin's lymphoma, like me that used alternative care and experienced total remission and are you know, living healthy lives?

Dr. Stephanie Gray 12:10

I did well, only right you were looking for.

Kylene Terhune 12:13

Yeah. Okay. Right. And, and there are a couple women that, you know, were what I would say managing it. So they never went through conventional medical treatments, they only use your diet and lifestyle. And they were able to keep it in check basically keep it from growing, which is where the problem really begins as if it begins to spread throughout your body. And so that was really interesting, but it also looked really, really, really, really hard. And I knew that if I chose something like that, I would have to be on top of it every day the rest of my life.

And so I when I was looking into the efficacy of conventional treatment for Hodgkin's, it's really unusual as a very, very high percentage of treatment rate. So your variable Likely to recover from treatment and you're very likely to have more than a five year survival rate, which for a lot of cancers is not the same. And so this was really encouraging to pursue conventional treatment. So ultimately, what I decided to do was a blend. And that's what people consider integrative care where you use the conventional methods, but you also bring in the best of the holistic and functional medicine world.

So for me, what that looked like was, I did get a second opinion on the conventional side and for the staging and everything, I went to Cancer Treatment Centers of America, and I'm thankful I did that because that guy recommended half the amount of treatment in times of duration that I would have received otherwise. So that was really good. So I did three months of chemotherapy, which is six treatments every two weeks. Then in addition to that, I hired an integrative oncologist and she helped me with supplementation With a specific goal of protecting my body through the toxicity of chemotherapy, so, I mean, it's different for everybody.

But for my chemotherapy, it was a combination of four different medicines. And they can be particularly damaging to your heart and your lungs. And so we were on a lot of supplements to protect my heart and my lungs. And then, you know, my specialty and my focus with my clients is gut health. And so we actually, chemotherapy can really damage your gut lining because of the fast dividing cells. And so a lot of chemo patients can experience a lot of gut trauma and, and discomfort and constipation, things like that. So I was actually on high levels, like high levels of glutamine for multiple different reasons. But, you know, of course, that supported my gut healing as well in between treatments. So, so yeah, and then I also did vitamin C IV therapy in between my chemo infusions as well. So I tried to do ultimately a combination of as much as I could.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 14:57

Awesome. Yeah, I read that in your book. You were in very high school. To me and like very high, even higher than I put some of my patients on, obviously, I don't actively see, you know, acute cancer patients. But for gut healing many times we're using, essentially whatever dose they can tolerate. Some patients have a genetic snip like myself, where we cannot convert gluta mean to GABA. And so taking that, or glutamate, I should say, can cause more anxiety and some of those patients and so if I took the dose that you took, I would be jumping through the roof. Yeah, although there are ways to mitigate that. And obviously, your intent was to heal your gut. And I'm sure that if I was at that point, I would choose to take the glutamine over everything ready.

Kylene Terhune 15:36

You don't have that sort of reaction to it. And there's also so you can also have a sore tongue for example. Or you can develop sores or be really sensitive in your mouth and so I think it helped protect that as well. There was only one treatment where I felt kind of uncomfortable in my mouth and I was craving like ice cream. pops like I like ice cream. What am I trying to say? popsicles? Yeah. And like all day after treatment, because it just like the cold focus my mouth, but that was the only time really that I experienced that. And I think that was probably large in large part due to the high doses of glutamine that I was on. Very interesting.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 16:16

Well, obviously your treatment plan served me well. So that's the type of care I provide in my clinic integrative care, we integrate or combine natural methods with conventional medicine. And I think that provides patients with the best of all worlds, I get the strengths of all and so I'm happy to hear that you have those resources available. You found an integrative oncologist, which is so cool. So tell me a little bit about in your book, you you have a I don't know if it's called the saying but hashtag nutrition, why oh, you trician that you came up with? So tell me more about what that is?

Kylene Terhune 16:47

Yeah. So in my coaching practice, I work with women primarily with gut issues. And so one of the things obviously, that we address is nutrition. And you know, you're you're super familiar and in this world Everybody probably comes in and says, you know, Dr. Gray, can you just tell me what to eat? Just Just give me a meal plan.

And so I really don't promote any specific diet. You know, there's so many things out there that people are trying now. And I think it says something when both the carnivore diet and the keto diet and the plant based diet are all popular at the same time, you know what I mean? And that is that everybody is biologically and chemically different. And we all come from different nationalities. And so our bodies respond to different macro balances and nutrient levels and all these different things. And so, what I do is try to help my clients find what I call a nutrition because it's individualized.

So we start with sort of the overarching guidelines, you know, there are some things that work for everybody and that is don't eat garbage. You know, don't eat junk food, eat real food. Don't poison yourself. Yeah. So let's start with you know, prioritizing real foods and what does that mean and and then You know, I'll run a food sensitivity testing on my clients. So that will give us a lot of information in terms of eat, maybe you're eating a lot of healthy foods, and you're still having problems, you know, but oats and corn and apples or you know, whatever it is for you things are, you know, generally considered healthy, are causing an inflammatory reaction in your body. And so that's very, very personalized. So we'll be able to kind of add that layer on. And then of course, just encouraging people to listen to their bodies because that's the ultimate litmus test, regardless of any lab testing that you're going to do if you eat something and you notice a reaction, don't override that just because it didn't show up on your food sensitivity test, you know, learn how to be really in tune with your body. So, see, I really believe that everybody's a little different. You just have to listen to your body and figure out what works for you.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 18:48

So for your book, you really encourage that the readers listen to their intuition. You've been taking time with deciding on their treatment. So how long did it take you to decide on your Of course of treatment. I know we're kind of jumping back and forth topics here. But going back to your decision on cancer treatment, how long did that take you?

Kylene Terhune 19:08

Um, you know, I think it took me several months actually, you know, just to be safe, make sure you're asking your doctor, you know, do I have this time? But, you know, for me, I, you know, again, I know my body, I knew how I felt I wasn't experiencing symptoms. I had one tumor, which I had seen in my phone was there for a couple years, and it hadn't spread as you know, as far as I knew. And so I really felt like I needed to take the time. So the other part of that was, they wanted me to go through or were supporting me and going through fertility preservation, because, you know, chemotherapy can damage your ovaries. And so just to be safe and have a backup plan, they'll typically let you go through fertility preservation, and that can take about a month. And so there's like a little bit of a cushion time there. So I actually got diagnosed in February. The process had started in January. I got the biopsy. And preliminary diagnosis in February, and then I didn't start treatment until May. So for a lot of people, that's a really long time. I mean, some people get diagnosed sooner and treatment within a week. And, and for me, I just I really had to pray about it. I had to do a lot of research, I had to figure out what felt right for me to move forward. And then, you know, like I said, they did give me a little bit that Christian time with with the fertility preservation, but yeah, it was about, I guess, three full months from diagnosis to treatment, which is a typical, I think.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 20:30

So as I mentioned earlier, we're both women of faith. And I do respect your boldness and sharing that through your book as an important part of your healing. And in fact, you know what my favorite chapter was? chapter seven. All About get that I'm not going to say the word but you know, asterik HIV out. So you've talked through your book about how important it is to let things go. And I think that's an important part of just spirituality and faith and just forgiveness but also just letting things go. So can you talk To the listeners a bit about how that applied to your story and how important you feel that is for the healing process.

Kylene Terhune 21:06

Totally. And, you know, it's hard for me to really separate my faith from the way I view the world. I just can't it's such an intrinsic part of who I am. And so when people ask me, well, how are you able to navigate it with such a positive attitude? or How are you always so hopeful? I literally cannot give you any other strategy other, my face, and what I believe, which is that I have a relationship with the literal Creator of the universe. I mean, that's such a powerful thing.

If you believe that you're created by God, then you're created here for a purpose, and then anything that you go through in life, there's a reason for it, and there's a lesson that can come from it. And so because of that belief system, I can't separate it. But yeah, through the process, that chapter I was really talking about, you know, physical constipation, as well as emotional constipation. And I tie those together because cancer patients a lot of times will struggle with this. constipation and of course I work with gut health and so that's a primary symptom that people come to me with. And so it's always a topic that we we discuss openly.

But one thing that people really ignore and it's never talked about is emotional constipation. And it's so fascinating to me because while I'm a Christian, pretty much every religion in the world associates trapped emotions or lack of emotional healing or trapped trauma undealt with trauma with physical ailments. So in you know, Chinese medicine they associate, you know, what is it grief lack a lack of dealt with grief held on to grief with lung problems or anger associated with liver problems and things of that nature.

And you know, and I or Vedic medicine, you have the chakras and if you're somebody maybe that has not been able to express yourself, then maybe you're going to have a physical issue with your throat chakra. You know, there's a lot of different things like that. And then in the Bible, it talks about, you know, I think it's anger or bitterness or something like that drying up the bones. And so I mean, there's correlations throughout all these years. different religions of how if you're not dealing with your emotions, I really think that that goes into the fact that we're energetic spiritual beings. And we really we can't we can't view that as woo because it's just it's it's flat out science now that we are right.

Like it's, it's, it's legit. And so when I got diagnosed, I was like, man, if there's any angle that needs to be approached in order to achieve complete healing, I want to work on that. And so, you know, some people even associate trapped trauma or emotions or whatever with cancer development. And so I was like, You know what, this is a part that I'm going to address as well. And so I did work with someone who does sort of like emotional code, therapy type things. And that's a nice way to do it because it's not like talk therapy, which in itself can be traumatizing. mean think about it, you're repeating the same things that you guys use with and it's like insurance. raining in your body.

But things like emotional code therapy, those are like so non invasive, they do muscle testing, they basically communicate with your body and you can be part of it or you know, whatever. And, and it's not uncomfortable in any way. And so I had that throughout treatment. But then on the spiritual side, just believing what I believe and praying and things like that. I was trying to be open to like, what lessons does God want me to learn through this process? And I think, I think I really did shift my perspective on you know, what I want to do with my life and how I want to spend my time and how I want to interact with other people. And I started having all these thoughts about how I wanted were building house and I had all these thoughts about how I wanted to use my home and things like that. So yeah, I think there's a lot of opportunities through issues like cancer and disease and, and when you're physically down, being able to be spiritually open, beautiful, beautiful.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 24:58

So you are in great shape. Now, so you mentioned your timeline. So you were diagnosed with cancer in 2019. We're now 2020. So when did the good news happened? When were you told that you were in remission? And how did you get your body back into such amazing shape?

Kylene Terhune 25:13

So my doctor is very conservative when it comes to the words that she uses. I don't think she's technically told me I'm in remission. Yeah. Okay. Okay. He was waiting, you know, she's like, well, I don't know, maybe she'll feel like she can say that a year. I don't know. Um, but technically, so my chemo ended I think it was July 19 of 2018. And so then I had a three month scan in November and then I had another one in for six months in February, and then I'm waiting for my one year in July, July this year. So, so far, so good. The last scan actually showed shrinkage. So I actually technically have the tumor Still, the chemo shrunk it. But primarily what happened was on the PE t scans, they became inactive. So instead of lining up on the PE t scans They're there, but they're not lighting up with the cancer, you know, absorbing the, the radioactive sugar. So they are still there. But in February they had shrunk since November. And so I'm hoping again to see that they're still inactive and smaller in July.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 26:17

And a piece of that just because I know you said you actually couldn't have the surgically removed, correct. Yeah.

Kylene Terhune 26:21

Yeah. So that was one of the things I would have liked to do, because it was just one tumor. It's like, Well, hey, let's just get it out of my body, right? But I'm in a place in my neck where it's like right above my lung, and it's near all of these tendons, I think for my arm movement, and then also with the potential to Nick a nerve for my vocal cords. And I was like what know, though, that they they really didn't even give me that as an option. No, we can't do it. It's too too risky of a place to remove it.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 26:53

I'm sorry note if you'd like to hear her sing, just follow her social media.

Kylene Terhune 26:57

Yeah, exactly. That's why it was such a big deal. And, yeah, that was scary for me. So in terms of getting back in shape, you know, I would say like, everybody's got to be different, but I was in really good shape before. So I had spent years working out and sort of building up my strength, obviously with a disease in my body. And so when I went through treatment, I think my body was really, really strong. And so coming out of treatment, I was able to get back to working out I think I started I hired a trainer in August. So it was about a month after treatment, and it was just like, I think I look back and I think some of the things I did are a little aggressive, but I started working out and you know, at first I would kind of get lightheaded or whatever, and it was a slow process, but my muscles just kept developing and I continued eating the way I eat.

And I'm on a whole host of supplements right now as well. Because, you know, for me, one of the biggest things in terms of the difference between integrative and conventional, its conventional says, okay, you're in remission. See you later. Bye. We'll check you out. Three to six months and hope you're still in remission. With integrative it's like, well, let's, let's monitor, let's support your body, let's give you the tools your body needs to recover. And here's something that like, I don't understand why this isn't part of every single treatment. If your body needs a high amount of nutrients to function on a regular basis just for normal bodily functions, when you're in a disease state, or when you're in a recovery state, or when you're under stress of any kind, those numbers go up and those need no more. Oh my gosh, those needs go through the roof. And so I think that's really, really helped in terms of my ability to rebound and you know, I move a lot so even during treatment, I was trying to take walks every day. And you know, just listening to my body. I'm trying not to overdo it with working out but

Dr. Stephanie Gray 28:46

yeah, so can you share a few you don't have to share all of your supplements but just a few supplements that you're taking now to continue to support your immune system.

Kylene Terhune 28:54

So yeah, so well primarily. Okay, so immune system right now. I'm doing liposomal vitamin C and beautify don't love those. I'm also doing like I'll do like a mushroom medicinal mushroom mix. So I have like a 10 blend mix or I just started trying another one. I think it's called raw revolutions. It's like an MSM morning mix and it's got like different immune and, and sulfur compounds and just really good stuff to kind of wake your body up and support yourself health. So I'm trying that out and actually I kind of I kind of like it. I think it kind of perks you up a little bit. But right now since treatment has been over, my primary focus has actually been supporting my hormones and getting back on track. So I am taking a lot of support for that. So I do like via text or my progesterone.

Unknown Speaker 29:44

I'm on some.

Kylene Terhune 29:46

What does that call it is I think it's like an adaptogen blend, like an herbal blend for general support. I am taking da da you know we're doing all of this with testing of course to make sure we're monitoring it So I am doing a lot there as well to sort of support getting back on track and kind of normalizing my cycles. And I did keep my cycle through treatment.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 30:08

I'm glad you shared that. Because that's surprising because I imagine the stress of chemo, just the stress of having cancer in your body. And the stress robs us of hormones. So I imagine many patients do not cycle for a long time after that insult on the body. So it's actually a testimony to likely to the healthier body was in

Kylene Terhune 30:25

Yeah, well, and they, they had wanted me to take a shot as well that basically with the intention of shutting down my ovaries. And there's a couple reasons that one of the reasons is there's this theory that if they're not functioning, maybe they'll soak up a little less chemo and option better after. But as anytime you come in and mess with your hormones, you have the potential of you know, going through menopause while you're going through chemotherapy and all this kind of stuff and getting hot flashes and I was like, You know what, I spent like the past three years trying to fix my hormones and heal my gut and do all this thing. I was like the last thing I wanted do right now is take a shot and go into menopause while I'm undergoing chemotherapy. Are you kidding me? So I had I just been thinking about that. And that's one of those follow your gut situations. It just did not feel right to me. And, and at the point where I just really felt like no, internally like, this is not vibing well with me, I said, I said, No, I'm not going to do that because it was optional. I chose not to do that. And I said, Well, if they go away, naturally, they go away, but I'm not going to force it. And I'm going to do everything I can afterwards to just get my body back to normal.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 31:30

Sure, I want to digress in our conversation back to prior to cancer when you had low progesterone. Would you say that at that point in your life? You had a high stress? life? Oh,

Kylene Terhune 31:41

I'll take that as a yes. Stephanie. Um, I look back at my life. Okay, so like when I got diagnosed with cancer, you know, you do a lot of self analysis. You're like, How did this happen? And of course, you'll never know but I probably had 10 years of consistent stressors in my life, whether they be large stressors or small stressors. I went to college and I had nutritional stressors. I had extreme emotional stressors. I got married, I got divorced, I got married again, I became a step mom, I we had food poisoning. All three of us, I think that was or norovirus or something that was horrible, which you know, just sets up your gut for a lot of imbalances if you don't address that. I had like three UT eyes in the course of about a year, all of which I treated with antibiotics before I knew any other way. And so I think my body had just had it. You know,

Dr. Stephanie Gray 32:35

yeah, your body's steady enough, Cycling is not a priority right now.

Kylene Terhune 32:39

There is a lot I mean, there's just tremendous emotional stress on and off for years. And so I you know, it's the it's the chicken or the egg, you know, there's probably some imbalance there. And then there were some, you know, different stressors in my life and probably just contributed to each other, you know, so sure,

Dr. Stephanie Gray 32:57

you can reflect back and see that and now know I'm going to prevent being in that state. I mean to the best of our ability we can't. We can't control what stressors might come our way right and other things that happen, but we can work to incorporate lifestyle habits to reduce the effect of stress on our body and I love taking adaptogenic herbs like ashwagandha like you mentioned, I highly advocate for those.

Kylene Terhune 33:17

I love mushrooms and it sounds terrible likes to say that way, but it doesn't know much. I love them. They're just they're so they're anti cancerous or anti stress or adaptogenic. They're immune supportive. They're just so many benefits. I love them.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 33:30

One of your top supplements, remember that top favorite supplements? I asked that question at the end, but you pretty much already answered. I see women in my practice with terrible PMS, with insomnia with anxiety, even with infertility, heavy bleeding. And they have low progesterone and yes, I can give them progesterone and we can give them immediate support. But many times the root cause of the problem is truly reflecting back at identifying where the stressors are coming from and then trying to reduce them and reduce the effects on the body. So I just wanted to say that as a owner of a hormone clinic, I thought And the power of hormones that can help us feel much better. As you can experience through your life, hundred percent. So you, you either said this, or I maybe read this in your bio, but your mission is to empower women to become facilitators of health in their homes. I love that. I guess this is a term that you coined that turning homemakers into health makers. So can you expand on what that means to you how you came up with that?

Kylene Terhune 34:24

Yeah, so primarily, I work with women, I'm happy to work with men, but just I'm a woman. And so you know, my messaging is to women, and that tends to be who I work with, and I'm around. And so what I see you know, is all these women that have kids, and ultimately they don't feel good. And so they come to me for you know, lifelong issues that they've had with their guts or you know, they're really tired or, you know, whatever it is that they're coming with.

And what's so cool about working with women is they have this major impact in their homes because they Usually are in control of the food and the grocery shopping. And whether or not there are air fresheners plugged into the wall, what kind of soaps they buy, what kind of shampoos and conditioners they use, what doctors they go to, typically women are the one that schedule all of those appointments. And so we have this like major power to transform our homes. And women have the ability to go from Hey, I'm a homemaker. Well, now I'm a health maker, and I'm going to, you know, share everything that I learned and everything that I can do for my house. I'm going to share it with my family so they can feel better as well. So that's really my goal is that, you know, when women learn what it is that they can do for their bodies, that they don't just stop there, but that they then make it a household change.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 35:49

Both awesome. That's awesome. Well, you already shared with us your favorite supplements. Do you have any specific longevity secrets or tips that you could share with our listeners?

Kylene Terhune 35:58

Soyou know, there's the typical ones of focusing on nutrition getting good sleep. I think one that's undervalued is getting enough sunshine. But you know, with longevity, I think, really one of the things that comes into consideration there is really being proactive instead of reactive about your health so you don't have to be sick, to take dramatic action to be a healthier person. You don't have to be experiencing acid reflux to give up dairy and gluten. You don't have to be constantly bloated to decide that you're going to eat more vegetables. You don't have to be in a disease state to be interested in services like vitamins D IVs, or Infrared Sauna therapy or grounding outside for mushrooms. Yeah,

so yeah, I just think you know, be proactive about it. And the thing is, don't don't ignore you know, if you're really if you're really looking for longevity, you Don't you want to be proactive, you don't want to be reactive, you don't want to be dealing with a disease state and recovery if you don't have to, you want to be preventing that. And that's, that is really, I think, what's going to help people live long lives if they're not totally stressed if they're not getting these major diseases, and they take an active role in their health.

And, you know, we see in all the Blue Zones, one of the major things is, you know, stress relief. So you'll see, you'll see these hundred year old people be like, I have a shot of whiskey every night before bed or you know, something that's not technically good for your health, but it made some really, really happy like, that's an important component of longevity, I think is like being happy and having purpose in your life. And fortunately, with everything that's going on right now, another component is having community and being around people. So yeah, I think those are all key components. But really, it boils down to being proactive instead of reactive. Just Just be willing to make whatever changes that you need to make whether or not you feel bad or not. It's not about that this cancer didn't start in my body yesterday. It started like 10 years ago, if I had known 10 years ago, when I I was bingeing on half gallons of ice cream that it was going to turn into cancer when I was 32 years old. Maybe I would have put that down.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 38:07

So good so good. Thank you. Thank you. Well Lastly, tell us where listeners can find you Where can they connect with you and even outside of cancer how they can work with you one on one?

Kylene Terhune 38:16

Yes. So you can go to my website kylene turkey calm if you're interested in the book healthy through Hodgkin's, it's still the website forward slash book. So kylene turkey comm forward slash book or you can just google it on Amazon, it's right there. I'm on social media so you can go to my Facebook page gut Love With kylene you can kind of get to know me there you can see some of my videos you can see some of my posts or on Instagram I'm at kylene turkin fd n. And so I do have a Instagram and Facebook page also by the title of the book How To Cure Hodgkin's so if you know someone or you or someone that's dealing with this, you can connect with me there. If you're interested in working with me on your gut health, you can just pop into Facebook page, learn a little bit about me or go to my website and find a way to connect there. I'd be happy to chat.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 39:07

Awesome. Well, you heard it from Kylie and she's on a mission to turn homemakers into health makers. If you know someone battling cancer, this would be an awesome book. And honestly, I've looked at this cover like 10 times and I I never I'm just pointing this out right now. I never even noticed your port. Oh, really? You're just too beautiful. I didn't even I didn't even notice it. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 39:27

thank you. Well, you were there. That picture is so awesome. Yeah,

Dr. Stephanie Gray 39:31

I thought did I take that picture?

Unknown Speaker 39:32

I think you did. I think you did.

Unknown Speaker 39:35

That is too hard. I'm pretty sure you do it. Yeah. That's awesome.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 39:38

Well, you look beautiful. And yes, I just your journey has been incredible. Thank you so much for I mean, you listeners heard her timeline. She's already written a book. This is not 10 years after diagnosis. Like, I mean, she wrote a book immediately and while she was in the in the midst of this, and so I just thank you, you are the epitome of a sweetheart and you're so inspiring. So it's been a joy to know you and to have on the podcast,

Unknown Speaker 40:00

so thank you. Thank you so much, Stephanie.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 40:04

She makes me smile. I don't think there's a better way to put what she has become literally healthy through Hodgkin's. She's found her purpose and she's spreading what she has learned with others. Please share this podcast with those in need, connect them with kylene and I'm so serious. Go listen to her sing on her social media outlets. It'll make you smile and that happiness as kylene shared is a huge part of health and longevity. Be sure to check out my book your longevity blueprint. And if you aren't much of a reader, you're in luck. You can now take my course online where I walk you through each chapter in the book. Plus for a limited time Not only is the course 50% off, but you also get your first consult with me for free. Check this offer out at your longevity blueprint calm and click the course tab. One of the biggest things you can do to support the show and help us reach more listeners is to subscribe to the show. And leave us a rating and review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. I read all the reviews and would truly love to hear your suggestions for show topics, guests or how you're applying what you've learned on the show to create your own longevity blueprint. The podcast is produced by the team at counterweight creative. As always, thanks so much for listening and remember, wellness is waiting.

The information provided in this podcast is educational. No information provided should be considered to be or used as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with your personal medical authority.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai