⏳00:00 Introduction to Stress and Cancer
⏳00:09 Welcome to the Show
⏳01:12 Meet De’Ann Richter & Learn More About Breast Cancer Conqueror’s Mission and Approach
⏳02:29 De’Ann’s Journey into Holistic Healing
⏳05:15 Integrating Conventional and Holistic Medicine
⏳07:10 The 7 Essentials System® for Cancer Healing
⏳11:28 Testing and Monitoring for Cancer
⏳16:40 Advice for the Newly Diagnosed
⏳20:26 Managing Stress and Emotional Health
⏳23:17 Coaching Programs and Support
⏳24:08 Evolving Cancer Treatments and Coaching
⏳32:54 Conclusion and Contact Information

Introduction to Stress and Cancer

De’Ann Richter: Stress, specifically, I call it the most potent carcinogen you can be exposed to. Women with unmanaged anxiety were twice as likely to develop breast cancer.

Welcome to the Show

Victor Dwyer: Hey, everyone! Welcome to today’s episode of The Beljanski Cancer Talk Show. 

We’re excited to welcome De’Ann Richter, a passionate health coach who combines medical knowledge with natural healing to help women through their breast cancer recovery. De’Ann grew up around natural healing in her grandmother’s health food stores.

After working as a surgical trauma nurse, she saw the need for a more complete approach to health. Now, as the head coach at the Breast Cancer Conqueror, she blends medical expertise. With holistic healing to support women through breast cancer recovery, her goal is to give women the knowledge and tools they need for lasting health and wellness.

Get ready to take control of your health with knowledge, balance, and a truly integrative approach. 

Meet De’Ann Richter & Learn More About Breast Cancer Conqueror’s Mission and Approach

Sylvie Beljanski: Hello, De! We are lovely to have you today on The Beljanski Cancer Talk Show. You have been for several years Head coach at Breast Cancer Conqueror. Would you tell us what this organization is about? 

De’Ann Richter: Sure. Yeah, absolutely. I have worked with Breast Cancer Conqueror now for 10 years, actually. It’s hard to say that because how do decades go by that quickly, but I have worked with Breast Cancer Conqueror for 10 years.

It is a organization founded by Dr. Véronique Desaulniers. Many people call her Dr. V for short. She is also my mother-in-law, so I am related to her. I’m married to her son. Breast Cancer Conqueror, we work by coaching women who have breast cancer, but we also work with people with any type of cancer. We try to help them through Dr. V’s. 7 Essentials. Things they can do in their lives, implement whether they’re doing strictly natural or if they’re doing conventional medicine, things they can do as an integrative care as well during their cancer healing journeys. 

Sylvie Beljanski: Yes, we have been working with Dr. V for, for many years. She has been keynote at our previous Beljanski Cancer Conference, and she has been, she’s speaking highly of that she took herself for, for many years.

She’s, was offering this unique perspective of being both a doctor and a breast cancer survivor herself. 

Deanne’s Journey into Holistic Healing

Sylvie Beljanski: So how did you get into, beside the marrying doctor, his son, how did you get swallowed into this, this story of breast cancer? 

De’Ann Richter: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I always tell people it wasn’t complete nepotism.

Maybe a little bit of nepotism in there, but not complete nepotism. I started off my career as a registered nurse. I worked for close to 10 years as a surgical trauma nurse. But through all of my nursing training personally, I always had an interest in women and working with women specifically as well as with alternative healthcare and natural remedies.

I actually, growing up, my grandmother, she owned health food stores in the South Atlanta area in Georgia. And I, as a child, worked at her health food stores, helping her put herbs on the shelves, put kombucha in the fridge, helping with this cash register. And so this kind of put in my mind this really foundational knowledge of these herbs and supplements that people were using.

And so even going through nursing school, I think I had a very unique perspective. I continued to work at her health food store as my part-time job through nursing school. And as I was learning conventional medicine in nursing school, I was learning from the people who were coming into this health food store why they were taking certain things and how they were taking them, and the combination of things they were using.

So, I was getting this kind of combined knowledge of not just conventional, traditional medicine, but also things that people were doing in real life, herbal medicine. Years before I even started dating Dr. V’s son, I was getting ready to graduate nursing school. I knew her through just being in the Georgia area.

And she actually offered me a job to coach with her. And at the time I turned her down. I was graduating nursing school. I wanted to get in there and do what my, what my license was for. I wanted to kinda get my nursing education and use it. So I turned her down. But then fast forward some years later, I did an updating and marrying her son, and then a year into our marriage, she was like, you remember when I offered you a job?

So, it was the perfect marriage for me both ways of my loves. I was able to combine my knowledge through my nursing career and at the same time my desire to help support women specifically with my love of alternative medicine and learn from Dr. V how she’s been implementing these 7 Essentials and all of these steps and herbs like OnKobel-Pro®, alongside even traditional medicine.

So, it was a perfect kind of marriage of all of my loves to come together. 

Sylvie Beljanski: So, Dr. V indeed was offering in her practice a lot of, she was, had conventionally, medically trained, of course, and then she had a very open mind where she was looking into natural supplements and a number of natural things that could help and support conventional treatment.

Integrating Conventional and Holistic Medicine

Sylvie Beljanski: From your perspective of being a nurse also, I assume conventionally trained, how do you reconcile those two worlds? 

De’Ann Richter: Yeah, there’s definitely ways to reconcile the two worlds. Actually, they work very synergistically together. And it’s interesting, there’s a big shift in the cancer and, specifically breast cancer world, that I’ve noticed over the last 10 years or so, I’ve worked with Breast Cancer Conqueror. When I first started working with her, most of our clients were people who strictly wanted to approach this naturally, which is a, something that is an option, right? But in 2017, there was a study done, and they actually found that 73% of breast cancer patients undergoing conventional medicine were integrating complementary support. 73% of them. That’s a huge number.

So, it’s very possible to integrate food, supplements, reducing your toxic exposure and detoxing. Your emotions are a big part of a cancer healing journey as well. And so all of these things, as long as you’re working with someone knowledgeable to help you implement them and to make sure you’re using them at the right time can be very complimentary to each other.

And many of the women we work with who are doing these integrative care alongside their complementary medicine have less side effects. They, oftentimes, even some of these supplements and things you can do can actually make conventional medicines more targeted towards cancer cells.

Sylvie Beljanski: Absolutely.

De’Ann Richter: Yeah. Support the immune system, so there’s a lot of things you can do that not just work synergistically, but actually can improve your outcomes with using those traditional medicines.

Sylvie Beljanski: Absolutely, and that’s one of the things we usually regularly work with, with The Beljanski Foundation. So, how does it go with the Breast Cancer Conqueror? You, first, you focus exclusively on breast, or is it all women concerned with cancer, all kind of cancers that can reach out to you?

De’Ann Richter: Yeah, absolutely. 

The 7 Essentials System® for Cancer Healing

De’Ann Richter: I briefly mentioned them earlier, but Dr. V has put together what she calls her 7 Essentials. It’s seven steps or seven areas of life that you wanna try to address. Not just for cancer, although that is what kind of triggered Dr. V to think of these seven steps was her own healing journey with breast cancer, but not just with cancer, really with any disease, right?

Any issue that you have going on in your body, you wanna address your food, you want to address testing to follow your healing journey. So, these 7 Essentials can fit into anything. And with Breast Cancer Conqueror in general, I know the name leans us more towards breast cancer but we have worked with people with different kinds of cancer as well.

We’ve worked with men with prostate cancer. We like to say cancer is cancer. Sure there might be a few small, little pieces here and there that you tailor, depending on the type, but for the most part, addressing the body’s environment, addressing those 7 Essentials is what allowed cancer to develop in the first place. So you wanna address those root causes.

Sylvie Beljanski: So, how do you, walk me a little bit through if I am interested in following you program. What is the journey? What should, how do you proceed with your coaching sessions? What happens?

De’Ann Richter: Yeah. Really good question. I think if you’re someone who knows nothing about us, I would suggest starting off by reading Dr. V’s book, ‘Heal Breast Cancer Naturally.’ That’s gonna give you a good overview of the kind of information that she shares. But from there, if you’re interested in working with us more closely, we do offer coaching programs. So, you can sign up with a one-on-one personal coach. That’s what I’ve done for 10 years.

We now have two other coaches working with us. We have a great group of women that you can work with and these coaching programs are very tailored to each individual person. So you come in, your coach helps you to evaluate the 7 Essentials in your life, what you need to work on, what things are missing, what things you’re doing great on. We’ll cheerlead you on as well, help you implement the changes you need to make.

And then also follow up. So, these are usually six months worth of programs. So for six months you’re gonna be working on that lifestyle change with that coach. 

Victor Dwyer: And you keep mentioning 7 Essentials. Can you walk me through exactly, like, what that means? What does that mean, the 7 Essentials? 

De’Ann Richter: Yeah, of course. Yeah. Dr. V has always said that when she first started on her healing journey, she felt if you go to Dr. Google and you type in cancer care or alternative care for cancer, there’s a million things. So, she felt like she needed to hone it in and figure out a more organized way to approach it. So, that’s how she developed the seven essentials.

So the seven are Essential number one, Let Food Be Your Medicine. So, that’s how you support your body through food. A big piece of that essential is that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ diet. We’re all different. So, you have to use testing and different modalities to figure out what foods are best for each individual person.

Essential number two is to Reduce Your Toxic Exposure. We know toxins can certainly play a role in cancer development. A key to that one is the title is Reduce, not Eliminate. We live in a very toxic world, so it’s gonna be impossible, nearly, to eliminate toxic exposure, but we wanna make steps to make sure we’re reducing those exposures.

Essential number three is to Balance Your Energy. A big part of that is hormone balancing, especially with breast cancer hormones and how to deal with hormones is a really important part of addressing a cancer healing journey.

Number four is your emotional wounds, to Heal Your Emotional Wounds. And this is one I really like because coming from, again, that conventional world of nursing, your oncologist, your nurses, they’re not gonna be talking to you about your stress management or if there’s childhood traumas you need to work on, or how to manage your stress. So, this is something that’s not really addressed by most conventional doctors, but it’s a very important part.

Essential number five, Embrace Biological Dentistry. So, your mouth is the gateway to the rest of your body, so we’ve gotta make sure that mouth is nice and clean. And there’s also a lot of toxic exposures you can have through common dental procedures.

Essential number six is where OnKobel-Pro® comes in. That’s our Repair With Therapeutic Plants and herbs. So, those are all the supplements and herbs and minerals and vitamins you can use. Again, no ‘one-size-fits-all,’ right? So, it’s individual to each person and what their needs are.

And then the last one is Essential number seven. How do you monitor all of this stuff you’re doing to make sure that it’s working for you? So Essential number seven is Early Detection and testing. So, different tests you can use to monitor your journey to make sure you’re making progress. 

Testing and Monitoring for Cancer

Sylvie Beljanski: So, speaking of testing, what kind of testing would you recommend and would seem most important to you? 

De’Ann Richter: Yeah. Obviously there’s different tests for different types of journeys.

If someone’s being preventative, that might be a little bit different than someone who is on what we would call an active cancer healing journey, meaning they’re actively dealing with a cancer diagnosis. But if you’re doing preventative testing, we love thermography as a way to monitor breast health in general.

So, thermography is a, using an infrared camera to take a picture of the breast tissue. It’s looking for inflammation in the breast tissue. So, inflammation can be an early sign of issues of unhealth in that breast tissue. Not a diagnostic test for cancer. That’s important that people know. It doesn’t diagnose breast cancer, but it does look for physiological changes that can either lead to cancer or that might help you monitor the inflammation around that area.

Vitamin D testing is really important. A deficiency in vitamin D can actually cause cancer. On the flip side, studies have shown women who keep their vitamin D levels nice and high actually do better with their treatment plans. So, keeping that vitamin D in a good level.

Iodine testing, pretty similar. A deficiency can be carcinogenic. It’s very important for breast health. Estrogen methylation. So, I mentioned balancing your hormones. You wanna make sure that you’re protecting your body, making sure your body can process your hormones. And then one that would be for prevention, or if you’re on an active healing journey, is an array of inflammatory blood markers.

So I mentioned earlier, inflammation is a root cause of cancer. So, monitoring that inflammation and those inflammatory markers can be very important. So the highly sensitive C Reactive Protein, this one’s been made popular by a cohort Dr. Nasha Winters. She talks about this one a lot.

Keeping that highly sensitive C Reactive Protein, less than one. This is agreed upon in alternative medicine and conventional medicine. They have seen that women who keep that CRP nice and low do better with their cancer treatments. The lactate dehydrogenase, the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), homocysteine, these are all inflammatory markers that you can use to monitor your progress.

And I’ll add one more, one that someone might be interested in who is on an active healing journey, and that is testing done by the RGCC labs. So, they’re looking for circulating cancer stem cells in the blood. So, those cancer stem cells, if you’ve had traditional treatments and you’ve gone through all your treatments and your doctor has said, ‘You’re cancer free, go home,’ you still need to address those cancer stem cells. They’re still there.

So, RGCC looks for those cancer stem cells and it does sensitivity testing for what supplements or herbs might be helpful for you to consider in a healing journey so that can really help hone down, again not Dr. Google list of herbs that can help with cancer, can make it a little bit easier to fine tune specifically which ones are good for you.

Sylvie Beljanski: Yeah, absolutely. Nobody wants to spend time and money on things that are not going to work, and RGCC can definitely help with that. It is easy. The idea is to have a, draw some blood, send it to a lab who is going to a test, so your cancer cells against a battery of possible, the conventional and natural products and will tell you which one are going to be effective against, against your cancer cells and cancer stem cells.

And indeed there are not a lot of things right now against cancer stem cells because, because they do resist, they are highly resistant. They do resist chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and people do not hear enough about cancer stem cells, generally. They hear that after the round of treatment and only when they are starting metastasis or recurrence of cancer, then unless the doctor start to speak about cancer stem cells, I think everybody from day one of diagnosis should hear about cancer stem cells and what are the steps that can be taken, should be taken by everyone concerned by cancer to avoid the recurrence. 

De’Ann Richter: Yeah. Absolutely. It’s, I like to say that traditional cancer treatment has a wait and see attitude. So, someone goes through traditional treatment, maybe they have surgery to remove the tumor, maybe they have chemo and so on and so forth. And then your doctor says, ‘You’re cancer free. Go home, but come back every six months for a scan,’ or every year for a scan. And so what is that? That’s a wait and see. We’re waiting to see if the cancer comes back. But it’s important, like you’re saying, Sylvie, to make sure you’re not just monitoring scans, but you also wanna address those cancer stem cells to reduce that risk of that recurrence. Those stem cells are one of the parts that’s responsible for metastasis and recurrence. I agree. 

Sylvie Beljanski: And that’s why one of the things that conventional medicine is not going to offer. 

De’Ann Richter: No. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that time testing is not offered yet. We’ve got things that are trying to be as close as possible, like the Guardian test, the Signatera test.

Those are looking primarily for cancer DNA strands, so that’s gonna be primarily looking for those full grown cells. So, that’s at least a tiny shift towards like blood biopsies and looking at those circulating cells, but it’s still not the same as those cancer stem cells. You still need to address those.

Advice for the Newly Diagnosed

Sylvie Beljanski: Yeah. So what would be the first, and would you consider to be the most important advice to somebody who has been newly diagnosed with cancer and is lost? She receives the news, and she feels her universe is upside down, the sky is falling on her head, she doesn’t know where to turn. She’s, she’s scared. Where to, how to take it from there, how to pick up the pieces?

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Advice for the Newly Diagnosed (continuation)

De’Ann Richter: That’s a really great way of describing what I have heard my clients say. It’s to receive a diagnosis of cancer.

And I think especially because a lot of the women who are interested in doing integrative things are people who have their whole life done things to try to support their health. So, maybe in their mind they’re thinking, “I’ve been healthy my whole life. Like, why is this happening to me?” So, that cancer diagnosis can really turn your world upside down. It can really put you in a fear, fight or flight response, and that is not the best mental place to be in to make big decisions. So, a downside to the way cancer is presented to patients, I think, is that it’s presented as if it is an emergency.

You have this cancer diagnosis, you get it on a Tuesday, and the surgeon is saying, “We can schedule you for surgery on Thursday.” It’s treated like this emergency. You get put on the conveyor belt very quickly. And I many times have women come to me who have gone through some of these treatments, say, “I wish I had taken a couple of weeks. I wish I had just taken a break.” So, that would be my advice is cancer isn’t an emergency. It’s not like a heart attack.

If you’re having a heart attack, you need to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. You have time with a cancer diagnosis. I’m not saying wait forever, right? So stay on it. But you do have some time to take a moment to take a nice deep breath to filter through all the information that your doctor is giving you to pick up Dr. V’s book and read it. To listen to some of your podcasts, Sylvie, to see what information you’re sharing. You have some time to gather information and filter through it and to get yourself out of that fight or flight emergent mindset so that you can make a decision that feels right for you, that you’re not being just pushed into decisions and being forced to make decisions before you’re ready.

So, that would be my advice. Take some time, take a nice deep breath, take a few weeks, whatever feels comfortable for you. Make a decision that feels good for you. 

Sylvie Beljanski: Yeah, and I would add, generally, all the relatives start coming up with pressure on doing this or doing that or going to see this doctor, doing this treatment that caused so and so has been doing. And I think is all those pressures are adding to the stress actually. And it is, stress is, is terrible to the disease. 

Managing Stress and Emotional Health

Sylvie Beljanski: Would you like to speak about stress management? 

De’Ann Richter: Yeah, stress management is huge. I mentioned Essential number four is to Heal Your Emotional Wounds and stress management is a part of that.

And stress, specifically, I call it the most potent carcinogen you can be exposed to ‘cause there’s so much information out there that shows that people who do not manage their stress well has an increased risk of cancer.

There’s a couple of studies I always like to share. One was a study done in 2016. They found that women with unmanaged anxiety were twice as likely to develop breast cancer than women who did things to manage their anxiety. A 2001 study found that women who underwent stressors that did nothing to manage those stressors, had a ninefold increase in breast cancer development.

So, those are some pretty big numbers. If you heard someone say, if you’re exposed to this toxin, you have a ninefold increase in your breast cancer risk, you would do everything you could to avoid that toxin, right? So, stress is no different. Stress is, to me, one of the most potent carcinogens you can be exposed to.

But the key with those studies, what I really like to hone in on people, because I think sometimes we hear stress can cause cancer and that stresses us out. We get stressed about being stressed or when we feel stressed, it stresses us out. That’s not the key here. The key with those studies is that it was unmanaged, so it was the grin and bear it type. That was the type who, when they felt stressed, they didn’t take a step away and do something to help themselves manage it.

So, there’s a lot of things you can do to manage stress to decrease that injury that stress can do on the body. Heart Math work. Heart variability work. So, working with the rhythm and rate of your heart and making sure you’re calming that heart down. Your heart sends calm, parasympathetic nervous system signals up to your brain. So, that heart can be a really great place to calm yourself and get into that parasympathetic, sympathetic nervous system mode. So, HeartMath Institute is a great place to look, if someone wants to know more about that.

EFT Tapping is one of mine and Dr. V’s favorites, so EFT tapping your acupuncture points on your face and chest. They help decrease cortisol and stress hormones. Helps reset your brain as well. Vagal nerve simulation. I am not great at cold plunging. I’m not a fan of cold, but I know it works.

I can barely get my shower beyond the, like medium range, I’m working on it. So, that’s an option, but if that’s too intense for you, you can do singing or humming. Your vagal nerve actually runs right by your vocal curve chords. So, singing or humming or gargling can actually stimulate that vagal nerve. Laughter, deep breathing, exercise and massage are also great ways to simulate that vagal nerve. Use those modalities as a way to manage your stress so as to reduce that toxic damage the stress can do. 

Coaching Programs and Support

Sylvie Beljanski: So, during your coaching sessions, you accompany women on a one-on-one journey through all those modalities? 

De’Ann Richter: We do, we teach them those modalities.

Of course, some of them are more interested in one than others, so we’ll hone in on what they’re most interested in, but we teach them those modalities. We also, with our one-on-one coaching, we like to create a sense of community with the women. So, every week we have a group call for all the women who are doing coaching with us, and that’s a way for them to meet each other and become a support system.

But on that group call, I always lead the women in either an EFT tapping session or we’ll do a heart visualization, like I was mentioning, heart variability. We do something together as a modality. So yeah, we really try to help teach them how to implement those stress, managing modalities through their healing journey.

Evolving Cancer Treatments and Coaching

Sylvie Beljanski: Cancer has changed over the past several years. We see women younger and younger getting diagnosed with cancer and there has been a little change in conventional medicine, but a lot of new things in the world, realm of unconventional, let’s say, medicine. How is your, has your coaching program evolved over the past 10 years? 

De’Ann Richter: Yeah, that’s a really good question. Dr. V approached her healing journey completely natural. So, that was her story. She went completely natural. She did not use any conventional modalities. And so, when she started this coaching, that was her goal was to teach women what she did, natural healing for breast cancer.

But we started to see a need. I mentioned earlier that 2017 study that 70 something percent of cancer clients are now implementing modalities. So, we saw a need. We had people reach out to us and ask, “Can I use this with my traditional medicines?” And at the time, maybe we didn’t have the research to know, ’cause we were focusing on that natural.

So, I have seen that shift where people now are more and more interested in not just going about it naturally, some of them still do just wanna do natural, but people who are using conventional medicine are now more interested in natural things they can do to support themselves. So, that’s how we’ve changed.

We’ve gone now from having mostly just information for people who are focused on trying to heal completely, naturally, to now we have these conventional, we call it Survive and Thrive. So we have these Survive and Thrive modalities that people can implement through their conventional medicine, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, things they can do to minimize side effects.

As I said earlier, maybe even increase the effectiveness of some of these therapies. So, we’ve created kind of new programs for people who want to use conventional medicine as well. 

Sylvie Beljanski: You said more and more women are interested in getting both, the best of both worlds. The natural and also conventional medicine.

However, there are many oncologists who are still, “No, don’t do anything than my chemotherapy. Don’t mess with my chemotherapy.” What do you say to those women who are scared, actually, by their doctors? 

De’Ann Richter: Yeah. First of all, just to touch on that, coming up in the conventional world, I always tell people that your nurses and your doctors, it’s not right, I don’t agree with it, but your nurses and your doctors are trained in medical school to motivate you through fear. That’s just how they’re taught.

I remember in nursing school being taught patient communication and being told, you lead with the worst case scenario and then you give the options for how to avoid that worst case scenario.

So, that’s not the right way to communicate with people. I don’t think that’s a very healing way, but that is what they’re being taught. So, when your oncologist or your nurse says something that elicits that fear response in you, I try to encourage people to not hold that against them. Not a lot of people get into medicine for selfish reasons.

Most people that I had experience of working with got into medicine because they wanna help people, so don’t hold it against them. Create a protective barrier for yourself and recognize that they are just talking to you the way they’ve been trained to talk. It’s not coming from their intentions for you.

So, don’t let fear be your motivator for decision making, even if your doctor or oncologist is using it as a motivator. Know that they’re doing that just ’cause that’s how they’re trained.

But from there, a lot of doctors will be very hesitant to say that it’s okay to use some herbs or supplements alongside conventional medicine. And that is also just because of their training. They are not trained in these herbs and supplements. That’s not a part of medical school. Now, I didn’t go to doctorate school, but in nursing school I had0 one 30-minute session that was on herbs and supplements of my entire four years. We spent 30 minutes talking about herbs and supplements, and most of that lecture was about medication interactions, right? It wasn’t even about the benefits of them, it was what not to take them with.

So, they don’t have that knowledge. And when a doctor doesn’t have that knowledge, his go-to line is going to be, “Don’t take it.” If he doesn’t know, he’s gonna say, just don’t. So, I remind my clients, you are the person who is in control of your own health. Your doctor is there as a resource to you. He or she’s not in control of what you do or don’t do. Now, I am a big believer in communicating with your doctor what you’re doing. I think you shouldn’t hide things from them. But if you tell your doctor you’re gonna use a modality like OnKobel-Pro® or something else, that you have seen research and studies behind that it does support your treatment and you tell ’em you’re gonna use that, and they say “No, don’t use it,” then the next time you see them, bring those studies to your doctor and say, “I am going to use it.” And this is why, if you’re interested in reading these studies, I’d love for you to take a look at it.

So, that way they know what you’re doing. You’re not hiding anything from them, but you’re still being the one in control of your, of your body and of what you do. 

Sylvie Beljanski: Yeah, that’s what I am telling people. Go to The Beljanski Foundation, download the publications on the synergy of action, and ask your doctor, “Doctor, if there is a study showing the synergy of action, where is a science, where I should, based on which I should not take those products together. Show me the science doctor,” and of course there isn’t. It’s going nowhere. 

De’Ann Richter: No, it’s not, it’s not based on that. It’s, again, it’s their, it’s just their lack of knowledge and that’s not their fault, right? They didn’t get trained in it. But that’s their kind of go-to reaction is, no, don’t do anything I don’t know about because they’re trying to keep you safe, don’t do anything I don’t know about.

So, I totally agree. And in our coaching programs, we don’t suggest anything that doesn’t have something behind it to, to support why it may help. So, with our clients, if they’re getting pushback from their doctors, I’ll provide the links to the studies to them so that they can take that to their doctor.

So, always have the research behind. I was talking to someone else on a podcast I did, I was interviewing her and she said the same thing. She was like. You shouldn’t be implementing anything, whether it’s chemotherapy or surgery or whatever it is, without the research.

So, it’s the same with the herbal medicines. Make sure you’re getting that research behind it to know why you’re using it and how to use it safely. 

Sylvie Beljanski: Yeah. Although it is fair to say that research itself can be often overwhelming by the amount of information and contradictory information, that’s why I do believe that coaching service like the one you’re offering can really make a difference.

Help get the anxiety down and, and have a scientifically and realistic voice that will help you understand where you are and, and guide you and not make everything catastrophic or too rosy, and say that, you can just meditate and the cancer will go away. It’s not, it’s unfortunately not going to happen.

And it is important to take all those steps seriously and try to do your best to follow each of them, not maybe, being an expert and a guru in each of them, but at least understand which one resonates the most with you and follows that lead. 

De’Ann Richter: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. To your point that’s why we always say, I mentioned earlier what the 7 Eessentials are. There’s seven of them, right? And far too often people have a tendency to say, I’m just focusing on my food, or I’m just gonna focus on my emotional work. But you really do, you have to do all of them.

Not one of them is more or less important than the others. And in the same mindset, if you only eat food and take supplements, but you’re not managing your stress or your emotional wounds, right? You’re not gonna get the benefit, you have to do all of them. So, it’s about that balance of all of those aspects of health.

Sylvie Beljanski: So, that leads me to the next question. How long does it take to follow a program where you have to, to take all those steps? 

De’Ann Richter: Yeah. So our programs last for six months. It usually does not take a whole six months for someone to start getting this, as a lifestyle change. Within our coaching programs, it’s our goal that within the first three calls, meaning three months, you’re gonna have a pretty good handle on what parts of the Essentials you need to work on. And then the rest of those three months are our goal to help make sure you’re keeping it a habit. So, it’s not just something you’re doing right now, but a lifestyle change, something you’ll do for the rest of your life. Depending on the person and depending on the needs, I would say three to six months, probably.

Sylvie Beljanski: Okay. And there is one phone call a month plus some group sessions? 

De’Ann Richter: That’s right. So you’re, you know, we say one phone call a month, but really that can be flexible. Realistically, it’s a six-month coaching program with at least one phone call a month. And then every week we have a group coaching session where you can get on with the other women. And then if you have small questions, of course you can ask and communicate with the coach on that weekly call. 

Conclusion and Contact Information

Sylvie Beljanski: And how do people get in touch with you and hop on the program? 

De’Ann Richter: Yeah. Oh, I’d love to communicate with people so they can reach out to me directly at coaching@breastcancerconqueror.com.

We also have a Facebook and an Instagram, so Breast Cancer Conqueror on both. Or they can go to our website, which is breastcancerconqueror.com.

Sylvie Beljanski: Thank you.

De’Ann Richter: Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed talking with you. 

Sylvie Beljanski: Thank you very much. 

Victor Dwyer: Thank you so much, De’Ann, and thank you for everyone that has listened up to this point.

This is The Beljanski Cancer Talk Show and we’ll catch you next time. Thanks.

From a young age, De’Ann Richter was immersed in the world of natural and integrative medicine, thanks to her time spent at her grandmother’s health food stores in the Atlanta area. It was there, surrounded by natural remedies and vibrant discussions on wellness, that De’Ann developed a deep appreciation for integrative methods and a balanced approach to health. This early exposure ignited her interest in a comprehensive approach to health, leading her to pursue a career in nursing.

De’Ann became a registered nurse and dedicated many years to working as a Surgical-Trauma nurse at a Level One Trauma hospital in Atlanta. This experience allowed her to hone her medical skills, develop a deep compassion for patients and their personalized healing, and develop a profound understanding of acute care and patient resilience. However, her commitment to integrative health remained unwavering and led her to pursue a career that incorporated her interest in natural medicine.

Nearly a decade ago, De’Ann joined Breast Cancer Conqueror as a 7 Essentials System™ health coach, where she strategically and passionately supports women through their healing journeys. De’Ann now works as the Head Coach as she is uniquely poised to combine her extensive clinical experience and natural medicine background with the holistic and integrative philosophies of the 7 Essentials System®.

She now gets to combine all of her skills, experience, knowledge, and warmth to empower women with knowledge and customized strategies for comprehensive healing and vibrant health. True breast cancer recovery requires more than just a treatment plan, it is a lifestyle change. De’Ann is uniquely positioned to support each woman, helping them navigate their health and breast cancer healing with a balanced, thoughtful, and informed approach.