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Edie Miller
If we stop and think about it, it's not really reasonable to expect them to be offering you solutions that they have not studied. So therefore, you need to put the onus on yourself to do the research. Knowledge is power. Do the research. Hear especially from people who used to feel one way and now are advising another way. There's a lot of credit to be given to those individuals.
Podcast Announcer
You're listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast, a part the Healing Strong organization, the number one network of holistic cancer support groups in the world. Each week we bring you stories of hope, real stories that will encourage you as you navigate your way on your own journey to health. Now here's your host stage four cancer thriver, Jim Mann.
Jim Mann
Today I'm meeting a new friend and I need friends. I have like two. One of them doesn't even talk to me, so I need new friends. We're talking to Edie Miller there in Tennessee. How you doing, Edie?
Edie Miller
I'm doing very well, thank you.
Jim Mann
I want to find out about you. Before you were diagnosed with cancer, have you always lived in Tennessee?
Edie Miller
No. So all of us were born in eastern Montana. So I have eight brothers and sisters and nine kids, two sets of twins, and we were all born in Montana farming community. My parents were farming farmers. Moved to Kansas when I was a few years old. Then most of my growing up was in Florida. Then we moved to. I actually moved to middle Tennessee during a time frame where my daughter was going to college. I was in a position to be able to kind of come alongside my parents and help them. We realized they were aging and really should not be living by themselves anymore. And I kind of took on that role of helping them during, for a season, about four and a half years. I'd always been interested in holistic, kind of functional, referred to as functional. Now looking for the root cause of problems and in helping mom and dad. That became even more ingrained in me how valuable and important that is to look for root causes. So I was able to kind of successfully work, work at helping them to get off of their meds and blood pressure, heart and cholesterol and the water pills and, and see them improve so dramatically in their health. So that was a firsthand, kind of my first foray into, in a real time, seeing great improvement in health without the use of prescription meds.
Jim Mann
Yeah, you had me at Montana, actually. That's a beautiful state. And I also understand the parent thing because we brought my parents up from. From central Florida because they were getting old and it's hard to Admit that your parents are getting that old. But it happens as years go by. And my mom had dementia and we had to. She was always there. She goes, yeah, we're just here for a week. We'll go home this weekend. And every week, same thing. She would pack up, we would unpack and then go, yeah, this, this coming week. And mom, you'll be gone. She never did figure out why all her furniture was up at our house.
Edie Miller
That's a hard, hard thing for both on both sides.
Jim Mann
Oh, yeah. You just learn not to fight what they're thinking and just kind of play along with. Was entertaining because she was always pleasant. My dad was pretty sharp. And, you know, they both passed away in their 90s, so I can't really complain about that.
Edie Miller
Mine were in their 90s as well when they passed. So, yeah, long, good lives.
Jim Mann
Yeah, that's good. I mean, you got to let them go eventually. And it's always sad, but still, what were you doing for a living? I mean, because you're extremely young, right? You just had a college.
Edie Miller
Oh, yeah, right. Well, so when I was living in Florida, I went through a very difficult divorce. As I look back, and maybe some of the triggers for just when one tries to analyze.
Jim Mann
Wow.
Edie Miller
What. It was such a surprise when I got the cancer diagnosis because I felt like I was doing pretty good. And I felt like, I mean, I was conscious of health. I would been studying it, I'd been trying to help my parents get healthy and. And I was taking supplements and I. I felt like I was at a pretty good place health wise. So I was very shocked when I got that diagnosis. But that was a really stress, stressful period in my life. It was gut wrenching. And especially being a Christian and feeling like, oh, I know this is not what God intended with marriage. And it was very hard on me physically to have to go through that. And I had a cabinet business where I designed kitchens and baths. So totally a separate field, but I could do that anywhere. So I thought, well, I am flexible now. My daughter's gone to. My son had already was away out of the house and my daughter had gone to college. And I was kind of in a transitional phase and I thought maybe coming alongside them would be a good thing to do. I felt like called to do that. And so I moved at that point then to just myself to Middle Tennessee. Later they ended up going back to Montana, but so that was where. What took me to Tennessee. And of course that was really hard because dad so wanted. I mean, Montana was home and he did not like the thought of not living in Montana anymore. And a sister and her husband were going to build a house that would allow for them to have some room to be in. So there was a time when I went and got their house ready to sell and kind of. So we were living back in Montana with them for a time while we transitioned. And so all of that was kind of going on. But I, during that timeframe too had a sister. I had kind of close up with cancer in our family with a sister who lost her husband to cancer and then a second sister who. And that. That was. He was cancer free for five years. And then it came back with a vengeance and did not last very long when it returned. And then I had a second brother in law who got cancer as well. He also was in remission for a time. And then it came back and he went pretty fast after that. And I had a sister in law who. My twin brother's wife, her sister was found to have leukemia and they went after it, hospitalized her and really hit her hard with all these treatments to try to arrest this advanced cancer. And she died within just. It was a little over a week that from the time she was diagnosed to the time she was passed away. So I had seen some family members, I mean, or close, close family members walk through that and had done a lot of research myself at that time, also trying to look for answers and some things related to treatment. And I thought, okay, I will never do chemo or radiation. I at that time I was kind of resolved that that would not be part of if I ever got cancer.
Jim Mann
Right. Is that what they all did?
Edie Miller
Actually, one of them had gone to Cancer Treatment Centers of America. And so they do incorporate holistic things. But he did go through some chemo. I'm not sure about the radiation, if there was radiation involved at the same time. But they did basically send him home without really much instruction about it. Didn't seem like maybe the missing link was to really figure out what were triggers to begin with. Because if you're not kind of also figuring out what has maybe caused it, what made you vulnerable. Because of course, we, as we know, we all are dealing with cancer cells every day. I mean, our. But our immune system takes care of it. But when there's a convergence of factors, it can kind of create this perfect storm of vulnerability to allow cancer to take hold and start growing. I thought of that little the I Love Lucy show and the episode where she was at the candy factory.
Jim Mann
Yeah.
Edie Miller
And I don't know if you've Ever seen that episode? Very famous coming to all that candy. And she's handling it really well and dealing with it, and then all of a sudden it's speeding up and speeding up and she's stuffing it and she's trying to. She. It overwhelms her and she can't handle it all. And I think that's kind of the perfect storm that maybe happens with our bodies sometimes too, is there's just lots of fact that are conspiring to weaken our body's capacity to handle these renegade cancer cells that don't want to die when they're supposed to.
Jim Mann
Right. So all this was like an education for you.
Edie Miller
Yeah.
Jim Mann
Getting you prepared for the diagnosis that later came.
Edie Miller
Yeah.
Jim Mann
And because if you don't change, like you were saying, if you don't change what you were doing before the treatment, then obviously the cancer is like, okay, we're coming back. And it is normally much stronger. And I've gotten so many stories. When I went through my cancer and then I was cancer free, and I always had people telling me stories about their dad or their uncle that had cancer and then he was cancer free. And I always ask, well, how they're doing now? Oh, well, it came back and they're gone. Thank you. Thank you for the encouragement. But that's usually the case. I mean, if you don't change what you're doing or what caused it in the first place. And sometimes that's kind of hard to figure that out. But. Yeah, I mean, you sound like you had a lot of stress in your life, so I mean, that's definitely one thing you would pinpoint and I'm sure you did.
Edie Miller
Yeah, definitely. And I know in my. In the second brother in law's case, they did do a lot of alternative things. They were pursuing, working with some. Some doctors that were much more functional, but still something was. Something was missing and just God's time with alternative and functional health. I wish the same standard was applied to conventional treatment as is applied to functional health. You know, they'll point. People will point to something that failed. Well, they did some alternative things, but look it, they ended up still dying. And so they throw all effort in the alternative world out the. Out the window. But they don't do that when it comes to conventional. Can we point to any failures within the convention or any. Is anybody dying having gone through conventional treatment? And they don't apply that same standard to them and say, oh, wow, no, I'm going to not do conventional because this person died having gone through conventional. It's kind of a double standard that I wish. I wish people kind of recognized that there's so many variables and factors and you don't have a crystal ball. You can't say they went alternative. And if they would have gone conventional, they most certainly would have lived. No, you can't say that and vice versa. But we do know our bodies are miraculous. The Bible verse that talks about we're fearfully and wonderfully made, so we have an amazing capacity to heal if our bodies are empowered to do so. It doesn't mean we'll always heal, but it means that it's worth the effort to try to figure out what has gone awry and what can we do to try to fix it and empower the body rather than kind of tie the arm behind the back in the healing process. And I've kind of thought of an analogy. I actually said to my surgeon at one point when I was feeling a lot of pressure about following his conventional advice, and I said, well, it seems like, you know, with chemo, obviously, well, at that point, it was all. It was mostly radiation. So my diagnosis was felt to be very early stages. A great diagnosis if you're going to have a cancer diagnosis, which was stage one, grade one and slow growing. And so I had opted. At that time, I thought, okay, will remove it, lumpectomy, get rid of it. And then I was going to not do any of the. What else was recommended with at that point was radiation, not chemo and the hormone blockers. But I knew from my research that it's, you know, even then it is. It's problematic. It's not like you can't tell radiation to stop here and don't go any further. You know, there's organs behind there. There's heart, lungs that get impacted with radiation. And. And I didn't want to. I knew that was not what I wanted to do. But I. I did decide I better. When you're kind of in that boat yourself, Right. It is interesting how even when you have a mindset that I'm not going to do this or that you kind of are like a little bit more, you feel vulnerable and you are made to feel like this is very unwise for you to consider going against our advice. And I did feel the need to kind of listen and hear them out. And I kind of felt like maybe if I didn't also that maybe he would not want to do the surgery.
Jim Mann
Right.
Edie Miller
But now, at this point in time, I would have. Even now, with what I know, I would have put just a Hold on everything and said, you know what, Let me just wait. I'm going to see what I can accomplish. Let me see what can be accomplished, what God can accomplish by implementing all the measures that I did after the fact, before surgery and seeing what would have been, you know, what that would have accomplished.
Jim Mann
Especially with it being slow moving like that. Because we always feel like we're in a hurry. Like, especially when they tell you you got six months and pressure is on and you, wow, they just look more intelligent. So you want to follow what they say. But you've had a lot of research beforehand, so that's, that's unusual for most people. Most people are blindsided by it. Like, oh, what do we do now? And they panic and they go with whatever the doctors say. But you've already built up the knowledge, so that's, that's pretty good.
Edie Miller
Yeah. Well, that is why I felt like, wow. As much as I know I'm feeling, even with all that I know, I can definitely see why people are vulnerable to just feeling like they just need to go along with what is being recommended. Because after all, they are the doctor who has gone to school for all this is their specialty. And they know. But the problem is doctors, you know, nobody, none of us can know what we don't know. And if doctors have not studied alternative solutions and how to empower the body to heal, they really, that is not part of their curriculum in, in school. They have now become very invested in their specialty in the cancer world. And that's what they know to advise and that's what they know to recommend. And so we can't really expect them to be knowledgeable in the other realm unless they have made a concerted effort to do so. And most of them haven't because it would affect their standing in the practice, the years of investment in whatever they're doing with the radiation or the chemo. I mean, it is kind of like if we stop and think about it, it's not really reasonable to expect them to be offering you solutions that they have not studied. So therefore, you need to put the onus on yourself to do the research. Knowledge is power. Do the research. Hear especially from people who used to feel one way and now are advising another way. There's a lot of credit to be given to those individuals.
Jim Mann
So this will happen, what, four years ago now, your diagnosis?
Edie Miller
Yeah, just right at four and a half years ago now.
Jim Mann
It always blindsides you. It always catches you off guard when you get a diagnosis because you want to think it's other People, it's not us, but. But it's getting more and more popular, this cancer thing, because so many people are getting it. But yeah, after you decided, like you said, you were thinking, oh, maybe I should do what the doctor say. But after you came back to your senses and you said, I'm going to do all these things that I've already learned about in my research, and what was the first thing you actually did?
Edie Miller
Well, I had said to the doctor, and I guess I started to say. I told him, you know, with. With. I know there's a. There's a negative side to chemo and radiation. It is very destructive for the body's immune system as it makes me kind of feel like the analogy. I said, I thought of this analogy. I told him that it's kind of like you have this fighter that you're going to send into the ring for the fight of his life, but you decide to prepare him for the fight, you beat him up first and then send him in the ring to compete and try to do well. And I said, so, you know, that seems like it's kind of what you're. You're putting your body through all this trauma and you're killing a lot of good along with the bad. And he goes, but it's not killing all the good. So it's like, you know, that's. So that should not be a good analogy. But I did let him then talk because I knew I was going to be bucking the system. He did want to do a needle core biopsy before the surgery to determine what kind of cancer it was, and then we can know. I said, well, what difference does it make, though, if I know I'm not planning on doing any of the other. Why not just test that at the point of surgery and not before surgery? And I just really had not done a whole lot of research on that at that time. And so I ended up letting him talk me into. Because Doing the needle core biopsy ahead of time. Because, again, I just felt like, well, okay, I'll give him that right after I'm watching the screen when they're doing that. And I'm seeing this ultrasound showing this image of these big strips being pulled out of the middle of this cancer, this little tumor. And he was like five or six strips that were pulled out. And I said, well, my goodness. I said, if you just do a few more, it's going to all be gone. So maybe, you know, but I was just. I had this sick feeling in my. In my gut thinking, what did I Just do. Why did I do that? And on the way home, I'm looking, doing research on my phone about needle chlorobiopsies and what the possibility for spread would be with that. Because it just seems like if you take off, you know, or you put on your thinking cap, you've got. Now you've opened up the little protective cocoon of cancer, the tumor, and blood is coursing through that. Why would that not possibly spread the cancer cells allow them to get out into the system either in the, you know, lymphatic system, the bloodstream. And so I was just kind of had this sick feeling that I should not have done that. Why did I do that? So then we proceed. Now I'm thinking, wow, we need to get to surgery fast. Because I just felt like that was. I'm in a vulnerable state now. I wanted to hurry that along, but it seemed like it took forever. It was a couple weeks, and I developed a hematoma. Then that is this kind of pooling of blood and swelling and bruising that was all this big blood pocket that's over the tumor area now also.
Jim Mann
Wow.
Edie Miller
And, oh, no, don't worry. Nothing to worry about there unless it becomes affected and blah, blah, blah. So. But we did finally get to the surgery, and that was fine. I mean, every. It was outpatient, and I. I went home, didn't feel really any worse for the wear. I felt great. But it was a couple weeks later after that that I did get the call from him saying, well, we do have some bad news that we had. They had discovered then that there was angiolymphatic invasion in surrounding tissue. They had thought it was totally contained in the area, and they had clean margins. But then it did appear to have gotten into the lymphatic system. And so I said, well, so what would you be proposing with that? And they said, well, I think we should go back in and clear wider margins around the area. And we would want to recommend before it was going to be very targeted radiation, and they would want to expand that to a bigger area and also to remove some lymph nodes. And I said, but if the cancer has gotten into my lymphatic system, then it actually could be anywhere. Right? So it's, you know, you're focusing on the area where it was, but it really could be anywhere. And he said, well, that. Yes, that's true. So then I said, well, I don't really want to then put my body through another trauma of surgery, certainly not expanded radiation, and to remove the lymph nodes, which has the potential for robbing my body of the little street cleaners that are, you know, there to be. They have function, a role to play. And I'm. And then that can lead to lymphedema with. When you remove the lymph nodes and.
Jim Mann
Right.
Edie Miller
And so I said, I know. I just really feel like that makes me want to now step up my efforts, my goals, my plan of action for kind of helping to empower my body to fight it wherever it might have been turning up. So, yes.
Jim Mann
Now, is this when you were found the truth about cancer or you've already been through that part?
Edie Miller
Well, I had heard about Truth About Cancer through my one sister and brother in law who went through cancer. So they had tapped into Thai Bullinger. They had his. I think they had gotten his book. So I was aware of the organization prior to that, but had not done a lot of research into them or study on their website some. And so that was definitely high on my list to tap into then in a much bigger way when. With my own diagnosis. And that's. And then I ran across. I think I ran across Chris's Chris Works organization on Facebook maybe. I think I maybe saw him on Facebook. And so then had gotten online and I did order his program at that point in time and did not follow it religiously. I kind of had. There was quite a few things that I implemented. And it wasn't like hardcore on that, but it was such a tremendous resource to be able to listen to all those testimonials of people who had been through this journey and the things that they had done and the success that there was. And so that was super, super encouraging.
Jim Mann
Of course you found out about Healing Strong through Chris, which so many people do. Everybody I talk to on this podcast, like, yeah, I heard about you all from Chris Ward. He's our gatekeeper.
Edie Miller
Yeah, yeah, he's great. And actually at that time too, that fall, it was the fall of 2021, the surgery had happened at the beginning of July, July 6 of 21. And then they had their convention, Truth About Cancer convention was in Nashville that fall. And so I went to that and was able to like what, three days or so and heard all these fabulous speakers. And that was just super valuable and helpful to be kind of also reinforced and empowered to continue, you know what I was doing.
Jim Mann
And you basically kind of upped your diet a little bit, even though you were eating pretty good. Like, with Chris work, I implemented that salad he does, the big cancer fighting salad. And it's so Much work, you know, making yourself healthy. That's why so many people don't, because it's easier not to make yourself healthy. But just getting that salad, going to the store and getting all the right ingredients and cleaning it and putting it together. So I am very fortunate if I can do it three times a week. But when I do that, I feel so much healthier, so much more energy. That's like the thing that's changed my physical and mental feeling than anything else. You know, supplements, they're all good. But when I do that one, I mean, I can say, oh wow, that definitely changed things in me. That and of course I throw a bunch of juicing in there. But you pretty much kind of upped that part of your life.
Edie Miller
Starting with, you know, on the most basic level, water, you know, too. Looking at what. So we got a, you know, Berkey water filter. So some of my investments were a Berkey water filter system that I thought, well, you know, we're supposed to try to drink more fluid and water that is, has good minerals in it, good vitamins and minerals that are, are healthy. So that was an investment, you know, that was a little bit out of pocket. But when you thought about how much it costs to get a gallon at a time or three gallon jugs of filtered spring water, you know, at Walmart or whatever, you know, those are a dollar a gallon. And the Berkey system would be like five to six thousand with one set of filters. And that's like five or six thousand dollars worth of water for an investment of some hundreds of dollars. And so that was something that was a no brainer. And so essential oils, that was also something that I really got into some the oral, both oral and topical. And Jordan Rubin was at the Truth About Cancer site. I became aware of the book that they, that he and Josh Axe had written together along with pie on the essential oils. Essential oils, Ancient medicine. That was a tr. That's a tremendous resource. Really well laid out. And they had a recipe in there for oral. They called it body butter Cancer Fighting body butter. But it was a mixture of oils with the coconut oil and frankincense and myrrh and turmeric that were whipped together. And that was an oral, I mean topical, but then also there was a oral one as well. And that was like five drops of this blend. The same blend. I put those in a little bottle and I would take that three times a day. Five drops of that three times a day. The blood just has this circulates just these thousands of times an hour. And it was putting, I felt like it was something that was helping, going to help my inflammation help to just put good things, cancer fighting properties all throughout circulating inside my body. So that was something that I did. Also. I'm a big fan of castor oil Ancient, an ancient remedy for a lot of things that was not oral but, but topically and had casserole packs that I had gotten that allowed for, for various areas of the body that and, and for helping detox in the liver. So that was something that I implemented. Coffee animas was something that I and I felt like I had heard a lot of information about how important it is to detox the liver while you are going through alternative things. Because if those alternative things are actually working, then they're trying to get it out of the body. It sends it through the liver. The liver can become overwhelmed and gunked up with just trying to slough off all the stuff that you're trying to remove from the body. So it's very important to detox the liver while you're implementing these wonderful things that you're, these changes that you're making. So I did do a lot of that. I did do some high dose vitamin C infusions as well as stepping up the supplements that would have been like the C and turmeric and quercetin and bromelain were D increased those, the omegas, those are some of the vitamins that I stepped up and did extra on. And iodine, that was another thing. Brownstein was one that I had followed for many years because I had had a thyroid condition. I have a thyroid condition, hypothyroidism. And I had gotten many years ago with my parents that his books on iodine, why you need it, why you can't live without it and his thyroid book. But I did, I had kind of gotten away from doing that on a regular basis and so I stepped that back up because if your thyroid is not functioning well, then there's a lot of other things, parts of your body health that are going to be impacted negatively by that.
Jim Mann
I mean like it's all connected. That's weird.
Edie Miller
Yeah. Yeah. Amazing.
Jim Mann
And you're cancer free now, right?
Edie Miller
Yes. I mean, as far as I know, I have really never felt unwell. I mean I never. But I did feel better. I mean when I started implementing some of these things, like the juicing, I mean I started doing a lot of juicing with the kale and the spinach, but I did incorporate the berries. It was not just vegetables. And I Kind of felt like, well, okay, my cancer was supposedly, I mean, this slow growing and it was a low level. I can always step it up. I thought I'm just going to see where, you know, what this impact is to my health and to my blood work and my inflammation scores when I am doing what I'm doing. Because I felt like part of what my problem also might have been. One of the things that I honed in on is I felt like there was an imbalance in my diet that there was always so much concern, you know, with a sluggish thyroid. You know, weight had been somewhat of a problem and certainly weight can be a factor related to cancer. But I also had actually another sister in law who did pass away with cancer who was always very thin. So it's not just a single, there's never a single thyroid thing. You do need to kind of look in multiple fronts. But I felt like, you know, keto and trying to be careful of too many carbs had made me not be so free to be eating all the fruit that I should have been eating that is so healthy. You know, blueberries are super healthy. And I felt like there was an imbalance. Now I had not removed sugar completely from my life, you know, to remove those carbs, that would be the thing that I should have removed, but instead healthy fruits. But I, I had incorporated that into my smoothies and I would throw. Also I knew that garlic and onion were really anti inflammatory and I would throw a clove of garlic in there and a slice of onion in my, in my smoothie. Which sounds kind of terrible for ones that you're adding fruit to, but you know, you could very faintly taste it. But it wasn't like it ruined it. It was just like I knew that it was doing me good because those are. Cancer doesn't like those things. So I threw them in there, you know too when I, when I had a smoothie and sprouts. Sprouts was another biggie I did sprouts for because those are super, super healthy. So I would get little sprouting jars and I would. So I throw some sprouts into the smoothie mix as well and. And I really felt like, wow. I just was feeling like my body was being nourished. Like it was really a good thing. I could just feel it, the impact to my life and my body and my health.
Jim Mann
That's a few things.
Edie Miller
Yeah, that's a few things and many more. But yeah.
Jim Mann
You have recently started a new business.
Edie Miller
Yes.
Jim Mann
Tell us about that. It has to do with health, doesn't it?
Edie Miller
Yes, it does. So one of the things that I just had really been, as I was thinking moving forward for testing and whatnot, I thought I, you know, mammogram for me was not. It had been a long time, many, many years since I'd had a mammogram. When I was diagnosed, I was suspicious that there was a problem, right. So I, I did decide to make a mammograph appointment at that point in time. And that was, and then, then, then I got the call back, then they got the diagnosis, but I was suspicious already. But the problem with, I knew that moving forward and probably the first like it was six months out and then another six months that a mammogram again. But then I decided no, that was not going to be for me. I had done enough research now also to know that really when you look at the stats, the statistics, mammograms are very problematic for actually creating an environment for cancer to grow. And I did not want to continue to be doing that. Plus, and the stats just don't prove that it has saved lives. I mean it's not getting better. They can fudge on numbers. You can make numbers and any kind of study look good, like maybe there's progress being made. But our 50 plus year war on cancer has not yielded a lot of fruit. If you just kind of again, put your thinking cap on. We are knowing a lot more people getting cancer today than 10 years ago or 20 years ago. It's just every time you turn around in prayer time in your life group, you know somebody else has cancer and so is what we're doing working or is it actually creating an environment that is making our bodies unhealthy and susceptible. So I had decided that was not going to be the route for me. And so then I started thinking about thermography for myself because that's also something that can look at vascular changes in the body because that's what happens before the cancer forms enough to be able to see it with a mammogram or an ultrasound. And vascular changes are happening that to feed the cancer, to grow the cancer. So I thought, you know, that's something that I would like to do and actually with my one sister and brother in law, that was the thermo. The thermogram was the thing that found that the cancer had returned before anything else did. So I became intrigued with that and I just thought, well, you know, I wonder I, maybe I should look into what kind of an investment that would be to do thermography get the equipment, start a business. And I like the idea of not only doing the diagnostic end of thermograms, which is helping to uncover something, but also then adding in something that was therapeutic and that was red light therapy, because that was something that I had also been studying about and realizing that can be extremely helpful in the body, addressing the body at a cellular level, powering up the mitochondria of the cell to be able to help the body to be healthy and fight whatever cancer or whatever you're dealing with, whether it be arthritis or thyroid or mending a bone good for bone density. And so just so many things that are healthy about red light therapy. And so that was something that added into the mix as well. And then the whole body vibration was something that I had become aware of too, is helping to drain the body. So it's, it's one thing to try to detox, but sometimes it's hard for that to get out of our lymphatic system, the, the garbage. So with vibration, a singular motor is best from what I've have studied, because our, our lymphatic system is kind of like a, a garbage can. The lid goes, that goes up and down. And so that rebounding, that was something that Chris had also talked a lot about how healthy rebounding is for the lymphatic system. And whole body vibration would be kind of that similar single motor up and down to help to drain the body's. The junk out of, out of our body to help detox. And so we added that into the mix as well with our, with the facility that we got. So.
Jim Mann
Wow. So how long have you had this?
Edie Miller
So just kind of started in March or April, I think we opened the doors, so. So yeah, this past year. So. So it's been really lovely to meet some of the people that have come through our doors. One lady was driving by who had gone through cancer treatment. She had actually ended up having a double mastectomy, but she had decided not to. She really did not want to do the chemo and radiation or hormone blockers that were being recommended. And she just was feeling kind of at a loss. So when she, she was driving by and she saw the sign saying thermography and red light therapy and she just like put on the brake, she said, and just turned around and came back and. And it says by appointment only. But she came on in that day and I was free to talk with her. And she was just thrilled to be able to find somebody that could come alongside and be helping her to Reinforce her because she was feeling so weak. You know, you might feel strong for a moment, and then you start feeling weak when you have people saying, are you sure you really should do what the doctor says? And you feel pressure from the doctor, like you're being foolish and stuff. So the reinforcements for her were extremely important. And then thrilled to be part of our healing strong group that then just was starting, about to start at that point, a couple months from starting. So she. She got involved in that, and so she just felt like God had directed her steps that day. And that was really exciting to see.
Jim Mann
That's a perfect place to have your meetings, too. That's where you have them, right?
Edie Miller
Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Little room that can be that I'm envisioning. And it hasn't really happened quite quite yet, but I want to have various guest speakers within the realm of the holistic world that offer different services and training and resources for people that can come alongside. People are on so many prescription drugs and cholesterol, that's a huge one that is very problematic for health. The numbers within the conventional realm that they want to keep you at for cholesterol is really too low, and it's robbing our cells of the cholesterol that's needed and our brains. And along with all this low cholesterol is coming rising, rising rates of Alzheimer's and dementia as we're robbing our system of needed cholesterol. So it's become a kind of a bad guy, as though it's a silver bullet. But it is really, it's not changing again, heart disease from being the number one cause of death with all these prescription meds that are being taken. So what my goal would be is to try to empower people to think and be involved in the decisions that they're making for their health, because so much rides on it. And that little fable about the. The emperor has no clothes. You know, where these two swindlers come into town and they're going to try to convince the king that what he needs, they have this magic material and magic thread to create. They're going to create this fabulous new clothes for him, and only the very smart and rich people are going to be able to see the clothes. And so he's thinking, wow, okay. And he can't see the clothes, but he can't admit it because then they'll know that he's not very smart. And so then they parade down the middle of town, and all of a sudden this little kid goes, why isn't he wearing any clothes? And, you know, and so I, I kind of have this, this thought, when are we going to be realizing that maybe the emperor has no clothes when it comes to some of these health decisions that are being advocated and pushed on us? Because where is the proof of the pudding? Where is the results that are supposed to come with all of this, you know, this advice and all these prescription drugs, are they helping? And, you know, we, like someone said, we're not. It's not that our bodies are deficient of synthetic drugs and that's the reason we're unhealthy, you know, so, so what is the missing. If it's, if it's not synthetic drugs that we're really needing to be more healthy, then what do we need to do to try to be more healthy and, and recognize the failures of what is kind of the standard of care and advice?
Jim Mann
So, right, Edie, sounds like you're on the right path, like you have a, a new purpose in life. How can people get ahold of you to go to their website?
Edie Miller
There is a website that's called integrative thermography.com and I've kind of incorporated into my facility, too, the kind of coming alongside and doing some health coaching of sorts as well, so that as people are trying to walk through something that, you know, coming alongside and trying to offer some assistance in that regard had taken some training from Functional Medicine Academy to try to also be looking at getting more information and insight as to things that can be done to try to help the body to be healthy and to heal and to get to the root of problems rather than just the surface solutions.
Jim Mann
So, yeah, I'm glad I have a new friend now. Now I have three friends.
Edie Miller
Oh, well, good. Glad to be one of three.
Jim Mann
Edie, thanks so much for sharing your story. You've given us a lot of nuggets of wisdom, and I can always use those myself. So thank you so much.
Edie Miller
Well, thank you, Jim, for having me. Appreciate it. Yeah, I enjoyed it.
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You've been listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast, part of the Healing Strong organization. We hope this episode encouraged you and gave you confidence to take charge of your healing journey, trusting God to guide your path. Healing Strong is a nonprofit dedicated to connecting, supporting and educating individuals facing cancer and other diseases through strategies that rebuild the body, renew the soul, and refresh the spirit. It's free to join a local or online group. Just visit healingstrong.org to find one near you or start your own. While you're there, create a free my HealingStrong account to access all of our free resources to help you live healthier and heal strong. Though our groups and resources are free, we invite you to support our mission through a monthly Hope Givers donation of your choosing. Your generosity helps us reach more people with hope and encouragement. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a five star rating and review to help us spread the word. We'll see you next week with another story on the I Am Healing Strong podcast.
Theme: The Root Cause Journey – Holistic Healing, Thermography, and Taking Charge of Your Health
Air Date: March 27, 2026
Host: Jim Mann
Guest: Edie Miller
This episode features an inspiring and detailed conversation between host Jim Mann and guest Edie Miller, a cancer survivor and HealingStrong group leader. Edie shares her “root cause” journey through a holistic approach to cancer, her experiences navigating family health crises, her determination to avoid conventional cancer treatments, and her new purpose as an entrepreneur in integrative health. The episode is rich with personal anecdotes, holistic health tips, candid discussion about the medical system, and practical, faith-fueled advice on taking ownership of your healing process.
Grew up in a large family in Montana, later moving around the US • [01:13]
Early interest in holistic health, especially when caring for aging parents:
Family’s cancer journey:
Drew support, ideas, and resources from Truth About Cancer and Chris Wark’s work ([22:31–25:31])
Shares in detail the practical steps she implemented:
Nutrition/Detox:
On lifestyle and faith:
Candid, compassionate, and empowering. Edie’s faith and determination shine through her storytelling, alongside her practical, down-to-earth advice for anyone facing a daunting diagnosis or seeking root-cause healing. The conversation is relatable, occasionally humorous, and rooted in a desire to educate and empower rather than to dictate.
This summary captures the heart and the specifics of Edie Miller's “root cause journey”—providing encouragement, resources, and practical wisdom for anyone exploring holistic health pathways or moving through their own health crisis.