131: Parental Instincts, and Integrative Medicine, Stage Four Neuroblastoma | Ryan Sternagel

Summary

Podcast Summary: I AM HealingStrong – Episode 131

Title: Parental Instincts, and Integrative Medicine | Ryan Sternagel
Date: April 10, 2026
Host: Jim Mann (HealingStrong)
Guest: Ryan Sternagel

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Episode Overview

In this thought-provoking episode, Jim Mann interviews Ryan Sternagel, founder of The Stern Method, about his family’s journey after his infant son, Ryder, was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma. Ryan recounts the emotional and practical challenges of navigating the healthcare system, parental instincts in the face of crisis, and the transition to a life centered on integrative medicine and holistic healing. This episode is a deep dive into taking charge of your own (and your family’s) healing path—physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Diagnosis and Immediate Impact

• Ryder was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma just before his first birthday (02:05).
• Initial struggles to recognize symptoms as new parents: missed milestones, dropping growth percentiles, and a discovered lump (by Ryan’s wife during breastfeeding).
• "Wishing it was you because…that was what was going through my mind 24 hours a day is just take it away from him and give it to me. Yeah, that wasn’t an option, unfortunately." – Ryan Sternagel [05:15]

2. Friction with Conventional Medicine

• Ryan describes conflicts with hospital staff over treatment strategies and the challenge of seeking second opinions (08:12).
• Parental autonomy versus system pressure: Child Protective Services became involved when Ryan’s family sought to explore other options outside conventional chemotherapy (11:23).
• The hospital insisted on a strict standard protocol—initially 4 rounds of chemo, later shifting to 8 rounds with radiation, causing further distrust.

“They were just telling us whatever we needed to hear to get us to the next round…In Seattle. Yeah.”
– Ryan Sternagel [13:32]

3. Integrative and Holistic Healing Steps

• Ryan and his wife quickly immersed themselves in health documentaries, researched alternative protocols, and connected with holistic practitioners (07:36).
• Implemented comprehensive integrative approaches: juicing, supplements, EMF minimization, IV vitamin C, DMSO, etc., even while inpatient at the hospital.
• After significant tumor reduction in fewer chemotherapy rounds than predicted, the family pushed for less conventional treatment and ultimately relocated from Seattle to Utah for a more supportive environment (14:49).

Memorable Moment:
“When we were inpatient in the hospital, we had a juicer in there and we had, you know, family and friends bringing us like coolers full of produce and just had our own little juicing operation.” – Ryan Sternagel [12:31]

4. Relocating for Autonomy and Healing

• Moved to Utah for greater personal freedom and access to integrative care. Utah judged to have both a strong natural health community and respect for parental liberty (14:30).
• Eventually designed and built a home in the woods focused on a healing environment: non-toxic materials, homegrown food, minimal EMF (24:41).

“Every time I walk outside, it’s like this would have never happened if we hadn’t gone through this.”
– Ryan Sternagel [24:41]

5. Ryder’s Resilience & Adaptation

• Despite chemotherapy effects and early childhood trauma, Ryder adapted to a holistic lifestyle and now helps inspire others.
• Diagnosed “on the spectrum” at age 3, likely as a side effect of aggressive medical interventions, but later many challenges diminished.
• Notable for memorizing entire chapters of the Bible as a child—a sign of unique strengths emerging from his journey (22:23).

6. From Crisis to Calling: The Stern Method

• Chronicling the healing journey led to sharing resources online, first for fundraising and then to build a supportive global community (25:50).
• Developed The Stern Method website, podcast, and membership program (“Going Integrative Plus”) to empower others with actionable integrative cancer resources (26:31, 35:10).
• Launched a supplement company, “Our Health Naturally,” specifically to provide ultra-clean, science-backed botanical blends (31:07).

7. Reflections on Integrative Medicine, Parenting, and Healing

• Ryan is not dogmatic against conventional medicine and sees value in judiciously integrating therapies (16:45).
• Emphasizes the importance of basic pillars: nutrition, a positive mindset, stress reduction—alongside spiritual trust.

Memorable Quote:
“If you wait until you have it all figured out, then…12 years later, I don’t have it all figured out.” – Ryan Sternagel [08:03]

8. Facing Overwhelm: Information, Intuition & Balance

• Both Jim and Ryan talk about the dangers of information overload and the necessity of learning to trust one’s own intuition (38:11).
• “At some point, you gotta at least back off on just all information all the time and actually start doing the things that you know you should be doing.” – Ryan Sternagel [38:12]

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Notable Quotes by Timestamp

• Parental Pain:
  “That’s what was going through my mind 24 hours a day…take it away from him and give it to me.”
  – Ryan Sternagel [05:15]

• Systemic Pressure:
  “Child protective services showed up at our door…said, as long as you keep doing the chemotherapy, then we won’t take your kid from you.”
  – Ryan Sternagel [11:23]

• Holistic Commitment:
  “We had a juicer in there…our own little juicing operation in the cupboards full of supplements and, you know, sneaking out of the hospital to go get IV vitamin C and DMSO and all these things.”
  – Ryan Sternagel [12:31]

• On Utah’s Environment:
  “Utah’s kind of one of the few states that’s both high on the natural health friendly scale, but also high on the personal liberty friendly scale.”
  – Ryan Sternagel [14:30]

• Impact of Trauma on Children:
  “I’m sure he’s got some trauma from that type of stuff that, that still needs to be resolved…as far as all the good stuff, that’s all he’s ever known.”
  – Ryan Sternagel [18:59]

• Turning Adversity Into Legacy:
  “Every time I walk outside…it’s like this would have never happened if we hadn’t gone through this.”
  – Ryan Sternagel [24:41]

• Facing Information Overload:
  “How much information have you taken in versus how much have you actually implemented?”
  – Ryan Sternagel [38:12]

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Important Timestamps

• Facing Hospital System and Chemotherapy: [09:34] – [11:39]
• Switch to Integrative, Relocation to Utah: [13:32] – [15:00]
• Building a Healing Home and Lifestyle: [24:41] – [26:31]
• Launching The Stern Method & Supplement Line: [26:31] – [32:34]
• Discussion on Mindset and Healing, Information Overload: [34:00] – [38:12]
• Contact and Resources: [35:03] – [37:21]

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Resources & How to Connect with Ryan

• The Stern Method: thesternmethod.com
• Integrative Membership Program: Going Integrative Plus (information and Q&A with doctors and community)
• Supplement Brand: Our Health Naturally (ourhealthnaturally.com)
  Discount code for HealingStrong listeners: healingstrong20 (for 20% off)
• Podcast: To return as “Going Integrative” (previously “Anti Cancer Revolution”)

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Conclusion

This powerful conversation underscores the complexity and courage behind blending parental instinct, integrative medicine, and faith in the fight against serious illness. Ryan’s story serves as a beacon for those seeking hope, autonomy, and practical guidance through seemingly impossible circumstances. He reminds listeners to trust intuition, embrace the healing basics, and remember that supporting the body often requires supporting the soul and spirit as well.

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[Summary excludes advertisements and non-content sections. All quotes, timestamps, and anecdotes reflect the language and intent of the speakers.]

Transcript

[Ryan Sternagel]

Said, okay, we. We need to do something to shrink this tumor. We. We did a round of chemotherapy and then. And then we said, all right, thank you for that round of chemotherapy. Now we're going to go home and see what's going on from there. And at that point, Child protective services showed up at our door and.

[Jim Mann]

Wow.

[Ryan Sternagel]

Yeah. Said, sounds like you weren't complying with the hospital, but, you know, we'd. We hear now that you. You have done some chemotherapy. So as long as you keep. Keep doing the chemotherapy, then we won't take your kid from you, more or less.

[Jim Mann]

Oh, wow. I don't know what I could do about that.

[Ryan Sternagel]

There were many thoughts flowing through my mind throughout that whole experience. Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

You're listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast, a part of 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]

I know the name. Ryan. Is it Sternigle? Is that how you say it?

[Ryan Sternagel]

Close Sternagel. If you're in Germany, it's Steuernagel. Storenegl.

[Jim Mann]

Oh, okay. Well, how do they say it over here?

[Ryan Sternagel]

Stern Eagle. Yep.

[Jim Mann]

Really? I realized I'm on your mailing list. I get your newsletters. I thought that's why. That's why his name is familiar.

[Ryan Sternagel]

There we go. Yep. Yeah, a lot of people. A lot of people know the name and not the face because we've had our email list for so many years, and we've been on and off social media, currently on an extended social media hiatus. But the email list is. Has gone strong all these years, so. Yeah, that's. I get that a lot.

[Jim Mann]

Yeah. So we're like best friends, and I didn't even know it. Well, let me. Let me find out what your story is. I know that obviously you're married. You have how many kids?

[Ryan Sternagel]

Three kids.

[Jim Mann]

Three kids. Now, is it your. Your first child that was diagnosed?

[Ryan Sternagel]

It was, yeah, it was our first child, Ryder. He is. He'll be 13 in May, and he was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma 11 days before his first birthday. And, yeah, we got him. And then our daughter Channing, who's just about 10, and our son Rocky, who is 6.

[Jim Mann]

Rocky. What a cool name.

[Ryan Sternagel]

I always wanted it for. For. For a son. And my wife wouldn't. Wouldn't hear of it with. With Ryder. And then. And then I had Kind of given up on it. Right. And then you know, when, when she was pregnant with, with Rocky, she. She one day just kind of shook her head and said, said I. There's. There's a Rocky inside of me. And like, all right, he. He lives up to the name. So it's. Yeah, she was, she was spot on there.

[Jim Mann]

Well, that's good. That's good. Where, where are you all living at? What state are you in?

[Ryan Sternagel]

Park City, Utah.

[Jim Mann]

Ah, Utah. So many people that I talk to on this podcast live in Utah. What's that about?

[Ryan Sternagel]

That's. It's a good spot to be and yeah, I, we were kind of drawn here, I guess you could say. We. My wife and I both grew up in the, in the Seattle area.

[Jim Mann]

Okay.

[Ryan Sternagel]

And that's, that's where we were living when, when we got the diagnosis and.

[Jim Mann]

Wow.

[Ryan Sternagel]

I guess part of the story is we weren't really seeing eye to eye with the hospital, to put it mildly. And so we, we moved.

[Jim Mann]

Yeah. Okay. Just to lay a foundation here. What, what kind of work were you involved in at that time?

[Ryan Sternagel]

I was an outside sales guy for a commercial energy savings company. So we made office buildings and shopping centers and so forth, so more energy efficient. Which actually, you know, it's was. It wasn't a bad job for a 20 something year old guy. I got to fly all over the country and wow. Meet in important feeling offices and with building owners and that sort of thing. So he has actually Pretty cool. Yeah.

[Jim Mann]

Yeah. But sales is a good business to be in if you can do it. If we're me, I would starve to death because I would talk people out of stuff. You don't want this and that's not a good way of doing it. I've tried a couple sales jobs and I, I starved. So that's why I'm skinny today. I guess. Apparently you were good at it, so.

[Ryan Sternagel]

Yeah, that was okay. Yeah. I went to. I went to school to be a thought I was going to be a management consultant. Then I graduated in 2008 when, when everything came crashing down and no one was looking for junior management consultants at that time. Then I was a sales guy.

[Jim Mann]

Yeah, of course I personally, I've been diagnosed with cancer. They gave me a month or two to live, but that was 10 years ago. So I'm a procrastinator, which turns out good this time, so. And I'm cancer free 10 years later, so that's good. But I cannot imagine. I mean it's bad enough when you get your own diagnosis of Cancer. But having a child get diagnosed, I don't think there's anything worse than that. I mean, yeah, I'm sure you think, man, give me the cancer rather than, you know, my child. But how, how did that hit you as a family? Was it just devastating? I mean, obviously it was, but I mean, what were your thoughts?

[Ryan Sternagel]

Yeah, yeah, that's unfortunately not how it, not how it works. Yeah. Wishing it was you because. Yeah, that was, that was, that was obviously what was going through my mind 24 hours a day is just take it away from him and give it to me. Yeah, no, that, that, that wasn't an option, unfortunately. But it was, it was rough. You know, it was also our, like we said, our first son. Right. And we were first time parents and even just leading up to the diagnosis, it was, you know, looking back on it, there was all these, which should have been, you know, kind of red flag type things. But yeah, you know, we got the, everyone develops at their own pace and it's not a big deal. And you know, he wasn't, wasn't crawling at a year old or almost a year old and he was, he had fallen off the growth chart and was born in the 90 something percentile. And you know, at that point he was down in the 20s and wasn't handling solid food and he was, then he was constipated all of a sudden. So yeah, it was all these things that started adding up and then, and then, you know, we, my wife felt a lump in his back when she was, when she was breastfeeding him and that was kind of like the, something's really going on here. It sucked. But we, I don't know, I mean, I guess looking back I'm pretty proud of us that we kind of picked up the ball and ran with it from day one and just got down to business. And my wife and I were both, you know, already fairly holistically inclined, not as much as we are now 12 years later, but you know, already starting to eat organic food and getting rid of chemicals and EMF and these sorts of things and trying different diets and we'd even just for some reason got really interested in just watching random health documentaries and even like the cancer documentaries that were out at the time, the Gerson and stuff like that. And we didn't know everything but we knew where to start looking and we just, it was kind of zero to 60. Just if this is the, if this is the situation, if this is the hand we're dealt, then let's, let's do it. And just started immediately reaching out to all sorts of different integrative cancer doctors and alternative cancer coaches and researching and ordering supplements. And I had the. You know, it took me like a day to have the credit card memorized. And

[Jim Mann]

that's scary.

[Ryan Sternagel]

You know, probably hundreds of dollars just in overnight shipping fees alone. Right. Just. Just trying to get. Get everything we could as fast as we could. And. Yeah, yeah. And that's the. What I always try to tell people is you don't bankrupt yourself. Don't. Don't take that as the inspiration from what I'm saying. But opposite of paralysis by analysis or whatever that. Whatever that phrase is.

[Jim Mann]

Right. Close enough.

[Ryan Sternagel]

You know, if you. If you wait until you have it all figured out, then you're, you know, it's. It's 12 years later, and I don't have it all figured out. So. Yeah.

[Jim Mann]

Now, you said that you kind of disagree with the medical community there. What do they want to do?

[Ryan Sternagel]

Yeah, so chemotherapy, obviously. Yeah. And they. It's kind of funny. They, you know, it was the same people that. That told us that. That everything's fine. And it was a. It was a quite the ordeal just getting the diagnosis. We got sent away a couple different times, and, you know, the last guy told us to come back in six weeks at. The lump is still there. And then, you know, we did not wait the six weeks. We came back a few days later and asked to talk to somebody else. And then, yeah, sure enough, he had stage four neuroblastoma. And then all of a sudden, they wanted to put us in an ambulance to go from this hospital over here to this hospital 20 minutes away so we could get the chemotherapy that much faster. And we declined the ambulance and said, we'll drive ourselves. Thank you. Yeah. The whole thing and anyone's. That's been kind of an intake in the hospital world knows it's a bunch of poking and prodding and people. You had 10 sets of people asking you the same questions and all these things. And. But at the end of the day, they wanted to do chemotherapy, and we weren't entirely opposed to it, but we did want to get a second opinion.

[Jim Mann]

Right.

[Ryan Sternagel]

And that was highly frowned upon, to put it mildly. And we got the. We got the biopsy and we got a line placed because, you know, if we did do chemotherapy, then we'd be ready for that.

[Jim Mann]

And.

[Ryan Sternagel]

But then also, you know, we. We knew about IV vitamin C and things like that, so we figured we. We could use it for that if we wanted. And. And at that point, yeah, We. We. We did go home and said, we're gonna go get a second opinion, but that did not last very long. I think it was the night after. We woke up in the middle of the night, and he was in bed with us, and he was burning up and starts puking all over the place. And we didn't know what was going on outside of. Our son had just been diagnosed with stage four cancer, and now it looks like he's going to die on the spot. And turned out he was. He was septic, I think, from getting the line put in. He had a bloodstream staph infection. And. And so we're back in the hospital, and then, you know, inpatient on IV antibiotics and all that stuff, and any. Any thought of going to Mexico or Germany or, you know, all. All the things we were. Had on the table, all that was out the window. And. And we knew. We knew we needed to do something, right? Because, you know, they always make it like you're gonna die tomorrow if. If you don't. If you don't get chemo right away. Right. But in this case, it was. It was actually. The tumor was completely engulfing his spine. You couldn't even see his spine on the mri. And, you know, a lot of these kids, if it doesn't get caught in time, then they can get paralyzed or worse just from. Just from that.

[Jim Mann]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sternagel]

Right. So we. We did. We said, okay, we. We need to do something to shrink this tumor. We. We did a round of chemotherapy. And then. And then we said, all right, thank you for that round of chemotherapy. Now we're gonna go home and see what's going on from there. And at that point, Child protective services showed up at our door and.

[Jim Mann]

Wow.

[Ryan Sternagel]

Yeah. Said, sounds like you weren't complying with the hospital. But, you know, we hear now that you. You have done some chemotherapy, so as long as you keep doing the chemotherapy, then we won't take your kid from you, more or less.

[Jim Mann]

Oh, wow. I don't know what I could do about that.

[Ryan Sternagel]

There were. There were many thoughts flowing through my. Flowing through my mind throughout that whole experience. Yeah, leave it there. But it's a nightmare. Yeah. So, I mean. And so then it became like it kind of. All right, hospital, conventional doctors, what exactly are you trying to do here? And they said. They said the. The standard protocol was. Was four rounds of chemotherapy. And we said, all right, well, what are you looking for in those four rounds of chemotherapy? And they said, you know, they gave us some kind of markers and reductions in tumor size reductions in markers, these sorts of things. And we said, well, what if we can get there in two rounds? And they, they said, that's impossible. That's, you know, literally would not happen. But if it, if it humors you, then, you know, we can do scans and everything after the second round, even though we, we normally wait till the four rounds and got the scans after the second. And you know, in the meantime, we were just doing all the things right. We, right. When we were inpatient in the hospital, we had, we had a juicer in there and we had, you know, family and friends bringing us like coolers full of produce and just had our own little juicing operation and the cupboards full of supplements and, you know, sneaking out of the hospital to go get IV vitamin C and DMSO and all these things, right? And so it's, yeah, I like to think all that had something to do with, with the fact that he, he did what they said was impossible. And then, but then, you know, when we got those results, they said, no, it's, you know, we, we never said that or, you know, they kind of changed the story and you got to do the four rounds. And then we, when we were coming up on round number four, we said, all right, it's coming up on, on big number four. It's this, this is it after this, right? And said, oh, no, who said anything about four rounds? It's going to be eight, and we need to start talking about radiation. And yeah, it's like you just said, he was doing better than you even thought was possible. And now you're talking about doubling the protocol. And at that point, on the way home from that appointment, my wife looked at me in the car and said, should we just move to Utah? And I said, yes. And that was about the end of that conversation. And under two weeks later, we were gone. Packed up all our things, moved away from our family and friends, and found the first place we could rent month, month to month. And, and, and, and there was some reasoning there. You know, Utah's kind of one of the few states that's both high on the natural health friendly scale, but also high on the personal liberty friendly scale. You know what I mean? It's like, yeah, you know, some places in the south, it's really good personal liberty, not so good, natural health friendly walk. Washington, really good natural health friendly, not so good personal liberty. Utah's a nice mix of both. And so, yeah, we just, we moved and, and it's, it's not like these types of stories never occur here. They Do. But the. The team we landed on was. They were cool with backing off. Yeah. And it. It turned out that the, The. The standard of care was always eight rounds and potential radiation. And, you know, they were just telling us whatever we needed to hear to get us to the next round sort of thing. In Seattle. Yeah. And so, you know. You know, and that was kind of scary actually. Right. It's like, you know, fought for the rights to choose, and then we got it. And then the guy's saying, well, you know, if it was my kid, I'd do the rest of it, but you're the parents and you know best, so, you know, your call let us know what you want to do. And that actually kind of freaked us out. Right. But. But, you know, we decided it doesn't have to be, you know, we're. We're not making this. This decision for all time. Right. And if. If things do turn for the worst again, then, you know, we can. We can hop back on the chemo. And. And they were cool with just, you know, taking a more aggressive scan schedule. And we were doing. Doing MRIs every. And it was nice because he didn't have, you know, CT scans or anything like that. We just needed MRIs. And then we'd also, you know, we found out that the gadolinium from the contrast was a bad thing. But then we put our foot down and said, you know, just give us the MRIs without the gadolinium and see if you get the images you need. And sure enough, they got the images they needed without the contrast. And so it was little risk doing more scans more often in that case, and kind of did. Just tripled down on all the things holistically between the juicing and the supplements and working with energy workers and found somebody in Utah to pick up the IV protocol. And that. That ended up being the last. The last, you know, conventional medicine you ever had. It's. Everything kept. Kept shrinking and numbers kept improving. And, you know, fast forward, here we are almost 12 years later.

[Jim Mann]

So if you had to do that over again, knowing what you know now, would you still do it the same way? I mean, do you think that the chemo shrunk it and the nutrition and all that know, gave his body and his immune system obviously the. The strength to fight back. You think the combination was good or how would you do it now?

[Ryan Sternagel]

Yeah, you know, yeah, we're definitely not a. You know, a dogmatic chemo is the devil all the time. That's. That's not our. That's not Our stance. Right. And yeah, you know, if, if I had. Knowing everything I know now, I, I still don't like for, for that situation. Tumor completely engulfing the spine. It's growing exponentially at this point. Really need to do something to shrink it in a hurry. I don't know that I would decline any chemotherapy whatsoever. But, you know, maybe if we had had the choice after two rounds, would we have backed off then? Knowing what I know now? Yeah, yeah, probably. But. Yeah, I mean, in all my years of researching and all that stuff and everything we do now with, with our online presence and helping other people with cancer and interviewing doctors and all these things, I still don't, you know, know of anything on the integrative, holistic, alternative side that I'd say a hundred percent.

[Jim Mann]

Right.

[Ryan Sternagel]

Yes, this would absolutely shrink the tumor in time to, you know, save the spine, that sort of thing. Although they are getting more, you know, more. More of the integrative doctors are now getting a little friskier with injecting things directly into the tumor. Right. Which is. Yeah, that, that was my first question when, when they wanted to do chemotherapy, right. It's like, well, you. You want to flood his whole body with this stuff, but it's, it's really only the tumor you're going after, so why, why don't you just stick it right in the tumor? Right. And so nobody had a good answer for that.

[Jim Mann]

Common sense doesn't work sometimes.

[Ryan Sternagel]

That's just not how we do it. Right. But yeah, but yeah. So I don't know, is that as that continues to evolve, you know, people, all sorts of stuff. Right. Let's see what happens if we inject the thing with chlorine dioxide and silver and DMSO and all this stuff. And it's actually getting some pretty interesting results there. So, you know, maybe I could go with that. But yeah, that's speculation at this point.

[Jim Mann]

Well, how was, how was Ryder taking all this? Was it like, very difficult for him or was he like some kids? Like, it's normal for them. That's all they know.

[Ryan Sternagel]

Well, I mean, given that he was one at the time when it happened. Yeah, he. He went through a lot of really rough situations in the, you know, between, between chemo side effects and even though he, you know, he was the best looking kid in the, in the oncology ward, and I don't think that was a coincidence, but, you know, it was still. It was still rough. Right. And you know, I remember just crazy, you know, middle of the night, they were trying to find a Vein and. But no, they ended up bursting his vein with the iv and we knew something was wrong, but they didn't believe us and they were trying to just keep on pumping the stuff in and. Yeah, then they had to go through his forehead and just. So he, yeah, he went through. I'm sure he's got some trauma from that type of stuff that, that still needs to be resolved. But I mean, as far as just all the, you know, all the good stuff that we were doing, right. It's, you know, we, we hear if a kid gets diagnosed, you know, they're like seven or something like that, then yeah, it's, it's a little harder trying to get. And especially if they've been living the standard American lifestyle and now all of a sudden you're trying to do all these, you know, juicing and eating healthy instead. That's, that's a little bit more of a challenge.

[Jim Mann]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sternagel]

Right. But for him, it's, you know, this is getting in the sauna and doing the PEMF mat and all, all. And the juicing and the healthy eating and all that, that, that, that's all he's, that's all he's ever known. And it's, you know, it was kind of like. I forget when we, we told him that he had cancer. Is it. It wasn't. Because then it was like, well, when, when, when do we even tell him, you know, how this happened? Right, right. Because even the MRIs and stuff for a long time are just like, well, just going to make sure you're okay. And. Yeah, so it was a weird, it was a weird thing. But then, you know, we, we had built it up in our minds and. But then it wasn't really a big deal and he, he just thinks it's really cool that now his story helps other people. And he was also diagnosed on the spectrum, autism spectrum at, at. At around 3. And we don't, you know, I'll never know for sure, but pretty, pretty darn sure he was not autistic before going into all the, the, the chemo and the, every time he had to get a scan it was anesthesia or sedation, and all the, the, the contrast that he did get before we found out that was a bad thing and, you know, all, all these things. Right. And so, and then it's like, well, what if, what if he had had twice as much? How much more autistic would he would have been? So that, that's another thing. It's like, you know, treat. Thank God that we found that the New team was willing to back off because that could have been so much worse. And that has also presented his own challenges. But again, fast forward many years and most of the, quote unquote, negative things that you would think about autism, those are mostly gone. He still likes things just so and these sorts of things. But then he's also, you know, I call him like a quirky savant. He's kind of a genius. He was famous on. That's one thing people really know him for on, on social media is he just got really into memorizing entire chapters of the Bible for a while. And so he, you know, not bad Book of John King James version. You know, he just, I think he had like 11 or 12. Just entire. Entire chapters memorized and.

[Jim Mann]

Wow.

[Ryan Sternagel]

So, yeah, it's. So. I don't know, it's.

[Jim Mann]

That's a good side effect.

[Ryan Sternagel]

It's all worked out okay, I think.

[Jim Mann]

So this. This obviously took your family on a. On a different journey. Was it 12 years ago now? How. How did that transition?

[Ryan Sternagel]

No, it's been, I mean, just on the, on the business, whatever we do for a living side, that's. That's changed dramatically, obviously. And just. Even the, you know, just, even the life we live, you know, we always kind of dreamed about having land and doing the homesteading thing and that sort of thing. And then, you know, it seemed like all that was kind of out the window when he was diagnosed. But then, you know, then once we moved to Utah and the first place that we found was. Was in a townhouse complex right across the street from a cell phone tower, and everyone had their smart meters and wifi and all that stuff, and that, that freaked us out. And then we, you know, we. We must have looked at, I don't know, 50 different places to rent for. For a little more permanent, you know, at least not permanent, but a nearer term solution. And we'd walk into the house with our EMF meter and just take three steps into the living room and look at the meter and say, all right, that's. That's enough. Well, you don't want to look at the rest of the place? No, no, we're good. We finally found somewhere that was up in Park City, which was, you know, in the mountains and. Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, but then that wasn't really good enough, and we still wanted to have the kind of ultimate healing environment for him. And so we bought a piece of land in the middle of the woods and built. Built our own house from the, from the ground up with non Toxic materials and, you know, thought that was going to be his ultimate healing paradise and, you know, but then it took just with a loan and all the things. Right. It took a few years to actually come to fruition, but it's, it's been his. So, yeah, it's. It's really neat. You know, now we live in, you know, we, like I said, live out in the woods and just get to walk outside into nature every day. And the horses and donkeys and chickens and ducks and barn cats and all these things came along with it. So that's, that's been a greenhouse. Right. And we'd grow our own food and, um.

[Jim Mann]

Well, amazing.

[Ryan Sternagel]

I can't say we grow all of our own food, but at least we grow some of our own food. And. Yeah, so, I mean, that's, that's just been like, wow, that every time I walk outside it's like this. This would have never happened if we hadn't gone through this. So that's been pretty neat. And then, yeah, like I said, I mean, we started, you know, Teddy, my wife and I were both. It's not like we were insanely successful in our professions at that point. Kind of late 20s, still paying off college debt and these sorts of things. And yeah, we're trying to afford everything and of course we got help from friends and family and. But, you know, no, no, no amount is really enough when you're really going hard on trying to afford all the IVs and supplements and even, even the juicing adds up all the produce and all this stuff. So we started putting everything we were doing out there for. Just for fundraise and to help other people because we got tired of being the only parents in the, in the hospital, not availing ourselves of the, of the hospital snack cart. Right. So maybe if we put everything we're doing out there and, you know, it'll help some other people and. And then we, you know, attached it to a fundraiser and we were able to raise tens of thousands of dollars from people all over the world who we never met before, which was just.

[Jim Mann]

It's crazy.

[Ryan Sternagel]

Amazing, right? And. But yeah, that kind of turned into its own little following, I guess you could say. And. And then, and then somewhere along the way, the day job went away. It was not like a you're fired sort of thing, but, you know, they were really supportive of everything and. But yeah, they essentially just changed business models and stop meeting sales guys. So. Yeah, and that was another like, you know, do it. Do I. We're. We're tens of Thousands of dollars in debt and don't, don't have two nickels rubbed together. But you know, we've got this website that. The website isn't making any money at the time because that's not what we, we intended it for.

[Jim Mann]

Right.

[Ryan Sternagel]

But maybe, you know, I have a two month severance. Maybe we can make it work in two months. And somehow we did. And yeah, and so that's, it's been really neat. We, we got into the online summit world at first and did, did a bunch of, you know, summits back when those were cool and just had it and started to interview a bunch of doctors. And that, that led to, aside from all the stuff that I already talked about, you know, just, just knowing all that I could was really important. I started going to all these integrative physicians conferences that are usually just for physicians, but I kind of talk more in there and just collecting the best of the best. Integrative cancer doctors has always been like a really, I don't know, it was, it was important early on just to like I said, know all that I could and then, and then to help other people. And that kind of turned into a podcast and then a membership program. It's our going integrative plus membership where we get the best of the best integrative cancer doctors in the, in the country slash world on, on Q and A calls every week and people, you know, it's kind of like a podcast, but instead it's, you know, you, you, you as the, the person actually get to ask the questions live. And that's what I would have given anything for when, when we were going through it. Just, you know, because the more you learn, the more, the more questions come up and, and then, but then not, not everything you, you read on, on the Internet is necessarily a good idea for your situation anyway. Right. Yeah, yeah, it's, that's, that's been really neat getting to, just getting to provide people with the resources that we, we wish we had. Yeah.

[Jim Mann]

You're enjoying what you're doing now, right? You feel more fulfilled than before, probably,

[Ryan Sternagel]

you could say that.

[Jim Mann]

More of a mission than it was, you know, just having a career, so. Wow.

[Ryan Sternagel]

Yep. Yep. Which ironically, you know, I always wanted to do something more important, whatever that means than, than, than just running around selling something and thought I was going to be a senator at one point. Right. That's. I was getting into political type stuff. But now, now if you, if you said, hey Ryan, do you want to be a senator? I would, I would say no. But yeah, this this is the, this is the more important thing and it's, it's been really cool.

[Jim Mann]

Anything you do that changes people's lives in a positive way is an important mission. So yeah, it's leaving your mark is what you're doing. And I got on your, on your email list somehow. I'm sure it may be one of the summits. It's been quite a while. Probably been on there from the beginning when I was doing my research and I'm a terrible researcher because I don't go deep too easily. I'm like, okay, that makes sense. And then I move on and I couldn't tell somebody else what I just learned, but still it all makes sense and you know, I, I just use logic and then I move on. But I probably when you said summit, that thought, oh, that rang a bell. I think that's how I got signed up with you. I guess it changed my life. How about that?

[Ryan Sternagel]

I'll take it. Yeah, the, the email is like I said, that's been the one thing that we've been consistent on the whole time and that's, that's a lot of fun. Right, because I'm kind of a big picture guy like you Jim, and that. Yeah. I go down a lot of rabbit holes but then always kind of zoom back out and.

[Jim Mann]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sternagel]

See, make sure to make sure to see the big picture. But I, I do like geeking out on stuff. Right. And you know, we're kind of, I think that's why people started following us originally is because you know, they just were really interested in what we selected and why as far as supplements and at home devices and things like that go. And so that's been the, One of the more fun things we do every week is we do a. Of a deep dive webinar on something that we, you know, one, one of the, one of the most important, at least what we feel is one of the most important tools to the healing journey. And, and people get a lot of, a lot of benefit out of that. And then. Yeah. And then, you know, speaking of those tools, it. That's. We, we started, we started our own supplement company a couple years ago which was also really neat. Some something we kind of wished was there the whole time and it wasn't, which was essentially just, you know, you know there's kind of call them the classics when it comes to botanicals and you know, this, this particular situation that we're talking about. Just have to be careful about what I, what I say in connection to my own supplement company. But yeah, you know, the things you hear about all the time from naturopathic oncologists which are kind of their, their go tos between curcumin and green tea and quercetin and ginseng and astragalus and grape seed, selenium, these sorts of things that you know, it's like we, all the exotic, fancy, really expensive supplement formulations, you know, we've, we've done all those as well. But you know, we, we've never strayed far from the stuff that just has the most research on it when it comes to just going on PubMed and searching these different botanicals. But it, it also it, we got tired of ordering seven different bottles and, and then you know, you'd find a source for something and you'd, you'd, you think okay, this is good because we're also like, you know, when you, I'm sure you've, I'm sure most people have heard listening that ordering any old bottle of curcumin is, you're probably going to get a bunch of heavy metals and glyphosate and yeah. Stearates and dioxides and all these things. Right. Or then you find one that you think is good and then you know, next thing you know it just got sold to a pharmaceutical company and then all the, the standards go out the window and we got tired of that and we, we said, well what if we just made our, you know, our, our kind of dream formulation that, that had all these things all in one bottle and was also the absolute cleanest that you could find in terms of, you know, just absolute lowest, lowest, lowest possible levels of heavy metals. And glyphosate. No glyphosate and no unnatural excipients and glass bottle and the whole thing. So yeah, that's. The company we made is called Our Health Naturally. And that, that one product that I'm describing is called Hour seven. We've been getting some pretty good feedback on that as well. So that's been, that's been pretty neat to add to the roster of things we do.

[Jim Mann]

Yeah, I know when you're doing, especially if you have a diagnosis and, and you're trying to do the right thing, it can be extremely overwhelming. Especially I mean I'm a person, I don't want you to take aspirin. I never take anything. But all of a sudden, wow, I got a month or two to live. Maybe I should do something about that. And of course I did go on immunotherapy before I knew anything. And they did shrink I had eight tumors. They shrunk them in the first two months, and I didn't really have a lot of side effects. So, I mean, I reacted well. I know the way they acted towards me. I thought, why are you so excited? It doesn't every patient respond this way? And they go, let's just say you're like, in the top 2%. Okay, that's good. I like being in that. But, yeah, I responded well. I think it's because I'm healthy otherwise. And I also have a very childlike attitude. I'm just happy about everything, which, you know, really helps. When I did a little bit of studying, I did, I. I was totally shocked about how much your mindset has to do with healing. And now, you know, it makes sense. And that's probably had a lot to do with my healing. But I do envy. I'm not supposed to envy, but I envy what you're doing. You know, living off the land as far as, you know, growing your own food and taking clean supplements and all the other things that you do. And basically, rather than being overwhelmed, which just really adds stress, which is not good, you just do what you know to do. I mean, there are basics. Filling yourself with nutrition, obviously, that's brilliant. And just trying to get away from a stressful life and have a good attitude, get exercise, you know, all the standards, and, like, you just do what you know to do, and then God will show you, hey, you know what? You need to go in this direction, maybe, because he knows how to make us well, he created us to heal and. But we just screw that up. Like, we do everything. We just gotta stop stressing. And I. I thought, well, I never stress because I'm so laid back. And then I realized, man, I'm stressing all the time because I'm always worried about what other people think or if I'm getting in people's way. You know, that stupid stuff mindset. And I'm like, why am I stressed? You know, just relax. I got a pool out back. Just sit out there and do whatever work I have and just relax. And I'm starting to do that now, and I feel a whole lot better. So how can people get a hold of you?

[Ryan Sternagel]

The. The main command station is the. Is the Stern method dot com.

[Jim Mann]

Okay?

[Ryan Sternagel]

And, yeah, I mean, that's. The Stern method is on social media as well. Like I said, we're on. We're on hiatus, but you can go see, you know, see some of the past stuff there. And maybe by the time you're listening to this. We'll be back. I'm thinking it's, I'm thinking it's about time to get back. And then on the Stern Method, you'll, you'll find our going Integrative plus program where, you know, lots of good stuff there. Calls with me, calls with doctors, calls with, we do group intention healing calls and Mind Body Healing calls and huge library know past content and that's all transcribed and, and loaded into a little private search engine type thing. So if, if you got, you know, if you're, if you're trying to look for information about breast cancer or cisplatin side effects or you know, diet stuff, whatever it is, you know, it's kind of like our own little uncensored cancer Google, I like to think of it as, which is, which is really cool. Yeah. And then also, yeah, you know, the, the, the supplement company, Our Health Naturally, that's got its own website, Our Health naturally dot com. But you can, you can find it through the Stern Method as well. And yeah, actually for, for you guys, Jim, you know, usually when I go on a, when I go on a podcast and give the, give the standard discount code which is, you know, usually for the, the standard 10% off for, for healing strong. That's actually, that's actually 20%. And that code is healingstrong20. I would ask you not to go posting that to your social media or something because that's for Healing Strong members or whatever participants only. And so I probably shouldn't even be saying, be saying it publicly, but what the heck, it's Healing Strong participants that are listening to this. We'll say that. So yeah, yeah, you guys can use that on, on our Health Naturally.com podcast as well. That's called, well, that's also on hiatus. It's called Anti Cancer Revolution. When we, when we come back to that, it'll actually be rebranded to Going Integrative. But yeah, you can, you can find that on your, your podcast platform of choice as well. Maybe that's about it for now.

[Jim Mann]

All right, well, Ryan, it was great to actually meet the person whose email list I'm on. I'm gonna pay more attention because I, you know, I'm on so many lists because I'm doing so much research back then I thought I knew there's a reason why I'm on this one. So I'm gonna check out some more stuff there and not get stressed by it, not be overwhelmed by too much information. But yeah, do. Do what I know to do. And, and so far so good. I mean, I know if I go back to how I was before, just eating garbage, you know, like most Americans, there's a chance it could come back. So I don't want that.

[Ryan Sternagel]

I like doing that. Yeah, that's also, you know, you mentioned. You mentioned one. The. The good Lord will tell you what to do. And you know that that kind of translates to intuition. And then there's also the information overwhelm thing. That's. That's one thing I've been thinking about lately is I've been so. I've always been an information junkie. Right. And it's just.

[Jim Mann]

Right.

[Ryan Sternagel]

As much as I can possibly take in, give it to me. But at some point, you know, it's like you kind of know enough or at least like, how much. How much information have you taken in versus how much have you actually implemented? And is there still a backlog of things that you've heard about that you still haven't even done yet? Right. And so it's like at some point, you got to at least back off on just all information all the time and actually start doing the things that, you know, that you should be doing. And. And then, yeah, I mean, I. I've actually just started eating lunch in silence and not having a podcast or. Or something like that, going and. Or even driving, you know, and it's like. It's like all these, you know, know, all these thoughts that I would have never had, or not even thoughts, but more intuition, like, you should do this sort of thing. That's right. More of those happen. So, yeah, find the balance there.

[Jim Mann]

A lot of wisdom now. I gotta use it. Well, Ryan, thank you so much for spending your time with us, and I know you got plenty to do. I'm glad that Ryder's doing well and that you went into a direction that changes people's lives. So thanks for what you do.

[Ryan Sternagel]

Right back at you, Jim.

[Podcast Host]

You've been listening to the I Am He 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.