Dr. Sattilaro strayed from the diet in the late '80s and back onto typical Western fare, his cancer returned, and he died soon thereafter.
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00:00Hey, so I just want to pop in really quick and talk about a book I just read. It's by a doctor
00:08called Anthony J. Sattellaro. He's from Philadelphia. The book was published in the
00:16early 80s. So anyway, he was from Philadelphia. He was in his late 40s. He was diagnosed with
00:23stage 4 prostate cancer. They had biopsied his prostate, one of his testicles, and part of his
00:32right rib, one of his right ribs, and they found it had metastasized stage 4 prostate cancer.
00:41So they removed his testicles because the testosterone would aggravate the condition.
00:47And he was put on estrogen therapy and pain meds. And he was given a very poor prognosis.
00:55So they said he would not last another five years and probably be dead sooner than that
01:03in the next maybe three years. So at the same time that this was happening, as if it wasn't enough,
01:10his father was dying of cancer. And so very soon after Anthony was diagnosed, his father passed.
01:20And needless to say then, he was going through a lot of mental anguish, a lot of trauma in his life.
01:30He was falling apart. He thought he was a goner. And on the way back from his parents,
01:34on the way back from burying his father, he picked up two hitchhikers on his way back to
01:40his home in Philadelphia. These hitchhikers talked about how they just finished a class on the
01:48macrobiotic diet, which is a diet that consists of just brown rice, sea vegetables, other vegetables,
01:58and possibly a little fruit, and some rare fish. This is a largely plant-based diet, except for the
02:11fish, which is a rare inclusion, if that at all. And so they said that Tony could get rid of his cancer
02:23by following this way of life and this diet. And so they, after they parted, they sent him some
02:31literature. And Tony checked it out. And he decided to look into it. He attended cooking classes and
02:41instruction from the local macrobiotic community and decided to give it a try. He met up with some of
02:51the people, some of the followers of this way of life and diet. They started to eat together. He
02:56didn't like it at first, but he persisted. He felt he didn't have any other option because everything
03:04else was not working. He was experiencing a lot of pain still. So the more he ate the diet,
03:12he was getting a lot better pain relief. And he had a brighter outlook. He had doubts still because he came
03:25from a world that embraced, of course, the medical tradition and how it's conventionally practiced. So this was a new
03:36way of life for him. But since he was feeling a lot better by eating this new way, he wanted to hold on to
03:46it. He thought there was something to it. He thought maybe if this worked and he could get better with
03:51this food, that he could be an example for others. And soon after that, he had some lab tests done.
04:01They were markedly improved from his last values. And a repeat bone scan
04:08showed that he was negative. He had cleared up the cancer. And so he was pretty elated. He started
04:18spreading the word. Word got around. And he decided to go off his estrogen therapy.
04:24All was going well. And then he got thyroiditis. And so he was put on drugs for that. And this was
04:36a part, this was for some other reason besides the cancer. But after all of that, he did a repeat
04:45bone scan, which showed some activity in his ribs. So he started to worry, you know, is the cancer coming
04:51back. But he remained strong. He stuck to his faith, his rekindled faith. And he stuck with the advice
05:01from the macro community, especially the leader of the movement, whose name is Michio Kushi.
05:11And he remained resilient, despite the uncertainty. And it turns out that what caused the flare up or
05:24the positive results of the new bone scan was actually his body getting rid of the drugs that
05:31he was taking, the thyroiditis. The thyroiditis and the treatment was exacerbating the cancer in him
05:41that was left, even though it was small, to show this positive bone scan. And so once he had,
05:46once he whittled down and weaned off the drugs, of course, staying with the diet still,
05:52another bone scan showed negative results, no sign of cancer.
05:57So that from just being strong, sticking with his conviction, following the diet, remaining on the diet
06:05still, and keeping his faith, keeping his spirituality and his positive attitude, he was just fine.
06:16And all the worry was for not, as long as he stuck to the good way of life and the good way of eating
06:24and the great thinking that he had. And the advice from his good friends.
06:32And so that's pretty much how the book ends.
06:37He really stresses in the book how he rekindled his faith. He was a Christian, and he had gave it up for some time,
06:48but after starting the new diet, he went back to his faith, and really became a stronger man from it.
06:58And that, in combination with the new lifestyle and diet, how he was feeling better physically,
07:04really changed him into a new man, to be less self-centered, have more humility, embrace life more,
07:12and appreciate life more, and realize that everyone is blessed all the time,
07:20even though we sometimes seemingly don't deserve it, or are not worthy of it.
07:26That's another thing that he stresses, that he felt he didn't deserve a second chance,
07:31but he got one. That's the generosity
07:35of God to bless us, even the unworthy, but bless us especially if we stay on a good path,
07:48and or get on a better path, or get on the right path after being on the wrong one.
07:56So, great book. Again, it's Recalled by Life by Dr. Anthony J. Sattelaro, MD.
08:05I recommend it to everyone.