It was a bold choice in 1989 and even today, when alternative therapies are gaining respect, two nutritional therapists in the Valley declined to have their names used in connection with a breast cancer and diet article.
"To mainstream medicine, that guy's a quack," said one nutritional specialist in Middleburg, who, nevertheless, has so many patients he's overwhelmed.
It takes a lot of time to design personal nutritional regimens, he said.
"You can't just write a prescription and boot them out the door."
Two decades ago, Riegel, then 56, went to New York City to be seen by Dr. Nicholas J.
Gonzales, who had been practicing on his own for two years after studying with Dr. William Donald Kelley, an early advocate of nutritional support and enzyme therapy.
Gonzales received his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College in 1983. During a postgraduate fellowship under celebrated immunologist Dr. Robert A.
Good, he completed a research study evaluating an aggressive nutritional therapy in the treatment of advanced cancer.
Although controversial, he has received financial support from the National Cancer Institute.
Riegel said Gonzales did a hair analysis to determine what was in her body. Hair retains and, therefore, registers what nutrients and toxic substances have passed through our bodies.
Gonzales uses this information in "metabolic typing," that is, finding out what the person's individual metabolism requires, a technique introduced by Kelley.
Kelley was following up on the 1930s work of dentist Weston Price who, after world travels, came to the conclusion that there was no one diet that would be healthy for all people - there was too much variation in climate, local produce, environmental conditions, heredity, genetics and culture.
Traditional medicine may scoff, but Riegel said she believes in the individualized diet and the regimen she followed based on a new hair analysis every six months. It also included enzyme therapy and an internal cleansing routine to rid the body of toxic substances.
The plan stresses organic fruits and vegetables and personalized vitamin and mineral supplements.
"He never said, ‘It will cure you,'" Riegel said, "only that it will have a positive impact on my immune system."
It was an option that she felt comfortable with, she said.
"Radiation and chemotheraphy are things that are done to you," she said. "I needed to do something myself. Really get involved."
Riegel very carefully maintained the protocols Gonzales designed.
"It requires a lot of dedication," she said. "But it gives you a sense of empowerment.
If you don't do it, no one else will do it for you."
Western medicine doesn't recognize nutritional therapy and insurance doesn't pay for it, one of the local nutritional therapists said. That can be a roadblock for some, but there are many things people can do for themselves, both in addition to prescribed therapy and for prevention.
There are arguments about some recommendations, today particularly around the use of soy-based products, but the basics enjoy a wide consensus:
- Avoid alcohol consumption
- Increase consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably organic
- Reduce cooked meat consumption
- Avoid refined sugar and flour.
While the danger of meats and fats is still being debated, alcohol is nailed as a culprit, according to the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md.
"Dietary fat was once implicated in the high incidence of breast cancer in the Western world, but its role in breast cancer is now controversial.
In contrast, alcohol consumption is currently recognized as the best-established dietary risk factor in this disease," according to a report by the institute.
And, the report said, "Fruits and vegetables are rich in potential chemopreventive factors that may lower breast cancer risk."
Then there's Vitamin D, the rising new star in the anti-cancer arsenal.
The Canadian Cancer Society is recommending increased Vitamin D intake, spurred by a convincing body of research has shows a link between Vitamin D and reduced risk for breast, colorectal and prostate cancer.
The Weston Price foundation says that old standby of our grandparents and great grandparents, cod liver oil, is the best source for Vitamin D.
While fat consumption is still being argued, weight gain is not. Getting chubby in middle life contributes substantially to breast cancer risk, according to Michelle D. Holmes of the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health.
Because it elevates estrogen, author, lecturer and cancer survivor Barbara Stone is solidly in the anti-soy camp.
"Experts agree that an increase in estrogen elevates the risk of breast cancer," Stone said. "In general, eating foods that abnormally raise the level of estrogen in the body increases the risk of breast cancer, and eating foods that support the immune system decreases the risk."
Eat organic eggs, she advises.
"With commercial egg production, hormones are given to the chickens to increase their ovulation so they will lay more eggs. Animal and human hormones are so similar that these hormones affect the consumer and are one of the reasons that young girls are starting puberty earlier than in previous generations.
More years of ovulating runs more estrogen through the system."
She adds: "The very best food to eat to support the immune system is food a woman grows herself in her own organic garden, which also has the advantage of freshness!" More on Stone can be found at www.souldetective.net and invisibleroots.blogspot.com/ .
By the way, vegetarianism does not protect against cancer, according to the nonprofit, international, albeit controversial, Weston A. Price Foundation, established in 1999 to further the work of Dr. Price. In fact, the foundation says, vegetarians are particularly prone to cancers of the nervous system and reproductive organs.
Although some criticize the foundation's anti-soy, pro-animal products stance, the organization enjoys a following worldwide. While few things are proven beyond a doubt in nutritional studies, Weston Price Foundation's recommendations regarding food and cancer can be found at : www.westonaprice .org/abcs-of-nutrition/163-dietary-dangers.htm and westonaprice.org/abcs-ofnutrition/ 162-dietary-guidelines.html .
- Nicholas J. Gonzales is the author of "One Man Alone: An Investigation of Nutrition, Cancer, and William Donald Kelley."
- Barbara Stone is the author of "Cancer as Initiation: Surviving the Fire" and "Invisible Roots: How Healing Past Life Trauma Can Liberate Your Present."
- William Donald Kelley is the author of "Cancer: Curing the Incurable without Surgery, Radiation or Chemotherapy" and "The Trophoblast and the Origins of Cancer."
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