From Dying to Healthy Living
- Cynthia Chin-Lee
- Jul 2
- 4 min read
#cancer #healcancernaturally #plantbased #vegan #healthyliving #squamouscellcarcinoma #Willowcreeksprings #JoeGrumbine
Joe Grumbine was at death’s door, but he slammed it shut and has leaped back into the land of healthy living. The founder of Willow Creek Springs natural botanicals in southern California and the host of the iHeart podcast Healthy Living, Joe has focused on his health for eight years. Fifty pounds overweight, his daughter, who was about to be married, gave him a challenge to lose weight with her. Joe took the challenge and lost the weight by fasting, cutting carbs, and eating a ketogenic (high-protein, low-carb) diet.
Note that for those of us, who need to manage cancer and who now live in the low-methionine world, you say the word ketogenic, and we run from the room screaming. Our diet emphasizes fruit, vegetables, and carbs like sweet potato, potato, and rice. We reduce protein as much as possible and eliminate all meat, seafood, eggs, and dairy.
At the time of his daughter’s wedding 8 years earlier, Joe just wanted to lose weight and had not been diagnosed with cancer. But about 2 and a half years ago, Joe noticed a lump on his neck and didn’t know what to make of it. Joe says, “I haven’t been sick for 15 years. I didn’t even get Covid. I’m the picture of health, a ‘lean mean fighting machine.’”
I haven't been sick for 15 years. I didn't even get Covid. I'm the picture of health, a 'lean mean fighting machine.'
But the lump grew and when he finally made an appointment with the doctor, the doctor didn’t think it was cancer so Joe let it go for 8 or 9 months. By this time, Joe changed his diet somewhat, eating lots of sardines, salmon, vegetables and nuts like walnuts and almonds. That change in diet didn’t stop the lump from growing and Joe reluctantly had a computed tomography (CT) scan to rule out cancer. But the scan didn’t look good and the previous ‘lean mean fighting machine’ agreed to a biopsy, a surgical extraction of tissue so that pathologists could examine the tissue. Many people don’t like to do biopsies because biopsies can, in rare instances, seed or spread cancer.
Two weeks later on Oct. 14, 2024, the doctor called with the bad news, “You have squamous cell carcinoma.”
Joe Grumbine’s diagnosis at a glance
Cancer: Squamous cell carcinoma in the head and neck region
Age at diagnosis: 59
Surgery, radiation, or chemo?: Chemo (docetaxel,cisplatin and five fluorouracil)
Other treatments: low-methionine plant-based diet, methioninase, oxygen therapy (ozonated glycerin), smoking small amounts of cannabis flower for nausea
Tracking strategies: CT scan, ultrasound, photographs
Quote: ”I believe I have been given a voice to teach people how to find answers to difficult problems, including cancer. Every cancer is unique, and there is not one answer for all of them; however, there are answers that affect all of them, such as, a low methionine diet and methioninase and things like oxygen therapy.”
Joe felt like he was hit by a 2 x 4 (a piece of lumber for those of you who don’t frequent home improvement stores.) Having started a natural botanical company, Joe knew quite a bit about natural remedies and he had helped countless people with skin cancer by using cannabis oil. He advised patients with stage 2, 3, and even stage 4 skin cancer, and they would dab the oil on a suspicious mole and it would disappear.
Joe tried many therapies to reverse his cancer: cannabis oil, soursop, and apricot kernels. He kept eating a low-carb, low-sugar, high-protein diet. The tumor kept growing. He met with a surgeon, who wanted him to have radiation and chemo to shrink the tumor as the tumor was now too large to be surgically removed.
Joe kept researching therapies as he wanted to avoid the big 3 of cancer treatments: surgery, radiation, and chemo. Having read about the adverse side effects of the 3 major conventional treatments, Joe definitely wanted to try less invasive therapies first. On a web search, he happened upon an article by Dr. Robert Hoffman on cancer’s addition to methionine, and the word “methionine” stayed with him. Consulting with a chiropractor in San Diego, Joe was told, “You gotta be vegan. You have to stop the meat because of the methionine.”
Joe also found out about the enzyme methioninase which degrades methionine so he innocently looked on the web to buy it. No luck. Joe searched further and found Dr. Hoffman’s company AntiCancer, Inc. He called Dr. Hoffman and left a message. Dr. Hoffman returned his phone call in an hour. Dr. Hoffman told Joe how to buy the methioninase from his foundation and then referred Joe to Dr. Michael Castro, an oncologist in the Los Angeles area. Joe began attending Dr. Hoffman’s free Zoom meetings.
From working with Dr. Castro, Joe learned that his cancer came from the human papilloma virus (HPV) and that the cannabis oil Joe had been using was preventing his immune system from fighting the cancer. Joe stopped the cannabis oil. He learned from Dr. Hoffman that his high-protein diet was feeding the cancer. Joe then stopped the meat, seafood, and dairy and started the low-methionine diet. As a hunter and fishing enthusiast, he finds the sticking to the diet hard sometimes.
By the time I met Joe at Dr. Hoffman’s Zoom meeting, his tumor had grown to 8 inches long and was quite visible. On top of that, Joe was having problems sleeping from the pain it was causing him. Although Joe never thought he would accept chemotherapy as a treatment, he admits that he was at death’s door. Dr. Hoffman and others formulated an aggressive chemo cocktail of docetaxel, cisplatin, and five fluorouracil to reduce Joe’s cancer.
Joe took 3 rounds of the chemo cocktail, doing a fasting-mimicking diet the day before and two days after. His fasting-mimicking diet included fruits, vegetables and a methionine-free supplement called hominex II. He also smoked small amounts of cannabis flower to help with nausea and reduced the anti-nausea drugs that were causing constipation. The chemo hit Joe hard with bad nausea, and he lost his hair. Joe cares little about his hair, but the chemo also put a metallic taste in his mouth so that everything he ate tasted like “moldy cardboard.” Thankfully that symptom has diminished. The good news: Joe’s tumors have just about disappeared! He has been able to sleep again and his energy is rebounding.
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