Told Her Cancer Would Return by 40 — 23 Years Later | Brooke Thomas

At 26, newly married and pregnant with her first child, Brooke Thomas was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma and told she might not live past 40. In this episode, she joins Dr. Josh Axe to share her personal story, the difficult decisions she faced, and how she moved from fear toward hope and purpose. Brooke reflects on the changes she made to her nutrition and lifestyle, the role of prayer in her life, and why she refused to let a diagnosis define her future. Together, they explore the power of the words we speak over ourselves, taking an active role in our health, and finding peace amid uncertainty.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Josh Axe?

  When she was just 26 years old and pregnant, she was diagnosed with cancer.

• 0:05Speaker 01

  And the biggest thing is the doctor said, if you choose this second option, you most likely won't live past 40. The cancer will return. We can grieve and give ourselves permission to grieve and at the same time have hope that we know that God's going to work it out. So I'm just going to go all in with God's plan. I'm going to speak it out. And on my worst days where that spirit of anxiety or spirit of fear, or spirit of overwhelm or unworthiness comes upon me, I'm going to speak out a different story, even if I don't believe it until I believe it.

• 0:48Josh Axe?

  I just wanted to say how incredibly grateful I am for each and every one of you who makes this community so special. And as a thank you, I'm going to be giving away over $5,300 in prizes to many of you. I'm talking about a sunlight and sauna, a red light therapy mask, cellular blood work testing, Manuka honey, an eco hydrogen water flask, a signed copy of my New York Times bestselling book, and more. To enter, subscribe to the Dr. Josh Axe Show on YouTube for 10 bonus entries. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I'm excited for many of you to win free prizes.

• 1:29Josh Axe?

  By the way, the only way you can be signed up in these is if you are subscribed to the podcast. The giveaway ends December 14th and we'll announce the winners on December 22nd. Make sure to subscribe and leave a review so you can be entered to win.

• 1:45Josh Axe?

  Hey everyone, welcome to Dr. Josh Axe Show. Today I'm here with Brooke Thomas. When she was just 26 years old and pregnant, she was diagnosed with cancer. And today we're going to walk you through exactly what she did. We'll talk about fighting cancer naturally. We'll also talk about the mindset that is so critically important and the faith component of how to heal your body. Brooke, welcome to the show.

• 2:08Speaker 01

  Thank you. It's good to be here.

• 2:10Josh Axe?

  Well, you know, I've known you for a long time.

• 2:12Speaker 01

  I know.

• 2:12Josh Axe?

  And really excited you're here and really excited that you're doing so well with your health.

• 2:16Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 2:16Josh Axe?

  And I want to go through today, sort of this, you know, this thing that happened to you and being diagnosed with cancer at 26, while pregnant with your first child.

• 2:25Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 2:26Josh Axe?

  And just tell us a little bit about that story and how you healed and recovered and how you're doing now.

• 2:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I was newly married, pregnant, and then I went to a routine checkup. I went to the doctor just to have a routine checkup. I was in my first trimester of pregnancy and I was at the hospital. And so they told me, we need to take you down to oncology. And I said, oh, you must have the wrong person. I'm just here for my routine checkup. And this is, you know, this is 23 years ago. I was in North Carolina. I'm not the woman that I am today, even though I understood health. I was raised around health my whole life, you know, holistic healing. But when they said oncology, I just stopped in my tracks. You must have the wrong girl. And they said, no, we need to take you down to oncology right now. And then what they did was they put me in a room and they put a bunch of patients that

• 3:14Speaker 01

  had my severity of cancer and my age and my stage of pregnancy. And they said, we just want to let you know that you have stage three melanoma. They had done blood work on me and they found a spot on my back. This was like a previous, you know, when I went to see them earlier, they checked out a spot and I was like, oh, I wasn't even worried about it. And they told me that there were other women that were my age with my severity of cancer that either they died or the baby died if I did not have chemotherapy and abort the baby immediately.

• 3:46Josh Axe?

  Wow.

• 3:47Speaker 01

  So I felt like I was in a bad dream. I said, you know what, I will deal with this after I have the baby and I'll come back. And they wouldn't let me leave the hospital. Now again, this is extreme, but this is 23 years ago in North Carolina. I was 26 years old. I didn't know what I know now and I was just scared. And so I just started crying and I said, well, there's got to be another way. There's got to be another way. And they were really, really, they had like three other doctors come in and they said, we really suggest that you have an abortion and you start chemotherapy. And then they went through these other patients. There was about four on the wall that they said, if she did not do this and she died, her baby died, she died or her baby died. That's what they kept saying.

• 4:32Speaker 01

  And I just remember feeling frozen. I mean, it sounds like a crazy story now, but back then when you're in it and you're young and you don't know, I was just frozen and I just kept saying, there has to be another way. And they said, we can cut the cancer out without anesthetic, but we have to do it right now. Because then they said they were liable for the results. They were liable for skin cancer growing fast and hard because of my hormones. And again, I know it sounds crazy now, but in that moment I was just like, okay, then let's do that. And so they performed surgery on, they cut out the cancer within, after, in about a couple of hours, they just had me on a bed, no anesthetic. They held me down because they couldn't give me anesthetic because I was in my first trimester of pregnancy. I signed paperwork. I mean, I was just in one of those panic modes.

• 5:17Speaker 01

  I mean, looking back now, knowing that that's what I did, knowing that those are the choices they gave me. And it was, it was just like, you have to make a decision right now. I sometimes think like, okay, let me go back. I don't like to live in regret. I mean, everything that has ever happened to me, I know has been on purpose for me to learn and grow. But at that time I was so scared. And the biggest thing is the doctor said, if you choose this second option, you most likely won't live past 40. The cancer will return. And it were, it was actually those words more than anything. It was those words more than anything, more than the pain of the 50 stitches. And when I was growing out in pregnancy, you know, forward, the side, the stitches were on my side.

• 6:00Speaker 01

  So everything expanded, keloided. My husband was in medical sales, so he had all of the different bandages and things that he could help me with. But physically, emotionally, spiritually, that moment in time and just during the growth of pregnancy, when, you know, my friends were picking out things for their nursery, I was sitting there replaying the words that that doctor told me. If you do this, most likely your cancer will return when you're 40. And so I just went down, you know, a path of like those words and really researching all the ways I was not going to live past 40, which will take you down a dark, long road to nowhere.

• 6:42Speaker 01

  And so I wish I could say, oh, and then I, you know, retrained my brain and I started reading scripture and everything changed. But it was about two years of me just kind of silently behind the scenes replaying those words.

• 6:55Josh Axe?

  And you had a healthy baby.

• 6:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, I had a healthy baby. Yep. So we had the baby, healthy baby. And, you know, yeah, I mean, we, we did everything that we could and, and we processed like what happened. But on the outside, everybody, everyone would ask, are you okay? And I'm like, I'm fine, I'm fine. Everything's fine. But behind the scenes, when I was home, I was again, just replaying those words. I felt depressed. I, you know, back then, again, there weren't, you know, nobody was talking about postpartum, any of that.

• 7:26Josh Axe?

  Yeah.

• 7:27Speaker 01

  So.

• 7:27Josh Axe?

  And what were the doctors telling you? I mean, after that, were you going back to them for regular like checkups and visits? What was happening?

• 7:33Speaker 01

  They said that I have to, I had to get blood work every three months for the next 10 years until I was cancer free. They were still trying to push the fact that I should get chemotherapy, that, you know, I should, you know, be protective. I started to pull away a little bit. And then this is when I started to really research. I got certified in nutrition. I started to really tap back into my family and, and different people that I knew could teach me something different. And so I took those first two years where I was just trying, you know, as a new mom, I was so grateful I had a healthy little girl and I was going to routine doctor's appointments. But then there was something that just hit me one day. Like I was praying and all of a sudden I felt like the presence of the Lord and I felt like I just needed to pray over my cells, pray over my body.

• 8:17Speaker 01

  And I started to say, this other road that I'm going down, this dark, long road to nowhere that I'm not going to live past 40 is really not working for me. And everything that I was researching about how I wasn't going to live was giving me evidence that I wasn't going to live unless I did all of the, you know, traditional things that I was being told to do that I didn't want to do. So then when I started researching myself and really learning for myself about how food and, you know, holistic living really and anti-inflammatory diet and, you know, just even praying again spiritually, I was in the Bible, like Lord, show me. And all of a sudden, everything shifted. I started praying that I was going to be the healthiest 40-year-old woman that ever lived. And I started envisioning me being a healthy 40-year-old woman and with kids, because

• 9:02Speaker 01

  I became pregnant again. And I, so I have two daughters now that are 18 and 21. I mean, cancer is definitely not my story. But it took, it was like a shift. It was like a moment where I started reading scripture and I felt like God was giving me hope. Like I felt like every scripture was giving me hope and hope to live. And so I was just starting to speak that out, not really understanding what I was doing at the time. And I started to feel different. I started to, even my blood work started to show differently. I started to just talk differently, think differently. And every single thing I started to do started to expand and move me in a direction where I became more creative. I started to believe that, you know, life was for me, not what the doctors had said in the moment.

• 9:46Speaker 01

  But every single thing that I did, like I understood that what I put in my body, like our cells regenerate by what we put in our body and in our mind and what we speak out and all of those things. And so everything just started to shift. And then I realized, I just, I just saw. A little bit of a glimpse of like health and then I just became healthier and healthier. And I was like, okay, hold on, I'm not going to believe what people speak over me. I'm going to believe what God says.

• 10:10Josh Axe?

  Yeah, you know, there's this important principle in the Bible, which I know you've been reading and meditating on. But this is life and death is in the power of the time.

• 10:17Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 10:17Josh Axe?

  This is so important. I know when my mom had cancer, it was a very similar thing. We wrote down, it was like, you know, 20 Bible verses, and she would recite those day and night and day and night. She would visualize, you know, the cancer going away. She would visualize herself 20, 30 years in the future with her grandkids. So this power of it's faith, it's faith and belief in the promises of God and knowing God is constantly working things out for your good. And, uh, and you know, one of the hardest things is, and I remember when my mom went in her first time, I remember them saying, you have a 40% chance to live. Right. So that was sort of put up there and, and there were times we thought, okay, like my grandmother at one point said, go in and say goodbye to your mom. It was her last chemo treatment because we thought she was, she wasn't going to make it. She was so sick.

• 11:01Josh Axe?

  But you know, the conventional medical system today, I, my grandma was wired like this to where if your doctor said it, it was, I mean, the, you know, it was above the Bible. I mean, it was literally, uh, absolute truth. They believe that. I think more and more people are questioning it, especially younger generation, I think, coming out of even COVID. Like, well, if these same people would say this, what are they saying is what they're saying about cancer correct? And all these other things. And, and the reality is no, that's not truth. The Bible is truth. And that's not to say there's not a place for conventional treatment sometimes. But overall, this power of natural medicine, all the things that you've used, of course, is great. I'd love for you to walk us through as you started learning about health and nutrition and cancer.

• 11:46Josh Axe?

  What are some of the things you personally did with your diet or supplements or lifestyle that, that you started using for yourself?

• 11:54Speaker 01

  So many things. I mean, when you're faced with a diagnosis like that and you're told you're probably not going to live past 40. There's things that maybe your flesh likes that you just give up if you learn that it actually feeds cancer. So sugar was the number, you know, anything like refined sugar, refined flour was immediately, I, I'm, I'm a very disciplined person. So when I understood that that was something that could feed cancer, immediately gone. And, and what I did, instead of looking at all the things I couldn't have, I just really researched all the things that I could have. And I just did a lot of that. So, you know, I, I've always eaten high protein, good fats, you know, really great vegetables and fruit that are organic.

• 12:36Speaker 01

  And, you know, just really stuck to that. And I never, because of my situation, I just didn't look at, I, I just didn't look at food the way I used to. I mean, I wasn't going to chance, you know, putting something in my body that could feed cancer cells. And I, my brain just understood that, but it definitely, I, I needed to pray through it too. Like it definitely needed to be in an atmosphere where I had discipline, first thing in the morning to actually process what I needed to do that day. And I still do that to this day. So I spend minimum an hour to two hours in the morning with God every morning. Because if I wake up and I get on my phone, or I start to think about all the things I can't do, or if I start to have my mind go to places that doctors told me I would be,

• 13:18Speaker 01

  then there, like that spirit of anxiety would come upon me, or the spirit of worry would come upon me. So for, I just have to spend time with the Lord first, first thing in the morning. And I start to just praise Him and I start to just say, thank you for today. Thank you for life. I'll speak scriptures over my body like Romans 828, or I'll, I'll say things like, um, you know, like Ephesians 320. Like God, I know that you have given me super abundantly more than I could ever ask or imagine. So thank you for the health in my body. And, you know, I'll just praise, I'll praise Him, I'll, I'll usher in His glory. I'll be like, I, I want to feel the glory of the Lord today.

• 13:54Speaker 01

  Thank you for my cells that are alive and well, and I'll, I'll literally just thank Him for a long time for all the things until I feel like I believe it. Because it's not like I don't wake up a lot of mornings and you know, you have that, that worry or that fear or that anxiety that can come upon you. So I have to like spend time saying emotions get behind me, feelings get behind me, Holy Spirit lead me. And the only way I knew to do that over time was just doing it, you know, praying until I believed it, saying it until I felt it.

• 14:28Josh Axe?

  Listen, I talk to people every week who have spent thousands on their health with no answers, who want to work with a healthcare team that actually treats their body as something to steward and their faith as part of the plan. And that's why we built the Health Institute and why we have hundreds of five star reviews from people just like you, who have finally felt seen, heard and found lasting health. It starts with a cellular blood work analysis, an at home blood test kit, plus a full hour review with one of my senior health advisors. If you're not a good fit for one of our cellular healing protocols, our team will tell you directly. And the blood work is still yours to keep and to take to your own primary or functional medicine doctor.

• 15:10Josh Axe?

  If you're finally ready to work with a team who takes the whole person approach to your cellular health, then go to mybloodwork.com to learn more. That's mybloodwork.com today.

• 15:23Josh Axe?

  Hormones are greatly impacted by emotions, right? If you're in a state of just serenity and peace and you know, like this morning, I, I'm trying to do this more and more. I kind of got out of habit the past year as much as I wanted to. And I'm like, I, I need to spend the first part of my morning even longer of just getting with the Holy Spirit, reading my Bible and just getting in a state of just peace and serenity and connection to the Holy Spirit. And, you know, you feel that, you feel the sense of like your heart rate is so low, you, there's just a sense of just calm. Versus you wake up in the morning and get on your phone, start taking care of every emergency. And listen, it's hard with kids. Like I do, it's like, you know, there's challenges there too. And when you're a successful business CEO like you are, there are those challenges there.

• 16:05Josh Axe?

  But when you're in the spirit of joy and contentment and praise, it's such a different place than fear and anxiousness and worry, right? And so, and I know for my mom, when she had cancer, she had a lot of fear and worry. My mom was a real people pleaser. And if anybody said anything negative, she would take it personally. So we had to go and work on all that. You know, one thing, and you, you may know this, I'm trying to remember if you and I talked about this when you had, uh, some, some things that we had talked about. And, um, melanoma in, this is Chinese medicine, uh, different emotions are tied to cancer in different areas of the body. But melanoma on the skin is tied to lung and colon in Chinese medicine, which is the immune system, which is tied to the relationship with your dad and things of the past.

• 16:47Josh Axe?

  Is that something you feel like maybe played a role in at all in terms of like emotional things that could have contributed?

• 16:53Speaker 01

  I mean, my, my parents were divorced when I was three and then my mom remarried when I was five. And I think that the dad wound or just even, you know, not understanding that nurture that every daughter or son should have and craves, you know, from a father.

• 17:12Josh Axe?

  Yeah.

• 17:12Speaker 01

  Makes so much sense. And I think that's why I was able to, again, it took me a couple of years, but I think, I think, I always think that, I always know that the Lord wants all of our heart. Like He wants all of us. And I think if you don't have, uh, that example as an earthly father to understand full, all in, unconditional nurturing love, it probably is something that, you know, I mean, I know that it's something that so many people crave. And it's hard to tap into that power of God's love and that nurturing father love. If you don't really know what it's like, you know, on earth, right?

• 17:51Speaker 01

  And so that is interesting. I know when I reached out to you more recently, um, and I'm so glad that I had the Biblio diet book because more recently something did come up again. And I got through that too, but it was the same vein of like a doctor telling me that my mouth was going to be sewn shut. I wasn't going to talk or laugh or smile for six months because there was a spot that came up on my face. It was just a basal cell carcinoma. And it's completely healed.

• 18:22Josh Axe?

  Praise God.

• 18:22Speaker 01

  I, I literally followed so many things in the book and I just kind of had to go back instead of that spirit of fear on me. It was, I was a different version of myself this time because I was like, okay, hold on. This doesn't sound like something that comes from, you know, again, like the natural, I mean, it comes from like the world instead of like this, to me feels spiritual. For any person, any doctor to say to me that my mouth is going to be sewn shut with what I do, you know, and that I wasn't going to talk or smile or laugh. And there was multiple doctors that said that. It just kind of, this time it was like the recovery time was faster. You know, when, when I was younger and I didn't really fully understand all of the, the things that go with healing.

• 19:04Speaker 01

  And like you said, even what's tied to, um, you know, cancer and emotional things. Like this time around, especially with what you did share with me about the emotional side. I was able to just really pray differently, but also just really cry out to the Lord and say, okay, I need you to intervene. And I believe in I, I, the prayer that Jordan has in the book, I just started praying that. I mean, it takes a good five minutes to pray that prayer. It's a long prayer.

• 19:32Josh Axe?

  You know, when I'm in my spine issue, I talk to Jordan, I'm like, hey, can you share the healing prayer with me that you, you did specifically? Cause we'd talked about it before, but I didn't have it. And when I did it myself, because I wrote some things, I timed myself, it took like eight minutes.

• 19:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:45Josh Axe?

  I mean, it was a long prayer.

• 19:48Speaker 01

  And you want to get through it all.

• 19:49Josh Axe?

  Yeah. And part of me is like, eight minutes, that's not that long, but doing it eight times, it takes three minutes, but it's, um, but it's powerful.

• 19:57Speaker 01

  I felt the Holy Spirit and, and I, I've passed it to just so many people because I'm like, you know what? It really, it really is a big deal for you to take the time. You think eight minutes. I mean, I, I always said it took me five minutes if I talk really fast, which I'm a fast talker. But the average person, it's probably eight minutes. And to actually do that every single day, you would think, okay, if I'm desperate, of course I would do that. But I'll tell you, you know, 30 days into doing that, or even a couple of weeks, it, it can also, it can weigh on you a little bit where you're like, this is a lot. But then you're like, it, we should be praying for an hour sometimes, you know, it's, it actually helps you to realize how much we don't just stop and just pray. And there's so much power, like you said, in your words and prayer.

• 20:42Speaker 01

  And I've seen miracles. I mean, I have seen moments of miracles just by coming into agreement and coming into agreement with other people and boldly claiming the truth. I mean, miracles are still happening every single day. It's not just Bible times, you know?

• 20:57Josh Axe?

  Yeah. It's so true. It's so good. I would love for you to share that because, and I, and I think this is true for every single medical condition, especially cancer.

• 21:11Josh Axe?

  That there is a emotional component to that that is contributing, or a relational, I should say mostly a relational component, because I think most of our emotions stem from relationships, our relationship with God, number one, do we believe he is a good and faithful father that wants the best for us, that's always looking out for us, that's intervening for us, that loves us unconditionally? And I'll say this too, you know, I was talking about the cancer thing, we talked about the father and that immune system, like with most breast cancer, it tends to be a relationship with your mom. So, but all that being said, how did you go from having some level of this childhood trauma with divorce and fatherly relationship and those issues to

• 21:54Josh Axe?

  where you're at today in your relationship with God, and to where now it's not a impediment to your health, this new, this relationship now is actually nourishing your healing?

• 22:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, first I have to say, you know, one of the things I feel so grateful for, I have a husband that loves me, like we've been married 23 years and he was the first man that I had ever met that I felt like just loved me and all of me, like looked at me and never looked at anybody else and looked at my heart and just loved me, and that was a glimpse of hope for me to be like, wow, there's actually men like this out there, because I hadn't been exposed to a lot of that. And I can say now, I mean, you know, I love looking at, okay, I just turned 49, I've been married for 23 years, we've raised two daughters that are 18 and 21, so we have baby adult daughters.

• 22:50Speaker 01

  And you know, I've been saying things for the last 10, 15 years about what I would love to have happen, or we've been praying into what our marriage would look like now, or what my health would look like now, or what our daughters would be like now, we prayed for their future, you know, the situation they're in now in college, or their future husbands that they will have when they're babies, it's kind of awkward when you do that. But I feel like I can stand here now on the other side of it, you know, on the other side of being, you know, 23 years since that first cancer diagnosis and understanding how it has played out. And so I just, I know that Brett, my husband, has been a huge part of me

• 23:31Speaker 01

  just really being able to stand in belief with, with a spouse, with a relationship like that, that believed in me just as much as I needed to believe in myself, and even during like the healing prayers, there were days where I just couldn't pray it, or I couldn't make it through, I would just get too emotional, or I would be afraid, or that spirit of fear would jump on me and he would take over, and he's like, let me do it for you. And so I do think relationships on this earth are so important, so valuable, like people that you can really trust, even when this second thing happened and I, I texted you and Jordan, and I remember what's so crazy is the lies of the enemy tell you, don't text them, they're too busy. Like they have a lot of other things going on, like don't text them.

• 24:13Speaker 01

  And somebody told me to text you guys, and I was like, no, no, no, they're so busy. And it's like, I texted both of you and you both got right back to me. And there was something that happened in that moment for me where I was just like, this is what life is about, they, they, they do care, they really do care, just like I care.

• 24:29Josh Axe?

  I get so offended when I had, like, you know, even my own dad sometimes, my dad's like, yeah, I went in and had this minor shoulder surgery. He did this like four months ago, I'm like, what are you talking about?

• 24:40Speaker 01

  Why didn't you tell me?

• 24:41Josh Axe?

  Yeah, they just went in the scope to take a little bit of scar. It was not, but, but my whole point is, is like, I have this happen all the time, and it's like, I mean, I feel like God put me here on earth for this situation.

• 24:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:51Josh Axe?

  You know, so.

• 24:52Speaker 01

  And that's what Jordan said too, and it just, and the thing is, I feel that way too.

• 24:56Josh Axe?

  And before, just for my, just so everybody knows here too, Brooke is, she, she coaches leaders, women, in helping them build businesses that promote and build the kingdom of God, I mean, so she does such an amazing job of, she's a leader of leaders and helping inspire women, motivate them in godly marriages and, and family and just successful businesses. And so, you know, I especially love, I mean, I love helping everybody, but I love helping people that are really advancing the kingdom of God and discipling others.

• 25:26Speaker 01

  Thank you, and I think that's what this all came down to, I mean, being able to, I really feel like God gives us an assignment and nobody and nothing can take it away, and that's when I really, like John 10:10 changed my life, because when I read, I did, I used to not like John 10:10 because it was scary, it's like, the enemy comes to kill, steal, destroy, and I'm like, can we just like skip over that one? But then the other side of it says, but Jesus came to give us life and life in overflow, life in abundance. And I remember something clicked for me where I was like, hold on, you know, I want that part. And so, and I remember thinking, you know, the enemy, the, the kill, steal, destroy is actually more like kill your dreams, steal your confidence, destroy your family.

• 26:09Speaker 01

  So what is the, what's the enemy trying to do to stop me from the assignment that God's given me to live and live life to the fullest and live life in overflow? And then there was something that just clicked where I was like, game on, and that's why I started to take responsibility. I didn't want to think about or talk about the diagnosis anymore, or what the doctors had said. I wanted to figure out for myself how I could take responsibility to live life to the fullest and to actually make that impact.

• 26:37Josh Axe?

  Why do you think, because I see this happen, especially when it's a more severe diagnosis, is people will take the responsibility and try and fully hand it off to someone else, like for instance, so I mean, I think about the, most of the time when people have cancer, and listen, I know to just be

• 26:57Josh Axe?

  completely clear here, that is very difficult, and that is very hard, and maybe you're not educated on health whatsoever. But most of the time, people are given this diagnosis and they say, okay, here's every, whatever the doctor said, I mean, give them the full responsibility, and it happens with honestly, a lot of conditions and a lot of diagnoses, but that's, that's what tends to happen.

• 27:16Speaker 01

  I think it's because of fear and hopelessness. So like when you're afraid and you don't feel like you have hope, it's like, okay, I'm gonna pass this, I, it's like, it's almost like, I don't want to say this in a way that would come across the wrong way, but it really is like, almost like, I'm gonna have a pity party for myself and I'm just gonna let you handle my, you handle my diagnosis because I'm too upset, full of fear, full of hopelessness to do it myself. Because I remember that for the first two years, when I was replaying the darkness, that, you know, the death, the death sentence over me, I remember feeling like I was having this, and I say pity party because I was like feeling bad for myself, and I wanted everybody else around me to feel bad for me.

• 27:59Speaker 01

  Until I realized, like, that really wasn't doing anything for me or anybody else, like, of course, people are gonna feel bad for you. But nobody was gonna knock on my door and say, let me do your life for you, let me eat for you, let me exercise for you, let me pray for you, I mean, people can pray for you. But it wasn't making me feel better, it wasn't, I was kind of starting to look at like where this was gonna take me. And again, without the Bible, without reading, and back then I didn't understand, I was like, I was like, okay, God, I'm gonna read the Bible, show me. But I was still kind of stuck, because I wasn't really absorbing it the way that I, I started absorbing it when I asked God, like, okay, show me. I believe in your word, I, I want you to show me what you want me to read, I want you to

• 28:44Speaker 01

  show me where it says I'm gonna live. And when you ask God, when you're hungry for God and you ask him, he'll always reveal it to you. And even if, even if it's over complicated, it's like, I realized, I'm so grateful, I realized this 20 years ago where I stopped going, okay, people are not going to be able to tell me what God can tell me. And he's, he's the one that created me, he's the one that's given me an assignment on this earth, and nobody and nothing can take it away, so I might as well go all in with him, I might as well go all in with my health and speak out the opposite. And so I just started doing that, and then I started seeing some fruit, meaning I started to feel a little bit more joyful, joyful, I started to feel more energized.

• 29:26Speaker 01

  I started to actually get so creative, I, I never thought I was creative, I started to create things and build things, and I started to feel purposeful, and I started to see the impact that I could make, just even on a small scale that now has grown so much because I just said yes, because of my obedience. And I also learned, I heard this a couple of days ago from a pastor, but I, this is something that I've been so much in alignment with. You can grieve at the same time and also have hope, so like, I think it is important to grieve and to say, I'm, I'm upset about this, it's not fair, and I'm, I'm sad about it, and I'm upset about it, and I mean, Jesus had emotions, you know, he lamented, he cried when he was sad, he flipped the tables when he was angry,

• 30:10Speaker 01

  he slept when he was tired, and for some reason, I wasn't giving myself permission, it was like, everyone was asking me how I'm doing, I'm fine, I'm fine, but I wasn't fine. So emotionally, that was probably wrecking havoc also in my body. But I, one day I just realized, and I heard this recently, it's like, we can grieve and, and give ourselves permission to grieve, and at the same time, have hope that we know that God's gonna work it out. And so there was something that just changed in me where I was like, I am not gonna let anybody tell me when I'm going to die, or how I'm going to die outside of like God's plan, so I'm just gonna go all in with God's plan, I'm gonna speak it out. And on my worst days where that spirit of anxiety, or spirit of fear, or spirit of overwhelm, or unworthiness comes upon me,

• 30:53Speaker 01

  I'm gonna speak out a different story, even if I don't believe it, until I believe it.

• 30:59Josh Axe?

  I have a very exciting announcement. We just found out that Heal Yourself is officially a New York Times bestseller, and that's entirely because of you. I just want to say thank you for showing up. Thank you for sharing this work, and thank you for believing in the power of cellular health. If you haven't grabbed your copy yet, you can find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your favorite book retailer. Also, if you've already ordered, but haven't claimed your bonuses yet, make sure to go to healyourselves.com and enter your email and your order number, and we'll send you hundreds of dollars in free content. Again, that's healyourselves.com. By the way, that free content includes a peptide guide, natural healing recipes, a masterclass, and loads of other free content. I'm so excited

• 31:44Josh Axe?

  for you to read this content. I hope it's going to change your life.

• 31:49Josh Axe?

  I look back with my mom's cancer, with other people I've walked it through, my own house stuff, and I, there's this element of, we're talking about, you know, a lot of times we take this responsibility and just give it to a doctor somewhere. You know, there's this element of, I do think that you want to be partnered, right? You don't want to try and do it alone. So you do want to have, maybe it's a doctor, friends, and other people you're walking through things with. But most importantly, you want to walk through it with God.

• 32:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:17Josh Axe?

  And have the Holy Spirit there guiding you as you're going through that. Because, you know, I think about, like, it just amazes me, like, how God answers prayers, and he's there when you really need him.

• 32:27Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 32:28Josh Axe?

  You know, like, I had this spinal infection, and I would just pray, God, I just need this. And I would be looking out for it, and I'd also be trying to find it. And then it would come, just the right thing, the right time, you know. A friend of mine is a doctor, is like, oh, you need to see this guy, or, hey, try doing this, or, you know, and that's why it's so important, is, again, God is always going to lead you to the best outcome, the best treatment, the best, you know, the best path.

• 32:53Speaker 01

  Always. I heard something recently, too, where it helped me to understand, too, to just really be careful with my words, like you were saying earlier. Really be careful with what comes out of your mouth, because I heard that, and I love seeing this vision. So it's like, God is up in the glory. Like, God is full of glory. He's just up there in his glory, and he's like, come up here where there's glory. Come up here where there's faith and hope. And a lot of times, we'll stay down here on earth, just kind of trying to control everything. Things will come out of our mouth, we'll partner with the enemy instead of with God. Like, we'll listen to the voices of the enemy louder than the voices of God, and we're down here partnering with anxiety, or unworthiness, or hopelessness.

• 33:35Speaker 01

  And God is like, so glorious that he's like, he can't come down here and partner with us on that. So he's like, daughter or son, come up and just be with me. Let me handle this for you. Call on my name, and just come up here with me above the fray, above like, all of the noise, above the partnering with the world and what the world is saying. Just come up here and let me, like, fill you up. And so I just always try to think of that when I do feel overwhelmed with all the things. And I'm like, okay, I'm not going to go there today. And a lot of times, I really do have to, like, sometimes I'll have to, like, put my hand on my heart, just to kind of soothe my nervous system, and just say, okay, God, I know you've got me. You've got this situation. And again, a lot of times, it's emotions,

• 34:16Speaker 01

  it's feelings, it's words. And I'm like, okay, get behind me, because that's not going to serve me today. That can't serve my calendar today, can't serve my mission today. But, Holy Spirit, I need you to lead me. And anytime, every time I do that, it's like a daily thing. You know, I can feel something shift, because it's not me and my emotions or my flesh. It's truly me calling on the Holy Spirit to lead me so that my assignment, because again, we're all assigned to do something, it's just so much better. It's like, the surrender is so much better. But when you're responsible for a lot of things, that control, for me, the control always tries to take over.

• 34:56Josh Axe?

  Oh, yeah. You know, it's, it's the, I think, I was talking to my mom about this just a few days ago. I mean, that's the biggest challenge. I had Lisa Turkhurst on the podcast.

• 35:04Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 35:05Josh Axe?

  And so my mom loves Lisa Turkhurst.

• 35:07Speaker 01

  She's amazing, yeah.

• 35:07Josh Axe?

  And she wrote a book that is all about letting, letting go and control, and letting God take control, essentially. And so, and this is, my mom said, this is the thing that challenged her the most, is it's just relinquishing control.

• 35:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:21Josh Axe?

  Giving it to God. Because, I mean, that is, it's incredibly stressful to try and control things that are out of your control.

• 35:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:27Josh Axe?

  You know? And the things that only God can control.

• 35:29Speaker 01

  So true.

• 35:30Josh Axe?

  And so I do think, you know, and, and, and it takes, it makes things more simple when you're like, you know, I can't heal myself. I can, you know, learn what the best foods are to eat, and eat those things, and learn how to stop doing so much, and, you know, start taking more time and reading my Bible, and just connecting, you know, doing these things. I mean, it really, health is actually pretty simple. Like, if I, when I lay out a healing plan for somebody, if it's a, it's, it's just really living a lifestyle where you're just, just nourishing yourself. And I think that one of the biggest drivers is people are just so busy today.

• 36:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:06Josh Axe?

  And so your body is staying in a fight or flight environment. And the hormone cortisol is typically the hormone that impacts every other hormone. So if cortisol is high, well, now insulin goes high. Well, now estrogen goes high. Well, now testosterone tanks down. And then your body, every hormone, and then your thyroid's off. So every hormone gets thrown off.

• 36:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:27Josh Axe?

  Because you're anxious.

• 36:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:29Josh Axe?

  I mean, I have this one thing, and the crazy thing is, it's like, okay, well, I'm going to start using, you know, this vagal nerve stimulator, and I'm going to start doing all this stuff. When a lot of times, I mean, you know, I was reading Matthew 6 this week, and it's like, do not be anxious about anything.

• 36:43Speaker 01

  Right.

• 36:44Josh Axe?

  Whether you eat, whether you drink, you know, it's God takes care of the lilies of the field, the birds. So all that being said, it's like, if you just meditated on that alone, probably the single greatest biohack, the single greatest, you know, form of natural medicine out there.

• 36:57Speaker 01

  It's true.

• 36:57Josh Axe?

  Just meditating on some of these Bible verses daily.

• 36:59Speaker 01

  It's so true. I mean, and that's why I love, you can do all of the things. I mean, we, I am a firm believer, going back to the taking responsibility for your life, for your health. I mean, once you know you can't unknow, or like, once you see you can't unsee. I mean, once I understood how food will affect my body in a negative way, it was a no-brainer. Like, just remove it. And I think, again, simplifying. I mean, you do a great job at simplifying, because if you know all the things you can do, just stay away from the things that you know are damaging. To me, that's simple. I wasn't really big on, like, all the complicated, like, it's, people can make it so complicated, and it's not, if you just know what you shouldn't do, and what would actually help yourselves and help you.

• 37:41Josh Axe?

  Yes.

• 37:41Speaker 01

  And then, again, just, I really have understood how valuable relationships are. And, again, trusted relationships, and, you know, just even being in a network, even what God's given me to do, I have seen how valuable growing a network of women in business that have support, that are trustworthy, that also are for families and marriage, and being able to pray over people that are struggling in that area, and believing for them and with them. I mean, I've seen the transformation, and then I see it in their business and their health, too.

• 38:13Josh Axe?

  And it changes you more than anything. You're becoming who you surround yourself with. The more time you spend with God, connecting and knowing Him intimately, the more you become like Him. The more that you spend time with really other virtuous people that are about the Kingdom of God, the more you become like them. I mean, that's really, I mean, that would be one piece of advice I would have for anybody dealing with, I mean, dealing with anything, but also just advice in life is, go find those people.

• 38:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:38Josh Axe?

  And no matter what you have to do, they may, it may be hard to find.

• 38:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:41Josh Axe?

  But it's like digging for gold. I mean, go and do whatever you can to find those people.

• 38:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:46Josh Axe?

  And spend time around them, iron sharpens iron, because your mind will start to mirror theirs and become like theirs.

• 38:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure. And generosity, too, I have found, when you're around people that are generous, and that are doing things to make an impact on this earth while you're here, you know, that is powerful. When you find other people that are really here to serve and make an impact and be generous, it becomes contagious. It does.

• 39:11Josh Axe?

  Yeah.

• 39:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:12Josh Axe?

  Yeah, it's so powerful. You know, I've noticed with different personalities, they tend to battle different health conditions. And I would put you in the category of high achieving women, very driven. You know, you remind me of my mother-in-law. My mother-in-law, she's just like that. I mean, I'm like this, you know, but talking about women specifically. So, high achieving women. It's, it reminds me of this Bible verse, just talking about sowing, you know, seeds, and the weeds of life coming up and sort of choking off sort of the life of that plant, of that person. And so I think a lot of times, high achieving women are trying to do so much. And part of this might be culture saying, you got to be an amazing mom, and wife, and businesswoman, and CEO. I mean, there's like, all of these

• 39:56Josh Axe?

  things that it's talking about. I think there's an element of sort of reading, like, Proverbs 31, that does, there's a, there's a core of truth to that, but the way women are going about it, sometimes I think, like, maybe that's, well, I do know it's contributing to. To health challenges.

• 40:13Speaker 01

  Yes, absolutely. This is one of my favorite topics because I do believe we live in a hustle and grind culture. So I believe that there are a lot of women that are feeling like they have to hustle and grind, or if they want to create and build, they have to choose between that and being a good mom. There's, there's a balance, I think, in every season. Okay, I don't believe in balance, but I also believe that there's a way that you can do everything that you're assigned to do. Again, I think there's some people that are not assigned to do both, that they're not, and they're trying. And I think that that's when they're feeling the striving, the hustle, the grind. But I do think that there are some people that can do both beautifully,

• 40:55Speaker 01

  and they're assigned to do both beautifully in the way that they are created, you know, because everybody's created differently. Everybody has different gifts. There's only one of every single person, and that's a good thing. And so I think really tapping in and listening to what it is that you're supposed to do and doing it full out, all in. And I think that that's the difference. I think if people are half in, half out, they're constantly feeling like they're hustling or grinding, or comparing themselves to the way somebody else is doing it. That is when the stress comes upon them. But if they actually, like I tell moms all the time, like, listen, my season now is very different than when my kids were little. You know, I always grew things at a different pace and a different season, based on what my kids,

• 41:37Speaker 01

  the ages of my kids, the stage of, you know, what they were in, and really even what my husband was into. Like, his business changed, you know, there were moments, things that were very important to us as parents, driving our kids to school, making sure we were the first people, the last person they saw before we dropped them off, the first person they saw when they were picked up. Like, we always did things like that. But sometimes it was my husband, sometimes it was me, sometimes it was us together, because of our work, because of the work that we love to do. And so I would just say that, you know, for me, there's a difference between asking the Lord to fill you up with supernatural capacity and energy to run your race. So I get all amped up on the energy of, you know, just asking God,

• 42:21Speaker 01

  fill me up. I want to run my race. I want to get to heaven tired. That's very different than the hustle grind culture, because some people could look at me and be like, are you okay? Like, do you ever take a break? Do you ever slow down? I'm really worried about you. And I'll always say, I'm doing everything that I feel like God's telling me to do. And I do take a lot of breaks. Like, I will map out things, and then I'll take a break. Or if I'm feeling, I do have people around me, including my husband, that keep me in check. Like, if I am getting to a place where it feels like it's too much, or I'm letting go of something else that's really important, I'll kind of get back in check. But I do think that there's a difference between really running your race, asking God to fill you up with supernatural capacity, and there's energy there.

• 43:07Josh Axe?

  Yeah, I mean, I've always found for myself that when I, when I am really sprinting and hustling in that way, I am not the most productive or effective. You know, I had Dallas Jenkins on the show, the creator of the Chosen TV series. And one thing, and I think the Chosen TV series is one of the best shows I've ever seen. And I think it's the most Christian show I've ever seen, certainly. But I love it. And one thing I noticed, and I think they do such a good job of this, is both when I read the Bible, but also when I watch that show, and you see the way Jesus is portrayed, he's never in a hurry. I mean, think about, I mean, if you really think about the show and how he is, there's such a sense of calm and peace, and I mean, in terms of what's, what's going on there. And I think that when

• 43:48Josh Axe?

  I'm operating, even as being a driven person, when I'm operating my best, there's a sense of serenity and calm and Holy Spirit of like, there's no rushing happening. You know, and so it's the anti-grind sort of culture, and I'm more effective, you know. So here, and here's an example of this. When I, this was a little over 10 years ago, I injured my back lifting weights. And I was in bed for like, a month. And then I had terrible back pain for like, two years. And so bad the first year, that I, I barely went into work. And I ended up just talking to one or two people on my team, just constantly. And then I sort of just went slowly through the next couple of years. But in terms of what I saw with

• 44:28Josh Axe?

  my reach on just my podcast and DrAx.com and all these things, they grew by more than tenfold. I mean, the most growth I'd ever seen was when I was sort of peacefully walking the slowest, most, most in tune with the Holy Spirit with what I was doing. So just, I mean, again, and this is the power of God is when you're partnered with Him, you don't necessarily need to rush or grind. Now, again, we're called to do things with excellence, right, to run to win the race. So there is an element of doing that, to your point.

• 44:56Speaker 01

  Or finishing your race well, because you maybe had peace during the race, you know?

• 45:02Josh Axe?

  Yeah, it's like, you never would have started, I was on triathlon team in college. And if you went, you know, if you went out too fast, same thing, I ran 800 in high school track. And it's like, you don't, you know, there's a pace that you want to be running at to win. And

• 45:15Speaker 01

  Well, when Jesus left, he, he said, I leave you my peace. He didn't say, I'm gonna leave you my money, I'm gonna leave you, like, anything else. If you actually, it says, I'm gonna leave you my, my peace is what I leave you, which is the Holy Spirit. And I always try to think of that, like, peace is a person, peace is inside of us if we choose it. And that's what Jesus, out of everything, that's what he said he would leave us, which is really interesting, because most people are out of peace.

• 45:44Josh Axe?

  Oh, yeah.

• 45:45Speaker 01

  You know?

• 45:46Josh Axe?

  It's so good. Yeah. And that, and that's sort of that thing that we kind of came around, we talked about a little at the beginning, is this sort of like, fight or flight, cortisol, fear, right? And so peace is sort of the exact opposite of that, to where your nervous system, it is calm, it's relaxed. This is when you're in a spirit of faith, that serenity we talked about, when you're walking in the Holy Spirit. I'm so grateful for you. I'm so grateful that God healed you of cancer. I'm so grateful what you're doing now and helping so many women, just, you know, go out there and have amazing kingdom marriages and successful lives. And just again, thanks so much for coming on today.

• 46:21Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 46:22Josh Axe?

  And hey, I want to encourage everybody to, hey, comment, if you're watching on YouTube, we'd love to hear, what is your biggest takeaway from some of the wisdom that Brooke shared today? I mean, can you imagine being 26 years old, pregnant, and then going into the doctor's office and getting a cancer diagnosis? And what she went through, the face she had to have to go through that, is really powerful. Also want to encourage you, follow Brooke Thomas on Instagram, on social media, check out more about her online. And don't forget to subscribe here to the show and leave a review. It's the number one thing you could do to support the show. So I continue to bring on more amazing guests here like Brooke Thomas. Hey, thanks so much for watching. I can't wait to see you on the next episode of the Dr. Axe Show. Have a blessed week.