131: Parental Instincts, and Integrative Medicine | Ryan Sternagel

Ryan Sternagel of The Stern Method joins Jim to share the remarkable story of his son Ryder, diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma just eleven days before his first birthday. Ryan and his wife Teddy refused to follow the conventional path blindly — pushing back on an escalating chemo protocol, relocating from Seattle to Utah for both personal liberty and natural health resources, and building a non-toxic home in the woods where they now raise three kids, grow food, and keep horses, donkeys, and chickens. Ryan shares how integrative approaches — juicing, IV vitamin C, supplements, energy work, and EMF reduction — ran alongside (and eventually replaced) conventional treatment, and how that journey became a mission to help other cancer families through The Stern Method, the Going Integrative Plus membership, and their supplement company Our Health Naturally.

HealingStrong's mission is to educate, equip and empower our group leaders and group participants through their journey with cancer or other chronic illnesses, and know there is HOPE. We bring this hope through educational materials, webinars, guest speakers, conferences, community small group support and more.

Please take advantage of our FREE resources below to help you along your health and healing journey:

Support Group Directory

Holistic Curriculum - Participant Guide

Support Our Mission - Donate

Additional Health Resources

Listen to Previous Episodes

Website: healingstrong.org

Transcript

Ryan: 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 uh, at, at that point, child Protective Services showed up at her door and 

Jim: Wow.

Ryan: Yeah. Said, geez, you, uh, sounds like you weren't complying with the hospital. Uh, but you know, we, 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: Oh, wow. I don't know what I could do without that. 

Ryan: Uh, there, there were, there were many thoughts flowing through my, yeah.

Flowing through my mind throughout that whole experience. Yeah. 

Announcer: You are 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 help.

Now, here's your host, stage four Cancer Thriver Jim Mann. 

Jim: I know the name Ryan. Is it sternal? Is that how you say it? 

Ryan: Close 

Jim: Stern Nagle. Is it? If you're in 

Ryan: Germany, it's uh, Stewart inaugural. Stewart inaugural. 

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

Ryan: Stern Nagle. Yep. 

Jim: Stern Nagle. Really? I realize I'm on your mailing list.

I get your newsletters. I thought that's why, that's why his name is familiar. 

Ryan: There we go. Yep. Yeah. A lot of people, a lot of people know the name and not the face. 'cause we, we've had our email list for so many years and we, we've been on and off social media. Currently on a extended social media hiatus, but the, the email list is, has gone strong all these years.

So yeah, a lot of that's, I I get that a lot. 

Jim: 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, uh, obviously you're marriage, you have how many kids? 

Ryan: Three 

Jim: kids. Three kids now. Was it your, your first child that was diagnosed? 

Ryan: It was, yeah.

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

Jim: Rocky, what a cool name. 

Ryan: I always wanted it for, uh, 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, uh, you know, when, when she was pregnant with, with Rocky. One day just kind of shook her head and said, I, there's, there's a rocky inside of me and my God. Alright. He lives, he lives up to the name, so it's, yeah, she was, she was spot on there.

Jim: Well, that's good. That's good. Where, where are y'all living at and what state are you in? 

Ryan: Park City, Utah. 

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

Ryan: That's, it's a good spot to be, and yeah, I, we were kind of drawn here, I guess you could say, but we, my wife and I both grew up in the, in the Seattle area.

Jim: Okay. 

Ryan: And, uh, that's, that's where we were living when, uh, when we got the diagnosis and 

Jim: Wow. 

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

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

Ryan: I was an outside sales guy for a commercial energy savings company. So we, we made, uh, office buildings and shopping centers and 

Jim: Wow. 

Ryan: So forth. So, uh, the more energy efficient, which actually, you know, it's wasn't, wasn't a bad job for a 20 something year old guy. Got to fly all over the country and 

Jim: Wow.

Ryan: Meet in important feeling offices and. With building owners and, and that sort of thing is, is actually pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. 

Jim: But, 

Ryan: uh, 

Jim: sales is a good business to be in if you can do it. If, for me, I would starve to death 'cause I would talk people outta stuff, ah, you don't want this. And that's not a good way of doing it.

I've tried a, 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: yeah, that was okay. Yeah, I, I went to, I went to school to be a, I thought I was gonna be a management consultant then. Then I graduated in 2008 when, when everything came crashing down and no one was looking for junior management consultants at that time.

And so then I, then I was a sales guy. Yeah. 

Jim: Of course, I personally, I've been diagnosed with cancer. They gave me a month or two to live. Uh, 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, 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, uh, 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: Yeah, yeah. That's unfortunately not how it, not how it works. Yeah. Wishing it was you 'cause Yeah, 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, that wasn't an option, unfortunately. But it was, it was rough and, you know, it was, it was also our, like we said, our, our first son, right. And we were first time parents. And, um, even just leading up to the diagnosis, it was, you know, looking back on it, there was all these, what, which should have been, you know, kind of red flag type things, but.

You know, we, 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, at a year old or almost a year old. And he was, uh, he'd fallen off the growth chart and was born in the 90 something percentile. And, you know, at that point he was down in the twenties and wasn't handling solid food.

And he, 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, um. Felt a lump in his back when she was, when she was breastfeeding him. And that was kinda like, the something's really going on here. It sucked. Um, but we, I don't know.

I, I mean, I, I, I guess looking back, I'm, I'm pretty proud of us that we, we, we kind of picked up the ball and ran with it from, from day one and, uh, just, just got down to business and. My wife and I were both, uh, you know, already fairly holistically inclined, not, not as much as we are now, 12 years later, but, uh, you know, are 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, the route at the time, the Gerson and stuff like that. And, uh, we didn't know everything, but we knew where to start looking and, uh, 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, uh, 

Jim: that's scary. 

Ryan: You know, it must probably hundreds of dollars just in overnight shipping fees alone.

Right. Just, just trying to get, get everything we could as, as fast as we could. And, um. Yeah. And that's the, what I always try to tell people is, you don't bankrupt yourself. Uh, don't, don't take that as the inspiration from what I'm saying, but, uh, opposite of paralysis by analysis or whatever that, whatever that phrase is, right?

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

Ryan: Yeah, so. Chemotherapy, obviously.

Um, yeah. Yeah. And they, it is, it's kind of funny. They, you know, it was the same people that, that told us that, that everything's fine. And it, 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, the last guy told us to come back in six weeks if the lump is still there.

Wow. And, uh, then, uh, you know, we, we, we did not wait the six weeks. We, 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, 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, the chemotherapy that much faster.

And, uh, we, we, we, we declined the ambulance and so we'll drive ourselves. Thank you. And, um, 

Jim: that's 

Ryan: great. Yeah. And, you know, is the whole, the whole thing and anyone's, that's been kind of an, in an intake in the, in the, in the hospital world knows it's a bunch of poking and prodding and people, it, 10 sets of people asking you the same questions and all these things.

At the end of the day, they, they wanted to do chemotherapy and we weren't entirely opposed to it, but, uh, we did wanna get a second opinion. 

Jim: Right. 

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

But then also, you know, we, we knew about IV vitamin C and things like that, so we figured we, we, we could use it for that if we wanted. And, uh, 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. Um, 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, um, 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 gonna die on the spot. And, uh, turned out he was, he was septic, I think from getting the line put in. He, he had a bloodstream staff infection. And, and so we're back in the hospital and, uh, 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 

Jim: right. 

Ryan: Because, you know, they, they always make it like, you're, you're gonna die tomorrow if, if you don't, if you don't get chemo right away.

Right. But, uh, in this case it was, it was actually. The tumor was completely engulfing his spine. You couldn't even see his spine on the MR mri. Wow. And, uh, you know, a lot of these kids, if it doesn't get caught in time, then they can get paralyzed or or worse just from, just from that. 

Jim: Yeah. 

Ryan: Right. So we, we did, we said, okay, we, we need to do something to shrink this tumor.

We, we did around a 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 uh, at, at that point, child Protective Services showed up at her door and 

Jim: Wow. 

Ryan: Yeah. Said, geez, you, uh, sounds like you weren't complying with the hospital.

Uh, but you know, we, 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: Oh, wow. I don't know what I could do about that. 

Ryan: Uh, there, there were, there were many thoughts flowing through my, yeah. Flowing through my mind throughout that whole experience.

Yeah. Put it, leave it there. But, uh, 

Jim: it's a nightmare. 

Ryan: Yeah. So, I mean, and, and so then it became like. It kind of, alright, hospital conventional doctors. What, what exactly are you trying to do here? And, 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. It'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, 

Jim: right 

Ryan: 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, uh, just had our own little juicing operation. The cupboards full of supplements and, uh, you know, sneaking out of the hospital to go get IV vitamin C and DMSO and, and all these things.

Right? And so it's, yeah, I, 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 gotta 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, who said anything about four rounds? It's, it's gonna be eight and we need to start talking about radiation. And yeah, it's like you, you just said he was doing better than you even thought was possible.

And now you're talking about doubling the protocol. And uh, at that point, you know, on, on the way home from. At 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 uh, and, and, and there was some reasoning there. You know, Utah is 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? Yeah. It's like, you know, some places in the south it's really good. Personal liberty, not so good, natural health, friendly Washington, really good, natural health friendly, not so good personal liberty.

Um, Utah's a a nice mix of both and so yeah, we just, we moved and, uh, 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, they, they were cool with backing off. Yeah. And it, it, it turned out that the, that the standard of care was always eight rounds and potential radiation.

Jim: And, you know, they were just telling us whatever we needed to hear to get us 

Ryan: to the next round sort of thing in, in Seattle. Yeah. And so, you know, you know, and that was kind of scary actually, right? It's like, you know, yeah. Fought for the right to choose and then we got it. And then the, the guy's saying, well, you know, if it was my kid I'd, I'd do the rest of it.

But you're, you're the parents and you know best, so you know, your, your call let, let us know what you wanna do. Um, that, that, that actually kind of freaked us out. Right. But Right. Uh, but you know, we, we decided it doesn't have to be, you know, we're, we're not making this, this decision for all time. And if, if things do turn for the worst again, then you know, we can, we can hop back on the chemo.

And, um, and they were cool with just, you know, taking a more aggressive scan schedule. And we were doing, doing MRIs every, it was nice. 'cause you 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.

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, um, kind of did just tripled down on all the things holistically between the juicing and the supplements.

Working with energy workers and found somebody in Utah to pick up the IV protocol. And, uh, that, that ended up being the last, the last, uh, you know, conventional medicine you ever had. It's, everything kept, kept shrinking and numbers kept improving. And, uh, you know, fast forward here we are almost 12 years later.

Jim: 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, the nutrition and all that, you know, gave his body and his immune system obviously, uh, the, the strength to fight back. Uh, you think the combination was good, or how would you do it now?

Ryan: 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. Um, and yeah, you know, if, if I had, knowing everything I know now, um. I, I still don't like for, for that situation, tumor completely engulfing the spine. 

Jim: Mm-hmm.

Ryan: It's, 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, in all my years of.

Researching and, and all that stuff. And, you know, everything we do now with, with our online presence and helping other people with cancer and interviewing doctors and all these things, I, I still don't, you know, know of anything on the integrative, holistic alternative side that I'd say a hundred percent 

Jim: right?

Ryan: Yes, this would absolutely shrink the tumor in time to, you know, save a spine, that sort of thing. Although they are getting more, you know, more, uh, more of the. Integrative doctors are now getting a little friskier with injecting things directly into the tumor. Right. Which is, 

Jim: yeah, 

Ryan: that, that was my first question when, when they wanted to do chemotherapy, right?

It's like, well, you, you wanna flood his whole body with this stuff, but it's, it's really only the tumor you're going after. So what, why don't you. Stick it right in the tumor. Right. And no, nobody had a good answer for that. 

Jim: Common sense doesn't work. Sometimes. 

Ryan: That's, that's just not how we do it. Right. But, um, yeah.

But, uh, yeah, so I, I don't know. Is that it, as that continues to evolve, you know, people. All, all sorts of stuff, right? Let's, let's see what happens if we inject the thing with chlorine dioxide and silver and DMSO and, and all this stuff. And it, it's actually getting some pretty interesting results there.

So, you know, maybe I, I, we could go with that, but yeah, that's speculation at this point. 

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

Ryan: Well, I mean, given that he was one. At the time when it happened.

Um, yeah, he, he went through a lot of really rough situations 

Jim: Yeah. 

Ryan: In the, you know, between, between chemo side effects. And even though he, you know, he, he was the best looking kid in the, in the oncology ward. And I don't think that was a, a coincidence, but, you know, it was, it's, it was still, it was still rough.

Right. And, you know, I, I remember just. Crazy, you know, middle of the night they were trying to find a vein and, but no, they, they ended up bursting his vein with, with the iv and we, 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 all, 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. Yeah. Um, 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 and 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: Yeah. 

Ryan: Right. But, uh, 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 the, that, that, that's all he is, that's all he is ever known.

And, uh, it's, you know, it was, it was. I forget when we, we told him that he had cancer, it wasn't, 'cause then it was like, well when, when do we even tell him, you know, all this happened. Right, 

Jim: right. 

Ryan: Because even the MRIs and stuff for a long time were just like, well just go 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, but autism spectrum at, at, at around three. Um, and we don't, you know, I'll never know for sure, but mm-hmm. Pretty, pretty darn sure he was not autistic before going into all the, the, the chemo and the, 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, um, how much more autistic would he would've been? So that, that's another thing. It's like, you know, treat, thank God that we, we found that, that the, the new team was willing to back off and 'cause, you know, that could have been so much worse.

And that has also presented his own challenges. But again, fast forward many years and, uh, you know, most of the quote unquote, you know, negative. Things that you would think about autism. Those are, those are mostly gone. He, he, he still likes things just so, and uh, these sorts of things. But then he is also, you know, I, I call him like a quirky savant.

He's, he's kind of a genius. Um, he was famous on, uh, that's a 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, wow. 

Jim: I bet. 

Ryan: Book of John King James version. You know, he just, I, I think he had like 11 or 12 just entire, entire chapters memorized and 

Jim: Wow.

Ryan: So, yeah, it's, uh, so I, I don't know. It's, it's, 

Jim: that's a good side effect. It's, 

Ryan: it's, it's, it's all worked out. Okay. I think. 

Jim: So this, this obviously took your family on a, on a different journey. Uh, was it 12 years ago now? How, how did that transition? 

Ryan: 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, uh, and just even the, you know, just even the life we live, you know, we, we'd always kind of dreamed about having land and doing the homesteading thing and, and that sort of thing. And then you, it seemed like all that was kind of out the window and he was diagnosed. But then, you know, then once we moved to Utah and the, the first place that we found was.

Was, uh, 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 so that, that freaked us out. And, uh, then we, you know, we, we must have looked at, I don't know, 50 different places to rent, uh, for, for a little more. Permanent, you know, at least not permanent, but a, a nearer term solution.

And we'd, 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. We'll, you don't wanna look at the rest of the place. No, no, we're good. And we finally found somewhere that was up in Park City, um, which was, you know, in the mountains and, uh.

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, um, from the ground up with non-toxic materials and.

Thought that was gonna be his ultimate healing paradise. And uh, you know, but then it took just with the loan and all, all the things, right? It took a few years to actually come to fruition. But it's, it's been his, um, so yeah, it's, it's really neat, you know, and 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, a greenhouse. Right. And we grow our own food. Yeah. And, um, well, sounds 

Jim: amazing. 

Ryan: I can't say we grow all of our own food, but at least we, we grow some of our own food and, uh, yeah.

So I mean, that's, that's just been. Like, wow, that every time I walk outside it's like this, this would've never happened if we hadn't gone through this. So that's been pretty neat. And then, yeah, like I said, I mean we, we started, you know, Teddy, my wife and I were both, uh, it's not like we were insanely successful in our professions at at, at that point, kind of late twenties still.

Paying off college debt and these sorts of things. And 

Jim: yeah, 

Ryan: we were 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 ev even the juicing adds up of all the produce and all this stuff.

So we, we started putting everything we were doing out there for, just for fundraising and, and to, and to help other people. 'cause we got tired of being the only parents in the, in the hospital, not. Availing ourselves of the, of the hospital snack cart, right? Yeah. So may maybe if we put everything we're doing out there and, uh, you know, it'll help some other people and, and then we, you know, attached it to a fundraiser and we'd, we were able to raise tens of thousands of dollars from people all over the world who we'd never met before, which was just, that's crazy.

Amazing, right? And, uh, but yeah, that, that kind of turned into its own little following, I guess you could say. And. And then, uh, and then somewhere along the way the, the day job went away. It was not like a you're fired sort of thing, but, uh, you know, the, they were really supportive of everything and, but yeah, they, they essentially just changed business models and, and stopped meeting sales guys.

So, yeah. And that was another like, you know, do, do, I, we're, we're, we're tens of thousands of dollars in debts and, uh, don't, don't have two nickels rubbed together, but, you know, we, we've got this website. The website isn't making any money at the time. 'cause that's not what we, we intended it for. 

Jim: Right. 

Ryan: But, uh, may maybe, you know, I have a two month severance, maybe we can make it work in two months.

And somehow we did. Wow. And yeah. And so that's, it's, it's been really neat. Uh, we, we got into the online summit world at first and did, did a bunch of, you know, summits back when those were cool. Just had it and started interviewing 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, I started going to all these integrative physicians conferences that are usually just for physicians, but I kind of talked my way in there and, um, 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, um, that kind of turned into a podcast.

And then a, a membership program that's our going Integrative Plus membership where we get the, 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 kinda like a podcast, but in, instead it's, you know, you, you as the, the person actually get to ask the questions live.

And that's what I would've given anything for when, when we were going through it. Just, uh, you know, 'cause 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, uh, for, for your situation anyway, right?

Jim: Yes, 

Ryan: definitely. Yeah. It's the, 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: You're enjoying what you're doing now, right? You feel more fulfilled than before, probably 

Ryan: You could say that. 

Jim: Yeah. You have a mission than it was, you know, just having a career, so, wow.

Ryan: Yep, yep. Which, ironically, you know, I always wanted to do something more important, whatever that means, than, uh, than, than just running around selling something and, um. I thought I was gonna be a senator at one point. Right. That's, I was getting into political type stuff. But, uh, now, now if you'd, if you said, Hey, Ryan, do you wanna be a senator?

I would, I would say no. Um, but yeah, this, this is the, this is the more important thing and it's, it's, it's been really cool. 

Jim: Anything you do that changes people's lives in a positive way, it's, it's 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 maybe one of the summits. It's been quite a while. I've probably been on there from the beginning when I was doing my research and I'm a terrible researcher. Because I don't, I don't go deep too easily. I'm like, yeah, 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. You know? I, I just use logic and then I move on. But, uh, I probably some, 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: I'll take it. Yeah. The, the email is, like I said, that's been the one thing that we, we've been consistent on the whole time and that that's a lot of fun.

Right. 'cause, um, I, I'm kind of a, 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: Yeah. 

Ryan: See, make sure to make sure to see the big picture. But I, I do like geeking out on stuff. Right. And, and Right. You know, we're, we're kind of, I, I, I think that's why people started following us originally is because, you know, they, 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, that's been the, one of the more fun things we do every week is we, we, we do a kind 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, um, yeah, and then, you know, speaking of those tools, it that's, um, we, we started, we started our own supplement company a couple years ago, which was. Also really needed some, something we kind of wished was there the whole time and it wasn't, um, which was essentially just, you know, there's kind of call 'em 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, um, but yeah, you know the thing, 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 sten 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, 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.

Um, and then, you know, you'd find a source for something and you'd, you'd think, okay, this is good. Uh, 'cause we're, we're also like, you know, when you, and I'm sure you've, I'm sure most people have heard listening, that ordering any old bottle of curcumin is you're, you're probably gonna get a bunch of heavy metals and glyphosate and, 

Jim: yeah.

Ryan: Uh, steer rates and dioxides and all these things, right? Or, 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, uh, it was also the absolute cleanest that you could find in terms of, you know, just absolute lowest, lowest, lowest possible levels of heavy metals. Glyphosate, no glyphosate and no unnatural excipients and glass bottle and the whole thing. So yeah, that's um.

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: 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, I'm a person. I don't want you to take aspirin. I never take anything. But, and all of a sudden, wow, I got a month or two to live. Maybe I should do something about that. And, and of course I did go on immunotherapy before I knew anything.

And it did shrink. I had eight tumors. It shrunk 'em in the first two months. And I didn't really have a lot of side effects. I mean. I reacted well, I know the way they, uh, 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%.

Well, okay, that's good. I'm, 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, uh, 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, uh, 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, uh, 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, good 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 'cause 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, I thought, well, I never stress 'cause 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, uh, mindset. And I'm like, oh, why am I stressed?

You know, just relax. I gotta pull 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 ahold of you? 

Ryan: The, uh, the main command station is the, is the stern method.com. 

Jim: Okay. 

Ryan: Um, and yeah, I, 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, 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, our going integrative plus.

Program where, where, you know, we, lots of good stuff there. Uh, calls with me, calls with doctors, calls with, we do group intention healing calls and mind body healing calls, and huge library, you know, past content and, uh, that's all transcribed and, and loaded into a little private search engine type thing.

So if, if you've 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 kinda like our own little uncensored cancer Google, I like to think of it as, which is, which is really cool. Yeah. And then also, you know, the, the, the supplement company, our Health Naturally is that, that's got its own website, our health naturally.com.

But you can, you can find it, uh, 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, uh, for healing Strong. That's actually, that's actually 20%.

Um, and that code is, uh, healing Strong 20. I would ask you not to. Go posting that to your, your social media or something. 'cause that's for, that's for, for Healing Strong members or whatever, you know, participants only. Um, and so I probably shouldn't even be saying, be saying it publicly, but, you know, but what the heck?

Uh, but it's, it's healing strong participants that are listening to this. We'll, we'll, we'll say that. 

Jim: That's 

Ryan: right. Um, so yeah. Yeah. You guys can use that on, on our health naturally.com podcast as well. That's called. 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 uh, yeah, you can, you can find that on your, your podcast platform of choice as well. Maybe that's about it for now. 

Jim: Alright, well Ryan, it was great to actually meet the person whose email list I'm. I'm gonna pay more attention 'cause I, you know, I'm on so many lists 'cause 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. I like being without kids. 

Ryan: Well, yeah. And 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.

Mm-hmm. And then there's also the information overwhelm thing, and that's the'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 right 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? Right. Right. And so it's like 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, that you should be doing. And, uh, 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, uh, it's like all these, you know, all these thoughts that I would've never had, or not even thoughts, but more in intuition, like, you should do this sort of thing. That's 

Jim: right. 

Ryan: More of those happens.

So yeah, find the balance there. 

Jim: Lot of wisdom. Now I gotta use it. Golly. Well, Ryan, thank you so much for, uh, spending your time with us, and I know you got plenty to do. I'm glad that rider's doing well. And, uh, that, uh, you went into a direction that changes people's lives. So thanks for what you do. 

Ryan: Right back at you, Jim, 

Announcer: you've been listening to the I Am 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 healing strong.org to find one near you or start your own while you're there, create a free My Healing Strong 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.