Transcript Disclaimer – Please note that the following transcript has been machine generated by an AI software and therefore may include errors or omissions.

Robin Daly
It’s a real pleasure to have you as my guest. We were chatting after you attended our in-person conference in London recently and it just clearly prompted an eclectic mix of thoughts for you that have the makings of some interesting discussions.

Robin Daly
So let’s see where we get to with it all today. But first of all, before we dig in, it’s your first time on the show. I wonder if you just want to introduce yourself to the listeners and say a little bit about what you do and why.

Silvia Mensurati
Right. It’s an immense pleasure that I’m here today. Thank you very much for having me. So I’m a nutritionist and naturopath and herbalist and basically I just help people in their path to good health.

Silvia Mensurati
I work a lot with cancer patients and my aim is really to empower them with knowledge on what is available out there, what they can do to put the body back on track and ready to fight. The conference was really interesting.

Silvia Mensurati
I really enjoyed it. There were loads of very interesting talks and what really struck me was what came out of it that no matter how far we go with research and in the last probably 15 to 20 years we had lots of advancement and there is more also knowledge because the internet is available so people can inform themselves but no matter how far we go with science there is always an aspect that is very personal to deal with and I think that is what came out from the conference that really, really impressed me because that is what I see in my practice every single time.

Robin Daly
right okay well that’s something i want to talk to you much more about and how did you get started with this kind of work

Silvia Mensurati
that was something that I just realized, you know, in the, probably in the past five years, how everything got planned in my life. So, um, let’s say that, um, cancer is something that, um, I, I felt the presence of cancer during my life quite often.

Silvia Mensurati
And since a very young age as well, I remember, uh, being a toddler, probably about six years old, five, six years old, and there was this sudden change. Um, we, we were living in Rome, a big city, and suddenly we had to move.

Silvia Mensurati
We were moving in the countryside. I had to change school and, and there was this new life at Rome. And the reason was that my father was not well. And so, uh, and I was hearing, you know, when all those were told, you know, I was hearing this word cancer, cancer, and I was asked to myself, what is this cancer, you know?

Silvia Mensurati
But then, um, I saw how, uh, my family life changed. So, um, we started to grow our food. My father, um, was spending a lot of time walking outside and he was, uh, eating completely different fruit food from what I, well, we were eating at the table.

Silvia Mensurati
And, and I was asking myself, you know, as I thought, you know, what, what is it? What’s until 82, 83 years old. So, um, and, and I can see now all the changes that he has done in his life that took him to, to that kind of results.

Silvia Mensurati
He started to do yoga in his seventies. Um, and then a few years forward, I saw, um, my mom, uh, uh, absolutely going completely through a different experience. So she got into a hospital with a cough and she came out 20 days later in a coffin and that was stomach cancer.

Silvia Mensurati
It was a late stage. Um, they really, I saw with my eyes how, uh, the doctors were kind of considering her body a guinea pig. So they tried lots of things on her and of course nothing worked. And, and that was another, you know, view that I had of cancer.

Silvia Mensurati
And I was, you know, thinking, Oh, so that cancer is really something bad because, you know, and then years later, I got cancer. So I had that call from the doctor saying, you know, there is something here that is not right.

Silvia Mensurati
And, and I asked to myself at that moment, what shall I do? You know, and I remember that I was completely tired, exhausted from my experience with my mom. She just passed away five years earlier. Um, I was exhausted with my work and nine to five job.

Silvia Mensurati
It was very demanding and I just decided to leave and I went to backpacking for three months in Mexico. Um, and then I ended up staying there for two years and I probably healed myself in that way. Um, only now I’m realizing how there are different aspects of cancers to address.

Silvia Mensurati
it’s not only, I was listening to lots of speakers at the conference. Everyone was saying it’s not only, uh, the war between the doctors and the cancer, the medicine and the cancer. Um, it’s much, much more than that.

Silvia Mensurati
So the approach has to be full spectrum. Um, it has to really encompass everything nutrition, exercise for sure. Breathing, um, everything, uh, stress has to go. We need really to reconnect with ourselves and, and then our body will, we’ll be able to, you know, go ahead.

Robin Daly
well that you’re right. That’s very much the message which we’re trying to put across as the message of integration It all matters basically. Yeah, absolutely Inclusive. Yeah, very good All right.

Robin Daly
So thanks. So so let’s some of these things that you mentioned after is it just made you think Uh, let’s start out with supplements. You’ve got quite a bit to say about that the whole Transferring of the pharmaceutical pill popping mentality into the supplements arena So we’ve got that now got nutraceuticals being prescribed and taken Uh a rather like a pill for all else, you know that kind of paradigm So what’s your thinking about the role of supplements?

Silvia Mensurati
Yeah, they are being prescribed, as you said, but not many times they are being taken because they can be overruled by help me as well, yeah? Especially with people with cancer, we need to understand that already their absorption is compromised, their digestive system is compromised, so ending another pill that has to go through the same path as to go to the liver to be detoxified, so it can be overwhelming for the body.

Silvia Mensurati
They are very expensive as well, so not many people can afford the best. And also, I think we are risking, as you were saying, we are risking to go to the same route. When we talk about taking medicine and when we’re talking about taking supplements, we think that we can find healing in a box or that healing is on sale in a shop.

Silvia Mensurati
It’s not really like that. But anyway, from an absorption point of view, I really think that we can do a lot through food. It’s much more complete. You need to think that when they’re doing supplements, they’re taking a nutrient and they’re just isolating it and transforming it in something that can be on sale on the shelves.

Silvia Mensurati
So it’s done in a laboratory, so it loses, that simple nutrients loses all the synergies of all the other nutrients when they are in the same plant. So we’re always thinking about turcumene, turmeric, but turmeric is not only turcumene, it’s a lot more.

Silvia Mensurati
So by eating the whole, the real turmeric, we can really appreciate the whole benefit as a whole. And also I was listening, there is lots of confusion as well about, I don’t know, let’s say calcium. We know that standard care treatments can interfere with bone health and so doctors are usually willing to prescribe and to advise to take calcium.

Silvia Mensurati
We need to be really careful with calcium. There is lots of research that actually says the opposite, that is not really good for our bones, for our heart and for many other things. And also the majority of calcium supplements out there are made of calcium carbonate, which is actually chalk.

Silvia Mensurati
So it would be much better to have calcium through food. I’m not talking only about dairy, there are lots of vegetables that are really rich in calcium. I just want to mention okra, which are readily available in any corner shop, especially here in England, in the UK.

Silvia Mensurati
They have a huge amount of calcium and moringa, moringa is probably, there was a study that was saying that it’s got 17 times more calcium than milk. And again, it’s very easily available. Just go to your corner shop, talk to the guy and ask for moringa.

Robin Daly
I don’t know what it looks like, even. Right. OK, what is that?

Silvia Mensurati
It’s a tree. It’s a beautiful tree that grows wildly in all southeastern Asia. I remember when I was in Sri Lanka, I was just picking leaves from the tree and I had been like an omelette with that. It’s amazing.

Silvia Mensurati
Here, you can find the fresh leaves, if you ask, to the corner shop or you can find the powder and it’s quite cheap. Don’t go to, I mean, big, healthy shop. Just go to your corner shop and ask them because they know the real source.

Silvia Mensurati
So, it’s all organic.

Robin Daly
I mean, the topic of supplements leads on to the apparent complexity involved in integrative care these days. So, everybody’s got rows of these complicated standing supplements on the shelf.

Robin Daly
Often, I think you made the comment, they quite often unopened, you know, that, and people are having to deal with the amazing level of complexity. And also, as you just said, costs as well. They’re not cheap, these things.

Silvia Mensurati
No, they’re not. And we need to remember that it’s a market and many pharmaceutical companies are producing supplements as well. So it’s the same, you know, the money goes in the same pocket. We need to be really, really careful.

Silvia Mensurati
The issue is that it’s all available in nature. Yeah. We created supplements because we want something fast and quick, something that we can just grab. And that’s the pill. We are attracted to the pill, the tablet.

Silvia Mensurati
So that’s how I think the supplement market can still be so thriving. But I remember when Brit was talking about, you know, she was offering the juice and everything, she was saying, you got everything in what you can put in your table every single day and it doesn’t cost a lot.

Silvia Mensurati
Actually, it’s quite cheap. You know, there was, for example, there was a study mentioned in the conference about an antifungal. I think it was itroconazole. That’s the study. Yeah. But what about berberine?

Silvia Mensurati
What about garlic? You know, what about aloe vera? These are potent antifungal and there are probably more than 5,000 years of kind of research, you know, and proof that they work.

Robin Daly
Yeah, it’s interesting, isn’t it? So I mean, this issue of cost is a very important one, because it breaks the bank for a lot of people trying to do everything. And it’s all got to be paid for. And yeah, so I think it’s a very important topic, we’re planning to address it, actually, we’re putting together a book about doing integrative cancer care on a low budget, which I think so many people need to do who approach us,

Robin Daly
you know, they don’t have a lot of money. And yet they know there are things they could do to help themselves. And of course, what immense frustration when you’re facing a life threatening disease, you can’t do everything you want to do.

Robin Daly
So knowing what you can do that gives you good bang for your buck, if you like, you know, it gives you a lot, but a lot very much money is hugely important. And obviously something you’re concerned about too.

Silvia Mensurati
Absolutely. And also we think that by spending money, we can buy healing. Again, we can’t, right? So we need really to start looking into ourselves. What is cancer? Why happened? You know, I always tell my clients, don’t think about the word cancer, just change it.

Silvia Mensurati
Yeah. There are other six letters words that are much more interesting, like change, like growth. You know, cancer can be a way to grow and a way to change. So if we are used to, you know, have the ready meal, if we are used to have every single thing ready there to be taken and just ingest it, just because we need to ingest something, that’s not going to give lots of results.

Silvia Mensurati
We really have to be conscious and interact with our body. Once we have this connection, then we can understand what’s working, what is not working for us. It’s like meat. We heard a lot talking about meat.

Silvia Mensurati
There are people who are saying, yes, we have to eat meat. There are other people who are saying, no, the WHO is considering meat as a carcinogen now, processed meat, right? But again, do you know many people who are eating meat?

Silvia Mensurati
I don’t. I know many people who are eating what they think is meat. So it’s the meat in, I don’t know, in the ready meal lasagna or it’s the ready chili con carne they can get from the supermarket or it’s the hot dog, it’s the sausage, it’s the bacon, it’s the chicken burger, it’s the burger.

Silvia Mensurati
This is not meat. Yeah. This is all derived from meat. Yeah. And we are reaching probably, we are going a little bit too far with this meat issue because we are creating now fake meat in a lab, which is even more dangerous.

Silvia Mensurati
And we need to remember when we say like now, I don’t know if you’ve heard about it, but they are inventing, they are making a vaccine for cows so they cannot fart anymore. I haven’t heard that name.

Silvia Mensurati
And cows now are responsible for climate change and everything. But then if you look at the first buyer of meat in the United States, it’s McDonald’s. So if we stop, if there is no demand, they have to stop producing, right?

Silvia Mensurati
Because nobody’s going to buy. So I think the choice, we have the choice in our hands. I find myself in my practice sometimes that I need to recommend meat, because there is no B12, because you know, levels are very low.

Silvia Mensurati
There is a very general malnutrition in the person. And the person has to have proper meat because it’s a very nutritious food that we can have. Not for a long time, you know, just to reestablish the B12 values, just to give, you know, a push to the body.

Silvia Mensurati
And that’s it. But the processed meat is not meat, and for sure can be a carcinogen.

Robin Daly
Yeah, it’s, to me, it’s always much more about what’s been done to the food than what the food is, you know, most foods, if they’ve been left alone, are good. So it’s when they’d be left around it.

Silvia Mensurati
Yeah, there are so many population, you know, in the corners of the earth, they were, you know, they have to eat, they eat meat, raw meat, they drink raw blood, you know, every single day, because otherwise they can’t survive.

Silvia Mensurati
So it’s, it’s what we have done with the meat. That is the problem. You know, it’s what we have done with food. And that is the problem. So, yeah.

Robin Daly
Okay, now I’m going to jump to something completely different. You noted cannabis as a medicine and CBD were prompting a lot of questions. And obviously, as with the enormously interesting psilocybin, there are legal issues around cannabis, which are prompting the setting up of clever ways to enable access without breaking the law.

Robin Daly
But that’s another matter. Maybe now we can talk about how the evidence for the effectiveness of cannabis medicines, of CBD, how they’ve moved on. I mean, it’s been in the cancer arena for quite a little while.

Robin Daly
It’s not the new kid on the block anymore. And I’m just interested to hear how the research has gone, where it’s taken it to.

Silvia Mensurati
The research is there, again, since centuries. Cannabis was considered a medicine until the beginning of the 20th century in America. It was in the books. It was considered, it was prescribed by doctors.

Silvia Mensurati
Then in the 1930s, I think, has been declared illegal. So that is the problem. There is research. Everybody knows it’s a medicine. But the problem is still up. So in America now, they are open a little bit.

Silvia Mensurati
You can find medicinal cannabis in pharmacies and dispensaries. You can have medical prescription for it. Here, no. I don’t think it is for cancer at least. There is probably something opening for autism and other brain issues.

Silvia Mensurati
But it’s not recognized for cancer yet. In my view, it’s only a legal problem. Then the issue comes with the… Because cannabis is not legal in many countries, and they isolated the CBD, the cannabidiol, which is one of the nutrients of the plant, and they marketed it.

Silvia Mensurati
So we can find now CBD oils in shops. The CBD oil that we find in shops is not really what we consider as magical cannabis, because that is the plant, the whole plant.

Robin Daly
It’s not, it’s only a part of it, yeah.

Silvia Mensurati
So he can help from, I don’t know, sleeping issues, he can probably calm the person down a little bit, but he has not particularly significant resources to be, you know, declared on anti-cancer nutrients.

Silvia Mensurati
So many people are just going abroad, unfortunately. Spain, Holland, America, this is the situation unfortunately.

Robin Daly
Yeah, well, that’s what people have to do to Iran. But so you’re saying that the evidence for the whole cannabis plant as a cancer medicine has continued to fill.

Silvia Mensurati
where is possible so like even in the United States it depends which state you are considering there are states warm or open and and for sure there is you know the possibility the opportunity to to have it and there are the states which are not allowing it and it’s definitely a political decision I mean I can see why because of course there will not be probably the need for institutionalized medicine anymore because plants can be you know very strong and potent and yeah it’s a political decision unfortunately

Silvia Mensurati
It has been studied for many different kind of cancers, for brain tumors, for lung cancers, breast cancers, and you know, it’s a shame, really.

Robin Daly
a shame it’s not available yet. So I mean it’s useful for side effects as well, isn’t there? I mean that’s something that’s been established for quite a long time.

Silvia Mensurati
Yes, one of the issues is also appetite. It can increase the appetite. It’s not only an adaptogen. It’s not only a plant that has benefits on our nervous system. It’s a very full spectrum plant.

Robin Daly
Okay, so, in keeping with our eclectic chat, I’m going to jump to something else now completely different. You mentioned that you’re preparing a workshop on natural solutions for the menopause. Now that menopause, well, why does it relate to your hands?

Robin Daly
Well, a lot of people get treatment that actually brings on the menopause very suddenly. And it’s quite a deal, basically, for a young woman to be suddenly plunged into menopause. It could be drugs, it could be surgery.

Robin Daly
So, do you want to say a bit about your workshop, your building, and what people are going to expect to learn?

Silvia Mensurati
Yes, so as the name suggests, I’m trying to give the opportunity to find natural solution for the menopause, because again, the answer that we have from the medical world is hormones. And unfortunately, especially with cancer, you know, many, many times.

Silvia Mensurati
So I often go with my clients to their appointments with the surgeon or their oncologist, and especially for breast cancer and for other genealogical cancers. If not the first, but the second question is, have you been on HRT or are you on HRT?

Silvia Mensurati
So there is a connection clearly, right? And unfortunately, HRT is probably the only solution that the NHS can offer at the moment for the menopause. And they’re also using hormones to regulate many kinds of cancers.

Silvia Mensurati
So yes, I try to offer natural solution instead, because there is a risk of accumulation in the body of these hormones. They can give many issues later on in life, as for example, cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and many other issues.

Robin Daly
So yeah, what can people expect? First of all, the workshop you’re building, this is going to be an online workshop, is it?

Silvia Mensurati
Yes, and I will also present it in different spots in London. I will give you the access soon. Yes, because I would like to also, it’s not only the workshop and people would experience something like how they can apply what they learn in real life.

Silvia Mensurati
So there will be some herbal teas and there will be some dishes prepared with specific foods that can, you know, help. So one of the things with the menopause is to try to balance whatever level of hormones we’re still producing.

Silvia Mensurati
So we always been told that as soon as we reach menopause, we stop producing estrogen progesterone, which is actually not true. So we can have our ovaries removed, for example, and technically, you know, being dumped in menopause, but our body still produces estrogen.

Silvia Mensurati
Many other cells are producing estrogen and progesterone in a very small level. My aim is to support the body and to support the production of natural hormones. I use a lot of phyton, use nutrients, so lots of plants again, for example, flaxseed and, you know, a very plant-based diet and making sure the person gets all the minerals and all the vitamins that are needed for good health.

Silvia Mensurati
And then there are lots of, you know, symptoms of the menopause. So every person is different again, so we need to address the person. So we can’t say really, I don’t know, sage is good for the hot flashes.

Silvia Mensurati
Yes, it is. It will work for some people, but for some other people, something else will work. So yeah, I just would like to help, you know, towards love, with knowledge, towards peace, you know, going through this phase of life, which is quite important for us, for all women.

Robin Daly
Absolutely. Well, it’s great to focus in on it in this way, because yeah, these things are, they’re one of the panoply of side effects that cancer treatment throws at people. But all too easily, it’s just in the list along with everything else.

Robin Daly
But actually, it’s majorly life changing, isn’t it? It’s a big deal.

Silvia Mensurati
overseen like doctors don’t pay any kind of attention to it. And we are like women are completely left alone. And they don’t even know they are amenable. They just know that, you know, they’re not really informed.

Silvia Mensurati
Yes, they don’t get the information from doctor.

Robin Daly
Right. Now look, I noticed one thing you said there, which no other practitioners ever said to me, which is you go into lots of the appointments with your client. Very interesting. Now, I mean, the story I usually get told is how, you know, the practitioner communicates with the oncologist, say, and never hears anything back, you know, they write all these letters in telling them what they’re doing and why everything and they don’t hear a thing back.

Robin Daly
That’s quite a common story, but I don’t hear people going in it. And so are you directly engaging with them or being a bit of a spectator?

Silvia Mensurati
So the reason why I started to go is first of all, because I was never receiving an answer when I was writing and also to support, right? Because I mean, these appointments are a killer just by themselves.

Silvia Mensurati
Yeah. The person has really to prepare, has to be really, really strong when you get into the room and sit down. Yeah. You have to really gather all your energy and all your confidence to really just to be there and exist as a person because they can make you feel so small and it’s really, really well tough.

Silvia Mensurati
Sometimes I go and support. So I’m there as a spectator, first of all, I’m just supporting. So I’m just next sitting next to my client and I’m just listening. And then sometimes I can ask a few questions at the very end.

Silvia Mensurati
And yes, there are some times where I can, it’s not an opening. Do what you want or keep doing what you’re doing, but with the hands like this. So it means I don’t want to know what you’re doing at the same time.

Silvia Mensurati
Yeah, they don’t know what we are doing with the client, but they know that the client is getting better. So they can’t, you know, they’re not interested, but they’re not saying, Oh, don’t do this or don’t do that.

Silvia Mensurati
And other times instead, it’s absolutely horrible. And, and of course, I I’m there as a support. I don’t interfere. But yeah, then I just say to my client, maybe you should get a second opinion. Or maybe you know, you should ask for to see someone else.

Silvia Mensurati
So it’s always changing.

Robin Daly
you know, this kind of battleground, this having to ready yourself for this horrendous ordeal of going for an appointment. But it shouldn’t be you’re going to help actually, it should be great, you know, should be a place of safety, a place of reassurance.

Robin Daly
It’s a terrible, terrible situation. Most people don’t realise that it’s like that until they’ve been in the door and experienced it themselves, they have no idea what’s happening in oncology. Absolutely.

Robin Daly
And so we’ve drafted our charter for oncology to actually highlight what’s going on, and to say that it needs to change now. And this whole culture, which is just horribly abusive, it needs to be addressed, it needs to add the spotlight shown on it.

Robin Daly
And we start doing something quite different. So, yeah, it’s, it’s been exactly the same as long as I’ve been running years to life, it’s never changed at all, particularly that I’ve noticed. And I don’t see any prospects of it changing unless we get right in there and say, hey, we don’t like this.

Silvia Mensurati
Absolutely. And there are things that patients can do if they just, you know, make one plus one. So for example, we know that one of the tests for cancer is a PET scan, right? And the PET scan is actually is comical, right?

Silvia Mensurati
They give us a kind of radioactive form of glucose so that all the cells go there and they are visible when they see, you know, that they need to be more on the screen. So, but just make it one plus one.

Silvia Mensurati
If you’re giving me glucose, because, so you’re giving me sugar, right? Because you want to see the cancer cells on the screen because the cancer cell I eat is sugar. Why are you telling me that it doesn’t matter what I eat, you know?

Silvia Mensurati
So just by making this kind of, just by seeing this, I’ve noticed because I’m saying to my clients, yes, as soon as you get in, you know, if he says anything like about food, just make this observation.

Silvia Mensurati
And as soon as my clients make this observation, the doctors start to kind of, ah, you know, maybe she knows something. Maybe I need to be more attentive here. I need to pay more attention. So just show that you are not a spectator of your health.

Silvia Mensurati
You’re actually in charge of your body. And if you start showing that, they will respect you.

Robin Daly
Good advice. Okay, we just got a minute or two left. I just want to come back again to the thing you brought up several times while we’ve been talking, which is about the healing process. I think we both agree that it’s something kind of mysterious about the whole thing.

Robin Daly
It’s not as straightforward as you think. It’s just a linear, do all the right things and you get the right results. It doesn’t work like that. Do you want to just say a little bit more about the process of healing and the sources of healing?

Silvia Mensurati
As a practitioner, I think the first thing to do is to look at inflammation, detoxification and the gut. So heal the gut, the first thing. All disease starts in the gut. That was Hippogratism many, many centuries ago.

Silvia Mensurati
For like the person start to establish this connection with your body. That dream that you have, that book that you want to write, that relationship that didn’t work, that thing that you had there and you kept it aside.

Silvia Mensurati
Now is the moment, right? So take charge, yeah? Go and live your dream, go and write the book, find your spot, find your corner, find your refuge and really get in touch with yourself with who you are.

Silvia Mensurati
And of course, eat clean, eat healthy, plan based, do exercise, try to go to the sunshine, try to be outside, walk bare feet if you can. Just you know connection with the earth, grounding, go in a forest.

Silvia Mensurati
In London there is epic forest, it’s very easily reachable by tube. You know you don’t have to go that far or you can go in a park or you can go you know, but just be outside, be in nature and try to find this connection and look around you, you know, really go deep and think that there is a need for change and you can start today and you have time.

Silvia Mensurati
Yeah, there is no rush, no rush. You just probably if you had this news about your cancer, you need to think that nothing has changed compared from yesterday, you just today, you know, but yeah, nothing has real changed.

Silvia Mensurati
So you have time, there is time and you know, whatever they say, you know, they just say considering statistics and you’re not a statistic. Yeah, you’re a person. So just by yourself, you can make a difference, but you need to believe in it and you need to be really willing to change.

Robin Daly
All right. Fantastic advice. Thank you, Sylvia. Look, quickly just tell people how they can find that more about you and your work and about your upcoming course.

Silvia Mensurati
Yes, so my website is nutritiontoheal.com, and you can reach me by email at sylvia at nutritiontoheal.com, and you can find me through YestoLife, of course.

Robin Daly
Of course. And thank you very much today for such a wide ranging chat, Sylvia. I think we covered the waterfront. And thank you for being a great supporter of yes to life.

Silvia Mensurati
Thank you. Thank you for having me and thanks to everybody.