Not Today Cancer

Darren and I are back with a real life update before Thanksgiving: my visit with the cardiologist and starting a low-dose statin, how I'm feeling after a few weeks on Lexapro, and why I closed one chapter of my career to step into something that feels so aligned with my life after cancer. Then we talk about gratitude when you're in the thick of it, whether that's a new diagnosis, long-term side effects, or just not feeling like yourself. You'll hear what the research says about gratitude and leave with a simple morning and bedtime routine you can start tomorrow.

In this episode: • My cardiologist visit and why I started a low-dose statin • A month or so on Lexapro and feeling so much better • Closing a chapter and why this new path feels aligned after cancer • Why gratitude can feel hard during the holidays when you're in the thick of it • What research says about gratitude, sleep, and well-being • A tiny morning routine that's all for you • A bedtime look back at the small good moments in your day

Get my Newsletter every Thursday morning: https://www.jendelvaux.com/thursday-letter My coffee, Purity Coffee: https://puritycoffee.com/COACHJENNY (use code COACHJENNY for 20% off) My Core4 (where I finanlly have ENERGY, SLEEP and no brain fog!!): https://pergainc.com/en-us/jendelvaux/pages/product-page This podcast is for education and inspiration only and is never medical advice. Always talk with your own doctor before making any changes to your care.

Is your supplement cabinet actually doing what you think it's doing? In this special co-hosted episode, I team up with Michelle Patidar of Cancer Proof Living to sit down with Santiago Campos, a supplement formulator who started his career in nuclear medicine.

Santiago has spent close to 15 years across healthcare, nutrition retail and supplement formulation. He's been the formulator, the retailer and the brand builder, so he sees supplements from the lab bench, the store shelf and the business side all at once. Today he leads science and product at Perga.

In this episode we talk about:

• How a nuclear medicine background shaped the way he looks at the body
• Why so many of us can't get our energy back after treatment
• Michelle's story of eating "everything right" and still not absorbing her nutrients
• Everyday exposures before 8am and how they add up
• Why you should always flip the bottle over and read the back
• Proprietary blends, pixie dusting and window dressing
• What third party seals like NSF, USP and USDA Organic actually mean
• Why a missing allergen statement is a red flag
• Gut health, cellular health and why supplement timing can matter

Connect with Santiago: Instagram: @santiago.campos1

Connect with Michelle: Cancer Proof Living podcast | Revival Health and Wellness | Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revival.health.wellness/

Learn more about the Core 4: 40% off the core4

Connect with Jen: Website: https://jendelvaux.com Instagram & TikTok: @jendelvaux Free guided meditation: https://www.jendelvaux.com/calm Not Today Cancer Inner Circle: weekly Thursday calls at 1pm ET, recorded, plus a group chat, just $19.99/month: https://www.jendelvaux.com/ntc Free Not Today Cancer community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1272880634809475

What I take every day: Perga Core 4 (CoreFlow, CoreBlue, CoreGreen, CoreRed): https://pergainc.com/en-us/jendelvaux/pages/product-page

If this episode meant something to you, please share it with someone who needs to hear it. Someone out there is sitting alone with these same decisions, and this conversation might be exactly what helps.

Not today, cancer.

This episode is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please talk with your care team about decisions related to your treatment.

What happens when a clear mammogram doesn't match what your gut is telling you?

Debra Annunziata was diagnosed with breast cancer at 49, just weeks after a normal mammogram. She felt something small in the shower, was told it was probably nothing, and couldn't shake the nudge to get it checked. That nudge led to a stage 1, grade 2 invasive diagnosis, a CHEK2 genetic mutation, and a double mastectomy she had to advocate hard to get.

Debra is a wife, a mom of two busy teens, a licensed clinical social worker turned realtor, and someone who spent the 10 years before her diagnosis getting into the best shape of her life without knowing what she was preparing for.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Finding out she had cancer from ChatGPT at 5am before Pilates
• Why "it's the good kind" doesn't make the diagnosis any less scary
• Pushing back on a lumpectomy recommendation and getting multiple opinions
• Her CHEK2 result and how it changed the surgical conversation
• Oncotype scores, sentinel nodes, and avoiding chemo and radiation
• The brain fog on tamoxifen and her decision to stop taking it
• Why there's no one right way through treatment, and no room for judgment in the breast cancer sisterhood
• Pursuing a Signatera test after being told no
• Strength training, stress, and slowing down as a type A mom
• How her daughter found out, and what she told her kids
• Living "slower and deeper" after cancer

Debra's biggest message: you're allowed to question, ask for more, and get second opinions. You're the one living in that body for the rest of your life.

Connect with Debra: Instagram and TikTok: @debrasellsnj Debra is based in Monmouth County, New Jersey.

Connect with Jen: Website: https://jendelvaux.com Instagram & TikTok: @jendelvaux Free guided meditation: https://www.jendelvaux.com/calm Not Today Cancer Inner Circle: weekly Thursday calls at 1pm ET, recorded, plus a group chat, just $19.99/month: https://www.jendelvaux.com/ntc Free Not Today Cancer community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1272880634809475

What I take every day: Perga Core 4 (CoreFlow, CoreBlue, CoreGreen, CoreRed): https://pergainc.com/en-us/jendelvaux/pages/product-page

If this episode meant something to you, please share it with someone who needs to hear it. Someone out there is sitting alone with these same decisions, and this conversation might be exactly what helps.

Not today, cancer.

This episode is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please talk with your care team about decisions related to your treatment.

Still exhausted months or even years after treatment? You're not lazy, and it's not in your head. In this solo episode, Jen dives into the tiny power plants inside your cells, your mitochondria, and why they matter so much for energy after cancer.

Jen breaks down what mitochondria actually do, how chemotherapy and the loss of estrogen (from menopause, ovarian suppression, or aromatase inhibitors) are linked to changes in how they work, and why research shows exercise beat medication for cancer-related fatigue. Then she shares six simple, doable ways to support your mitochondria starting this week, plus what she personally takes every day.

In this episode:

• Why cancer-related fatigue is real and can last for years
• Mitochondria 101: how your cells make energy
• How chemo is linked to mitochondrial changes and muscle loss
• The estrogen and mitochondria connection
• 6 ways to support your mitochondria: movement, strength, food, sleep, calming your nervous system, and light
• What Jen personally takes: Perga Core 4
• This week's challenge: pick just one

  Connect with Jen: Website: https://jendelvaux.com Instagram & TikTok: @jendelvaux Free guided meditation: https://www.jendelvaux.com/calm Not Today Cancer Inner Circle: weekly Thursday calls at 1pm ET, recorded, plus a group chat, just $19.99/month: https://www.jendelvaux.com/ntc Free Not Today Cancer community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1272880634809475

  What I take every day: Perga Core 4 (CoreFlow, CoreBlue, CoreGreen, CoreRed): https://pergainc.com/jendelvaux/pages/select-your-pack Want to learn more first? DM me CORE4 on Instagram.

What does it really look like to be the caretaker when cancer comes into your home?

In this episode, I sit down with Melissa Coulier, wife of Full House's Dave Coulier, movement specialist, wellness educator, and founder of Recess Club. Over the last two years, Melissa walked alongside Dave through two completely different cancers, starting with a stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis in October 2024. Today Dave is in remission from both.

Melissa opens up about the day Dave told her "I have cancer," what it felt like to hold it together for him, and the emotions that come up when you give everything you have to someone you love. We talk about why she'll probably never use the words "cancer-free" again, how movement became her lifeline, and why the smallest moments of self-care matter most when you're in the thick of it.

We also dive into the story behind Awear Market, the nontoxic wellness marketplace Dave dreamed up from their couch so people don't have to do all the ingredient research themselves, plus the simple swaps they made at home with water, air, cleaning products, and laundry. And Melissa shares how a 20-minute walk with a friend turned into Recess Club, a community helping women step away from screens, get outside, and move together.

If you're a caretaker, or you love someone who is, this one is for you.

In this episode: 00:00 Welcome and intro 01:25 The day they heard "lymphoma" 03:00 Early symptoms and listening to your body 05:00 Why Dave chose to share his story publicly 07:19 Being the caretaker and losing pieces of yourself 10:06 The second diagnosis and why "remission" feels different 13:10 Movement as a lifeline 14:35 How Recess Club started 18:32 The story behind Awear Market 24:13 Why community matters in clean living 26:14 Simple home swaps: water, air, cleaning, and laundry 27:37 You don't have to swap everything at once 29:26 Nature as a reset for your nervous system 33:28 Advice for someone who just became a caretaker 35:43 How Recess Club grew organically 37:57 Where to find Melissa

Connect with Melissa: Instagram: @melissacoulier Recess Club: recess-club.com Awear Market: awearmarket.com Awear Market on Instagram: @awear.market

Connect with Jen: Website: https://jendelvaux.com Instagram & TikTok: @jendelvaux Not Today Cancer Inner Circle: weekly Thursday calls at 1pm ET, recorded, plus a group chat, just $19.99/month: jendelvaux.com/ntc

What I use every day: Perga Core 4 supplements (CoreFlow, CoreBlue, CoreGreen, CoreRed) for gut health, cellular energy, and daily support: https://pergainc.com/jendelvaux/pages/select-your-pack Want to learn more first? DM me CORE4 on Instagram.

If this episode meant something to you, share it with a caretaker in your life, and hit follow so you never miss an episode. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is never medical advice. Always talk with your doctor or healthcare team about your own care.

Today you're getting an unfiltered behind the mic with me and my husband Darren (aka Mr. Worldwide). No guest, no script. Just our real life right now.

Darren was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2009 and is living with grade 4 astrocytoma after three brain surgeries and two rounds of chemo and radiation. He's basically a walking miracle. Lately he's had some new and strange episodes, including a day where his mind felt like a "blank slate." We talk through what happened, what his care team said, his upcoming MRI, and how he stays so calm through all of it (we need "Be Like Darren" shirts).

Then it's my turn, and I'm the polar opposite. A routine checkup led to a conversation about my very high lipoprotein(a), which is linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular events, and a calcium score that showed plaque for the first time. I'm getting really honest about the fear, a recent panic attack that almost sent me to the ER, and why I finally decided to start medication for my anxiety. If you've been avoiding asking for help, this one's for you. You deserve to feel good.

In this episode:

• Darren's recent symptoms, possible breakthrough seizures, and his upcoming brain and liver imaging
• Why we say "don't look at the stats"
• What Lp(a) is and what a calcium score shows
• My panic attack, and why you should never feel embarrassed going to the ER for chest symptoms
• Choosing anxiety medication after avoiding it for so long
• Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the frustration with "pink" toxic products
• Not Today Cancer merch is coming!

Join the community: Inner Circle meets every Thursday at 1pm ET, recorded, plus a group chat. Just $19.99/month. JOIN HERE Free community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1272880634809475

Mentioned: Perga: CORE4 If this episode spoke to you, please share it with someone who might feel alone in what they're going through. We're here, and you're not by yourself.

Not today, cancer. 💗

This episode shares personal experiences and is not medical advice. Please talk with your healthcare team about your own care.

What is chemo really like? Registered nurse Mary Ghosh spent her career caring for patients. Then, at 41, her second mammogram found a 1.6 cm mass, and she became the patient herself. She was diagnosed with stage 1 triple negative breast cancer and spent six months in the chemo chair.

Mary didn't pretend it was fine. She told the truth: the fear, the fatigue, the hair loss, the steroid mood swings, the nerve pain, and all the strange little things nobody warns you about. She told it with humor, and she told it with a playlist. That became her book, Chemo Boogers: A Music-Fueled Memoir of Humor and Hope in the Chaos of Cancer.

If you're about to start chemo, you love someone who's in it right now, or you just need proof that laughter still belongs in hard places, this one's for you.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Getting a triple negative breast cancer diagnosis at 41 from just her second mammogram
• Why Mary is so passionate about mammograms and early detection
• Going from nurse to patient, and why she wanted to hear from people who had actually been through it
• Neoadjuvant chemo (chemo before surgery), the Red Devil, Taxol, and steroid side effects
• Why "day three" was always the hardest, and how she tracked her good and bad days
• How music became therapy, from Johnny Cash on the hard days to Flight of the Bumblebee on Taxol days
• How every chapter of her book pairs with a song, plus journal prompts to build your own chemo playlist
• The story behind the title Chemo Boogers
• Using humor to get through the hardest seasons of life and marriage
• The confusing "after," and how writing a book gave her purpose after treatment
• The best gift to give someone who's about to start chemo
• Mary's advice for anyone newly diagnosed: take a breath, you have a little time, and don't be afraid to reach out

Get Mary's book, Chemo Boogers: Amazon: https://a.co/d/0giNPJYf Also available at Barnes & Noble and wherever books are sold. Mary's chemo playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Pio6P00VwHmCD6VgWRCwq?si=zOT4L1sDQxCMImfRKe_nwg&utm_source=sms&pi=iXgwbhe8S76mV

Follow Mary: Instagram: @chemo_candor TikTok: @chemo_candor

A word from our sponsor: the Perga Core 4 Feeling like your energy has been hijacked since treatment? The Core 4 is my daily mitochondrial support system: CoreFlow and CoreBlue in the morning, and CoreGreen and CoreRed at night. All four are third-party tested and GMP verified. Grab yours here: https://pergainc.com/en-us/jendelvaux/pages/product-page

Connect with Jen: Instagram: @https://www.instagram.com/jendelvaux/ jendelvaux.com Email: [email protected]

If this episode helped you, please share it. You never know who's sitting alone right now, about to start chemo, and needs to hear Mary's story. And as always, not today, cancer.

If you've ever walked out of your last treatment appointment and thought "okay, now what," this one is for you.

Dr. Lucas Tims is a naturopathic doctor board certified in naturopathic oncology, a credential very few people in this country hold. He trained in microbiology, did a cancer-focused residency at City of Hope, and served as medical director at City of Hope Phoenix and the Riordan Clinic in Kansas. He now runs Root Causes in San Antonio.

But here's why I wanted him on. He didn't come to this from a textbook. His wife was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer while they were still dating and he was still in medical school. He has been the doctor and he has been the person in the waiting room.

We got into the question that almost nobody asks after a diagnosis: why. Not to assign blame, and I want to be really clear about that, because I think a lot of us hear "why" and immediately hear "what did I do wrong." That's not what this is. For me, asking why was the thing that gave me back a sense of control.

We also talked about what "terrain" actually means inside your body, why he says treating cancer without addressing the terrain is like clearing out the burnt furniture and leaving the house, and what he'd tell you to start with if you're overwhelmed and don't know where to begin.

Plus, he taught me a ten second test for your nervous system that I tried the second we got off the call.

What we get into:

• Why he thinks the victimhood mindset is the most dangerous thing you can carry
• What conventional cancer care does extraordinarily well, and where the blind spot is
• What "terrain" actually means, and the soil analogy that finally made it click for me
• Restoring immune function after chemo or radiation
• When to bring in integrative care (his answer surprised me)
• The six core therapies and what each one is for
• My own IV vitamin C experience that scared me off, and what went wrong
• Cortisol, the sympathetic nervous system, and why stress isn't a soft topic
• The humming test
• The three toxic exposures he'd clean up first, and why your laundry room might be the dirtiest room in your house
• Endocrine disruptors versus your own hormones, and why he says those are not the same conversation
• Hormone positive breast cancer, the Dutch test, and where he lands on HRT
• Why prevention is so hard, even when you have the information in front of you
• His book, coming in 2027

  Resources

  • Start here: the page Dr. Tims built just for Not Today Cancer listeners, with the six core therapy white papers and the first chapter of his book. rootcausesoncology.com/ntc
  • His Substack, where he writes about terrain and root cause work: rootcauses.substack.com
  • Root Causes on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doctorlucas/
  • Those white papers are worth grabbing even if you never become a patient. They're a few pages each and they're specifically designed so you can hand them to your own oncologist.

If you have ever finished treatment, rung the bell, and thought "wait, why do I feel worse now than I did during chemo," this episode is for you.

Dr. Eleonora Teplinsky is back on the show, and there is a very good reason. She is a board-certified medical oncologist specializing in breast and gynecologic cancers, Director of Breast and Gynecologic Medical Oncology at Valley Health System in New Jersey, host of the Interlude podcast, and her first book, Beyond the Pink: Navigating Life, Health, and Breast Cancer, comes out September 29.

Her core message is one we talk about here constantly: survivorship does not start when treatment ends. It starts the day you are diagnosed.

We go deep into the things most women are never prepared for. Why the "after" is often harder than active treatment. Why a DEXA scan is only half the bone health picture and muscle mass is the piece almost no one measures. What the emerging GLP-1 and breast cancer recurrence research actually shows, and what it does not show yet. Why vaginal estrogen is still being denied to women who have every guideline on their side. Where testosterone and systemic HRT fit in, and the three-bucket framework she uses to help patients decide. And how to tell trustworthy health information from the noise.

Dr. Teplinsky wrote Beyond the Pink with more than 400 citations, and where the evidence does not exist yet, she says so. It is the resource she wished her patients had, and it is written to be brought into the exam room.

• Why survivorship begins on day one, not after your last treatment
• The gap in medical training around menopause, sexual health, and long-term survivorship
• Why the post-treatment period is often the hardest, and why the support disappears right when you need it
• Fear of recurrence and scanxiety, and what an oncologist actually says to patients living in it
• Bone health after an aromatase inhibitor: DEXA scans, calcium, vitamin D, and bone medications
• The muscle health conversation almost no one is having, sarcopenia, and how it is linked to aromatase inhibitor side effects and adherence
• How little movement it actually takes: resistance bands, dumbbells, and 20 minutes
• GLP-1s and breast cancer: the recurrence signal, what is still unknown, and why the source of your prescription matters
• Why "humans are not mice" and the caution around unstudied peptides
• Sexual health after cancer: body image, intimacy, dryness, bladder issues, and why sexual health is health
• Vaginal estrogen: the guidelines, the study that gets misquoted, and the link to reduced UTIs, sepsis, and hospitalizations
• Testosterone after breast cancer: the theoretical concerns, the hormone receptor nuance, and what newer data suggests
• Systemic HRT and the three-bucket framework: symptoms, recurrence risk, and your personal risk tolerance
• A chapter-by-chapter look inside Beyond the Pink
• Her three pieces of advice for someone newly diagnosed
• Being mindful of what you consume online, and why nothing good happens on social media after 10pm Connect with Dr. Eleonora Teplinsky
  • Pre-order Beyond the Pink: Navigating Life, Health, and Breast Cancer (out September 29): https://interludecancerstories.com/book/
  • Pre-order on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Pink-Navigating-Health-Breast/dp/1538777142
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drteplinsky/
  • Interlude podcast and website: https://interludecancerstories.com/
  Connect with Jen
  • Website: https://www.jendelvaux.com
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jendelvaux
  • Free guide, the changes I made after my diagnosis: https://www.jendelvaux.com/nowwhat

  If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who needs it, and follow the show so you never miss an episode. Pre-order Beyond the Pink, take care of yourself, and be gentle with yourself.

  This episode is for educational purposes and is not medical advice. Please talk with your own care team about what is right for you.

We talk a lot on this show about root causes...what you eat, what you're exposed to, what you're healing inside of. This episode is about the one almost nobody checks: the air in your own home.

Ariana Thacker is a chemical engineer and venture capitalist who, by her own description, was a highly functional human — daily boot camp, dialed-in diet, running a VC firm solo. Within months of moving into a new apartment, she was rereading simple emails just to process them, losing clumps of hair, and getting winded on the stairs. She saw more than a dozen providers — immunologists, allergists, pulmonologists, neurologists, PCPs — and none of them ran the right test. Most didn't believe mold could cause a whole-body inflammatory response at all.

It took a Shoemaker-certified physician to name it: CIRS, chronic inflammatory response syndrome. She had one of the "dreaded" HLA haplotypes — part of the roughly 24% of the U.S. population that can't clear biotoxins on its own.

She got better. Then she built the road she'd just clawed her way down. Ariana is the founder and CEO of MoldCo, a virtual clinic that answers three questions: Am I being exposed? Is mold making me sick? How do I get better? — with a $199 home test and a lab panel that starts at $56, roughly a tenth the cost of what most people pay to guess.

Jen shares her own story too: a mold inspection that came back clean, and the leak found years later behind the living room wall by the family who bought the house.

• Why "highly functional" doesn't protect you — and how fast the symptoms started
• The 24% with a genetic susceptibility to mold, and what HLA haplotypes actually mean
• What CIRS is, and why ~80% of cases trace back to a water-damaged building
• Why the urinary mycotoxin test may be sending people down the wrong path — and the inflammatory markers (MMP9, MSH, TGF beta-1, C4A) that matter more
• How to hire a mold inspector who's actually qualified — the certifications to ask for and the 70-page report you should expect
• Why mold grows within 24–48 hours of water intrusion, and why new builds can be worse, not better
• The "canary effect": why one person in a house gets sick and nobody else does
• Prescription binders vs. natural binders — and why the natural route can take ten times longer
• Do air purifiers actually help?
• Moldy coffee and protein powder: is ingested mold the real threat, or is it what you're breathing?
• The environmental red flags to walk your own house for this week

Look up Shoemaker biotoxin symptom clusters (S-H-O-E-M-A-K-E-R). If a lot of those boxes light up for you — you only need one symptom per box to count — that's a strong signal to investigate your environment.

Then walk your home for: that earthy, musty odor (especially in a basement), visible mold, peeling or cracking paint, warped flooring, dust on your HVAC vents, and indoor humidity consistently above 60%.

• MoldCo — moldco.com
• Instagram — @themoldcompany
• LinkedIn — in/arianadthacker
• X — @m0ldilocks

  🤍 Follow The After on Instagram: @jendelvaux 💬 Join the community: jendelvaux.com/ntc

  Links and resources:

  • CoreFlow waitlist: JOIN HERE
  • Free Not Today Cancer community: Request to join here
  • Find Jen on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jendelvaux/
  • Email Jen: [email protected]

  Loved this episode? I would love it if you left a 5 star review. And if it gave you one idea to try tomorrow morning, share it with a friend who could use a softer, stronger start to her day.

  Whether you're a cancer survivor, newly diagnosed, or just want to eat for a longer, healthier life, this is a practical, hopeful place to start.

  This episode is for information and encouragement, not medical advice — always check with your care team.

  Not today, cancer. 💛