Cancer Survivor Ginny Brant Discusses Building Our Immune Systems To Also Fight COVID-19

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Or to see chickens and other animals to donate, go to crittercampaign.org. Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver. I am Peter Rosenberger. Glad to have you with us. This is the nation's number one show for you as a family caregiver. How are you doing? How are you holding up?

How are you feeling? That's what we're about here on this show, and we're glad to hear that Jon Butler is also with us. You know him. You love him.

He's the man that is so tall that he doesn't really understand the comment of Deep Into the Pool. He is wonderful. How are you doing, Peter? We were off last week, Jon, so I'm glad to have you with us. Well, I am a little off every week, so, you know. And if you'd like to call into the show, that number is 877.

Finish it for me, Jon. I am traveling related because I just got back from South Carolina. I went down to spend a week with my folks. My mother had had a pretty significant fall some seven weeks ago, but she is recovering well. She's doing just fine. She broke her leg, but she has healed up.

The orthopedist gave her a good report and basically cleared her, and Dad has Parkinson's, and so I just went down and pulled a shift with them, and I had a friend come out here and stay with Gracie. But traveling across the continent and going. By the way, Jon, in Montana, our humidity here is not really a factor, and I forgot what South Carolina humidity could be like. I was raised there. I was born there. And, of course, I lived for 35 years in Tennessee, but I kind of forgot what it was like to be in July as South Carolina's humidity, and it was like, oh, man. You could cut the air. Yeah, and I'm in Nashville, and it's been really oppressive.

I know it's not like 100 some odd degrees, but it's like 90, 95, and about 300 percent humidity. Well, and I did sit down on the porch at one night with my father, and I forgot. You know what I also forgot, Jon? I forgot what the nights are like down there, because out here, we're up in the Rockies, and so I don't hear crickets unless I tell a joke. Hey. Help them know.

Help them know. But I was out there, and there were so many different sounds at night. I was out on the porch, and I had fresh South Carolina peaches, and they were so good, and boiled peanuts. You ever eat boiled peanuts, Jon? I am anti-boiled peanut. I'm sorry, Jon.

You think you know somebody, and then they just get off with their trash opinion. You're dead to me, Jon. You're dead to me.

Ed, cut his mic. We're done. No, it's okay.

You just haven't been properly educated, but that's okay. I understand. I'm happy to try them again.

Yeah, yeah. There's only a couple of foods I don't like, but you should always, once a year or so, go back and try those foods you don't like, because, you know, things can change. And besides, the coronavirus says it gets rid of your taste buds anyway. I mean, it affects your taste. You can't taste things, so. Oh, okay. Thanks.

Maybe I'll give it a go. Silver lining for all you liver onions and onions eater. All right, the reason I'm having this old home week on South Carolina, because I have a guest that's on my show. She's on the line with us, and I saw her article in the Christian Post, and it really grabbed me, because this is something I've been saying for some time. We hear on the news, vaccine, wear the mask, vaccine, wear the mask. Okay, I get the concept, but you would think there would at least be a concerted effort to give equal time to saying, also build up your immune system. Eat healthier, you know, that kind of thing.

Just take care of your body, and you've got a fighting chance if you're a healthier person, and I don't seem to see that equal time. Well, here comes this wonderful article that I happen to see, and her name is Jenny Brandt. She put this out there, and it said exactly this from her own journey, so I posted it on my social media pages, because I liked the article. But I was thinking, okay, how do I get this lady on my show? And then her publicist calls me up. She saw that I posted it. She texted me, and I know her publicist, and she said, oh, I'd love to have her on the show. And I said, I was just thinking that, and then here you do this, so this is a little bit spooky. Are you stalking me?

No, I didn't say that. She's a wonderful lady. No, she's got whatever Google has for when you say something, then they give you three ads for it in the next 10 minutes. Yeah, it's a little freaky. But anyway, Jenny is here with us.

Jenny Brandt, great to have you here, and I thank you for taking the time to call the show today. Well, listen, I'm down in humid South Carolina. Speaking of humidity, I'm right in the middle of it. Oh, where the trees scream at you at night. Are you in Columbia? No, we are in the Clemson Seneca area. Okay, well, I'm from Anderson.

Born and raised. I was just there in Anderson Friday. I came back Friday. And I knew your dad. You did?

I did. I was at Columbia Bible College from 81 to 83 down in Columbia, South Carolina, and he used to come over there. Well, I was the first graduate there. My husband and I both graduated from there in 76 and 77. Were you there when Rob Morgan was there?

Robert Morgan? You know, I didn't know him as as well, but we were there in the early when Robertson McQuilkin was president, and it was in like, I think the 80s that he he resigned due to caring for his his wife. My dad forbid me to go there because he didn't think it was the right place for his daughter to go. So I had to pave my own way and pay my own way and went there against his wishes with my husband. And then my dad ended up going there in the 80s.

And that's when I that's when I saw him there. And well, my father in law was there back in the 50s. And and I didn't of course, I didn't know him as my father in law because I wasn't born. But it's and so we've had a lot of the same folks that we've known. But Robert Morgan is a he's been a guest on the show many times and took care of his lovely wife, Katrina, for many, many, many years. But he was a student there back in the 70s and just a brilliant pastor and writer. And so we know a lot of the same folks. But I remember the story of your father and him coming there.

Father was Harry Dent. Of course, I was, you know, all big things in South Carolina. Still am still follow it. And I appreciate what he brought to the table. And now you and here I am getting to talk to you.

So that is a real treat. Well, tell me about this. First off, before we get into the article, before you get in your message, tell me about your health. My health is great. I am five, five years out from the cancer journey when it was first diagnosed, maybe five and a half years. And from the moment I finished chemotherapy, six weeks later, the doctors told me this is unheard of. My red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets were back in normal ranges.

And that usually takes several years or more. But again, these lifestyle changes I'm going to talk about today is what made the difference. While they were having to attack an aggressive cancer with the worst chemotherapy known to mankind, I was doing everything I could to promote healing in my body and to build my immune system. Instead of just being the patient that says to the doctor, doctor, kill my cancer. Yeah, that is something, you know, I and I have a little bit of experience with that with Gracie, who has they kept flooding her body with all kinds of antibiotics. She kept getting infections throughout her medical journey and everything was just trashed with her. And then she started on nutrition program of rebuilding her immune system. And then it just it life changed for her for that, because I think I think you would have killed her many, many years ago. I think sometimes we're you know, we end up killing the patient to kill the disease.

True. And those antibiotics can save your your life, but you don't want to take them unless necessary. And then if you do have to take it, you have to realize it killed off all the good bacteria in your gut. And 70 percent of your immune system is in your gut. So as the chemotherapy is killing my gut off, I am protecting it and rebuilding it. And then when it's over, I come I went on an all out mission to rebuild that gut.

So my immune system would be strong. Well, sadly, I've been an all out mission to build my gut, but that's a different story. I'm working on it. I'm working on it. I got the quarantine 15, I think.

But it's so you as you face this. What are some of the things that you specifically did to build up that immune system? Well, the first thing I learned was that I needed to be properly hydrated and I upped my hydration during chemotherapy because it lessens the side effects. But when you look at what it does for your immune system, it enhances every body system in your in your body and it increases your immune function. There is a mucus lining in your nasal cavity and your respiratory system.

And it needs to be it's empowered by water. And if a covid germ happens to go into your nasal cavity, then your mucus lining. Can take care of business most of the time. OK, so again, your first defense is this immune system and the mask wearing and the social distancing is to limit your exposure. Don't forget that this immune system that God created to heal itself in most cases.

It must function properly. And many times we're what's in the way that is preventing it. And a major cause of cancer is dehydration of the cells. A major cause of what my father died from Alzheimer's disease is dehydration of the body. So every part of your body and every cell needs it. We've talked about this on the show so many times about drink to think and the importance of water and hydrate. And of course, John has inspired me because he is such a water enthusiast. And then Gracie, she's drinking 70 to sometimes even 100 ounces a day of water.

I mean, she just slugs it down. And whenever we yeah, yeah, I get up every morning and that's the first thing I do is just down a big glass of water. Because every you know, when you take organic chemistry or anything like that, this is this is not just humans.

This is every critter out there. Every chemical reaction that we do, it's assumed to take place in an aqueous solution. You know, it's just water is everything to all of the processes of the body. And it doesn't cost anything. You know, that's important.

So it's something anybody can do. Did you get the virus? I have not gotten the virus. To be perfectly honest, since this whole thing started, we were getting ready to go to Spain. And we had to cancel because the flights from Spain coming back were canceled and we didn't want to get stranded.

But I have been for the birth of a grandson. I went up to Maryland. I've been down to Florida to do TV interviews. I have been all over the place during COVID-19. I have done it carefully because I learned how to do it when they were packing my immune system with the chemotherapy. And I knew how to wear a mask and how to wear a glove and how not to touch what other people had touched. You know, so I learned that from the cancer journey.

Well, and that's the thing. And I watched this with Gracie. Gracie did get it. And she was exposed to it when she went to a prosthetic appointment that we think that's how she got it in a nearby city.

We live way out in the country in Montana. But she got it. But one of the things that I think helped her fight back on this is this is why I liked your article so much. So here's a proven case of your axiom about your immune system because Gracie had been working so hard to build up her immune system. Her liver function, because she took so much acetaminophen and things such as that, which was trashing her liver. And so she worked to do a lot of natural stuff to build up her body. She's got a lot of programs she uses. You could go see, for those listening right now, A Healthier Life For You if you want to go see what she's done.

Ahealthierlifeforyou.com. But Gracie drinks so much water and it's a good spring. Butter from out here where we are.

We have a well with aquifer and it's good spring water. Drinks so much water to help kind of keep her system hydrated and a ton of fresh air. Ton of fresh air where we live.

And so just open up the windows and get that fresh air. So that's something that that's what piqued my interest about your article. Right, which kind of gets us into sleep, which is another thing that they told me in the cancer journey with what we're doing to your body. It will not be able to recover if you do not get deep, consistent sleep every night. Because while we're talking, our body performs miracles while we're not even thinking about it. But when we are in deep sleep at night, those miracles go up exponentially because our body detoxes and repairs itself when we are in deep sleep.

And that's when that melatonin hormone goes off that is a cancer fighter and an immune builder. Well, we're going to keep talking about that more. We'll be right back. We're talking with Jenny Brant.

Hope for the caregiver dot com. Don't go away. We got more to follow. Have you ever struggled to trust God when lousy things happen to you?

I'm Gracie Rosenberger. And in 1983, I experienced a horrific car accident leading to 80 surgeries and both legs amputated. I questioned why God allowed something so brutal to happen to me.

But over time, my questions changed and I discovered courage to trust God. That understanding, along with an appreciation for quality prosthetic limbs, led me to establish Standing with Hope. For more than a dozen years, we've been working with the government of Ghana and West Africa, equipping and training local workers to build and maintain quality prosthetic limbs for their own people. On a regular basis, we purchase and ship equipment and supplies.

And with the help of inmates in a Tennessee prison, we also recycle parts from donated limbs. All of this is to point others to Christ, the source of my hope and strength. Please visit standing with hope dot com to learn more and participate in lifting others up. That's standing with hope dot com. I'm Gracie and I am standing with hope. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger.

We are glad to have you with us. Hope for the caregiver dot com. We're talking with Jenny Brant. And she has got her new book out. And it's it's fascinating what she's done here.

It's called Unleash Your God Given Healing. And it's how she was able to eight steps to prevent and survive cancer. And it's an extraordinary journey that she's been on because she took care of her mother with cancer.

Then, like I mean, like right almost right after this, she found out she had cancer. And so she went through this process and then Jenny got very aggressive personally on how she was able to fight back against this. And she went after strengthening her immune system and doing all the things naturally that she could while going through the process with the doctors to deal with this.

But not just saying, doctor, heal me. She's she's working in tandem with this herself and taking this personal responsibility. And this is what she feels like is going to be our best way to fight back against the covid-19. And I concur wholeheartedly because I'm living with somebody who fought this virus the same way. And, you know, even if they came up with a vaccine today, this thing's not going to be eradicated.

It's going to change the way everything. But we can't just wait around for somebody to to come up with a vaccine or a cure. We have to take some personal responsibility of our own journey.

Healthy caregivers make better caregivers. I mean, it's just that's what we talk about on this show. And so here comes Jenny with this.

And I saw her in an article that she had in The Christian Post. And it just really struck me and not like John strikes me, but it struck me. And but it was and I just appreciate it. So, Jenny, talk a bit a little bit more about this.

You're talking about rest and you're talking about building up your immune system. And as you as you do these things, what has been the response to your saying these things? I mean, are people just come along saying, well, that's nice or whatever?

Are they really? Do you think do you think they're taking this as seriously as they need to be? I don't think everyone is, but there are people who are listening. And I've been on radio shows around the country and people are saying, you know, cancer patients are saying, this is giving me hope that I can have a part in making my prognosis better. And then people who are concerned about COVID-19, it gives them hope. Oh, if I walk out the door and my immune system strong, I might be exposed to COVID-19, but my body may take care of it because that's the way God designed it.

And I think it's a wake up call for people to realize that if you're not doing these things, this is the time to start. You can rebuild your gut within 28 to 30 days. You can start hydrating and that immune system is going to go up. And the sooner you start getting deep sleep, the sooner your body is going to heal itself and build that immune system.

It's done during deep sleep. So I think it's a wake up call for us to realize that, you know, we've really not been taking really good care of our bodies. I was formerly the junk food queen, if I could have gotten the title, not that that's a great title to have, but now I understand what it takes to keep my immune system strong and it is making a difference. People are letting me know.

People are calling me that are reading the book and saying, thank you for going to the trouble to write this down so that I could benefit. You know, water, like you said, water doesn't cost very much to purchase unless you're buying everything Fiji water, but you don't have to do that. And it's not expensive. In fact, sometimes it's more expensive to eat poorly. And it certainly is, medically speaking.

But but, you know, one of the things that, you know, John and I have advocated on the show a lot for us is fellow caregivers. OK, we know we've made bad choices in the past, but that doesn't that doesn't put us in bondage to make bad choices today and tomorrow. You know, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, but the second best time is today.

Right. Because changes will be, you know, when you make changes, your body will begin to change. The sooner, the better.

But still, it's never too late. Well, and back to the sleep thing, I'm concerned because a lot of people are not getting good sleep. One of the things I talk about with caregivers is that, you know, sleep and rest are two different things. And we don't rest very well spiritually and emotionally, but we also don't sleep very well. And I think a lot of caregivers are going undiagnosed with sleep disorders such as sleep apnea and so forth. And understand that sleep apnea is a killer. I mean, this is this is what is hurting people around the country and they don't even know it because they want to go to sleep and they're tired. But they're but they're not getting good rest because they're not getting into good sleep because their bodies, they stop breathing about every so often.

And then they have to jumpstart their bodies to wake up. So if this is something going on with you as you listen to this thing and you just heard how important sleep is, what could happen? But you're dealing with this and somebody saying, hey, you snore really loud or something. Do yourself a favor and get that checked out. I mean, it may not be that maybe just snore, maybe just had bad sinuses that day or whatever.

But let's not take a chance, because if particularly if you have any kind of weight issues, chances are that you're dealing with some type of obstruction in your your your breathing passages and that is not going to help you. And then you're going to get further and further behind. Jenny, now you are clear from this from cancer for five years. You feel everybody has come back so far. And that's a real victory in Jesus for an aggressive cancer. And they've told me that, you know, basically after what my body's been through and the aggressive nature of my cancer, I am not promised tomorrow. But guess what? None of us is promised tomorrow.

And I don't live worrying about that. I live knowing that I am doing the right things now and my body is benefiting. The eight steps in my book all impact the immune system. So they're good for building up your immune system to fight COVID-19, preventing Alzheimer's and dementia, since my father went through that for 10 years. And my sister, my mother and I were the caretakers. That's the most difficult journey I've ever been through. But it's good for heart disease, type two diabetes.

So many of these autoimmune disorders that people have, if they really went after their immune system by doing these things, their prognosis would be better. I'm sorry about that with your dad. And I hate that for you. What a keen mind and an extraordinary individual he was. And I just, like I said, just briefly saw him. I just remember those brief, brief encounters.

But I was always quite impressed and quite truthfully. I remember when I first went down to Columbia and my mother kept talking about your dad. She said, oh, I think you're going to get to see him down there.

I think you're going to get to see him down there. So my mom was a big, well, she was a fan. She was a real fan. Well, you know, most of you were in your 20s and he was like 50 when he went. So he was the older man on campus that, you know, made a lot of friendships with people half of his age, you know, and he kept up those friendships for years.

Well, he certainly made a huge impact on so many people in the state of South Carolina. And you are as well. If people want to get a copy of this book, what's the best place to do this? It's probably Amazon. You can go to my website and order it from there. But because people are not going to bookstores as much, it's just as easy to order it, especially if you have Amazon Prime.

Ginnybrandt.com. And the book is called, it is Unleash Your God Given Healing, Eight Steps to Prevent and Survive Cancer. Unleash Your God Given Healing. That's a great title, by the way, Ginny, of doing that, because I think it is important that we have agency over our own healing process.

We can be healthier people and healthy caregivers make better caregivers. And you have modeled that beautifully today. So thank you for taking the time. Thank you for having me. Yes, ma'am. All right. Ginny Brandt, we got more to go.

This is Hope for the Caregiver. I am Peter Rosenberger. John. John, how you doing?

How you doing, John? Hey, you know, do you know that there's a pandemic going on? You know, I read a couple of stories here and there.

You saw something on Twitter. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I went into Walmart and they said I had to wear a face mask. I'm like, cool, but why? Hey, pants are not required, but face masks evidently are in Walmart. I just thought they were telling me I was a little bit ugly.

Just like Rodney Dangerfield says, they told me I had to wear two face masks. But the reason I'm referencing that is because you know of our work for many years with prosthetic limbs. And we can't go to Ghana right now.

And I certainly am not going to take Gracie over there. We've been going to Ghana for many, many years to help work with amputees over there. But we've been sending supplies and we're sponsoring more patients.

But we're not sending teams right now because we just can't. And we've got patients that are lining up that are really needing some quality prosthetic care. We're contracting out with prosthetic providers there in West Africa, in Ghana. And they're helping these patients that we really are urgently trying to treat. We get them up walking. And you know, one of the criterias we have with our patients, John, is we target children and working age adults.

Children, students and working age adults. And really in that order. Because we want to give them a fighting chance to have a productive life with a quality prosthetic limb.

This is what Gracie envisioned after, you know, losing her own legs. And it's not that we don't want to help aging or so forth. It's just that that's where our targets are. And lately we've been having a lot of these. Yeah, and we've had a lot of kids. We've had some students that are getting close to their graduation.

But they're constantly needing prosthetic adjustments or a new leg, a new socket, new liners and sleeve. And we're trying to ship things over. We're trying to sponsor things and contract with the workers there to do it. And we could use the help. So I'm asking standingwithhope.com. Would you just take a moment to go out to standingwithhope.com. Look at the work we're doing.

Look what you're seeing and get involved. And you can certainly write us and ask us any questions about it. But we would love to have your help today. We really need it today for any donation amount. Whatever's on your heart.

Doesn't matter. We're going to send you a copy of Gracie's CD. And we just want you to know that this is what we're serious about doing. We've been doing this for a long time.

We can't go over there in person. But guess what? We can still help them get up and walk. And you can be a part of that today.

It's a gift that keeps on walking. I came up with that myself, John. Oh, yeah. Did you?

Pretty proud of that. The gift that keeps on walking. I like it. But it does.

It does. Yeah, it's true. And with Gracie being a double amputee herself, we understand that in our world. In fact, we're dealing with prosthetic stuff right now with her.

Because she's constantly needing adjustments and so forth. And so we understand the need and we're asking you to help with it today. So go to standingwithhope.com today. Thanks so much.