Dear President Biden,
Eight and a half years ago, I was diagnosed with third-stage pancreatic cancer and told it was inoperable. Thirty-five years ago, Dr. Nasha Winters was diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer and given months to live. And in 2017, the co-writer of this letter Marji Keith faced a cancer diagnosis that left her physically depleted and emotionally overwhelmed.
None of us immediately set out looking for “alternative” approaches. We weren’t rebels. We were just desperate to live.
Today, all three of us are alive and thriving. And not only that—we now work as educators, researchers, and advocates in the growing field of integrative and metabolic oncology. Not because we rejected science, but because we embraced it—the full spectrum of it. We didn’t stumble onto pseudoscience or fringe theories. We learned how to make our bodies inhospitable to cancer by targeting the terrain in which cancer grows, not just the tumor itself.
These are just three stories. There are countless like us, around the world. For the most part, we don’t get media coverage, and our case studies are mostly ignored by mainstream medicine.
Though you are no longer president, you are still a leader—and a human being navigating a difficult health journey. We’re writing this letter not to question your course of treatment, but to widen the lens. When someone as prominent as you is diagnosed with cancer, the media only interviews oncologists trained in one model: the conventional standard of care. And that model has value. But it is not the whole picture.
The standard of care is built on eradicating tumors through surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. What it often overlooks is the importance of the terrain—your immune function, inflammation levels, blood sugar regulation, hormone balance, detox capacity, stress, sleep, and more. Cancer doesn’t arise in a vacuum. Nor does it come back in one.
Even top-tier cancer centers like Memorial Sloan Kettering, MD Anderson, and Dana-Farber now have integrative oncology departments. They and other clinics in the United States and also around the world offer evidence-based modalities like acupuncture, mistletoe therapy, therapeutic nutrition, IV vitamin C, mind-body interventions, fasting-mimicking diets, and metabolic reprogramming.
These are not fringe ideas. These are research-backed tools that support the body’s ability to repair, resist, and recover. And yet, most Americans—even those with the best insurance in the world—have no idea they exist.
Why is that?
Because our system is built to treat disease, not to foster health. But if your cells, metabolism, immune system, and environment remain compromised, then no matter how many cancer cells are zapped, new ones can take their place.
This is why we say: making the body inhospitable to cancer is not an alternative. It is essential.
You deserve to know the full menu of options. So do all Americans. We aren’t writing to persuade you to abandon anything. We are writing to ask that you expand your understanding—and help others expand theirs. You have an opportunity, as a former president and as a human being living with cancer, to shift the conversation from not just “How do we fight cancer?” to “How do we foster health?”
That shift could save millions of lives.
With respect and hope,
Chris Joseph
Author, Life is a Ride: My Unconventional Journey of Cancer Recovery
Certified Metabolic Terrain Advocate
Certified Radical Remission Coach
Marji Keith
Certified Metabolic Terrain Advocate
Accredited ACC Life Coach, Positive Psychology Coach
Certified Health Coach DSWI