I was diagnosed with breast cancer on February 13, 2008, the day before Valentine’s Day. I cried for four days. It was my wake-up call.  After hiding out in my office, I got myself together. I  started to deal with my new reality, methodically, like an athlete in training.  Armed with a high school-level knowledge of anatomy and a lot of common sense, I started my research.

I found an unnerving amount of information on cancer and glucose. I immediately cut my sugar intake, starting with my daily hot chocolate (with extra pumps of chocolate in skimmed milk with whipped cream); a pastry; and a Big Grab bag of M&Ms. (Humans are wired to have a sweet tooth, and mine is ridiculous.  My brother, David, called me “Cookie Bear.”)

So began a lifelong struggle to give up the sugar.

My chiropractor, Dr. Melanie Six of Six Chiropractic in Alexandria, Virginia, gave me two books to read:  It’s Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong and Eat 4 Your Type:  Four Battle Plans for Cancer by Peter D’Adamo. The first book inspired me.  (I know Lance is now a disgraced doper, but he is also a cancer survivor and founder of Livestrong Foundation. His book helped me have hope and courage.)

I didn’t want to be a passive participant in this medical drama. I didn’t want to simply show up at the doctors’ offices and the labs, and take the drugs. My question to Dr. Six was: “What can I do for myself?”  She gave me another book called Eat Right 4 Your Type, which outlines the blood type diet.

The author of Eat Right 4 Your Type is a naturopath physician. He described the immune system of my rare blood type AB+, as “not even having a lock on the door.”  My reaction was, “Whoa.”  In contrast, the common type O has a “high-tech security system.”  Based on that assessment, I accepted that my immune system is probably challenged. If diet mattered, I didn’t want my body to work any harder than it had to in dealing with the treatment.

I adopted the diet the next month.