Intestinal Cleansing

When you're not faced with the problem, it's an abstract concept. Cancer doctors make a distinction between 'us,' the physicians, and "them", the patients. It's a self-protective mechanism. But when you become a patient, it changes. After a CAT scan, the patient had to do a lot of soul-searching since he knew he had exhausted all traditional methods. He could operate again, but it would be like going back into 'tiger country.' Colleagues suggested intestinal cleansing and more chemo--a toxic combination that I knew would be pretty miserable."

Desperate, he turned to an old friend and ex-colleague on the West Coast, an expert on the relationship between cancer and nutrition, Dean Omish, M.D. When he mentioned a holistic healing retreat he was leading the next month along with Michael Learner, Ph.D., Fair balked. "You're not listening, Bill," Ornish said. "This is not an option. You have to go." The surgeon set aside his skepticism, swallowed his pride and booked a flight.

Today Fair calls that retreat one of the most profound experiences of his life. There he was exposed to a new way of thinking that was vastly different from any aspect of his own well-considered philosophy of medicine. "Learner talked about expanding life, even if it wasn't possible to extend it. He talked about the difference between healing emotions and curing a disease and how a person can live a wonderful life while managing a serious disease.

These concepts had never been discussed in my medical training." The retreat also taught yoga, meditation, group support and the role of food in achieving optimal health. Fair returned to New York infused with hope, and armed with a new outlook on healing.

A road far less traveled

While his colleagues continued their search for a cure for Fair's cancer in the conventional arenas, Fair was busy doing yoga, meditating, praying and investigating the potential benefits of a low-fat, high-soy vegetarian diet. This was not an easy adjustment for Fair. As he likes to say, "I spent 11 years at Stanford [University, in California] and never touched the stuff." As a man of science, he sought clinical data supporting his dietary adjustments but was surprised to find little besides the standard recommendation to keep fat intake below 30 percent of total calories.

Eventually research from doctors like Omish helped convince him of the value of his new lifestyle. Fair says he is now 99.9 percent meat- and dairy-free; he avoids all fats except olive and fish oils; loads up on fiber through his plant-based diet and drinks a daily soy-protein shake. "I believe in soy," he says with a doctor's simplicity. "There's plenty of data, and we know that soy protein inhibits the growth of prostate cancer cells as well as other types. In many cases, adding soy to the diet may be all we need to do."