Dr. Ruby Lathon of Roadmap to Holistic Health: I Survived Cancer and Here Is How I Did It

An Interview With Savio P. Clemente

Mindset is most important, above all else. Know and believe that you can win! Your body knows how to heal. Dig your heels and be unshakeable in your resolve to live the best life you’ve ever had. Believing and knowing that you will not only survive, but thrive, has a different vibration than being fearful. Your body chemistry changes based on emotions, and positive, winning emotions facilitate healing.

Cancer is a horrible and terrifying disease. Yet millions of people have beaten the odds and beat cancer. Authority Magazine started a new series called “I Survived Cancer and Here Is How I Did It”. In this interview series, we are talking to cancer survivors to share their stories, in order to offer hope and provide strength to people who are being impacted by cancer today. As a part of this interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Ruby Lathon.

Dr. Ruby Lathon, is a Black female engineer turned certified holistic health coach and nutritionist, after healing herself of thyroid cancer by drastically changing her lifestyle through a plant-based diet. Through her organization, Roadmap to Holistic Health, Dr. Lathon teaches others about the benefits and power of plant-based nutrition through health conferences, workshops, vegan cooking classes, consultations and coaching programs. Dr. Lathon has been featured in the hit documentary, What the Health, and is the host of “The Veggie Chest,” an online, plant-based cooking show. In addition, Dr. Lathon also lends her expertise to Body Complete Rx (BCRX), a wellness brand with a holistic approach to healthy living through a complete range of plant-based and vegan health and beauty supplements available at The Vitamin Shoppe.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! We really appreciate the courage it takes to publicly share your story. Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your background and your childhood backstory?

My early childhood took place in Detroit and the Bahamas, hence my love of nice cars, the beach, and moving water. I’m the middle child of 4 kids, with an older sister and younger twin brothers. My middle school and high school years were spent in Montgomery and Huntsville, Alabama, which was a huge shift coming from the Bahamas. I grew up going to private Christian schools from elementary school through college.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My favorite life quote is, “Things are always working out for me.” And “If you are going to do it, do it well!” The first helps me keep a positive outlook on life and allows me to learn from mistakes without seeing them as failures or a wasted time. The second quote kind of comes from my crippling habit of perfectionism, from which I am recovering! Now it just means put your best foot forward and let your work represent you in a way that makes you proud.

Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about surviving cancer. Do you feel comfortable sharing with us the story surrounding how you found out that you had cancer?

Sure. I found out after a routine visit with my physician. She noticed that my thyroid felt a bit larger and bumpy, so she suggested that we repeat an ultrasound that we had done a few years prior. The new ultrasound showed new nodules and that my thyroid was a bit larger. From there, the endocrinologist took over and suggested a biopsy of the suspicious nodules. That’s when we detected the thyroid cancer through the biopsy. That’s also how it was determined that it was gone after a year; we did another biopsy.

What was the scariest part of that event? What did you think was the worst thing that could happen to you?

The scariest part was knowing that a cancer diagnosis often means death. But I quickly dismissed that possibility and focused on how to heal. I also focused on the fact that the type of cancer that I had, thyroid cancer, had a high recovery rate. I didn’t believe I would live; I knew I would live.

How did you react in the short term?

In the short term, I shared the news with friends and family and cried a few times. Everything I was doing came to a sharp stop, and I decided to focus on the next steps to recovery. I quit my engineering job because I felt I needed to drop all stress in order to heal.

After the dust settled, what coping mechanisms did you use? What did you do to cope physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually?

After crying a few times, I decided I was done with the tears and that I was going to make it through this alive, period! Then I got second and third opinions on the course of treatment. And I decided that I did not like the options (remove my thyroid and start lifelong medication). I decided I wanted to heal from cancer naturally. I reached out to a friend who was versed in naturopathic medicine and got guidance on how to approach the healing process. I relied on research, my faith, prayer, and prayers of others. I also started meditating daily, which brought me a great amount of peace and inner strength.

Is there a particular person you are grateful towards who helped you learn to cope and heal? Can you share a story about that?

Yes, my friend Phyllis Hubbard, was completing her studies to become a naturopathic doctor, and I became her first patient. She helped me connect to the mental and spiritual side of healing. I was an engineer at the time and this was the hardest part for me, because I couldn’t see the direct connection to healing. She helped me unravel my emotions, make the mind body connections, and tap into self-healing.

In my own cancer struggle, I sometimes used the idea of embodiment to help me cope. Let’s take a minute to look at cancer from an embodiment perspective. If your cancer had a message for you, what do you think it would want or say?

Yes, I certainly tapped into embodiment as well. Ayurvedic medicine indicates that where and how you get sick can give you clues as to what you may need to examine and work on. For me, the enlargement of the thyroid, which wraps around the vocal cord, meant that I needed to find my voice and speak up for myself; it also meant that I needed to learn to establish better boundaries. I had to stop being the people pleaser and heal from childhood traumas.

What did you learn about yourself from this very difficult experience? How has cancer shaped your worldview? What has it taught you that you might never have considered before? Can you please explain with a story or example?

I learned several things. I learned of the enormous healing power of plant-based diets and natural supplementation; that was the foundation of my healing process. I also learned how much power we have within ourselves through our thoughts, emotions, and expectations. This was a huge shift for me. I changed my entire life after that bout with cancer. I changed careers from engineering to holistic nutrition; I tapped into my spiritual side and let go of so many fears. In short, I started living out loud and on purpose.

How have you used your experience to bring goodness to the world?

With my career change, I started helping others heal naturally and just live better and healthier lives, taking a holistic approach. So many people have been inspired and encouraged by my story, and it gives them the courage to listen to their intuition. I have spoken to groups around the world and inspired them to take charge of their health.

What are a few of the biggest misconceptions and myths out there about fighting cancer that you would like to dispel?

One of the biggest myths is that diet has little to no impact on cancer outcomes. I have found this to be categorically false. Eating a healthy plant-based diet is one of the most important things you can do to fight cancer and to stave off recurrence.

Fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experiences and knowledge, what advice would you give to others who have recently been diagnosed with cancer? What are your “5 Things You Need To Beat Cancer? Please share a story or example for each.

Based on my personal experience, here are my 5 Things You Need to Beat Cancer

1. Mindset is most important, above all else. Know and believe that you can win! Your body knows how to heal. Dig your heels and be unshakeable in your resolve to live the best life you’ve ever had. Believing and knowing that you will not only survive, but thrive, has a different vibration than being fearful. Your body chemistry changes based on emotions, and positive, winning emotions facilitate healing.
2. Meditation is your secret power to beating fear and tapping into your inner strength. When I started meditating, I started seeing positive results like my thyroid shrinking to its normal size. When I felt fear creeping in, I’d meditate, and fear would vanish. For me, 15 minutes of meditation felt like a healing session and gave me renewed energy to keep going.
3. Trust. Trust your gut! You will have lots of decisions to make during your healing process, so learning to trust your gut will help guide you on what to do without doubt and fear. Your gut is your inner wisdom, trust it. My intuition on what to do was very strong during my healing process. When I finally stopped studying and went and relaxed at the beach, my nutrition regimen just came to me. So I went home and followed it, and it worked!
4. Eat a plant-based diet and include green juicing in your regimen. You need living food to heal. During my research on how to heal naturally, it became evident that a plant-based diet would be the optimal diet in getting Cancer out of my body. Most of the cancer-fighting nutrients are found in abundance in plants, whereas Cancer-causing items are found in abundance in animal products. I made the switch overnight, and I was the healthiest that I’ve ever been. During my year of recovery, my skin was glowing, I had more energy, and I felt fantastic; you would never know I was fighting Cancer.
5. Get supportive and knowledgeable people around you. There are many ways to heal. Get a good team of experts that you can rely on for insight and support. I had a great support system during my recovery; I met with a myriad of traditional and holistic practitioners. It helped me be sure I was covering all of the bases, and I knew that I didn’t have to know everything because I had help and support to back me up.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be?

I would love to inspire a movement that helps people better understand the mind and body connection and how our practiced emotions can create illness or health. Secondly, I would continue to inspire the movement towards peaceful plant-based living.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them. :-)

I would love a private brunch with Oprah Winfrey and Leonardo DiCaprio (I know that’s 2!). Like so many, Oprah has been a huge inspiration to me over the years and really gets the power of thought. I’d love to share my story with her and get more wisdom-filled nuggets from her. I’m a fan of Leonardo’s work, and he is a great supporter of climate change initiatives; I’d love to share my thoughts on even more aggressive earth-saving initiatives and hear about his current work.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Readers can connect with me through my website: www.RubyLathon.com where they can also sign up for my newsletter. They can also connect with on social media (@rubylathon).

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!