Believe Big Podcast

109-Ryan Sternagel - Integrative Healing: The Stern Method

• Ivelisse Page & Ryan Sternagel • Season 4 • Episode 109

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Ryan Sternagel, co-founder of The Stern Method, joins Ivelisse in the episode to share his family’s journey after his son Ryder was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma just before his first birthday. 

Ryan opens up about navigating such a devastating diagnosis and why becoming your own health advocate—especially as a parent—was essential. He talks about their integrative approach to cancer care, blending conventional treatment with holistic support, and the importance of not seeking approval from society when making deeply personal health decisions. 

Ryan also shares how faith played a central role in their journey, the research behind their supplement OUR 7, and how their work has expanded into programs like Going Integrative Plus, offering personalized guidance from leading integrative cancer doctors.  

This is an episode packed with important information and resources for anyone walking the cancer journey.

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Ivelisse Page:

Hi, I am Ivelisse Page and thanks for listening to the Believe Big podcast, the show where we take deep dive into your healing with health experts, integrative practitioners, biblical faith leaders, and cancer thrivers from around the globe. Welcome to today's episode on the Believe Big podcast. My name is Ivelisse Page and I always appreciate spending this time with you. Today, I am happy to welcome to the podcast my friend Ryan Sternagel. Ryan is the co-founder, along with his wife, Teddy of the Stern Method, a platform informing and inspiring families preventing or reversing cancer to succeed on all fronts. In May of 2014, their son Ryder was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer of the nervous system, 11 days before his first birthday. Through an integrative approach, leaving nothing on the table and ridding their lives of all possible causes, which included building a non-toxic house in the middle of the woods. Today, Ryder is thriving. Along with the Stern Method website and social media presence, Ryan hosts the Anti-Cancer Revolution podcast and online conference series and is the creator of Going Integrative Plus, a community providing cancer patients, parents and caregivers step-by-step instructions along with the opportunity to receive guidance directly from the top holistic cancer doctors in the world. Welcome to the show, Ryan.

Ryan Sternagel:

Ivelisse. Good to, good to be with you.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes. Yes. And you've heard our podcast before and you know that we always start with our favorite health tip, and I know you have many, so I would love for you to share one with us today.

Ryan Sternagel:

Yeah. It's not, well, yeah, it's, it's a health tip. Stop looking outside for approval from others. Yeah. Yeah, that's the health tip I think. You know, if we hadn't at first wanted a second opinion, which people thought we were crazy for, if we had not stopped treatment halfway through the standard of care. People thought we were crazy for that. If we hadn't done all the crazy things, all the WOOWOO stuff. It's like, what, what are you doing? Well, I guess we weren't doing coffee enemas for Ryder 1-year-old. Right. But that's, that's something that people would think you're really weird for. But just, just go ahead and do that coffee enema because it's that. It's gonna help, right? I think the more on this side of the fence holistically, you know, we, we kind of understand that we see things differently than most other folks. Right. And there's that level of understanding that's, yes, we're a little different and in a, in a good way, right? But then just fully embracing it and just not, just stop caring what other people are going to think and Yeah. If you, if, if you can't do anything without getting approval from your conventional doctor, you know, that's, that's not gonna take you too far. You just, you gotta trust that there's experts on the integrative side of the fence that know about all this stuff. The more you can trust your own intuition slash education, all the stuff you learn. Listening to podcasts like these and just run with it.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes.

Ryan Sternagel:

Don't really think twice. It's, it's gonna be, it's gonna be a lot better.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes. It's so true. And we've heard a lot about that at the Believe Big Integrative Symposium, even from some of the top pediatric integrative oncologists that we work with. And it's really, you have to be your own advocate, especially when you're dealing with your children. Um, you're the parents and, and you really know what's best deep down for your children. Yes, we need to listen to the wisdom of our doctors, but we also need to do what we feel is best for our children. And, uh, so, so that's a great health tip, is to be your own advocate. I, I really love that you shared that, so I know that your story, I mean, I can't even imagine, um, any of my kids being diagnosed with such a cancer at such a young age. Walk us through that moment, you know, let's go back for a little bit on that day that changed everything when Ryder was diagnosed, and what led you and your wife to begin searching beyond conventional medicine?

Ryan Sternagel:

Yeah, it was a wild ride, especially first time parents and all that stuff. I guess what, what got us to be searching beyond conventional medicine was that we were already kind of into stuff beyond conventional medicine, right? Compared to, I, I don't know, 95% of the population, even 10 to 11 years ago now, um, or even before he was born, right? I, I think we were doing doing pretty good. We were eating mostly organic and getting rid of chemical cleaning products and trying out different diets and, getting rid of EMF and, and all, all these things that we learned about. Right. And so we did, we'd, we'd done some detoxing even before Ryder was conceived. And although looking back it was, I would've done a much different detox now than we did then. So we were already walking that road and, Teddy's father had cancer and so I did some research for that and looking into natural things and we'd just been kind of on a kick of watching every health and or alternative cancer documentary we could find,'cause it seemed like a better thing to watch than movies or whatever. So we were already, already kind of into it. I guess also just researching alternative, uh, politics and, you know, whatever you wanna call truth seeking and stuff like that. And finding out about chemtrails and fluoride and Oh my gosh, we're being poisoned. So yeah, I mean, we were kind of into all of it. And then, then maybe about a month before the diagnosis, Teddy was just breastfeeding him one day and she, she, he was bent over just right and she felt a lump in his back and. And, so that was obviously concerning. What's this lump doing to our son's back? And then all these kind of things that we had noticed but brushed off and or people telling us they developed at their own pace and that sort of thing. And he had fallen off the growth chart. He was born in the, you know, 90 something percentile. And at this point he was down, I think into the twenties and he wasn't crawling. Again, a month before his first birthday, he could barely roll himself over. Um, he was not able to handle solid food. So it's like all these things, you know what, what just taken apart? It's like, okay, but now he's got a lump sticking out of his back. And so we went to the pediatrician and they kind of brushed off the lump and gave us a prescription for physical therapy to teach'em how to walk. And a prescription for, occupational therapy to teach'em how to crawl and speech therapy to teach'em how to eat or something like that. We didn't, we didn't follow up on those and uh, then we went to the hospital. Oh, that, that was the other thing. So the guy at the hospital took an X-ray and found that he was constipated and uh, and that was another kind of, he'd been super regular for that first 10 months. And then this last month he had just kind of stopped pooping. And so, yeah, this is, we, we came away with that, with a prescription for a laxative. And, you know, he told us to come back in six weeks if the lump was still there. And we were back a few days later asking to talk to somebody else. And then, uh, yeah, I got a different doctor and a nurse, and they were saying the same thing, right? It's like, you know, the, the nurse said they, they work in the oncology ward and your kid doesn't look like those kids. And at this point, my, my wife had already kind of doctor Googled and diagnosed'em with neuroblastoma herself, right? At that point we said that, you know, just look, just give us an ultrasound. Call us paranoid, whatever, but just. But, humor us and, we got the ultrasound and, and sure enough, it, it showed some masses and that led to an MRI getting scheduled a few days later. And, even before the MRI, we were just kind of guns blazing, just starting to order supplements and just researching and calling around and anything we can think of. Got the MRI and the, uh, doctor and the nurse both walked back into the room with, with tears in their eyes. And, the quote that I'll never forget was that the lump you felt in your son's back was just the tip of the iceberg. And, it turned out that he had a large, very large tumor inside of, and growing out of his spine, it was just all, you couldn't even see the spine. It was just

Ivelisse Page:

wow.

Ryan Sternagel:

Completely engulfing the spine. And, uh, a couple secondary tumors. Uh, metastasis into the bones and.

Ivelisse Page:

That's really, um, I, I know I picture, I know how difficult it is just even on the patient side, right? But I can't even imagine if it's your child or a child going through and someone, even that little that doesn't even understand or can speak on what is occurring and what is happening. And goodness, that must have been such a difficult time for your family. I know every case is different. Every situation is different. And we always share that with people to say, really, you need to have an individualized approach to your treatment care. But what would you say are the top three things that really helped, uh, him to thrive and to overcome this diagnosis?

Ryan Sternagel:

Top three? Well, I mean, whenever someone asks me like, what's the one thing you think it is? And I always say the one thing is that we were just willing to not do the paralysis by analysis thing and just kind of go in guns blazing. And if we found out about something that seemed like it could help and we could afford it, and it wasn't gonna hurt him. And then we did it right? And, there's that whole attitude going back to that. But, getting more specific. We were doing tons of juicing, even when we were inpatient in the hospital,'cause he ended up going septic from when they put the line in. And, but even then, it's like we were spending all this time inpatient, but we had like a juicer in the hospital and we had family and friends bringing coolers and produce in and tons of supplements. And, every time the doctors and the nurses left, we kind of got to work on, on all that stuff, right? So, I mean, yeah, juicing, supplements, IVs we were doing IV vitamin C and DMSO with um, turned out one of the best naturopathic oncologists in the world and one of the, one of the handful of'em that, that actually see kids. Yeah. Uh, was, was right by the hospital. So we're just working, I mean, so there's a two for one, I guess one doing, doing IV nutrient therapy and, and that sort of thing. But then also working with a, a very accomplished, experienced integrative cancer doctor that knows about all of the integrative stuff and can, and that's huge right, too, especially when you're working with the conventional medical system and they're throwing all this stuff at you and they're saying, no, this isn't a good idea, and don't do anything'cause it's gonna hurt the chemo or, or whatever. Um, you, you really need somebody that can speak confidently to all these issues and like, yes. Explain why that, no, this, this is a good idea. The, the conventional, I mean, not to completely throw the conventional guys under the bus and there's a time and a place and all that, and. I think, you know, we're, we're not a no chemo, no way, no how family, it's, you know, Ryder did have some chemo largely due to child protective services. But even in that, even in that case, um, you know, after researching everything that I have for all these years, I still think some chemo was, was probably warranted for him. Right. Just'cause that that was an actual emergency situation. They always try to make it like that everything's an emergency, right. But.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes. And you know, you just mentioned something, and I don't think a lot of people realize that when it comes to kids and those who are under 18 years old, that you know, parents many times don't have a lot of choices, because of Child Protective Services can come in and that's a really, that's just crazy to me as a parent that really cares and loves for their children. Um, how did you navigate that path in order to take care of his health primarily, but also navigate that from CPS coming and getting Ryder.

Ryan Sternagel:

Yeah. So it was a weird chain of events. I said we wanted a second opinion before we started chemo, and, and we did that, but then in that initial visit, we had gotten a, a line placed because, well, one, we knew we were gonna do IVs of some sort, whether it was chemo or something else, right. And, uh, got a biopsy and all that stuff. And then we said we're gonna go home and get a second opinion. And that's, you know, had a train of social workers and nurses and doctors all trying to talk us out of it. And, but we did. But then, you know, we, we were back, back a day later, because it turned out that he was septic from that line going in.

Ivelisse Page:

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Sternagel:

Um, so at that point, I mean, we did do the first round of chemotherapy. It was because we knew we needed to do something to shrink that tumor in a hurry. And then after we cleared that infection and got home, that's when CPS showed up and said, you know, we heard you weren't complying with the hospital, but, uh, sounds like you are now. So as long as you'd keep complying, then you know, we won't take your kid from you. Right. And um, I mean, I think that the big thing, a lot of integrative cancer doctors are scared to touch kids because of stories like this. But I, I just wanna shout it from the rooftops. Like, as, as long as you are going through the, you know, actually not refusing the, the standard of care. They're not really gonna come after you for doing a bunch of stuff on the side. Right. We had a don't ask, don't tell policy. Our own self-imposed don't ask, don't tell policy.

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah. I've heard that from other doctors. Just don't say, and I know that's hard to understand, when it comes to children, but, there are some oncologists and doctors that are very open and holistic and minded, but many of them aren't. And, and again, you just have to weigh your child's health and what's happening and all of that. Um, and I think you guys did navigate that really well, and a lot of people, who are listening right now, you know, I also wanted to ask you before we get into your Stern Method is how, how, if any, did faith play a role in your family's journey? And what would you say to families who are feeling alone or spiritually drained right now as they're facing a diagnosis or their child's diagnosis?

Ryan Sternagel:

Uh, yeah, faith was, faith was huge. I guess from day one, y you know, we, we, we just kept the whole, you know, God's only gonna throw at you what you can handle type thing in mind. And, and there's gotta be a reason for this. And I even remember, uh, you know, I was like in the parking garage of the hospital. I was talking to a cancer coach and she said, I just had this, I don't know, weird feeling or whatever, that you guys are gonna not only beat this, but go on to inspire hundreds of the thousands or whatever of other people to beat it. And, uh, and that was very early on too, like, you know, maybe a weekend of the whole thing. And, we just kind of stuck to there's, there's a purpose for everything and, that, that really, saw us through and we, we like to think that Ryder, he's a very, I don't, he's a, he's a, everyone's kid's special. Right. But he's, I don't know, there's, there's just something extra special about him and it just seems like he chose this and, you know, knew that he was gonna go through something crazy and, um, yeah. So just, I don't know. Yeah. Always, uh, always bearing in mind that there's, there's some higher purpose and power behind everything. Even when things really suck, it's uh. Yeah. Yeah, it's a big deal.

Ivelisse Page:

There's always hope and yeah. And I think that's, in those moments, those darkest moments where at least for myself, I really felt his presence. And, it's hard to explain to anyone, and I think maybe because you are just so looking inward into all that's going on within your family unit, that you, uh, step away from all the noise of everything that's distracted you in your life and you really have that time of quiet and moment to say, I need your help. I need your wisdom. I need your strength. And it's, at least for me, it was very much a time of dependency and hope always wins in the end. So I'm glad that, you know he was there for you too. So let's, uh, move a little bit ahead and let's talk about OUR 7. This supplement was born from a decade of research and your personal experience that you all have experienced with, with cancer and, and childhood cancer. You know, what made you wanna formulate your own product instead of relying on what was already on the market?

Ryan Sternagel:

Yeah. I mean, we did so many things right? And so it's not like this is, this is the only thing. And we were working with energy workers and, just go down the Radical Remission nine factors list and we were drilling all those in and, you know, extreme nutrition slash toxicity avoidance slash detoxification, all these things. Right. But, you know, I mentioned, we were doing a lot of supplements. And I don't know, I, I kind of break supplements out into kind of three broad categories. I guess you could call that part of the Stern Method. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how to encapsulate the Stern Method, so when, when I look at supplements, I'm breaking them out into Nutrify, Correct, and Protect. Nutrify being nutrition type stuff. Correct being, detoxification, gut healing, adaptogens, homeostasis, stuff like that. And then Protect is the more advanced immune support, mitochondrial support, epigenetic modification, these sorts of things, right? And, within that, there are the kind of really high end, chronic disease specific formulas. You know, we, we've got our favorites there, whether it's Metatrol or PectaSol or Haelan or stuff like that, right? But, when it comes to the, I don't know, I think of'em as the classics, the botanicals with just so much research behind them when it comes to the condition that we're talking about here. There are botanicals that will have a few studies behind them, and then there's botanicals that have thousands of studies behind them, and those are the ones, and I mean, what, what are those curcumin, green tea, quercetin, ginseng, astragalus, grape seed extract, selenium, those are the seven things in, in OUR 7. That's not the entire list, but that's a pretty good chunk of the ones that have the thousands of studies behind them. And, I think that's the reason that they have the thousands of studies behind'em is because they just do so many different things on their own. But it's not just immune support. It's not just epigenetic support. It's kind of everything. And then you put'em all together and then that's a really good thing. And so it's, you know, naturopathic oncologist, a lot of these things are kind of their go-tos without knowing much else about the situation, right? Yes. So those are all the things that we've just stuck close to and you know, I'm as guilty as the next guy of always going for the next shiny thing, right? When it comes to exotic supplements and stuff like that. But as far as just what we have never veered very far away from it is those kind of classic botanicals. And honestly, one just I'm getting tired of ordering seven different bottles and two, we've been researching this and ordering these things for ourselves for 10 years now and 11 years actually, man. And, just over the time it's okay, every different company, we were asking for certificates of analysis and what's the heavy metal level? Is there glyphosate in it? Is there a ton of excipients and magnesium stearate and silicon dioxide and all this stuff. And, sometimes companies are good and then they get bought by some conglomerate and, now they're not good anymore. And so we just got, we got tired of that whole game and we just wanted something that we could really, really, really trust for ourselves because it was made to our standards. And so we made it, and now we've made that available to, to everybody. Yeah.

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah. And I love the quality of it. I've been using it now, coming up close on a year. I met with you last year and, started taking it. And like you said, I used to buy many of them, half, more than half of them separately as part of my protocol that my integrated practitioner still has me on based on my labs and my nutrigenomics and things like that. And, I love that it's also in a glass bottle. You don't have all those plastics either. It's really, really great quality and I love that you have those seven into one. And I know for those of us who have been on this journey, we don't wanna have to keep taking 50 supplements a day. Uh, so having it all combined in one is just so golden. So I know you touched on it a, a moment ago, but can you just quickly share and go through each of the seven items and what does it support in the body?

Ryan Sternagel:

Yeah. So, the seven main ingredients are, well, there's curcumin extract and there is whole food turmeric, because, there's that debate whether it's the whole food co-factors versus the active ingredient sort of thing. And so I just said, we'll just put both in there and then that answers the debate. Selenium, EGCG from green tea is green tea extract, quercetin, ginseng, astragalus, and grape seed extract. Those are the seven. The kind of two bonus ingredients, I guess you could say would be black pepper for better absorption and MCT oil powder, which we, we weren't planning on the MCT oil powder at first, but then again, going back to I didn't want all the excipients in there, magnesium stearate and silicon dioxide and blah, blah, blah. But those things are something is needed to help the healthy ingredients get into the capsule and not jam up the machines and overheat the nutrients. So, I found out we could actually use a hardy dose of MCT oil powder and actually, um, organic bamboo silica extract as well. You call that another bonus ingredient to take the place of those unnatural excipients. There's such a big dose MCT powder in there. It also doubles as a fat absorption type thing like you make golden milk with coconut milk and turmeric, that, that sort of thing,'cause the fat helps the absorption of the turmeric and that's the formula. And then.

Ivelisse Page:

So would you say that those specific ingredients are immune support, detoxification, inflammation control, or all of the above?

Ryan Sternagel:

That's the tough part about talking about all these ingredients together or even just one of'em, right,'cause they're all checking a lot of these boxes, but then you put'em all together and, I mean, our kind of safe word for it is encourages natural cellular health processes. Which I look at different all the different pathways, the cellular pathways associated with disease and which ones are turning things on and off and, and these sorts of things. And so, you call that the epigenetic front, right? So it's pushing cellular pathways in the good direction, not the bad direction that the modern world is always trying to push'em in. And yes it supports healthy inflammation response and it's also antioxidants and it also does provide immune support. Even helps a little with detoxification, the detox pathways and those sorts of things, uh, metabolic function. Even some cardiovascular benefits in there. And then with the ginseng and the the astragalus, those are both adaptogens, right? So you're also getting, uh, some adaptogenic support. Adaptogens are kind of miracle, like if you're revved up too high, they'll bring you back down. If you're too low, they'll bring you up with, in terms of like your nervous system and or autonomic nervous system and hormones and stuff like that. So, when I was trying to put a benefit list together, it was kind of hard making it sound, not like I'm trying to say it does everything right? But, it is just one thing in many, we do consider it a staple now because it just does provide such a broad spectrum of, you know research backed benefits. Yeah.

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah. Well, Ryan, you know, in our closing moment here, I really, am so grateful that Ryder's doing well. I am grateful for all that you're doing in the cancer community and, and in the wellness space. And, I'm excited that you will, uh, be joining us, uh, this coming year again at our second annual Integrative Cancer Symposium. And just wanna let everybody know, uh, that it is coming up on October 17th, it's a Saturday. It will be in Towson, Maryland. It will be a conference that you will not want to miss, and you'll be able to meet with amazing individuals like Ryan and others who are here to support cancer patients and those who want to prevent cancer as well.

Ryan Sternagel:

And it's a heck of a show you put on Ivelisse wouldn't have known it was the first one. It was, yeah. Really. Top notch all the way through.

Ivelisse Page:

Oh, well thank you.

Ryan Sternagel:

Can't wait for this one.

Ivelisse Page:

Our, our team did a great job. I agree with that. And in closing, is there anything that you would wanna add that I did not ask you in regards to other resources or tools that, help to support those on the healing journey?

Ryan Sternagel:

I feel like the story always takes way too much time. I'll have to come back and, we can actually get down and dirty with more specific things, right? I guess the one thing I'd throw in there too is our Going Integrative Plus program, it was mentioned in the bio. I started going to integrative cancer physician conferences, physician only conferences, and talking my way in there just to learn all I could for Ryder. That became a passion, and, just finding all the best integrative cancer doctors in the country slash world that I could, and learning from them. And, that's grown into a big part of what we do online. And so now we're Going Integrative Plus program is, um, it's a lot of things, but it's an opportunity to ask the best integrative cancer doctors in the world anything you want. It's different than listening to a podcast. Podcasts are great. I listen to many of them, including this one. But, whenever you are trying to figure out, uh, anything, right, is the piecing together, you know, piecing the puzzle together or sorting through conflicting information, all that stuff, you know, you can actually ask one of the best cancer doctors in the world, every week, whatever it is that's on your mind that you're trying to figure out, and that that's what we would've given anything for, right? Especially after we moved away from Seattle and then we couldn't find anybody good here in Utah. And that's why I started the podcast originally was just, getting those questions answered, right? But not everyone wants to go out and start a podcast. And there's, you know, there there's more than that, but, uh, that's, that's the big thing. People can check that out at goingintegrativeplus.com as well. Yeah.

Ivelisse Page:

That's, that's amazing. And we'll definitely put the links in our show notes and regards to the Going Integrative Plus, along with the OUR 7 and the Stern Method so people can check it out for themselves. And I agree, it is so important. He keeps saying that, you know, so many people are getting advice from social media influencers and not their, not integrative practitioners who are licensed and who know oncology. And so it is so important that you get the answers from people who are trained, uh, medically in oncology. And so that's a, an amazing opportunity for people. So thank you so much.

Ryan Sternagel:

And people use it to doctor shop as well too, right? Because I like to think that's the one good thing that came outta COVID is telemedicine laws laxed up. So you can kind of have your pick of whoever in the country, even if the best one isn't right down the street from you. But then that presents a new challenge, right? Who are the best people that I should be picking from? I always say, you know, I can't tell you who the best doctor is because I've got 50 some odd favorites. And they're all, they're all great in their own ways, but whoever resonates with you the most is, uh, that's, that's gonna be the best one for you. So yeah, people use it to kind of, get to test drive doctors before you, before you take the plunge sort of thing too. So, it's neat.

Ivelisse Page:

Well, thank you, Ryan, for joining us today. I know how busy you are and, uh, I just, uh, pray that you have an amazing 2026.

Ryan Sternagel:

Right back at you Ivelisse. Thanks for everything you do.

Ivelisse Page:

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