Good Neighbor Podcast: Port Saint Lucie
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Port Saint Lucie. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Benjamin John helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Port St Lucie, Florida.
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Good Neighbor Podcast: Port Saint Lucie
EP# 275: Enhancing Cancer Care with Complementary Approaches | Debbie Caramagno's Inspirational Journey with the Annieappleseed Project
What makes Debbie Caramagno with Annieappleseed Project a good neighbor?
What if you could enhance your cancer treatment with methods that complement traditional care? Join us on the Good Neighbor Podcast as we chat with Debbie Caramagno from the Annieappleseed Project, a nonprofit committed to providing evidence-based complementary cancer care. Debbie, a licensed acupuncturist with over two decades of experience, shares her inspiring journey from owning a natural food store to becoming a strong advocate for holistic health. Hear her story of resilience through her personal battles with cancer and caring for a husband with Alzheimer's, and how these experiences have fueled her passion for supporting others.
In this episode, Debbie uncovers the science-backed approaches that the Annieappleseed Project recommends for cancer care, including diet, supplements, exercise, and mind-body practices. She also addresses common myths and misconceptions surrounding alternative cancer care. Discover more about their impactful work and their annual conference in West Palm Beach, where experts from around the world gather to share their insights. Whether you're looking for additional cancer care options or seeking inspiration, this conversation with Debbie Caramagno offers valuable information and heartfelt stories that you won't want to miss.
To learn more about Debbie Caramagno go to:
https://www.annieappleseedproject.org/
Annieappleseed Project
561-301-5398
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Garfield Bowen.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Are you looking for some complimentary or alternative cancer care? Well, we may have something closer than you think. They have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, debbie Caramango, with Apple Seed Project. Debbie, how are you doing today?
Speaker 3:I'm doing good.
Speaker 2:Listen, debbie. We're excited to learn all about you and your organization here. Tell us about your company.
Speaker 3:Okay, Well, first my history is. I'm a licensed acupuncturist. I had a 23-year practice in Jupiter, Florida. I'm now retired and today I'm here speaking as an ambassador for the Any Appleseed Project, which is a nonprofit, all-volunteer organization that offers educational, informative, evidence-based information on complementary cancer care for those who are interested. We're not advocating to replace doctors and the traditional care. We're just advocating for complementary things that can be done in addition to standard care.
Speaker 2:How did you get into this?
Speaker 3:business. Well, I've always had an interest in the holistic health field, and then I originally owned a natural food store for years in Tequesta. And then I went to school, went to college, became an acupuncturist. So it went in line with my basic thought patterns of what I believed in, and this organization was started by a woman who had cancer in the 90s, anne Fonfa, and she was looking for groups where she could find more information about alternative cancer care, and this organization thus formed. We have about 90,000 visitors that visit our website per month to try to get additional information on what they can do to strengthen their immune system for cancer care.
Speaker 2:What are some of the myths and misconceptions?
Speaker 3:I think the misconceptions is that this is all non-evidence-based it's just a bunch of fluff information out there, but that's not true. We try to base our recommendations on evidence-based cancer and there's a lot that can be done to strengthen one's immune system and fight the battle of cancer using alternative methods. We would include things like diet we strongly suggest organic fruits and vegetables supplements, exercise, mind-body issues and looking at environment issues also and all of this is on our website too, with more information.
Speaker 2:So, debbie, when you're not busy with this organization, what do you like to do for fun?
Speaker 3:Oh well, I love nature. I like going outside. I raise flowers. I also like going for hikes and spending time at the beach and with my friends. I meditate also and I do Qigong bit.
Speaker 2:Life often throws us curveballs. Let's talk about one hardship, one life challenge, something that you rose above and can now say you're better and stronger because of it. What comes to mind?
Speaker 3:Well, I probably have two things. I was diagnosed with cancer in 2010. My last treatment was 2014. I used traditional methods plus alternative methods, and now I've been cancer free and in remission since 2014, which I'm very happy about, of course. And I think the second thing that happened to me in my life is my husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Second thing that happened to me in my life is my husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. I took care of him, used traditional methods. He's since passed. But going through anybody who's been a caretaker for someone with Alzheimer's knows how difficult it is and when you get to the other side, you think you've been through a lot and you're pretty strong.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm actually a cancer survivor as well, so I understand the whole process with the chemo and everything else in there.
Speaker 3:It's very overwhelming when people are first diagnosed with cancer. They don't know where to turn and on our site we try to offer options that you can use in addition to whatever your doctor is recommending. And so many people just by the fact that we have that many people come to our site are looking for science-based evidence that they can use in their fight against cancer. And the one thing I wanted to mention is our organization has a wonderful yearly conference in West Palm Beach in February every year and we have doctors and practitioners from all over the world come and speak. And these aren't just fluff fluff doctors, they're intelligent, smart Harvard grads, yale, whatever to talk about studies and so forth that have been done using alternative methods in cancer care. And at this convention all the food served lunch is included every day. It's a three-day event.
Speaker 2:All food is organic, that's really a priority in the anti-leseed world to recommend organic produce and vegetables? No-transcript. To really just tell us one thing that you want our listeners to take away from this interview today.
Speaker 3:I think I'd like people to know that there's a lot that they can do to help themselves, and they just need to research and look for sites that offer quality information and go to our site, see some of the things we're recommending and we have what we call a circle of balance, where we have a big circle with all the things that we think would be helpful to fight this battle against cancer. So many people are diagnosed with cancer every year and it's so overwhelming. So over two million people were diagnosed in 2024 with cancer. So we'd like to see that not happen. First be proactive and reactive, but there's many challenges to that.
Speaker 2:That leads me to the last question, which is how? How can my listeners learn more about Annie's apple seed project?
Speaker 3:Gotcha. We have our site. It's Annie apple seed projectorg. That's on the web. There's lots of information there. We'll even talk about our conference. We don't have the registration open yet. Lots of information there. We'll even talk about our conference. We don't have the registration open yet, but there's also information on YouTube and we have an email address at AnnieAppleseedProject at AOLcom. And we encourage people to contact us to find information out.
Speaker 2:Listen, debbie. It's been a pleasure having you on the show. We wish you and your organization the very best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Port St Lucie. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpportsaintluciecom. That's gnpportsaintluciecom, or call 772-362-3840.