Healing is both a scientific and a spiritual journey, states Kelly Noonan Gores. She's the writer, director, and producer of "Heal," a documentary feature about the mind-body connection and the body's innate ability to heal. In this wide-ranging discussion, we touch on a lot of the topics covered in previous episodes of Cancer Connection, including cases of exceptional healing (see episode 2 with Dr. Jeffrey Rediger) and the rewards that come from acknowledging our mortality (see episode 3 with Dr. BJ Miller). We also talk about the interconnectedness of science and spirituality; how our thoughts, beliefs, and emotions have a huge impact on our overall health and our ability to recover from illness and injury.

You can learn more about "Heal" at the film's website, or check out Kelly Noonan Gores' book of the same title.

HEAL (official website)

"Heal: Discover Your Unlimited Potential and Awaken the Powerful Healer Within" (book)

"The HEAL Podcast" features interviews with scientists, healthcare experts, spiritual leaders, and individuals with remarkable healing stories that prove almost anything is possible when it comes to healing.

About Clearity

Cancer Connections is produced by Clearity, which provides free support and services to people impacted by ovarian cancer. You can learn more about Clearity and the topics we've discussed today by visiting clearity.org. Or, feel free to email us your questions or comments at podcast@clearity.org. Thanks!

Welcome to "Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll," a multi-part series where we talk with experts about three topics that often do not get discussed during treatment.

In this final installment of the series, we talk to surgeon, musician, and author Dr. Nimesh Nagarsheth about the role music can play in a patient's journey. Dr. Nagarsheth is the author of "Music and Cancer: A Prescription for Healing," and since 2008 has performed in the band N.E.D. (no evidence of disease) as part of an ongoing campaign to raise awareness of oncological cancers. He's also the director of the Dizzy Gillespie Memorial Fund at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in New Jersey.

Dr. Nagarsheth shares his perspective on how music may act as a foundation to help patients make their way through treatment and their overall cancer experience, whether or not they are already musicians or music-lovers.

More on Dr. Nimesh Nagarsheth:

• "Music and Cancer: A Prescription for Healing" (Amazon)
• "No Evidence of Disease" (documentary about the band N.E.D.)
  • Website: https://www.nedthemovie.com/band
  • Trailer: https://vimeo.com/107275052

For more information on the role of music in treatment:

• American Music Therapy Association
  https://www.musictherapy.org/
• Association for Music and Imagery
  https://ami-bonnymethod.org/find-a-practitioner

About Clearity

Cancer Connections is produced by Clearity, which provides free support and services to people impacted by ovarian cancer. You can learn more about Clearity and the topics we've discussed today by visiting clearity.org. Or, feel free to email us your questions or comments at podcast@clearity.org. Thanks!

This episode is Part 2 of our two-part conversation about the use of two drugs in a person's cancer journey which may be considered alternative to many people, cannabis and psilocybin. In this second episode we focus on psilocybin by talking to Mark Geyer, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences Emeritus at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), who directs the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit of the VISN 22 Veterans Administration Mental Illness Research, Clinical, and Education Center.

For four decades, his group has had continuous funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to study the behavioral effects of psychedelics and entactogens. At UCSD, he is a founding member of the Consortium for Translational Research in Neuropsychopharmacology (CTRIN) and Translational Research in Psychophysiology, Exploration, and Cognition (TRIPEC) groups.

As Dr. Geyer makes clear during our interview, the decision to use psilocybin should only be made with the professional guidance of medical experts; this is not a DIY treatment method.


About Clearity

Cancer Connections is produced by Clearity, which provides free support and services to people impacted by ovarian cancer. You can learn more about Clearity and the topics we've discussed today by visiting clearity.org. Or, feel free to email us your questions or comments at podcast@clearity.org. Thanks!