Cancer Survivor Beats Depression and Osteoporosis - Suzanne Scherr Steger

My name is Suzanne Scherr Steger. I am 52 years old. Before cancer, I was a college music professor and arts administrator, then I homeschooled my children through junior high and high school. I was surprised to get life changing results in recovering from cancer and chemotherapy as a result of taking the Reliv shakes.

In January of 1998, I was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer ; the cancer had metastasized to the lymph nodes and was growing at a proliferation rate of 39%. (17-19% is considered a fast growing cancer.) I had seen my mother and her mother go through breast cancer, chemo, and radiation, and I did not want more than one experience of breast cancer. So I chose to have a double mastectomy followed by six months of experimental chemotherapy. Chemotherapy put me into an immediate and permanent state of menopause at age forty-four. I started shrinking due to massive bone density loss. I lost all of my hair, and I was in and out of the emergency room and the hospital so much that our family went to live with another family for 13 weeks. My blood counts had always been bad (I was chronically anemic) but during chemo, I had to have a shot of Neupogin every day to stimulate my bone marrow to produce good blood.

I had believed in nutrition for a long time, avoiding white sugar, white flour and salt, for the ten years prior to cancer. So the day after my cancer diagnosis, I went to my friend, an MD nutritionist, who followed me throughout the next 18 months. He gave me injections, powders, capsules, and a soy-based protein shake to handle the menopausal symptoms. I also ate the “perfect” diet, and juiced vegetables twice a day (at least two bags of carrots and a full stock of celery) in addition to sprouts and other vegetables which we grew. Finally, I also grew and juiced wheat grass. I hate to think what condition I would have been in if I hadn’t attempted all of those nutritional solutions. However, they weren’t enough to turn me back around on the road to health.

I had been taking antidepressants since 1993. When I finished chemotherapy, I felt like I had lost my mind, the clinical depression was so bad. My general physician simply told me that most women feel like they are losing their mind while going through menopause, but my brain fog was so bad that I couldn’t make any decisions, such as what to wear or what to eat. From December 1998 to October 1999 my General Physician prescribed two different kinds of antidepressants: Prozac and Wellbuterin. Unknown to us, I had a drug interaction between those two drugs which prompted panic attacks. For ten months my doctor simply increased the dosages of the antidepressants, thus increasing the frequency and severity of the panic attacks. In addition, in August 1999, my doctor and I were in an open argument about my refusal to start on hormone replacement therapy. I had shrunk an inch in the previous 12 months, and had 17 prescriptions which I could renew without his permission at the local pharmacy. He believed that hormone replacement therapy would handle the depression, the panic attacks, and the loss of bone density. I believed that all of the prescription drugs were shortening my life, not to mention affecting the quality of life for me. I was in pain all of the time, due to residual effects of chemotherapy, as well as the more recent slipped disk in my back. I wore a neck brace and could not stand up for more than a few minutes at a time.

So when my husband insisted in October 1999 that we begin taking the Relìv supplements, I had a new excuse to give my doctor for postponing (again) the inevitable hormone replacement therapy. I was not convinced by the ingredients given on the label that this “perfect” food was going to do anything that all of the other nutritional supplements hadn’t done. In fact, everything was in tiny dosages. But, they offered our money back, (which no one else had done) and my husband had heard a story of a breast cancer survivor who got off all of her medications. It gave me hope that I might be able to reduce some of my drugs

I began taking the shakes on October 15, 1999. For three months I took two scoops of Classic, a half a scoop of Innergize, and a Full scoop of FibRestore, three times a day. For the next six weeks I added ProVantage and Soy Sentials, and took as many shakes as I could swallow. In less than five months, I was off of all medications. In my first month of taking the shakes, my life-long struggle with constipation ended, and I began to feel some emotional strength returning. Every time I saw my doctor, which was every 4 to 6 weeks, I told him that I hadn’t used all of the prescriptions he had given me. He said I didn’t have to take them if I felt I didn’t need them, but he always gave me more prescriptions in case I changed my mind. Since March 7, 2000 my body has been able to fight off colds and flues without over the counter or prescription drugs. I consider this incredible new immune system to be my greatest defense against the return of cancer. It took me several months before I gave up on all of the other nutritional solutions. Even though I still eat a generally healthy diet, now I depend entirely upon Reliv for my nutritional needs.

After four months of taking the shakes, I had my regularly-scheduled oncology visit. My blood counts were perfect, and my oncologist encouraged me to keep doing whatever it was that I was doing. He said that he could not have told from my blood work that I had ever been sick. At six months, my chronically low blood pressure and tunnel vision went away. At twelve months, a bone density scan proved that my 47-year-old bones had the density of a 30-year-old woman.

Now I only need to go to the doctor for wellness visits, I don’t need a drug card, I spend less on groceries, and have many more hours in the day for productive work and leisure. For me, the most significant result has been psychiatric: the ability to handle the stresses of life with a minimum of emotional trauma, and a maximum of mental clarity. I praise God for all of these answers to prayer.


Suzanne Scherr Steger
Oak Park, IL