VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A Sentara dietician who survived cancer talked about using nutrition to reduce your risk of colorectal cancer during a cooking demonstration at Sentara Brock Cancer Center on Tuesday.
Shaye Arluk gives a free lecture monthly as part of their series "Nutrition in the Cancer Journey." The lecture is for cancer survivors, people in their cancer journey currently, and family and friends of cancer patients.
Arluk touted the importance of nutrition and a healthy diet to combat colorectal cancer. She believes cancer has a direct correlation to diet.
"I very much am a believer that our cancer increase in this country is so much being contributed to by our food intake," Arluk said.
The dietician is a cancer survivor who was diagnosed at 30 years old with no family history of cancer. She began researching how she could fight cancer.
"I had no family history and I was already a dietician," Arluk said. "What that did was made me go on a mission to understand how can I fight cancer when I didn't have the risk factors. I really started exploring Eastern medicines especially when it came to food."
After Arluk studied inflammation, she found that Western doctors are now saying inflammation is the root of so many diseases. She teaches what she has learned about using nutrition to fight cancer.
"I try to bring all that knowledge together," said Arluk. "Teach it in a relatable way, so I can help people get out of their cancer journey and hopefully not go back into it again. Just like I fight every day for myself.