Brain Cancer Healed with a Raw Vegan Diet (Megan Sherow)

Megan Sherow heals from brain cancer with a raw vegan diet

In the summer of 2009, at the young age of 13, Megan Sherow began experiencing double vision. Her mother took her to an ophthalmologist believing that she might need glasses, but instead they discovered that her optic nerve was inflamed. The doctor requested that she go and have a CAT scan right away that revealed a large area of inflammation on her brain. She was immediately transported by ambulance to another hospital to have an emergency MRI that revealed that she had a plum-sized brain tumor.

Megan was given steroids to reduce the inflammation, and met with a surgeon the following day who felt that he could remove the tumor with clean margins. Following the surgery, a second MRI revealed that a portion of the tumor was left behind. Six days later, she had a second more aggressive surgery but a small portion of the tumor remained.

Stage 3 Glioneuronal brain tumor was the diagnosis, which is a rare form of cancer that didn’t have a specific protocol for doctors to follow in order to treat it, and because of this, they also couldn’t provide her with a prognosis either. Megan and her mother consulted with three different specialists at three different hospitals, including St Jude’s in Tennessee which decided to take Megan on as a patient because she had such a rare form of cancer. All three specialists recommended three different treatment protocols that might include aggressive chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery, with one even suggesting that she was terminal. St Jude’s suggested that Megan have a third surgery which they scheduled for 9/11/2009, but when the time for surgery came, Megan refused to have it on such an ominous date so it was postponed for an additional 3 months.

Megan’s mother decided to use these extra three months to make some major changes to Megan’s diet because she believed that the tumor was a result of her eating habits and lifestyle and felt that she needed to build up her immune system. Megan’s mom began this task by eliminating sugar and dairy from Megan’s diet because they are both inflammatory to the body but she continued to eat lots of meat products and fats (Megan described herself as a meat eating machine). They worked to remove the toxins that Megan was being exposed to such as chemicals that are commonly found in personal care and household cleaning products. Megan got out in the sun every day (about 20- 30 minutes of high noon sun without sunscreen), this was so her body could naturally produce vitamin D. She also minimized stress and got daily exercise. When Megan’s mom called St Jude’s about the surgery three months later, they said that a recent scan showed that the tumor was no longer growing and the doctors felt that the surgery could be postponed for now and that she should go back to the local hospital in Pennsylvania for continued monitoring.

Megan’s mother reports that her own health began to deteriorate shortly thereafter due to the months of stress that she experienced while trying to help Megan. In order to address her symptoms she decided to begin eating a raw, vegan diet and within a few weeks she says that her symptoms had cleared up entirely. In August of 2010, she took Megan to a raw foods cafe called Arnold’s Way that was located in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, where Megan could meet with the owner and health advocate Arnold Kauffman. He told Megan that if she could switch over to a raw vegan diet she just might possibly be able to heal from the brain tumor. He then explained to her about the power of using a raw foods diet for healing diseases naturally. Megan reports that she thought that “it sounded like a bunch of nonsense.”

Megan began eating a raw vegan diet

Megan Sherow- Brain Tumor, Stage 3 — Megan and Arnold Kauffman. Photo courtesy of Brian Rossiter, Fruitpowered.com

Megan took the time to read Arnold’s book titled ‘The Way of Arnold: Experiencing Your Full Potential While Turning Back the Clock With Every Loving Raw Moment, which she said was filled with nutritional facts and testimonials from those who had used similar diets to heal from various illnesses. She also read ‘The China Study‘ which convinced her that she had to change her eating habits.

Megan says that she was able to change her diet relatively quickly but then spent the first few months “binging on kale chips that were smothered in a cheese-flavored coating.” After awhile, she was able to control those cravings too and found that she was feeling better than she had in a very long time. The raw vegan diet that Megan started eating contained a lot of seeds and nuts. She reports that she continued to be troubled by migraines, so she went back to Arnold and he told her to stop eating the nuts and seeds because they might be too high in fat for her. She stopped consuming them and the migraines stopped.

She now eats about 2 pounds of raw fruits and vegetables everyday and says that she is full of energy and doing great with this more restrictive raw vegan diet (with no added salt or fat). It took about a year and a half of eating this very strict vegan diet for the tumor to disappear entirely and she has continued on with her specialized diet ever since.

For Breakfast – she typically eats a frozen fruit whip made with frozen bananas, mangoes and strawberries…..see the video below on how to make a banana whip.
For lunch– kale chips, raw crackers, and another banana/fruit whip
For Dinner- she typically eats a large romaine lettuce salad.
For snacks – she eats dates, mangoes, cucumbers, banana whips, and fresh fruit smoothies.

A raw vegan diet is a very versatile and varied diet which has fruits and vegetables at its core. There are many cookbooks available to help guide you in making satisfying meals. See the raw food pyramid below for more food ideas. Megan has an associate’s degree in theater, loves to sing and dance, as well as photography.