Ananda Lewis, an element of the MTVâ golden era, died this week after a long battle with breast cancer. She was 52 years old.
In the years that led to her death, the beloved TV personality promoted controversy by choosing alternative treatments instead of a double mastectomy recommended by the doctor-a decision she stood to the end, though not without any regrets.
â € œ Everything in your power to avoid my story by becoming yours, â € Lewis wrote in a sincere essay about Essence published in January, reflecting on the choices she made both during her illness and long before the cancer entered her life.
Lewis discovered a lump on her right chest as she showered in December 2018. It was a little larger than a pea and placed where she often experienced mastitis while breastfeeding her son.
Former MTV video video video and TV hoped it was nothing – but a biopsy next month discovered breast cancer in phase III that had already spread to its lymph nodes.
“For a really long time, I have rejected mammograms, and this was a mistake,” Lewis shared on Instagram when she came out in public with her diagnosis in October 2020.
“If I had done mammograms since they were recommended, when I was 40 years old, they would have caught the tumor in my chest years before I caught it through my self-examination,” she continued.
Despite the advanced phase, Lewis chose to face the diagnosis on her way.
“My approach to life is to deal with head things as they happen,” she wrote in essence. â € Preish instead of panicking, I made a game plan.â €
After seeing her mother and cousin switching to traditional cancer treatment, she rejected the advice of doctors to undergo surgery to remove her two breasts, along with chemotherapy and possible radiation.
â € œ my plan at first was to get excessive toxins in my body, Lewis CNN told in an October 2024 interview. “I decided to keep my tumor and try to work it out of my body in another way.â €
She later admitted that she had doubts about her decision. â € œ Returning again for this, I go, “You know what? Maybe I should have, â € â € said.
On the contrary, that dove in research and adjusted the style of her life, focusing on diet, detox and natural healing.
My goal was to do things that support my body’s ability to continue to be all all to heal, instead of destroying it forward, ”Lewis wrote in essence.
She received monthly ultrasound from a breast surgeon to follow the tumor and engaged in a mixture of alternative therapies, including high -dose vitamin C IV, hyperbar chamber sessions, Qigong, energy work and prayer.
Progress was steady in the hit of Pandemia Covid-19. California closed, and Lewis could no longer enter its treatments or scans. “In the summer of 2020, I felt the tumor is growing again,” she wrote.
With limited opportunities in California, she traveled to Arizona, where medical clinics remained open. There, it underwent 16 weeks of integration treatment, including acupuncture, creatability and low chemosa.
The results were promising: its cancer fell from Phase III in Phase II, it cleared from its lymph nodes and its tumor shrunk.
But the cost was steep. Without insurance, Lewis cannot continue home treatments and had to stop taking care of more than two years while supporting herself and her son.
By October 2023, her cancer had progressed to phase IV.
It was again in treatment at an integration clinic in southern California. After 12 weeks, until January 2024, her condition had improved significantly. But the number of years without constant care weighed it.
â € œam I’m in clear? No, “she wrote.” But I could have ended here no matter which way I got because I didn’t get in with the resources I needed to stay the course all the time.â €
Doctors generally advise against the passage of surgery for breast cancer – especially in the early stages.
“In Phase I to III Breast cancer, which is treatable, there is no scenario that we can pass the operation altogether,” said Dr. Stephanie Downs-Canner, a breast surgeon in Sloan Kettering Memorial, Health told him.
Research repeatedly shows that women who refuse surgery have lower levels of five-year survival and are more likely to die from the disease.
However, Lewis remained firm in her beliefs.
“I understand people don’t get it,” she said to Host Shameika Poems in Soulbration in October 2024. “I still feel like I did the right thing. I need women to learn from my mistakes. I need them to learn from my victories.â €
Lewis also said she had regretted ignoring the factors she now believes she contributed to her illness – from chronic stress to poor food and bypass shows.
“If I had known what I know now 10 years ago, maybe I wouldn’t have ended here,” she wrote in essence. “I would do all the things I have been forced to do now, to keep my body not to create more cancer and remove what it has already done.”
She called on women to manage stress, sleep well, stay active, get enough vitamin D, hydrate, eat clean and avoid environmental toxins.
â € œAnd your knowledge of how to prevent reaching here in the first place, â € wrote Lewis. â € œ Prayer is the true cure.â €
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women after skin cancer, with one in the eighth that is expected to develop it in their lives. Norms are increasing, especially among young women and those who are Asian or Islander’s Pacific, according to the American Cancer Association (ACS).
Despite major advances in treatment and early detection, breast cancer remains the second leading cause of the death of cancer among women – after only lung cancer.
Black women are disproportionately affected, facing higher levels of mortality at any age.
In 2025, the ACS expects that 316,950 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in the US, and 42.170 women will die from the disease.
Most large medical groups recommend women at average risk of starting annual mammograms at 40, according to Breastcancer.org.
Those who have the highest risk – due to family history, genetics or other factors – are generally advised to start annual mammographs in 30 and breast MRI between the ages of 25 and 35 years.
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