Melissa Etheridge: How My Life's Changed 10 Years After Cancer
— -- Music icon Melissa Etheridge is just over a decade removed from beating breast cancer and in those past 10 years, she's radically changed her life.
Along with being proactive about her body, not reactive, the Grammy winner also removed sugar from her diet and has looked at exercise and food in a whole different light.
"I am the healthiest I have ever been in my life," she told ABC News. "It excites me every day when I can wake up and feel energy and feel good and feel purpose. The changes I made were big and not easy. Sugar is a drug, incredibly addictive. That one change can make a huge difference in your life. Then there's yoga. Yoga's been the world ... [Also] food is not something that makes me feel better cause I eat it ... it's something that's going to give me energy and vitality and life. I look to living food to give that to me."
Etheridge, 54, said she tried homeopathic solutions instead of solely allopathic or mainstream medicine.
The "Come to My Window" singer admits that she is a "little more radical" than most when it comes to her style of health.
"I always tell people to do what they believe," she said, adding that if women want to have a mammogram once a year, than that's exactly what they should do. "I myself have a different belief. I believe in the balance of my body and I believe that I can understand the subtleties and feel the subtleties of my own body and when it's out of balance and those things that bring the circumstances that would cause cancer up. So, I actually stopped my mammograms."
She added, "I'm not recommending that for anyone else. ... I know when my stress is getting me. ... I'm telling you the truth, I'm also saying I don't recommend it. It's your own path and your own belief."
According to cancer.org, the American Cancer Society recommends "Women age 40 and older should have a mammogram every year and should continue to do so for as long as they are in good health" and that "recent evidence has confirmed that mammograms offer substantial benefit for women in their 40s. Women can feel confident about the benefits associated with regular mammograms for finding cancer early. However, mammograms also have limitations. A mammogram can miss some cancers, and it may lead to follow up of findings that are not cancer."
Etheridge's feelings about cancer and health were voiced in the documentary "1 A Minute" in 2010, which is being featured on the new The Thrive Channel.
Namrata Singh Gujral, an actress from hits like "Americanizing Shelley" and Bollywood's "Kaante," is the creator of “The Thrive Channel" and it’s programming, and the documentarian behind “1 A Minute.”
"The documentary was coming from 'Why are we being diagnosed every minute?'" Etheridge said about the past project. "Not just, there's something wrong with us and we are getting cancer. I like the different approach."
Yay! @CaesarsAC was awesome! Fun show. I used a selfie stick for the #melfie what do you think? Better? pic.twitter.com/OAxvmFxjpz
— Melissa Etheridge (@metheridge) June 13, 2015
That interview for the documentary, along with other specials is on the newly-launched channel, which features other cancer survivors such as Olivia Newton-John and Jaclyn Smith. The network will also feature shows like “Ultimate Survivor” and “Destination Survival,” according to Variety.
Gujral, a two-time cancer survivor herself, has been working for years to make The Thrive Channel a reality, she told ABC News.
"It's so important that people understand that regardless of what cancer does ... that you make each day count," Gujral said. "That's why The Thrive Channel was started."
Etheridge added that cancer simply can't be put into one box.
"You can't lump everybody together. All breast cancers are not the same, all ovarians, any of them. They are not the same," she said. "Health is the No. 1 thing facing our generation. Which way are we going to go? Are we going to change how we live? ... It's more about prevention than watching to see if something goes wrong."
