Evolution of Medicine Podcast · Functional Forum

Transforming Cancer Care with Dr. Nasha Winters

March 19, 2025·41 min·2 clips

Three medical doctors walked out of a Colorado ovarian cancer symposium because a naturopathic doctor was presenting.

1. Evolution of Medicine Podcast centers on Dr. Nasha Winters and the transformation of cancer care. 2. Dr. Nasha Winters is the guest, and the show frames her as a clinician and cancer-care educator whose work shapes the episode. 3. The episode asks what needs to change in cancer care, why it has not changed faster, and how data, training, and environment can shift outcomes. 4. Winters says 'we only waged war on cancer in 1971,' which she notes is also the year of her birth. 5. She cites World Health Organization statistics that one in two people will be diagnosed with cancer and that global cancer rates may double by 2040. 6. She traces her own path back to being diagnosed at 19 in 1991 and being sent home to die with ovarian cancer. 7. Winters says her early question was not how to beat cancer, but why it happened in the first place. 8. She argues that the field has leaned too heavily on a genetic theory of cancer without asking enough about triggers and terrain. 9. Winters says her work has involved tens of thousands of people directly and hundreds of thousands indirectly. 10. She describes training programs that teach clinicians and allied health providers to ask different questions in cancer care. 11. Winters says the legal language around cancer matters, because only board-certified oncologists or dental surgeons can legally say they treat cancer. 12. She explains that her model focuses on people who happen to have cancer and the environments that let cancer 'take root and express.' 13. Winters says the work is 'data driven,' 'evidence informed,' and built around 'in of one' decision-making. 14. She says patient grants were created to help people access care beyond standard of care alone. 15. Winters describes a future integrative residential oncology hospital and research institute on a 1,200-acre regenerative farm. 16. She says the farm setting matters because regenerative farming is part of the transformation she wants to build. 17. Winters says a glioblastoma patient came to her in a wheelchair, and a therapeutic ketogenic diet stopped his seizures within days. 18. She says that patient lived 18 more months after being told he had weeks, which helped shift attention toward quality of life. 19. The interview stays conversational and practical, with frequent back-and-forth exchanges about mitochondria, data, and clinical models. 20. Listeners who follow functional medicine, oncology, or data-driven care will get the most value, while people wanting a light overview of cancer basics may skip it.

As heard by us

A mitochondrial view of cancer care, environmental load, and why a broader lens keeps pulling people in.

Nasha Winters presents cancer care through environment and mitochondria, opening with a 2012 Colorado ovarian cancer symposium anecdote in which some doctors walked out while the room stayed eager for another way of thinking.

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Why you'd press play

You want a cancer conversation that links biology, environment, and practice.

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