172: Yes To Life Show with Robin Daly MBE - Episode 172

172: Yes To Life Show with Robin Daly MBE - Episode 172

Get ready to be moved by real-life accounts of how cancer care can look very different when mind, body and soul are all brought into the picture. Robin Daly sits down with integrative doctor Saskia Kloppenberg to talk about one big question: when’s the right time to bring integrative approaches into cancer treatment?

Saskia shares how her journey from hospital consultant in Spain to integrative physician in the UK began when she noticed patients linking their illnesses to life events like divorce, bereavement or retirement. Conventional medicine, she says, often misses this: “They actually give you a starting point where conventional medicine doesn’t make the link.” The conversation covers complementary therapies such as mistletoe, high-dose vitamin C, acupuncture and off‑label drugs, and how these can sit alongside chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy.

Saskia highlights research where adding high‑dose vitamin C to chemotherapy doubled progression‑free survival in pancreatic cancer and reduced toxicity, stressing that these approaches are meant to complement, not replace, standard treatment. You’ll also hear a powerful discussion about timing. Saskia is frank about how hard it is when people only seek integrative support at stage 4, saying she could often have done much more if they’d come earlier.

Prevention, early support and lifestyle changes around nutrition, movement and stress management all get a clear spotlight. Perhaps the most striking moments come when she speaks about trauma, fear and what she calls the three pillars: body, mind and soul. From post‑traumatic stress around diagnosis to a patient with advanced melanoma who shifted into acceptance and later reached remission, Saskia shows how emotional and spiritual work can sit alongside evidence‑based medicine.

If you’re curious about adding holistic tools to conventional care, or supporting someone with cancer, this conversation offers a grounded, hopeful look at what’s possible. What might change if you treated your whole self, not just your diagnosis?