Melissa Laborsky, MD: True prevention lies within

“From the spiritual perspective, there is no disease or illness. There is only undiscovered purpose.”

When Melissa Laborsky, MD, heard this quote, it opened her eyes to a whole new world in the field of medicine. A family medicine physician who practiced traditional western medicine for many years, Dr. Laborsky has dedicated the past 12 years of her practice and life to studying Chinese medicine and qigong. Her training involved the Chinese energy approach to understanding, preventing and healing the root cause of disease, including breast cancer.

In The Breast of Everything podcast, Dr. Laborsky, who opened the Indy Healing Center in Indianapolis, Indiana, shares her personal experience that led her to learning the connection between mind, body and healing, and practicing this approach with her patients. 

The physician empowers those who feel stuck on their personal health journey to awaken connections among their body, mind and spirit. The key to wellness lies within you, she says 

Your own mental, emotional and physical health definitely has an impact on how well you will heal and how well you will manage your treatment, Dr. Laborsky says during the podcast. 

Transcript

Announcer  0:01  
Welcome to the breast of everything podcast your trusted resource for breast health information support and encouragement. Your host today is Dr. Lindsay gold and Dr. Eric Brown of comprehensive breast care. Welcome.

Dr. Linsey Gold  0:14  
Welcome to the breast of everything podcast. I am your host, Dr. Lindsay gold of comprehensive breast care here with Dr. Eric Brown.

Today, I'm happy to introduce Dr. Melissa Lebowski, a family medicine physician who has dedicated the past 12 years of her practice and life to studying Chinese medicine and Qi Gong. She initially practice traditional medicine until 2007, when she experienced a mind body awakening during a time of intense stress. That's when she began her training in the Chinese energy approach to understanding preventing and healing the root cause of breast cancer. In her practice, she integrates acupuncture, acupressure, acupressure, Chinese herbal medicine, healing foods, and qi gong energy exercise to empower the healing journey of others. She guides her students and patients to awaken the connections between body, mind and spirit and discover that the key to wellness lies within each of us. Welcome, Melissa. Hello. So happy to be here. Great to have you, Dr. Brown. Hello to you, too. Hello to you too. Dr. Gold. Great to be here. Thanks, Melissa, for joining us. My pleasure. This is a super exciting topic. And so interesting that your background, of course, is in well, we'll call it traditional Western medicine. Right, but that you somehow found your way to a different path. Will you share with our listeners, you know, how that came to be? And what you find to be the greatest differences? Yeah, absolutely. So my personal experience as you briefly overviewed in the intro was all of a sudden, I was having a constellation of different physical experiences show up. So suddenly, I had intense allergies, I had digestive issues, I had insomnia, you know, I even had a thyroid imbalance show up and all of this, like, for the first time, you know, they don't fully teach you this in med school. I'm like, Oh, my God, I'm having so much stress in my life. And all these physical things are happening at the same time, I can not deny that there's some link between what I'm experiencing in my life and what I'm experiencing in my body. So for me, that was like a huge aha awakening of like, Okay, what does that mean? What does that mean? What does that mean, for me personally, and what does that mean for how I approach people, you know, patients in my practice. So, you know, sometimes we start seeing things outside of us before we start doing that inner work. And that was one of the places I began with just talking to people differently. And it was overwhelming, how again, and again, and again, I was able to help people very easily see the correlations between different things that were happening in their life experience, and the onset of their different physical symptoms, whether that be migraines, or even the extreme of a diagnosis like breast cancer. So that just popped like, it basically blew my mind. And I decided that I was like, Alright, I got to figure out what this means for myself and where I'm going in practice.

MELISSA LABORSKY  3:40  
The other piece that really began to frustrate me was feeling like okay, I feel like there's a higher purpose to what we're experiencing in our bodies, and making that correlation feels really important. And I felt like part of you know, how I had been trained was almost disempowering people from being able to make that conscious recognition. So that was another piece. I didn't know how that all fit together. And when I say that I was a Western physician. I'm somebody who was like, Yeah, I mean, like, I didn't know doctors of Osteopathic Medicine existed when I was

that i Yo, so yeah, I was very much on the on the western path. So it was like opening after opening after opening and my first tip toe outside the box was something called mind body medicine with Dr. James Gordon, who's a Harvard trained psychiatrist. So everything he does it was like there was I needed to see that visible evidence, visible evidence, visible evidence, so that first tiptoe into exploring how these connections how there is a connection was huge Lee again, it blew my mind and I started to be able to connect the dots within myself and began putting that out into the world but still could feel like I know there's something else that's gonna pull this all together.

and I just couldn't quite figure out what that was until it just came to me. So at that point for various reasons, partly related to my life journey that could be a whole other podcast, I ended up uprooting my family from Indiana and moving to the east coast. And my husband's family, a lot of his family lives out there. And one of his aunts had been a student of a Chinese master in New York City. And he was just starting a training program in Chinese energy medicine. And at this point, I knew nothing about Chinese medicine, this would have been like 2008. Nothing about Chinese medicine. I knew nothing about what what is energy medicine, what is this Qi Gong thing, but she handed me some information on it at Thanksgiving dinner and November 2008. I'm like, Okay, thank you. Alright.

But yeah, so I, you know, for some part of me, I didn't trash it, it came home with me, and I don't even know how it ended up in my junk drawer. But while I was looking for the trash and recycling information, maybe like three weeks later, it was wedged inside there. And that brochure fluttered to the ground. And enough of my crazy Higher Self was like, pay attention. This is a huge thing. So fast forward, it was February of March of 2009, that I did my first training with Grandmaster Liu. And when I arrived at that training, it was we received these journals on on the cover of the journal, it said, from the spiritual perspective, there is no disease or illness, there's only undiscovered purpose and my whole being was like, yes, you figured.

And, you know, after that initial like thunderclap, it was like, Okay, what the heck does that mean? For where I'm taking this from here? So I'm gonna pause because I can get talky? Yeah, no, that's wonderful. That's an excellent story. And as far as emotional stress manifesting is like physical ailments. I mean, if I had a nickel for every time, a new breast cancer patient said to me, you know, you know, we try to learn about the patient, right, in addition to, you know, treating their disease, and many, many women will say, you know, I have so much stress in my life, you know, did it cause this or, and I tell them, you know, you have to tiptoe that because I say, maybe, but you can't blame yourself, but we can change things going forward. And I say, you know, in the traditional way that most of us were trained to learn and interpret scientific research. I mean, you pretty much can't randomize people to stress or no stress, like, that's, it's never a study that's ever going to be done or be able to be proven. But you can't really deny the number of people that say to you, you know, that they have this major, you know, stuff going on in their life, and a lot of them really find a purpose, like you say, in their cancer diagnosis, that allows them to make, you know, major changes going forward. Mm hmm. You know, one of the things that I found very interesting, I mean, I've love that I do integrate in, at least in my brain, I've got the Western and the eastern within May, it you most of the time, before we're able to visibly recognize that breast cancer exists. It's been there for seven to eight years. When you're speaking to somebody, it's oftentimes I find that most women can like they can identify like, they I know when this began, you know, I know when this Yeah, began to take root, you can get a whole story energetically, functionally of all the things that began to get stuck, that led to that visible diagnosis of breast cancer seven to eight years later. And when you look on a cellular level, you know, a lot of women asked that same question. Well, you know, I've been getting my mammograms, you know, every year for, you know, I'm teen years. Why just now, or why did this come up so quickly? And Ricky probably gives them the same story, you know, well, there has to be a billion cancer cells before there's, you know, a one centimeter mass on the mammogram. So if tumor doubling time is every 100 days, or 150 days, on average, basically, the first cancer cell was 10 years ago. And so again, that that matches, sort of what you're saying from from a scientific or cellular perspective.

DR. ERIC BROWN  9:34  
Rep. Do people tell you that as well? All the time, I mean, we hear with almost every console, not only they asked how long this has been there for, and it's scary for women to hear that it's been there for seven years, because in most people's minds, that seven years that it could be spreading, when the reality is it really hasn't developed the ability to do that.

Starting on day one.

Also, we hear a lot of patients that talk about the fatigue of where they are postoperatively and how tired they are, and trying to encompass the entire realm of their journey, just up to the time of surgery. It's understandable on a scientific level between an abnormal mammogram, getting called back for more images for a biopsy, waiting for a result, waiting for a console, waiting for surgery, doing the surgery, etc. And so there there is a nice history behind everybody's story, even when they present in the office that would easily explain how these things can take their toll, and your own mental, emotional, physical health definitely has an impact on how things are healed, how things are treated, and certainly how well you'll do with that treatment.

Dr. Linsey Gold  11:08  
So Melissa, quick question. So there's, there's the discussion of prevention of breast cancer, you know, that you would potentially have with, you know, a quote, unquote, healthy patient or patient trying to get healthy. And then there's the patient, you know, who develops breast cancer, you know, either new to you, or while under your care, I imagine those two things are approached differently. But let's take the latter for a diagnosed breast cancer patient, without

blaming them for lack of a better explanation. How do you approach that discussion with them? As far as treatment plans? Yeah, so when she one of the gifts I have from having had the master who I've trained with appear, is he never, he never practiced in China, he came to New York City. And so being in New York City and connecting with the minds of the people here in America, it's like people really, we need to understand this from a rational perspective from a left brain perspective. And so he began to just dive into he recognized that quantum physics actually fully explains why Chinese medicine is as powerful as it does. So you know, he has he's written books, and all of the basis of his practice is around this concept of quantum physics. So when we look at it from that angle, one of the most powerful healing realities is is

MELISSA LABORSKY  12:37  
E equals MC squared.

And c squared, free energy equals matter or mass, times the speed of light, which I actually use, I take it a step further and say the speed of light of consciousness. So when we think of that idea that we are literally energy transformers, we can continuously and we are at any given moment, transforming energy between free flow energy, and mass energy. And back again, that is our potential. That is our possibility. So we're always doing that. So when I talk about what might be matter, or mass, I mean, all degrees of energy that might be becoming stuck. So when we look at things that might be giving us signs that things are becoming stuck, it could be things like I spoke about, like, Wow, all of a sudden, you know, maybe I it's not that, you know, we're human, we're going to have things that come and go like a traffic jam and are energy highways. But when they were repeatedly having the same traffic jam occur again and again, and again, eventually, it's going to create a pattern that we would call like a function disorder. So you could see heartburn, you could see migraine headaches, you could see PMS, you could see autoimmune disease, you could see thyroid disorder, etc, etc, etc, which all of these different constellations of things, if things continue to stay stuck, and again, you could think of if we're talking about energy, like in an energy highway, eventually there can be so much stuckness that we get into a pattern that can eventually transform from free energy into mass. So when we talk about that spectrum of dis ease cancer is that far end of the spectrum where we've literally taken our free energy self and transformed it into Massa and that way you can see Dang, I'm powerful. I you know, not to say that, you know, like you're saying we get into a tender spot. I'm not blaming you. I'm saying it's so powerful that you manifested this you are so powerful, you can transform it. So I'll start to look at you know, depending on the person I love to look at their unique

life creative, especially their creativity and their experience. Like I have one woman right now a breast cancer patient who is an artist and she

works in movements. So we'll talk in all different analogies of you know, the energy of not moving, and what that feels like versus moving. If you I've had another patient who literally she painted like one of my favorite analogies is to think of the tumor as being like a, like a bud of a flower. So it's still, it's still you, it's still your creativity, it's still your energy, it's just gotten stuck in this one way, and we want it to bloom, we want it to open back up again. So whether we're looking at it from the angle of we want to going back to E equals MC squared. So how do we transform between that free flow energy and that mass energy. So all the different forms of medicine have different ways of doing that, from the traditional extract perspective, you know, when we do surgery, we're trying to remove that mass, we're trying to irradiate it, we're trying to use chemotherapy to create that transformation. So all those different processes, from the Chinese medicine perspective, we're using acupuncture, we're using herbs that are trying to break up the stagnant energy and bring up that energy free flow. And then also, you know, from that emotional perspective, because emotions and energy are completely connected, like you both recognize of opening, how can we create more emotional flow, anything that creates flow will boost that transformative ability that's within all of us, even if we've gotten so far stuck down that spectrum that a tumor has formed?

Dr. Linsey Gold  16:32  
That's really unbelievable. And not that easy to understand. I'm so impressed that you were able to like, I mean, I know you've been doing it 12 years, but I almost tuned out when you said quantum physics, because I've thought I'm not smart enough to understand that I gotta check out. But the way you explain it is, you know, kind of makes perfect sense. And is super exciting. I love the idea of letting patients know and understand that they have their own power to transform, and treat, you know, maybe along with the other things that we're doing for them. So. So, you know, as surgeons, obviously, you know, you've come to us, and mostly we do surgery, if it's appropriate. But we do see a number of people. And I would say, Rick, you can display a rising number of people who are,

you know, who are giving us a fair amount of pushback as it relates to traditional, we'll just call it Western medicine. And, you know, it's hard for us because, you know, it's everything. If everything Yeah, I mean, it's it, you know, if everything, if all you have is a hammer, then everything's a nail. And so we don't really have anything to help these people. I mean, I'd send everybody your way. But like, we don't have anything to help in conjunction, you know, we need you down the street from us or whatever. So what, what might we be able to tell some of our patients? Well, I mean, you guys created this podcast for a reason. So you're already open that there are other ways of supporting healing. One piece I want to return to, and I don't know, blank on me, because I'm going to return.

MELISSA LABORSKY  18:21  
The fact that we can't separate space and time, okay, so what I mean by that is, if we want to talk at the Cancer level, cancer space, and what is time, we already tapped into that at the beginning that said, Seven to 10 years that led to the creation of that space. So it's giving full acknowledgement to that journey that led to the creation of the cancer giving full acknowledgement, as Eric mentioned, about the journey from the time of diagnosis to the time of, you know, the decision on what the treatment path is, that time is so important to healing, acknowledging that time, the importance of that time. So what I mean by time, we're talking about everything that led to the development of cancer, the emotions, the story, the you know, the other diagnoses that popped up along the way in that timeframe. So being able to bring that to consciousness for people is so deeply healing. I mean, one of the things I've seen again and again and again, when women get to the stage where the they visibly manifested cancer, they know all this, they know it. They really, really, really know it. Most of you know, most of them do, you know, really, really in denial, but, and then when you bring it even to the tiniest bit of recognition, they'll look you straight in the eye and go I know, I know what this is. I know what needs to change. I see. So even just inviting people into that kind of conversation can be so powerfully transformative.

DR. ERIC BROWN  19:57  
We see a lot of patients and patients

of our conversation. And we tend to be pretty open to the integrative approach to cancer care. You know, it's not only about chemo, radiation, and surgery, it's about other things that are in your control as a patient, which I think is one of the biggest obstacles cancer patients have is the feeling that it's out of their control. So how would you propose this approach complements? The traditional therapies like radiation and chemotherapy, for example, because those are beyond difficult for patients to go through. But necessary in in, in a lot of circumstances? Yeah, absolutely. I'm glad you brought that up. So you know, when people you know, first of all, it's like, by all means, whether it's somebody with cancer or any other diagnosis, I'm like, I'm here to be your partner, I'm not going to tell you, it's my way or the highway, that's not how this works. Oh, you know, my, my big thing is your healer lies within, you know, better than me what this path is, whether it be Western, whether it be Eastern, etc. So from the perspective of Chinese medicine, you know, everything is about energy, whether it's quantum physics or Chinese medicine, everything is about energy. And healing is about energy flowing. So when you receive the I haven't spoken about it yet. But we have these, this energy grid and I spoke about briefly is like highways right on our body. So that connects to every single organ and tissue in our body, so superficial to deep to every single organ. So whether it's surgery that might be cutting through that energy line, or we're talking about, like those imbalances that had led to cancer.

MELISSA LABORSKY  21:54  
Or if we talk about the fact that you're going to have to take into your body, some really powerful treatments, whether it be radiation or chemotherapy that your body has to process. And as we know, they have, they have, you know, they have great effects, but they also have side effects. So what acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine can bring to that bigger picture, is helping to bring the body to a state where it can support the processing. So whether that be surgery, it can help you through the healing process of surgery, if it's through radiation, helping you to be able to process that radiation, that chemotherapy. So using the herbs, using the acupuncture by no means never goes against the Western way. It just helps the body to heal more quickly. And it helps you because we cannot separate the emotions from the physical function. It helps you with the stress of the process as well, which as we all know, is going to help you to heal more quickly.

Dr. Linsey Gold  22:53  
Oh, I love that answer. That's a that's an excellent answer. I could I could talk like for hours, do you? This is fantastic. And I think the listeners are going to be super excited and want to know a lot more about you or your work. So where can they find you.

MELISSA LABORSKY  23:13  
So my website is Melissa lebowski.com. So we've got lots that you can explore in that website itself. In fact, I kind of want to touch on this because there are no accidents. In order to be on this podcast. Today. I had to get a new computer. I had to up love it. I had to upgrade because over the past year, my virtual connection in the world has just blown up to the point that my old computer that's seven years old now couldn't handle it to this very day where to be on this podcast. It's like nope, I can't get to the level you need to be out. I'm like, Alright, I'm going to uplevel because that's what life is about now. And that's kind of it is actually I'm gonna, before I give you more information, it's kind of a parallel to what we're talking about. Like I was getting signs from the universe like hey, hey, if you don't have enough storage anymore, hey, this program can't function quite the wage. Are you going to keep dealing with this and putting up with this? Are you going to finally upgrade? Because you need to? Um, yeah, so cancer really is asking us at the really extreme level like Are you ready to upgrade to the next level of life? Because I'm it's time it's now. So it really is such a transformative opportunity when women step into that experience. And that's one of the beautiful things that I really try to guide people to. So my Yeah, my website is Melissa Lebowski calm. Also, I'm super excited because I had a lovely lady in the midst of all this up leveling that I connected with Chantel Levin and she is a social worker and she also is actually in remission from breast cancer twice. And T is really beautifully embodies the emotional kind of more of a chakra perspective of connecting into healing at this level and connecting into how trauma may play a role in breast cancer. So she and I are in the midst of a big collaboration that's launching right now. So we have a private Facebook group Breast Care is self care. And we have a class on a free class on November the 17th, on zoom from 11am to 12pm. Eastern, so you can find out more about that I'm sure there'll be links to that everywhere. Um, the other thing I definitely want to encourage anyone listening to this to tune into my teacher somehow managed to grab the website, breast cancer.com. So yesterday on Lou, has breast cancer calm, he is my teacher. So you know, even though he happens to be male, for whatever reason, the universe said, you've got this as a subspecialty. And that's, that is who I trained under when I was in New York City. And that is his website.

Dr. Linsey Gold  26:01  
That's awesome. Yeah, um, wow, that is, that is really something else. I mean, breast cancer calm, right? I really, really, really, really is. So Breast Care is self care is a Facebook group that ladies can join, if they want to. Yeah, Oh, how exciting for them.

MELISSA LABORSKY  26:20  
Yeah, it's really meant to be this empowering community for women, you know, lots of good content, but really building that community connection as well. Because we know that when you step into this level, it takes a lot of courage. And it can feel really scary. So to have that support there present for you is such an important part of the journey as well.

Dr. Linsey Gold  26:43  
Absolutely. And I do think that when women sort of go this route, if you will, I think they do sometimes feel a lot of pushback from their current providers, you know, people who may be, aren't as open to some integrative therapies. And so I think that's, you know, scary and really off putting for them. So a community where they can connect and can feel supported is like, it's really amazing. And again, I don't have the talent and the knowledge that you do. But if I'm able to direct them towards a place that is like that, and is supportive, and can get the information that I can provide them, then, you know, I feel I'm able to help, you know, in that way. So that's super exciting. Yeah, thank you so much for that you. Well, I have to tell you, you you are fascinating, and super, super smart. And I feel like I could learn for you from hours for hours and hours on end. Thank you so much for joining us today. Any other messages you might want to share with our listeners before we sign off?

MELISSA LABORSKY  27:58  
Yeah, I'd say that. Probably my final message has been kind of what's been transforming my own private practice over time. Like I've changed my practice, I call my my other private group is called Wellness lies within. And I renamed my program that I do, the healer lies within. And that just seems to be a message that keeps coming back again and again and again. And as I had mentioned, it's like, we're always getting that message to go within. And when we get to that end of cancer, it really is that call to be like, Alright, I've been trying to tell you now, are you ready? Are you ready? Are you really ready to take it to the next level? So that would be my part of the message. Yeah,

Dr. Linsey Gold  28:41  
yeah. Don't Don't ignore what your body is telling you what your mind is telling you. I love it. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Melissa, for joining us today. I really appreciate it. Thank you listeners for tuning in to the breast of everything. On behalf of myself and Dr. Brown. We are your hosts of comprehensive breast care. And we always want to hear from you. If you have a topic you'd like us to talk about. We welcome your suggestions always. You can send them to comp Breast Care. com. That's co MP BREASTCAR e.com. Till next time, stay well everybody.

Thanks for joining us. Thanks, Melissa. Thank you.

Announcer  29:29  
You've been listening to the breast of everything Podcast with your hosts and board certified breast surgeons, Dr. Lindsay gold and Dr. Eric Brown of comprehensive breast care. If you have a subject you would like the surgeons to discuss, please email your suggestions online at comp breast care.com. That's co MP br e a s t c a r e.com. The doctors want to hear from you. The views thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are intended for general education and informational purposes only should not be substituted for medical advice treatment or care from your physician or healthcare provider Always consult your healthcare provider first.