In 1987 Milenka 'Mina' Dobic was diagnosed with ovarian cancer Stage IV with metastasis to the liver and lymph system and given two months to live. She then declined the doctor's recommendation for chemo therapy and radiation, and after researching other possibilities, decide to adopt Macrobiotic way of life and healing diet. Six and a half months later the cancer stopped spreading and the tumors from liver and pelvis were gone. Along the way, Mina passed from cancer victim to cancer survivor, from patient to Macrobiotic counselor, from student to teacher. The story of Mina Dobic and her family is modern odyssey. Her journey to health and wholeness weaves together many of the significant themes of the last half century; the struggle between the culture she came from (former Yugoslavia) and a free society where she live now, the conflict between conventional medicine and holistic health, and the centrifugal forces pulling apart the modern family versus the threads that hold it together. Today Mina, as she is affectionately referred to by her clients, is one of the leading Macrobiotic counselors on the West Coast of the USA inspiring many others with her wisdom, love and compassion.  Mina's book entitled 'My Beautiful Life' tells how to recover from cancer and, better yet how to prevent it through diet and a simple lifestyle. It is a book which explains the philosophy of living in balance and harmony with nature. This is a book about something which is missing in this present world - it is about love, about real purpose of life which is to nurture and celebrate ourselves, other creatures, the earth, and the universe which gave us life. It gives us hope for humankind and the world.'

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Stage 4 kidney cancer

To all those walking in my path … it’s normal to be scared and skeptical at times when faced with something that seems to take all the control of your LIFE out of your hands and places it in the hands of strangers.

Just think positively and do not put your eyes on the path, but look up into the sky and breathe the fresh air, for it is here that your strength and healing will come.

You should know that I’d never been admitted to a hospital for anything before all of this happened. Sure, I’d get colds and the flu, but basically I was an average healthy person. I had worked for 26 years as a police officer and retired early as the commanding officer of the Investigation Bureau of the County Prosecutors Office in Somerset, N.J. I had learned to be invincible and deal with anything I had to deal with.

But I certainly wasn’t prepared to deal with kidney cancer. That happens to smokers and people who abuse themselves. Not me.

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I want to tell you why I believe I am able be here to tell you my story today ... why, unlike others who were not so fortunate as to discover macrobiotics, I am not “six feet under.”

In 1970, I was the mother of two young children and was teaching school. I was eating the Standard American Diet (SAD), but also included a large quantity of cake and cookies (my favorite foods). I ate only frozen, packaged and canned food, almost never anything fresh. I developed breast cysts in 1971.

When my children were born, I never nursed, although I was filled with milk. No one even suggested that I nurse because at that time, nursing wasn’t “in”. I was given something to dry up my milk and my breasts were bound. I believe that not nursing was a factor for my developing breast cysts.

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