Beyond The Prognosis Podcast

Formerly Chewing the Fat Cancer Podcast

Beyond the Prognosis tells the whole truth about living with cancer, autoimmunity, and complex chronic illness—the messy parts, the painful parts, the parts most people don't want to talk about.

Host Heather Cooan knows this terrain intimately. At 37, she was diagnosed with a rare vulvar cancer that developed from an even rarer autoimmune condition (Lichen Sclerosus) that went undiagnosed for 25 years. When doctors wanted to remove her clitoris or complete 35 radiation treatments with low-dose chemotherapy, for a cancer that has a 12-37% recurrence rate—she refused, choosing tumor debulking surgery, a metabolic approach, and a complete life overhaul instead. She achieved remission from cancer and reversed two autoimmune conditions. She was also diagnosed with Complex PTSD and is actively in recovery, understanding firsthand how trauma lives in the body and drives disease.

Now a double-board-certified integrative metabolic oncology nutrition consultant, Heather brings both lived experience and clinical expertise to conversations that go where other health podcasts won't. Through raw dialogue with survivors, practitioners, and thought leaders, she digs into the human experience of illness: the grief, the medical trauma, the identity collapse, and what it actually takes to navigate life when your body has betrayed you.

We explore nourishment, detox, and nervous system regulation—but also medical gaslighting, the violence of toxic positivity, why fighting isn't the only way through, and how recovery requires confronting the parts of yourself you've been running from.

Every conversation is grounded in trauma-informed care, psychoneuroimmunology, and bio-individuality. This is for people tired of inspirational cancer stories and wellness culture's empty promises—who need permission to grieve, rage, fall apart, and rebuild on their own terms.

Whether you're navigating this yourself or supporting someone you love, these conversations will meet you in the mess and hold space for all of it—from soil to soul.