Heather Cooan

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Oncology Nutrition Services

Oncology Nutrition Services

What This Is and How It Works

Soil to Soul Nutrition provides oncology nutrition consulting for individuals navigating cancer - during active care, after care ends, and for those focused on reducing their risk of recurrence. This is not medical care. It is rigorous, data-informed terrain support that works alongside your medical team, not instead of it.

Your physicians, oncologists, and licensed providers remain responsible for all medical decisions, interpretations, and recommendations. Our role is to support the physiological and lifestyle foundations that sit beneath every other intervention: nutrition, environmental design, nervous system regulation, and the mental-emotional weight of navigating a serious diagnosis.

We work as a team-with you and your care providers. If you don't yet have a physician trained in integrative or terrain-informed oncology, we can help you find one.

The Approach: Whole-Person, Whole-Systems

Cancer doesn't develop in a single system, and supporting someone navigating it requires looking at the whole picture - not just the tumor, but the internal environment surrounding it.

Our work is organized around the concept of deep nourishment. Not just food, but every input - including food, relationships, environment, movement, and meaning - either builds terrain toward wellness or depletes it toward disease. We measure the state of nourishment by looking at ten interconnected physiological and emotional domains, assessed together as an integrated whole. Nervous system regulation runs beneath all of them. It's the foundational condition that determines whether any other intervention can take hold, which is why it's where we start. Genetics and epigenetics form the predisposition layer underneath everything - shaping vulnerability and adaptive capacity across every domain. Your genetic blueprint is fixed, but how it expresses is not.

Terrain-Based Oncology

Our work is grounded in terrain-based oncology - a team-based approach that draws from all of these disciplines and centers the whole person. My team at Soil to Soul Nutrition and I are non-licensed nutrition consultants. We do not practice medicine, diagnose, treat, or prescribe. Our role is to support the whole person - their terrain, their capacity, their daily inputs, and their head and heart - alongside a physician-led care team. The diagram below maps the landscape of disciplines that inform this work.

Click on the diagram below to explore each field - and click the center to explore the Whole Terrain Systems Analysis framework.

Medical Oncology

The backbone of conventional cancer care. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapies, and clinical trial management. The primary question is: how do we target and eliminate the cancer? The standard of care - what oncologists mean when they say treatment.

Integrative Oncology

Starts with the conventional treatment plan and asks: how do we support this person through it? Complementary therapies - acupuncture, nutrition support, mind-body practices, massage, botanical medicine - are added alongside standard treatment to reduce side effects and support quality of life. The conventional framework stays intact; the additions are supportive.

Terrain-Based Medicine

Shifts the focus from disease to the environment that allowed disease to develop. Asks why this person’s body became vulnerable and what restoring that environment requires. Not disease-specific - applies across all chronic illness. The philosophical parent of terrain-based oncology.

Metabolic Oncology

Targets the metabolic vulnerabilities of cancer cells - particularly their dependence on glucose and glutamine. Therapeutic ketosis, metabolic therapies, and mitochondrial support are central tools. The primary question is: how do we shift the metabolic environment to make it hostile to cancer growth?

Naturopathic Oncology

Goes deeper into root-cause medicine while working alongside conventional care. Board-certified naturopathic oncologists (FABNO) bring a sophisticated clinical toolkit - IV vitamin C, mistletoe, hyperthermia, advanced botanical and nutritional protocols. The primary question is: how do we treat the whole person, support the body’s own defenses, and work intelligently with - and around - conventional treatment?

Precision Oncology

Uses an individual’s tumor molecular profile - genetic mutations, DNA signatures, and molecular markers - to select targeted therapies. The lens is the tumor’s specific biology. Increasingly integrated into standard of care and informs the data stack in terrain-based oncology.

Terrain-Based Oncology

The most comprehensive framework available - not because it replaces the others, but because it integrates all of them and centers the whole person. It draws from the scientific rigor of metabolic oncology, the root-cause philosophy of naturopathic medicine, and the supportive tools of integrative oncology. It then adds something none of the others do alone: a deep individual data stack built through continual data-gathering, analysis, and optimization - molecular profiling, nutrigenomics, nutrigenetics, pharmacogenetics, full blood chemistry, metabolomics, microbiome analysis, continuous glucose monitoring, cellular nutritional status, mineral balance, and more. It also conducts a Whole Terrain Systems Analysis across all ten physiological and emotional domains. Terrain-based oncology requires a team and is relevant at every stage of the cancer journey. It is, at its root, a practice of Deep Nourishment - optimizing the quality of inputs across every dimension of life so the body’s terrain can support health rather than disease.

Terrain-Based Oncology ↗ Precision Oncology Molecular + Targeted Medical Oncology SOC Backbone Integrative Oncology Complementary + SOC Naturopathic Oncology Root Cause, FABNO Metabolic Oncology Mitochondrial Model Terrain-Based Medicine Broader Parent — All Chronic Disease
Tap Any Circle to Explore. Tap the Center to Go Deeper.

Deep Nourishment
Deep Nourishment is the organizing philosophy of the Whole Terrain Systems Analysis. Every input — food, relationships, environment, movement, meaning — either builds terrain toward wellness or depletes it toward disease. The framework below is how that principle becomes clinical practice. When terrain is restored and allostatic load reduced, something becomes possible that no protocol can manufacture. IFS therapist Dr. Richard Schwartz describes it as the eight qualities of Self: calm, curious, clear, compassionate, confident, courageous, creative, and connected. Deep Nourishment is the practice of building the conditions in which that Self can lead.

At the root of the Whole Terrain Systems Analysis is a single organizing philosophy: Deep Nourishment. The human body is terrain — like soil, it is either being built toward health or depleted toward disease through the quality of inputs across every dimension of life. Food, water, air, relationships, self-talk, movement, sleep, emotional processing, environmental exposures, and meaning are all inputs. All of them nourish or deplete. The ten interconnected systems below are where that nourishment — or depletion — is mapped and reduced.

The clinical goal of the Whole Terrain Systems Analysis is to reduce allostatic load and restore adaptive capacity. Allostatic load is the cumulative burden of chronic stress on the body’s systems — the total wear and tear that accumulates when the stress response is chronically activated without adequate recovery. When allostatic load is high, the body’s capacity to regulate, respond, and heal is compromised across every domain. Every depleting input adds to it. Every nourishing input reduces it. The goal is not simply to reduce allostatic load but to build adaptive capacity — the body’s ability to respond, recover, and regulate in the face of ongoing challenge. The ten interconnected systems below are where that load is mapped and adaptive capacity is restored.

The Whole Terrain Systems Analysis assesses ten interconnected systems as an integrated whole. Nervous system regulation runs beneath all of them — it is the foundational condition that determines whether interventions in any other domain can take hold. This is why addressing nervous system regulation is not optional. It is the prerequisite for everything above it to function. Underlying both is genetic predisposition, nutrigenomics, nutrigenetics, and epigenetic expression, which shapes vulnerability and capacity across every system, including the nervous system itself. Click any domain to learn more.

The hallmarks of cancer are fourteen biological capabilities that cancer acquires to develop, survive, and spread. Each domain of the Whole Terrain Systems Analysis corresponds to one or more of those hallmarks — addressing the soil conditions that allow them to take hold. Click any domain to see which hallmarks it addresses.
Environmental Design
Relationships, Daily Habits, and the Spaces You Inhabit
Collapse ↑
Terrain-Based Oncology
Deep Nourishment of the Whole Person Through the Cancer Journey - Practiced by a Whole Team
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Team-Based Care Model
Terrain Physician · Nutrition · Lifestyle · Environmental Design · Mental & Emotional
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Eight Internal Domains - Click to Expand

Blood Sugar Regulation
Dysregulating Cellular Metabolism · Sustaining Proliferative Signaling
Insulin signaling, glucose metabolism, and metabolic flexibility. Chronic nervous system activation drives cortisol, which directly elevates blood glucose and insulin resistance. Genetic variants in glucose metabolism pathways shape baseline vulnerability here. Insulin and IGF-1 are direct proliferative signals — dysregulated blood sugar keeps these elevated, driving cancer growth pathways.

Hallmarks Addressed: Dysregulating Cellular Metabolism, Sustaining Proliferative Signaling
Immune Capacity and Surveillance
Avoiding Immune Destruction · Tumor-Promoting Inflammation
The body’s capacity to recognize and respond to threats. The nervous system and immune system are in constant bidirectional communication — chronic threat activation suppresses immune surveillance and shifts immune response toward a pro-inflammatory state. Chronic immune dysregulation drives the inflammatory tumor microenvironment that cancer depends on to survive.

Hallmarks Addressed: Avoiding Immune Destruction, Tumor-Promoting Inflammation
Inflammation, Oxidative & Cellular Stress
Tumor-Promoting Inflammation · Genome Instability and Mutation
Chronic low-grade inflammation and oxidative damage at the cellular level. Neuroinflammation and systemic inflammation are directly linked — unresolved trauma and chronic nervous system activation have measurable inflammatory markers.

Hallmarks Addressed: Tumor-Promoting Inflammation, Genome Instability and Mutation
Hormone Regulation and Endocrine Signaling
Sustaining Proliferative Signaling · Evading Growth Suppressors
The endocrine system as terrain signal. The HPA axis connects nervous system activation directly to cortisol, sex hormones, and thyroid function. Chronic stress reshapes the hormonal landscape in ways that influence cancer risk and treatment response.

Hallmarks Addressed: Sustaining Proliferative Signaling, Evading Growth Suppressors
Vascularity, Circulation, and Angiogenesis
Inducing Angiogenesis · Activating Invasion and Metastasis · Sustaining Proliferative Signaling
Blood flow, vascular health, and the body’s process of building new blood vessels. Relevant to how tumors establish their own blood supply and how nutrients and therapeutics are delivered to tissue. VEGF and growth factor delivery through vascular health directly drives proliferative signaling. Hydration status directly affects blood viscosity, capillary perfusion, and the delivery of nutrients and therapeutics to tissue.

Hallmarks Addressed: Inducing Angiogenesis, Activating Invasion and Metastasis, Sustaining Proliferative Signaling
Emunctories, Drainage & Detoxification
Genome Instability and Mutation · Nonmutational Epigenetic Reprogramming
The organs and pathways of elimination — liver, kidneys, lungs, skin, lymph, and colon — and the body’s capacity to neutralize and eliminate metabolic waste and chemical burden. Genetic variants in detoxification pathways — methylation, phase I and II liver detox — significantly shape individual burden and capacity. Adequate hydration is foundational to every detoxification pathway — lymphatic drainage, kidney filtration, and hepatic processing all depend on it.

Hallmarks Addressed: Genome Instability and Mutation, Nonmutational Epigenetic Reprogramming
Microbiome, Digestion, and Gut-Brain Axis
Polymorphic Microbiomes · Avoiding Immune Destruction · Dysregulating Cellular Metabolism
The gut as a foundation for systemic health — immune regulation, neurotransmitter production, nutrient absorption, and inflammation all run through it. The gut-brain axis means the microbiome and nervous system are in ongoing conversation. The microbiome directly influences cellular metabolism through short-chain fatty acid production, butyrate signaling, and metabolic pathway modulation.

Hallmarks Addressed: Polymorphic Microbiomes, Avoiding Immune Destruction, Dysregulating Cellular Metabolism
Mental & Emotional Wellbeing
Tumor-Promoting Inflammation · Nonmutational Epigenetic Reprogramming
Subconscious programs, limiting beliefs, unprocessed emotions, and mind-body disconnection are not separate from physical health — they are terrain. The mind-body connection is a bidirectional physiological relationship — what happens in the body shapes the mind, and what happens in the mind shapes the body. Unprocessed emotions do not disappear; they are stored in the nervous system and body as measurable physiological patterns. Addiction and compulsive coping behaviors are terrain inputs — not moral failings, but physiological signals about what the nervous system has been trying to manage. These patterns keep the nervous system in a chronic state of activation, undermining every other intervention. Addressing them requires both cognitive and somatic — body-based — approaches.

Hallmarks Addressed: Tumor-Promoting Inflammation, Nonmutational Epigenetic Reprogramming
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Operating System
Nervous System Regulation, Stress Response & Biorhythms
The foundational condition that determines whether interventions in any other domain can take hold. A chronically dysregulated nervous system — driven by unresolved trauma, chronic stress, or disrupted circadian rhythm — limits healing capacity regardless of what is done at the biochemical level. Sleep, circadian rhythm, and biorhythms are regulated through this same system. Addressing nervous system regulation is not optional. It is the prerequisite. Chronic nervous system dysregulation is both a primary driver of allostatic load and a consequence of it. When the nervous system cannot adequately recover from stress, allostatic load accumulates across every domain — disrupting blood sugar, suppressing immune function, dysregulating hormones, driving inflammation, and impairing detoxification. Reducing allostatic load begins here. At the cellular level, chronic nervous system dysregulation engages the Cell Danger Response — a protective mitochondrial state that, when chronically activated, drives the metabolic dysfunction at the root of chronic illness and cancer. Restoring nervous system regulation is what allows the Cell Danger Response to resolve and the body to return to a state of growth, repair, and healing. This framework is trauma-informed and nervous system-aware in its implementation. Your biography becomes your biology — unresolved trauma, chronic stress, and depleting inputs don’t just affect how you feel. They contaminate the terrain itself, creating the physiological conditions that undermine every other intervention. Nervous system regulation is where that changes. It is the water source. Until it is addressed, the soil cannot fully recover.
Hallmarks Addressed: Tumor-Promoting Inflammation, Unlocking Phenotypic Plasticity, Nonmutational Epigenetic Reprogramming
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Predisposition Layer
Genetic Predisposition, Nutrigenomics, Nutrigenetics, and Epigenetic Expression
The blueprint that shapes vulnerability and capacity across every domain above it. Genetic variants in neurotransmitter metabolism, HPA axis regulation, methylation, detoxification pathways, and stress response determine how hard the body has to work — and how well it can recover. Epigenetics shows us that while the blueprint is fixed, its expression is not. Environment, lifestyle, and intervention can shift which genes are expressed and how. Within a team-based care model, this domain is assessed through multiple lenses. Nutrition practitioners use nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics to personalize dietary and lifestyle recommendations. Terrain-trained physicians bring pharmacogenetics, oncogenetics, and molecular profiling to inform clinical strategy and treatment decisions. Together these lenses produce a complete picture of genetic predisposition and its implications across every domain of terrain.
Hallmarks Addressed: Genome Instability and Mutation, Nonmutational Epigenetic Reprogramming, Senescent Cells, Unlocking Phenotypic Plasticity
What Environmental Design Includes
Purpose and Meaning
Environmental Toxin Reduction
(water, air, food, beauty, cookware, home)
Relationships and Close Friendships
Belonging
Community
Safety and Security
Financial Health
Spirituality
Sexual Health
Media and Information Diet
Home and Work Environment
Physical Environment and Beauty
Rest and Joy
Play and Creative Expression
Agency, Autonomy, and Self-Efficacy
Learning, Growth, and Curiosity
Acts of Service and Contribution
Occupational Wellbeing
Healthcare Relationships and Team Curation
Identity and Self-Concept
↻ Continual Data-Gathering, Analysis, and Optimization
Not a One-Time Protocol - An Ongoing Cycle of Refinement Paced to Your Capacity
Heather Cooan is an ongoing student of Dr. Nasha Winters, ND, FABNO, a graduate of Dr. Winters’ advanced training programs, and a graduate of the Oncology Nutrition Institute. The Whole Terrain Systems Analysis framework reflects her clinical application of terrain-based oncology principles developed through direct study and practice.

How the Care Team Works Together

Every terrain domain we work in has two toolboxes applied to it - ours and the physician's. The domains are the same. What differs is the level of intervention each role brings.

Soil to Soul Nutrition works each domain through nutrition, lifestyle, environmental design, and head and heart practices - the daily habit layer that builds and sustains terrain foundations over time.

A terrain-based oncology physician works those same domains through medical modalities: IV therapies, pharmaceutical and botanical protocols, advanced clinical interventions, and a precision data stack that produces a specific, targeted, personalized treatment plan. That data stack includes molecular profiling, liquid biopsy, functional drug response testing, pharmacogenetics, immune profiling, metabolomics, radiomics, and AI-enabled multi-omic interpretation - alongside the shared data both roles work from: nutrigenomics, nutrigenetics, full blood chemistry, and functional testing.

When both are present and coordinated, the result is a complete terrain-based oncology methodology. Each role reinforces the other. The physician's precision data informs how we work the terrain foundations. The terrain foundations we build affect how the body responds to everything the physician is doing medically.

We will work alongside any physician, regardless of their training or approach. The depth of what's possible simply expands when your physician is working the same terrain framework from the medical side. If you don't yet have a physician trained in terrain-based oncology, we can help you find one.

Who This Is For

We work with people who are ready to engage seriously with the terrain foundations of their health. This includes:

People currently in active cancer care who want to optimize their terrain foundations alongside their medical protocol.

People who have completed cancer care and want to work systematically on the physiological and lifestyle factors that influence long-term resilience and quality of life.

People who have experienced recurrence and are navigating that complexity with their medical team.

People who have chosen to forego standard of care, or for whom standard of care has been exhausted, and who are working with a physician to determine what comes next. In these situations, a licensed physician must remain part of the care team. We do not work with clients who have no medical oversight.

People focused on reducing their risk of recurrence who want a structured, data-informed approach to terrain optimization after completing cancer care.

Ongoing Data Collection, Analysis, and Optimization

Everyone's terrain is different. We don't assume what's driving high allostatic load - we look at the data. Recommendations are built on a comprehensive, continuously updated picture of your individual biology. All lab and genetic data is used for the purpose of personalizing nutrition and lifestyle education, not for medical decision-making.

Nutrigenomics and Nutrigenetics

Your genetics shape how your body processes nutrients, responds to stress, handles environmental exposures, and expresses biological risk. Nutrigenomic testing - through companies such as Nutrition Genome or 3x4 Genetics - gives us a detailed picture of these individual variations, informing how we approach nutrition, lifestyle design, and environmental factors specific to your biology.

Full Blood Chemistry

Comprehensive, regularly tracked blood panels give us a dynamic view of how your terrain systems are functioning and how they shift over time. Most of these markers can be ordered through your primary care physician and covered by insurance with appropriate documentation.

A standard panel we work from includes:

CBC with Differential, CMP with Chem 20, LDH, hs-CRP, ESR, Ferritin, Vitamin D3 (25-OH), AM Cortisol, Fasting Insulin, IGF-1, HbA1C, C-Peptide, Complete Thyroid Panel, Complete Lipid Panel, Lipoprotein(a), Uric Acid, VEGF, Copper, Ceruloplasmin, Fibrinogen, Homocysteine, Retinol, Iodine, Carnitine, GGT, D-Dimer, Galectin-3, G6PD.

If your current physician is unwilling to order comprehensive panels, that's worth a direct conversation - or worth finding a physician who will.

At-Home Monitoring

Ongoing self-monitoring provides real-time functional data between appointments. We typically ask clients to track food intake through a dietary diary and monitor blood glucose and ketone levels at home using a glucometer. Continuous glucose monitoring may also be appropriate.

Functional Testing

Additional testing is recommended based on findings in blood chemistry, genetics, and health history. This may include:

Microbiome assessment (Diagnostic Solutions GI-Map), hormone mapping (Precision Analytical DUTCH), mold and mycotoxin load (Mosaic Diagnostics MycoTOX), mitochondrial function (Mosaic Diagnostics Organic Acids), heavy metals (Quicksilver Blood Metals and Tri-Mercury), and environmental toxin burden (Mosaic Diagnostics GPL-TOX and Glyphosate).

Finding the Right Medical Partner

Our work is most effective as part of a coordinated care team. If you're not yet connected with a physician trained in integrative or terrain-informed oncology, we can provide a referral matched to your situation and location. Please book an intro consultation to discuss.

If you'd like to search independently first:

United States:

International:

The following directories are not oncology-specific. Please verify oncology training and experience before engaging any provider found through these resources.

Cancer Success Stories

MORE CANCER SUCCESS STORIES

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References:

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  2. Chen Y, Li EM, Xu LY. Guide to Metabolomics Analysis: A Bioinformatics Workflow. Metabolites. 2022 Apr 15;12(4):357. doi: 10.3390/metabo12040357. PMID: 35448542; PMCID: PMC9032224.