Getting a life-changing diagnosis can feel daunting at the beginning. The good news: you do not have to navigate it alone. These are the frameworks, references, and reading Jen leaned on — gathered in one place for you.
TOOLS & RESOURCES
A Field Guide for Navigating Your Diagnosis
Immediately following a diagnosis, it is natural to want to collect as much information as possible. But not all sources are created equal — and consuming the wrong information can do more harm than good.
As a cancer biologist, Jen is no stranger to finding credible, research-backed sources. With the rare perspective of being both the scientist behind the research and, later, the patient, she did the work of balancing and selecting what she let herself internalize. Now she wants to share that strategy with you.
So if you have just received a life-changing diagnosis and you don’t know where to start — you are in good hands here.
Collecting the right information is the first step to planning your healing journey.
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Navigating Your First Month After Diagnosis
For the weeks when everything feels urgent and nothing feels clear — how to gather reliable information on your diagnosis, build your healthcare team, explore complementary modalities, and choose the lifestyle tools that actually matter.
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JEN’S HEALING FORMULA
Three Pillars That Meet at Healing
Healing is never just chemistry, never just what you eat, and never just mindset. It is the careful weaving of all three — and the real work happens where they overlap.
Lifestyle Habits
NUTRITION, SLEEP, MOVEMENT & HABITS
The daily actions you control — nutrition, sleep, exercise, stress management. It is the foundation of your biological environment.
Preventive Care
LIFESTYLE + CONVENTIONAL
Where medical science meets daily habit — screenings, vaccinations, and using data to adjust before a crisis occurs.
Conventional Medicine
EVIDENCE-BASED STANDARD OF CARE
The pillar of evidence-based science — MDs, surgery, and pharmaceuticals. It represents the “standard of care” and rigorous clinical data.
Mind / Body
LIFESTYLE + COMPLEMENTARY
Practices like mindfulness or yoga woven into daily routine to regulate the nervous system.
Integrative Care
CONVENTIONAL + COMPLEMENTARY
High-tech treatment paired with supportive therapies — like acupuncture to ease the side effects of chemotherapy.
Complementary Medicine
EVIDENCE-INFORMED SUPPORTIVE THERAPIES
Evidence-informed therapies used alongside conventional treatment — acupuncture, massage, meditation — often focused on symptom management and well-being.
FREE DOWNLOAD — INFO-GATHERING FIELD GUIDE
Not All Sources Are Created Equal
The internet holds endless information, and very little of it is built for someone standing exactly where you are. This field guide gives you Jen’s framework for separating ground truth from noise — plus a starter map for your healing journey.
“If you wouldn’t cite it in a research paper, don’t let it set expectations for your health.”
A well-designed study is built to survive scrutiny: a defined population, a control group, years of data, and a statistician. A headline is built to survive a scroll. It compresses all of that into one number or the word “breakthrough,” with none of the context. Worse still are posts that pass themselves off as clinical research but aren’t based on science at all.
That gap matters most in the first few weeks after diagnosis, before you know which questions to ask. Later, you learn to check the markers of credible research, or you come to rely on credible sources that have already vetted the latest advances for you. Early on, you’re making real decisions off whatever you find at 2 a.m., and a headline passing as data can send you down a rabbit hole, or worse, a harmful path.
See the credibility ladder for a shortcut to finding sources you can trust.
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SOURCE TYPEHIGH → LOW VETTING
1
Government & Health AgenciesHigh credibility — rigorous peer review, no commercial stake
2
Specialty Societies & Clinical GuidelinesGood — built on established, real-world protocols
3
Hospital & Advocacy SitesNeutral — useful, but may carry institutional goals
4
Pharmaceutical & For-Profit SitesConsult cautiously — accurate but often selectively presented
5
Social MediaNot recommended — emotionally validating, no scientific filter
CLINICAL GUIDELINES
Where to Find Ground Truth
Leading US and European clinical-guideline organizations, by disease area. These are the vetted, peer-reviewed sources Jen recommends starting from.
| DISEASE AREA | LEADING ORGANIZATION | WEBSITE |
|---|---|---|
| Oncology (Cancer) | NCCN — National Comprehensive Cancer Network | nccn.org |
| Oncology (Cancer) | NCCN Patient Guidelines | nccn.org/patientguidelines |
| Oncology (Cancer) | ASCO — American Society of Clinical Oncology | asco.org |
| Oncology (Cancer) | ESMO — European Society for Medical Oncology | esmo.org |
| Cardiology (Heart) | ACC — American College of Cardiology | acc.org |
| Cardiology (Heart) | AHA — American Heart Association | heart.org |
| Cardiology (Heart) | ESC — European Society of Cardiology | escardio.org |
| Endocrinology (Diabetes) | ADA — American Diabetes Association | diabetes.org |
| Endocrinology (Diabetes) | Endocrine Society | endocrine.org |
| Endocrinology (Diabetes) | EASD — European Association for the Study of Diabetes | easd.org |
| Infectious Disease | IDSA — Infectious Diseases Society of America | idsociety.org |
| Infectious Disease | WHO — World Health Organization | who.int |
| Infectious Disease | CDC — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | cdc.gov |
| Nephrology (Kidney) | KDIGO — Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes | kdigo.org |
| Nephrology (Kidney) | NKF — National Kidney Foundation | kidney.org |
| Rheumatology (Autoimmune) | ACR — American College of Rheumatology | rheumatology.org |
| Rheumatology (Autoimmune) | EULAR — European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology | eular.org |
| Neurology | AAN — American Academy of Neurology | aan.com |
| Screening / Prevention | USPSTF — U.S. Preventive Services Task Force | uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org |
| Screening / Prevention | AAFP — American Academy of Family Physicians | aafp.org |
Always confirm guidance with your own care team — these references inform conversations, they don’t replace them.
JEN’S LIBRARY
Reading, Mapped to the Three Pillars
The same structure as the healing formula above — a shelf for each pillar, and a shelf for each place where two pillars meet. Read widely, read critically, and keep what serves you.
THE THREE PILLARS
Conventional Medicine
EVIDENCE-BASED STANDARD OF CARE
- The Emperor of All Maladies — Siddhartha Mukherjee
- The Cancer Roadmap — Dr. Liz O’Riordan
- How Not to Die — Dr. Michael Greger
Lifestyle
NUTRITION, SLEEP, MOVEMENT & HABITS
- Atomic Habits — James Clear
- Why We Sleep — Matthew Walker, PhD
- Breath — James Nestor
- The Blue Zones — Dan Buettner
Complementary Medicine
EVIDENCE-INFORMED SUPPORTIVE THERAPIES
- The Spark in the Machine — Dr. Daniel Keown
- The Tapping Solution — Nick Ortner
- The Healing Self — Deepak Chopra & Rudolph Tanzi
WHERE THE PILLARS MEET — THE ACTION ZONES
Preventive Care
CONVENTIONAL + LIFESTYLE
- Radical Remission — Dr. Kelly Turner
- The Sleep Solution — Dr. W. Chris Winter
- Move Yourself — Dr. Tedd Mitchell
Integrative Care
CONVENTIONAL + COMPLEMENTARY
- Crazy Sexy Cancer — Kris Carr
- You Are the Placebo — Dr. Joe Dispenza
- The Anatomy of Hope — Dr. Jerome Groopman
Mind / Body
LIFESTYLE + COMPLEMENTARY
- The Body Keeps the Score — Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
- The Power of Now — Eckhart Tolle
- Kitchen Table Wisdom — Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen
- When Breath Becomes Air — Paul Kalanithi