What My Stage IV Prostate Cancer Diagnosis Taught Me About the Hidden Programs That Shape Our Health

By Dr. Ken Best, D.C.

At the end of 2019, my life changed in an instant.

I was diagnosed with Stage IV prostate cancer. My biopsy revealed a Gleason score of 9 out of 10, one of the most aggressive forms of prostate cancer. Like anyone receiving devastating news, I immediately wanted answers.

As both a doctor and someone who had spent more than three decades helping patients improve their health, I couldn’t stop asking one question:

How did I get here?

For years, I believed I was doing everything “right.”

I ate organic foods. I juiced. I exercised. I detoxified. I practiced breathwork. I studied nutrition. I took supplements. I immersed myself in holistic health and spent my career helping thousands of patients improve their lives through Applied Kinesiology and functional approaches to wellness.

Yet despite everything I believed was supporting my health, my condition continued to worsen.

That experience forced me to ask a very different question.

What if I wasn’t looking in the right place?

Instead of asking only what I should put into my body, I began asking what might already be influencing my body from within.

That question changed my life.

The Missing Piece No One Was Talking About

Modern medicine has made extraordinary advances. Surgery, imaging, medications, immunotherapy, and targeted treatments have transformed countless lives.

Nutrition matters.

Exercise matters.

Sleep matters.

Reducing toxins matters.

Genetics matter.

But there is another area of science that has quietly grown over the past several decades—one that many people have never heard of.

It is called psychoneuroimmunology.

Psychoneuroimmunology is the study of how the brain, nervous system, hormones, and immune system constantly communicate with one another.

Rather than viewing the body as separate systems, this field recognizes something remarkable:

Your thoughts, emotions, stress responses, and nervous system activity are continually interacting with your biology.

This does not mean that thoughts alone cause or cure diseases like cancer.

Health is extraordinarily complex.

Cancer develops through many interacting factors, including genetics, environmental exposures, aging, lifestyle, and biological processes that researchers are still working to understand.

However, decades of research have demonstrated that chronic stress can influence inflammation, hormone regulation, immune function, sleep, recovery, and many of the physiological systems that support overall health.

In other words…

The mind and body are constantly talking to one another.

Your Brain Is Always Listening

One of the greatest discoveries in neuroscience is that your brain doesn’t simply react to reality.

It reacts to your interpretation of reality.

Two people can experience the exact same event.

One moves forward.

The other carries fear, anger, guilt, or hopelessness for years.

The event ends.

The nervous system may not.

Many of us unknowingly carry subconscious beliefs like:

• I am not enough.
• I have to struggle to survive.
• I can never relax.
• I’m not safe.
• I have to take care of everyone else first.
• My value depends on what I achieve.

Most people don’t consciously choose these beliefs.

They develop gradually through childhood experiences, relationships, trauma, repeated messages, disappointments, and emotional conditioning.

Eventually they become automatic.

Like software running quietly in the background, they influence how we perceive the world without us even realizing it.

Stress Isn’t Just What Happens to You

When most people hear the word stress, they think of traffic, deadlines, finances, or difficult relationships.

Those are stressful events.

Chronic stress is something different.

It occurs when the nervous system never fully receives the message that it is safe.

When that happens, the body can remain in a prolonged state of physiological alertness.

Research has shown that persistent activation of the stress response may influence:

• Cortisol regulation
• Adrenaline production
• Sleep quality
• Digestion
• Immune function
• Inflammatory pathways
• Hormonal balance
• Recovery and healing

The body is incredibly intelligent.

It is constantly adapting to the signals it receives.

If those signals repeatedly communicate danger—even when no immediate danger exists—the body’s resources may be redirected toward survival instead of restoration.

What If the Real Problem Is the Program?

This became one of the most important questions of my life.

As I reflected on everything I had learned throughout my career, I realized something.

Most healthcare focuses on changing behaviors.

Eat better.

Exercise more.

Lose weight.

Take supplements.

Get more sleep.

All of these are valuable.

But what if the subconscious programming driving our behaviors never changes?

Imagine owning a high-performance sports car.

You fill it with premium fuel.

You maintain the engine perfectly.

You install the best tires.

Everything appears ideal.

Yet the emergency brake is still engaged.

No matter how powerful the engine becomes, something invisible continues holding the car back.

That analogy perfectly describes what I began discovering within myself.

For me, the “emergency brake” wasn’t nutrition.

It wasn’t exercise.

It wasn’t a lack of knowledge.

It was the subconscious beliefs I had carried for decades without fully recognizing them.

Discovering the Hidden Programs

I began looking inward with the same curiosity I had spent years applying to physical health.

Instead of asking,

“What disease do I have?”

I started asking,

“What patterns have I been living?”

What fears had I never released?

What beliefs had I accepted as truth?

What emotional wounds was I still carrying?

What unconscious programs continued shaping my responses every day?

These weren’t simply positive-thinking exercises.

They became an exploration of the subconscious mind and how deeply held beliefs may influence the way we experience stress, relationships, purpose, resilience, and health.

That journey eventually became the foundation for what I now call Energy Programs™—a framework for identifying, interrupting, and rewriting subconscious belief patterns that no longer serve us.

Neuroplasticity Gives Us Hope

One of the most exciting discoveries in modern neuroscience is neuroplasticity.

For many years scientists believed the adult brain was largely fixed.

Today we know that isn’t true.

Your brain is continually adapting.

Neural pathways strengthen through repetition.

Habits become automatic because they are practiced repeatedly.

Fortunately, healthier patterns can be strengthened as well.

That doesn’t happen overnight.

It requires awareness, intentional practice, emotional engagement, and consistency.

But it means change is possible.

We are not prisoners of our past programming.

Our brains are capable of learning new ways to think, respond, and experience life.

That realization gave me hope.

I Gave Myself One Year

After my diagnosis, I made a commitment.

I would spend one year doing the deepest inner work of my life.

Not because I believed it would magically erase disease.

But because I wanted to remove every obstacle I could find that might be interfering with my health and my ability to heal.

I examined my beliefs.

My fears.

My identity.

My emotional patterns.

My relationships.

My purpose.

Everything.

It became one of the most profound journeys I have ever taken.

A Remarkable Conversation

Approximately one year later, my physicians shared news that I will never forget.

One of them told me:

“If we didn’t know you had cancer, we wouldn’t know you had cancer.”

Today, more than five years later, I remain cancer-free.

Every person’s journey is different.

Every diagnosis is different.

Every treatment plan is different.

I would never suggest that my experience will be someone else’s.

But I can say this with complete confidence:

Looking inward changed me.

Whether it influenced my health directly, indirectly, or simply transformed how I experienced the journey, it became one of the most meaningful decisions of my life.

Healing Is Bigger Than Disease

One of the greatest lessons I learned is that healing and curing are not always the same thing.

Healing includes how we think.

How we love.

How we forgive.

How we respond to adversity.

How we regulate our nervous system.

How we care for our bodies.

How we create meaning.

How we connect with others.

Sometimes healing begins long before symptoms disappear.

Sometimes it continues even after disease is gone.

And sometimes the greatest transformation isn’t physical at all.

It’s becoming someone new.

Five Questions That May Change Your Life

Whether you’re facing chronic pain, stress, burnout, illness, or simply want to better understand yourself, spend a few quiet moments reflecting on these questions:

• What belief about myself have I accepted without questioning?
• What emotion have I carried for years that no longer serves me?
• When do I feel unsafe—even when I am actually safe?
• What recurring pattern keeps showing up in my life?
• If I could rewrite one subconscious program today, what would it be?

Awareness is often where healing begins.

My Invitation to You

You don’t need a life-changing diagnosis to begin looking inward.

You don’t have to wait until your body forces you to ask difficult questions.

Start now.

Become curious.

Pay attention to the stories you’ve been telling yourself.

Notice the beliefs that quietly influence your decisions, your relationships, your stress, and perhaps even your health.

I cannot tell you which subconscious beliefs may be affecting your life.

I cannot promise that changing them will prevent or reverse disease.

But after more than 35 years helping patients—and after walking through my own cancer journey—I have become convinced of one thing:

The conversations happening inside us are every bit as important as the conversations happening around us.

When we begin to change those inner conversations, we often begin changing our lives.

Perhaps that’s where true healing begins.

About Dr. Ken Best, D.C.

Dr. Ken Best has spent more than 35 years helping patients uncover the underlying causes of pain, dysfunction, and chronic health challenges through Applied Kinesiology, functional assessment, and holistic healthcare. His work integrates biomechanics, nervous system regulation, nutrition, and the influence of subconscious belief systems to help patients move toward greater health and resilience.

If you’d like to learn more about Dr. Ken Best’s approach—or schedule an appointment—visit DrKenBest.com.

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Medical Disclaimer

This article is intended for educational purposes only and should not be interpreted as medical advice or as evidence that any single intervention can prevent, treat, or cure cancer. Dr. Ken Best’s experience reflects his personal journey. Decisions regarding diagnosis and treatment should always be made in consultation with your physician or qualified healthcare team.

I also recommend creating a companion 3,500–5,000 word cornerstone article titled “Can Your Subconscious Mind Affect Your Health? What Neuroscience, Psychoneuroimmunology, and Neuroplasticity Really Tell Us.” That article could become one of the flagship pages on DrKenBest.com, linking naturally to this personal story while targeting much broader search traffic from Google and AI assistants.