From Death To Life: Dr. Dawn Mussallem On Surviving Cancer Twice, Running A Marathon Post Heart Transplant, & Why Mindset Matters More Than Medicine
The Rich Roll Podcast
Rich Roll
4.7 • 13.3K Ratings
🗓️ 16 February 2026
⏱️ 124 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | You have to take care of your body. |
| 0:02.0 | Seven out of the 10 top chronic diseases are preventable with lifestyle. |
| 0:06.0 | My name is Dom Ys Salem and I'm a physician and my specialty is integrative oncology. |
| 0:11.0 | Five to 10% of cancers are genetic. |
| 0:13.0 | Five to 10% are family histories. |
| 0:14.0 | That means 75% to 80% of cancers are happening because of things, not because of genes in our family history. |
| 0:19.0 | They're happening because of external causes. |
| 0:22.3 | When you were 26 years old, you're just starting your medical education, and out of the blue, |
| 0:27.3 | you're hit with this stage four non-Hodgkins lymphoma diagnosis. Don says it's her own experiences |
| 0:33.9 | that's helped her career. My disease is basically what has defined me. I learned a lot in |
| 0:38.1 | medical school, but I learned everything from being a patient. You survive this only to later |
| 0:43.1 | suffer heart failure, which requires a heart transplant, and you go on to become the first person |
| 0:49.8 | to run a marathon within a year of a heart transplant. It's just set the stage for me to be in this position to help others in their moments of hardship. |
| 0:58.0 | And whether it's me sharing my story, reaches someone so far across the world that we never would have met, great. |
| 1:04.0 | But there is that listener out there that maybe this connects with them, and I hope it does. |
| 1:13.2 | Dawn, it's an absolute delight to have you here today. |
| 1:16.1 | So much to talk about. |
| 1:18.3 | We're going to talk about the lifestyle pillars that drive well-being and longevity, |
| 1:23.9 | also cancer prevention and recovery for cancer patients. But I want to begin with your |
| 1:31.8 | incredible story. What I would like you to do is to just share directly to the person who is |
| 1:38.6 | gifting you with their attention today, who maybe is stuck or really going through it. |
| 1:45.4 | What can you tell that person right now, right here, about what you've learned about human |
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