Believe Big Podcast

115-Jacob Williams - Prostate Cancer and Why Men Don't Talk About It

• Ivelisse Page & Jacob Williams • Season 4 • Episode 115

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Award-winning filmmaker Jacob Williams joins Ivelisse in this episode to share the powerful and deeply personal story behind his prostate cancer diagnosis—and the path that led him far beyond the standard “surgery or radiation” conversation. 

Faced with rising PSA levels, multiple biopsies, and limited options, Jacob sought out four second opinions and ultimately chose an integrative approach that combined nutrition, exercise, and therapies like mistletoe and hyperthermia. In this episode, he opens up about why so many men avoid talking about prostate health—and how breaking that silence could save lives. Jacob walks listeners through the turning points in his healing journey, including the treatments that helped reduce lesions and lead to no evidence of disease. 

If you or someone you love is navigating cancer, this conversation will challenge what you think you know and inspire you to explore every option with confidence and hope.

Learn more about Jacob Williams here.

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Ivelisse Page

Hi, I am Ivelisse Page and thanks for listening to the Believe Big podcast, the show where we take deep dive into your healing with health experts, integrative practitioners, biblical faith leaders, and cancer thrivers from around the globe. Welcome to today's episode on the Believe Big Podcast. My name is Ivelisse Page and I'm excited to spend this time with you. My guest today is my new friend, Jacob Williams. I had the pleasure of meeting Jacob at a recent integrative cancer conference. Jacob is an award-winning commercial filmmaker, producer and director with over 25 years of experiencing, creating impactful visual stories for major brands like American Express, AT&T, Volkswagen. Known as a people director, he built his career capturing authentic, real life moments that resonate deeply with audiences. Jacob is also a prostate cancer thriver, and that experience profoundly reshaped his work and purpose. After navigating the overwhelming gaps between conventional and integrative care, he now uses his platform and his company, JCW Studios, to document patient journeys, and highlight physicians advancing integrative medicine, helping to bring clarity, understanding, and hope to others walking a similar path. Well, I'm so excited to have you. Welcome Jacob to the show.

Jacob Williams

Uh, thank you very much for that introduction. Wow.

Ivelisse Page

Well, we are so grateful you're here and you know, everyone always loves to hear our guest's favorite health tip. And so do you have one that you can share with us?

Jacob Williams

My, my favorite health tip that, uh, I just kind of refined'cause I've always been active, but, um, I think one of the secret weapons to, I guess living a healthy life and longevity and fighting disease is really exercise. That is as quiet as it's kept. It's, it's very important. And exercise, know it or not, you know, it's not just about how well you play or how you know what you look like, how your clothes fit. It really is about how much you are helping your immune system, you really help your immune system when you are exercising and, and strength training. It definitely helps, um, muscles. Muscle secretes myokines, which really boost your immune system and help you to fight disease. And I'm not just talking cancer, I'm talking from colds to chronic disease. Uh, yes, it really does help.

Diagnosis and PSA Journey

Ivelisse Page

Yes. Yeah, that's a great tip. And you know, it's very important so many of us have seen the value of it, and not only on cancer journeys, and that may look differently for people on a cancer journey and post and even before. Uh, but yes, it is so important to exercise in some capacity to keep our bodies healthy and strong. So, so Jacob, can you take us back to the moment of your diagnosis, you know, what was going through your mind, both as a man and as a storyteller?

Why Men Stay Silent

Jacob Williams

Well, for a number of years prior to being diagnosed, I was getting signs. My PSA was going up. And all guys know, you go to the doctor, you get this PSA test. It's a, it's a blood test. Um, and when you hit a particular number, you know, your general practitioner, his eyebrows go up and you gotta go see a urologist and they send you off to a specialist. So I started out, you know, I, I, I had a four. And my blood tests and they sent me off to a urologist, and urologist was like, we're gonna keep an eye on it, we're gonna watch it. And so my PSA continually rise. It went from a four to a five to a seven and then they start doing more testing. You know, so we went from a blood test. Now we're gonna do an MRI. Now we're gonna do a PET scan. Now we're gonna do a biopsy. So before I got diagnosed, I wound up with like four biopsies, you know, very uncomfortable, not fun. I don't recommend it to anybody. For each biopsy, they probably take somewhere between 12 and 20 samples of an organ and. You know, your prostate is only like the size of a walnut. So you know, you go in people, you get four biopsies, like 80 pieces to taken outta your prostate. Do I have a prostate left? So you go through that and then you get diagnosed. And the moment you get diagnosed or the moment I was diagnosed, the doctor handed me two pamphlets. Um, and it was either radiation or surgery. Take these two pamphlets, read them, decide what you want to do. Now, I had just moved to Atlanta. Um, I was, I'm divorced, um, by myself. Had a few friends here, but basically by myself. And, uh, and the reason why I moved here is because I was getting work here and it was like, why not go to where you're getting to work? So I came to Atlanta, started working, got really busy, and I was like, you know, your PSA has been going up. You, you need to create your health network. Go get a doctor, go get a general practitioner, get a uh, urologist. Go follow through on all this. So I get here, go through the same steps again. General practitioner sends me off to a urologist. The urologist has me do a, you know, a blood test and then an MRI and a PET scan and, and a biopsy. And then he says, Hey man, you, your, your PSA's at a 13. You have, uh, three lesions in your prostate. You have a Gleason score of a six, six and a seven. The seven denotes that it is aggressive and we should do something about it. Here's two pamphlets. You decide what you want to do. So in that meeting, in that doctor visit, uh, just to hear the word cancer kind of blows you out of the water. But I should have been prepared having biopsy after biopsy after biopsy, but still I wasn't. You hear that word and you know it, the wind has been taken outta your sail. You can't breathe, you can't talk. And I finally, um, I guess I pulled myself together and was able to ask the doctor, so what happens if you take out my prostate or you radiate it? And he was like, oh, you just don't make semen anymore. That didn't sound right to me. It sounded a little unusual, so, um. I did some research and I began to ask a lot of questions. I began to ask questions of my friends, family, Hey, is anybody else in in the family that had prostate cancer? No. Okay, so it's not, it's not genetic. And I am asking my friends. I'm in shock that some of my friends are like, oh yeah man, I took care of that 10 years ago. I go, what do you mean you took care of that? What is, what does that mean? I took care of it. Did you go to the body shop or something? I mean, like what happened?

Ivelisse Page

Yeah, so, so you know, you just said something important that I think that a lot of people, and especially men, they struggle to talk about their health. They struggle to talk about cancer. You know, why do you think so many men struggle? Not just talk about prostate cancer, but even to seek clarity about their health and options?

Jacob Williams

It's, uh, I, I really believe it is a societal factor. Men have been taught not to talk about those things, and the conversation needs to be normalized. Mm-hmm. And that's why I try to talk about it on my platforms as openly as possible. And, and also, society helps men with this. When you hear people talk about prostate cancer, nobody gives you any details. Oh, I had that. I got it taken care of. You know, you should go get screened and save your life. That's it. Like, are there any pitfalls? Is there a difference between stage one, stage two, stage three, stage four? Are there stages? Um, what does it mean if you're a stage four? What does it mean if you're a stage one? Why is that not talked about? So I think the conversation has to be normalized in order for men to begin to react, and I also think the conversation needs to span the entire health of your prostate from healthy to fully diseased.

Ivelisse Page

Yeah. Do you. Do you know, do you think that men avoid talking about prostate cancer also because of fear? Or they're feeling like it'll be less on their identity? Uh, or just simply not knowing how to start the conversation?

Jacob Williams

Well, I think it's attached to manhood. And manhood has a lot to do with your body functions.

Ivelisse Page

Mm-hmm.

Jacob Williams

So if you're not able to, you know, have erect erect penis, then you've got a problem there, you know, and you don't want to talk about that. That makes you less of a man, and men don't want to have to be in that boat, but all that can get fixed. Mm-hmm.

Ivelisse Page

What, what have you learned from other patients and physicians working in the integrative medicine world that you wish you had known earlier?

Jacob Williams

Oh, what I wish I had known earlier that, that, that simply, there, there are other ways. I do not condemn conventional medicine. Conventional medicine just has a stronger marketing tool. It's been, it's been living a lot longer than any other medicine, and I'm not talking about conventional medicine itself. I'm talking about its marketing arm. Its marketing arm has been stronger than any other health marketing arm out there, and so therefore, that's what we hear. That's what we believe because we hear it the most, and I think conventional medicine is so necessary. We need it. There are so many tools conventional medicine has that can help us heal, but there are other things out there that can help us heal as well to begin with, just your body is set up to work, to heal. But you gotta, you have to be giving it all the right tools. You have to be, so that means what are you putting in your mouth? What are you putting on your skin? You know, what are you putting on top of your head, your hair, but all that, you know, what are you breathing in? So, um, I I, I, I just believe people are just not aware.

Ivelisse Page

Yes. Uh, and I completely agree with you. You know, conventional medicine has its place. Uh, it's just really finding the right integrative oncologist or conventional oncologists that will be a part of your team and not just saying it's my way or the highway. And there are so many that are set in their ways, but there are those who are willing to work with you, uh, in, in a more integrative approach. It's just really interviewing them and finding them, letting people know that you have options. You don't have to stick with the first person that you make an appointment with just because that's who you are set up with. You know, you have the ability to speak with different physicians from different hospitals to find out who's gonna be the best teammate. Because listen, that person is gonna be following you for years to come. It's not just a one and done time. So, yes, it's really important that. You know, you have someone that's alongside of you, but also at, in the same token, like you're mentioning, having the integrative approaches that are going to be sprinkled in at the right time, um, in the best places to really give you the best quality of life and quantity of life. And that's where the beauty of integrative medicine comes in. You don't need to suffer going through traditional treatments. I see that all the time and just something as simple as mistletoe therapy. I've seen night and day change, uh, person's even color of their skin to their mood, to their strength. So much can be done that people aren't aware of and that conventional doctors are not able to even share about. They're only able to share, as you talked about, surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Those, those are their three options. They're three tools. The three hammers. Yep.

Second Opinions and Faith

Jacob Williams

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Um, number one, I, I never went back to that urologist who diagnosed me. He gave me two pamphlets. I went home and I was the end of him. Mm-hmm. I was done. Mm-hmm. Um, uh, my sister is an O-B-G-Y-N. And of course I called her right away and she said to me, you gotta, you gotta listen to your doctor. And I laid it out to her. I was like, I don't, I don't trust that doctor. I don't believe what he said. I did a little research and he's not telling me the full truth. There's some stuff that's being omitted. So, um, I mean, like. I could wind up in a diaper incontinence, I could, uh, have erectile dysfunction. Um, I don't want any of those things. So, um, I asked my sister to help me find other doctors, and I went on this, uh, uh, second opinion roll. I probably got about four of them, so I did that. But what I did learn. Is that there's another way to do it. And, um, because I began to ask a lot of questions to as many practitioners and friends as I could, I began to learn that number one, the, uh, uh, the conventional doctors are pretty much gonna take you down a, a trained path and. I wanted to hear something different and I got exposed to something different and I really, really walked towards it just in order to learn. And as I heard different things and began to try them, um, I really had to believe in the fact, I had to believe in my faith to say, nothing's going to happen to me bad while I try these things out. Because when you get a cancer diagnosis, one of the alarm signals is to get this thing outta your body right away and at, at any means necessary. So you kind of have to dampen that for a minute and, and you really have to do the research and begin to investigate other things, and you have to figure out, like do those things really quantify you saying I should believe in it.

Ivelisse Page

Yes. I really think like what you're saying is really weighing the risks versus the benefits of every option that is presented before you so that you can wisely and prayerfully consider what is gonna be the best path for you. You know that your care is individualized and not standardized by their eyes. And so what did you do? What did you end up deciding to do because you're here today? Healthy, strong, helping so many other people. And I know people will be curious to know what, what you ended up deciding to do conventionally and also on the integrative, complimentary side.

Hyperthermia Breakthrough

Jacob Williams

Well, the first thing that happened to me after being diagnosed is uh, um, I was introduced to a functional medicine doctor and a homeopath, and they put me on a raw diet. First go into a fast, then go into a raw diet and with explanation, you know what's happening. What's happening to your body is happening on the inside, and it's because you're feeding it. Whatever you put in and you're eating all this processed foods. Stop that. Just stop eating everything for a minute and then when you, uh, to break your fast, then we're gonna start with water and just raw vegetables going a raw diet. So I did the raw diet for, uh, three and a half months, and then I went to, uh, just eating cooked vegetables. And I probably did that for about two years and it took me a while to heal. Healing takes a, takes a while, doesn't happen right away. You know, you hear a lot of stories about somebody had, you know, loss of tumors in three months and I'm like, that is fantastic. That didn't happen to me. You know, when I began to lose the tumors, they went away quickly. But the preparing your body to, to begin to help you wipe these tumors out. Takes a while. So I had to reset my body. Basically as I look back on it, I reset my body. I went into a raw diet. Um, I began to just eat vegetables only and um, I was introduced to mistletoe. I did subcutaneous mistletoe probably for eight months. And, and so the chronological order to that was a functional medicine doctor homeopath put me on a raw diet. After the raw diet I was introduced, I was told to go get a mistletoe shot by the homeopath. Now I had no idea what that was. I was told to go see this guy, Dr. Mark Hancock and go get a mistletoe shot. So, you know, going to see any doctor, that is two months before you get in. So, you know, you go make the appointment, you finally get the intake. You sit down with him and he says to me. You are here early. Most people come to me as a hail Mary. You haven't done anything yet. And I said, you know, I'm trying to keep all my body parts. I like to keep everything intact. I want to be whole. I'm, I'm getting old, so I want to be intact as I, as I age. And he was like, okay, well, he put me on this program of subcutaneous mistletoe. I did that for about eight months and he kept talking to me about hypothermia, but he didn't have the hypothermia equipment to put me into. He said, I need to get to your prostate. If I can get to your prostate with heat directly to your prostate, that would work. We were talking about a clinic in Germany. I don't even know how I was beginning to, you know, uh, think about that. But, as I started doing the research, he gave me a number of clinics to look into. As I started doing that research, he found a guy who had manufactured a local hyperthermia machine, Dennis Clark, Thermo Field. Um, he said, you could be the first to use it. I went to his office and I did roughly two months of mistletoe infusions along with hyperthermia. So basically I would sit on a, a small pad that would project heat, through microwaves six centimeters deep into my body. So I would literally just sit on this thing and heat my prostate right after I had a mistletoe infusion. I did that for about two months and went and got a MRI and lost one lesion.

Ivelisse Page

Amazing.

Jacob Williams

I was like, okay, right on. This is it. But again, prior to that, I did eight months of subcutaneous and went after the eight months, went and got a MRI exam and a PET scan, and everything was exactly the same way it was when I was diagnosed. So immediately I was disappointed, but I had to look back. I had to look back of the history of my disease to see that there had been steady progression up until I started taking this mistletoe for eight months. And so basically the disease had stabilized, so I really had to go home and sit with myself and say, it's stabilized. It's not growing, it's stabilized, it's not growing. Because I was freaking out. I was like, I didn't, didn't work.

Ivelisse Page

Yeah, I think that, you know, that's a very important thing that you shared is that it had been progressing and progressing and progressing, and it was the first time that it had stabilized it, it didn't continue to grow. And so your body at that point was resetting with the raw diet that you were doing, uh, with the mistletoe therapy. And then just adding that extra layer of the IVs and the hyperthermia, which by the way, hyperthermia chambers end up heating your body to a higher core temperature that helps to fight off viral loads and infections and, you know, cancerous things. And so that's why, you know, that aspect was so important. So Jacob, yeah, it, it's incredible. So how long before you started your treatment to you becoming no evidence of disease?

Jacob Williams

I would say eight months, and then it was probably two years.

Ivelisse Page

Amazing. Amazing. So

Jacob Williams

let me, let me tell you, this is the quirky thing. I met Dennis Clark because I had some success with hypothermia and his particular unit, Thermo Field. And, uh, we, we, we had conversations and I wound up doing a, a sales film for him. So I went around and I, and I interviewed a couple of doctors that were having success with women's breast cancer. They were using compounds, whether it was mistletoe or IPT or Chinese wormwood, but they were injecting the breast directly, the, the tumors directly in the breast with these different compounds, and then heating the breast. So I interviewed a number of doctors and I interviewed Dr. Hancock, who's also treating me, and he said the exact same thing. And when I was done with the interview, I was like, dude, you're injecting women's breasts. Can you inject my prostate? And he was like, whoa. He said, you know, and, and the reason why he said, whoa, I don't know. He said, number one, um, that has to be guided, that area's sensitive. Don't know how to actually get to it. He said, but I'll find somebody who's injecting prostates. I think I know a guy and, you know, another two months. And he comes back, he goes, I got a guy from New York, Dr. Hal Blatman Dr. Blatman had been injecting men's prostates with ozone in order to reduce the BPH. Men's prostates usually swell as they get older and it's caused by inflammation or and bad diet and many other things. And he was shrinking prostates, and that's what causes men to have issues with urinating frequently at night, that sort of thing. So, I got in touch with Dr. Blatman and I went to him for, I probably got five injections over a six month period of mistletoe and ozone directly into my prostate. And, after the second injection, I had an MRI and a PET scan, and I had lost a second lesion, so I kept going.

Ivelisse Page

That's amazing.

Jacob Williams

But I, I think overall, the whole thing is cumulative. I think if I hadn't cleaned my body out, my body would not have been receptive to, you know, the other treatments that I was getting. So I had to, I had to clean my body. I had to, you know, set my mind, uh, all that jazz.

Vulnerability and Support

Ivelisse Page

Yeah. That's why cancer is one of those complicated diseases because there are many buckets that overload our body and there are so many facets and not, and you just mentioned it, not just on the physical side of healing, which a lot of people just tend to focus in, but there have been so many studies done on how your emotional and your spiritual state also affect your physical state. If you're stressed, your cortisol levels rise. Your insulin levels rise, which causes inflammation in your body. It creates a perfect storm for cancer to thrive, and so our emotional healing tools that we have at Believe Big, our spiritual healing tools are so vital to this holistic approach of facing, fighting, and overcoming cancer. And in the last few minutes of this podcast, I would love for you, um, to share, looking back, how has surviving prostate cancer changed your definition of strength and vulnerability, and what do you want other men to understand about that?

Jacob Williams

Well, I want other men to know that it's really important to talk. It's really important to talk about it. It's really important to ask questions and you have to do research so you can make informed decisions, but it's so important to open up and talk to everybody in your circle. I love that. And you also have to develop a circle. You have to develop a circle of people that you trust and, and recognize that being vulnerable is actually a strength when you open up and talk about stuff. That's, that's, that's pretty strong stuff to do.

Ivelisse Page

Yes.

Jacob Williams

When you tell people, I'm afraid I'm, I'm not sure. Um, I don't know. It's okay. It's absolutely fine to do that because when you do that, that's when you. That's when you learn more. That's when you become calm. That's when you are no longer, it's not necessary to be afraid. People are gonna come to you with information.

Ivelisse Page

How can families and loved ones support men in opening up without making them feel exposed or pressure?

Jacob Williams

I don't know that's a tough one because I feel like my entire family was very open. I became fanatical about food, about my health, about exercise, about, you know, what doctor I was gonna see, and they all went along for the ride. And they supported me by sharing information as well as eating the way I ate, they began to adapt to things I did. Do not get me wrong, there was resistance at first, but as my son would say, uh, my, I have four kids. My middle son, he said, you know, I be, I forgot that you had cancer. You started looking healthy each time I saw you, you showed up, you looked good, you looked strong. You know you're eating funny, but you know, everybody else started eating funny right along with you. He said, I forgot you had cancer. So it was kind of a, it was kind of a, okay. When you said, Hey, no evidence of disease, you were like, I was like, yeah, yeah. What did we expect? Look at you.

Final Encouragement

Ivelisse Page

I love that. I love that. And to close this podcast out, what would be one bit of encouragement you can give to that person who's listening today who has cancer, not necessarily just prostate cancer. What is one, um, bit of encouragement that you could offer them?

Jacob Williams

You have to be positive and why I say positive as as soon as you learn as much as you can about your disease, about your situation. That is the thing that should give you enough positivity to try and figure out what's the best way for you, and you have to do the things that you're willing to do.

Ivelisse Page

Yes. Well, thank you Jacob. Uh, we will put in the show notes your website, Jacob b Cancer, for anyone who wants to get connected with you and to find out more. We'll also put our Believe Big resources as far as, uh, questions to ask oncologists and even an informational page to give to oncologists about mistletoe therapy. I think the more information we have, the better we can in advocating for ourselves and for others along this journey, but thank you so much for joining us. It's been a pleasure to speak with you today.

Jacob Williams

Likewise, Ivelisse. Thank you.

Ivelisse Page

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