Sandra Bornstein

Most Recent Book

May This Be the Best Year of Your Life

“Sandy takes us on her personal adventures in India, with all the ups and downs and uncertainties of the unknown. She confronts social, family, and professional challenges with refreshing openness, vulnerability, and determination. I was right there with her, sharing both the anxiety and the joy… every step of the way.” – Rita Golden Gelman
author of Tales of a Female Nomad and more than seventy children’s books”

 

Are you ready to step outside of your comfort zone and plunge into a world of remarkable and memorable adventures?

If so, you’ve come to the right place.

Welcome

On this site, you can read about Sandra Bornstein’s incredible expat teaching adventure in Bangalore, India and how she learned to cope with an assortment of unimaginable events and unrelenting culture shock. After returning to the U.S., Sandy shared memorable experiences in her award-winning book, May This Be the Best Year of Your Life, and shortly thereafter began publishing lifestyle and travel stories on this website as well as other places. A second website, The Traveling Bornsteins, was created to exclusively showcase Sandy’s travel writing and her husband Ira’s digital images.

People over 50 encounter a host of issues. Sandy occasionally shares tips on how to overcome these midlife challenges. When Sandy isn’t traveling or busy with her four adult sons and their families, she interviews authors, writes book reviews, offers inspiring talks about her expat and travel experiences, writes stories that motivate others to explore the world, and contributes quality content to online sites and print media. And, like most authors, is contemplating writing another book. If you are interested in working with Sandy on a project, click here.

If you always stay in the security of your home environment, you will never see what the world is all about. So, take a few moments and join Sandy on her latest adventures.

Latest Work

Cancer Cookbooks and Glioblastoma

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Health is like money. We never have a true idea of its value until we lose it.  Josh Billings.

Variation of Cancer-Fighting Kitchen’s Mediterranean Lentil Salad on Page 144

When faced with a glioblastoma diagnosis, it is essential to keep the body as strong as possible so it can effectively recover from the standard of care protocol— brain surgery, chemo/radiation, and a second round of chemo. To accomplish this goal, I researched how diet and exercise can positively impact the ill effects of cancer treatments. Until I started implementing these changes, it was unclear whether any of these modifications would make a difference. While Ira is only one glioblastoma patient, I can say with confidence that he has responded better than I ever anticipated. Read More

Should Glioblastoma Patients Investigate Radical Remission?

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Sandy and Ira Bornstein hiking in Telluride, Colorado July 2020
Sandy and Ira Bornstein hiking in Telluride, Colorado July 2020, just days before Ira’s glioblastoma diagnosis.

I cannot forget the day when my husband, Ira, was diagnosed with glioblastoma. I had accompanied Ira to his doctor’s appointment because I was concerned. We had just driven back from our youngest son’s pandemic wedding in Telluride, Colorado and Ira had trouble staying within the lines while driving on the highway. He also seemed quieter than usual and later became slightly disorientated while walking in our neighborhood. I simply wanted to make sure that his primary care doctor understood the complete picture and did not rely only on Ira’s perspective. While I had anticipated that a brain scan was likely, I didn’t foresee the possibility of an immediate hospitalization.

As the two words—brain cancer— resonated through my thoughts, I was overwhelmed with fear. Ira, on the other hand, was considerably calmer.

Before I left the hospital, Ira turned to me and said, “None of these doctors know me. I’m an individual who doesn’t give a shit about statistics. I’m going to beat this.”

I turned to him in disbelief. “Didn’t you see the mass on your MRI scan? Were you listening to the what the admitting doctor just said? According to her, you only have 12-18 months to live and considerably less if you don’t have the brain surgery immediately?”

“Yes, I did hear. But I know I can beat this.” Read More

Eat to Beat Disease and Glioblastoma

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Our multi-tiered lifestyle choices produced positive results.

Over a year ago, I reached out to Dr. William W. Li to review Eat to Beat Disease: The New Science of How the Body Can Heal Itself. I wanted to explore the connection between diet and health.

Within days of Ira’s diagnosis of glioblastoma, an incurable brain cancer, I received my complimentary copy.  Suddenly, I was focusing on how to fight cancer cells. Would it be possible to use the information presented in Eat to Beat Disease to create menus that would help Ira survive glioblastoma? In other words, could our food choices affect Ira’s ability to recover from a craniotomy, six weeks of chemo and radiation, a second round of chemo lasting six months, and become an outlier? Read More