grow without glucose and it is vulnerable to free radicals because is can ’ t charge up glutathione . Now throw in some chemo and / or radiation , a little hyperbaric oxygen ( another article ), maybe even some metformin ( not going there right now ) and you are just demolishing the cancer cell , while the normal cell can shrug it off . It also turns out that ketones are antiangiogenic and anti-invasive ( the latter possibly due to decreased IGF-1 ).
What about some data ? Linda Nebeling tried the Ketogenic Diet ( KD ) on two little girls with terminal brain cancer ( in 1995 !) who are believed to still be alive . At the University of Wurzburg , five patients who were close to death lived through the three-month study KD study period . Dr . Valter Longo at USC tried a ketogenic / fasting diet on patients with breast , esophageal , prostate and lung cancer . The KD group had less subjective and objective side effects of chemo . Dr . Adrienne Scheck in Arizona is actively studying the synergistic effects of KD and radiation therapy . Many more clinical trials are ongoing .
Dr . Dominic “ Dom ” D ’ Agnostino ( who can deadlift 500 pounds for 10 reps after a seven-day fast ) is working with Dr . Seyfried to elucidate the best approach exploit these weaknesses in cancer cells . Their “ press-pulse ” approach ( evolutionary extinction term – cancer as ecosystem ) uses fasting and the KD to “ press ” the cancer cells , then “ pulse ” them conventional chemo and radiation . Dom envisions cancer therapy as a rejuvenating , positive experience to kill weak cancer cells and make the rest of the body stronger .
Dom and many others propose widespread application of these anti-cancer practices . Theoretically we could all prevent the initial metabolic derangements by keeping our mitochondria happy : exercising intensely and entering nutritional ketosis from time to time . I am not suggesting 24 / 7 Atkins adherence , but the “ cyclic ketogenic diet ” does make evolutionary sense . Every few days or weeks enter ketosis , kill off tiny populations of cancer cells , and then transition back .
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Schmidt M1 , Pfetzer N , Schwab M , Strauss I , Kämmerer U . Effects of a ketogenic diet on the quality of life in 16 patients with advanced cancer : A pilot trial . Nutr Metab ( Lond ). 2011 Jul 27 ; 8 ( 1 ): 54 .
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Cosmologist Paul Davies has been enlisted by the National Cancer Institute to figure out why we haven ’ t found a “ cure .” Davies doubts the Somatic Mutation Theory from a mathematical perspective : how probable is it that cancer is reinvented over and over in different people and even in the same person ( remember the intratumoral heterogeneity )? Maybe the nuclear DNA mutations are the second step of malignancy . Maybe it all starts with epigenetics : deranged metabolism , excessive insulin and sick mitochondria . Maybe cancer is one big forest instead of hundreds of trees .
Martin Huecker , MD , is a full time faculty member at the University of Louisville who practices Emergency Medicine with the University of Louisville Physicians group .
MARCH 2017 19