Sept. 22, 2016
The first and most important fact to know about using a restricted ketogenic diet is that it is very powerful, metabolically speaking. It is advisable, before implementing the diet, to make arrangements to have a health care professional who is knowledgeable about ketogenic diets monitor patient progress.
The successful implementation of a restricted ketogenic diet has three goals:
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The primary goal is to reduce circulating blood sugar and insulin levels and, at the same time, increase ketone levels significantly. When blood sugar levels fall low enough and blood ketones are high, cancer cell metabolism and growth can be slowed or stopped. The purpose of higher levels of circulating ketones is to make it possible for the patient to tolerate the very low blood sugar levels that will starve the cancer. Normally, when blood sugar is very low, the brain triggers a hormonal cascade to tell the liver to break down glycogen, a form of stored glucose, to increase blood sugar. This results in the uncomfortable symptoms of low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia. But when ketones are available at high levels in the blood, the brain switches over to using ketones for about half of the fuel it needs, which reduces the likelihood of a hypoglycemic warning. This is metabolic flexibility in action.
The second goal is to use caloric restriction and targeted fasting to minimize any “after meal” blood sugar and insulin spikes that can fuel the cancer. Caloric restriction and intermittent fasting help reduce baseline glucose and insulin levels, and boost ketone production. The ketogenic diet is an excellent tool for this purpose because high-fat foods are very satiating, and elevated ketone levels have the metabolic effect of reducing hunger.
The third goal is to provide treatment for any side effects associated with the diet. This could include introduction of medications to support dietary goals, or changes to medications as the diet progresses. This is another reason why a doctor or a qualified nutritionist or dietitian should be involved to monitor progress when the diet is implemented.
Given the successful use of a restricted ketogenic diet to treat cancer in controlled studies, one would think that mainstream medicine would at least be curious about metabolic dietary therapy. But, so far, little has been disseminated in the media, and many of the big cancer organizations have not embraced the idea.
Last December, The 700 Club, a news program on CBN, ran a story on using a ketogenic diet to treat cancer.15 On the day that show aired, my Ketogenic Diet Resource website (www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com) received over 10,000 visitors, and it continued to receive several thousand visitors each day for weeks afterward.
Clearly, people were interested. I began to get emails from people all over the world, wanting to know how to implement a restricted ketogenic diet for cancer treatment. The emails were hopeful, and many people wrote and said they had asked their physician or a local dietitian for help, only to be refused because of either a lack of knowledge or an unwillingness to step outside the “standard of care.”
Quite a bit of information about ketogenic eating has been available on my website for some time, and Well Being Journal has published two of my articles on ketogenic diets (November/December 2012, Vol. 21, No. 6, and July/August 2012, Vol. 21, No. 4); however, after several months of trying to cobble together bits and pieces of information to send back to the people who wrote, it became clear to me an ebook was needed so that a more comprehensive guide could be offered.
I contacted Thomas Seyfried, Ph.D., to ask for permission to reference material and studies from his book, and wrote to Dominic D’Agostino, Ph.D., a ketogenic diet expert at the University of South Florida to ask for assistance in writing the book. I’m happy to say the response was overwhelmingly positive from both gentlemen, and after several months of hard work, the book is now available on my website at: www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/cancer-diet.html.
If you have cancer or know someone who does, I invite you to explore the possibility that a change in diet might help in the fight against that cancer. At the very least, it can offer some relief from the side effects of standard treatments.
To learn more about natural, evidence-based interventions for Cancer, use the GreenMedInfo.com Research Dashboard:
References
1. Warburg O. The Prime Cause and Prevention of Cancer, March 7, 2013.
2. Warburg O. On the origin of cancer cells. Science 1956;123:309–314.
3. Warburg O. The chemical constitution of respiration ferment. Science. 1928;68:437–443.
4. Warburg OH. The classic: The chemical constitution of respiration ferment. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2010 Nov;468(11):2833-9. Reprint.
5. Seyfried TN. Cancer as Metabolic Disease: On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer. Wiley: 2012.
6. Nebeling LC, Miraldi F, Shurin SB, Lerner E. Effects of a ketogenic diet on tumor metabolism and nutritional status in pediatric oncology patients: two case reports. J Am Coll Nutr 1995;14:202–208.
7. Fine EJ, Segal-Isaacson CJ, Feinman RD, Herszkopf S, Romano M, Tomuta N, Bontempo A, Sparano JA. A pilot safety and feasibility trial of a reduced carbohydrate diet in patients with advanced cancer. J Clin Oncol 2011, 29 (suppl; abstr e13573).
8. Abdelwahab MG, Fenton KE, Preul MC, Rho JM, Lynch A, Stafford P, Scheck AC. The ketogenic diet is an effective adjuvant to radiation therapy for the treatment of malignant glioma. PLoS One. 2012;7(5):e36197.
9. Stafford P, Abdelwahab M, Kim D, Preul M, Rho J, Scheck A. The ketogenic diet reverses gene expression patterns and reduces reactive oxygen species levels when used as an adjuvant therapy for glioma. Nutr Metab 2010, 7:74.
10. Seyfried TN, Sanderson TM, El-Abbadi MM, McGowan R, Mukherjee P. Role of glucose and ketone bodies in the metabolic control of experimental brain cancer. Br J Cancer. 2003 Oct 6;89(7):1375-82.
11. Seyfried TN, Sanderson TM, El-Abbadi MM, McGowan R, Mukherjee P. Role of glucose and ketone bodies in the metabolic control of experimental brain cancer. Br J Cancer. 2003 Oct 6;89(7):1375-82.
12. Seyfried TN, Mukherjee P. Anti-Angiogenic and Pro-Apoptotic Effects of Dietary Restriction in Experimental Brain Cancer: Role of Glucose and Ketone Bodies. In: Meadows GG, editor. Integration/Interaction of Oncologic Growth. 2nd ed. New York: Kluwer Academic; 2005.
13. Zhou W, Mukherjee P, Kiebish MA, Markis WT, Mantis JG, Seyfried TN. The calorically restricted ketogenic diet, an effective alternative therapy for malignant brain cancer. Nutr Metab (Lond) 2007;4:5.
14. Zuccoli G, Marcello N, Pisanello A, Servadei F, Vaccaro S, Mukherjee P, Seyfried TN. Metabolic management of glioblastoma multiforme using standard therapy together with a restricted ketogenic diet: Case Report. Nutr Metab (Lond). 2010 Apr 22;7:33.
15. CBN Network. http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/healthscience/2012/December/ Starving-Cancer-Ketogenic-Diet-a-Key-to-Recovery/ May 18, 2013.
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