re: I was unaware of the metabolic approach to treating/curing cancer until now.

I did a very low-carb diet and some multi-day fasts during chemo for stage iv lymphoma. Doctors were pretty amazed how instantly I had no evidence of disease, after starting treatment. I read Seyfried and many others on the reasons this can make chemo more effective in some cases.

Who knows how big, if any, difference my diet made. But I tolerated the chemo well and am nearly 6 years out of treatment.

quote:

---

stage iv lymphoma.

---

Wonderful that you are 6 years in remission

But stage 4 lymphoma is a LOT different than pretty much any other stage 4 cancer. Many lymphomas are either curable or so treatable that you are more likely to die of heart disease or something than lymphoma once diagnosed.

A non-diabetic patient will have a blood glucose level of 80-110 or so, regardless of their diet (even if on a hardcore keto diet). So how would one go about “starving the cancer cells of glucose” if that is the case?

I trust peer reviewed journals over books. Preferably with double blinded random controlled trials.

Some doctors/scientists (ie Attia, D'Agostino) have intentionally dropped their blood glucose to near zero while maintaining high ketone levels and were just fine. Obviously this is very dangerous.

As to the OP, there are some cancer cell lines that can use ketones for energy while others cannot. The presence of two ketolytic enzymes 3-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase 1 (BDH1) and succinyl-CoA: 3-oxoacid CoA transferase 1 (OXCT1) determine if they can or can't.

For example, the PANC-1 version of pancreatic cancer can't use ketones at all, lacking both enzymes. This would be a good candidate for treatment with very low blood glucose and combined with existing treatments.

On the other side, the Hela version of cervical cancer readily uses ketones for energy and that treatment would be ineffective or even harmful.


Either way, these non-pharmaceutical interventions will never be adopted as the standard of care in our corrupted Rockefeller owned medical system.

quote:

---

It sounds like an incredibly difficult road to take in terms of staying strong on the keto diet

---

Why do you say this?

quote:

---

Why do you say this?

---

Yeah I don’t get that either.
People don’t really understand “the keto diet,” and it’s largely because of bad nutrition marketing, media, social media nonsense.

Any way of eating that takes advantage of metabolic flexibility is a “keto diet.”

There are specific clinical diets for things like epilepsy and brain cancers. But I had no issues with strength or stomach issues from my diet. I don’t gorge myself with fat. I just eat good complete proteins and after doing this for so long the rest of the macros just sort of fall where they may. The main thing is avoiding shitty foods like highly processed oils and sugar.

And I sort of naturally or by habit now eat all my calories in a small window.

People make way too big a deal about this stuff. It’s actually simple once you change your habits in the grocery store.

(no message)

quote:

---

Well. Sorta. Brain requires some glucose. But your body creates it via gluconeogenesis.

---

No sorta to it. There will always be glucose in the blood but just because it is the primary source of energy doesn't mean it is the best or required.

Here are a few quotes from a Scientific American article.

quote:

---

Yet versions of the ketogenic diet have been used to successfully treat drug-resistant epilepsy in children since the 1920s – potentially even back in the biblical ages. Emerging evidence from animal models and clinical trials suggest keto may be therapeutically used in many other neurological disorders, including head ache, neurodegenerative diseases, sleep disorders, bipolar disorder, autism and brain cancer. With no apparent side effects.

---

quote:

---

So the brain is happily deriving energy from ketones – sure, but why would this be protective against such a variety of brain diseases?

One answer may be energy. Despite their superficial differences, many neurological diseases share one major problem – deficient energy production. During metabolic stress, ketones serve as an alternative energy source to maintain normal brain cell metabolism. In fact, BHB (a major ketone) may be an even more efficient fuel than glucose, providing more energy per unit oxygen used. A ketogenic diet also increases the number of mitochondria, so called “energy factories” in brain cells. A recent study found enhanced expression of genes encoding for mitochondrial enzymes and energy metabolism in the hippocampus, a part of the brain important for learning and memory. Hippocampal cells often degenerate in age-related brain diseases, leading to cognitive dysfunction and memory loss. With increased energy reserve, neurons may be able to ward off disease stressors that would usually exhaust and kill the cell.

---

The big takeaway shouldn't be arguing semantics and old science but to realize we have a woefully bad understanding of what the prevalence of processed foods has done to our health. The majority of nutrition studies are funded by food or drug companies. That should tell you all you need to know about the state of nutrition education. Better nutrition can drastically lower the rates of diseases and improve the effects of modern medicine.

Didn’t Steve Jobs try something like that?