Today we will discuss some of the basics of the Keto For Cancer Calorie Restricted Diet. Please make sure you order Miriam’s book if you have not done so already. I have it linked below in the description and on my website as can be seen onscreen.
It should be noted that this diet is not part of the Standard of Care that doctors follow. They may even be against the diet; however, there is a lot of information that convinced me to follow this path and I will do my best to inform you of what I have found so you can make your own determination.
There are some keys to success. First, you will likely not feel too great when your body does the transition from sugar to ketones; but, this is temporary and is known as the KETO Flu. Like many treatments, this is an adjunct option. This means it does not replace your standard of care treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy; but, it is an add-on that I believe has some real benefits. If we think about the whole aspect of diet it makes sense to me that diet links so much to our health. If we are trying to get well from an illness we often take prescription medication. These are typically tiny in size and volume compared to the size and volume of our meals; but, they can make a big difference. On the other hand, what we put into our body in the form of food and drink feeds all of our cells and how they operate.
It makes sense that all of these raw materials would have a significant effect on our bodies and how they operate. In the Keto For Cancer Diet, it works on three levels. First, it is a Keto diet, second, a calorie-restricted diet, and third it incorporates a fasting period overnight and between meals. All of these components together may work towards our goal of targeting the cancer, weakening it, and potentially giving the other standard of care treatments their best chance for success.
Glioblastoma grows very quickly and as we can see by the life expectancy, the standard of care therapies are likely not going to buy too much time. The Keto For Cancer Diet may have zero effect on you or it may help. I believe it has helped me and that is why I feel it is very important to share this with you so you can make an educated decision, talk to your medical team and family so you can decide if you would like to begin the process as soon as possible.
The essence of the diet is that you eliminate any add-on sugars, severely reduce carbohydrates which are another form of sugar for the body while also reducing protein but increasing fats. As I am not a nutritionist I would suggest that you work with a nutritionist to set up the diet and ensure it is being done correctly. The person you work with should be on-board with the Keto For Cancer Diet if it has any chance of potentially being effective for you. Another option is to contact Miriam Kalamian directly and book an online appointment.
Personally, I began a keto diet first, then read Miriam’s book, and then booked an appointment so I could make changes that were tailored for me. The portions you will eat are smaller than your traditional meals have been. At first, you will wonder how you can eat such a small amount and not be hungry. But, for me, the switch was not difficult. I feel full and I believe this will be fairly universal because of the nature of the high-fat diet. Once your body stops craving sugar and burns ketones you feel fine. This is due to the nature of switching from burning sugar and carbs which are used quickly and then leave you craving more sugar quickly vs. ketones which are derived from fat which provides a slow burn of the energy over a longer period of time without hunger.
I have developed many recipes and once this series of episodes are completed for Glioblastoma Guide I plan to make videos for my recipes to assist you in making them for yourself. I think the meals are delicious. The fasting period for my Keto For Cancer Diet is from 8:00 pm to 10:00 am. For most of this period you are typically sleeping and even in the morning I only start to feel hungry right around 10:00 am. This time is important as fasting is part of the process that may prevent the cancer from growing or from growing more aggressively. The calorie restriction part of the diet dovetails with the fasting; but, it also prevents the pancreas from sending out insulin in large amounts.
As we discussed in the previous video, I have learned that cancer cells sense insulin many times more than regular cells (my understanding is that there are 10 to 20 times more receptors for insulin on cancer cells than on regular cells). If the cancer cells detect insulin they know they are in a good environment with lots of energy to grow and that is what they do. If they do not see the insulin they know they are not in a good environment for growth and hopefully this slows down the growth. As can be seen in this illustration, insulin works like a key in a lock to open the door to the cell wall to let in more glucose which will feed the cancer. Most of our body cells run well on ketones whereas cancer cells cannot run on ketones. They rely on sugar which is in a typical diet and is very prevalent in the bloodstream. The whole idea here is to make it as difficult as possible for the cancer to grow.
My understanding of the diet is as follows. The information that doctors are taught and learn about cancer is that it is a genetic disease. The medical community says that the disease starts in the nucleus in the DNA which has mutations and this is what causes cancer. In fact, the National Institute of Health in the United States lists on their website that Cancer is a Genetic Disease. This is the foundation of the thought process and makes alternative viewpoints fighting an uphill battle. From what I have learned the genetic issues are likely to be a downstream result of the real cause of the cancer.
The research I have looked at and am following shows that the underlying cause of cancer is defective mitochondria. Mitochondria are the energy producers in cells and are also in charge of terminating the cell in the event of a problem known as cell apoptosis. Mitochondria take energy
in the form of glucose or ketones and combine them with oxygen which creates adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) which is called cell respiration and this ATP is energy for the cell. Because it is using oxygen it is called aerobic respiration. This is what the cell uses to do its job. In the case of a cancer cell, something has occurred to damage the mitochondria. You can see on images of healthy mitochondria that they have structures inside called cristae. They weave back and forth across the mitochondria in a thin strand almost like a thin wrinkled edge of paper. In a cancer cell, the cristae are either absent or look ghosted. As a result, the cancer cell’s mitochondria do not work properly and they switch to making energy the only way they can using anaerobic (meaning without oxygen) fermenting of glucose or glutamine similar to fermenting of yeast.
To demonstrate the underlying issue that cancer has damaged mitochondria, experiments have been conducted where a healthy nucleus of a cell replaces the nucleus of a cancer cell. Now, if the cause of the cancer was a genetic issue in the nucleus you would think the cell that had the cancerous nucleus removed and replaced with a healthy cell nucleus would no longer be cancerous. However, the cell remains a cancer cell. Conversely, if the cytoplasm including the mitochondria are removed from a cancer cell and then are replaced with the cytoplasm of a
healthy cell and we leave the nucleus alone we find that the cell becomes non-cancerous. If cancer was caused by an error in the nucleus this should not occur.
If cancer is due to damaged mitochondria then this is what we would expect to happen. The situation is made worse when we learn that the mechanism for a cell to die which is called cell apoptosis is controlled by the mitochondria. This is another reason why cancer cells do not
terminate themselves as they should. The damaged mitochondria do not give the message to have the cell die even though it is alfunctioning and is cancerous. This potential weakness in cancer cells may give us the ability to reduce, limit or eliminate their growth. I found this information to be shocking as I have found it to be supported by science; furthermore, it has not been adopted more universally in cancer treatment – especially in GBM where the options are so few, standard of care treatment does not typically yield long term survival and the recurrence of cancer is almost a certainty.
Just as an aside, a study on the National Institute of Health called Status of nutrition education in medical schools by Kelly M Adams, Karen C Lindell, Martin Kohlmeier, and Steven H Zeisel states “during 2004, we surveyed all 126 US medical schools accredited at that time. The results were that a total of 106 surveys were returned for a response rate of 84%. Ninety-nine of the 106 schools responding required some form of nutrition education; however, only 32 schools (30%) required a separate nutrition course. On average, students received 23.9 contact hours of nutrition instruction during medical school (range: 2–70 h). Only 40 schools required the minimum 25 h recommended by the National Academy of Sciences. Most instructors (88%) expressed the need for additional nutrition instruction at their institutions.” I found this to be almost unbelievable that out of the years of dedicated study and training that most Medical Schools programs only teach 23.9 hours of training in nutrition on average.
Every day we consume food and the type of food, nutrition, its role in the body, its role in creating and fighting disease is given so little time is amazing. It is better understood after this knowledge why there is not a better understanding in the medical field of nutrition or its possible
effects on disease and specifically cancer when we see how little of a doctor’s medical training is focused on nutrition. This is not the fault of physicians, if they are not trained on this material it is impossible for them to implement these strategies or even have knowledge of them in many cases. But, if we have the opportunity to implement this strategy to combat GBM we open a potential door to an option that is just not available in Standard of Care treatment.
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God bless you I hope you find these videos are helpful and can make a difference in your life. Please consult your medical team before following any steps I have taken on my journey. I will see you in the next episode.