Vincent Pennington Blog: A High Fat, Low Carb Diet May Be An Answer To Brain Cancer

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

A High Fat, Low Carb Diet May Be An Answer To Brain Cancer

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As the saying “starve a fever” was intended to provide relief from fever, science is making its contribution to make this a fact rather than a simple advice from mother.

Researchers are gaining headway into tracking the effects of this low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet on the possibility that it could starve brain tumour cells.

The ketogenic diet was developed early at the turn of the century to treat people suffering from epilepsy, believing that with a high fat diet the body will be forced to burn fats instead of carbohydrates and the low-carb intake allows the body to convert the fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies that later acts to replace glucose.

Scientists back then noted that large amounts of ketone bodies in the system was associated with reduced frequency of seizure attacks and can be used to ‘starve’ some types of cancers.

Cancer cells feed on glucose but gets adverse effects from using ketone bodies.

This diet’s impact has only been tested on animals where a 2012 study on mice gave proof that ketone bodies contributed to enhancing the effect of radiation on treating a tumour.

Study lead Dr. Jong Rho of the paediatric neurology department of the Alberta Children’s Hospital said that the ketogenic diet was used in the study.

Dr. Rho also said that they are currently monitoring the condition of a 15 year old patient

Diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma multiforme – the most aggressive and common type of cancer in the brain for which the average survival period ranges from 12 to 15 months.

After a baseball-sized tumour was removed from the child, but tests showed that chemotherapy would not be able to help in recovery and when the parents were left with no other choice placed their son on a ketogenic diet after doing some research.

Hiring a dietitian to develop a meal plan for the patient, the parents wanted to put him on a diet of 80 percent fat, 15 percent protein and five percent of carbohydrates.

The parents introduced their son to the diet and have so far seen improvement as the boy has been on the diet for two and a half years now.

The latest brain scan just this March showed promising results as it turned out clean.

Dr. Rho said that this is a very promising development, but would still caution against going full blast on announcing this as further tests need to be done to ensure enough data is gathered to link the diet with the child’s clean bill of health.