Ketogenic diet against cancer. The ketogenic diet helps fight cancer. Cancer. Key Facts

A low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet is almost more effective than chemotherapy in reducing cancer, according to Dr. Thomas Seyfried, a professor at Boston College and a leading expert in the field of oncology. According to him, the only reason doctors do not prescribe such nutrition to their dying patients is that it is not cost-effective. After all, cancer is a huge business, from which hundreds of doctors, nurses and, of course, pharmaceutical companies feed.

Thomas Seyfried devoted decades to studying cancer and came to the conclusion that its appearance is due not so much to genetic reasons as to metabolic disorders. That is why adjusting the nutritional system is much easier and more effective than stuffing the patient with toxic substances.

Seyfried isn't the first to hold this opinion. In the controversial 1996 book Questioning Chemotherapy, its author, Dr. Ralph Moss, states bluntly: chemotherapy and radiation are a waste of money. These procedures only empty the wallets of patients and turn their lives into a nightmare. It is not surprising that Dr. Moss was deprived of his medical practice for such statements.

Radiation, a popular cancer treatment, kills not only deadly cells but also healthy cells, causing a “rebound effect”: many cancer patients experience a recurrence of cancer in another organ after years of remission.

The ketogenic diet helps slow down this process and also prevents the tumors themselves from growing. According to Dr. Seyfried, LCHF nutrition can cure almost any form of cancer. It sounds impossible, but in practice it is easily explained. Healthy cells of the body can feed directly on fat, glucose, and ketones, while cancer cells need glucose. By sharply reducing the carbohydrate content of the diet, we actually deprive cancer cells of the necessary nutrition, and they stop growing.

Oddly enough, this fact has been known to scientists for more than 80 years. In 1931, German physiologist Otto Warburg won the Nobel Prize for discovering that cancer cells have defective mitochondria and are dependent on sugar. Today, dozens of studies confirm this discovery.

The LCHF diet has proven itself to be an excellent remedy against obesity, diabetes, epilepsy, and Alzheimer's disease. Perhaps in the future such nutrition will become the gold standard for cancer patients. Some experiments are already underway. In 2012, 10 cancer patients at Montefiore Medical Center in New York were asked to follow a ketogenic diet for 28 years. Six of them experienced significant improvement: the tumors shrank and partial remission occurred.

There are more obvious examples. Seyfried cites Joe Mancaruso, a 56-year-old cancer patient from Texas who refused chemotherapy and was able to shrink tumors in his lungs using a ketogenic diet. And Elaina Cantin, in her book The Cantin Ketogenic Diet, talks about how she defeated breast cancer by eating LCHF.

According to Dr. Seyfried, the keto diet can be combined very effectively with chemotherapy and even, if desired, radiation. No one is suggesting that cancer patients should refuse formal treatment, but simple dietary adjustments will greatly improve their lives.

Biology professor Thomas Seyfried from Boston, after many years of intensive research, came to the conclusion that cancer is not only a genetic disease, but also a metabolic disease. Dr. Dominic D'Agostino, an assistant professor at the University of South Florida, agrees and treats patients with a ketogenic diet.

However, before you get too euphoric about it, you need to consider that this effect depends on the type of cancer, and there is still no conclusive evidence of anything.

If anything, the ketogenic diet has generated a lot of interest since the paper was published in 2006.

Simple principles of the ketogenic diet

What does the ketogenic diet include?

Although calorie restriction increases cancer survival, when you subsequently eat glucose, insulin, IGF-1 and glutamine increase. This causes mood swings and cellular inflammation, which feeds cancer cells. Complete fasting (3-5 days) can prevent this. Fasting causes a state of ketosis in the body, where flexible healthy cells, deprived of glucose, switch to burning fat in the body. As we already know, cancer cells do not have this flexibility, so they “starve.”

So, we come to the simple rules of the ketogenic diet:

The theory is that maximizing a state of ketosis leads to decreased motility and death of starved cancer cells. In the United States, clinical trials are being conducted on the use of a diet rich in fat, the use of a low-calorie diet and fasting during chemotherapy courses and. This is a hot topic.

The study results were published by scientists from the University of South Florida (Angela M Poff, Xilla Art and Dr. Dominic D'Agostino) and Thomas N Seyfried from Boston College. The scientists reported that in mice with metastatic cancer treated with a ketogenic diet and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, in combination and alone, compared with control groups:

On a ketogenic diet:

• Blood glucose levels decreased significantly and tumor progression slowed down;
• in mice with systemic metastatic cancer, the mean survival time increased by 56.7 %.

While hyperbaric oxygen therapy alone had no effect on cancer progression, when combined with a ketogenic diet it did:

• significant decrease in blood glucose,
• reduction in tumor growth rate,
• 77 % increase in average life expectancy compared to the control group.

Summary

There is no doubt that American scientists are on to something important. Due to inflexibility, cancer cells' use of exclusively glucose (and high fructose corn syrup) and possibly glutamine seems obvious.

Calorie restriction is being studied in clinical trials in the US to improve the tolerability of chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

The sharp rise in autism makes me think that our modern lifestyle plays a role in the development of this disorder. Recent research has focused on ketogenic diets and their potential benefits for treating autism.

This article reviewed 8 studies, of which 5 were human studies and 3 were conducted on animals.

The study concluded: "The limited number of reports of improvements following KD treatment is not sufficient to support the feasibility of KD as a treatment for ASD, but it remains a good indicator that this diet is a promising therapeutic option for the treatment of this disorder."

What is the keto diet?
The ketogenic diet calls for 50 to 70 percent of your diet to come from healthy fats such as coconut oil, butter, organic pastured eggs, avocados, and raw nuts such as pecans and macadamia nuts.

Carbohydrates should be kept to a minimum so your body burns fat for energy. This means you have some sugar in your system, which blocks the body from using fat in favor of burning sugar.

During this condition, the body produces ketones made from fats processed in the liver.

Other Health Benefits of the Keto Diet

1. Weight loss
Reducing your carbohydrate intake is one of the easiest and most effective ways to lose weight.
On a ketogenic diet, dietary carbohydrates are kept very low, protein is moderate, and fat intake is increased, gently encouraging our body to use fat as primary fuel and produce ketones from stored fat.

2. Fights cancer
Cancer cells love sugar! Sugar essentially feeds cancer cells and stimulates cancer growth. This is why a diet that gets rid of sugar and other carbohydrates may be effective in preventing or fighting cancer.

Regular cells found in our bodies can use fat for energy, but cancer cells cannot metabolically shift to use fat.

One review published in Redox Biology showed promising results for the treatment of colon, stomach and prostate cancer. According to this review, ketone bodies stop cancer by changing the availability of energy processes in cancer cells.

3. Protects your brain
A low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet has also been associated with relief from other neurological disorders. Research published in Behavioral Pharmacology found that ketogenic diets may be effective in minimizing symptoms of Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

In one study, Parkinson's patients who followed a ketogenic diet experienced an average 43% improvement in symptoms after a month.

Research also supports the benefits of the ketogenic diet for treating autism. According to one article, autism shares some characteristics with epilepsy, and many people with autism experience seizures due to overexcitation of brain cells.

The study found that most children with autism felt better after a cyclic diet for six months.

The ketogenic or keto diet is not new: a hundred years ago, before the advent of effective anticonvulsants, French pediatricians noticed that certain dietary restrictions reduced the frequency of seizures in children suffering from drug-resistant epilepsy.

Based on metabolic studies, a therapeutic diet was developed - without starch and sugar, which became part of the complex treatment of epilepsy in the early 1900s. The author of the name “ketogenic diet” allegedly belongs to the American doctor Russell M. Wilder, who used it in the treatment of epilepsy in the 20-30s. last century.

The keto diet involves a high fat diet, moderate protein intake and very low carbohydrate intake. For most people, this nutrient ratio is considered safe for a limited period of time and not only helps you lose extra pounds, but also has therapeutic applications.

Indications for use

A low-carbohydrate keto diet for epilepsy, which was widely used in foreign clinical practice, helped reduce the frequency of seizures in children of different ages by 62-75% (after dietary treatment for 12 weeks). At the same time, children who are prescribed such a diet must be registered with doctors who monitor their normal growth and weight gain, and also make dietary adjustments in accordance with the needs of each child.

Diets with minimal amounts of carbohydrates have begun to be used for other disorders. Researchers have shown that ketogenic diets are useful in treating patients with DeVivo disease, a deficiency syndrome of the protein GLUT1 (which transports glucose across the blood-brain barrier), as well as several other inborn metabolic defects.

It is believed that this nutritional system can slow down the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Charcot's disease); Indications for the ketogenic diet include neurodegenerative pathologies such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Clinical studies are underway on the effect of the ketogenic diet on the condition of patients with autism, depression, type 2 diabetes mellitus (non-insulin-dependent) and polycystic ovary syndrome.

The best known keto diet for weight loss is in the form of Atkins diet for the treatment of obesity, modified and popularized by Dr. Robert Atkins (Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution, 1972). Although experts consider only the induction phase of this diet to be ketogenic. And, in fairness, it should be noted that long before him, many American doctors worked on the principles of the ketogenic diet: Peter Huttenlocher, Alfred Pennington, Richard McCarnes, etc. For example, R. McCarnes wrote the book Eat Fat and Grow Slim in 1958. and get slimmer"), and this is essentially the same low-carbohydrate diet originally introduced to treat epilepsy.

Since the deposition of excess adipose tissue in the form of triglycerides concentrated in its cells occurs due to excessive consumption of carbohydrate foods (no one doubts this fact), limiting carbohydrates in the diet to a minimum - a keto diet for a month - helps reduce fat reserves , that is, losing weight.

In addition, it was found that the keto diet for oncology - by increasing the oxidative stress of cancer cells - significantly reduces the growth rate of malignant tumors localized in the colon, stomach, prostate gland and lungs. In addition, it has already been proven that some cancers are more sensitive to chemotherapy due to the induced state of ketosis.

The essence of the keto diet

On a standard keto diet, your total daily calories should come from 70-80% fat, 15-20% protein, and 5% carbohydrates (less than 50g per day).

Typically, the ratio of the weight of fat to the weight of protein and carbohydrates is 3:1 (that is, 3 grams of fat for every gram of protein + carbohydrates). If the proportion is 4:1, then 90% of the energy comes from fats, 8% from proteins and only 2% from carbohydrates (about 20 g per day).

Despite hundreds of years of use, the mechanisms underlying the clinical effectiveness of the ketogenic diet for epilepsy remain unclear. Several possibilities have been proposed, including modification of the Krebs cycle to increase the synthesis of gamma-aminobutyric acid in the brain and increasing the production of energy from ketone bodies, which is 70% consumed by brain tissue. The ketogenic diet leads to adaptive changes in brain energy metabolism that increase energy reserves; Ketone bodies are a more efficient source of ATP for brain neurons than glucose.

The essence of the diet used to reduce excess weight is to introduce the body into a state of adaptive ketosis - when the body receives energy (ATP) mainly from ketone bodies in the blood, and not from glucose, which comes from eating foods containing carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates in food are transformed into glucose, but when a person consumes very few carbohydrates and a lot of fat, a chain of biochemical reactions is triggered in the body. Schematically this process looks like this. First, due to decreased blood glucose levels, the pancreas begins to produce more of the hormone glucagon, which stimulates the catabolism of glycogen stored in the liver into glucose and release it into the blood. Secondly, ketogenesis is activated, that is, the liver produces ketone bodies (acetoacetate, which is then transformed into β-hydroxybutyrate and acetone) and the conversion of dietary fat into free carboxylic (fatty) acids. Thirdly, due to an increase in the level of glucagon, the activity of lipase, an enzyme that breaks down triglycerides (fats) accumulated in the cells of adipose tissue, significantly increases.

In addition, in the first two weeks of following the keto diet, significant weight loss occurs due to the removal of water from the body, which is also associated with increased glucagon production. And therefore, a temporary side effect of a diet rich in fat can be dehydration, which nutritionists advise to combat by drinking up to two liters of water daily.

Many people believe that an important advantage of the keto diet is the absence of hunger, the need to count calories and exercise for hours to burn excess calories.

Keto diet for men

The keto diet is considered especially effective for men with abdominal type of obesity .

If the domestic therapeutic diet for obesity (No. 8 according to Pevzner) recommends reducing caloric intake to 2000 (2300) kcal per day, then the ketogenic diet does not control calories so strictly (but reducing them by at least 10-20% will not hurt). But carbohydrate consumption must be reduced five times: instead of 250 g to a maximum of 50 g per day.

Remember that the bulk of calories on a keto diet come from foods high in natural fats and moderate amounts of protein. That is, this is not a “protein load”, as some may think. And if a man is used to eating a lot of meat, then his body will enter a state of adaptive ketosis much more slowly. So you will have to limit protein: per day to 1-2 g of protein per kilogram of body weight that you are trying to achieve as a result of losing weight. Example: if the initial weight is 112 kg, and the desired weight is 85 kg, then the amount of protein during the course is 85-170 g.

The exact ratio of fats, proteins and carbohydrates in the diet (in grams) will depend on the age, goal, level of physical activity and health status of each individual man. But short-term fasting during the keto diet is recommended for everyone: in the first two days of switching to this food system, you should drink a lot of water and limit yourself to one meal a day (in a very small amount). By the end of the first week, you should eliminate carbohydrates as much as possible (below is a list of foods for the keto diet), but portion sizes decrease very slightly.

Another nuance: they claim that the keto diet without sports does not lose its effectiveness, and to lose weight you do not need to go to the gym or simply perform any additional physical exercise. But physical activity, as part of a healthy lifestyle, accelerates the burning of excess fat, so you shouldn’t lie on the couch. Moreover, you can take advantage of the moment and, following the example of bodybuilders, build muscle mass: gaining weight on a keto diet is possible only with muscle load, and then subcutaneous fat will disappear, revealing strong muscles.

Keto diet for women

The problem with the keto diet is that to date, research into its effectiveness and safety has only focused on men. A natural question that arises is whether the keto diet is suitable for women, given that female hormones tend to be more sensitive to most dietary changes.

While opinions vary, most experts say the ketogenic diet produces positive results, especially for perimenopausal or menopausal women. This nutritional system allows you to lose excess weight, control blood glucose levels, improve sleep quality and reduce menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes or night sweats.

However, there are also negative reviews, and even complaints about nausea, fatigue and constipation due to the diet (more details below in the Possible Complications section). It is also worth mentioning that switching to a keto diet is contraindicated in case of irregularities in the monthly cycle, pathologies of the thyroid gland, or during pregnancy and lactation.

Women are recommended to combine periodic fasting with a ketogenic diet, that is, simply skip lunch and take a break of 10-12 hours between morning and evening meals, which after 50-55 years gives a rejuvenating effect (this is data from a 2016 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association). According to Western nutrition experts, this dietary regimen allows the body to take a break from digestive functions and direct energy resources to the restoration of tissue cells and the balance of hormones.

If a woman with a body weight of 75 kg and a height of 165-168 cm seeks to lose weight to approximately 68 kg, she should switch from 2300 kcal per day to consuming no more than 1855 kcal. Protein should be 1-1.5 g per kilogram of ideal weight, that is, daily you can get about 68-102 g of protein, 240-350 g of fat and 18-20 g of carbohydrates (in pure water, without fiber).

How is a keto diet different from a high-fat diet?

A high-fat or LCHF diet differs from a keto diet in the proportions of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in the diet, and a high-fat diet assumes a ratio of 50% fat and 25% protein and carbohydrates.

In Europe, the high-fat (low-carbohydrate) diet is called the Swedish diet. Obviously, this is due to the Swedish therapist Annika Dahlqvist, who began to recommend that her patients with diabetes consume more fat and limit carbohydrates, which contradicted the officially approved recommendations of endocrinologists in Sweden.

The professional conflict was widely publicized, but as a result of a scientific study conducted at the initiative of the National Health Council (involving 16 thousand patients), the doctor's reputation was restored, and the benefits of the LCHF diet with a high fat content were recognized. Due to the reduced need for insulin, this diet has been noted as suitable for people with type 2 diabetes and obesity.

Among the modifications of the ketogenic food system, starting with the Atkins diet and the LCHF diet, one can name strange dietary recommendations, for example, an egg fast on a keto diet - when for several days you need to eat only boiled chicken eggs with mayonnaise...

Cyclical keto diet and other modifications

In recent years, the standard keto diet (SKD) has been modified in many ways. Thus, the high-protein ketogenic diet (HPKD) emerged, in which 60% of calories come from fat, 35% from protein and 5% from carbohydrates.

Targeted ketogenic diet (TKD) is more moderate, since carbohydrates can be eaten before and after workouts; It is considered sports, so the number of calories obtained from consuming carbohydrates is higher than in SKD.

The cyclical keto diet (CKD) or, according to another version, the rotational keto diet (alternating), is a low-carbohydrate diet with alternating periods of consuming high or moderate amounts of carbohydrates: 5-6 days - a minimum amount of carbohydrates, then carbohydrate loading is carried out on a keto diet. diet – carbohydrates are consumed without restriction for one or two days. The unknown authors of this version of the keto diet are trying to justify their innovations by the need to replenish glycogen reserves, restore hormone levels and thyroid activity, as well as ensure moral and psychological stability - to continue the diet. In fact, everything that is lost in six days comes back instantly.

Benefit

As foreign clinical practice shows, almost 20% of children with epilepsy after a ketogenic diet (followed from six months to two years, with a gradual return to normal nutrition) experience seizures much less frequently, and many of them can reduce their intake of anticonvulsants or completely stop them. refuse them.

Based on the results of two dozen randomized controlled studies, experts have come to the conclusion that the benefits of the keto diet include significant and fairly rapid loss of excess weight, especially in severe obesity. Despite the high amount of fat, this diet over 24 weeks leads to a decrease in systolic blood pressure, blood sugar and insulin levels, plasma C-reactive protein levels, and an increase in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in a significant percentage of patients. that is, good cholesterol.

In 2008, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) revised its dietary guidelines and recognized low-carbohydrate diets as an effective short-term dietary intervention for patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes.

And yet, during a keto diet, the skin reacts to a lack of carbohydrate foods in its own way, for example, acne may decrease. And this is confirmed by the results of a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

What is possible and what is not?

What can you eat? The list of products recommended for the keto diet includes: any meat and meat by-products; bird; Fish and seafood; eggs (all types); cream, sour cream, butter (butter and vegetable). Hard cheese is very useful on a keto diet. But be careful with regular milk, as it contains a lot of lactose - milk sugar, which is a disaccharide carbohydrate. But fermented milk products can be consumed without fear: during fermented milk fermentation, lactose undergoes hydrolysis.

Instead of popcorn, candy or chips, walnuts (about 13 g of carbohydrates per 100 g) and sunflower seeds (10.5 g of carbohydrates per 100 g) are suitable. The number of calories is 655 and 600, respectively.

• mushrooms (except for dried porcini and boletus), the ideal option is champignons (only 0.5 g of carbohydrates per 100 g).
• all types of leafy greens and vegetables that do not contain starch complex carbohydrates: broccoli and kohlrabi; white, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts (3-6 g of carbohydrates per 100 g); cucumbers, zucchini, zucchini, eggplant, bell peppers (green), tomatoes, radishes, leeks, rhubarb, green beans, and leeks (range 1.8-4.5 g carbohydrates per 100 g).

You can eat a little berries: strawberries (100 g contains about 8 g of carbohydrates), cherries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries (100 g contains 12 g of carbohydrates).

If you adhere to moderation in their consumption while following a keto diet for weight loss, then you can occasionally eat 100 g of apricots, pineapple or grapefruit: this is approximately 11.8-12.4 g of carbohydrates. But you shouldn’t eat bananas: every 100 grams of carbohydrates contain almost 23 g.

What can't you eat? You will have to give up bread and all flour; pasta; sugar, honey and confectionery sweets; any cereal porridges; potatoes, carrots, beets, celery root; pumpkins and all melons; legumes and most fruits.

Menu for a week of keto diet

Serious about getting rid of excess fat reserves in your own body, of course, requires creating a menu for the week of the keto diet. And the information in the previous section will help with this.

For breakfast, you can cook scrambled eggs or omelettes - with onions, mushrooms and spinach, bacon and tomato. Coffee or tea, naturally, without sugar.

Lunches can consist of a salad (the recipe for one of them is below), vegetable soup or soup with meatballs (without potatoes, rice or noodles), chicken broth and boiled chicken, fried fish or pork stew with mushrooms.

For dinner, choose a protein, such as turkey, beef, fish, seafood, with which - as a side dish - broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green beans or bell peppers, flavored with cream cheese sauce, go well.

Keto Diet Recipes

Taking into account the list of foods that are allowed on a ketogenic diet, you can prepare so many different dishes that it is impossible to list even a tenth of the keto diet recipes. Try these three.

Chicken baked with vegetables

Products for two servings: 500 g chicken (thighs, breast or fillet, cut into medium pieces), a tablespoon of vegetable oil, 1 green bell pepper (cut into medium cubes), half an onion (cut into small cubes), 500 g cauliflower (disassembled per inflorescences), half a small hot pepper (finely chopped), 50 g butter, 100-150 g full-fat sour cream, 50 g hard cheese (grated on a coarse grater), salt and ground black pepper to taste, ground coriander (half a teaspoon ).

Preparation:

• heat the oven to 180°, grease a baking dish or frying pan with vegetable oil;
• Separately simmer onions and peppers (sweet and bitter) in vegetable oil;
• Blanch the cauliflower inflorescences in salted boiling water for three minutes, let the water drain;
• put the chicken in a mold (frying pan), salt and pepper, add onions and peppers and cabbage (distribute the vegetables evenly over the meat);
• Sprinkle coriander on top, put butter (several pieces, all over the surface), pour sour cream, sprinkle with grated cheese and put in the oven for 40-45 minutes.

Quick salad with ham or brisket

Products for two servings: 100 g of ham or brisket, 250 g of lettuce (dry well after washing), two fresh cucumbers, one tomato, two chicken eggs (hard-boiled), 60 g of dill or parsley, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, etc. same amount of mayonnaise, salt to taste.

Preparation:

• cut brisket or ham into large strips;
• cut boiled eggs into quarters, vegetables into thin slices;
• place the lettuce leaves on a dish, place the ham on top, and eggs and vegetables on top of it, add salt;
• mix vegetable oil with mayonnaise, add finely chopped herbs, mix and pour this sauce over the salad.

Pork stew with mushrooms

Products for three servings: 300-400 g of pork pulp, 350 g of fresh champignons, half an onion (finely chopped), 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, half a teaspoon of nutmeg, one clove of garlic, 4 tablespoons of sour cream or heavy cream, 2 tablespoons of chopped herbs, salt and ground black pepper to taste.

Preparation:

• Pour vegetable oil into a deep frying pan or saucepan with a thick bottom, add onion and chopped garlic, simmer for five minutes;
• put pieces of meat and fry a little;
• add chopped mushrooms, mix, add nutmeg and ground black pepper, salt;
• cook over low heat for 15 minutes, then add sour cream (cream) and herbs;
• Cover the dish with a lid and simmer until done (about another 15 minutes).

Particular caution should be taken when considering bodybuilders’ advice to “stimulate” metabolism with the help of pharmacological agents: you should not risk your health in pursuit of a super effect. In fact, the ketogenic diet is incompatible with anabolic steroids, for example, the keto diet and clenbuterol. Clenbuterol, an adrenomimetic drug for relieving bronchospasm and treating bronchial asthma, is classified as an anabolic steroid because, like norepinephrine, it stimulates beta2-adrenergic receptors and affects metabolism. The drug accelerates the breakdown of glycogen in the liver and triglycerides in adipose tissue, but can cause hyperglycemia, increased heart rate, headache, nausea, decreased blood pressure, hand tremors and other side effects.

That the strict version of LCHF—i.e. The ketogenic diet may be one way to fight cancer by enhancing the effects of conventional treatments. The British newspaper The Plymouth Herald recently published the story of 27-year-old Pablo Kelly, who, according to all medical forecasts, should have died more than a year ago, but nevertheless continues to live a full life.

Two years ago, 25-year-old Pablo, a resident of the town of Rangaton in southwest England, was given a terrible diagnosis - glioblastoma multiforme. This is the most common primary brain cancer and there is currently no effective cure for this disease. Palliative treatment for glioblastoma usually involves surgical removal of the tumor followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy, resulting in an average life expectancy of 12-15 months after diagnosis. Only 3-5% of patients who received intensive treatment survive more than 3 years. The average life expectancy without treatment is 3 months.

Pablo's situation was complicated by the fact that his disease was diagnosed quite late: when the tumor was already at stage 4, and the position of the tumor itself made it inoperable. The only treatment option that doctors offered Pablo Kelly was chemotherapy.

“Survival statistics for people my age are 3%, and this is a maximum of 15 months with chemotherapy, and without it, taking into account my age and state of health, the doctors gave me from 6 to 9 months,” says Pablo. He refused chemotherapy so that the remaining months of his life would not be spent in a serious condition caused by treatment. “I decided that this wasn’t going to break me and I had to come up with something else.”

“Something different” for him was a strict ketogenic diet, built on the LCHF principle - a minimum of carbohydrates, a maximum of fats, incl. animals, for example, from meat. According to some scientists, following this diet puts tumor cells on a “starvation diet”, deprives them of the opportunity to reproduce and stops tumor growth. However, this method was against all medical advice Pablo had received, and he made this decision at his own risk.

“The doctors said the ketogenic diet would not help me in any way,” he says, “but since January 2015 I have had five scans that show the tumor is stable while following the diet.”

Of course, Pablo's diet is different from "regular" LCHF. He limits not only carbohydrates, but also his overall calorie intake, and fasts regularly. The only sources of carbohydrates for him are green leafy vegetables. He completely eliminated industrially processed foods, flour and grain products, sugar, root vegetables, bread, and all foods containing starch from his diet. He measures his blood sugar twice a day and takes anti-inflammatory medications, as well as various vitamins and supplements to ensure his body has everything it needs.

“In the eyes of modern medicine, this is all quackery, but it helps me - because I am still alive,” says Pablo, “as far as I know, I am the only person with this type of tumor who has lived this long without receiving any treatment.”

Here's how Pablo Kelly describes his current situation:

“Now the tumor is trying to kill me. This diet takes a lot of work, but for me it is a matter of life and death. The next step is to try to shrink the swelling. I hope I become the person who can prove the benefits of this diet. The tumor is still there, but I can live, love my loved ones and hope to start my own family.”

It is worth noting that not all doctors and scientists consider this approach to the treatment of malignant tumors to be “quackery.” The use of the ketogenic diet to fight cancer is a serious scientific field that has been developing for many years. This method is based on the metabolic theory of cancer, according to which cancer cells have a special metabolism. Back in the 20s of the last century, German physiologist and Nobel Prize winner Otto Warburg discovered that, unlike healthy cells that require oxygen, malignant tumor cells receive their energy as a result of the anaerobic fermentation process. According to one of the world's leading experts in the field of metabolic treatment of cancer, Boston College biology professor Thomas Seyfried, a strict ketogenic diet limits the access of cancer cells to the “fuel” necessary for fermentation: glucose and the amino acid glutamine. As a result of the diet, the body switches to energy supply from ketone bodies, and cancer cells, due to a defect in their mitochondria, are not able to “feed” on ketones. All this explains the mechanism of inhibiting tumor growth with the help of ketosis.

In modern oncology, the use of the metabolic features of cancer cells to combat the disease is one of the most promising areas. But the effectiveness of the keto diet in the fight against cancer has not yet been sufficiently studied; there is still very little research in this area.

However, the very few data available to date ( , ) do not contradict the hypothesis that a strict ketogenic diet stops the growth of malignant tumors. According to a study conducted in Germany, diet is the most difficult to follow - out of 16 patients with various forms of cancer, only 5 followed the diet for three months, and in all five the tumor did not grow during this period.

So far, there are too few studies of the ketogenic diet to draw firm conclusions, but the known clinical cases can be considered cautiously encouraging. Additionally, it is important to note that all studies have shown that there are no negative side effects when cancer patients follow a strict ketogenic diet.

We may be on the verge of a major breakthrough in this direction: there are currently at least four clinical trials underway in the United States and Germany (, , ,), the purpose of which is to establish the effectiveness of a strict ketogenic diet as a treatment for glioblastoma and other brain tumors. The results of these studies will be known in 2016-2017, and then it will become clear whether Pablo Kelly's case is an isolated anomaly or one example of how cancer can be successfully controlled with a strict LCHF diet.