Month: January 2014

“Come with me if you want to live!” Ketogenic diet is Kyle Reese for cancer patients

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Do you remember the scene in Terminator where Kyle Reese says to the terrified Sarah Conner, “Come with me if you want to live!”  Well, if we consider cancer to be a terminator, then wouldn’t it make sense to do nothing that would make the Schwarznegger monster stronger, like feed it the energy it requires to grow and to invade?  A new study shows that calorie and carbohydrate restriction and ketogenic diet (high fat, low carb) will enhance radiation therapy, giving the patient a fighting chance.  If you want to live, come with me.  Stop eating sugar and starches and stop feeding the Terminator.

Calories, carbohydrates, and cancer therapy with radiation: exploiting the five R’s through dietary manipulation

Here is the clip:

Thomas Seyfried on ketogenic diets and fasting as a treatment for cancer

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I mentioned in an earlier post that it would make sense to implement a strict ketogenic diet as a treatment to help fight or prevent cancer. A ketogenic diet severely restricts sugars and starches, and turns to fat in order to maintain adequate energy.  I might have been a bit too optimistic that a high fat low carb diet could cure advanced cases of cancer, but it seems logical that it would deprive cancer cells of glucose and thus give a cancer patient a fighting chance.  We know that people with diabetes and metabolic syndrome have increased incidence of cancer, and it stands to reason that good blood glucose control could possibly ward off cancer cells’ ability to advance.  In any case, I am convinced that good maintenance of tight glucose control (4.3-4.6) is essential for good health, and human beings can only achieve that through avoidance of too much carbohydrate.  However, how much total carbohydrate a person can tolerate is a highly individual issue, but I doubt that people with extremely healthy blood sugar should consume more than about 150 gm of carbohydrate per day (cf. Paul Jaminet’s Perfect Health Diet).  For myself I follow Dr. Richard K. Bernstein’s recommendation of about 30 gm of carbohydrate for those who have glucose intolerance.

Now, Prof. Thomas Seyfried is at the cutting edge of advanced research into this line of investigation.  He has a new book, though very expensive, Cancer as metabolic disorder which explores this avenue of research and treatment.  Youtube has two enlightening videos featuring Seyfried which I recommend.  I am encouraged to implement regular intermittent fasting (I skip breakfast nearly every day) and also occasional longer fasts–though for this I will await the season of Lent, so that the fasting can contribute both to spiritual and physical health.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-_UY-WnH1k

The healthy paleo diet of North American aboriginals

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Lean native people of the not so distant past

This week some of my friends have been sharing pictures of Alaska natives on Facebook; these pictures depict people noticeably suffering from obesity. Indeed, diabetes rate among natives is twice that of the white population, yet it was a disease that was virtually non-existent before the inundation of White staples, flour and sugar.  Natives too are realizing that they were much healthier when their diet was more traditional and contained less processed foods (CBC):

“Long time ago my parents didn’t know anything about diabetes,” recalls Flossie Oakoak, a 62-year-old Inuk originally from Cambridge Bay who has Type 2 diabetes. “When there was no white man here, there was only caribou, char. Most of the people are getting bigger and bigger.”

Along with diabetes and obesity, tooth decay had arrived among the Yupik, as I noticed one summer working in Bethel with a young man whose front teeth were rotting, a problem I’ve also seen among Africans.  But the advent of sugar in the diet of the aboriginal people around the world has resulted in dental misery.  We can also thank the Coca Cola Company for their successful sales abroad–exporting White man’s misery to the hapless native.

The lean healthy people of the aboriginal past is a major plank in the argument for the paleo diet.  Gary Taubes presents a readable account of this tragedy in Why we get fat and what to do about.  He tells how the Pima of Arizona were very healthy people before the Gold Rush and how, after the invaders came and destroyed their habitat and their wholesome food supply, the Pima began to depend on US government handouts which consisted of sugar and flour.  Since then, the Pima have suffered terribly from malnutrition, obesity, and diabetes, along with all the diseases which stem from uncontrolled blood sugars.  This includes higher rates of depression and suicide.  People leading NGO and government efforts to help native communities overcome mental illness should consider the underlying contribution of bad diet consisting of processed foods high in sugar and grains.

For natives around the world, the paleo diet would consist of returning to a traditional diet high in fat and low in carbohydrate. Indeed, fat as the major source of nutrition in the diet would make a major contribution to health, if people would also cut the sugar and starch.  This I know from my own experience, and it breaks my heart to see that the bad, iatrogenic nutritional advice of today’s conventional wisdom continues to kill people by destroying their health and depriving them of their vigour. I would urge aboriginal people to eat the fat, e.g., the pemmican and muktuk, but skip the sugar and starch.

How to poop good

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I’m reading Fiber Menance by Konstantin Monastyrsky.  I first read Monastyrsky’s views at Mark’s Daily Apple:  Dietary Fiber Is Bad for Sex – That’s the Only Claim About It That Isn’t a Myth.  Monastyrsky argues that fiber is not the miracle panacea for bowel problems but instead the cause of the Western epidemic of constipation, diverticulosis, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s Disease, hemorrhoid disease, and even colorectal cancer.  Monastyrsky has convinced me.  Of course, it helps that I’ve also read Gary Taubes’ famous chapter on fiber in Good Calories Bad Calories which blows the bad science of fiber out of the water.  Monastyrsky’s case seems unassailable to me: fiber is indigestible and bulks up stools. So if you eat too much of it, in the long run your stools will become bulky, hard to pass and will begin to create bowel problems–such as the creation of inflamed hemorrhoids and diverticula.  Add to that that whole grain proteins can also cause gut inflammation in many people, and we have a strong case against grain-based fibers, which are the highest, most concentrated source of dietary fiber in the Standard Western Diet.  Doctors and nutritionists that recommend to their patients with bowel problems to eat more fiber and drink more water are exacerbating the problem.  It is an egregious example of nutritional iatrogenesis–i.e., doctors are making their patients sick.

On drinking too much water, I agree with Monastyrsky as well.  He says that drinking the recommended eight glasses of water will only deplete one’s bodily minerals, especially potassium, and will exacerbate the problems of constipation.  I have had over-hydration leading to constipation, so that I learned experientially that he’s right on this point.  While in Africa, I was drinking several liters of water because of the heat and humidity.  I started having abdominal cramps and would sit on the toilet hoping that something would come out.  Finally, I asked the school nurse if he could help me, and he said that I needed to take salt. The over-hydration and perspiration had depleted my body of essential minerals.  I started adding generous sprinklings of table salt on everything I ate, and it greatly improved my condition within a couple days.

So here is what I’ve gleaned from Fiber Menance as the best way to have good poop:

  1. Reduce fiber to what is available in green vegetables.  Avoid grain-based fibers.  When starting a lower fiber regimen, reduce fiber gradually.
  2. Eat more fat:  Fat is not a dietary demon but will make stools easier to pass (though it is also good to avoid trans-fats and too much Omega6).
  3. Make sure you have adequate probiotics:  good poop consists ca. 75% bacteria (dry weight).  Soft easy to pass stools contain little fiber.  This makes a strong case for Korean Paleo (kimchee) or German Paleo (sauerkraut) or just plain probiotic yoghurt.  There are also probiotic supplements.
  4. Don’t over-hydrate.  Drink adequate water to remain well, yet do not drink water as a cure.  It can destroy your electrolyte balance and even be fatal.
  5. Make sure you have adequate minerals in your diet: esp. salt, potassium (and don’t forget magnesium).  Doctors have also demonized salt and this too is iatrogenic.
  6. It may also be necessary to eliminate grains entirely.  Cf. Wheat Belly.

Monastyrsky says that ideally poop should appear as 4-5 in the Bristol Stool chart and one should have a bowel movement at least once a day, preferably two or three times.  Paleo people will find Fiber Menance comforting, since they necessarily have reduced their fiber intake by eliminating grains and often legumes from their diet.  But what will happen eventually is that their stools will begin to soften and pass more easily, provided that there are adequate probiotics in their gut.  Monastyrsky is uncharitable towards Robert Atkins, because often low-carb dieters suffer from constipation.  But this is not so much Atkins fault–in this case Atkins followed the standard advice and told his followers to take a fiber supplement.  The better solution is to add a probiotics, like kimchee, into the diet, and then all will come to pass.