Keto Diet and Cancer Treatment! How effective is it?

Keto Diet and Cancer

We have heard a lot about the Ketogenic diet and its effectiveness in achieving our weight loss goals, but the trending diet regime has much more in its kitty.

It’s been observed and studied by numerous medical experts that a ketogenic diet can be helpful in the treatment of diseases like Cancer.

If we look into the United States of America only, Cancer has become the second leading cause of death in the country.

Numerous ground-based types of research have estimated the number to jump even higher in the coming times.

While it’s a given that the right combination can only treat a disease like cancer with chemotherapy, surgery and radiation, researchers could not find any role played by diets in the same context.

But now, it has been observed that a ketogenic diet can certainly help due to its low carb content. You must consult your doctor before bringing any dietary changes while undergoing cancer treatment.

What is a Ketogenic diet?

The ketogenic diet contains low carbs, moderate proteins and a high fat content and is highly effective in weight loss. Some health experts have found it similar to the Atkins diet or other low-carb diets.

The diet process requires a person to minimize his/her carb intake while increasing protein and fat intake.

Eventually, the body starts burning fat content instead of carbs to fulfill the energy requirements, and this metabolic change is known as Ketosis. This further leads to an increase in the number of ketones in the blood.

Ketogenic diet and cancer treatment

We all know that a keto diet contains 60-75% fat,15-30% proteins, and 5-10% carbohydrates in its daily calorie intake.

However, when treating cancer, the fat content has to be increased to 90% of the daily calories while limiting the proteins to around 6%.

This comes from the general notion that cancer cells multiply while feeding on the blood sugar or carbohydrates present in the body.

Once you start a keto diet, your body’s metabolic process drastically changes, and your overall blood sugar levels drop.

This would then starve the cancer cells of the carbs they were required to feed themselves to grow. As a result, the cancer cells would start growing slowly and decrease in size.

It may also result in their death if the diet is being practiced for the long term.

This is where a keto diet is highly effective as it lowers blood sugar levels and drastically limits the overall progression of the cancer cells in the human body.

Keto diet and cancer treatment

Other major benefits of a keto diet in cancer treatment

Apart from lowering blood sugar levels, a keto diet can help in several other ways to cure cancer. While we understand that the limited carb intake would starve cancer or tumor cells in the body, there’s much more to the whole context.

Lowering insulin levels in the body

Insulin is an anabolic hormone that facilitates cell growth (including cancer cells) in the human body. When the keto diet lowers insulin levels, cancer cells’ overall growth is hampered.

Drastic increment in the number of ketones

Cancer cells largely rely on the human body’s carbohydrate content to feed their growth. Thus, an increased number of ketones will eventually starve them to death, slowing down the growth of the tumor or cancer.

Effectiveness in Brain cancer

Few studies and observations have occurred in the same regard in recent years. An Old lady suffering from Brain cancer tried a keto diet after the cancer treatment.

While she was on the keto diet, the tumor growth was hampered and triggered once she returned to a normal diet.

There was another study that came through with two little girls who were going through the advanced stages of brain cancer.

One of the girls was tried with a keto diet and doctors observed no significant growth in the tumor for the next 12 months.

Improvement in overall life quality

There was another study in the same regard where 5 patients with advanced stages of cancer were carried through the Keto diet.

They all experienced a better quality of life regarding emotions, feelings, and sleep. The diet had no opposing sides, and its effectiveness on cancer patients was proven again.

Although it was difficult for some patients to adhere to it for a long time, it had excellent health benefits.

The Big question: Can a Keto diet prevent cancer?

With prevention, we mean the symptoms of cancer in the human body and a keto diet can play a significant role in the whole process.

Reduced IGF-1 levels

The hormone insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) is important for cell growth in the human body and simultaneously decreases cell death.

The same hormone plays a significant role in the progression and growth of cancer in the human body.

On a keto diet, the same IGF-1 levels are drastically reduced, which eventually impacts the overall growth of the tumor cells in the body.

Lowering blood sugars in the body

While we know that blood sugar acts as a food for the growth of cancer cells in the body, a keto diet is highly effective in the whole process.

Not only does it prevent the emergence of high sugar levels to prevent cancer, but it also avoids the occurrence of diabetes in the process.

Obesity

Obesity is always quoted as one of the underlying reasons for cancer in humans and most of the time. A person on a high-calorie diet has majorly ignored it.

A keto diet rightly comes to the rescue of the person while saving him/her from the eventual damage to his/her health.