Nutritional Ketosis and Cancer

[This article is based on Dr. Joseph Mercola's piece "Promoting Advances in Managing Cancer as a Metabolic Disease Need Your Support," August 02, 2017]

In 2012 Dr. Thomas Seyfried wrote "Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: On the Origin, Management and Treatment of Cancer." In the book's preface he writes:

Several major findings planted the seed for this treatise: 

First, it became clear to me that the therapeutic action of some anticancer drugs operated largely through reduced caloric intake. 

Second, the reduced caloric intake could target the majority of cancer hallmarks. 

Third, that ketone bodies can serve as an alternate fuel to glucose in most cells with normal respiratory function. 

Fourth, that metastatic cancer arises from cells along macrophage lineage. 

Fifth, that all cancer cells regardless of tissue origin express a general defect in mitochondrial energy metabolism. 

Finally, that cancer can be effectively managed and prevented once it becomes recognized as a metabolic disease.

Seyfried has a distinguished background. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the department of neurology at the Yale University School of Medicine and then served on the faculty as an assistant professor in neurology. Throughout his long career, he's received many awards and honors from organizations such as the American Oil Chemists Society, the National Institutes of Health, the American Society for Neurochemistry and the Ketogenic Diet Special Interest Group of the American Epilepsy Society.

He recently received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of New England, and a lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Comprehensive Integrative Medicine.

He presently serves on several editorial boards, including those for Nutrition and Metabolism, Neurochemical Research, the Journal of Lipid Research and ASN Neuro, where he is a senior editor. In total, Seyfried also has over 170 peer-reviewed publications in the scientific literature.

He and others have been able to advance the theory that cancer is primarily the result of defective energy metabolism in, and damage to, the cells' mitochondria.

Simply put, genetic mutations are not the primary cause of cancer but are, rather, a downstream effect of the defective energy metabolism. 

Seyfried is one of the pioneers in the application of nutritional ketosis for cancer, a therapy that stems from the work of Dr. Otto Heinrich Warburg, one of the most brilliant biochemists of the 20th century. Warburg, a personal friend of Albert Einstein, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1931 for how cells obtain energy from respiration. He was even nominated for two additional Nobel's.

According to Warburg,

Cancer, above all other diseases, has countless secondary causes. But, even for cancer, there is only one prime cause. Summarized in a few words, the prime cause of cancer is the replacement of the respiration of oxygen in normal body cells by a fermentation of sugar.

Primarily a researcher and professor, Seyfried doesn't personally see patients. Instead, he collaborates with clinicians who base their treatment protocols on metabolic therapy and nutritional ketosis protocols he developed. Yet, Seyfried receives progress reports from doctors and patients alike.  Mercola cites several encouraging reports.  Here is one:

Bomar Herrin

Dr. Bomar Herrin, 58, was the envy of many men his age. Working out regularly, he was averaging 16 pullups, punching the speed bag and doing a grueling P90X exercise program. But something unexpected occurred during his weightlifting routine in July 2009. Herrin, an emergency medicine physician for 30 years, felt a snap near his right shoulder.

Initially he was diagnosed with a pathological fracture. A biopsy revealed it was caused by a plasmacytoma, or a cluster of cancerous plasma cells. Plasma cells are a type of white blood cell, and when they become abnormal they are called myeloma. Myeloma cells in several parts of the body are called multiple myeloma. While Herrin had radiation to treat the plasmacytoma in his arm, a PET scan revealed lesions on his spine, sacrum and ribs, which indicated that his cancer might have spread.

Strongly motivated to find a way to halt the progression of his disease, he embarked on a different path: metabolic therapy. That was eight years ago. For eight years, Herrin has been following a ketogenic diet and fasting regularly. He recently reported to Seyfried that his cancer load and inflammation markers are down.

In March 2017, his kappa/lambda ratio was normal for the first time — a measure of multiple myeloma activity. His eating plan has also helped him reduce and stabilize his weight at 173 pounds, down from 225. And he reports: "At the Mayo Clinic, I am now being asked to describe just what I am doing!"

Conclusion

As Mercola states, metabolic therapy isn't a magic wand. It won't — and doesn't — save everyone's life. Typically, a majority of the clinics following this alternative protocol see patients at the end of their journey, typically when traditional treatments have failed. Unfortunately, a certain percentage of patients aren't going to survive, no matter what.

But if patients can get through this metabolic protocol, the median survival can increase 400 percent and their quality of life can be drastically improved.