Fasting may improve cancer treatment (Solid tumours in mice plus early human trials - needs further exploration and validation for CLL)

[AussieNeil]

'The gold standard treatment for cancer in the last few decades has been a combination of surgery – to remove tumours – and chemotherapy and radiotherapy – to kill cancer cells. With the progress of personalised medicine, where identifying specific mutations in the tumour guides treatment selection, there has been increasing success in survival rates.

But there has been little improvement in reducing side effects on healthy cells caused by chemotherapy, which also limit the dosage that can be administered.

Over the last two decades, research in animals has shown restricting calories - with alternating periods of fasting and feeding – promotes protection mechanisms for healthy cells, while increasing white blood cells that kill cancer cells.'

Veronique Chachay, Research & Teaching Academic, The University of Queensland explains: theconversation.com/fasting...

Note that while it is yet to be found whether this research finding is relevant to CLL, the article is well worth reading, for the simple reason that it explains how cancer cells prefer glucose for energy (derived from carbohydrate), whereas healthy cells can survive on muscle and fat energy reserves under fasting conditions. (Note that this is a generalisation - some cancers can switch to alternative energy sources.)

From this well known fact (discovered in the 1950's), has come the corrupted message from alternative cancer proponents that sugar feeds cancer cells. This is a fallacy, because what we eat and drink gets broken down in the digestive system and converted to carbohydrate and perhaps stored as fat, or turned into muscle mass. Our cells burn glucose derived from those digestion processed sources, NOT the sugar we ingest. (There's no denying that in general, we eat too much sugar which has been processed and added to foods, which is not good for our health, but that's a separate issue: healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo... )

Diet myths and cancer

health.qld.gov.au/nutrition...

Don’t believe the hype – 10 persistent cancer myths debunked

scienceblog.cancerresearchu...

Neil

Photo: Rainbow lorikeet having a rest from a sugar (nectar) diet from gum blossom

[serendipity1]

I read about fasting the other day, not as in-depth as yours. It recommended eating black grapes think they were named concord and they had to have the seeds in, as these are the nutrients and the supposedly cancer killing bits. You have no food in you, fasting, you only drink water, think the water starves the cells and then you eat these grapes throughout the day, because the cells are starving, the grape tricks them into thinking it's glucose, they nibble on them while the power in the seed poisons them. It claimed it only worked on cells, not tumors etc Not sure if there is any truth in this, however, I do fasting only for two days and I always feel cleansed within, clean and better, no idea if it actually does impact the body though.

[Peggy4]

Read this last night. Could be old, it had no date.

gero.usc.edu/cll/

Peggy