Since the time of Hippocrates, that is, 2400 years ago, fasting has been accepted as fasting. treatment for acute and chronic diseases, based on the observation that people often lose their appetite when they are sick.
Along with fever, decreased food intake is one of the most common symptoms from infection. Often thought of as a side effect of disease, it is actually an active and beneficial defense mechanism. As I discuss in my video Fasting for Cancer: What About Cachexia?Chronic malnutrition can compromise our defenses, but data shows that in the short term, immune function can has been improved by reducing food intake.
Researchers have is shown that the blood of starved mice was about eight times better at killing invading bacteria in a petri dish and significantly increased the ability of their white blood cells to kill the pathogens. What about people? And what about cancer?
Does fasting help our natural killer cells fight cancer cells?
When study participants fasted for two weeks on an 80-calorie-a-day diet, not only did their white blood cells increase in the ability to kill bacteria and produce antibodies, but the activity of their natural killer cells increased by an average of 24%. This is especially interesting because our natural killer cells not only help clear infections, but also kill cancer cells. In fact, this is how the researchers measured the activity of natural killer cells; they pitted them against K562 cells, which are human leukemia cells.
Fasting is said to improve the fight against cancer immune controlor, more poetically, by “stimulating the immune system’s appetite for cancer”. So why isn’t fasting used more often to treat cancer? Because so much of cancer care revolves around keeping people safe weight to try to fight cancer wasting syndrome.
What is cancer cachexia?
Until recently, fasting therapy was not considered a treatment option in cancer, where the general therapeutic goal in palliative cancer treatment is to prevent weight loss and combat wasting syndrome. cachexiawhich is the ultimate cause of death in many cancer cases.
Tumors are nutritious, grow rapidly, and require a lot of energy and protein, so cancer is metabolically reprograms the body begins to break down to feed its tumors. It does this via a trigger inflammation throughout the body. It’s not just that people lose their appetite. “The main difference between weight loss in CC (cancer cachexia) and what is seen in ordinary hunger is the lack of return with food alone.”
Therapeutic food interventions correction or reversal of cachexia often fails. Therefore, the best treatment for cancer cachexia is to treat the cause and treat the cancer. Actually, maybe to force Supplemental nutrition in cancer patients can play directly into the hand of the tumor. As in pregnancy, when the fetus receives nutrients for the first time, even at the expense of the mother, the tumor may be the first in the food chain. Maybe losing your appetite when you have cancer is even a protective response.
Is chemotherapy enough?
As I discuss in my video Fasting before and after chemotherapy and radiationduring the last 50 years, chemotherapy has become the main medical treatment for a wide range of cancers. Its main strategy is mainly based on targeting cancer cells, through DNA damage, caused in part by the production of free radicals. Although these drugs were initially highly selective for tumor cells, we eventually learned that normal cells also undergo severe chemotherapy-induced damage that can lead to dose-limiting side effects, including bone marrow and immune system suppression, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea, and in some cases even death.
If you survive chemotherapy, DNA damage to normal cells can even cause new ones cancer road is up. There are cell-protecting drugs that have been tried cut back Side effects so you can pump with higher doses of chemo, but these drugs have not been shown to increase survival – in part because they also protect cancer cells. What instead? fasting for cell protection during cancer treatment?
Fasting and chemotherapy
Many may not recognize the role fasting may play a role in cancer prevention and treatment. Short-term fasting before and immediately after chemotherapy can reduce side effects, while at the same time it can make cancer cells more sensitive to treatment. This is exciting!
During deprivation, healthy cells switch from growth to maintenance and repair, but tumor cells do not not able to slow down their mindless growth, due to the growth-promoting mutations that turned them into cancer cells in the first place. This inability to adapt to starvation may indicate something important All Achilles for many types of cancer cells.
As a result of this differential the answers from healthy cells against cancer cells to short-term fasting, chemotherapy causes more DNA damage and cell suicide in tumor cells, while potentially leaving healthy cells unharmed. Thus, short-term fasting can protect healthy cells from the toxic onslaught of chemotherapy and make tumor cells more sensitive—or at least that’s the theory.
The researchers found that in rodents, fasting just seems to work as well as chemotherapy. In addition, abnormal growth of tumors is also caused by radiation therapy, and even after combination from radiation and alternative day fasting. However, a one-day fast seemed to work just as well as radiation. These data are exciting, however, for mice with breast cancer. What about people?
Fasting is tested against cancer
As I discuss in my video Fasting is being tested before and after chemotherapyseveral cancer patients who fast before chemotherapy and share their experiences. They reported a cut back in fatigue, weakness and gastrointestinal side effects while fasting and felt better across the board, with zero vomiting. The weight lost during a few days of fasting was quickly regained by the majority of patients and did not cause any noticeable damage. So, in general, fasting under supervision appears to be safe and may possibly reduce side effects.
In a randomized clinical trial, breast and ovarian cancer patients fasted from 36 hours before chemotherapy to 24 hours after, and fasting appeared to improve quality of life and fatigue. However, another to read did not find such a beneficial effect. Bone marrow toxicity appears to be less due to the higher number of red blood cells and platelets. But when it came to saving the white blood cells – the cells of the immune system – there was no use, so it was a disappointment. Maybe they didn’t fast enough?
A systematic review Out of 22 studies have shown that, overall, fasting can not only reduce the adverse effects of chemotherapy (such as organ damage, immune suppression, and chemotherapy death), but it can also reduce tumor progression, including tumor growth and metastasis, resulting in improved survival. However, almost all studies have been conducted on mice and dogs. Human studies have been limited to evaluating safety and side effects. The tumor suppressing effects of fasting—for example, its effects on tumor growth, metastasis, and prognosis—have unfortunately not been evaluated.
Does fasting make chemo more effective?
As I discuss in my video A fasting-mimicking diet before and after chemotherapyshort-term food withdrawal Chemotherapy can begin to solve a long-standing problem with most cancer treatments: how to kill the tumor without killing the patient. A short-term fast—for example, 48 hours before chemo and 24 hours after—can do cut back side effects, the so-called “chemotherapy toxicity”. However, the potential suppressive effect of tumors fasting have not yet been fully evaluated.
Some to argue that simply reducing the side effects of chemotherapy can improve efficacy because patients can tolerate higher doses. For example, heart and kidney damage associated with widely prescribed anticancer drugs limits their full therapeutic potential. But it is not clear that this to maximize Tolerable doses of chemicals lead to longer survival or better quality of life. For the time being, I think we should just be content with less side effects so that the side effects are less.
How does fasting work?
Fasting can reduce its level insulin-like growth factor – 1 (IGF-1), a cancer growth hormone. Low levels of IGF-1 in the differential protection of normal cells and cancer cells in response to fasting and improve the chemical’s ability to kill cancer but spare normal cells.
Thus, reducing IGF-1 signaling may provide duality benefit by protecting normal tissues while reducing tumor progression. It may even help prevention cancer in the first place. But fasting isn’t the only way to lower IGF-1 levels: A few days of fasting can reduce pain levels. halfbut that’s mostly because protein consumption is reduced. Protein is a major factor in circulating IGF-1 levels in humans – suggesting that “reducing protein intake may become an important component of anti-cancer and anti-aging dietary interventions,” particularly reducing animal protein.
Decrease protein intake to lower IGF-1
If you compare those who eat a strict plant-based diet and meet the recommended daily intake of protein (0.8 grams per kg of body weight) with individuals who are lean but consume large amounts of protein typical of Americans, going on a calorie-restricted diet may lower IGF-1 slightly, but eating a plant-based diet may lower it even less.
Thus, not only can a diet centered around whole plant foods, regulate IGF-1 activity, which may slow down the aging process, but it may be a way to reverse aging. genes against cancer.
