Radiation Day 19 – Can keto improve treatment outcomes?
Beam room music rundown:
- “She’s Always a Woman,” Billy Joel
- “The Boxer,” Simon & Garfunkel
- “Lonely People,” America
Verdict: A very solid Friday in the beam room!
I met with my neuro-oncologist (the conductor of the care symphony, if you will) Wednesday. He seemed genuinely pleased to see me and is very happy with how well I’m tolerating treatment. We talked about a lot of things, but one thing I wanted to hear his thoughts on was transitioning to a ketogenic diet. There’s some anecdotal evidence to suggest that a ketogenic diet may improve treatment outcomes for glioblastoma, but there have been no rigorous, controlled clinical trials yet. Apparently, transitioning one’s body to use fat as fuel could slow tumor growth in part because cancer cells depend on glucose as their primary source of fuel. At any rate, my doctor was surprisingly open-minded and supportive of my trying it out. So, next week, I’ll be consulting a dietitian and developing some strategies for making sure I can stick with it. Until then, I’m going to try to see how many french fries and sodas I can consume in a single sitting. You know, just to set a baseline…
Big R is leaving for Europe for a 9-day trip tonight, so for the next week and change it’s gonna be me, little R, and my big sister holding down the fort. Should be pretty fun.
Happy Friday, y’all!
… you, Aaron, are pretty amazing! You write with so much care and calmness. Yet, right now you are on a roller coaster! I truly admire you and your strength.
Thank you, Linda! Honestly, the practice of writing, itself, is pretty therapeutic.
This is awesome that there is research being done on diet and how it can help treatment… rooting for you all the way!!! every day… 🙂
Thanks, Heather! I just met with the dietitian today and am getting myself psyched up to start the keto diet in the next couple weeks.
I highly recommend keto to get into fat burning mode – running on ketones rather than glucose. Then I would implement some 48 and 72 hour fasts which boost autophagy, known to clean house on damaged and weaker cells including cancers. During those fasts, you can keep your energy and resolve up by drinking water mixed with sodium chloride and potassium chloride, basically what’s in an IV for electrolytes.Then, when you can handle it, try a few dry fasts that truly super charge autophagy.