The week before I turned 40, my husband Brad and I took a one-way flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong. Neither of us had ever stepped foot in Asia but we were ready to trade our comfortable life in LA for a new adventure.

Exactly one month later, I was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Not the adventure we were hoping for.

A PET-CT scan and biopsy confirmed that I had non-small cell adenocarcinoma lung cancer spread to a tumor in the eye, two in the brain, and over a dozen in lymph nodes throughout my chest and neck. The median survival with treatment was six to eight months. It was unlikely I’d see age 41.

By that point the tumors in my neck were bulging, pressing against the skin and visible to the naked eye. I was drowning in the cancerous fluid filling my pleural cavity and couldn’t even lay down to sleep due to the choking. I’d lost the vision in my eye but at least had an explanation for the confusion, brain fog, and profound fatigue that engulfed me. The cancer quickly spread to two more tumors in my brain and more in my liver and abdomen. I was dying. My prognosis of 6-8 months seemed optimistic.

The months following my diagnosis were spent in a flurry of frantic research. I’m incredibly fortunate that I came across metabolic therapies like keto. The science seemed obvious and the research compelling. The only thing that surprised me is that I’d never heard of it before. 

I discovered keto for cancer in late 2018 and I’ve been doing keto ever since.

What motivated you to start keto?

The research I read was compelling and I knew in my heart that a therapeutic, ketogenic diet – in addition to my conventional therapy – was the best chance to prolong my life while reducing the adverse effects of conventional treatment.

What benefits/successes have you experienced?

One year after I was diagnosed, around the time doctors predicted my death, my quarterly PET-CT scan showed that I had No Evidence of Disease. Oncologists from Hong Kong to the Mayo clinic shook their heads, marveled at the results and hung my scans on the break room wall. 

Most miraculously, I’ve remained cancer free to this day.

While there’s no evidence yet that my results are typical, research has shown that my improved quality of life in the face of chemo and radiation is typical. 

I had two rounds of stereotactic brain radiosurgery (SRS) for two tumors each and the first time I wasn’t in a state of ketosis. I was sick, sweaty, and vomiting nonstop for three weeks. 

For the second round of SRS I flew to the US to pick up my Keto-Mojo and knew I was in ketosis at the time of the procedure. I’d walked home from the hospital on Friday and went to work on Monday.

My experience is not unique – I hear regularly from my friends and published research that keto and fasting almost eliminate the symptoms of chemo and radiation.

What was the hardest part?

I experienced all the same cravings as anyone changing to this way of eating. I missed bread and potatoes, fruits and margaritas. I was very lucky, though, that I never had to rely on willpower. Keto is easy when you sincerely believe that cheating will kill you.

The hardest part for me was finding information about my specific use case, keto for cancer, and, even more so, an oncologist who would read the research and support me.

After over a decade of published research on the benefits of therapeutic keto, it is still far too difficult to find resources on how to implement it even though we know that it can improve cancer outcomes.

What were the keys or top tools to your success?

Relying on commitment and not willpower was a key to my success. I knew what I wanted (an improved cancer outcome) and how to get it (therapeutic ketosis). No matter how longingly I stared at the pizza shop window on the way home, my goals were more important to me and any momentary flavor experience. I wouldn’t be able to eat pizza when I was dead. Why not stop now. 

It was also helpful for me to be first about my goals with friends and colleagues. Whenever someone kindly offered me a treat that didn’t fit my plan, I was able to politely and honestly refuse by explaining that eating it wasn’t permitted on my cancer therapy.  

Did you measure your ketones and/or glucose and if so, how did that help you?

Among the top three most important tools to my success was the Keto-Mojo meter. Deep, therapeutic ketosis for cancer requires the right balance of glucose to ketones and precise tracking that I never would have been able to achieve without the keto-mojo. 

I was living in Hong Kong when I was diagnosed and ordered the device to the U.S. a few months later. It was only after I started tracking using the Keto-Mojo that I was able to reliably achieve a sub-1.0 glucose-ketone index (GKI).

What’s your favorite keto recipe? Please provide a link if available.

Over the years I’ve collected dozens of my favorite recipes on my website. Right now, my husband and I agree that my Spicy Thai-style Dressing is a real winner and we keep it in regular rotation in the house. It’s part of how he came to adopt my keto ways despite his good health. Made from healing foods like garlic, ginger, turmeric, apple cider vinegar, tamari and almond butter, we serve this as a dressing for salads, a sauce for low carb noodles, and a dip for raw veggies. Find the recipe here and make it your own.

I often add a squirt of MCT oil for extra ketogenic goodness.

What tips or words of wisdom can you share?

Keto is a balm for the Standard American Diet (SAD). Whether you’re treating cancer, obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, Type 2 Diabetes, PCOS or any metabolic disease, remembering that this way of eating is medicine can make the transition less difficult. 

Sadly, however, it is often still too difficult to find a medical practitioner aware of the latest research and educated on the best techniques.  

I’ve dedicated the rest of my miraculously-prolonged life to raising awareness of these peer-reviewed and published therapies. I began with my website, cancerV.me, and Instagram account before certifying my knowledge to help others one-on-one. It became clear to me that one-on-one help isn’t enough to spread this knowledge and am now producing a documentary, CANCEREVOLUTION  to reach more people whose lives can be changed. 

I’m so grateful to Keto-Mojo for their support in this film and for the role they played in prolonging my life such that I’m now living my very best life ever. 

The post I Was Given 6-8 Months to Live and Now I’m Cancer Free appeared first on KETO-MOJO.

History of the Ketogenic Diet as a Treatment

The classic ketogenic diet is a high fat, moderate protein, and low carbohydrate diet. It restricts carbohydrates such as those found in bread, pasta, rice, crackers, sugar, root vegetables like potatoes, most fruits, and even some dairy so that your body uses fat from your diet and stored in the body as its primary energy source. The diet is a well-established medical treatment for refractory pediatric epilepsy or for children who have seizures and do not respond to their anti-seizure medications. Its first documented use in the United States dates back to the 1920s. Despite it being around for 100 years, we currently have very few human studies with evidence supporting its use in different diseases, such as cancer. This, in addition to the diet getting great attention in the media has led to a lot of confusion as to what the keto diet is and is not, and who would benefit from it. So, what is the diet, exactly?

Basic Principles of the Ketogenic Diet        

First, let’s go over normal nutrient metabolism. We have three main macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, and fats. These are our dietary building blocks for fuel and energy needs of the body. In order for us to use these sources for energy and stored for later use, they need to be broken down into smaller components that our body can use. To put it simply, carbohydrates get broken down into a sugar called glucose. Protein gets broken down into amino acids. Then there are fats, which get broken down into free fatty acids. 

In normal nutrient metabolism (aka the Standard American Diet or SAD), people use glucose as their primary fuel source to produce energy, and their blood-glucose levels tend to be higher. When people go long periods of time without eating (i.e., fasting) or eat a ketogenic diet, they use the byproduct of fat metabolism, called ketone bodies, instead of glucose as their primary fuel source. When you use fat as fuel and produce enough ketone bodies (usually ≥ 0.5mmol/M), you enter a metabolic state called ketosis.  

Types of Ketogenic Diets       

There are many different types of ketogenic diets that are currently being followed and popularized for their potential health benefits and the promise of a better quality of life (especially for people with obesity or diabetes). Most call for a maximum of 20 grams of carbs per day. But there are other nuances. Some keto diets, especially those used for therapeutic reasons such as to inhibit tumor growth or cancer growth, recommend specific macronutrients ratios as a means to dictate how much fat to consume compared to protein and carbohydrate intake.  A “4:1” ketogenic diet is a good example; it calls for eating four times as much daily grams of fat as grams of protein and carbs combined. Meanwhile, the “MCT diet” allows for more carbohydrates to be eaten than most other keto diets because it is supplemented with plenty of Medium Chain Triglyceride oil (MCT oil), which helps ensure ketosis is achieved despite the extra carbohydrates consumed. This can work because MCT oil requires no breakdown for absorption, goes straight to the liver to create ketone bodies, and blunts the usual glucose spike that occurs after consuming carbs. Another type of ketogenic diet uses the glycemic index of foods, which measures how a food will affect our blood glucose, as a way to eat and maintain ketosis. 

The Metabolism of Cancer

Nobel Laureate, Otto Warburg, identified through his research in the early 20th century that 80 percent of human cancer cells have an increased use of glucose, using no oxygen, in order to produce very little energy (this is known among oncologists as the Warburg effect). This is incredibly unusual in comparison to normal cellular energy metabolism, where a small amount of glucose yields a large amount of energy with the presence of oxygen. This simply means the metabolism of most cancer cells is altered. The ketogenic diet can potentially change the tumor’s metabolism and growth by reducing the amount of glucose and other nutrients, like insulin and insulin-like-growth factor (IGF-1), going to the tumor that promote uncontrolled growth. This can reduce or create inhibition of the vasculature (blood flow) going to the tumor that carries the nutrients tumor cells need. In turn, blood carries oxygen, so this can help get more oxygen to the tissues around the tumor. All of these factors make it much less favorable for cancer cells to grow. 

Research on the Keto Diet & Cancer 

Interest in conducting research to study the effects of the ketogenic diet on cancer have been growing, although there is much more that needs to be done. Recently, there has been a promising study looking at the ketogenic diet for reducing fat mass, insulin, and IGF-1 in obese endometrial and ovarian cancer patients, thus potentially decreasing their tumor burden. There are also current studies looking at how one of the ketone bodies that is measured in the blood, beta-hydroxybutyrate, can actually function as an antioxidant to help minimize damage to other healthy cells. There has been well documented evidence, especially in preclinical animal studies, that the ketogenic diet can be supportive with brain tumor treatment.

There is an ever-increasing amount of evidence growing in support of the keto diet’s use, specifically for brain tumor patients. In our brain tumor clinic, we generally recommend and use “classic” ketogenic diets for our patients, or about a 3:1 ketogenic diet. This translates to about 80 percent of total calories coming from fat; or 1,600 calories coming from fat alone for someone eating 2,000 calories a day. This specific ratio is being investigated to see if it can be considered therapeutic within neuro-oncology, and in my opinion, it is optimal for a few different reasons. 

We are currently using the diet in our phase I clinical trial within the first three months of diagnosis of glioblastoma multiforme (the most aggressive kind of brain cancer), either before, during or after their standard of care, consisting of oral chemotherapy and radiation. During this time, many patients are on steroids. A very well-known side effect of these steroids is hyperglycemia (high blood sugar level). Having this 3:1 ratio of fat in the diet ensures that patients can achieve ketosis, despite this side effect. Another reason for this high ratio of fat is that most patients with brain tumors have seizures. Fat provides nine calories per gram, whereas carbohydrates and protein have four calories per gram. Thus, fat provides a steadier stream of energy, leading to changes in neurotransmitter concentrations within the brain as well as gut microbiota variations, and creates a less favorable environment in the brain to have a seizure. Lastly, if planned correctly, having most of the fat coming from mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids, also known as omega-3s and omega-6s, can help reduce the inflammation, including cerebral edema or brain swelling these patients can experience.

Thus far, the studies that have the most support for the ketogenic diet as a cancer therapy are mainly for brain tumors. There has been a plethora of compelling evidence from cancer biologist and brain cancer researcher Dr. Adrienne Scheck, and her lab is looking at if and how the ketogenic diet sensitizes malignant glioma cells to be killed and saves normal cells during chemotherapy and radiation.

Additionally, Dr. Thomas Seyfried has been studying the ketogenic diet and its effects on epilepsy and brain tumors for over 20 years. He has published over 20 articles on the subject, with the most recent case series published looking at a 38-year-old male with glioblastoma using the diet along with other metabolic therapies, who has stabilized his disease for 3 years. The diet is now currently being investigated in endometrial cancer, breast cancer, and other advanced cancers. There is no evidence to date that supports using the ketogenic diet alone as a way to treat cancer.

Cautionary Notes       

As promising as the progress above sounds, there are several considerations to think of before starting this diet if you have a cancer diagnosis and are on active treatment. For instance, if you have a diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer, esophageal, pancreatic, gastric cancer and/or are undergoing a stem cell transplant, your metabolism tends to be altered and you burn calories much faster than other cancer diagnoses. This can lead to rapid weight loss, which is dangerous when you have already lost weight or have trouble maintaining weight during cancer treatment. Weight loss is very common on the ketogenic diet. Also, pancreatic cancer and cancers of the bile duct and gallbladder tend to have fat malabsorption and consequently may not benefit from a ketogenic diet. There are also considerations if you are on treatment and have nutrition-impact side effects that may be hard to manage on the diet, such as diarrhea and nausea. Poor appetite and intake are common during cancer-treating therapies. Some people who do not eat regularly are prone to hypoglycemia, have a certain pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, or are taking glucose lowering medications such as metformin, can experience very low blood sugars. This effect is enhanced on the diet and can be very dangerous.       

Final Takeaways

So, what’s the skinny on this keto diet and cancer? In my opinion, you really have to take many different factors into consideration. Do you have a cancer diagnosis that is currently being researched for the ketogenic diet or is there any research to support it? Have you recently lost or gained weight unintentionally? Are you having side effects from your treatment that has impacted your eating? Are you in survivorship?  I encourage anyone with cancer or who has had cancer and are thinking about utilizing the ketogenic diet as an adjunct to their treatment plan to speak with their healthcare provider, oncologist, and registered dietitian about it, and to avoid doing the diet without proper supervision.

L.J. Amaral, M.S., R.D., CSO, is board certified in oncology nutrition. Amaral attended the University of Connecticut where she obtained a Bachelor of Science in nutritional science and went on to get her Master of Science in clinical nutrition and dietetics from NYU while subsequently completing her internship to become a registered dietitian at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. She is currently located in the outpatient cancer center at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, CA as a clinical and research Dietitian, and is researching the efficacy of the Ketogenic Diet as a therapy for CNS malignancies. Amaral specializes in cancer nutrition during treatment, for survivorship, for cancer prevention, and specifically, in therapeutic Ketogenic diets.

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