From everything that I have learned in my research over the past 5 years, the most important thing in managing your cancer and prevention of recurrence, is diet. If you are feeding your body a high amount of vegetables and some fruits (a lot of glucose), the amount of cancer prevention and cell differentiation benefits from these foods can be very powerful. Almost all processed foods, especially those containing white flour and sugar, flood your body with glucose. Cancer cells need glucose to survive. The human brain requires more glucose than any other part of our bodies, so a lot of this “junk” is going to be utilized up there, which brings this glucose into the same area where your tumor resides. If brain tumors are fed a lot of glucose, they thrive! If tumors can’t have glucose, they die. Your body is in a constant state of producing glucose from the foods that we eat. The cells in your body need an energy source to survive, as well, but this energy source doesn’t have to be glucose. Your cells in your body can also live off of ketones. The most common ways for your body to attain this state is through the Ketogenic diet and the Atkins diet. The things that both of these diets emphasize is a very low intake of carbohydrates.
The ketogenic diet has been studied quite often as a therapy to control or starve a brain tumor. It is suggested as a therapy that patients could use as part of their brain tumor treatment. You can see one article that explains the scientific efficacy of this diet here. This diet has also been shown to control epilepsy very well, mainly in children who have uncontrolled epilepsy. There are many studies at various hospitals who are enrolling patients in this study. Because this diet is extremely restrictive, it should never be tried without a medical professional monitoring the diet and patient.
The atkins diet also attains a state of ketosis in our bodies, but the effect on brain tumor patients has not been studied. The diet differs quite a bit from the Ketogenic, but it restricts glucose in the same way, so I thought it worth mentioning here. Again, this diet should be monitored by a physician, so that blood counts can be taken to make sure it’s not having a negative effect on the body.
The last diet I will mention here, that has been the topic of discussion for everybody’s good health in general, is the Caloric Restriction diet This diet has been shown to have great benefit to brain tumor patients. You can see a study here. The results of this diet work in the same way the others do, by restricting glucose, but works a little differently and has more overall bodily benefits. I think everybody, brain tumor patient or not, should read about this diet. It can have great health benefits for anybody.
This is one way that a cancer patient can take their health into their own hands. It’s a little overwhelming at first, to think of the task at hand. But for me, when I look in my children’s and husband’s eyes, the Chai Lattes and Caramel Macchiatos don’t seem so important, anymore. I want to do what I can to stay on this earth as long as I can. I know that this is my part I can do in my cancer treatment, so I need to take it seriously and start munching on those carrot and celery sticks!