KETOGENIC DIET
(Posted 2010-09-14 13:31:55 by ArchPaladin)

This is not the first time I have come across an article about the
ketogenic diet [ http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/7/1/74 ]
[nutritionandmetabolism.com], but I believe it is the first time I have
spoken about it in any length.

I understand the ketogenic diet works as follows.  Say you have epilepsy. 
Epilepsy is caused by neurons in the brain firing out of coordination (ie.
randomly), and can be both small and large in scope.  Now, neurons - along
with most other cells in the brain - require copious amounts of energy to
continue firing, and the most readily available source of energy they use
is glucose.  If none of that is available they will use the protein.  In
following the ketogenic diet, your food intake is about in a 4:1 ratio of
protein & fat versus carbohydrates.  What this does is it forces your body
to burn more protein than simple glucose sugars, and it shifts the internal
body chemistry in such a way that the incidence of seizures drops
significantly.

What has come to light more recently - and what the linked article speaks
about - is that the ketogenic diet is also useful in the treatment of brain
tumors.  This is because when cancer cells develop, they effectively lose
the ability to burn protein as an energy source because they have such high
metabolic demands.  If your dietary habits mimic the ketogenic diet, you
starve the cancer cells so that they can't reproduce and the tumor shrinks.
 While the article linked was about rats, I have come across previous
research indicating that the ketogenic diet also worked well for humans
with brain cancer - either promoting longevity overall, or increasing the
chance of remission.

I don't know how well this works with other types of cancer, but at least
for brain tumors it seems like the usefulness of this diet points to cancer
as having a considerable metabolic and dietary component in its occurrence.
 Obviously cancer arises with the proper sequence of genetic mutations, but
how well is that aided by the abundant supply of simple sugars present in
the diets of industrialized countries?

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