“A short-term fast appears to counteract increases in blood sugar caused by common cancer drugs, protecting healthy cells in mice from becoming too vulnerable to chemotherapy, according to a new study from USC researchers.”
– USC News, March 30, 2017
Our clinical trials looking into fasting mimicking diet and cancer prevention and treatment are ongoing. But if early results are any indication, it could be a powerful new weapon in the arsenal we have to fight, and one day defeat, cancer.
Although the Longevity Diet can be generally applied for cancer prevention, it has the potential to be especially beneficial for people with certain genetic mutations—such as the BRCA genes—which put them at a greatly increased risk of cancer. Prophylactic mastectomies and other surgical procedures can reduce the incidence of genetically induced cancers, but nutrition and fasting mimicking diet may also help. Dietary interventions additionally have the potential to reduce the chance of recurrence in previously diagnosed patients whose cancer is in remission. However, patients should not attempt to replace prophylactic mastectomies with nutritional interventions whose efficacy remains to be established.
Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1, Associated with Cancer and Aging, Is Reduced More Effectively, After Three Cycles of fasting mimicking diet in Individuals at Risk for Cancer (>225, or with IGF-1 levels above 225 ng/mL at the beginning of the trial).
People affected by pathologies may not do the fasting mimicking diet, unless they have the prior approval of their specialized doctor. In the case of serious or relatively serious illnesses (cancer, diabetes, or cardiovascular, autoimmune, or neurodegenerative diseases), it is important to seek permission and approval from a disease specialist as well as from a dietitian with expertise in the fasting mimicking diet or in therapeutic fasting. The use of the fasting mimicking diet for disease treatment should for the moment be limited to clinical trials unless the doctor determines that there are no viable options and the patient cannot wait until the conclusion of appropriate clinical trials and FDA (US Food and Drug Administration), and similar agencies in other countries, approval.