Paxton said...
Personally, I feel that if fasting really worked, or even maybe worked, we would be seeing it all over the published world. I haven't been seeing it, so I personally doubt that it has much, if any, impact on cancer cells.
Also, I have not seen any research studies on the subject, so I don't think many/any researchers believe in it, either.
Well, maybe, you might be right. But being the cynic that I am, I lean more towards the opposite. IOW, as there is not a dime to be made when people fast(except maybe some made by people writing about
the subject), we are not likely to see many studies on the subject.
We are all a collection of anecdotes here, rather than a group who has been in an unbiased(if such a thing exists) RCT. So none of us can really say that if we used to fast ( or took vitamin X, or ate diet X ) that it made a difference for us or against us. If we got PC, we can't say that if we had done differently we might not have gotten it earlier or a more aggressive case of it. Or the reverse.
I am a pretty big proponent of intermittent fasting for a variety of health related issues. Probably including cancer. However, I'd like to state my main case against fasting for cancer up front: most people dying of cancer finish the disease in a major extended fast. Due to cachexia, combined with the cancer consuming many of the few calories they manage to consume. So obviously this fast does them little if any good, in fact it might be the major factor that finally kills them.
But, this is obviously at the end stage. I can't say if that also proves that fasting would be worthless at lowering the odds of coming down with cancer, or, if done at the early stages, with slowing the progress or even reversing it once we have it.
So, back to trying to make educated guesses based on the limited information available. ( As CashlessClay does and then tries his own experiments ) There is abundant evidence that insulin resistance and high blood insulin, aka pre diabetes aka metabolic syndrome and finally type 2 diabetes(T2D), leads to worse health outcomes with just about
any disease that can be named, most anyway. Including heart disease and many different cancers. Including PC.
Of course, with PC- and PC only as far as I know- one thing that seemed to show that PC was the one and only cancer helped by by the above issues were studies showing that diabetics were actually protected(rather than harmed) against PC. Thus we had a fellow that used to be around here that claimed- as far as PC went- none of us had to worry about
sugar- eat however much you desired. But I called BS on that claim. Because people get T2D way before PC. Even children are diagnosed these days with what used to be called adult onset diabetes(T2D) because of our abundant carb intake these days, probably along with lack of exercise. So what happens when a relatively young man is diagnosed with T2D? They get treatment. Usually first with diet- which, IF sugar/carb intake is lowered will drop blood insulin as well as blood sugar. When that doesn't work, often due to noncompliance with the diet- Metformin is prescribed which increases insulin sensitivity and lowers blood insulin, as well as blood sugar. ( Metformin vs PC anyone? Hmmmmm, I wonder how it works? ;) ) So 15 and 20 and 40 year old males, after receiving this diagnosis, take action to lower blood sugar and just as(more) importantly, blood insulin(blood sugar can be normal but blood insulin sky high, as it is required to attempt to keep blood sugar normal). So guess what? When this group is in their 50s and 60s and 70s, they magically have a lower rate of PC diagnoses! So that must mean that sugar and diabetes protects against PC, right? Sure, right. A very respected PC expert who is no longer around here actually used to make such a claim, more or less. He would ridicule the concept of controlling sugar intake as a possible help for PC. Other things maybe, but never PC. I strongly disagree.
OTOH, for those already diagnosed with PC, it is just like any other cancer, T2D worsens outcome and mortality from PC. I have posted studies here in the past that showed 3 to 8 times worse outcome for PC patients based on their blood insulin levels. So as almost always, it is not yet PROVEN, but there certainly is plenty of evidence that insulin resistance, high blood insulin, metabolic syndrome(a combo of high insulin, high triglycerides and a couple of other factors) and finally T2D, is a bad thing when it comes to PC, all other cancers and indeed most diseases.
Now as we await the studies that will finally prove or disprove any of this( it might be awhile ), you know what kicks the butt of insulin resistance ad high blood insulin? Better than any drug and without any of those drugs SEs? Intermittent fasting, and/or low carb, high fat diets. Insulin is normally lowest when awaking from the common 8+ hour fast that we all do when we are sleeping. Any continuation of that fast increases the hours per day where our insulin level is at it's lowest. The longer we fast, the lower the insulin goes. If we do some form of fast on a more or less regular basis, we will have a much lower average insulin level, and a much lowered- finally non-existent, insulin resistance. We can't readily measure that, but the shrinking spare tire and improving blood pressure and plummeting triglycerides and probably lower blood sugar and probably less insulin requirements for those who already must inject it, all of that and more will give much evidence that insulin is also plummeting.
Which makes sense because greatly decreasing average grams per day of sugar/carbs just naturally- and automatically, reduces the body's production of insulin, because the main #1 reason the body produces insulin from the pancreas is to deal with consumed sugar that ends up in the blood stream. It functions primarily to remove sugar from the blood stream and into the cells for energy, and if more sugar is in the blood stream than is currently needed for energy, to get the stuff(toxic at high levels in the blood stream), OUT of there by storing it as fat. But if consumption of sugar is drastically cut, production of insulin is also. As insulin levels become lower, insulin sensitivity is increased so that less needs to be produced to clear the sugar from the blood. A righteous cycle, rather than the vicious one many of us are in.
So, will occasional fasting (and/or lower carb eating) help with our cancers? I don't know, probably not proven yet, may not be proven for a long time if ever. There are megabucks to be made with prescript
ion drugs, so that is where the studies always will be concentrated. But it will sure kick the butt of(proven science) insulin resistance and high blood insulin and spare tires and triglycerides and metabolic syndrome and even the grand finale, T2D. So, maybe it should be considered or looked into? Or, we can blow all of that proven science off and just inject some more insulin, raising blood insulin levels beyond their already high levels, which will give us a prettier blood sugar # as long as we keep injecting it.