Trying to make my wife well again

keto
newbies
cancer
science
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(Ricki) #1

Hi Everyone,
I’m new to the forum. I wanted to say hello, share our keto journey hopefully pickup some useful tips along the way.

My wife and I had not been married long when we got the devastating news of her cancer diagnosis. We were both mid-30’s at the time and had just been told that we won’t be able to have kids as a result of the treatment she would need -basically a 14 hour op, 9 organs removed and heated chemo that is poured into the abdomen.

Sadly despite all of the efforts to remove her cancer, it came back exactly a year after the op. It’s a rare cancer (pseudomyxoma peritonei) which arises from a tumor that starts in the appendix and proliferated into the abdomen.

There are no other treatment options left for us, it’s a slow growing cancer so her oncologists will scan her every 6 months to check the rate of progression and CEA tumor marker.

We decided to start keto to see if it help reduce the speed of progression and we’re also introducing fasting gradually increasing from 16/8, 18/6, 20/4 and if possible 48 hours.

So far, we’re 5 weeks in on keto. Oddly we noticed a massive body composition change on her, she’s always carried excess weight but within day 3 excessive bloating from the op/cancer has gone and not returned.

We noticed a couple things like pain in the upper right of our abdomen, lasted about a week but then subsided -not sure if that’s normal but it happened to us both at separate times.

Has anyone used keto to overcome cancer or improve their odds? It’s really easy to find stories, just never first hand.

Sorry for the long intro, pleased to have joined the forum and hope to chat and learn more.

Best
Ricki

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #2

Welcome to the Forums, and I’m sorry for what you and your wife have been going through.

On the YouTube channel of the organisation called Low Carb Down Under, there are a couple of videos of lectures by Dr. Dawn Lemanne, an American oncologist who uses keto as an adjuvant therapy to cancer treatments. She doesn’t tout it as a cure, just as a useful part of a treatment plan.

There are also a couple of lectures by Dr. Thomas Seyfried, a cancer researcher who believes strongly that all cancers are triggered by metabolic damage. Most cancers require glucose to grow (the Warburg effect, named after Dr. Otto Warburg), and depriving them of fuel can be of great help.

So while a ketogenic diet may not be an actual cure for your wife’s cancer, your chances are good that it will help a lot.

P.S.—There is a Health forum here, which will become available to you as you participate in this site. It is locked to protect it from random Internet searches. If you don’t start seeing it in a day or two, send me a private message, and I’ll see about getting you access.

(Ricki) #3

Thank you for the warm welcome and great tips

(Robin) #4

Welcome Ricki!
It’s great you are both doing this together. I firmly believe your wife will benefit from keto. So will you.

(MC) #5

As PaulL has mentioned, Thomas Seyfried has a lot to say on metabolic cancer. There are oncology clinics that can treat it as such, using oxygen, heat therapy, glucose restriction and anti-glutamine drugs. They’ve had good results with keto as well.

Really best of luck with this, your wife is lucky to have you by her side helping her.

(Bob M) #6

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) could help. The problem with cancer is that you HAVE to follow whatever the standard of care is, and keto + other options are not that.

If you have no other options (basically no standard of care), someone like Thomas Seyfried might be able to treat her. You need anti-glutamine drugs and the know-how to administer them, and only some people have that knowledge.

One thing some people will recommend is a PKD (paleo keto diet), which is basically a high animal fat keto diet. It’s used to lower glucose and increase ketones. This is the group I’m thinking of:

If you find anything out, such as an oncology clinic that does this, please let us know.

(Ricki) #7

I feel so touched by everyone’s replies and information, despite going through the hardest time of my life its really opened my eyes to the kindness of strangers -thank you all for your replies.

My wife is a vegetarian, I’m a stone cold meat eater so I’m living on lots of eggs, grass fed hard cheeses and vegetables -as I’m cooking for two right now its just easier to make double of what she eats and have meat on “good days”.

@ctviggen I’ve actually started taking her to HBOT, trying to scale up from twice a month to weekly whilst including the gym, walking and when she can running + optimizing nutrition.

Thomas Seyfried has a lot of interesting books and videos, fundamentally I agree with a lot of his advice but most cancer support groups here in the UK talk patients out of Ketogenic diets -after seeing the change it made to her in such a short space of time I feel caught between some evil conspiracy theory.

I’ll keep reading and looking out for tips but a heartfelt thank you again for all of your replies