Monday, February 25, 2013

Ketogenic Diet And Prostate Cancer In Mice

It's always nice to find research the confirms ones' prejudices. I've thought a bit about the causes of prostate cancer, and came to the conclusion that it's probably sugar. My doctor has (happily) observed that I have the prostate of a teenager. (Given the nature of the prostate exam, this is not a time for idle chatter...)

I've speculated that the incidence of prostate cancer might be the result of linoleic acid, or wheat (my two favorite dietary bogey-men), but I have been unable to find any evidence to support those suppositions. So I was left with sugar. I substantially cut back on my sugar intake in my late teens, having had countless cavities (I literally cannot recall how many) and eight teeth pulled. I was done with dentists. 20 years passed, I had zero cavities, and my prostate was, according to my Doc, unchanged.

Along comes this: Carbohydrate restriction, prostate cancer growth, and the insulin-like growth factor axis:
"In this xenograft model, despite consuming more calories, [No Carb. Ketogenic Diet]-fed mice had significantly reduced tumor growth and prolonged survival relative to Western mice and was associated with favorable changes in serum insulin and IGF axis hormones relative to low-fat or Western diet."
Interesting. That's mice, and mice ain't people; but there is absolutely no downside that I'm aware of in cutting out sugar and reducing your carbohydrate intake.

And note the following about the ketogenic mice:
"Despite consuming equal calories, NCKD-fed mice lost weight (up to 15% body weight) relative to low-fat and Western diet-fed mice and required additional kcal to equalize body weight."
Nothing wrong with that...

2 comments:

  1. Its too bad they couldn't say high fat diet instead of ketogenic since most people don't know what that means. Especially since many studies like to blame high fat diets for many issues when fat usually represents just 30% of the diet.

    ReplyDelete

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