Scientists have discovered a way to prevent cancer through the use of the ketogenic diet

 Scientists have discovered a way to prevent cancer through the use of the ketogenic diet

Keto diet(Getty)

The combination of high-fat and low-carbohydrate food is called the keto diet. It is possible to reduce body weight by at least 10 percent through this diet. However, experts say that the keto diet not only helps in weight loss but also plays a role in fighting deadly cancer.

Through the keto diet, our body enters a state called ketosis. The carbohydrates we consume through food are used as fuel for the body's burning process. However, the keto diet gradually shifts the body's reliance from carbohydrates to fats. At one point, it can be seen that the body starts using stored fats as fuel. As a result, excess fats are burned and reduced from the body.

Researchers say that the food components present in the keto diet also eliminate cancer cells that depend on glucose in our body for nourishment. When the necessary food is not available, those cells start dying.

Recently, a research paper on this subject was published in the Cell Metabolism journal.

Researchers conducted experiments on some rats affected by pancreatic and colorectal cancer. Later, they put them on the keto diet. At one stage, it was observed that this method separated the toxic lipids present in the rats' bodies and killed cancer cells through a process called ferroptosis.

However, although this process is capable of stopping the growth of tumors present in the body, it can lead to cachexia, a deadly wasting disease in cancer patients. When affected by cachexia, patients lose their appetite and gradually lose weight. They also suffer from fatigue and a decrease in their body's ability to resist diseases. The scariest thing is that there is no effective treatment for this disease. Every year, this type of wasting disease contributes to the death of 20 million people worldwide.

Regarding this, Tobias Janowitz, a professor at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, said, "Cachexia is an incurable disease."

He mentioned that cancer patients affected by cachexia often experience incidents of ketoacidosis. They become so weak that they can no longer tolerate cancer treatment. Even performing daily activities becomes very difficult for them.

In this situation, researchers are working on how to control the negative reactions of the keto diet in the fight against cancer. In this field, they have achieved some initial success. They have found that if corticosteroids, a common medication, are added to the keto diet for cancer-affected rats, they do not develop cachexia. As a result, the growth of tumors is halted, and the lifespan of those rats increases.

Apart from cancer, healthy mice have been observed to undergo a keto diet without being affected by the process's drawbacks. They have experienced weight loss through this natural process.

On the other hand, cancer-afflicted mice subjected to a keto diet have seen a halt in the production of corticosteroid hormones in their bodies. As a result, their bodies are being depleted internally, leading to their contraction of cachexia. To halt this depletion, researchers added a medication called corticosteroid to the keto diet. They observed that the cancer cells in the mice's bodies stopped growing, and the mice were not affected by cachexia.

In this condition, the research team is working on providing a precise dosage of corticosteroids along with the keto diet in the treatment of cancer patients.

Imagine if they can successfully accomplish this, it would bring about a revolution in cancer treatment.