Calorie Restriction & Cancer
A study found that a calorie-restricted or CR diet – a daily regimen of substantially reduced calorie intake – can slow and restrict the spread of malignant brain cancer.
Lowering regular calorie intake reduces blood glucose (sugar) levels and thus, reduces the carbohydrate energy available to the tumor cells. Tumor cells rely heavily on this source of energy. But normal brain and heart cells can still survive by using the energy supplied by ketones (compounds produced when fatty acids are broken down in the liver and kidney).
The research showed that tumor cells are far more susceptible than healthy brain cells to the stress arising from a deficient supply of energy; the brain cancer cells cannot grow on a low-calorie diet. The cancer tested – and restricted – was glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive and invasive form of human brain cancer. This study will not be published in print until the August, 2010 issue of the neurochemistry journal, ASN NEURO. The full-text version can now be read online at: http://bit.ly/cRKqJF.
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