RESEARCH INTO KETOGENIC DIETS FOR CANCER THERAPY
Brain tumors are almost always a death sentence. Is there a way to use diet to change that.
Welcome to the Clinician's Roundtable on ReachMD XM 157. I am your host, Dr. Bruce Bloom and joining us to discuss research into ketogenic diets for cancer therapy is Dr. Thomas Seyfried, Associate Editor of the journal of Nutrition and Metabolism and professor of Biology at Boston College.
DR. BRUCE BLOOM
Dr. Seyfried, welcome to ReachMD.
DR. SEYFRIED
Thank you very much Bruce, it is a real pleasure to be here.
DR. BRUCE BLOOM
DR. SEYFRIED
Ketogenic diets are simply diets that have a greater proportion of total calories coming from fat than from protein or carbohydrate. Generally, carbohydrates are greatly restricted in ketogenic diets. Proteins are maintained with adequate amounts, but carbohydrates are either absent or present in very low amounts relative to fat. So, you have a 4:1 or 3:1 fat to protein carbohydrate ratio. So, it is any diet that would have a lot of fat and very little carb.
DR. BRUCE BLOOM
DR. SEYFRIED
DR. BRUCE BLOOM
And how would you create a healthy ketogenic diet if you had to put the patient on this or if you are doing some research on the ketogenic diets?
DR. SEYFRIED
DR. BRUCE BLOOM
DR. SEYFRIED
DR. BRUCE BLOOM
So if we were doing a glucogenic diet and calorie restriction, what would happen to the patient versus a ketogenic diet and calorie restriction?
DR. SEYFRIED
DR. BRUCE BLOOM
How are these two diets metabolized differently in the various cells of the body?
DR. SEYFRIED
Our interest is in neurology, neurological, neurodegenerative diseases, and brain cancer. The brain uses glucose almost exclusively for its energy metabolism. As an evolutionarily conserved process, the brain will use ketone bodies when outside sources of glucose are restricted during periods of fasting or food deprivation. The brain will then turn towards ketone bodies. So, ketones bodies and glucose are the only major fuels that the brain will use for energy. Brain does not burn fatty acids. When patients fast or during periods of starvation and fasting are actually two different kinds of phenomenon, but people sometimes group them together, but they are not the same; but nevertheless, the liver, heart, muscles, and other organs will metabolize fatty acids for energy along with ketone bodies whereas the brain, what little glucose or what levels of glucose might be present, will be spared for the brain. So there is a hierarchy within the body. The brain must always have a source of glucose, but will burn ketones where other organs can switch almost entirely over the fatty acids and ketones for energy and of course the proteins would be metabolized to make more glucose during gluconeogenesis.
DR. BRUCE BLOOM
So, when were you first involved in the scientific research to evaluate whether calorie-restricted ketogenic diets could be a potential therapy?
DR. SEYFRIED
DR. BRUCE BLOOM
DR. SEYFRIED
DR. BRUCE BLOOM
DR. SEYFRIED