September is supposed to be the farewell to summer but so far (at least in Reno) it has been a quick transition to winter. Gloomy weather usually brings on gloomy feelings, just ask people in Portland, gloomy feelings lead to the desire to stay inside and have every pumpkin spiced product known to man. While these days are nice, occasionally; we cannot let them derail our long term goal, making the healthiest version of ourselves. So even if it’s gloomy out, get up, jacket up, and get out for 20-30 minutes. Not only are we exercising but we allow our mind to gear down for a small amount of time, win-win!

Now we’re about two weeks into our veggie/fruit challenge, how has it been going? Was it a big change to the usual type of diet you do? If it was a big change this may show us that our diet wasn’t quite as diverse as we would like and that’s okay! With this challenge we just hope to push ourselves to build some sustainable habits. Keep trying to get those veggies/fruit in, slowly but surely wins the race.

Cancer Therapy and Ketogenic diet

The Ketogenic diet could be referred to as an anti-cancer diet. It has become a hot topic lately.  It consists of a high fat, controlled protein and low carbohydrate meal program.  When the body switches from burning sugar (carbohydrates) to burning fats the liver starts to produce ketones.  This is like providing high octane fuel for the body.

Quite a few studies (some recent, some not so recent) have shown the benefits of burning ketones for the body.  Many diseases have been shown to improve if the person maintains a state of “ketosis”.

We use it as a primary tool to treat cancer because cancer cells have a much greater than normal need for sugar but cannot burn ketones for energy and it starts to weaken them. This makes them much more susceptible to succumb to many different cancer treatments and also to lessen any side effects of them.

Getting on a ketogenic diet and getting into ketosis is the single most powerful thing any cancer patient can do to begin to weaken the cancer cells while they search for which therapies they want to pursue to ultimately get rid of the cancer.

Ketogenic diet

At Reno Integrative Medical Center, we put a heavy emphasis on cancer patients getting in to ketosis to ensure a more favorable result with their cancer therapies.

Dr. Robert Eslinger Reno Integrative Medical Center Reno, Nevada

Coconut oil and fresh coconut

The particular benefits of consuming coconut oil on a regular basis are being revealed by current research.  Long revealed as a dangerous saturated fat, coconut oil is revealing itself to be an extremely beneficial fat to include in one’s diet.
Coconut oil is composed of what is called medium chain triglycerides or MCT’s.  The body always burns these kinds of fats for energy and never deposits them in fat cells.  In fact, the burning of them for energy actually helps the body burn excess fat cells in the process.
Coconut oil also pushes the body into producing ketones which have been shown to help fight/prevent cancer.
In addition to that, coconut oil contains a compound called monolaurin which has been shown to have an anti-viral effect.

Maintaining a low normal blood sugar and generating ketones has been proven, by a former Yale researcher, to produce a very inhospitable environment for cancer cells.  He was able to cure brain tumors in mice purely by feeding them a diet that stimulated ketone formation.  Normal function is maintained in the brain because it can burn ketones for energy while the cancer cannot.

Dr. Eslinger at Reno Integrative Medical Center, Reno Nevada

Many times when I recommend the Ketogenic (high protein/fat, low carbohydrate) diet, people respond by saying “that’s controversial”.  I say it is only controversial if you don’t really understand how cancer cells operate.  They require 18 times more sugar than normal cells.  All carbohydrates turn into sugar in the blood.  Carbs feed the tumor!  It is not controversial.

To read more go to Anti-cancer diet on our Reno Integrative Medical Center website.

Dr. Robert Eslinger at Reno Integrative Medical Center in Reno, Nevada