Skip, Starve, Survive: The Secret to Stalling Cancer’s Spread

Imagine being told that your fight against cancer could start with something as simple as skipping breakfast.

It seems counterintuitive; don’t patients need to eat to stay strong?

Yet, groundbreaking research suggests that fasting, rather than eating, could help women battle one of the deadliest cancers they face: ovarian cancer.?

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is a silent killer. Often diagnosed late, it takes a devastating toll on women and their families. For decades, treatments like chemotherapy and surgery have been the primary weapons, but survival rates have barely budged. Now, a study in iScience offers a surprising new ally in this fight: intermittent fasting (IF).?

The research focused on a simple fasting regimen: 16 hours without food, followed by an 8-hour eating window. For mice with ovarian cancer, this schedule didn’t just slow tumour growth; it also extended their survival. Beyond these numbers, IF appeared to awaken the body’s natural defences. It decreased the growth factors and inflammatory signals cancer thrives on while energizing the immune system to fight back.?

One key player in this process is β-Hydroxy Butyrate (BHB), a compound produced during fasting. Think of BHB as weapons for the body’s immune system army, specifically CD4+ T and CD8+ T cells, which act like soldiers attacking cancer cells. While administering BHB directly to the mice helped, fasting had an edge, likely because it triggered broader immune and metabolic changes.?

The potential goes even further. When researchers combined IF with a cutting-edge immunotherapy called anti-PD1, the results were striking, with longer survival and smaller tumours for the mice. For many women, this could mean more than just extra months; it could mean hope for longevity.?

Of course, this is still early-stage research. The study was conducted on mice, and there’s a long way to go before fasting becomes a standard recommendation for ovarian cancer patients. Not everyone may respond the same way, and finding the right balance of fasting and eating will take time. But the simplicity of the idea is undeniably powerful.?

This research feels personal for women like Mary (not her real name), a mother, wife, and fighter. Diagnosed at 54, she endured surgery and gruelling rounds of chemotherapy. Between treatments, she read about dietary strategies to help her recovery. “It gave me something I could control,” she says. “If fasting can really help others like me, it’s a small sacrifice for a huge reward.”?

Intermittent fasting is not a magic cure. But it’s a beacon of hope in a fight where every breakthrough matters.

Imagine if patients could supercharge their treatments not with a new drug but with an ancient practice, one that costs nothing and might change everything for us.?

For now, researchers are diving deeper into clinical trials to see how fasting might work for humans. The question still lingers.

Could a simple shift in when we eat make a life-saving difference??

Reference:

Udumula, M. P., Singh, H., Rashid, F., Poisson, L., Tiwari, N., Dimitrova, I., Hijaz, M., Gogoi, R., Swenor, M., Munkarah, A., Giri, S., & Rattan, R. (2023). Intermittent fasting-induced ketogenesis inhibits mouse epithelial ovarian cancer by promoting antitumor T cell response. iScience, 26(10), 107839. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.107839 ??

#healthiswealth #health is gain #stellagain #strengthmakerz #pinnacleiotsolution