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Showing posts from December, 2015

Tick, Tock, Curcumin O'Clock

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'Treatments based on the phytochemical curcumin have much potential for use in cancer treatments because of their effects on a wide variety of biological pathways, including those regulating the cell division cycle and circadian clocks. Cancer incidence and progression are influenced by circadian clock cells in multiple organs and tissue types.  'According to chronotherapeutic studies aimed at optimizing cancer treatments based on the circadian cycle it is known that circadian clocks modify the effectiveness of cancer treatments. Thus, it is important to determine whether curcumin and similar chemotherapeutic treatments being tested against cancer in clinical trials are influenced by the circadian clock. Similarly, it is important to determine whether curcumin alters the timing activity of circadian clock cells. To understand how curcumin treatments and combinatorial therapies using curcumin with standard therapies can be made more effective, we characterized the impact of the ...

Cancer cells adapting to use ketone bodies for fuel?

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A response to an interesting study: The bad news is:  Cancer is very good at adapting in order to proliferate in challenging environments so this study throws up interesting talking points.  The good news is:  1. It will always be effective for all types of epilepsy. - including brain tumour related epilepsy (and related symptoms) 2. There are many different approaches within metabolic therapy that are effective. Central Nervous System cancers are unique in many ways.  3. We are not rodents and other animals with more spontaneous tumours are continuing to display very encouraging long term results.  4. Human cancer cells injected into mice have had to adapt to foreign conditions anyway so I would presume this may also be a factor to consider.  5. The quality and type of ketogenic diet is vitally important and continues to be ignored in rodent studies (and the few human clinical trials out there). Quality of fats used is generally poor in these studies. Some...

Preparations for hyperbaric oxygen therapy!

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Preparation for HBOT. No exogenous ketones required. Ketones need to be high and blood glucose low during treatment. 90% fat, 10% protein to have the most benefit in order to obliterate any microscopic cancer cells that might be left. I don't always maintain this kind of reading but I have learned to time it for when I need to. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for cancer management requires this kind of restriction, I definitely won't want to maintain this after for long even though I feel good at the moment. Professor Thomas Seyfried has informed me that:  ' It will be very important that your GKI is 1.0 or below when you receive HBOT (our GKI paper is attached).  Our preclinical data on GBM show that oxygen therapy can increase tumor growth except when ketones are high and glucose is low.  Use HBOT only at the time of day when your blood ketone levels are highest and you glucose is lowest.  You will need to determine time this for yourself. I think this will be the most i...

HBOT and keto

I will be having hyperbaric oxygen therapy on January 4th to compliment my ketogenic diet. There are also plans to open up a ketogenic cafe at the centre. The owner is very interested in my story and approach. I'm aiming to set up a fundraising page to ensure that more brain cancer patients have access to this while on ketogenic diets.  I will give daily updates of my progress and details of the protocol once I start. These are very exciting times. 

It's all coming together nicely...

I'm finally going to start having hyperbaric oxygen therapy and I will be combining this with a few other metabolic strategies to attempt to get my brain looking and feeling as healthy as possible. I'm very excited about the potential of this protocol and I will be documting the progress of other patients that I am monitoring doing similar things. I feel this will make for compelling reading. It's very exciting. I will be taking lots of pictures when I'm there. 

Special days for seriously ill young adults- Willow

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I have written a piece for Willow Foundation which will likely be in the Arsenal match day programme for the Manchester City game on the 21st. My interview about my special day will also be appearing on the big screen before the match but this isn't about me at all now. If I felt that I would seriously need a personality transplant. I feel incredibly fortunate at this moment despite continued uncertainty. The least I can do is express what a fantastic charity this is for so many.  They work tirelessly to provide individuals with life limiting illnesses special days with their loved ones. I have had friends with the same type of cancer as me pass away recently but the small consolation is that their families have special memories with them from special days provided by Willow. The positive impact of these days is immeasurable for these people. Its a wonderful distraction in dark times where you can smile through uncertain times. If you know anyone in this situation or if you can sup...

A long overdue post on Magnesium

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I could not stress enough how magnesium supplementation is an ESSENTIAL part of my approach to manage my epilepsy. Control of my horrible, terrifying and debilitating seizures I had suffered in the past has been tremendously liberating and magnesium supplementation has certainly played a crucial role in that success. Magnesium is an abundant mineral in the body serving many biochemical functions and it is an essential electrolyte for all living organisms. It plays an important physiological role particularly in the brain, heart, and skeletal muscles. Normal dietary magnesium intake is estimated to be 300�350 mg per day for adults. Magnesium supplementation has been shown to be beneficial in treatment of, among others, preeclampsia, migraine, depression, coronary artery disease, and asthma. http:// physrev.physiology.org/content/95/1/1.abstract In regards to epilepsy specifically it is worth noting this� �The concentrations of copper, magnesium, and zinc were all significantly altered i...