Video: Supporting evidence

VIDEO:

@BC » Feature Archive » Supporting evidence

Here's a link to a video that contains some background on the research of Thomas Seyfried, whose book, Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer is why I am doing a ketogenic diet (working toward the far end of the ketogenic diet spectrum, which will be more extreme than the less restrictive ketogenic diets that you can read about all over the Internet). I'll be trying to do the "Restricted Ketogenic Diet" (RKD), which would bring my body into a complete "ketotic" state of metabolism.

But before I can accomplish that feat, I have to get off the prednisone that I am STILL taking because of the Evil Rash that I wrote about in recent posts. Prednisone raises insulin levels, which means it works AGAINST ketosis. Wouldn't you know it. So until I'm done with prednisone, I can only go so far into ketosis. But I am hopeful that I will be able to taper off this drug sooner rather than later. Right now, every time I get down to 9 mg a day (down from 20 a day), my rash starts to come back. So...it's a battle. But an interesting one, don't you think?

Published: May 2009

An article in the December 2008 Journal of Lipid Research coauthored by Biology Professor Thomas Seyfried, links cancerous tumors to abnormalities in a complex lipid called cardiolipin. The research reflects new interest among scientists in the work of German physician and biochemist Otto Warburg, who won the Nobel Prize in 1931 for his studies in the field of cell biology. According to Warburg, “Cancer has only one prime cause. It is the replacement of normal oxygen respiration of the body’s cells by an anaerobic [without oxygen] cell respiration.” Warburg’s theory fell out of favor (supplanted by focus on genetic mutation as the cause of cancer) because, says Seyfried, “there was no biochemical evidence that would directly support his theory. Our work provides that evidence.”

Seyfried is part of a research team that includes scientists from Boston College and Washington University School of Medicine. Interviewed by @BC in his Higgins Hall laboratory on April 22, he discussed Warburg, the engines of cell metabolism, and the team’s ongoing work to understand cancer.