Longo defends that with an absence of vitamins, tumor cells weaken and the immune system has a neater time successful the battle. According to his analysis, it’s advisable to observe a low-calorie weight-reduction plan, fasting for about 12 hours, proscribing some meals The researcher presents his e-book ‘ Fasting in opposition to most cancers’ (ed. Grijalbo)
He additionally believes that to deal with most cancers the affected person doesn’t should be cared for under by an oncologist, he defends as a brand new strategy in anti-cancer therapies, {that a} multidisciplinary staff of pros ought to care for the affected person each to forestall unwanted effects and to battle the illness.
The researcher, and director of the Longevity Institute of the University of Southern California (USC), has come to Spain to current his e-book El ayuno contra el cáncer (ed. Grijalbo), the place he collects the research and theories on which he has been working about seventeen years outdated, and in NIUS we now have spoken with him to make clear it for us.
Q. You have spent years finding out the significance of weight-reduction plan to fight illnesses related to ageing, in actual fact you’re thought-about the “guru of longevity”, however these days you will have centered extra on the best way to fight most cancers by way of weight-reduction plan. How has that step been?
A. Through our analysis we noticed that the genes that speed up the ageing of cells are the identical ones that play a central position in most cancers, the oncogenes. And analyzing them we noticed how fasting affected them.
Q. Indeed, you’re often known as a defender of fasting or of a weight-reduction plan that imitates fasting. But though at this time there are various consultants who agree with them, for years it has been believed that sick individuals ought to eat lots to remain sturdy and be capable to battle their sickness, that’s, simply the other of what you advocate.
R. When we started to check the idea, they thought we had been loopy, they advised us: “Yes, our sufferers are weak. How are you going to depart them with out consuming?” Some seventeen years in the past we started to review the advantages of fasting in mice. We noticed that after we quick for about 12 hours, regular cells shield themselves by making a “magic defend.” However, the oncogenes of most cancers cells don’t act like this, quite the opposite, they continue to be weaker and don’t reply. In different phrases, we noticed that they don’t create that safety that different cells do. Knowing this, we expect that maybe the answer relatively than attacking most cancers with “a dart” that kills most cancers cells, we might work by weakening them in order that they’re simpler to eradicate.
To check their principle, Longo’s staff started working with yeast cells through which they induced a mutation just like an oncogenic mutation. They then combined them with wholesome cells and subjected them to chemotherapy medication and circumstances that mimicked fasting. The results of the examine confirmed that the chemotherapy killed 100% of the tumor cells and not one of the wholesome ones. After these promising outcomes they went on to experiment with mice.
“At first it was troublesome for us to search out somebody to help us, they did not even like the concept of fasting mice,” says the researcher.
But the outcomes had been stunning once more. They discovered that with fasting, wholesome cells managed to guard themselves by creating “differential resistance to emphasize”, whereas tumor cells didn’t, which died extra simply. In precept, it is because of the truth that “mutations within the DNA sequences of tumor cells improve their skill to develop, however on the identical time make their survival very troublesome below hostile circumstances, as happens with a mixed assault of weak spot brought on by fasting with chemotherapy,” Longo explains in his e-book.
Q. Even with the outcomes of your research, you will have discovered a whole lot of resistance to your theories.
A. The area of oncology is difficult, extremely regulated, and has many pursuits behind it. For any advance to be authorised by the FDA (United States Food and Drug Administration) it has to go many filters and some huge cash is required. Clinical trials are additionally the sphere of the pharmaceutical industries, that are those that present the financial half. It additionally occurs that it takes so lengthy to develop all the things and go the filters that generally when a remedy or drug is authorised it has already develop into out of date. We had eleven prestigious clinics, like Mayo, supporting our research, nevertheless it’s troublesome. There is a vital foyer dominating the world of most cancers that hinders any progress. That is why I imagine that one of the simplest ways to attain steps on this path is with research and analysis.
P. Demonstrate your research with proof.
A. Evidence is one of the simplest ways to persuade oncologists. With assessments, as a result of maybe reaching an satisfactory remedy or a drug that adapts a sure quick to a sure kind of most cancers takes an excessive amount of money and time. But the research are proving us proper, I feel that in 5 years we may have achieved it.
Q. Five years will be a very long time for a most cancers affected person, maybe there’s a danger that some affected person on their very own decides to endure a quick. You defend in your e-book that this follow will not be merely stopping consuming, that it should be managed.
A. That is. In truth, what we would like is for it to be carried out with the identical meals that we now have utilized in our analysis. The FDA has diminished the 60 that we use within the assessments to 5 – 6, which can be a mistake, as a result of that makes it troublesome for the affected person to observe simply, it’s too restricted. It makes it very troublesome. That is why we now have made packages with the precise meals that needs to be taken.
Q. A measure that some criticize as a result of they are saying that it makes cash by promoting it.
R. Yes, there are those that say that Longo sells his weight-reduction plan to get cash, however all the advantages we receive from that sale are devoted solely to charity, we do not hold something. Not even the earnings from the sale of this e-book, we donate all the things. The goal is that our sufferers have it straightforward on the subject of fasting that we suggest.
There are, nonetheless, those that suppose that the researcher might publish precisely the meals that his weight-reduction plan promotes and that he’s a bit opaque about it. Longo assures that what he actually needs is for nobody to do it on his behalf, for specialists to direct the quick.
“To perform these diets it’s important to have a multidisciplinary staff behind you to information you, a affected person can not carry it out alone.
Q. That is one among your suggestions, that the most cancers affected person be accompanied all through his course of.
R. That’s how I begin my e-book. One day I discovered that at an intersection a boy had had an accident along with his bicycle and there have been hearth vans, police, an ambulance on the scene. I used to be stunned at a lot exercise for a minor accident. However, when a most cancers affected person involves his oncologist, he meets a health care provider who sees him in about half-hour. He then goes house scared and never realizing what to do, and that’s the reason he normally goes on the web to search for solutions. Why is a most cancers affected person seen by just one particular person? I imagine {that a} new strategy is required in most cancers therapies. There needs to be an oncologist on the head of a staff made up of physicians specialised in built-in medication, molecular biologists, nutritionists, and each time potential psychologists. Personalized therapies should be offered as a lot as potential.
A. It ought to. Where do our taxes go? to the ambulances. Why do not we accompany the most cancers affected person? We must suppose that the most cancers affected person must be handled not solely by a health care provider, however by a staff. Governments ought to finance all the things, together with weight-reduction plan. At the Foundation we do it and it’s not that costly. We normally see between Milan and Los Angeles about 400 sufferers a month. People we accompany of their remedy so they do not really feel alone. What we do is inform them the best way to eat, what train they should do relying on the kind of most cancers, what kind of hospital will deal with them relying on their most cancers, we offer whole help. Cancer sufferers should really feel accompanied so they do not really feel alone and go surfing to see what they discover.
Q. That is why you are actually presenting your e-book Fasting Against Cancer. So that you know the way to behave.
R. We have obtained sufferers with depressed 30 years who needed to throw within the towel. But it will be important that they know that one thing will be performed. If you handle to outlive slightly longer, maybe your most cancers, which is at present incurable, will likely be curable. With the fasting weight-reduction plan we managed to save lots of time for most cancers. In a most cancers affected person, gaining a few years will be an vital step of their remedy. And all this I needed to inform. We have launched the e-book in order that the progress is thought. I acquire our research, testimonies, proof. And I attempt to clarify our investigations.
Q. He even advises that fasting is nice even when you do not have most cancers.
R. We defend a low-calorie weight-reduction plan, with fasts of about 12 hours that may be adopted even by wholesome individuals. I really do not eat. I normally have breakfast and dinner, however I normally skip lunch. We are doing a trial in Italy with 400 individuals to see the consequences of this restriction. We additionally advocate and above all to not eat something between 3 and 4 hours earlier than bedtime.
Q. You additionally advocate consuming nuts and avoiding sure meals.
A. We advocate nuts at the least 5 servings per week. What the longevity weight-reduction plan promotes is a weight-reduction plan low in protein and that if they’re ingested they’re legume proteins, along with a whole lot of greens, little salt. For most cancers sufferers we now have to cut back glucose ranges, hold it at 70 at most, however for an individual with out most cancers so long as glucose is beneath 90 is ok. And do sports activities, preserve a wholesome life briefly.
Life and weight-reduction plan recommendation that, in keeping with his theories, may also help forestall or weaken tumors.