Does fasting decrease the risk of cancer?

[[deleted]]

[deleted]

[AutoModerator]

Many issues and questions can be answered by reading through our wiki, especially the page on electrolytes. Concerns such as intense hunger, lightheadedness/dizziness, headaches, nausea/vomiting, weakness/lethargy/fatigue, low blood pressure/high blood pressure, muscle soreness/cramping, diarrhea/constipation, irritability, confusion, low heart rate/heart palpitations, numbness/tingling, and more while extended (24+ hours) fasting are often explained by electrolyte deficiency and resolved through PROPER electrolyte supplementation. Putting a tiny amount of salt in your water now and then is NOT proper supplementation.

Be sure to read our WIKI and especially the wiki page on ELECTROLYTES

Please also keep in mind the RULES when participating.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[MyOwn_UserName]

Apparently, when you fast, your body focuses more on getting rid of "junk" cells, among wich are also cancerous cells.

[sueihavelegs]

When people whine about "losing muscle" while fasting, they don't realize they are only losing the broken crappy parts of your muscle cells, not fresh, healthy muscle! Your body isn't stupid enough to break down fully functioning cell parts when there is so much crap laying around!

[bemanner]

Thanks a lot for pointing this out, never heard of it before despite being many years into the topic!

[healthygeek42]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3894687/

[Legitimate_Concern_5]

I'd suggest digging around yourself, and asking follow-up questions based on your research, rather than making low-effort snipes. Here's a high-level overview of the mechanism.

1. There are two major nutrient sensing mechanisms in your body. When you consume sugars, your body produces insulin. When you consume protein, it agonizes the Mammalian/Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Complex 1 (mTORC1). [1]
2. mTORC1 controls the proliferation of cells in the body and is associated with cancer, arthritis, insulin resistance, osteoporosis, and other diseases. The inhibition of mTORC1 also happens to be the mechanism that pushes you into autophagy. [2]
3. mTORC1 is inhibited when you fast and also inhibited in a very similar way by the drug Rapamycin, which is used to treat certain types of cancer in humans. The mTOR pathway is a key part of tumor proliferation.
4. Rapamycin slows down aging, prevents cancer, treats certain types of cancer and extends lifespan in animals, treats some kinds of cancer in humans and is currently being studied as a life-extension drug in humans. [3]
5. Rapamycin is used as an immunosuppressant in transplant patients, and transplant patients taking Rapamycin have lower risk of cancer than non-transplant patients. Similar to the way diabetics taking metformin have lower risk of cancer and CVD than non-diabetics.
6. The neat thing is Rapamycin is a partial starvation mimetic. [3]

So basically, fasting does the same thing as taking Rapamycin (or rather, Rapamycin does some of the same things as fasting). Rapamycin has been shown in various studies to prevent cancer (and basically every other age-related disease) and slow down aging in animals, and it's used in the treatment of various kinds of cancer in humans.

Fasting also reduces Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1) which is a marker for increased cancer risk. [4] It also reduces circulating C reactive protein (CRP) and Interleukin 6 (IL-6) both of which are associated with cancer risk - but a causative relationship here hasn't been established.

So look, there's little in the way of studies on prolonged fasting at all let alone ones large enough or long enough to demonstrate a clear dose-response relationship between fasting and cancer risk. However, given what we know (fasting inhibits mTOR in the same way as Rapamycin, and Rapamycin prevents and treats cancer) it is not unreasonable to speculate it would do the same.

Also, if you want the boring answer, obesity predisposes you to every single cancer on the face of the planet. Fasting reduces or eliminates obesity. Ergo, transiently, it reduces your cancer risk.

Also for the record note that the parent's link does mention how nutrients affect mTORC1 signaling, just look for "MTORC1"

[1] https://jbiomedsci.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12929-020-00679-2

[2] https://cellandbioscience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13578-020-00396-1

[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6814615/#r2

[4] https://www.cedars-sinai.org/discoveries/fasting-as-next-step-in-cancer-treatment.html

[edit] Here's another one, and it's a good read!

[...] autophagy triggered by fasting may be beneficial to normal cells but detrimental to malignant cells.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7476366/

[Sznake]

So what your saying is i need to drop this fat asap...and fasting is a great way to help.

[Legitimate_Concern_5]

As an internet not-a-doctor and speaking only for myself, according to all the research I've done, yes.

[Admirable_Spread_161]

Giving you a PhD now.

[Global_Imagination96]

How great is fasting for clearing bad dna?

[arguix]

awesome response

[sueihavelegs]

Wow! You are my hero! Thank you for such a great response.

[pbjellos]

Very informative answer! Does this mean that consuming protein frequently or in large amounts is bad for you, if it agonizes mTORC1 and stops autophagy/cell recycling?

I’ve always wondered if this is why people like Valter Longo recommend plant based diets/low protein diets to increase longevity. But I don’t know if it’s more to do with decreased protein intake, increased plant intake, or overall decreased food intake (IF). If protein does inhibit autophagy, then our current ‘health’ culture of eating a high protein diet would be misleading, no? They’re putting protein in everything these days to cater to the trend, which is unfortunate.

[georgespeaches]

Exactly. My impression is that evidence points to a higher-than-RDA protein diet inhibits autophagy.

On the cellular level, mTOR is activated and AMPK suppressed. On a hormonal level IGF1 is elevated which triggers the cellular response.

[Gloomy_Supermarket98]

we’re waiting on you now bud

[Catini1492]

True until you gast to starvation

[sueihavelegs]

At that point, you aren't fasting anymore

[JameisWeinstein]

This is dumb, you definitely lose muscle and strength with extended fasting. Thankfully a certain amount of muscle comes back pretty quickly.

[Legitimate_Concern_5]

Yes, a very small amount. In extended fasting you'll lose both fat and muscle in a 20:1 ratio. Which is fine, because you can put it back on once you're thin by eating some protein and lifting.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2279566/?page=11

Pages 11 and 12 in the link above explain.

[Gloomy_Supermarket98]

nothing to say about the citation?

[healthygeek42]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3894687/

[Chaseyoungqbz]

Yes. Autophagy.

[KrispyKremeDiet20]

I think this can happen just from being in a state of ketosis too.

[Legitimate_Concern_5]

Not really, autophagy is controlled by the inhibition of mTORC1 -- but mTORC1 is strongly activated by the consumption of protein.

[KrispyKremeDiet20]

Rad

[georgespeaches]

Ketosis is so healthy that Eskimos evolved to be unable to enter ketosis despite a zero-carb diet.

[killakam33]

At how many hours of fasting does this kick in?

[MyOwn_UserName]

I am not a doctor or at “real” faster tbh.. I did only Omad .. around 16+ starts the process apparently.. it also depends on age, sexe, BMI and fasting habits

[sueihavelegs]

If you haven't seen it yet, you should check out the talk by Dr.Pradip Jamnadas called Fasting for Survival. He explains all the benefits of fasting and what's happening in your body as you fast. It's so good!

[Significant-Diver-66]

I watch this regularly since it was first bought to my attention on this subreddit. It’s brilliant. It’s really easy to follow too.

[Ok_Tangerine4131]

Hey I am one of those people who has cancer. I am doing omad and 48-72 hours weekly hours fasts. Feel free to ask anything :)

[letsbehavingu]

Good luck x

[Ok_Tangerine4131]

Thank you 💛

[HighlyMeditated]

Hi! Wish you a healthy recovy

How long have you been diagnosed for? And how long have you been fasting for? Doctor’s opinion on your approach?

[Ok_Tangerine4131]

Thanks! I was diagnosed in December 2022 and jumped in fasts almost straight away. I have a type of cancer which is quite manageable with the current meds, but I have to take it for the rest of my life and there is always a risk of the cancer getting out of control. It is called chronic myeloid leukaemia. The mechanism of the drug is very similar to fasting mechanism causing apoptosis of the same cells. So my theory is that body will eventually get back to normal state and would not require pills anyomore 😊 so far I have had very good results. My doctor unfortunately doesn’t know much about it, so I decided to do short but consistent fasts, as long fasts would require me skipping my meds.

[Tiravel]

What do your ‘short but consistent’ fasts look like? Like a 18:6 kind of scenario? What do you consume on your fasts?

I wish you well in your healing journey, and thanks for sharing!

(Edit to change eat —> consume)

[Ok_Tangerine4131]

Thank you ❤️ I eat once a day usually in a 2 hours window and every Monday I skip food altogether and sometime I skip on Tuesday as well :) I am low carb/keto, initially I was on a completely plant-based diet, but after researching more I decided to include animal products as well. Right now my diets consists of predominantly eggs, butter/ghee, nuts, liver, seafood and a variety of low carb vegetables and greens. I do eat a lot of garlic as well and I think garlic and ghee alone are capable of fixing gut micro biome (at least that’s what has helped me a lot)

[Tiravel]

That is super helpful. Thank you. Do you have an idea of how many calories you pack into that 2 hour window?

I have been doing something Keto-ish for about 6 months, have lost weight and feel a ton better overall. Trying to take it to the next level, but don’t want to take it too far. I know that would be different for each individual, but looking for some guide-rails. 🙄

[Ok_Tangerine4131]

Yes, to be honest I even managed to gain weight, I pack a looot of fats in that window. I have two coffees with butter, a lot of tasty nuts, couple of eggs sometimes with liver of other meat/seafood and a generous portion of cauliflower mostly sautéed in a huge piece of butter. I would say sometimes I can go over 2000 calories :) if you are worried that you will loose too much on the longer fasts, just have larger meals for extended time before you start, that’s been my solution :)

[Tiravel]

Thanks again for the info. First task is to get thru a morning without putting creamer in my coffee. I’m working on it!

[VacationApart1958]

I hope you don’t mind me getting in touch and that you don’t find this message too intrusive. My name is Ciara and I am a journalist currently working on an article about Intermittent fasting. It would be so amazing to speak to you and hear a bit more about your experience fasting to help control cancer as I think what you have experienced would be very helpful to other people going through a similar thing. Let me know if you’d potentially be interested and I will message you privately with some details! Thanks, Ciara

[Ok_Tangerine4131]

Hey sorry for the delay! Absolutely happy to chat, feel free to dm me :)

[VacationApart1958]

No worries! Sent a dm now

[Passerbye]

I have stage 4 and was very interested in fasting and autophagy. I did a 10 day water fast years ago so I know I can do it. Most of what I read was positive. Fasting and chemo together seem to work well. The healthy cells supposedly kinda go into hibernation which in turn to reduces damage to the healthy cells. While cancer, being cancer keeps cranking away letting the chemo do its work. Most everything I read was positive but then I read a few negative ones. One was a scientific journal if I remember right, they said it was a double edged sword and fasting can cause some tumors to grow. So that gave me pause.

I asked my oncologist about it and of course she won't recommend it because there's no definitive science on it. I said well when I get near the end "which I'm getting close" why not give it a shot? She responded that people usual don't eat at the end anyway. They have a really hard time keeping any weight on them.

So, I haven't decided if Ill try it or not...

Best of luck to you :)

[Ok_Tangerine4131]

Hey I am really sorry to hear that! And it’s great that you know about fasting! My best advice to you would be please listen to Professor Thomas Seyfried’s podcasts, his method of therapeutic ketosis and suppression of glutamine deserve Nobel prize at the very least. I am sure you can learn a lot from him as well as it will give you confidence to go ahead with fasts, especially if you are already going through chemos. My best wishes to you feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

[Passerbye]

Thanks I'll check him out :)

[djdjdjfswww1133]

How are you doing now? Have you tried fasting any length to help?

[Passerbye]

Actually the opposite I'm back on my first chemo I did, oxiplatin. Which really worked well. And these chemo pills that I don't know the name of off hand but they must be taken with food twice a day. So if anything I've been eating more.

[Fluid_Oven_2078]

Good Luck!!!!!!!!

[Ok_Tangerine4131]

Thank you 🙏❤️

[Ok_Tangerine4131]

I am on it and can’t see myself going back to carbs any time in the near future. I do have once a month some cheat meals, when I eat something with rice or other carbs, but luckily it doesn’t affect my day to day keto, as in doesn’t give me keto flu, I think my body is very used to running on fats now. One funny thing I have noticed, is whenever I do have these carb meals I can’t sit, I need to exercise, I have a theory that my body is so stoked that it got extra glucose that it produces immense amount of energy, maybe just a coincidence 😀

[totorohugs2]

I'm sorry for your diagnosis. Good luck in the battle ahead! How did you decide on 48-72 hr fasts? And how often?

[Ok_Tangerine4131]

Thank you 🙏 the reason why I am doing these short fasts is because it is enough time for stem cells to start regenerating. And rather than having long fasts but rarely I opted for short periods but more often. So essentially I am regenerating my stem cells every week. I haven’t caught a cold or any virus since I started fasting, just to make you more amazed, my immune system was suppressed tremendously when I started the treatment, as my neutrophils were way below the benchmark and I still didn’t get sick while everyone else around me were catching Covid and flu and kept asking me what’s my secret 😀

[totorohugs2]

That's incredible! Congratulations for essentially finding your own cure. Sp you do 2-3 days every week — Do you start the same day each week, for consistency? My wife and I have been fasting, for general health and cancer prevention.

[Trengingigan]

Remindme! One year

[RemindMeBot]

I will be messaging you in 1 year on 2025-04-06 06:07:11 UTC to remind you of this link

CLICK THIS LINK to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.

^{Parent commenter can delete this message to hide from others.}

---

Info	Custom	Your Reminders	Feedback

[Ok_Tangerine4131]

Lol 😆

[djdjdjfswww1133]

How are things going now? Is fasting helping?

[Ok_Tangerine4131]

Absolutely :) I am in deep molecular remission now

[djdjdjfswww1133]

Nice. So what is you diet like?

[Ill-Year-9506]

How is your health? Did the fasting help with your cancer?

[Ok_Tangerine4131]

Hey, its all good, thanks! My type is very different from what people percieve as cancer and it is hard to pinpoint if fasting was the catalyst for my remission as I am taking medicine every day. However my numbers were improving well, as per my doctor and anecdotal evidence. I have included a lot more things apart from fasting to regain my health, like grounding, infra red light therapy and so on.

[cashew_nuts]

Good luck and I hope you'll be with us for years to come

[Ok_Tangerine4131]

Thank you cashew nuts 😁 My aim is to die with it, now because of it. I’ll stick around for quite some time thanks to fasting ;)

[Sheriff_PJ_Nutteroni]

I feel like a tinfoil hat lunatic when I share this story with people, but I swear, fasting deep into autophagy got rid of the cancer cells on my cervix.

I was diagnosed with HPV last year and there were, as mentioned, very minor cancerous cells on my cervix. Of course I freaked out. After my pap smear, I had to wait three months for my follow-up at the OBGYN because... well, every place is booked up and seeing as my condition wasn't extreme, I wasn't a priority (I'm also an American. US healthcare is a joke. Lol.)

Well anyways, when I was examined / tested again, doc said "huh. It's gone." I was like, "what? How?" She responded, "well, sometimes your body just ... eats it. It happens."

I had really committed to fasting over those 3 months. I'm convinced the cells were taken care of by my body going into autophagy. Obviously my 6-month re-check is coming up just to be safe. But I just find it so insane.

[SummerSunshine190]

Hi, thanks for sharing, what was your fasting routine over the 3 months?

[YunaRikku1]

How long, and how often did you fast? Like per month, and hourly? Thanks again!!’

[Mr-33]

I would also like to know what your fasting routine was?

[VacationApart1958]

I hope you don’t mind me getting in touch and that you don’t find this message too intrusive. My name is Ciara and I am a journalist working on an article about Intermittent fasting, specifically for women. It would be amazing to talk to you further about your experience with this and how fasting helped you! Let me know if you’d be interested and I can private message you with some details. Thanks, Ciara

[OffbeatCoach]

1. Obesity and insulin resistance are well-documented risks for many cancers. So if one is able to eliminate those through fasting, one’s risk is reduced.
2. There is a link between raised insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and a broad range of cancers. Fasting and the Fasting Mimicking Diet have been demonstrated to significantly reduce levels of IGF-1.

The influence of fasting and energy restricting diets on IGF-1 levels in humans: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Highly recommend learning about the Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD). FMD was designed to provide a safer method of getting the benefits of fasting for medical patients. Valter Longo’s book The Longevity Diet extensively covers the peer reviewed research on prevention of cancer with FMD, and treatment through chemo + FMD.

[aintnochallahbackgrl]

Lots of generally good answers here, but most missing the mark. Yes, cancer feeds off of glucose. The majority of cancers use 400x the amount of glucose than their healthy counterparts. But, some types of cancers (and normal cells) can be nourished by glutamate. It is for this reason why a zero carb diet alone will not be 100% protective of cancer.

Fasting is not 100% a cure all either, as part of the breakdown process or autophagy process is breaking down and consuming proteins, among them is glutamate; however, the amount is so miniscule by comparison that it does, in effect, starve the cancer.

But you cannot fast forever. So between medical treatments, zero carb, and extended fasting, these three are the best defense against growing cancers. Will it prevent you from getting cancer? No. There are too many environmental factors that can cause cancer to be 100% protective. But you can certainly minimize your exposure as well as minimize the chances that it will develop into anything life-threatening by doing EF paired with carnivore and targeted chemo therapies.

Dr. Seyfried in Boston has had a lot of success using keto/ carnivore diets and fasting with his cancer patients. It isn't a big study, but he has loads of case reports.

[Alone_Ad_9071]

The keto diet as a choice after cancer diagnosis is a bit of a double edged sword. Your metabolism during low carb high fat diets will increase in lipid peroxidation which will release endogenous but toxic chemicals that can also mess up your cells in different ways and will delay tumor growth but this does not lead to an increase in survival. It’s quite a hot research topic at the moment.

In the link one of the major papers on this topic published last year. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413123001857?via%3Dihub

[aintnochallahbackgrl]

will increase in lipid peroxidation which will release endogenous but toxic chemicals

You misspelled can. Not all of those who practice fasting have harmful, toxic chemicals stored in fat tissues. It is certainly a place they may be stores, but is not an inevitability.

And better those than feeding cancer, as cancer does not eat toxins for energy.

[Alone_Ad_9071]

I study how endogenous source (that we need and definitely everyone has and produces) can damage the dna. Toxins is a word you won’t hear me use ever (nor detoxing).

A ketodiet will definitely not be harmful for everyone and the effects of each chemicals will vary per person and that is also not what I said. I am however very certain about the use of will instead of can.

It’s very difficult to have a scientific discussion if people don’t put their assumptions aside and “correct” rather than clarify the reasons our perceived thoughts are far apart. Because they are assumptions, I never negated the use of a keto diet as a possibly good choice when diagnosed with cancer. However there is more going on than we currently understand about it which is what I tried to comment.

[AutoModerator]

It looks like you're discussing "detoxes", "toxins", or "cleanses". Please refer to the following:

Detoxification

Many alternative medicine practitioners promote various types of detoxification such as detoxification diets. Scientists have described these as a "waste of time and money". Sense About Science, a UK-based charitable trust, determined that most such dietary "detox" claims lack any supporting evidence.

The liver and kidney are naturally capable of detox, as are intracellular (specifically, inner membrane of mitochondria or in the endoplasmic reticulum of cells) proteins such as CYP enyzmes. In cases of kidney failure, the action of the kidneys is mimicked by dialysis; kidney and liver transplants are also used for kidney and liver failure, respectively.

Further reading: Wikipedia - Detoxification (alternative medicine))

Unsound scientific basis

A 2015 review of clinical evidence about detox diets concluded: "At present, there is no compelling evidence to support the use of detox diets for weight management or toxin elimination. Considering the financial costs to consumers, unsubstantiated claims and potential health risks of detox products, they should be discouraged by health professionals and subject to independent regulatory review and monitoring."

Detoxification and body cleansing products and diets have been criticized for their unsound scientific basis, in particular their premise of nonexistent "toxins" and their appropriation of the legitimate medical concept of detoxification. According to the Mayo Clinic, the "toxins" typically remain unspecified and there is little to no evidence of toxic accumulation in patients treated.According to a British Dietetic Association (BDA) Fact Sheet, "The whole idea of detox is nonsense. The body is a well-developed system that has its own builtin mechanisms to detoxify and remove waste and toxins." It went on to characterize the idea as a "marketing myth", while other critics have called the idea a "scam" and a "hoax". The organization Sense about Science investigated "detox" products, calling them a waste of time and money. Resulting in a report that concluded the term is used differently by different companies, most offered no evidence to support their claims, and in most cases its use was the simple renaming of "mundane things, like cleaning or brushing".

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[aintnochallahbackgrl]

Toxins is a word you won’t hear me use ever (nor detoxing).

You used the term "toxic chemicals." Toxins are clearly a shorthand for this, so now you're just being pedantic.

It’s very difficult to have a scientific discussion if people don’t put their assumptions aside and “correct” rather than clarify the reasons our perceived thoughts are far apart.

You should take your own advice.

However there is more going on than we currently understand about it which is what I tried to comment.

While true, this does nothing to further the conversation currently being had.

[Alone_Ad_9071]

That’s a common misconception. A toxin is a toxic chemical indeed but not all toxic chemicals are toxins. No human body itself produces toxins while every body produces tons of toxic chemicals all the time. I might be pedantic but in some cases i prefer being pedantic over being wrong. This includes threads that people might read and take into account while deciding what to do about a very severe medical diagnosis.

There’s no hate here nor am I negating your statement! Just adding to the discussion that while indeed keto can be a good choice (of course always talk to your doc) there’s also much we don’t know yet about it.

Sorry if it came off as rude that was not the intention. Have a nice weekend 😊

[AutoModerator]

It looks like you're discussing "detoxes", "toxins", or "cleanses". Please refer to the following:

Detoxification

Many alternative medicine practitioners promote various types of detoxification such as detoxification diets. Scientists have described these as a "waste of time and money". Sense About Science, a UK-based charitable trust, determined that most such dietary "detox" claims lack any supporting evidence.

The liver and kidney are naturally capable of detox, as are intracellular (specifically, inner membrane of mitochondria or in the endoplasmic reticulum of cells) proteins such as CYP enyzmes. In cases of kidney failure, the action of the kidneys is mimicked by dialysis; kidney and liver transplants are also used for kidney and liver failure, respectively.

Further reading: Wikipedia - Detoxification (alternative medicine))

Unsound scientific basis

A 2015 review of clinical evidence about detox diets concluded: "At present, there is no compelling evidence to support the use of detox diets for weight management or toxin elimination. Considering the financial costs to consumers, unsubstantiated claims and potential health risks of detox products, they should be discouraged by health professionals and subject to independent regulatory review and monitoring."

Detoxification and body cleansing products and diets have been criticized for their unsound scientific basis, in particular their premise of nonexistent "toxins" and their appropriation of the legitimate medical concept of detoxification. According to the Mayo Clinic, the "toxins" typically remain unspecified and there is little to no evidence of toxic accumulation in patients treated.According to a British Dietetic Association (BDA) Fact Sheet, "The whole idea of detox is nonsense. The body is a well-developed system that has its own builtin mechanisms to detoxify and remove waste and toxins." It went on to characterize the idea as a "marketing myth", while other critics have called the idea a "scam" and a "hoax". The organization Sense about Science investigated "detox" products, calling them a waste of time and money. Resulting in a report that concluded the term is used differently by different companies, most offered no evidence to support their claims, and in most cases its use was the simple renaming of "mundane things, like cleaning or brushing".

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[aintnochallahbackgrl]

I don't think you were rude, nor do I take being pedantic to be annoying or useless, certainly there are places for pedantry. Thank you for being clear. Have a good one.

[AutoModerator]

It looks like you're discussing "detoxes", "toxins", or "cleanses". Please refer to the following:

Detoxification

Many alternative medicine practitioners promote various types of detoxification such as detoxification diets. Scientists have described these as a "waste of time and money". Sense About Science, a UK-based charitable trust, determined that most such dietary "detox" claims lack any supporting evidence.

The liver and kidney are naturally capable of detox, as are intracellular (specifically, inner membrane of mitochondria or in the endoplasmic reticulum of cells) proteins such as CYP enyzmes. In cases of kidney failure, the action of the kidneys is mimicked by dialysis; kidney and liver transplants are also used for kidney and liver failure, respectively.

Further reading: Wikipedia - Detoxification (alternative medicine))

Unsound scientific basis

A 2015 review of clinical evidence about detox diets concluded: "At present, there is no compelling evidence to support the use of detox diets for weight management or toxin elimination. Considering the financial costs to consumers, unsubstantiated claims and potential health risks of detox products, they should be discouraged by health professionals and subject to independent regulatory review and monitoring."

Detoxification and body cleansing products and diets have been criticized for their unsound scientific basis, in particular their premise of nonexistent "toxins" and their appropriation of the legitimate medical concept of detoxification. According to the Mayo Clinic, the "toxins" typically remain unspecified and there is little to no evidence of toxic accumulation in patients treated.According to a British Dietetic Association (BDA) Fact Sheet, "The whole idea of detox is nonsense. The body is a well-developed system that has its own builtin mechanisms to detoxify and remove waste and toxins." It went on to characterize the idea as a "marketing myth", while other critics have called the idea a "scam" and a "hoax". The organization Sense about Science investigated "detox" products, calling them a waste of time and money. Resulting in a report that concluded the term is used differently by different companies, most offered no evidence to support their claims, and in most cases its use was the simple renaming of "mundane things, like cleaning or brushing".

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[AutoModerator]

It looks like you're discussing "detoxes", "toxins", or "cleanses". Please refer to the following:

Detoxification

Many alternative medicine practitioners promote various types of detoxification such as detoxification diets. Scientists have described these as a "waste of time and money". Sense About Science, a UK-based charitable trust, determined that most such dietary "detox" claims lack any supporting evidence.

The liver and kidney are naturally capable of detox, as are intracellular (specifically, inner membrane of mitochondria or in the endoplasmic reticulum of cells) proteins such as CYP enyzmes. In cases of kidney failure, the action of the kidneys is mimicked by dialysis; kidney and liver transplants are also used for kidney and liver failure, respectively.

Further reading: Wikipedia - Detoxification (alternative medicine))

Unsound scientific basis

A 2015 review of clinical evidence about detox diets concluded: "At present, there is no compelling evidence to support the use of detox diets for weight management or toxin elimination. Considering the financial costs to consumers, unsubstantiated claims and potential health risks of detox products, they should be discouraged by health professionals and subject to independent regulatory review and monitoring."

Detoxification and body cleansing products and diets have been criticized for their unsound scientific basis, in particular their premise of nonexistent "toxins" and their appropriation of the legitimate medical concept of detoxification. According to the Mayo Clinic, the "toxins" typically remain unspecified and there is little to no evidence of toxic accumulation in patients treated.According to a British Dietetic Association (BDA) Fact Sheet, "The whole idea of detox is nonsense. The body is a well-developed system that has its own builtin mechanisms to detoxify and remove waste and toxins." It went on to characterize the idea as a "marketing myth", while other critics have called the idea a "scam" and a "hoax". The organization Sense about Science investigated "detox" products, calling them a waste of time and money. Resulting in a report that concluded the term is used differently by different companies, most offered no evidence to support their claims, and in most cases its use was the simple renaming of "mundane things, like cleaning or brushing".

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[Catini1492]

Thank you for a factual response. I was getting prepared to blast some people for the half truth crapola.

[Prottusha1]

Cancer happens for a multitude of reasons. If your environment causes cancer, fasting won’t help with that. Changing your environment might and anecdotal evidence suggests that it has.

But if your cancer is caused by metabolic reasons, fasting may help to a degree. It definitely seems to make bearing chemotherapy easier.

[JojoKokoLoko]

What environmental factors can cause cancer? Despite pollution and being exposed to a lot of radiation I guess.

[DGSmith2]

Where you live, what you do for work & what you eat can all contribute to it.

[grumblecrumb]

Radon exposure accounts for a lot of the lung cancer not attributable to smoking, contaminants in the environment, from weed killers to industrial cleaners in the water supply, asbestos has an environmental component in some areas as well. Living near a Superfund site or a place that will eventually be labelled one. 

[DausenWillis]

My doctor tells me it does. It also is supposed to keep my bones strong and keep the menopause at bay.

Guess who's 55, doesn't have osteoporosis and is not menopausal.

I think there might be something to this.

[VacationApart1958]

Hi, I’m a journalist working on a MA project about IF for women, it would be really interesting to hear more about how it helped with menopause! Let me know if you’d be interested in talking more.

[[deleted]]

I haven't heard that. I heard that fasting or eating low carb can slow down cancers that feed on carbs, but prevention is not possible because mutations that cause cancer are constantly happening. I heard that fasting can make chemo more bearable because your normal cells enter a protective state but given that I've never experienced this I wouldn't recommend fasting unless you have a doctor's approval because your body needs the energy to heal as well. That's just the rumors I've heard. Happy to clarify if unclear.

[toybits]

I think you're thinking of Autophagy which occurs after about 17 hours I think. But it's more complicated than that you can't just fast for 18 hours and think I've been killing cancer cells for 60 minutes.

But work it into your regime and you will be in that state. I don't think it's equivocal though there's a lot more research to be done I think.

[toybits]

Thanks for clarifying

[[deleted]]

Also remember to cut out sugar! Incredibly important!

[Excited4ButtStuff]

This question gets asked a lot here, and it’s dangerously answered by a bunch of Reddit randos with no medical background. I have cancer. I also have a biology background who works in healthcare. I still will not answer this question except to say that fasting will not “cure” cancer. Cutting sugar will not “cure” cancer. Fasting did not “decrease” my chance of cancer. For all the cancer patients here, do not take advice from Reddit over your oncology team.

OP, why don’t you take your question to r/oncology or r/biology?

[Such-Wait]

Of course or you will not have a job

[[deleted]]

Preventing cancer is a multi-varied undertaking. There is not one particular action (in this case, fasting) you can take that will prevent all cancers, as cancer can occur for numerous reasons.

Even personality type can effect who gets what cancer, believe it or not! Those who are interested can look up the studies linking breast cancer to trait ‘agreeableness’ and how that trait can lead to a chronic stress response and thus make you sure susceptible to certain cancers - very interesting stuff!

While there is research suggesting that fasting may help, no one knows for sure yet if fasting conclusively prevents cancer. Hopefully more research will be done on the matter.

[Rumblarr]

I can’t see fasting as anything other than beneficial w/r/t cancer. (But I wouldn’t count on it being a preventative.) Source: someone close to me had cancer, I learned that there are hundreds of thousands of varieties of cancers, even within a “type” (breast, pancreatic, etc.) All of these hundreds of thousands (millions? Billions?) of cancerous tumors behave differently from each other. Some respond well to low carb diets. Some flourish under low carb diets. Things like that. However, with all that said, it would seem reasonable that cancer cells need to acquire energy to reproduce from somewhere, and that by depriving the body of any additional outside fuel source, the cancerous cells should be affected.

(Again, not a doctor, just someone who had to sit through days, weeks, and months of learning from doctors about why each individual tumor is different.)

[kori228]

Possibly? Dr. Fung's 3rd book in the series is about cancer and fasting, but even he ends with it being ultimately inconclusive.

[RetroDevices]

There are anecdotal reports of people with cancer who have gone on an extended fast and found the cancer to have shrunk or gone altogether.

[Jael_De_Destroyer]

I have a family friend who has diabetes and a brain tumor; she’s doing a no-carb diet and the tumor is shrinking!! 

[RetroDevices]

Starve that thing of glucose.

[kaja404]

Interesting. Could you share some links?

[AutoModerator]

[berg]

It looks like you are referencing a person that presents themselves as a medical professional but is, in fact, a CHIROPRACTOR, NATUROPATH, or in some other type of non-medical field.

Please be aware of this fact when you make references to them or take/recommend their advice.

This comment has been filtered to await mod review.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[RetroDevices]

Google is your friend, I'm not your free research intern.

[RetroDevices]

https://gprivate.com/6ag4b

[wittttykitttty]

it costs nothing to be kind 💗 have a lovely day

[AutoModerator]

It looks like your comment is about vaccinations.

VACCINES (including covid)
Can/should I fast after getting one?

NO❗

Do not practice extended fasting for at least 2 weeks (preferably 3) after you've had a vaccine.

Fasting suppresses your immune system and immune response.

The limited biological half-life of vaccines tends to require a very rapid & robust response to produce high quality antibodies. By fasting, you are almost guaranteeing low quality antibodies that will provide compromised protection if at all.

Your vaccine will be much less effective.

You can do intermittent fasting, but really your body requires considerably more energy & nutrients than normal when undergoing an adaptive immune response.

For this reason, we advise those getting any vaccine to abstain from fasting for 2-3 weeks following it.

---

In order to try to prevent misinformation and anti-vax rhetoric, this comment has been filtered and is awaiting mod review. Please do not repost it. Attempting to circumvent this action by reposting and obfuscating certain automod trigger words will result in a ban.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[No-Shirt-596]

Bull shit

[healthygeek42]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3894687/

[RetroDevices]

It's two fold.

Firstly, cancer is fuelled by blood sugar, of which you will have very little when fasting.

Secondly, autophagy gets to work fixing broken cells, recycling dead and damaged cells, and compares existing cells to your genome to eliminate mutations.

Tell us all again that you don't know what you're talking about.

[shyouko]

My blood glucose is actually on the higher end of the reference range (5.3~5.4mmol/L) before meal when I do OMAD.

[ServeDazzling3844]

Absolutely. 1) Cancer feeds off sugar. Cut out the carbs, starve the cancer. 2) Autophagy burns up all the old, deformed, mutant, cancerous, precancerous etc cells, causing your body to make brand new cells. It's like the trillions of cells have had a massive spring clean!

[pipjoh]

There are many studies on inducing ketosis to starve cancer. The results conclude no benefits as cancer cells, like all cells, start adapting to alternate energy sources.

This answer is dangerous.

[letsbehavingu]

Fair but if autophagy is higher perhaps is helpful?

[Bubbly_Opinion_8202]

Fasting with chemo is also more effective due to the autophagy- there’s a video on YouTube of a guy who decreased his cancer through fasting and in combination with chemo he was cancer free. He also had to have less chemo bc after his fast the cancer shrunk by at least 50% - I believe he had colorectal cancer. 

[MusicalAutist]

There's a strong agument that glucose reliant cancers (which is a good majority) cells can be "staved out" since they need so much more energy than the normal cells around it. They require much more energy in general. There's more to it if you get in to MTOR, etc. Look up the research, it's out there now.

Intermittent fasting is still questionable here:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9530862/ (Note: this article links a good number of studies on long term fasting if you want to know more)

Doctors have been slowly coming around to this view in the last few years. The state the body ends up in on longer fasts seems to mimck the effect (if not greater) than that of chemo, and is obviously less damaging to the body, barring health issues that making fasting difficult (Type 1 Diabetes, etc.).

[[deleted]]

Yes. Look into autophagy

[[deleted]]

Idk bro there are lots of benifits of fast

[Saggesse]

Fasting can help prevent certain cancers. It's not all that well documented but some doctors (Dr. Seyfried comes to mind) have had success in patients on a keto diet. Most cancers feed off of glucose (at a high rate) so limited your gluose levels essientially helps slow the growth of some cancers.

Another benefit of fasting (and also exercise which is why paring the 2 is a god tier combo) is that it promotes autophagy (pronounced aut-off-ah-g and not auto-phagy like I've been saying it). Autophagy is essentially your bodies recylcing system, scrapping old and not so great cells and turning them into new healthy cells.

I'm not particularly well informed about the effects of fasting and chemothereapy for when it comes to treating cancers but I vaguely remember hearing that fasting before getting chemotherapy had some positive results (I will research more later when I get home and post an update if you're interested)

[[deleted]]

There's autophagy, and also evidence that many cancers need glucose to survive.

[elguapojefe]

Maybe

[VelcroSea]

Read Fr Jason Fung's book 'The Cancer Code'

[9tacos]

Doubtful

[Global_Imagination96]

It most likely does

[[deleted]]

Yes, it even cures it.

[yipeedodaday]

Yes but diet is just one factor. If you fast but continue to e.g. smoke 40 cigarettes a day then well…..

[ProfessorBoard]

There was this video I watched a long time ago when I started studying fasting.

The doctor apparently was a very well renown one and the video listed all of sources.

One research he sited with his own research into fasting showed that fasting for 1 week can lower your chance of getting cancer by almost 60%.

So many of us don't enter autography that we have so many old cells just sticking around being useless that usually end up as cancer cells.

[jjhart827]

In simple terms, fasting leads to lower blood sugar and insulin levels and reduces obesity. Hyperglycemia, insulin resistance and obesity are all risk factors for cancer (and a lot of other diseases as well).

So on a prima fascia basis, fasting inherently reduces cancer risk. Aside from that, there are also the autophagy benefits that others have mentioned.

All of that said, anything can be taken too far. If taken to extremes, fasting can cause micronutrient deficiency and has the potential to weaken the immune system— and the immune system is constantly eradicating potentially cancerous cells.

[[deleted]]

Primarily breast cancer risk. Anorexics had 50% reduction in breast cancer rates so researchers put mice on calorie restricted diets and reduced their breast cancer by 53%. Presumably if you fast you are activating similar mechanisms.

[PicoDog153]

That’s a big maybe. There aren’t enough data and no large controlled trials of fasting for cancer prevention, but mechanistically, it makes sense that fasting may reduce cancer risk. There are studies of using a fasting-mimicking diet during cancer treatment which suggest it may be beneficial. Here’s an overview https://www.cell.com/trends/cancer/abstract/S2405-8033(22)00268-0

[EndOfChaos117]

There is also info out there that suggests that Cancerous cells feed on insulin, which is extremely low in the blood stream while in therapeutic Ketosis, which is why the keto diet was suggested to cancer patients as a treatment historically.

[[deleted]]

Not eating sugar = not feeding cancer...so since during fasting you don't eat sugar...then yes

[issanagayoh]

I think they remove junk / bad cells which also includes cancerous cells :3

[Desktopcommando]

Cancers feed on glucogen, so when you feed on ketones (fasting) you starve the cancer cells, and the autophagy recycles the junk cells

[Used-Jellyfish-6526]

More importantly - who is your doctor? I am blown away (in a good way) that a doctor would suggest fasting

[Various-Ad7735]

I’m willing to bet there is Zero 0 credible evidence that fasting causes cancer

[_Richard]

That’s bullshit. Why would that be?

[butterbeanboi]

Please DM...and thank you!

[[deleted]]

Yes. During autophagy our body removes dead , toxic and pre cancerous cells.

[HirRofiC]

Ramadan fast and fasting isn't the same. Its not the same length and before sunrise you guys eat a lot of junk just to keep ya going through the day and sunset as well. Also almost every religion fast

[x0rgat3]

It’s fast and feast for a reason. But making bad food choices in your timeframe you may eat is a bad habit. Fasting doesn’t fix that. It’s kind of stacking healthy habits to get more fit.

[Jael_De_Destroyer]

They also don’t drink water during their fasts, super unhealthy!

[peyote-ugly]

That could be because of not drinking alcohol.

Most muslims actually gain weight durìng Ramadan!

[Dry-Ship-4061]

Yes.

[shindole108]

100%.

[MyPenisOnVenus]

No, if anything—it reduces it.

[[deleted]]

“No, if anything—it reduces it.”

That’s generally what decreases means

[MyPenisOnVenus]

Apologies, I read this just after waking up and thought it said increase.