Battling against cancer is never easy, but you can stack the deck in your favor by manipulating the variables under your control. One of the main "tools" you can use in the fight against cancer is your diet. Although you might think that diet would have a minimal effect on something as troublesome as cancer, research has shown that specific types of diets are able to slow tumor growth while enhancing your health. What follows is your guide to using diet to help combat brain cancer.
Diet and Brain Cancer Studies
A study performed on mice at Boston College demonstrated that a low-fat, ketogenic diet can help slow or regress the growth of brain tumors in mice. A ketogenic diet is one in which the body is fed a minimal amount of carbs, forcing the body to switch its primary fuel supply to fat. Additional benefits seen include increased health and a better chance for survival when compared to mice eating a control-group diet--low fat and high carbohydrates.
Human Research
German scientists conducted a similar study on human cancer sufferers at the woman's hospital at the University of Würzburg. There, individuals who managed to stick to a ketogenic approach for three months saw cessation or reduction in tumor growth. This leads scientists to believe that depriving the tumors of sugar in the form of glucose is an effective treatment method for halting the tumors' growth.
Applying the Research
Note that in both studies, the low-carb diets used were ketogenic. This means that if you are looking to apply this research to your own condition, you will have to adhere to a diet that allows for less than 20g to 30g carbs per day. The Atkins Diet is a popular ketogenic approach that would seem to work for this purpose.
Following the Atkins Diet
To follow the Atkins Diet, you must go through a two-week induction where your daily carb total is kept to 20g or less. This allows your body to make the switch from burning sugars to burning fat, and begins the proposed starvation period for your tumor. Following these two weeks, you may double your daily carb intake to 40g, but make sure that you are eating most of your carbs from natural sources such as vegetables (and some fruits). While on the normal Atkins plan you would again increase your carb total as you came close to your target weight, you will not do so here, as success depends on keeping your body in a state of ketosis. Continue eating under 40g of carbs forever.
Considerations
Note that this will certainly not be easy. Several patients died in the German study because they were unwilling (or unable) to give up carbs forever. So even on threat of death, the lure of carbohydrates was too strong to overcome. Aside from mentally fortifying yourself to give up carbs to hopefully save your life, note that you should be consuming lean protein on the diet wherever possible, and trying to consume as much healthy fat as you can. Healthy fat sources include coconuts, avocados, and oils (such as fish and olive).
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