The Warburg Effect, The Reverse Warburg Effect, Ketosis and Fasting

[hailtotheking]

A few years old now, but if you missed it the first time around I thought anyone interested in ketogenic dieting might be interested in this New studies explain how cancer cells 'eat us alive'.

It seems the ‘Warburg Effect’ theory of cancer cell metabolism (one key aspect of which is cancer cells fuel were thought to fuel themselves anaerobically) perhaps wasn’t being observed in cancer cells after all!

Instead it seems likely the original ‘Warburg Effect’ was being observed in nearby stromal cells (fibroblasts), which nearby cancer cells are signalling to self destruct, via oxidative stress, to then scavenge ketone and lactate ‘debris’ to fuel the cancer cells. The cancer cells seem to have lots of mitochondria, and therefore actually have a preference for aerobic metabolism. This new understanding of cancer cell metabolism is being called the ‘Reverse Warburg Effect’.

I wonder what implications this would have for ketogenic diets, and intermittent fasting, both of which elevate cellular use of ketones, and certainly in the former case make ketone bodies a chronic primary source of cellular energy substrate?

The third paragraph under ‘Discussion’ on this paper makes a fleeting mention of fasting and ketogenic diets potentially being pro-carcinogenic Ketones and lactate

[Kindke]

I heard cancer was the number 1 killer amongst the Inuit.

True Story

[badly_dubbed]

I actualy listened to a podcast lastnight where Gary Taubes stated that there was only one documented case of cancer in the inuits untill the late 1960s - fast forward to today where theyre cancer rates are now in tow with the rest of the US (funnily enough so are their CHO ratios)