American Medicine Today visits with the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida.

Glioblastoma is a grade 4 brain tumor (with 1 being the least severe and 4 being the most). Once diagnosed, death usually occurs within 12-15 months.  However, Dr. Brent Reynolds, Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Florida Health has discovered that a specific diet appears to slow the growth of progressive brain tumors in mice. The Ketogenic Diet  was developed in the 1920’s for children with epilepsy and was known to greatly reduce the amount of seizures children were experiencing. This ‘fasting’ type of diet is very low in carbohydrates and very high in fat.  Lacking carbs, the body’s glucose levels lower and then process the abundant fat cells into ketone bodies which in turn, slow tumor growth. Though currently in human testing trials, you don’t have to wait for FDA approval to put yourself on a high-fat, low-carb diet.

Learn more about this discovery from UF Health here: https://ufhealth.org/news/2016/lower-carb-diet-slows-growth-aggressive-brain-tumor-mouse-models