On Sept. 10, 2020, Fred Evrard, age 48, was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. The tumor in his body reached about four inches in length.
As a strong, athletic martial arts instructor—with a healthy diet and lifestyle—the news came as a shock.
Overwhelmed and in excruciating pain, he lay in bed for three days without eating or drinking.
Three days later, Evrard was back on his feet ready to fight.
He began reading all about cancer and natural treatments. He found case after case of successful recovery and cancer reversal through fasting. These findings prompted him to try it himself.
Evrard embarked on a 21-day fast. His desire to live pushed him forward.
After 21 days of fasting, his MRI image showed a miracle: The length of the tumor on his colon had shrunk from four inches to less than 2 1/2 inches, and its diameter had also shrunk significantly.
With his fast over, he adopted a ketogenic diet, or more precisely, a carnivore diet. This was because he couldn’t eat anything with fiber because of severe intestinal inflammation. During that period, he also adopted intermittent fasting and ate only one meal per day.
During his battle with cancer, Evrard underwent three chemotherapy sessions. Fasting helped reduce the negative effects of chemotherapy so much that he hardly suffered side effects such as hair loss, nausea, or extreme fatigue. The immune indicators in his blood were also normal. During the second chemotherapy session, he tried to stop fasting and experienced severe side effects. He fasted again during his third chemotherapy session and achieved great results.
On Jan. 2, 2021, he started a five-day fast and a two-day ketogenic diet on weekends to complete the second round of a 21-day fast.
How Does Intermittent Fasting Fight Cancer?
Since the early 1900s, scientists have noticed the positive effects of diet control on the health of organisms. Research at the time had already shown that diet control can slow or even stop tumor growth in laboratory mice, as well as delay cancer recurrence. Scientists have conducted hundreds of studies on different types of organisms, including yeast, nematodes, fruit flies, mice, rhesus monkeys, and so forth. After animal trials, small-scale human experiments were carried out. Preliminary studies suggest that prolonged fasting is safe for certain cancer patients and may reduce chemotherapy-related toxicity and inhibit the growth of cancerous tumors.
1. The Anticarcinogenic Actions of Fasting
Fasting and a ketogenic diet can put a person into a state of ketone body metabolism. Cancer cells can only survive by metabolizing glucose and glutamine, and they can’t metabolize ketone bodies. Therefore, such regimens are equivalent to cutting off the food ration of cancer cells.
Fasting and caloric restriction can reduce the production of growth factors, inflammatory cytokines, and anabolic hormones. That prompts corresponding changes in the body’s metabolism and hormone levels, such as decreased insulin secretion, increased insulin sensitivity, and decreased testosterone and estrogen secretion.
Fasting and restricting calories can also reduce oxidative stress even as they enhance antioxidant effects, reduce free-radical-induced DNA damage, and activate various DNA repair processes. Experiments on cells have also demonstrated that fasting and restricting calories can enhance autophagy, a process in which the body recycles cellular “garbage” and removes damaged cell parts. Fasting can also inhibit cell proliferation and slow down cellular aging.
These well-studied mechanisms may help the body fight cancer—as many studies suggest.
2. Fasting Can Enhance Chemotherapy, Reduce Side Effects
Clinical research on fasting in cancer patients is still in its infancy. However, growing evidence shows that short-term fasting can reduce the toxicity of chemotherapy while enhancing the efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents, thereby improving the quality of life of cancer patients. This is because fasting increases the stress resistance of healthy cells, while tumor cells become more sensitive to chemotherapeutic agents due to a shortage of nutrients.