Ironically fasting sort of kicked this entire thing off for me. I believe it was fasting that lead to my pain which ended in the MGUS diagnosis. But the pain was entirely unrelated.
Fasting offers several benefits for cancer. In particular blood cancer.
1. there is on record a case study of a woman with Lymphoma who fasted for 28 days and had her cancer remarkably reduce. And it has stayed that way. Water-only fasting and an exclusively plant foods diet in the management of stage IIIa, low-grade follicular lymphoma She did eat a plant food diet but at this point it is not clear if plant food would be responsible alone.
2. Fasting is likely to make you eat less food generally. If you are eating a "toxic load" fasting will dramatically reduce the amount of pesticides or otherwise that you ingest. Calorie Restriction already has several studies that show that reduced calories improves health. But Calorie Restriction does not offer some of the benefits that fasting does.
3. Fasting generally reduces some of the key biomarkers that support and encourage cancer. These are: insulin, IGF-1 and MTor. All of which are effected by what, when, and how much you eat.
4. Fasting can allow for something called autophagy. Though IMHO I am slightly suspicious of some of the claims made. Autophagy is basically your body turning to "eat" its own junk. Instead of junk hanging around in your body for years messing up the works, autophagy will recycle that junk. It has long been a theory of mine that insulin resistance is caused by junk buildup in your body blocking the insulin receptors on your cells. I would like to know if fasting could affect the side effects of MGUS -- such as build up of antibody and light chains. The important point is that this doesn't happen until you haven't eaten in a while. 48-72 hours. So most modern people have never had this happen.
5. Fasting releases Ketosis. And not just a little. You have a much stronger Ketosis reaction than say, if you were on the Keto diet. Ketosis itself is protective. In many different ways unrelated to cancer ( I suspect we don't know about them yet) but Ketosis has been proven helpful against radiation in cancer treatment... think about what that means for every day life? Already several cancers have shown a positive reaction to Ketosis. Including for our purposes (CLL- Chronic Leukemia). Dr. Annette Bozworth's mom survived for years on a Keto diet after drugs were failing. There have been amazing results in brain cancer as well.
6. Fasting reduces sugar. While of course, the body still makes sugar even if you deprive it of sugar, the standard American diet itself is an overdose of sugar. Right now, you might think you aren't getting a lot of sugar, but you are. Why does this matter? Cancer runs off "fermentation" -- which means cancer cells need mass amounts of sugar to proceed this way. Cut the sugar and make things difficult for the cancer.
7. Fasting is not a new fad. Ever hear the saying starve a fever and feed a cold. For thousands of years fasting was well accepted as a way to heal the body. Have you ever seen an animal that is sick? It doesn't eat. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) wrote,“ The best medicine is rest and fasting”. And Mark Twain (1835- 1910) the famous American Philosopher was also a keen advocate along with many other historical figures, suggesting that a little starvation could do more to cure men than the best medicines and best doctors.
8. This is my theory but, most MGUS is diagnosed at mid age. The same time as humans face a radical body change. Menopause / andropause. Both states are marked by a requirement for less food. This makes sense. Women will not be giving birth, men though still capable.. likely will not be out hunting for food. Your body is telling you -- hey, stop eating. But we don't listen. Can it be any great surprise that most serious illness pops up at mid age?
9. Fasting reduces Chronic Inflammation: more and more it is appearing that chronic inflammation is caused by food. Some suspect the food itself (such as veggies or fruits) cause it, some suspect it is a reaction to "leaky gut" but if you don't eat for long periods... your inflammation is going to be cut down.
Finally, at this point, we simply don't know all the benefits. Research has just really started. So far, almost every study comes back noting great benefits. I haven't even listed them all here. And though I tend to be a suspicious character, there really is no financial reason for the studies to come back positive. Food manufacturers and the pharmacy will not be able to profit off fasting.
