I had stage-4 bone marrow cancer that metastasized to the brain. My brain cancer was secondary, but it what was shutting my body down quickly. I had lost over 50 pounds and was so weak I was in a wheelchair. I not only had to reverse the bone marrow cancer that was primary, I also had to quickly bring down the cancer in my brain and reverse that as well.
Ketone Bodies Feed Your Brain, Not Cancer
The brain needs glucose 24 hours a day to function. Since sugar feeds cancer, the brain is taking in sugar 24 hours a day and the cancer is been fed 24 hours per day. But, if you understand the brain, you will also know there is another FUEL the brain will use and prefers over sugar – it’s ketone bodies or keto acids. Ketones are what your body produces when it converts fat (as opposed to glucose) into energy.
I made the switch immediately to get my body in ketosis, so the only fuel my brain was getting were ketone bodies. Normal healthy brain cells use ketones for fuel but cancer cells (because their mitochondria is damaged) cannot use ketone bodies and the cancer begins to die. I still monitor my body to make sure my sugars are low and I’m in ketosis.
Toxins Destroy the Brain
There are many toxins that can pass the blood brain barrier and affect the brain. You have to minimize your exposure to toxins immediately.
Example: Environmental toxins, heavy metals, household products and cleaners, perfumes, colognes, lotions, etc. One of the hardest toxicities that damages your brain are artificial sweeteners, sucralose, Splenda®, Sweet N Low®, etc. Say NO to sugar-free processed foods that contain these artificial sweeteners, along with diet sodas, diet drinks or pretty much “diet” anything. You must read your labels. But then again, whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, salad greens, etc. don’t need labels. They are real foods. Eat more of those and minimize the processed foods!
Test, Don’t Guess
Cancer is always secondary. You need to run tests to find the cause(s) of your cancer and monitor those as well.
Here is a brief list of some of the more important tests to do:
- Toxicity tests
- Vitamin D
- Hormone panel
- Thyroid panel
- Fatty acid ratio
- Leaky gut
- Leaky brain
- Food sensitivities (IgG, IgA)
Fat Doesn’t Make You Fat – It Makes You Healthy
My favorite healthy fat I eat all day long is coconut oil. Coconut oil contains medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) and they are a great source of ketone bodies, since coconut oil is about 66 percent MCTs. Every meal and snack has to include lots of healthy fats as well as drinking a ketogenic shake 3-4 times per day. This is the easiest way to stay in ketosis and produce ketone bodies.
Stop Inflammation!
Whatever affects the colon, affects the brain immediately! I ask my patients this, “if you were to drink 3 shots of whiskey, how fast would your brain feel it?” They say, “immediately.” That’s because the colon affects the brain immediately. You have to stop inflammation and stop damaging your colon immediately and repair it.
What will damage and create inflammation in your gut and then in your brain?
- Gluten
- Dairy
- GMOs
- Food sensitivities
- Medications (NSAIDs, birth control, pain medications, etc.)
- Bad fats, caffeine, processed soy, and alcohol
- High and low cortisol (excess stress)
This is just the beginning steps to reversing brain cancer. All cancers are a multi-factorial and multi-system failure. You didn’t get cancer and then get sick, you have been sick and toxic for years and THEN you got cancer. The cancer is secondary, not primary. The only cure for cancer is to get to the cause(s).
It is now five years I am cancer-free and I’m the healthiest and strongest I have ever been. Again, the only cure for cancer is getting to the cause(s)!
Thank you so much for your research and help. My mother has cancer and is on board with keto! I’ve been on the ketogenic diet for about 9 months and feel so much better. So easy the cavemen did it!
Dear Dr. Charles Majors, I thank God that you’re now cancer-free and for giving us you this Mission / Purpose in Sharing your life experience on your stage-4 bone marrow cancer that metastasized to the brain????????????????
Take care and have a beautiful and blessed Sunday / week ahead and God bless you and your loved ones abundantly with Love, Faith, Hope, Joy, Peace, Happiness and Great Health and Abundance of Blessings and Graces always AMEN????????????????
Cheers,
Cecilia, from Singapore
Thank you, email me anything you need.
Michael, make sure she stays focused, Mindset is #1 and more important than any diet, supplement, treatment etc. All are important but having their right mindset first is key. Keep her filled with all the positive information out there, especially this website. Email me anything you need.
Thank you for sharing all of your wisdom! I have been battling chronic Myelogenous Leukemua with conventional medicine for 11 years. Now I have a lump on my rib and can’t fight off infection. My fear is that me CML has spread. I’m researching kerogen ice diets now and plan to get to the bottom of what has caused my cancer in the first place. Thank you for all you do, Dr.!
Doc, I know that you are a proponent of intermittent fasting as well. Do you still eat coconut oil when you are in a fasted state?
My Chiropractor Eric Galloway suggested I read and listen to your videos and blogs. I have to go to to Clearview Cancer Institute in Huntsville on Monday for a consult and blood work. I’ve switched to eating clean for the past two years and don’t eat wheat and have almost totally cut out sugar from my diet. It heartens me to know that there are ways to find the underlying problem and fix it. There is a issue with my red blood cells, platelletes and mylocytes. I am hopeful that i can heal myself and will look into ways to do that. God Bless.
Dr Majors,what do yOu consider a ketogenic shake? I would also like to take them daily.
Hey Charles, thank you for sharing your experience with brain cancer. It was both informative and inspirational. I was diagnosed with brain cancer about six months ago and I’ve been on the keto diet for a few months. What is the name of the keto shake you’re taking/took? Thanks very much!
Ketogenic shake I do- Drink smoothie 1 to 2 times per day at least 12 ounces (This is easiest way to follow ketogenic diet is with smoothies throughout the day)
-coconut milk or almond milk
-greens powder
-healthy grass fed whey
-raw nuts (macadamian)
-1 to 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
-1 tablespoon of mct oil
-1/2 avocado
-stevia to taste
The key is % of fats/proteins/carbs- this is very high in healthy fats and I also measure my blood glucose before and 1/2 hour after eating to make sure it stays low
Hi Doctor,
I’m confused: you say that coconut oil contains 66% mcts, yet you list in your Ketonic shake recipe 1-2Tbls coconut oil and then list another Tbls of mct oil. Would that just be some kind of mct-only oil? Why not just more coconut oil? Another question I have is if you can replace the coconut milk/coconut oil with coconut cream concentrate (like from Tropical Traditions)? Does it have enough coconut oil in it? Thank you.
Dear Charles
Just read your article of how you beat cancer with only one week to live. My mother was detected with pancreatic cancer & was given 5-6 months to live. We tried changing her diet ( of course didn’t know about sugar concept & it’s adverse effects on cancer)
My question is that even with 5 months to live, she was not able to consume & was unable to eat at all. So how could you with only one week manage to change your diet & actually orally consume food.
Could you adv centres here in India that could help families to take their loved ones for proper care.
Eagerly awaiting your advice.
Regards
Sanker. ( Mumbai/ India)
I will do mct oil a lot if I need to maintain weight
What if I need to lose weight? I have no way of knowing for sure but I’m assuming a lifetime of bad eating, ingesting toxins through skin, not enough physical movement, and heavy duty stress has caused me to break out in cancer, but unfortunately when one has no financial resources, it is nearly impossible to get any help unless I choose to go conventional treatment. I’ve done one chemo and they aren’t even dealing with the tumor in my brain, but unless I accept recommended protocol, they won’t even consider my disability app, which would give me SOME income albeit a very meager amount. It was always my desire to go alternative but I could not afford to!
Since you are cancer free not just from brain cancer but that means from multiple myeloma too. Right? I have multiple myeloma and went through a transplant last year. I am in remission but we all know what that mean. I just quit the maintenance drug that I was taking 21 days out of every month because I want to go alternative medicine. Is the Ketogenic Diet for me. I have been off sugar and carbs for about 6 weeks. Please answer………
Janice you and i have the same cancer and I finished my stem cell 3 years ago and my cancer numbers have risen from remission so your very smart to recognize that might happen in the future. I am just now trying to find out how to be on a ketogenic diet so it very exciting to find Dr Majors.
I personally have not suffered from cancer but I DO have a fellow team member, who promotes & drinks Ketones Daily, and had breast cancer. Currently she is recovering from her surgery but it’s wanting to know if drinking the keto pro will help her recover better than if she were just drinking our regular Keto Nat? She has also since switched to caffeine free ketones. In your opinion do you think it’s best she stay away from the charged ones for now?
Hi Dr.Majors, I have stage 4 breast cancer and an doing all natural treatments. Please can you state , how many milligrams of IV vitamin C you were doing and how often , for your cancer? and do you take a break from it after few months ? Thanks
Dr charles what about osteosarcoma that spread to the lungs and lymph nodes?
My mother has a Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma in the brain and she is diabetic. She currently takes steroids for inflamation which shoot up her blood sugars. Is that fueling the tumor?
Hi Dr
Any specific brand or make for coconut oil or milk that you recommend?
As well as any mct oil ? Because I can’t trust anything anymore.
We were using bullet proof coconut oil for my 4 years daughter with brain cancer but now I found out that’s not a good one at all!!!
Please help me
Thanks
What is wrong with the Bulletproof mct oil? Thank you.
In addition to low sugar you should normalize your immune system See drrondrucker.com
Dr.gersons miracle cancer cure YouTube, also enema juiced pure organic apple and carrots will stop cancer caused starvation the colon can feed you if your digestion cannot.
I have just been told that I have high levels of H. Polori in the blog. I’ve had ulcer symptoms and they want me to go on a triple therapy treatment with two antibiotics and an antacid. Not sure if this is the regimen I should follow, but don’t know where to start, do you have any suggestions?
Dr. Majors, thank you for the great article. In the section Test, Don’t Guess, your first listed test is toxicity tests. Specifically, what testing do you recommend? Thank you!
Embarrassing to ask but what would you do for A varicocele i’ve tried all kinds of different diets And from what I understand it is enlarging my prostate been in quite a bit of pain for the last three years and really do not want to have surgery any suggestions would be great
Hello. Any suggestions with where to start for a child? My daughter had just turned 2 years old when she had her first surgery to remove an anaplastic ependymoma in her 4th ventricle. That was last December. She finished her rads in march 2015 (59.4, and is almost maxed out) It’s now almost a year later and she’s going in for another MRI soon for an abnormal spot that showed on her last MRI. There’s so much information I don’t know where to start. I’d prefer it if you could email me with anything so I could have a quicker reference. Thanks, Amanda.
Have you heard of Keto Os? It is a new product. It will put your body in ketosis in 30 minutes.
Keto/is is great stuff isn’t it Lynn:)
This article tells us that coconut oil is your ‘go-to’ oil for mct’s. (66%); however, Another article on this website by Dr.David Jockers (10 Tips for Following a Ketogenic Diet) says that coconut oil is not the best source for mcts. “Contrary to popular belief, coconut oil is not the same thing as MCT oil. MCT oil is extracted from coconut oil but consists of 100% pure capric and caprylic acids (medium chain triglycerides). Coconut oil contains 35% long chain triglycerides (LCT), and 50% lauric acid which although categorized as a MCT acts like an LCT. The remaining 15% is MCT which makes up only 1/6th the ketogenic need of MCT compared to pure MCT oil.”
What are we to believe?
Hi Charles, I have just watched your video from truth about cancer and ordered your latest book. Do you do private coaching ? I have Multiple Myeloma and I do lots of the things you suggest but it has taken me a few years to find someone like you and I would like to improve my health still.
Sadly, He can’t answer you. He died of brain cancer.
sorry to hear of his passing. 6 years is about the average for myeloma.
Is there anything that can help a 4 year old girl recently diagnosed with terminal DIPG? It’s so sad and heartbreaking. Her parents were told to enjoy the short time they had left with her ?
Hi Lauren,
The best advice we can give you is to consult with one of the doctors/experts that we interviewed in our Global Quest Series. Here is a link to get their information: https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/experts-info-sheet/
I made the mistake of moving in a house that is near a rail yard. A year ago. The exhaust fumes from diesel locomotives are extremely high that they come inside my home and sometimes almost kill me to death. I’ve had to run out, get in my car and drive away. Now I have symptoms of brain cancer at 30 without being overweight. Strange vision problems. I find that using technology exacerbates the vision problems since I need to focus on what I am reading.
Diesel exhaust from locomotives is extremely underestimated as a cause of brain cancer in those who live in the vicinity of a rail yard.
I’m going to try a plant based ketone diet and start exercising heavily. Starving the cancer cells and increasing oxygen to the blood should in theory eliminate my problem.
My dad has secondary CNS Lymphoma and has been told there is nothing more they can do for him. They put him on IBRUTINAB and he’s been taking this pill daily for over a month and a half. My dad loves sweets, ice cream. He can’t get enough of it and even though I tell my mom to stop giving it to him she still does because she says he wants it. ? Any suggestions? He’s so disoriented and fatigued and I feel all that sweet stuff is making it worse?
He has secondary Lymphoma, you need to accept that hes going to die. Now you need to ensure that for as long as he has to live he is enjoying it. If that means ice cream then so be it. If hes already dead then I hope you helped make his life more enjoyable.
Dr Major,
Can you please share other protein ideas to eat for the Keto diet other than dairy products that you ate during your cancer treatments.
Thank you,
Tracy
Dr. Major,
My cousin has an agressive brain cancer, same as my aunt had and passed away, from a rare gene mutation that was passed on to her. Will a ketogenic diet also help her for this kind of brain tumor? The Dr. is giving her 6 months to a year to live. 🙁
Thank you,
Diana