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Signs of cancer can appear long before diagnosis, study shows

theguardian.com

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Re: Signs of cancer can appear long before diagnosis, study shows

#41

Post by TurkishPoptart »

bitL wrote: post #15
foxyv wrote: post #10

Lately I've been doing 7 day fasts two times a year mostly to reduce visceral fat and reduce my chance of type 2 diabetes. However a lot of science is pointing to it being a good way to reduce cancer risk. Nothing definitive, but it's nice to think I may be helping my body fight possible cancer too. Maybe I will catch some of these things early during these phases where the genes are present but the cancer hasn't beg…

7 days fasting (electrolytes-only) gives me a week-long euphoria afterwards, but days 6-7 show some ugly symptoms of previous diseases, so persevering those is a bit tricky. It also leads to 10-12lb weight loss.

What do you consume during this time? How do you know it's safe? I'd like to try this sometime. Do you have any advice?

Re: Signs of cancer can appear long before diagnosis, study shows

#42

Post by nradov »

DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #35
kaitai wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a hugely important comment and given the demographics of HN, I'll bring up prostate cancer as an example. It is important to catch prostate cancer in younger men, as in younger men it tends to be an aggressive cancer and lead to mortality. Paradoxically, in older men, aggressive screening for prostate cancer is bad if you want men to live longer and healthier lives. To oversimplify a bit, old guys with prosta…

It's interesting that one argument against early detection (in certain situations) is that patients + medical community can't be trusted to act rationally with the information.

The more important argument is that testing is expensive. As a society we only have limited resources to devote to healthcare.

Re: Signs of cancer can appear long before diagnosis, study shows

#43

Post by nradov »

kaitai wrote: post #17
skwb wrote: post #12

While it is certainly interesting to hear of new developments for cancer screening, it must be taken in with the proper context. I see a lot of people without medical or public health training fall into the trap of thinking that any sort of screening mechanism is a net positive, without taking into consideration the "costs". For example, a lot of breast cancer screening has been highly controversial, because of eithe…

This is a hugely important comment and given the demographics of HN, I'll bring up prostate cancer as an example. It is important to catch prostate cancer in younger men, as in younger men it tends to be an aggressive cancer and lead to mortality. Paradoxically, in older men, aggressive screening for prostate cancer is bad if you want men to live longer and healthier lives. To oversimplify a bit, old guys with prosta…

Pathologists say that detailed autopsies of old people almost always turn up some form of cancer, often slow growing. This is true regardless of cause of death. If you live long enough you'll eventually get cancer: it's inevitable.

Re: Signs of cancer can appear long before diagnosis, study shows

#45

Post by lukifer »

TurkishPoptart wrote: post #41
bitL wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

7 days fasting (electrolytes-only) gives me a week-long euphoria afterwards, but days 6-7 show some ugly symptoms of previous diseases, so persevering those is a bit tricky. It also leads to 10-12lb weight loss.

What do you consume during this time? How do you know it's safe? I'd like to try this sometime. Do you have any advice?

I've only done 3-days and not 7, but for n=1:

- make sure to consume salt (adding to water is the easiest); if anything, err on the side of both too much water, and too much salt (we normally consume a lot of both through food).

- Some people still consume certain zero-calorie items, like black coffee, green tea, or bone broth. You still get most of the fasting benefits, and it might be a good way to start (bone broth with added salt is a great way to keep electrolytes up, and fill your stomach).

- I experienced a bit of back pain; apparently muscle pains are common, especially with new fasters. Accounts vary on this being evidence of "detox", or a side effect of mineral deficiency; but supplementing minerals in water probably couldn't hurt.

- Dr. Jason Fung is a great resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIuj-oMN-Fk

- You'll find it odd that you don't know what to do during mealtimes. :) Have a plan for another way to take a break during lunchtime, etc.

- Optional: it's vastly easier if you start already in ketosis (IF and/or low-carb)

Re: Signs of cancer can appear long before diagnosis, study shows

#46

Post by tartoran »

bitL wrote: post #26
agumonkey wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what kind of activities do you do during the fast ? normal work life or retreat / reading ?

First 3 days normal stuff including intense HIIT training, then I try to relax in my spare time for the remaining 4 days (normal business). On the first day I might suffer from a slight headache if I was used to a lot of caffeine/sugar. On the second day I am the "smelliest", so it's best to have that one over the weekend when I don't have to be around other people.

> On the second day I am the "smelliest", so it's best to have that one over the weekend when I don't have to be around other people.

I've never done a 7 day fast and before I do I'd like to be better informed. What do you mean when you say the smelliest? What does it smell like? Is there some kind of smell throughout the fast? Thank you

Re: Signs of cancer can appear long before diagnosis, study shows

#47

Post by bitL »

TurkishPoptart wrote: post #41
bitL wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

7 days fasting (electrolytes-only) gives me a week-long euphoria afterwards, but days 6-7 show some ugly symptoms of previous diseases, so persevering those is a bit tricky. It also leads to 10-12lb weight loss.

What do you consume during this time? How do you know it's safe? I'd like to try this sometime. Do you have any advice?

First, try just 1-2 days but remove all caffeine/sugar like a week ahead. Once you can do 1-2 days without any major problems, try doing 3 days (Friday + weekend). Once you are fine with that, try 5-7 days, water + electrolytes only, no food, no juice; drink however as much as you want, if you feel weird, drink more (always with electrolytes). If something really feels off, have some energy bars ready to intervene and break fast quickly and safely. Also, check yourself for diagnoses that might respond badly to fasting and in that case avoid doing it.

Re: Signs of cancer can appear long before diagnosis, study shows

#48

Post by austinjp »

bitL wrote: post #15
foxyv wrote: post #10

Lately I've been doing 7 day fasts two times a year mostly to reduce visceral fat and reduce my chance of type 2 diabetes. However a lot of science is pointing to it being a good way to reduce cancer risk. Nothing definitive, but it's nice to think I may be helping my body fight possible cancer too. Maybe I will catch some of these things early during these phases where the genes are present but the cancer hasn't beg…

7 days fasting (electrolytes-only) gives me a week-long euphoria afterwards, but days 6-7 show some ugly symptoms of previous diseases, so persevering those is a bit tricky. It also leads to 10-12lb weight loss.

> days 6-7 show some ugly symptoms of previous diseases

Could you describe this? I'm not sure what it means.

Re: Signs of cancer can appear long before diagnosis, study shows

#49

Post by bitL »

tartoran wrote: post #46
bitL wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First 3 days normal stuff including intense HIIT training, then I try to relax in my spare time for the remaining 4 days (normal business). On the first day I might suffer from a slight headache if I was used to a lot of caffeine/sugar. On the second day I am the "smelliest", so it's best to have that one over the weekend when I don't have to be around other people.

> On the second day I am the "smelliest", so it's best to have that one over the weekend when I don't have to be around other people. I've never done a 7 day fast and before I do I'd like to be better informed. What do you mean when you say the smelliest? What does it smell like? Is there some kind of smell throughout the fast? Thank you

Smell is like when you don't wash yourself for a week, quite unpleasant. It's gone on day 3, but on day 2 I am rather staying alone. Then from day 3 you might suffer from bad breath due to ketosis, regular oral hygiene is important when around other people.

Re: Signs of cancer can appear long before diagnosis, study shows

#50

Post by bitL »

jobseeker990 wrote: post #38
bitL wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

7 days fasting (electrolytes-only) gives me a week-long euphoria afterwards, but days 6-7 show some ugly symptoms of previous diseases, so persevering those is a bit tricky. It also leads to 10-12lb weight loss.

> show some ugly symptoms of previous diseases This could be your body breaking apart old injuries to start repairing them better.

I can't really tell, I had 4 symptoms of past problems suddenly escalating on day 6 last time I took the fast, and since then I never experienced them again (so far), so there might be something interesting going on. It's possible autophagy and fat burning might remove some "memory" but I have no scientific explanation for it. My theory is that as body doesn't have to fight all kinds of pathogens coming in from food, it can start correcting internal problems/mistakes instead with the same processes it normally uses to fight external threats.
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