Cancer Metabolism

Oxygen-based metabolism is more efficient and sustainable than fermentation, which is rapid but wasteful. Seyfried's work is described as linking approximately equal glucose and ketone concentrations with controlled or reversed tumor growth. Cancer cells rely primarily on anaerobic fermentation, an energy pathway that does not require oxygen. Cancer cells consume glucose at a rate 15 times higher than any other cell in the body. The article claims cancer thrives under high glucose availability, low oxygen, and acidity. Cancer cells are described as metabolically inflexible and reliant almost exclusively on glucose. Cancer cells have adapted to function in low-oxygen, hypoxic conditions. The Warburg effect creates a selective vulnerability when glucose is lowered and the body shifts toward ketone metabolism. The article says tumor growth resumed when glucose rose again. Ketosis alone is presented as addressing glucose starvation of cancer cells. The article presents cancer strategy as creating an internal environment opposite to the conditions cancer prefers. The article says lowering glucose intake is the first major condition for addressing cancer.