Cannabinoids and brain cancer

Fascinating stuff, today has been productive. I enjoyed my visit to St. George's University Hospital. Playing an active role in the future of cancer research as a patient is incredibly rewarding in many ways. Dr. Wai Liu has been working on some impressive research into cannabinoids for brain cancer. 

More data is needed for this research and I aim to try my best to learn more and to speed up this process. I will provide more details in the near future. 

We discussed at length the potential of a combination of cannabinoids alongside a well structured, restricted ketogenic diet. I gained a lot from today and Dr. Liu thought that what I am doing with my adapted ketogenic diet is very interesting. 

Cannabinoids- clinical trials

Slightly nervous about tomorrow.

I will be meeting with Dr.Wai Liu at St Georges University Hospital in the morning to discuss funding specific clinical trials into cannabis oil + a restrictive ketogenic diet for patients with glioblastoma brain tumours. It is all looking fairly promising from the correspondence I have had over the last few weeks. I find his work over the past decade very impressive and encouraging.

Moving forward, this research is incredibly important for countless individuals with terminal, incurable cancer of all types however there is a growing need for more data as we progress. Recent amendments to the Psychoactive Substances Bill will allow for greater freedom for more specialised research into cannabinoids for cancer management so I believe we must strike while the iron is hot as there is currently a heightened sense of awareness for the great potential of Dr. Liu's work.

I feel a huge sense of responsibility for a lot of people, including families who are still grieving, hoping others don't have to go through such unimaginable loss, and for others who are still fighting to manage 'incurable' cancer indefinitely. I have experienced loss, however I have also seen many remarkable things and met some truly extraordinary individuals.

Today has been a fun day with food

Lots of cooking and experimenting today! 

My wax worms came today. I'll enjoy eating them tomorrow with breakfast and breeding some in the near future. They're high in fat and great for ketogenic diets (yes, they were alive in this picture):

Analysing insect nutrition is always very interesting. This is from Daniella Martin's brilliant book 'Edible'. 

I also got some fantastic quality lamb hearts for only 73p each. Very fatty and delicious. 

For lunch today I had sweetbreads. After preparing and cooking them so many times I think I've finally perfected it.: 

For those not in the know, this is what sweetbreads are: 

This food always brings my ketones up fast and stabilises blood glucose very effectively. I made a video as to why I think this might be. Here is the link: http://youtu.be/3SUFLrgrmAA

Tomorrow morning I will eat the wax worms and take pictures (might even film it). 

So much has happened, feeling great but mentally fatigued

I'm working on a lot of things at the moment and felt like it was time for an update, otherwise it would have never been done!

Recently I have done a number of interviews online which have been great for getting the message across about the potential of the ketogenic diet to manage cancer. Please note that I am very careful with my wording and that I would always say 'manage', never cure, even though cure is always the aim. I believe that I will need to be on this diet for the rest of my life to maintain this status quo within my body and brain to keep the cancer in 'complete remission' indefinitely.



Here are some some things I have been working on recently:

1. My website, in which I aim to raise awareness about metabolic therapy and share research. This will have a lot of information soon!

www.metabolictherapy.co.uk

2. My book 'Taking Control', which I am working on currently.

The book will detail my story my individual cancer story from diagnosis to the day I complete writing. I will discuss the current research on metabolic therapy as a management strategy for brain cancer.

I have realised recently that writing a good book with substance is actually quite challenging but I am determined to make it engaging, intelligent, and readable. I would like the majority of the profits from the book to go towards research into metabolic therapy. I am already working hard to make this happen.

3. I have done a few interviews recently which can be found here:

http://zerocarbzen.com/2015/05/31/healing-brain-cancer-with-a-zero-carb-ketogenic-diet-by-andrew-scarborough/

http://superhumanradio.com/shr-1660-the-blueprint-power-hour-curing-brain-cancer-with-the-ketogenic-diet-one-man-s-journey.html

http://patriciadaly.com/cure-cancer-vs-manage-cancer/


4. I have a new supplement which I have found incredibly useful- Ketoforce. I take it twice a day now as a replacement for my epilepsy medication. It also allows me to maintain therapeutic ketosis and keep blood glucose low so that I can do more exercise and eat a little bit more protein which is very nice! I've been struggling to put weight on for a while now. I feel great but its just a superficial thing mainly. I've never been someone who is overly concerned with what I look like, its simply a confidence issue and slight insecurity.

5. I have a girlfriend now and she makes me very happy. This is a very big thing for me and something I thought a lot about even though it all happened relatively quickly. She's lovely and I'm so thankful that she is in my life. I would love to do something special for her soon because she has been so supportive of me in so many ways. I'll think of something good. :)

6. I have attended some meetings of the brain tumour support group at the Maggie's Centre by Charing Cross Hospital. I enjoyed this very much even though at times it was very emotional. I wish I had known about this place 2 years ago as I had very little support when I actually had disabilities and felt depressed. There was a very keen interest in the ketogenic diet when I mentioned it after sharing my personal story which was great to see.

https://www.maggiescentres.org/our-centres/

7. I'm still waiting on a few things, but in the meantime I will stop being lazy and update this blog more often!

I've started going to an outdoor gym 3 times a week with my girlfriend as it has been fairly warm recently. I'm hoping the increase in protein will help me to put on a bit more weight. I have often been hesitant to do this because  attempting this without the Ketoforce supplement caused me to have some facial twitching. I still find it remarkable how stable bg and high ketones keep all my symptoms in check so brilliantly.  In the past week or so I have had days where I feel incredibly energetic and mentally very sharp. Its a tremendous feeling and while I still have some problems associated with any kind of acquired brain injury, I'm enjoying moving and thinking at a pace akin to how I used to live. I feel at though the old me is coming back and I desperately need to help others improve at the very least their quality of life.

I have managed to achieve brilliant control of all my symptoms effortlessly while maintaining impressive bg and bk readings throughout the day in the last few weeks  specifically which is very pleasing. I know that the ketogenic diet in itself is not the be all and end all for cancer management so I am constantly striving to improve it and to find other methods of metabolic therapy that can have a synergistic benefit with a restricted ketogenic diet.


This book and all of the research and hospital visits to help others is mentally exhausting, hence the title of this blog, but it is incredibly rewarding. I do need a break, but that will come. Thank you very much for reading and for all your support whoever is reading this!

Regular exercise routine

I now have a more regular exercise routine thanks largely to a book that I re-found recently. I like to workout as soon as I wake up and I don't like using equipment so this book is ideal and is one of the best fitness books I have ever read. It has an incredible amount of progressive bodyweight exercises for all abilities. 

Patience

At the moment I'm sitting in my room thinking about all the things I need to do but I'm doing very little about it. This is definitely a case of paralysis by analysis and certainly very out of character for me. I have just had a minor skin operation (I will discuss this more in future) and I am waiting on a number of things so I need to be patient. Everything on the outside is so calm and still yet thoughts inside my head are spinning around rapidly. This time it is predominantly with excitement so I can deal with that! 

May started with me receiving my MRI results which were very positive. Rather than the usual routine I had come to expect from these meetings, we barely mentioned anything about the latest scan results because it was so clear that they were the best they could be and I had recently come off levetiracetam completely so even though there is always a doubt, I was quietly confident. My symptoms were largely resolved and I could see out of the corner of my eye that the scan showed noticeable improvement. 

My oncologist seemed very interested in my unique personal approach to the ketogenic diet and asked me a lot of questions about how I thought it should be implemented. He asked me if I am working at the moment because he is very keen to have me on his team in some capacity to help other patients with the ketogenic diet in clinical settings and to further research in this area with the potential of starting clinical trials. I was delighted with this opportunity and I instantly stressed how keen I am to get started as soon as possible. I have been desperate to get back to work for a long time but was unable to due to fatigue, dizzy spells, vertigo, trigerminal neuralgia, all that fun stuff that I barely feel at all now. I'm still waiting and a little impatient but I have been assured that he will get back to me soon. For my records I asked for a copy of my last 2 MRI scans so that I can compare the 2. 

I'm now going to ask for the CD after every scan so that I don't have to wait for results. I have found that to be quite a stressful thing in the past, luckily I have a pretty good idea about how to best interpret these scans. In a strange way I quite enjoy it because the brain is so fascinating. Here is a video of my latest scan that I took while I was bored! Below is one of the stills. 

*video coming soon

It is quite clear to me (although these scans can be quite vague), that the unusual looking tissue on the right hand side- left temporal lobe area- is scar tissue and that there is no visible disease here as there was previously. It looks a little menacing but it really isn't and I'm not overly concerned by it. I will keep an eye on this area and take every action I can to attempt to continue the healing process. Ideally in the future I would like hyperbaric oxygen therapy alongside my ketogenic diet to give me the best chance of achieving this and to potentially give me better survival odds going forward. I firmly believe that I can manage this disease indefinitely with the right metabolic approaches. Having the access to more of these approaches and the opportunity to help others in clinical settings would be a great step forward so I'm very excited about this prospect.

MRI results- just over 2 years (Anaplastic Astrocytoma)

Fantastic MRI scan results today, the best yet. I look forward to viewing the images again on my computer. Remarkable healing thanks to my own version of the ketogenic diet after I declined more chemotherapy over a year ago. 

I will continue to work on the diet, to share my ideas, and to improve it. My oncologist has offered me a job which may mean moving back to London. :)