My wife has high cholesterol and I have lung cancer which has recently spread to my ribs, spine, sternum and most lymph nodes so I now have nothing to lose by trying the 5:2 diet.

My wife had had her cholesterol problem for many years she was just above the maximum recommended level. She had followed a strict diet with exercise, we are both vegetarians, she had also been prescribed statins but these made her very ill and she had to stop. We saw the program and have looked at many websites about the 5:2 diet. My wife started first about six weeks ago. The first thing she had done was a test of her cholesterol level and her IGF-1. After five weeks of the diet these tests were repeated and the results were amazing, on the scales used here her cholesterol had dropped by 0.9 which brought her down to a very acceptable level, just in the lower half of the recommended level.

I was not able to go onto the 5:2 diet right away, my weight was far too low and I was concerned about catching cancer cachexia. About a year ago I had a serious lung infection which resulted in me losing a bit over 10 kgs in about three weeks, it has taken me a year of force feeding myself with food supplements to get my weight back to a safe level. My understanding is that with a high IGF-1 level replication of cells takes place including reproducing the defective ones with all their faults, when the IGF-1 level is reduced to the lower part of the range replication of cells is replaced with repair of existing cells, hopefully this process might get reduce the number of cancer promoting cells that I have.

My next CT Scan is in about three weeks, on the same day I will have a blood test of my IGF-1. I will also join my wife on the 5:2 diet. The five days will be Monday to Friday and the weekends will be the reduced calorie days. About 9-10 weeks later I’ll be due for another CT Scan and again on the same day I’ll have a test of my IGF-1. Between the start and finish reference points there should be a good indication of how effective the 5:2 diet is for me. Hopefully on the 5 part of the diet I’ll be able to maintain my weight.

It seems that the term IGF-1 for Insulin Like Growth Factor was coined in the 1930s or maybe earlier, I wonder if with today’s knowledge they might have given it another name. When some people read or hear Insulin Like they lose interest unless they are diabetics. None diabetics tend to miss the fact that this diet could be useful to them.

I hope that in about ten weeks I’ll be reporting on the beneficial effects of the 5:2 diet in my fight against lung cancer.

Thanks for your comments Couscous. I was diagnosed three and a half years ago with NSCLC and 13 years ago with Myelodysplasia and have been a vegetarian for more than 30 years. One specialist described me as being mildly obsessive about my protein intake, I am not. Her comments were made because on just two average days I’d listed my protein intake just to check that my intake was adequate. This specialist was generally very rude and seems to have been trained in the days when the patient was kept in the dark, I no longer have any contact with her and now use another. IGF-1 seems to be linked to the amount of protein that you take so on the fast days the idea is to reduce the protein and calories so that the IGF-1 will be lowered. I will be ensuring that my average protein for the seven days is adequate though,I do have the advice of a dietician on this. There is medication available to reduce IGF-1 but the side effects are terrible so I’ll stick to the 5:2 diet and hope that I’m one of those who have the right genes to benefit, have had an analysis of my genes and seem to be in with a good chance. Naturally I have informed my doctor about this, his is particularly interested because he had the cholesterol problem which is far worse than the one that my wife has or hopefully had.

I really don’t know much about muscle building but I think it might be related to IGF-1 and Protein, its been studied since about 1930 but the useful stuff has only appeared since about 1990. I find it best to use Google Scholar for searches like this, can’t give you the URL as I try to type it in, it goes to the Australian one but you could try scholar.google.com, you get much better quality searches on things like this.

We discussed this diet at the cancer support group yesterday and several people mentioned knowing of others who have had cholesterol reducing success with it but none quite as much as my wife.

Saw the Oncologist yesterday and when we counted the number of days I’m too soon for another CT Scan following this appointment so it will be delayed for three weeks which means sometime around the 20th August which will then be when I start the 5:2 diet. If necessary I’ll increase my protein on the non-fasting days to maintain my weight.

I don’t think we can post pictures here so instead here is a link to photos of my first 5:2 calorie restriction day. I feel that it went well.

http://nkwaring.blogspot.com.au/p/progress-report-other-events.html

My IGF-1 was measured a couple of weeks ago but due to a short holiday I’ve only just picked up the results today. In the metric scale they are 24 which is very high equivalent to 180 in the old scale. It seems that I might benefit quite a lot from the 5:2 diet but to be safe I’ll be looking at a few things.

My weight has been around 75 kg for a few decades. Last year I was in hospital with a lung infection and my weight dropped to 60.2, since then I’ve been on a high protein diet and have managed to increase it back to about 73 kg. Problem is that if I let my weight get too low I could end up with cancer cachexia which is a killer. I now have the quandary, one end of the scale is good for a low IGF-1 readings but bad for cachexia, the other end of the scale is bad for IGF-1 but may avoid cachexia. Do I jump in the frying pan or the fire? All that I can do is wait till my next CT Scan in seven weeks when I’ll have a comprehensive blood test including IGF-1.

Thanks MountainMyst, its not really a crisis, it’s under control and finding out about my high IGF-1 explains why I have this slight problem, I think the 5:2 diet is probably the best treatment but will have to wait and see. I take a protein supplement and now over the five days I take the full seven days dose, this seems to be maintaining my weight, it drops with the two day reduced calories but seems to bounce back after the first three days of normal eating. We’ve both come to the same conclusion as you, we have our blood test first thing on Monday morning which is after our two days, I also have my CT Scans at the same time, the two buildings are only a block apart, when its all over we have the luxury of eating breakfast out, sometimes we can see workers rushing for their trains, it’s lovely being retired.