<story><title>Impact of fasting and calorie restriction on cancer cells</title><url>https://osher.ucsf.edu/patient-care/integrative-medicine-resources/cancer-and-nutrition/faq/cancer-and-fasting-calorie-restriction</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>DoreenMichele</author><text>&lt;i&gt;As mentioned above, it may not be appropriate for everyone, particularly those who are underweight or very ill&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I have an incurable, serious condition. In recent years, I&amp;#x27;m fairly regularly too broke to eat adequately. As a consequence, I fast or semi-fast part of most months.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve slowly gotten healthier. Fasting or semi-fasting is not the only reason by any stretch of the imagination.&lt;p&gt;Anecdotally, it&amp;#x27;s gotten easier as I&amp;#x27;ve gotten healthier.&lt;p&gt;I read once (or heard from someone) that if you cut calories by 80 percent -- a figure not shown in their chart defining their terms -- it triggers the &amp;quot;starvation&amp;quot; response. Your body thinks you are starving, much as if you weren&amp;#x27;t eating at all.&lt;p&gt;I have found that semi-fasting -- eating maybe 20 percent of normal calories -- has fasting-like benefits for my condition while being much, much easier to endure as someone with a real serious and incurable medical condition.&lt;p&gt;This is absolutely not medical advice of any sort for anyone. I am not a doctor. I&amp;#x27;m a person with a chronic illness running my mouth on the internet.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>feralimal</author><text>Don&amp;#x27;t worry about not being a doctor - that&amp;#x27;s a good thing!&lt;p&gt;Doctors would NOT advise anyone to cut calories by 80% even if, as in your case, it improves your health.  Nor would they advise a diabetic to abstain from carbs, and so take away the trigger for their condition.  (Ie - you don&amp;#x27;t have diabetes if you don&amp;#x27;t eat carbs.)  99.9% of doctors will only prescribe drugs.&lt;p&gt;The medical industry is not about well - its about maximising illness for profit.  And improving diet and eating behaviour is the last thing they will do - there&amp;#x27;s no money in that!</text></comment>
<story><title>Impact of fasting and calorie restriction on cancer cells</title><url>https://osher.ucsf.edu/patient-care/integrative-medicine-resources/cancer-and-nutrition/faq/cancer-and-fasting-calorie-restriction</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>DoreenMichele</author><text>&lt;i&gt;As mentioned above, it may not be appropriate for everyone, particularly those who are underweight or very ill&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I have an incurable, serious condition. In recent years, I&amp;#x27;m fairly regularly too broke to eat adequately. As a consequence, I fast or semi-fast part of most months.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve slowly gotten healthier. Fasting or semi-fasting is not the only reason by any stretch of the imagination.&lt;p&gt;Anecdotally, it&amp;#x27;s gotten easier as I&amp;#x27;ve gotten healthier.&lt;p&gt;I read once (or heard from someone) that if you cut calories by 80 percent -- a figure not shown in their chart defining their terms -- it triggers the &amp;quot;starvation&amp;quot; response. Your body thinks you are starving, much as if you weren&amp;#x27;t eating at all.&lt;p&gt;I have found that semi-fasting -- eating maybe 20 percent of normal calories -- has fasting-like benefits for my condition while being much, much easier to endure as someone with a real serious and incurable medical condition.&lt;p&gt;This is absolutely not medical advice of any sort for anyone. I am not a doctor. I&amp;#x27;m a person with a chronic illness running my mouth on the internet.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ganafagol</author><text>And maybe you would have gotten even better without this forced fasting.&lt;p&gt;Now you may consider me heartless for this response, and that would be sad because I really feel for you man. But this is why anecdotical evidence, especially first-hand from people affected, does not hold much ground in the scientific method.&lt;p&gt;In other words, my comment provides neither less nor more evidence than your comment does.</text></comment>