Ketogenic Basics & Recipe

Best breakfast ever, if you're on the restricted ketogenic diet...

Ingredients

1 egg

1/4 c kale

1 Tbsp butter 

0.2 oz goat Brie cheese

1 small clove of garlic 

Pinch turmeric

Pinch cayanne 

Fresh ground pepper

Turn on the oven to 325. Take a ramekin and add the butter. Put it in the oven to melt. While the butter is melting, shred the kale and measure. Slice the garlic and set aside (as a topping). Pull out the ramekin. Add the shredded kale and crack the egg on top. Spice with turmeric & cayanne & cracked pepper. Add the goat cheese and place the ramekin back into the oven for about 10 minutes (less if you want it runny, more if you like it hard). Once out of the oven sprinkle with slices garlic.

Nutrition Info (200 calories)

18g Fat

8g Protein

3g Carbohydrate 

Ratio: 6 : 2.6 : 1

As you'll note, I'm not eating a perfect keto ratio (4 : 1 : 1) at every meal. I don't really care though, it's still keeping my glucose and ketone levels in the Seyfried zones so I feel good about it. Life is too short, and too stressful to be all measure-y and what not. It was delicious, and easy. I mean, whatever it takes to stay in ketosis, right?

I started reading up on why not to eat a restricted ketogenic diet last night and I couldn't find jack, or jimmy for that matter. I did it because I started to doubt the theory. Instead of finding anything negative, it reestablished my drive to continue. There definitely needs to be a caloric restriction though. If you don't limit your protein the tumor will still grow. Excess protein converts into glucose. It's important to only eat about 1g protein to each kilo of your body weight (for the RKD). To find out your body weight in kilos take your body weight (135 lbs), and divide it by 2.2 (135/2.2=61.36). So, I should only eat about 61 grams of protein a day. Nice and simple. As for carbs, I should stay below 20 grams (20g is a general rule for all). I am able to eat the rest of my calories from fat. I track everything that I eat with MyFitnessPal (an app for the phone and better yet on the desktop - on the desktop you can change the perameters of your fat/protein/carbs). My restricted calorie amount is 1290 (a 75% decrease from my daily metabolic rate).

Anyway, not that anyone really cares, but I just wanted to talk that out in case other brain tumor fighters were curious. 

Hope you're all having a fabulous day. I'm off to plant my cucumbers.

Buphenyl (Sodium Phenylbutyrate)

I'm embarrassed. Remember back a few months ago when I was ranting about that very expensive drug that treats gliomas? (As an aside, it's the same drug that Dr Burzynski uses to create his antineoplastons.) Well, apparently, I'm one of the lucky ones that can get it. I kind of assumed I couldn't because my doctor said it was a long shot. So, like a defeatist, I didn't bother to even check with my insurance. Yesterday, as I was reviewing my lists of recommended supplements and recommended medications, I decided to bite the bullet and not be afraid of hearing, "No".

After several phone calls, lots of hanging out on hold, it looks like Buphenyl (sodium phenylbutyrate) is mostly covered. If you recall, that is the prescription medication that is for people with urea cycle disorders (UCD); it is also used for off label use to fight various cancers.

After a little bit of web surfing I read that Aetna health insurance (not my health insurance - I'll be getting it though Blue Cross Blue Shield) goes as far as covering Buphenyl for UCD and also acute promyelocytic leukemia and malignant gliomas. Wow! The problem? As I try to find more proof that Buphenyl is effective to treat malignant gliomas, I can't seem to find it. There has been one complete response that I've found, but that's just one person. Shoot - that result could be as simple as tumor genetics.

I feel dumb because I wanted this drug, and now I wonder if it's actually worth the side effects and effort. I'm posting the study here for my other brain tumor fighters so that you guys have the info if you're interested...



There's more out on the web, but not much. Please feel free to email me (jessoldwyn@hotmail.com) or post links in the comments section with any information you find - or opinions. I'm not a fast responder to emails, but I read all of them and appreciate the help.