IPT, or Insulin Potentiate Therapy, is one way of administrating chemotherapy on a low dosage, trying to aim as much as possible cancer cells and leave healthy cells undamaged. The target of this therapy, as other low dose chemotherapy methods, is to lower cancer cells resistance to the treatment. In the IPT method chemotherapy is administrated on a relatively low dosage (generally 20-25% of the doses given in standard chemotherapy) , after the administrated of insulin (1). This method has shown great efficiency on cancer patients with aggressive tumors, by reducing the size of the tumors and preventing their spreading, without the side effects we all relate to chemotherapy, such as: Loss of appetite, hair loss, nausea and vomits, tiredness and so on.
Dr. Alvarez from Stella Maris Clinic explains about the administration of Low Dose Chemo:
How does it work?
Before administrating chemotherapy, a dose of insulin is injected into the patient’s body, in order to reduce the sugar levels.
We have already learned that cancer needs sugar in order to survive, and that cancer cells thrives under high sugar environment. They are not able to use oxygen in order to produce energy for themselves, and so they use the second largest energy source they can, which is glucose. This was defined by scientist and novel prize winner, Otto Warburg, as “anaerobic breathing” or ” fermentation” (2). As It is a common saying that “cancer likes sugar”, as it constantly needs available energy, found easily in glucose, in order to survive. This is why some treatment methods talk about sugar starvation for cancer patients.
Dr. Alvarez from Stella Maris Clinic explains how sugar, or lack of sugar, may affect cancer cells and help potentiate different cancer therapies:
The insulin injected into the body prior to giving the chemotherapy is reducing the sugar levels, something that cancer cells depend on, and so it leaves the cancer cells much more vulnerable to the chemotherapy than regular cells. This way, lower dose of chemotherapy given, affects strongly the cancer cells and kills them, without almost harming the healthy cells. Therefore, this method is also called “selective chemotherapy”. Very little side effects are feeling during this treatment, some patients have none.
IPT therapy is given along with the natural treatment for strengthening the immune system and has proven to be very effective in case chemotherapy is necessary.
(1) https://www.cancertutor.com/ipt/
(2) http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2017/05/15/sugar-and-cancer-what-you-need-to-know/
