Cancer is like a computer program gone wrong, the kernel panic of the human body. Unfortunately, we have no reboot button, and so cancer is the most serious of diseases. This year, almost six hundred thousand Americans will die from cancer. Despite the fact that cancer receives more NIH funding than any other illness, the death rates remain the same as in the 1950s. Tripping Over the Truth: The Return of the Metabolic Theory of Cancer tells the story of molecular biologist and science writer Travis Christofferson’s journey to discover why cancer has remained so elusive. The central theme of the book is that we’ve fundamentally mischaracterized the origin of cancer. Most scientists hold to the belief that cancer is a genetic disease, Travis explores the idea that cancer is, in fact, a disease of damaged metabolism. The metabolic theory of cancer stems from Nobel laureate Otto Warburg’s observation in 1924 that cancer cells lack the ability to produce energy using anything other than an ancient and inefficient process of fermentation. Warburg’s idea failed to gain critical mass, and by the 1960s had largely faded into oblivion. In 2012, Thomas Siegfried, Ph.D., released his book Cancer as a Metabolic Disease where he expanded on Warburg’s original hypothesis. In his book, Siegfried described how all cancer cells have damaged mitochondria, the organelle responsible for creating energy with oxygen. Inspired by The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee, Travis has done a excellent job of telling the rich story behind the metabolic theory of cancer. In this interview, Travis and I discuss some of the potential benefits and mechanisms of a ketogenic diet, hyperbaric oxygen, gluconeogenesis inhibitors and ketone supplements as possible cancer therapy. I would like to thank Dr. Tommy Wood for some of the questions asked in this interview, especially those about glioblastoma and women with the BRCA1 mutation and breast cancer. Here’s the outline of this interview with Travis Christofferson: 0:00:15    Book: Tripping Over the Truth: The Return of the Metabolic Theory of Cancer Illuminates a New and Hopeful Path to a Cure 0:00:34    How Travis became in terested in biology. 0:00:54    Travis has a fundamental curiosity. 0:01:10    The best doctors are the ones that do experiments on themselves. 0:01:22    Book: Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer by Tom Siegfried. 0:01:38    Book: The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. 0:02:16    Travis wanted to tell the rich story behind the science in Tom's book. 0:03:01    Podcast: Dominic D'Agostino on the Tim Ferriss show. 0:03:30    The Emperor is gene centric. 0:03:46    The difference between the genetic and metabolic theories of cancer. 0:04:08    Radiation, cell repair. 0:04:09    In the genetic theory, cancer arises through lesions on DNA. 0:04:43    The genetic theory is still the dominant theory. 0:04:55    In the metabolic theory, cancer is proliferated by damage to the mitochondria. 0:05:07    Cancer resorts to less efficient fermentation. 0:05:25    This less efficient metabolism sends a message to the DNA. 0:05:42    This new theory makes cancer look like a disease of order. 0:06:02    Everything that causes cancer damages mitochondria. 0:06:39    Paul Davies, cosmologist. 0:07:07    Worked with Stephen Hawking. 0:07:33    Video: Anna Barker at TEDMED 2010. 0:07:53    Cancer is incredibly complex compared to other diseases. 0:08:19    In 2008 atavistic model 0:08:48    Three million studies on cancer on PubMed. 0:09:20    In the beginning, there was single celled organisms. 0:09:26    With multicellular life, the rules changed. 0:09:43    The foetal genes are reexpressed in cancer. 0:10:03    This new understanding gives hope. 0:10:17    What can we do with this new knowledge. 0:10:28    Look after our mitochondria. 0:10:38    A ketogenic diet is a great way to achieve this. 0:10:48    Also in