Dr. Matthew Phillips is a full-time clinical and research neurologist at Waikato Hospital in Hamilton, New Zealand. His foremost passion is to explore the potential feasibility, safety, and efficacy of metabolic therapies, particularly fasting and ketogenic diets, in creating alternate metabolic states that enhance neuron bioenergetics and may lead to improvements in not only the symptoms, but also function and quality of life, for people with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and a variety of additional neurological disorders.
Upon completing his Neurology training in Melbourne, Dr. Phillips realised that he had no interest in going the usual route of further specialising in a particular neurological disorder. He wanted to specialise in a therapy, but no such fellowship existed. Thus, he bought a one-way ticket to the other side of the world and departed the medical system, travelling and working in different places for three years, creating his own self-taught fellowship during which he learned about a variety of therapeutic possibilities that he had never previously considered.
Upon completing his 3-year “fellowship” it dawned on him that metabolic strategies, particularly fasting and ketogenic diets, were promising therapeutic options for a range of disorders. He re-entered the medical system by commencing work as a neurologist in New Zealand, where his colleagues have helped him to apply these strategies to a number of humanity’s most difficult neurological disorders so as to determine whether they are feasible, safe, and can make an impact in terms of helping patients. This has resulted in his team conducting a world-first randomised controlled study of a ketogenic diet in Parkinson’s.
The Canadian-born, Australian-trained neurologist ultimately wishes to help create a new field of Metabolic Neurology that emphasises applying metabolic strategies in healthcare so as to potentially heal many difficult disorders at their core, with the overarching goal being the improved health and enhanced nobility of humanity.
Please consider supporting Low Carb Down Under via Patreon. A small monthly contribution will assist in the costs of filming and editing these presentations and will allow us to keep producing high quality content free from advertising. For further information visit;
26 responses to “Dr. Matthew Phillips – ‘Metabolic Strategies as Therapies in Cancer and Neurodegeneration’”
Certainly promising… individual case reports are encouraging enough to merit continuation of the research with the potential for wide variety of issues as a primary treatment.
Excellent presentation Dr Phillips! You and the others like you that are exploring these strategies are the heralds of the new era of human health. Love it.
Great talk. Thank you.
Very interesting. That seems to turn the medical approach on its head. How long for the medical establishment to take this on board?
Never. There is little profit in prevention and self healing.
It seems to come back to the same common denominators : Metabolic health comes from not eating seed oils, sugars, carbs, processed foods and non-human foods. It also follows that IF, Ketones and Autophagy are also what aids in better metabolic health outcomes.
Cancer cannot prosper if you don’t feed it nor create the oxidation and inflammation.
So simple and true! Looking forward for more clinical studies!
I’m reminded of progress in physics, where first electricity and magnetism were unified, then they plus the strong and weak nuclear forces got folded in to the unified theory, leaving only gravity on the outside (Einstein spent the last decades of his life searching for a single, unified “theory of everything.” What we’re seeing in the mitochondrial theory Dr Phillips presents is like a unified theory of diseases. Remarkable, and enormously encouraging.
I think this is a very interesting theory of cancer. Our current ideas have not produced significant changes in cancer survival in decades. The ‘War on Cancer” has been a failure. However, these new ideas will take decades to take hold.
“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it”
— Max Planck
Please continue with these lectures. They are invaluable.
I think he is on to something! Aiming at restoring one’s health instead of destroying it further with chemo and radiation is at least offering someone a lifeline they might not have discovered otherwise. People have been actively ruining their health since the womb today and it is good to see someone who is willing to go the the root of the issue for restoration of health not just try to mop up the end results which mostly fail miserably.
I find myself wondering what role the high level of polyunsaturated fats in the standard diet might play here. A lot of mitochondrial processes are membrane associated, and I would think that if you mess with the lipid composition of those membranes too much, bad things could happen.
Chris Knobbe’s theory in a nutshell.
Yeah, would be interesting to know. You would need a long cross over trial with keto with high N-6 versus keto with now N-6. With cancer already there, it’s the absence of sugar that is helping for sure, but N-6 effect stays unknown. With fasting you’re definitely not any any of the two.
Add to this the number of people taking cholesterol drugs… cholesterol is used for your cell and trying to get rid of that is keeping the cell wall weak and capable of more and more insults.
That is an interesting hypothesis. It would be a great premise for a clinical trial. Good thinking on your part. Its this sort of imaginative ideation that we need in science.
Listened to this at the conference. Such a privilege. Now I’m listening again and relearning. Thank you
What a brilliant man
Saw an interview with a guy diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. He fasted for several weeks. No chemo or radiation. Anyway, is now cancer free.
There was a study that indicated that some melanomas like ketones. As someone who had a melanoma and uses keto I’d like to see more research on this.
Brilliant results I am inspired to fast.
Excellent presentation.
Thank you.
These kinds of presentations are the absolute best. How to lessen the disease risks and how to reverse or slow down the disease process.
One of the best lectures I’ve seen on the subject, and one of the most important. He hit the nail on the head on each topic. It’s refreshing to see young medical scientists preaching the real cause of most of our diseases. Thank you.
Wow this was amazing and I think true. They only thing I thought it failed at was recommendations for every day people.. like how much do you need to fast to restore your mitochondia. I also thought it was great pointing out how modern medicine has become stuck in the Bacteria Model. They just can’t, or won’t, look for solutions today that aren’t of the same type of solutions.
The best ever lecture on Low Carb Down Under. Thank you
Absolutely brilliant! Bravo! Makes total sense! It can only be hoped our medical behemoth of a ship can be turned around!