Hi all - sorry I am a newbie so bear with me…
I will be starting chemo next week and I happened upon this thread
community.breastcancer.org/forum/69/topic/768785?page=1
I had a look around the internet and it seems there is some science behind the idea and the ladies on the thread were all very positive. There are two US trials running but not yet finished.
The idea is that fasting puts normal cells into slowdown but not the cancer cells so the cancer cells get hit by the chemo and side effects to normal cells are reduced.
I am seeing the chemo nurse on Thurs and thought I might bounce off her. I am not sure if this is just some bampot idea and I wondered if anyone else had good or bad experiences or knew anything about it? The idea of reducing side effects is pretty seductive. I am not sure what to expect but I am bracing myself for the worst.
Thanks everyone.
Hiya
I’d never heard of this! However I would never be able to manage it as I have been starving hungry after every bout of chemo - to not eat would be pure torture!! I’m sure I will be twice the size by the end of this ;D
Lynne
What a great username!
I’m like Lynn, I don’t think I’d be able to even contemplate fasting during chemo. One of the things that helps (me) to ward of nausea is making sure my tummy’s full, and some of the antiemetics I’ve been given list increased appetite as well-known side-effects so I think it would be very very difficult to do. Just looking at how difficult it is to diet when NOT on chemo, I think it’d be almost impossible to starve myself while on chemo. My onc told me to just eat when I needed to and not worry about any extra weight I might put on (only 8lb, so I’m feeling very lucky with that), as he said the body needs the fuel to recover from the poisons and it should come off afterwards reasonably easily. We’ll just have to see about THAT last bit of advice…
I agree with CM - chemo is hard enough on the body without stressing it more with fasting. I seem to think there’s been some research shared about fasting and BC generally on the “diet and research” thread with idea that fasting kickstarts body processes that can help tackle cancer and this seems to be what the research article indicates. I always say I’m open to new ideas so maybe I need to rethink but since I have chemo tablets for 2 weeks out of 3 don’t think I should fast for that long but it might work for IV treatments… Do let us know what your medics say.
I agree and I think that by and large, your body lets you know what it wants to get through chemo and its a time when you have to take it gently with your body. Don’t know about others but I craved different foods after each bout of chemo and put that down to needing different things through the process - its killing cells cumulatively, after all.
take care
x
fasting?? I couldnt do it. my appetite is all over the place like a mad womans breakfast! I am on tablet chemo at mo also, 2 weeks on one off. I have gone off lots of sweet things now(phew) and nibble savoury stuff. I had forgotton what my normal appetite was since sept I have had steroids pumped in. Now I am off them I have lost 8lb without trying(in 5 weeks). I eat what I fancy when i need to.
x sarah
What a great idea! I have done a few fasts before and they are brilliant, but maybe on chemo complete fasting wold be difficult, juice fasting could be the answer.
For me personally my body had no f**king idea what it needed to over come chemo! (In brief I had 4 chemos, was bedridden with se’s changed to a super-sonically healthy, liver cleansing diet and then was comparatively fine).
I am fairly certain that cinnamon bagels covered in butter was not ideal for helping me fight cancer, which is what I ate after for a week after my second chemo! Or even better, 2 days after my first chemo it was by b/friend’s birthday and so I had 5 pieces of KFC, chips and 2 glasses of champange. Steroids may make you fat, red and bloated, but hell, they make food taste good!!! BUT they don’t drive your body to eat the right food.
Here is my story
breastcancercare.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=25655&p=423555&hilit=+gretchen+please+read#p423555
Don;t expect any encouragement from a NHS nurse, she will probably be over weight herself and will advise you to eat what ever you fancy and when the steroids & nausea kicks in, that could be anything and everything.
You feel sick on chemo, so it would probably be a great time to eat less. Remember that when we are ill we automatically loose our appetite, our body gives our organs a rest so that it can get to work on fighting infection, it does not need more over-loading. Also interesting is the one thing that all people who live to over 100 have in common is that they do not over eat and are slightly underweight.
Fasting is a brilliant idea, I’m not forming an opinion on the slowdown of cancer cells, but for helping your survive chemo, seriously look at your diet. Not only that, your are protecting your liver so that your body will be stronger to help reduce the risk of the cancer returning.
What a lot of useful stuff! Thank you.
I think you are right that the HNS nurse will not approve but I will ask her. If there are two/three studies going on there must be some basis to it. The theory sounds logical in that the normal cells batten down the hatches during fasting and temporaily cease growing. So all the fast growing cells eg lining of gastro track, white blood, mouth lining don’t get hammered so hard by the chemo.
I am going to go and find the Maggies centre tomorrow and see if I can get hold of the nutritionist there and ask.
To be honest as lots of people have said I am not sure I could actually go without food for that long and using up the last 48 hrs of precious normality fasting seems a bit of a waste!
I think I may do the first cycle normally, see how bad it is and maybe try following cycles with fasting. If anyone else fancies trying this maybe we could support each other in keeping to a fast.
To be honest it is pretty bewildering all the stuff on diet, hard to know which ideas to follow. I did think I had a pretty healthy diet, but bc seems to be waving two fingers to that!
In support of NHS nurses, those I have met have been generally open-minded and by no means predominantly overweight. Wouldn’t want to dismiss their advice.
take care
mon x
To buck the trend, I barely ate anything during the chemo week and lost quite a bit of weight over the whole course of treatment. What with delayed treatments and eventually a reduced dose, there is a niggle in the back of my mind about just how effective the chemo could have been, so its an interesting thought that my not eating might have helped. BB
Hi Here’s some information on fasting if your interested.I personally would ask a health professional and not go by peoples personal experience,no matter how great they say fasting is.
livestrong.com/article/442148-the-dangers-of-fasting/
A quote from the article.
“Who Should Avoid Fasting
There are certain instances where fasting is discouraged or should be limited to one or two days. If you are sick with a fever or fatigue, it is best not to fast. People with serious illnesses, such as cancer or AIDS, should avoid fasting. Those with kidney issues, diabetes or who are on prescription medications should not fast. Infants, women who are pregnant and those who have liver problems or anemia are at risk when fasting as well”
My BCN is very slim and fit and the nurses I saw at the Marsden when having treatment weren’t overweight either.
Good luck with your treatment and whatever you decide to do
Melxx
I barely ate anything during chemo, as I just couldn’t face food, and lost 12 lbs in weight. I can’t say whether this made any difference, but if I’m totally honest I am persuaded by the idea that calorie restriction could help. After all, most BC is oestrogen positive, and in post menopausal women, most of that oestrogen is generated in fat cells (which is why we are given AI’s),so you would have thought weight loss would help. Additionally there is quite a bit of evidence that calorie restriction prolongs lifespan (in healthy people), and it is thought this happens at a cellular level, whereby the body switches from re-productive mode to survival mode. I’m not sure starving is the way to go though - maybe healthy eating would achieve the same thing?
Saw chemo nurse today and she is a lovely lady (and not a fatty either - this is turning into the nurse appreciation thread). In fact she was very interested in the idea and open to ideas on nutrition in general for both chemo and cancer. She has already tried to get the onc consultant to look at whether they should discuss nutrition with people undergoing chemo but he was not convinced. She basically said if I wanted to fast it was up to me, it would do no harm and be interesting to see if side effects were reduced. She’s going to ask the consultant about it, I think she is looking forward to seeing what he says!
It would only involve fasting for 48 hrs before chemo drugs and 24 after on each chemo cycle, ie once every 3 weeks for me as I am on FEC-D 6 cycles.
I think I will definitely try it for one of the cycles, but maybe not for the first cycle next Weds as I am feeling a bit chicken about the whole chemo thing so I may just see what it’s like on a normal diet first. Also from what everyone here has said I will probably spend most of my free time circling the biscuit tin and drooling because of the steroids etc so I may well not be able to do it anyway.
Lemongrove I think your are dead right, this is exactly the same idea as the calorie reduction for old age thing (presumably this is like putting your cells on “pause” so you then live longer but I have always thought that this was a bit extreme). For the chemo version, as far as I can see you have to starve totally to tell your cells to switch to conservation, I think the minimum is meant to be 48hrs to get the effect before the chemicals go in.