Fasting during chemo and has anyone ever done it?

I’ve been reading some preliminary fascinating research in regards to fasting and whether it is beneficial during chemotherapy. There are some studies going on right now and the results of the few I can read are quite amazing. Easier time handling chemo at the least in regards to reduced toxicity and even some say more tumor shrinkage at the most. Has anyone tried it with success or failure? It seems to be the protocol they are testing most is to fast (water only) or use a fasting mimicking diet (eating controlled calorie food that tricks your body to think it’s fasting) for four days, three days before chemo and then one day after. There are some though that studied five days on the fasting mimicking diet. Anyway anybody read up on it or have any thoughts? Here’s a study if you’re interested - nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16138-3

There have been some discussions about this over the years on the forum and some people seem to have found it helpful but you most definitely need to get the ok from your BC team before you try it as obviously everyone’s situation is different  .If you search fasting in the search box hopefully it will bring up past discussions .

Hi,

I did a 4 day water fast around every chemo. 3 days before and the day of.

I’m from the Netherlands and just finished my 4th AC chemo. After 3 rounds of chemo, I had a follow up MRI and unfortunately the chemo did not seem to shrink the tumor. Even with the fasting. Not really surprising since my tumor is 95% estrogen positive but still dissapointing to hear. In the next weeks I”ll have 12 x paclitaxel and I will continue to fast (1 day before and the day chemo). I”ll keep you updated!

Anne