To do or not to do ?

Ileana,

I know exactly what you mean. I had the same experience with my onc and the onc nurses. But, you have to remember, they are not trained in nutrition. Our medical doctors go to school for so long, if they added nutrition to their studies they would never get out of school. Patrick Quillin who wrote "Beating Cancer With Nutrition" has a PhD in Nutrition, he is not a medical doctor. They are trained in different areas. Don't get discouraged. Keep reading, there is lots you can do to compliment chemo without negatively impacted it. Read my post from this past Saturday on alternative medicine and really check out the 2nd book I listed. It is very good with what you can do to compliment chemo.

While I was on chemo, I ran everything I did by my onc and most of the time, he ran it by their lead pharmacists (I go to a comprehensive cancer center) but they recently added a nutritional staff. I was really tickled to hear that.

Maintaining weight is very important in fighting cancer, but there are loads of things you can eat to maintain weight while still being diet conscious. There are also foods other then meats that have protein. Meat that is natural is not a bad thing (free range and meat from animals without any growth hormone injections and that eat natural foods instead of foods laced with antibiotics, etc). Check out the recipes in the Quillin book, you will see recipes with meat and diary, it just is natural.

Take care and continue to take control of your own treatment plan.

Lisa P.

I hope this helps... I have a friend who is a naturopathic physician and he has worked closely with Dr. Quillin. My friend was the first naturopathic physician on staff at Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Here are some of the things he told me that helped me through my chemo and my fight against colon cancer: cut out sugar (it weakens your immune system), eat a lot of protein (for me, he recommended 80 grams per day - it's a lot - soy protein supplements {such as Unipro's Perfect Protein} helped with this), eat lots of green and antioxidant rich vegetables, and get a lot of Vitamin C to boost your immune system (I actually did Vitamin C I.V. treatments twice a week during chemo - the I.V. helped me get a high enough dosage and absorption without bad side effects). I also took several supplements under his supervision during this time. It's not easy to stick to a regimented nutrition plan (and I wasn't disciplined enough to do it 100%), however, I'm sure it made my chemo treatments more endurable and successful. My oncologist never suggested this type of diet or these treatment options, but he has been very open to me pursuing alternative treatments in addition to traditional ones. I agree that most traditional medical practitioners are sorely lacking in the nutrition education that would benefit their patients.

alta29 said:

that's the thing...that my onco said that vitamin C can hurt the treatment if we have a tumor (which i don't ) right now i wish i could have at least 1000 mg of vitamin c and lots of aspirin ( now they are saying that is also good to prevent colon cancer )

hi alta,

Remember that your onc is practicing Medicine. They maintain with meds. They are taught medicine. They dispense Meds.

When you go to the doctor s/he will most likely put you directly on meds rather than tell you to tweak your diet....not much beyond cut down on fats if you have high cholesterol or salt if you have high blood pressure....yada yada yada.

But they rarely give you foods to heal. To CURE. They dispense pills. Are you depressed? Take prozac....do they tell you to increase your B12 or fish oils? Can't sleep? Here's some Ambien. Gee, doc how about melatonin or increase your calcium at night? Worked for me! :-)

Diabetes? Take the pill so you can have your cake and eat it too. (I kid you not--my hubby was dx'ed and the stuff they told him he could eat was unbelievable!!) (NO pills for him either--only diet and exercise was the route he chose--afterall he is married to me! haha).

Anyway, all of this to say: The really are not schooled in nutrition. There is an excellent article in Alternative Medicine in March's issue about good cancer healing supplements. Go to the experts for nutrition who will be on top of the info....not necessarily your onc. And surely not a hospital dietician. (just look at what they serve us!)

If you needed your car fixed you wouldn't go to your plumber. You go to your mechanic. They both fix stuff......but one is schooled specifically in cars. The plumber owns a car and drives a car and puts gas in the car but I wouldn;'t go to my plumber to get my car fixed.

Go to a Naturopath or Nutritionist (not dietician) to get your body healed. The doc will gas you up and wash your windshields and check your oil...but he really doesn't work on WHY your hear that knocking in your engine. Your engine is trying to TELL you something. Listen and go to an auto mechanic--someone like Dr. Quillin.

And there are plenty of things you can take besides aspirin to prevent colon cancer--that won't bleed your stomach--such as calcium.

peace, emily who will never get over the fact that the chemo clinic was serving donuts to their cancer patients!!! Holy Cow!! :-(