Alcohol and Chemo ?

JR

I'm interested in your opinions on drinking any alcohol while on chemo. A few days before treatment, while I'm feeling almost human, I will have a beer or a glass of wine. It doesn't seem to have any adverse reaction. Most importantly, it makes me feel like I have some control over what I can and cannot do. Any opinions out there ??

John

lisa42

alcohol
John,

Don't know if this is the typical "rule" or not, but I overheard my onc tell another patient in the chemo room that she should definitely avoid the hard stuff and beer and wine should be avoided 2 days before infusion and 2 days after. Personally, after having a liver resection, I just don't drink much alcohol at all. I think a glass of wine here or there couldn't hurt too much, but I don't drink anything else except maybe a glass of wine at a dinner party, etc. Just my thoughts. You might try googling "alcohol and chemo" and see what you come up with. I'd be interested in finding out what is said about it too.

Lisa

maglets

lisa42 said:

alcohol
John,

Don't know if this is the typical "rule" or not, but I overheard my onc tell another patient in the chemo room that she should definitely avoid the hard stuff and beer and wine should be avoided 2 days before infusion and 2 days after. Personally, after having a liver resection, I just don't drink much alcohol at all. I think a glass of wine here or there couldn't hurt too much, but I don't drink anything else except maybe a glass of wine at a dinner party, etc. Just my thoughts. You might try googling "alcohol and chemo" and see what you come up with. I'd be interested in finding out what is said about it too.

Lisa

drinks
John i felt the same way as you. I would have a glass of wine or brandy right through chemo except a few days right after infusion. I liked it because I did feel I was doing what I wanted to and also it took the pain away.....tylenol or a brandy I know which one I chose.

i double checked with the liver surgeon and he said....you have cancer on your liver not liver disease so have a glass of wine.

just depends what you wanna do I guess.

~mags~

2bhealed

Chemo cocktails
Hi John,

IMO all alcohol should be avoided while healing from cancer and while trying to cure it. Why? Because alcohol turns right into sugar and cancer looooooooves sugar. Alcohol is a simple carb that has nothing to slow it (no fiber) being processed in the body. It's about insulin uptake. Cancer loves to party on alcohol. Don't invite cancer to your party and figure out a different cocktail. That goes for your appetizers too--no whites, ie, no white flours, sugars, grains etc. Try combining cranberry juice (low sugar) with some club soda and put it in a wine glass. Also acohol is acidic and cancer loves acid. Cancer is just a regular party animal. Cancer will not grow in an alkaline environment and veggie juice will alkalize your system. Try a beautiful beet juice in your wine glass instead.

Starve that cancer!

Cheers!

peace, emily the juice chick

ps. juicing gives you a sense of control--just try peeing on a pH test strip after drinking veggie juice and see the beautiful blue green colors of an alkalized system. Test your pH after some wine or beer and see what happens.

JR

2bhealed said:

Chemo cocktails
Hi John,

IMO all alcohol should be avoided while healing from cancer and while trying to cure it. Why? Because alcohol turns right into sugar and cancer looooooooves sugar. Alcohol is a simple carb that has nothing to slow it (no fiber) being processed in the body. It's about insulin uptake. Cancer loves to party on alcohol. Don't invite cancer to your party and figure out a different cocktail. That goes for your appetizers too--no whites, ie, no white flours, sugars, grains etc. Try combining cranberry juice (low sugar) with some club soda and put it in a wine glass. Also acohol is acidic and cancer loves acid. Cancer is just a regular party animal. Cancer will not grow in an alkaline environment and veggie juice will alkalize your system. Try a beautiful beet juice in your wine glass instead.

Starve that cancer!

Cheers!

peace, emily the juice chick

ps. juicing gives you a sense of control--just try peeing on a pH test strip after drinking veggie juice and see the beautiful blue green colors of an alkalized system. Test your pH after some wine or beer and see what happens.

Cancer Sucks !!!
Emily,
One of the few pleasures in my life and your taking that away from me. Just kidding. I find your posts to be some of the most interesting and entertaining out there. ie: Lets talk about Poop. What you say about alcohol makes perfect sense. BTW, I purchased a book you recomended titled "Beating Cancer with Nutrition", excellent book so far. I started reading it last night and had a hard time putting it down. Thanks for your insight and wisdom.

John

NWGirl

Ok with my doc
I asked my oncologist the same question and he said an occasional glass of wine (my drink of choice) was fine. Problem was, during chemo, my body simply didn't want it or enjoy it. Wine tasted awful - so I just gave up alcohol entirely while on chemo. I've read on other cancer boards that the whole "cancer loves sugar" thing is a myth. I'm not a big research type person so I've never really researched it myself - but something you may want to check with your doctor on.

It took awhile after chemo ended before wine tasted good again. Strangely, I think my taste buds are more sensitive now than ever before. Good wine tastes better; bad wine tastes worse. Kind of a mixed blessing!

just4Brooks

Drinking? I started smoking pot
I’m in California and got my Medical Marijuana card 2 weeks ago and soon after got my first bag of pot. OMG it has helped so much!! It takes the stress away. Makes me WAY less nauseated and it does not harm you like drinking does.

2bhealed

JR said:

Cancer Sucks !!!
Emily,
One of the few pleasures in my life and your taking that away from me. Just kidding. I find your posts to be some of the most interesting and entertaining out there. ie: Lets talk about Poop. What you say about alcohol makes perfect sense. BTW, I purchased a book you recomended titled "Beating Cancer with Nutrition", excellent book so far. I started reading it last night and had a hard time putting it down. Thanks for your insight and wisdom.

John

Feeding the soul
Hi John,

I totally understand about needing a pleasure in life. When I was first diagnosed I met with an acquaintance from my homeschool group who had cured her son's cancer with pumping veggie juice and mega supplements right into his body via an NG tube. (she went on to write a book about it called Your Child Doesn't Have to Die). After she wrote the book she had many cancer folks looking to her for answers. I remember her telling me a story about a man who just wanted a big steak. She said, sometimes you have to feed your soul too.

When I was diagnosed I committed to 6 months of staying on a pure cancer healing diet. I focused on starving the cancer. I fed my soul with cancer healing foods. When I got my first NED at 6 months you can believe I went to my coop and bought some "Soul Food" which for me were Dream Pies (made with rice milk and grain-sweetened chocolate). For you it may be a glass of wine or a good micro brew. I just wanted to make sure that I tried everything in my power to heal that cancer. And that meant working hard to maintain an alkaline system.

Now at almost 8 years cancer free I feed my soul more than I did back then and I balance it with daily veggie juices to keep that alkalizing gig going.

But that's my stuff. That's how I operate. I am driven and focused AND I have the added stress of watching my sister die an agonizing death at a very young age from intestinal cancer. That alone can keep me motivated. When one has experienced the reality of this disease and the end stages up close and personal, then one has an almost sing-it-from-the-mountain tops mission to promote health. :-)

I'm glad you like my posts and that you're liking the book. I also highly recommend Dr. Andrew Weil's SPONTANEOUS HEALING. Fabulous! He articulated my thoughts exactly.

peace, emily who hopes you'll enjoy your glass of veggie juice as much as your wine!

2bhealed

just4Brooks said:

Drinking? I started smoking pot
I’m in California and got my Medical Marijuana card 2 weeks ago and soon after got my first bag of pot. OMG it has helped so much!! It takes the stress away. Makes me WAY less nauseated and it does not harm you like drinking does.

Sign me up
dang, How does one get a card? HA!

Annabelle41415

just4Brooks said:

Drinking? I started smoking pot
I’m in California and got my Medical Marijuana card 2 weeks ago and soon after got my first bag of pot. OMG it has helped so much!! It takes the stress away. Makes me WAY less nauseated and it does not harm you like drinking does.

Drinking
I have a couple beers now and then and a glass of wine. All my blood counts were fine before I went on chemo and if anything goes down or up I know it's from the chemo not the occasional beer or food that I'm eating and although cancer may feed on sugar, I can't live the rest of my life wondering if I should have something because it might cause cancer. I never overdid anything and I don't know why I got cancer - I just did, but I'm not going to quit cooking on the grill either. Not one of my doctors told me I got cancer because of anything I did. Just my 2 cents - whatever that's worth.

Kim

NWGirl

I'm Jealous
I asked my doctor about medical marijuana and he sort of blew me off. He said he thought it helped people who were used to using it prior to their cancer diagnosis........not sure why he assumed I wasn't one of those people. I didn't quite know where to take it from there - so I let it drop.

JTL52

NWGirl said:

I'm Jealous
I asked my doctor about medical marijuana and he sort of blew me off. He said he thought it helped people who were used to using it prior to their cancer diagnosis........not sure why he assumed I wasn't one of those people. I didn't quite know where to take it from there - so I let it drop.

Hi,
I did ask my oncologist
Hi,
I did ask my oncologist that question during Folfox treatment.
I was told I could have a glass of wine or beer on non treatment weeks.
Your liver has enough work to do clearing the chemo out of your system without an extra burdon.
Janet

Shayenne

JTL52 said:

Hi,
I did ask my oncologist
Hi,
I did ask my oncologist that question during Folfox treatment.
I was told I could have a glass of wine or beer on non treatment weeks.
Your liver has enough work to do clearing the chemo out of your system without an extra burdon.
Janet

I don't....
...I don't know about this one, my onc says a Cancer liver is a diseased liver, so I haven't drank but a glass of wine once while on chemo, and though I love my beer and wine, I'm waiting it out, and feel if I drink, I'm adding it the extra stress to my liver, so I don't bother drinking now, not till after I'm done or maybe if the tumor is removed, I feel scared to drink, thinking it will make my liver worse.

Hugsss!
~Donna

steven12

Alcohol ablation
What about this? Liver tumors are also treated by alcohol infusion to the tumor site. One ( from many other ) sites: http://www.uchospitals.edu/specialties/cancer/gi/liver.html
Best wishes to every body and drink responsibly
Steven

daydreamer110761

steven12 said:

Alcohol ablation
What about this? Liver tumors are also treated by alcohol infusion to the tumor site. One ( from many other ) sites: http://www.uchospitals.edu/specialties/cancer/gi/liver.html
Best wishes to every body and drink responsibly
Steven

my 2 cents
I also asked my doc, and was told the same as many - it's ok to have the beer or wine on off weeks. And I did. I couldn't let this take everything away from me, so I had fun on my off weeks.

PhillieG

just4Brooks said:

Drinking? I started smoking pot
I’m in California and got my Medical Marijuana card 2 weeks ago and soon after got my first bag of pot. OMG it has helped so much!! It takes the stress away. Makes me WAY less nauseated and it does not harm you like drinking does.

Pass it over here...
I do not understand what the big deal is about it. You can get alcohol no problem but since people could grow their own or get a card in the few states that made it legal for medicinal purposes somehow that's not OK with some. I truly believe it has more to do with the big pharmaceutical companies. If they can successfully make pills like Emend, which some people find great success with and that's great, but they charge around $175 per pill vs pot which I would think $175 worth would last me a year, they would be opposed to it. My opinion.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it ;-)

It may do some harm because it's smoke going into your lungs, but the chemo and other medicine has harmful side effects too. It's a quality of life issue I think for many.

snommintj

daydreamer110761 said:

my 2 cents
I also asked my doc, and was told the same as many - it's ok to have the beer or wine on off weeks. And I did. I couldn't let this take everything away from me, so I had fun on my off weeks.

Johnny Walker Blue
I've avoided alcohol for the last two years. I've got a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label that I look at everyday. I'm just waiting for the perfect day.

Nana b

Sign me up too.....
Does that count as smoking- one of the big no, nos! Knew it was too good to be true!


I still find my self craving suger when I never did before, just telling everyone, keep it out of the house, I know I'm skinny but I don't need those calories!

I have tried a glass of wine a couple times, but it does nothing for me now....maybe after all those years of driking it, and breaking out in hives, I finally learned my lesson. My husband woul always tell me, that wine can't be good for your body. Yeah, I can see my immune system totally go whackers trying to keep those hives down. I would only drink until I fel the hives, 1-2, maybe 3 glasses of wine if I was out to dinner and jut got lucky hitting three glasses.













. What was I thinking, cooking and cleaning and wine just went to well togeher.....

Any way, bring on the J, I have never tried it!

PhillieG

Annabelle41415 said:

Drinking
I have a couple beers now and then and a glass of wine. All my blood counts were fine before I went on chemo and if anything goes down or up I know it's from the chemo not the occasional beer or food that I'm eating and although cancer may feed on sugar, I can't live the rest of my life wondering if I should have something because it might cause cancer. I never overdid anything and I don't know why I got cancer - I just did, but I'm not going to quit cooking on the grill either. Not one of my doctors told me I got cancer because of anything I did. Just my 2 cents - whatever that's worth.

Kim

Kim
It's worth 2 cents!
I have a beer here and there too. I think most everything in moderation... but moderation is the first thing to go.
I like your new picture!
-p

Annabelle41415

PhillieG said:

Pass it over here...
I do not understand what the big deal is about it. You can get alcohol no problem but since people could grow their own or get a card in the few states that made it legal for medicinal purposes somehow that's not OK with some. I truly believe it has more to do with the big pharmaceutical companies. If they can successfully make pills like Emend, which some people find great success with and that's great, but they charge around $175 per pill vs pot which I would think $175 worth would last me a year, they would be opposed to it. My opinion.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it ;-)

It may do some harm because it's smoke going into your lungs, but the chemo and other medicine has harmful side effects too. It's a quality of life issue I think for many.

Phil I Agree
I definitely agree with the smoking of pot. Actually, Michigan just passed overwhelmingly to allow the use of pot for medical purposes. You are right about the big companies wanting to generate their big dollars and with pot they wouldn't be getting a dime.

I say if it helps you - then go ahead and use it. Geez I should check into that now

Thanks for the compliment on the picture. It was only because of you I actually got it changed since I'm so computer incompetent sometimes LOL.

Kim

Shayenne

Nana b said:

Sign me up too.....
Does that count as smoking- one of the big no, nos! Knew it was too good to be true!


I still find my self craving suger when I never did before, just telling everyone, keep it out of the house, I know I'm skinny but I don't need those calories!

I have tried a glass of wine a couple times, but it does nothing for me now....maybe after all those years of driking it, and breaking out in hives, I finally learned my lesson. My husband woul always tell me, that wine can't be good for your body. Yeah, I can see my immune system totally go whackers trying to keep those hives down. I would only drink until I fel the hives, 1-2, maybe 3 glasses of wine if I was out to dinner and jut got lucky hitting three glasses.













. What was I thinking, cooking and cleaning and wine just went to well togeher.....

Any way, bring on the J, I have never tried it!

Well....
...Hubby is now frying up some fish he caught over the weekend (sawguy, sorry if the spelling is wrong and bass) with a nice beer batter...he doesn't drink, but guess who just poured herself a nice glass of beer...yep, I did! and it sure does taste good when you haven't had a swig of it in awhile LOL.