Fasting in conjunction with chemotherapy treatment

Mijail_33
Mijail_33 CSN Member Posts: 1
in Colorectal Cancer #1

Hello, I am a colon cancer patient who is about to undergo folFox chemotherapy treatment. I've been doing a lot of research on chemotherapy and have found that fasting before during and after the chemo can negate a lot of the nasty side effects and also make the chemotherapy more effective. My question is has anyone had any experiences/success implementing this technique of fasting during chemo? From the research I've done it's helped a lot of people overcome not just chemo but their cancers as well. My only problem or concern with the chemo I'm doing is that oxaliplatin is given or rather diluted in dextrose which is basically sugar/carbohydrates. I want to know if there's any way to bypass the dextrose/ sugar? (My oncologist said she wouldn't be able to answer until next week). I really want to follow the Vaulter longo protocol. (48 hour fast before chemo, during, and one day after). My concern is with the dextrose that is in the medicine or rather poison. Will the dextrose negate the benefits of fasting? your healthy fast dividing cells are supposed to go into a state of protection during the fast but if they're injecting sugar into my bloodstream will that make the fast pointless?

Comments

  • Arx001
    Arx001 CSN Member Posts: 46
    #2

    Hello I will write my personal opinion.

    1. Folfox is a pretty strong regimen and personally I wouldn’t fast during chemo.
    2. I also would not suggest further stressing your body.
    3. I would be worried that you may forgo physical activity - this is the most effective thing you can do to prevent/treat, meaning support treatment/avoid recurrence - 30-40 mins of medium level activity every day.

    (FYI I used to do intermittent fasting as I had a high tolerance for hunger and I was thinking about doing a 72 hour autophagy aimed fasting for general health purposes. I entered the screening colonoscopy on a 48 hour hunger and got a stage 3 rectal diagnosis. If hunger and intermittent fasting were to kill cancer cells, I guess I should not have gotten sick. Now I eat three times per day super healthy and do my 180+ mins of weekly activity. I am tumor free as of now)

    Another FYI, there is research suggesting that keto diet shrinks or kills the tumor but it also increases the chances of a remote metastasis.

    https://www.cancer.columbia.edu/news/study-finds-keto-diet-could-contribute-cancer-metastasis

    You may say I will not be on a keto diet but please read this about sugar as you wrote about it.

    "The cancer cells detect that this place deprived of glucose is not nutritionally comfortable, so they want to escape. They don’t want to stay in the wrong place,” Gu says. “The consequence of that is metastasis."

    Personally I think you will hit hard on the cancer cells thru your fasting but that they will also hit back and this would reduce the efficiency of your chemo. The best guidance would be obtained from your oncologist of course… Mine didn’t want me to fast even though she knew about the benefits of fasting.

    If you insist, I suggest that you decide after the first week of the chemo. Oxaliplatin is no joke… I could only take it for four times due to severe side effects.

    My 2 cents…

    Best wishes.

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