L-Glutamine during radiation treatment?

Mattie65 said:

As nobody has replied yet,

As nobody has replied yet, and I think your goal is mainly to find a supplement that can alleviate the side effects, I will just leave this here: I found a couple of studies about high dosage Melatonin, so I took 20 mg/day. Had I found articles and studies about L-Glutamine, I would probably have added it to my hit-and-miss self-medication.

I couldn't tell if it worked, neither could I if I had taken L-Glutamine. All I can say is, that it gave me a feeling of relief; of taking control of the situation, perhaps like a child with a stick-on toy stirring wheel, like we used to have in my childhood.

The thing is: nobody will be able to tell anybody if a certain supplement worked or not because to find this out, one would need some very laborious studies.

In the end, from what I understand, no supplement is as important as getting enough calories. This is where your body will take the force to fight the harm inflicted by the radiations. Perhaps the supplements help, perhaps not, but getting enough calories is absolutely paramount. I made it through rads with relatively little harm and my doc said it was because I didn't lose too much weight and my body was able to do the work necessary to recover.

I hope I could give you a bit of useful advice. I'm out of rads treatment today, so: not really one of the veterans on this board, but I think my experience may count, nevertheless.

Wish you all the best for your treatment. Keep an upbeat mood, it'll pass and you'll get better.

Knew you would be done soon, so this was the day and you made it-Great-Take Care-God Bless-Russ

I had researched this, and bought some for my husband, and even started him on it. But after discussing it with his Radiation Oncologist, we decided to stop it. She said she didn’t want any supplements taken during treatment that might have any protective or antioxidant benefits that might protect and “work against “ the radiation, if that makes sense. ( in effect, the radiation killing and destroying cells needs to happen, and don’t take anything that might fight against this destroying nature of the radiation) I’m still not convinced that L-Glutamine fell into this category after reading many studies, but on some things, we just decided to trust our team of doctors. My husband is doing amazing! 

RodgerM said:

doing amazing please tell me

doing amazing please tell me more.   So scare of what's coming.   I start my second week Monday. 

We totally understand the fear.  It is so frightening. The unknown is absolutely horrible. This forum was the only thing that helped me keep my sanity, and I relayed everything to my husband. There were nights I would stay up reading posts from 10 years ago just to get encouragement because we were so frightened of what was coming. Was like a dark cloud we just couldn’t get rid of. But let me encourage you! My husband completed treatment June 3......TORS, Bilateral neck dissection, 2 rounds of Cisplatin, and 30 Rad treatments.( Never had a GTube, because his doctors thought swallowing function better preserved if he could get by without it. ) He, currently, is enjoying a craft beer ( enjoys various dark beers), and getting ready to eat pizza for dinner! He enjoys all food he did before. Taste is ALMOST comparable to pre-treatment, saliva nearly normal. Some dryness, but nothing that a glass of water with meals doesn’t help! ( Anything I ever post as far as experiences, or side effects..... I ALWAYS get his words and input, to get it right) Treatment was a struggle at times. Sometimes it was hour by hour. Sometimes he thought it would never end. Sometimes we questioned did he choose the right treatment. Sometimes he was very grouchy, because he didn’t feel good. BUT.......now....life feels wonderfully normal to him. I know every story, every treatment regimen, every outcome is different. His could come back. But we are trying to choose to focus on the present, wonderful, normalcy. His prognosis is excellent. That’s what we are trying to keep in focus.  He has mild lymphedema to the neck from the dissection. He is doing self massage to this area that we have learned from a lymphedema specialist. He does his neck stretches and swallowing exercises just to keep his wonderful outcome! 

So, long answer to your request to tell you more about “amazing “...... it means that life truly feels pretty “ normal “!! Even “ boring” some days......and we’re so grateful for that!! Btw.....he had just  retired last 12-31, and this whole thing started in January when he found his lump in his neck. So, now retirement feels like what he thought it would! ( me nagging him he should cook more LOL)

Best wishes and many blessings to you! You will be on the other end soon! You can do this! 

Hello there.

I don't know anyone taking L-glutamine during radiation/chemo but I have taken it previously for general health. It has benefits in terms of combating stress and strengthen immune system.