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by spopejoy 101 days ago
Please don't throw around random "a study that showed" about cancer treatments and chemotherapy. If you really think it needs to be shared, share the study and while you're at it, check in with a good oncologist or knowledgeable friend too. In my ~10 years of enduring chemo and other treatments, the amount of garbage you have to wade through from "well meaning" anecdata like "wheat grass" or "smoke huge bongloads" or "don't eat sugar" makes an already horrible process worse.

And yes I checked this with my onc at MSK. Dietary glucose in particular -- if you cut out enough sugar to starve cancer cells you would be doing lots of damage elsewhere as well.

3 comments

There is this review that havent found any effects: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/12/2666 Note that they excluded 274 out of 283 studies, considering only 9. It's in mdpi which is not great.So, the jury is still out I guess
The jury is not out -- it's an unconfirmed hunch that, as the study you link notes, risks harming patients who are having trouble keeping down food as it is.

This is just keto and fasting fans pushing their obsession on cancer patients. Same for marijuanauts -- anti-nausea drugs have long outperformed cannibinoids but you still have stoner friends offering you spliffs (ok, save them for later)

People eat keto diets all the time. What damage do you think they are doing to themselves?
The damage risked by Keto diets includes nutrient deficiency, liver and kidney problems, constipation, fuzzy thinking and mood swings.

Of these risks it's the potential veering into liver and kidney problems that deserves the closest monitoring.

See: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/should-you-tr...

~ Howard E. LeWine, MD, Chief Medical Editor, Harvard Health Publishing

You’re talking about elimination diets, I’m talking about skipping a meal.
I'm saying that cancer treatments are some of the most scientifically-validated procedures out there, because there's essentially unlimited money to pay for them. They have eliminated or modulated any negative side effect they can, via improved anti-nausea drugs, careful dosing+timing, etc.

Still, you can experience all sorts of discomforts during the tmt. I nearly fainted and got horrible chills when getting oxaliplatin for the first time. You're saying I should have _fasted_ for this?