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Nutritional Support for Cancer Patients - Or, How What you Eat While Battling Cancer Can Make a World of Difference

June 8, 2009 - 10:26am 20573 reads 4 comments

Over the years, I’ve watched as quite a few dear friends battled cancer. No matter what type of cancer they were dealing with (breast, prostate, etc.), or what type of treatments they had (chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, etc.), it seems like they all shared a few things in common: loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, and weight loss.

While many cancer patients are given anti-nausea pills during their treatment, especially those who are dealing with chemotherapy, it just seems that no matter what they do, food just isn’t as appealing during this time. As a result, many folks lose a lot of weight, at a time when they really need to keep their strength up as much as possible.

So when visiting my friends who have been fighting cancer, I’ll always ask what type of food I can bring or what type of restaurant we can go to, and then I’m always happy when they come up with something that sounds good. If a friend says she wants a big hot fudge sundae from Baskin Robbins for lunch, then that’s where we would go!

From talking with my friends and family members over the years, it seems like most of them were essentially on their own when it came to their diets during cancer treatment.

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Anonymous

Hello,

Thanks for the interesting blog on nutrition and cancer.
I have a friend that’s fighting stage 4 colon cancer so I know what a dreadful disease it is.

I had my first colonoscopy at age 50. A polyp was found and removed. I’m now 58 and I had my second colonoscopy a few weeks ago. Nothing was found this time.

I just want to remind and encourage everyone to get screened for colon cancer. The procedure itself (colonoscopy) is not painful, with the possible exception of the I.V. The preparation the day before is a little inconvenient. Plan to be close to a bathroom.

The ‘official’ guideline is to have a colonoscopy if you are older than 50 and every 10 years thereafter. That is, if you’re at average risk. Check with your physician. Schedule an appointment today!

For more information on colon cancer go to http://wwww.coloncancerresource.com

Andre X

Cancer is very common among women. This is a great site for empowering women in surviving this deadly disease. As we all know, Cancer Survivor Day is celebrated on the month of June. In connection with this, the Army of Women is the number one partner of Avon Foundation for Women and the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation in the fight against breast cancer. Army of Women, which you can find at armyofwomen.org, has aims to get more women involved in research in breast cancer prevention, definitely a worthy cause. Breast cancer research, as well as cancer research in general is a growing field, and if they found a way to cure without cutting too much into Big Pharmaceuticals profit margins we'd probably have a cure by now. At any rate, it would be worth an instant payday loan to donate to groups dedicated to such good causes as Army of Women.

Anonymous

The first link in the article is a very informative article from a respected organisation about the use and type methods used to introduce nutritional supplements during treatments for cancer. The second is a commercial for naturopahic and other alternative therapies that have no scientific basis. A doctor should advise you on nutrition and diet not a nutritionist with no medical training. Mixing reputable sources with other less independant and unverifiable sources of information gives them undue credibility. Please verify your sources before engaging in advertising dressed up as journalism.

Anonymous

I think there are a lot of things that work although they have no "scientific basis". Just as treatments that are endorsed by science are not always a good idea. So many were given a chemotherapy although it would not work for them. Today you should do a DNA-test of the tumor first.
With the subject of weight-loss and nausea you should not forget cannabis as a very effective natural cure.

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