Cancer, Chemo and Radiation : Do’s and Don’ts

As we hand hold and observe hundreds of patients a month go through chemo and radiation, our observation of smart and short term fasting in such patients is turning out to show a remarkable reduction in side effects and toxicity related side effects in the patients.
While medical science continues to study the effects of smart fasting on cancer cells and how it also improves the efficacy of the chemotherapy and a reduction in destruction of cancer cells, it becomes clear that listening to one’s body is the most intelligent thing to do.

Of course, weight loss, we know is a sure side effect of cancer and chemo and doing everything to increase the weight in an intelligent manner is imperative. But we must understand that stuffing, over feeding and force feeding a patient and telling them to eat what they want to, just to put on weight is detrimental to their overall health.

Over feeding and force feeding, the right or wrong foods will result in more acidity and we all know that an acidic environment favours the environment for cancer cells. It makes the patient feel nauseous and more averse to foods. Constipation and loose motions happen more when we do this.

Food is important (quality and quantity) and one should space out their protein, carbs and fats over the day, leaving long gaps between meals without the patient feeling deprived or hungry is a good thing. Digestion is anyway compromised during treatment, so over loading the body with more food will make it worse and use a lot of body energy that cells should be using for healing and boosting immunity because the energy now will be utilized by the digestive system.

The body usually cuts appetite during sickness in order to use energy to heal. We must observe and respect this.

The patient should be well hydrated too.

If the patient is going to do short term fasts on treatment days or non-treatment days, ensure vitals like blood pressure, blood sugar levels and electrolytes like sodium and potassium are not harmed.

There is magic in short term and long term fasting when done with supervision and smartly. It magical for the immune system and better efficacy of the treatment. Everyone’s body is different, respect that and do what works best, but over eating and over feeding is just disastrous.

Remember cancer cells and tumours are hungry for energy and food. We can either feed them or starve them. One of the most powerful ways of dealing with cancer and tumours is creating an unfavourable environment in the body for them and starving them from the energy they need to grow and spread.

Make an informed decision.

-Luke Coutinho

Relevant videos:

• How Fasting Can Help You Heal Diseases- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0OdXDHxXVM&t=79s
• How Smart Fasting Can Help You – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS65hxTkHis&t=21s
• Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRxRBXqQAYI&t=23s