Cancer and nutrition - dietary recommendations before starting treatment
Discovering you have cancer, your doctor has prescribed medication. This may be surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, immunotherapy, biological or a combination of treatments.
All cancer treatments cause cell death. Kills cancer cells, but also some healthy cells are damaged. That is why cancer treatment causes side effects. Side effects that influence the ability to eat include:
- anorexia
- weight changes (weight loss or weight gain)
- stomatitis, sore throat, dry mouth
- diseases of teeth and gums
- changes in taste and olfactory sensations
- nausea / vomiting
- diarrhea
- Lactose Intolerance
- constipation
- fatigue and / or feeling depressed
These side effects do not necessarily show up. What do you feel them, and how they will be hard, determined by many factors. These include the type of cancer, what part of the body being treated, the duration and dose of treatment. The good news: if you still feel the side effects, most of them can be successfully combated. Most side effects disappear after treatment. Your doctor will tell you more about the possibility of side effects, and then what they will.
Dietary recommendations may be different for different patients
Advice on nutrition and selection of products that give patients with cancer can be very different from the usual recommendations for healthy eating. This confuses many patients because it may seem that the new recommendations contradict everything that they've heard before. Usually stress that you need to eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, bread, whole grain, cereals, contain moderate amounts of meat and dairy products and limit their intake of fat, sugar, alcohol and salt. Patients with cancer is recommended to use more energy-dense foods that will help increase protein intake. Recommended to use more milk, sour cream, cheese, boiled eggs, increase the use of sauces and gravies, prepared using a larger number of animal and vegetable oils, margarine. In some cases, cancer patients are advised to consume less of foods high in fiber, because these foods can aggravate diarrhea and stomatitis.
Each patient will receive their recommendations that are designed for his case to regain strength and to help transfer the impact of cancer and its treatment on the body. If you are healthy, eat properly and get the necessary nutrients are usually not difficult. But if you are being treated for cancer - this is a difficult task, especially if you have side effects, or you just do not feel good.
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