Beet Juice and chemo

calamtykel

I read some interesting studies on beet juice and offsetting short term and even long term effects of chemo.  I was surprised at a mice study that I read - the mice were given beet juice between chemo treatments and not only did they tolerate the chemo better, but they also did better with their tumors. 

I know it's not for everybody, but I have been cutting them up and throwing them in the blender with water.  I have a $350 juicer but frankly, it makes a huge mess and is a real ordeal to clean each time.  Blended really well, they have an odd consistency - lots and lots of pulp, but I find it easy to get down with a straw.  

Here is an excerpt from the study.  What is most interesting to me is that beet juice is LOADED with anti-oxidants (look at the color of it!!) and YET it apparently enhanced the benefits of the chemo.  

"n the first case, we observed slight improvement of therapeutic affect of doxorubicin in mice given red beet juice 7 days before and 7 days after therapy, however it was not statistically significant. Interestingly, this improvement occurred despite appparent stimulation of tumor growth in mice drinking juice. In general, in all mice groups tested, those drinking red beet juice were more lively, displayed better appetite as if they tolerated better both the disease and chemotherapy. " 

Here is the entire article:  http://www.science24.com/paper/7039

the only thing to beware of is that beet juice has heavy detoxifying effects.  If you drink it shortly after chemo - or drink too much of it, you may get really sick.  That happened to me....I drank too much and felt great for a couple of hours, and then got really sick -nausea..ick.  Today, six days post chemo, I had some tonight and I did get a headache, so I think I'm going to have to go a little slower on it.

Beet juice will detox the liver and sometimes it can happen too fast.