Fasting?

Chiarara

Anyone with experiences of fasting to slow progression of cancer or improve response to chemo?

Anonymous

Here's another thread that might help you; it was fairly active earlier this year.

https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/73/topics/842674?page=3#post_4996609

Chiarara

thanks

pipers_dream

I did a 21 day fast 2-1/2 years ago as part of an entirely holistic program. At the time I had just turned 56 and had still not had even peri-menopause symptoms and I was disgusted. My doc had warned me I'd be late to menopause b/c of my fibroids. I did the fast and it did fix a number of small health issues like the sinus infection I had as I started. The fast fixed that one up in 24 hours and it was a worse one than usual--I usually treat these myself but it seemed like I might have to go to the doctor to get antibiotics. 24 hours later my sinuses were clear as a bell.

4 days into the fast I started my period again and it was a bad one...and I was furious b/c it had only been 2-1/2 weeks since the last one started. It was the last period I ever had and then I was done--menopause was easy schmeazy for me. I knew that the fast threw me into M b/c the hot flashes started right away. So the long and short of it is that while I still have my breast tumor 4 years past dx, it's just sitting there minding its own business and I suspect the fast cleared out all the excess estrogen.

There is a lot of new research centered around fasting and cancer tx and one of these is by Jason Fung, and one by Mercola. Love Mercola or hate him, he does have a point with this. Also, Tripping Over the Truth by Travis Christofferson is amazingly interesting and he talks about the metabolic theories of cancer and fasting plays right into that.

Urge-to-Wander

That's really interesting, Piper's Dream, thanks for sharing. I had a really bad perimenopause experience as well due to a uterine cyst and fibroids. One month after I had the cyst removed I went into menopause. Fascinating that fasting was enough to remove the excess estrogen in your body. I will keep that in my toolkit if tamoxifen turns out to be too hard too handle (starting in the new year) or if I make the decision not to go that route In the first place. Proper diet, Indole 3 carbinol, DIM, lots of fibre, liver detox methods are all things that I’m looking into. Never thought about fasting as well. Great news that your tumour is behaving itself

Amelia01

My holistic oncologist worked closely with the world acclaimed oncologist Paolo Veronese. She (as did Veronese) believes in fasting and suggested to read Valter Longo's book. https://www.amazon.com/Longevity-Diet-Activation-R...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513176417&sr=8-1&keywords=valter+longo

It isn't for everyone but even studies have shown that fasting resets the immune system.

It needs to be done under doctor supervision.

MamaFelice

Hi Amelia! Me again-- I just posted on one of your other topics.... I have been using fast mimicking prior to chemo for multiple reasons. Have you discussed this with your holistic doc?

Chiarara

if you have actual experience of using fasting or FMD, it would be great to put a little more detail about your experience in the fasting thread, in the clinical trials subject heading, just for the benefit of others with BC.

marijen

pipers dream, I just can’t imagine why your tumor hasn’t been removed? I try daily fasting, don’t eat until 11am, second and last meal by five. Hasn’t helped me any as far as I can tell

windingshores

How can you tell your tumor is behaving? I did an alternative treatment via IV (for something other than cancer) last year, at an integrative medicine center, and the woman in the chair next to me had not had her tumor removed, and told me it was not changing in size and was behaving. She died a few months later. I don't mean to be harsh but I was really sad. I had hoped she was right. That's just one person but it affected me.

I have wondered about fasting because aromatase inhibitors put on weight, which, I would think, would increase estrogen just as we take toxic drugs to decrease estrogen.

Momine

Winding, I know many women have problems with weight gain when they go on AIs. Just wanted to pipe up that it is not a given. If anything, I have almost had the opposite problem at times. For me it seems that weight gain is associated with too much estrogen, not with too little.

I did try the fasting thing where you eat less than 600 calories on 2 days of the week. It was quite doable, but a bit tough. It did also make me lose weight, so it may be useful if you need to lose a few pounds.

marijen

Letrozole did not cause me to gain weight but a short stint on gabapentin did. However, Letrozole did not cause me to lose weight either. Wish it had.