Intermittent fasting before Chemo?

Aram

Anyone has tried intermittent fasting days before your chemo? There are some studies(mostly on mice) showing it can help with side effects. I was wondering if anyone here have tried it before AC?

ElaineTherese

I did AC chemo, and the most important thing for any chemo is to stay hydrated. Water has no calories, so that's typically acceptable during intermittent fasting. However, during chemo, I grew to loathe water, and stayed hydrated with anything that tasted good to me. That included broth, soup, and some low-calorie drinks so intermittent fasting wasn't possible for me.

I guess as long as you stay hydrated, intermittent fasting is probably OK. But, I didn't really have any serious gastrointestinal side effects, other than heartburn, while on AC (and that was just the first round). My biggest problem was chemo brain, and I don't think diet would really help with that. Good luck!

Aram

I really hope I don't have serious gastrointestinal issues but apparently women who are more nauseous during pregnancy are more prone to side effects and I did have a terrible pregnancy.

ThreeTree

I had a bad time during pregnancy and did get nauseous with chemo, but the drugs they provided were enough to keep it to just "mild nausea". Some of those chemo drugs cause a lot of diarrhea too. The drugs they have do lessen symptoms, however. That does not mean I felt good overall, but it made it "doable" as they say. Barring anything rare and unusual, you can and will get though it!

Aram

ThreeTree, I hope so. For now my MO suggested not to do the fasting for the first one as he gives very strong anti nausea meds apparently, and he says some women develop nausea if they are fasting. If I am not nauseous I might try fasting for its other benefits like less effect on my normal cells.

ThreeTree

I did try intermittent fasting well into chemo, as I hadn't heard of it until I was done with the AC, I think. Did it mostly for the Taxol. I can't say if it helped with side effects or not, since I started doing it at the same time I started getting the second drug. I also don't know if it helped kill more cancer cells, but research seems to suggest it does help the chemo kill more cells, in addition to aiding with side effects. Chemo is no walk in the park, but with the drugs they have available now for the nausea, etc. it is manageable for most. I hated the idea of taking any drugs - the prescription stuff or the over the counter things, but all in all it worked out, and you only have to take those things for a relatively short period of time. I've actually continued with the intermittent fasting well after chemo. I try to eat within an 8 or 9 hour window each day. How much it is really helping I'll never really know, but I like to think that based on what I've read it continues to help with my overall health and anti-cancer efforts. I'm only about 2 to 2 1/2 years out from my diagnosis, but so far, so good (knock on wood and fingers crossed that it continues this way). I really hope it all goes well for you!

Anonymous

Aram - The mice studies on fasting during chemo used fasts of 3 days prior to chemo. I fasted 2 1/2 days before chemo to 1 day after chemo ended when I had AC. I had nausea during pregnancies, but not when fasted during chemo. Then there's the fast-mimicking diet (FMD) that other people have done. Here's a link to posts on fasting based on Dr. Longo.

https://community.breastcancer.org/posts/search?page=3&search_builder%5Bkeyword%5D=Longo&utf8=%E2%9C%93

If you're not used to fasting, FMD might be better.

Aram

Threetree I am used to doing 14-10 and 16-8 as well so hunger is not very hard on me. I am very scared of being nauseous though because I had an awful pregnancy. I was monitoring my blood sugar for a while and I can tell you it had a positive effect for that. So if not for cancer, at least it will help your blood sugar.

Aram

SerenitySTA, thank you. Yes, I saw the studies on mice and the other one mentioning FMD diet though I couldn't find the exact diet they used. I will go through the discussions in the search you sent. It is great to know you didn't have nausea while fasting. So you just had water and other zero calorie drinks for those 3.5 days? It is definitely worth it if the studies are correct...