Antioxidants during radiation?

The onc told you not to, because anti-oxidants will block the benefit of the rads. Once the rads are done, you can take anti-oxidants, but to take them during rads would be like taking a large spoon of sugar every time you took diabetes meds.

Brookside, yes, that was what my RO said as well. She also said that they are mostly concerned about supplements, because those usually provide large to very large doses. They are not concerned about a good, nutritious diet. So, it is fine to eat fruit and veggies, but not fine to take, for example, 5000 units of vitamin C.

Please forgive the multiple postings, but here's my plan:  I finished rads last week, start arimidex next week.  I'll give the AI about two weeks to kick in, will then feel comfortable going back on a multivitamin, and, in another week or two, my heavy duty immune system builders.  Meanwhile, because cancer cells consider it yummy, I'm staying away from sugar and, for weight loss, also avoiding my beloved fatty foods.  I've also started getting half an hour of exercise most days.  I've lost a few pounds and hope to keep it going, as I've been told that regular exercise plus weight loss can reduce my chance of recurrence by half.

Have you ladies seen the neat article WallyCat posted on antioxidants on the Clinical Trials thread on the 23rd?  I think its title is something beginning with, "New Scientist Magazine."

Since November, I've been reading, learning, researching everything  I can find about cancer.  There are certainly two schools of thought on the antioxidants.  I've been torn, because my first impulse was to build up my immune system with every vitamin and supplement in my very wholistic chiropractor's arsenal.  I've chosen to go, for now, with the theory that scares me more--that cancer cells, especially when bombarded by radiation, grow faster, multiply more effectively, and repair themselves more thoroughly, when they have more nutrients to gobble up.  The chiropractor agrees with me about holding back during radiation; I expect he (and probably I) will be looking more toward building immunity as time goes on and arimidex offers its protection.

I was relieved that I had no skin issues with radiation (itching and redness, certainly, but no sores), and felt that my normal cells were handling the treatments pretty well all by themselves.  Adding nutrients that might "choose" to benefit any leftover cancer cells more than my normal cells did not appeal to me in the least! Yes, I also considered that I might be passing up an opportunity to protect my body against future attack, but decided to avoid the potential negative. 

My RO, who has both MD and PhD degrees, acknowledges that the antioxidant issue during radiation is not by any means settled, and lets face it--we've always known that natural and scientific approaches often offer conflicting views.  We are so lucky to have access, through computers, to all the research on both sides.  Unluckily, the definitive answers medicine once offered (radical mastectomy, for instance), no longer exist.  It's all about options, weighing each and every plus and minus, and making very personal choices.  Not easy, is it?

Whonu, actually I have seen several things in the last few years (didn't keep the links) which suggest that there is some difference between getting a given nutrient from a food and getting it from a pill. Nobody seems to quite know why, nor know if it is just some nutrients or if it is a general thing.

I am not saying that this holds for anti-oxidants necessarily (I don't remember), but I thought it was intriguing, and there probably is a lot to be said for getting as many nutrients as possible through our regular diet.