Which vitamins can i take during chemo treatment?

i did a bunch of research and then took my list of possibilities to my oncologist and asked which were good and which were not.

he told me that first - taking too many can contribute to nausea and so on. so keeping the list short is good from that perspective.

then, he knocked off the ones that had shown evidence to interfere with chemo.

then, he pointed out the ones that had shown good results in clinical trials.

my list then became:

glutamine - this is an amino acid you can buy as a powder at many health food stores. you mix around 10 g in water, swirl, and drink up.  you do that three times per day for the first few days after each treatment. this supplement has been tested in clinical trial and shown to reduce the side effect of neuropathy... as well as other side effects, like mouth sores. there's no evidence that it interferes with chemo.  my oncologist LIKED this one...

vitamin d - it was winter here in mn ... and we don't get strong enough sun up here during the winter, so keeping a healthy vitamin d level was important.

iron - i became very anemic, so he approved my taking a small dose of iron most days.

vitamin b12 - that helps with anemia, and i was totally vegan (i am still nearly vegan, but i do eat a bit of eggs here and there)...

that's what i remember at the moment....

he rejected vitamin e and a few others that i had read about...

so, in the end, i think it's important that you talk to your health care team about any supplements you are considering.  i was lucky because my health care team was very knowledgeable about supplements etc... so, i felt like i got really good advice from them.

i hope that helps!

lee