Fasting Before Chemo

Santabarbarian is the fasting guru. She told me about fasting and I did it through my last 2 AC chemos and my weekly Taxol. It seriously worked for me. I was so sick with AC I thought I might die. I fasted 3 days before with water, veg broth, tea etc. Then chemo day I fasted with lots of fluids still and then the next morning I had veggie soup and stayed super clean eating.

I know she just posted on a 'chemo starting forum' recently the details. She's very nice and very knowledgeable. She's on the chemo starting in August 2018 forum with me.

I have ILC also. Good luck with the chemo. What chemodo they have you doing if you don’t mind me asking? There is also a thread on fasting.

Jess

Hi Toni, I fasted (water only) through 4 rounds of AC, starting 48 hours before my appointment time and continuing 24 hours (or as close to that as I could manage) after the chemo finished. So it always ended up being a little over 72 hours. Santabarbarian talks more about a ‘fasting mimicking diet’ than straight water fasting.

I didn’t find it to be a ‘magic bullet’ in terms of side effects, I still felt sick etc, but persisted because I wanted to do everything possible to maximise effectiveness. I also did seem to end up better off than many others - eg. no mouth sores, constipation etc. (Side note - the thing that REALLY helped my SE for the last 2 rounds was acupuncture - I’d highly recommend if you can find a knowledgeable person!).

Now I’ve just started weekly Taxol & am trying to work out what to do about fasting. I don’t feel capable of doing 72 hours every week, so I only did 24 hours before, but I’m not sure it’s enough to have any benefits.

Good luck!!