Has anyone tried intermitten fasting pre chemo? I’ve been reading some research that indicates it may increase the effectiveness of chemo especially in breast and ovarian cancers.
Hi Pogle, I can’t speak from personal experience but there are definitely threads here exploring this and people who’ve tried it. I’m not the best at navigating the site but if you do a search using the icon at the top of the page, just ‘fasting’ searched in the Breast Cancer Forum comes up with a recent thread. I’ve remembered 2 people who posted there:
and Beyoncepower so I’ve tagged them and hopefully you’ll get some responses. There’s also stuff on the Internet but difficult to know what to trust. Good luck with it all, love and hugs, HFxx
HappyFeet1 xx
Don’t be afraid to cry. It will free your mind of sorrowful thoughts. – Hopi
I also read some research on this topic and discussed with my oncology team. Their response was rather negative about fasting but with the intention of reassuring me -they advised that the chemo would ‘do it’s job’ regardless and were keen for me to eat well before, during and after chemo. The overriding concern, I think was potential weight loss/eating disorders as I am quite lean with very little surplus to fall back on.
I am now half way through chemo and have fasted for each of 3 treatments. I did add a lengthy post describing my fasts, but I’m not the greatest at navigating the site; I hope if you dig around you might find it!
It may never be possible to quantify how much ‘added value’ fasting will contribute to my treatment but I accept this knowing that I have done everything I can to squeeze out every benefit! The reduced side effects are the obvious win- I have had barely any nausea and no vomiting or constipation.
Do seek advice from your team. I wish you well through the whole treatment and your journey.
It is a very interesting question but one I feel that hasn’t been given adequate research to warrant conclusive answers.
I do intermittent fasting on the third week between chemo because it makes me feel so much better. I do it on the day of the chemo too. Sadly both Oncologist’s I’ve spoken to won’t recommend it until further studies are done. However if it’s something you currently do and makes you feel better then why not try it? If it doesn’t help with side effects/nausea then go back to normal eating.
Have you asked your Oncologist/consultants for their opinions?
I have been researching this too, as I am about to start chemo and keen to try fasting prior and slightly after, as there seems to be some research and quite a lot of anecdotal evidence of benefits. I see your post was 6 months ago - did you try fasting and did you suffer from many side effects?
My oncologist is neutral about the idea and happy for me to try provided we monitor any weight loss. I have triple negative breast cancer.
