Fasting prior to chemo

[monkey1991]

I am headed towards chemo and have read about fasting prior to infusion as a way to reduce toxicity and ease side effects. I am particularly interested in anyone’s experience with fasting in general and specifically the L-Nutra fast mimicking diet. Thanks for your collective help.

[cesanon]

hmmm seems scary to fast before undergoing such a stressful activity.

[Hex40]

I did the opposite because I lost so much weight.

[judg69]

Hi Monkey, I would suggest you scratch that idea . I underwent 2 full years heavy chemo after my lung lobectomy. You will need all the strength and reserve you can muster. Also. if you are on taxidere &/or platin based chemo , you will lose much of your appetite and taste anyway. Stay strong, and if you do lose your taste for food, you can do as I did — begin using plastic tablewear to help counteract the newfound metallic taste of food, and eat plenty of jello, puddings, ice cream et al . Best wishes to you, judg69

[j-o-h-n in reply to judg69]

"Ice cream".......... the most wonderful two words in the English dictionary...

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Tuesday 06/02/2020 10:02 PM DST

[Tall_Allen]

Here's what evidence there is - it's not specific for prostate cancer and docetaxel. Get permission from your oncologist, of course. I don't know anything about that diet:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

[monkey1991 in reply to Tall_Allen]

After considering everything I reviewed I am going to give the diet a try if onc approves. I will post results.

[tango65]

This link has some of the opinions of a real expert about chemo for prostate cancer

grandroundsinurology.com/dr...

Fasting could help with the negative effects,

[fluffyfur]

I don't know if you can tag members in this group but pleinairpainter just posted something about fasting and chemo. You might search his posts.

[Irun]

I didn’t fast and if anything ate more as a comfort . Most importantly though I exercised (ran) almost every day right through 18 weeks of chemo. This was 5 years ago and since studies have proved that exercise helps the chemo process. 5 years on still running .

[mine1958]

READ THIS osher.ucsf.edu/patient-care...

[pleinairpainter]

Hello monkey1991, During the first five of my eight chemo cycles (Docetaxel) I fasted. Before starting this diet, I consulted with my oncologist who gave his approval with a caveat of if there are problems, I will stop fasting. (If you have certain medical conditions, such as diabetes, fasting is discouraged.) I am unfamiliar with the diet you mentioned; instead, I designed my own diet of food that I liked and would give me the proper nutrition: oatmeal, fruit, salad, tea with unsweetened almond milk and water. I fasted two days before, the day of, and the day after my chemo. Initially, my caloric intake was 500 calories per day for the four days, after consultation with the oncology nutritionist, I bumped it up to 750 calories per day. By the way, I was the first fasting chemo patient for both my oncologist and nutritionist. About two months before my chemo, I had started to loose weight for some unknown reason. The weight loss continued through the chemo even though I had a healthy appetite and had no change in my diet. By the time of my fifth chemo, some complications developed in addition to the weight loss so that my oncology team asked me not fast anymore, so I obliged. Chemo was a success, PSA brought down to 1.3 from 17 and scans showed metastasis held in check. If the fasting was beneficial is questionable. Tall_Allen has provided a link to an useful study on fasting with chemo, I highly recommend reading it. Wishing you the best during your chemo.

[monkey1991 in reply to pleinairpainter]

Thanks, see my response below, I am going to give it a try

[Philly13]

I read about the possible benefits of short term fasting before chemo. I get an injection of Firmagon eery month for a little more than a year. Firmagon is considered a hormonal chemo treatment which is not to be compared with any cytotoxic. I mentioned it to the oncologist and suggest I would try to fast for 16-18 hours before the injection. That modified fast has worked very well, for me. Firmagon had been painful and annoying for 2-3 days before I changed my eating routine. Most months I don't feel it at all. When I eat dinner before the injection every once in a while, the pain and redness return.

The point I would like to make is that there are all different forms of fasting. My limited knowledge of fast mimicking diets is that they are usually multiple day fasts. The one I am looking at is 5 days. Plenairpainter's fast surrounding the chemo is an example of a disciplined approach but seems difficult to maintain for many.

I am not comparing Firmagon, which many don't consider to be chemo, to the chemo you are using, but I still think that a modified approach of 16-24 hours without food prior to chemo is worth a try.

Philly

[monkey1991 in reply to Philly13]

Thanks for your help.

[Hidden]

Talk to you Medical Oncologist about fasting. I was on a six month chemotherapy plus hormone therapy in 2004. Nine infusions of Taxotere and nine infusions of Adrimyacin. I did not fast nor did my MO want me to fast. He had me to substantially reduce milk products though..... allowed me one cup of Blue Bell ice cream once a month......

BTW, I didn’t use ice; except for the first infusion of Taxotere and that was ice chips to suck on in case of thrush. Didn’t have a problem, so didn’t use ice chips during the infusions. Toe nails and finger nails were checked prior to each infusion. Blood work checked priority each infusion also to make sure that my numbers were ok,

Good luck and kill the little bastards....

Gourd Dancer

[gyancey]

I started to use Prolon (L-Nutra is the company, Prolon is the product) to mitigate the effects of ADT. Before my diagnosis I had been very fit and ADT just leveled me. I went on a three month boozy pity party and gained a lot of weight. Once I got my head on straight I looked into fasting and discovered Dr. Valter Longo's FMD program. It was very effictive as I lost all the weight I gained and then some. I tested some bio-markers pre and post fast and they all improved as well.

I just completed six weeks of RT and I used the Prolon product twice during the treatment schedule. I can't tell you definitively if it helped with the side effects but I tolerated the treatment fairly well.

I am by no means an expert in fasting and it's efficacy in chemo treatment. The ProLon product worked for me and I am a firm believer in the product. I will defer to others on this board who are much more knowledgable than me.

Best of luck!

[monkey1991]

Thanks, if ok with my onc I will try the L-nutra fast mimicking diet. I like the concept. I work out two hours a day, BMI 25, Psa now at 12 but no Mets to date. Have had low volume disease for 18 years with few side effects.

[j-o-h-n]

Don't forget to excecise on the monkey bars (not in them)....

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Tuesday 06/02/2020 10:06 PM DST

[Doseydoe]

Monkey, I've just finished 6 Chemo sessions of Docetaxel. I was prescribed the Steroid Dexamethasone for three days - before during and after. It made me feel stronger, combated the nausea and made me feel hungry. After the steroids, I felt washed out and not hungry at all as my body detoxed all the Chemo and steroids. So if you want to limit your calories before your chemo, you'll probably lose weight but it will take its toll on your energy levels. My advice is to sleep when tired, eat when hungry, drink before you get thirsty and do some exercise everyday. Keep strong brother, DD😎.

[monkey1991 in reply to Doseydoe]

Thanks

[monkey1991]

Thanks

[dockam]

Hi, I fasted 2 days before each of 15 Taxotere sessions in 2015 and in my case, I only had hair loss as a side effect. No nausea, neuropathy, or metallic/bad taste etc.

PSA went from 840.2 to 0.7 with the chemos and ADT per CHAARTED study.

jeccr.biomedcentral.com/art...

My best to you Brother

Randy