Fasting: Help to limit side effects and reduce risk of recurrence.
Someone I know had just gone through breast cancer and had read that fasting can help limit nausea and some other side effects. She was able to do it for 24hrs before chemo and felt it made a big difference.
I did some reading around it and found Decca Aitkenhead’s article for the Guardian. It is a pretty harrowing account of what she went through when she had chemotherapy, but she talks about fasting and how she did it for 3 days before and a day after chemo. Yes, this means 96 hours. Which sounds INSANE, but it is doable.
This Professor chap called Valter Longo has done some very interesting studies surrounding it, find them on his website. He has invented something called the “fasting mimicking diet”, where you supposedly get all the benefits of a fast without having to starve yourself.
There are a whole load of benefits to fasting, back in the day when we were hunter gatherers we would have gone without food for periods of time which would count as a “fast”. We now live in an age where those who are fortunate enough can have food all the time. The problem with this is that when our bodies are in a “fasted” state they do a bit of housekeeping. All of our cells are dying and being replaced all the time - sometimes the new cells aren’t quite right - this can lead to precancerous or cancerous cells instead of nice healthy ones. When we’re fasting, our bodies check for these sorts of cells and destroy them. There’s also evidence to suggest that fasting can help reduce your risk of heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, Alzheimer’s dementia and much more.
It’s thought that in the fasted state that the chemo is more effective against the cancer cells, whilst also protecting your own cells against the toxic effects of chemo.
Not only this but if you’re not eating, you’re minimising the blood flow to your gut, if you’re minimising blood flow, you’re minimising the amount of chemo that can get to your bowel and cause side effects.
What I do is try and stick to as few calories a day as I can - having sparkling water, unsweetened black teas and if I get really hungry I’d either have a miso soup, bone broth or bag of salad leaves. It is hard but gets easier and the idea of feeling sick and ill was enough for me to keep doing it every week.
I have barely felt sick during my entire chemo - the times when I have is when I’ve been a bit lax with my fasting. I didn’t need to use any anti sickness at home.
Had someone told me as their doctor that they were going to do this during chemo, I’d have told them they were crazy, but now this is something I would suggest my patients try if they’re struggling with nausea.
Professor Longo suggests doing a fast a few times a year if you’re low risk of cancers. As I am high risk, I’m going to do this once a month for the rest of my life (which hopefully will be very long).
Here are some really useful websites…
Valter Longo
Information on fasting and the effects on cancer.
UCSF
Information on fasting and the effects on cancer.
Decca Aitkenhead’s Article
Decca’s experience of breast cancer and treatment.
Nature
Study on mice with breast cancer, chemo and fasting.
YouTube
Video explaining fasting mimicking diets.