The Science behind Fasting for Chemotherapy Treatments (CliffsNotes version of the film & online articles reflecting the research)

PLEASE NOTE: Fasting should always be done under the supervision of your Doctor, Oncologist and Nurses. My first Oncologist was not on board with the idea I would fast during my chemo treatments, but my second Oncologist was open to it, as they were closely monitoring my bloodwork. You have to let your Oncologist and Nurses know you’re fasting, because the bloodwork will reveal information (low glucose levels, etc….) which may be alarming to the Hospital Staff and they may not want to give you your chemo infusion. Once my team knew I was fasting, I was given the clearance to administer my chemo infusions regardless of the bloodwork.

• Chemotherapy works by attacking rapidly-dividing cells, which causes collateral damage to our immune system. But by fasting (only water) for 72 hours prior to treatments, it allows for less harmful effects to occur within our bodies, protecting our normal (non-cancerous) cells.

• Study finds, when you “starve” your body, it gives permission to the stem cells (like “flipping a regenerative switch”) to allow the system to break down a huge portion of white blood cells. In the process, it recycles a lot of the old, damaged immune cells, the inefficient ones, and regenerates new immune system cells. When you fast, it promotes cellular clean-up, and you essentially regenerate an entirely new immune system.
• Fasting with only water for 3 days may appear as unhealthy, especially with the dangers of a low white blood cell count, but as soon as you re-introduce food, the blood cells come back. Not only does the WBC regenerate, but a new batch gets produced, helping to fight off infection even more effectively.
• Our normal cells are better equipped to deal with starvation, while cancer cells actually grow and cannot adapt to the new conditions of our system during fasting. As the cancer cells starve during the fasting process, they get weaker, allowing for chemotherapy to be even more effective, specifically on the cancer cells. Cancer cells are known to rely on glucose to meet their higher demand for energy. So under low blood glucose conditions, the cancer cells become much more vulnerable to chemotherapy. Meanwhile, our body cells, which typically use glucose as their main energy, have the ability to switch to a different fuel, and survive the fasting condition.

Summary Breakdown of 3- Day Fasting during Chemo:

When chemo enters our bodies, our normal healthy (non-cancerous) cells are already in the process of saving energy and recycling new immune system cells, while the cancer cells are the opposite, being active, using lots of energy, and thus, get weaker. So when chemo enters the body, our cancer cells are quick to absorb the drug, resulting in a more effective method to break down the cancer cells. Not only does this naturally result in a more effective cancer treatment, but fewer of our normal cells get affected in the process. Without fasting, both cancer & normal cells get broken down, but with fasting, the cancer cells take more of the damage.

My Personal Process of Fasting with ABVD Chemo Every 2 Weeks:

The fast began 48 hours prior to the treatment and 24 hours after infusion. 

Fasting vs. No Fasting

• Start slow, with a simple bowl of soup or rice for the first meal, and take your time eating it. Then a couple of hours later, another small meal. If you waited days without food, you can be patient and begin by eating small meals every few hours 😉
• Avoid animal protein/heavy meat for the first day. If your body is completely empty for 3/4 days (it’s essentially “shut down” in a way), even the smallest meal will kickstart your digestive system into gear again. I got too impatient one of the times and ate red meat after 3 days of nothing, and I felt like I ate an entire rhinoceros on my own. I do not recommend that! Be patient. Fasting is a course on patience and inner strength.

After finishing up treatments

Some people ask if I still continue to fast even after my chemotherapy treatments, and the answer is yes! I don’t do it as often, but seeing the incredible benefits for myself, and knowing personal stories of sharing fasting with others and hearing great results too, fasting has a big place in my heart. I did a 4 day fast after after my last chemotherapy treatment as one final “reset” of my body, and for old times‘ sake 🙂

Peace, love & beets!

♥ Fio

I made a layout to show the hair loss/growth for any of you wondering what it’s like.

Nov 5th, 2017: Cut it from shoulder-length to photo-length (below)

December 25th, 2017: Shaved my head

June 22nd, 2018: Last Chemotherapy Treatment

Up until November 2017, I had shoulder-length hair. When I was told in September that I needed to start chemotherapy and that one of the side effects was hair loss, I began to cut it down until I decided to shave it.

I shaved my head Dec 25th 2017, and by a couple of chemo infusions, my hair had already started to thin out (you can see it especially in the March 28th pic)

I’m glad I shaved my head because having my hair grow back was something that I looked forward to, instead of dreading the days where I’d have my long hair but begin to lose it in chunks and/or see it gradually thin out. It made a huge difference mentally too and I recommend shaving it for anyone that’s been told hair loss is a side effect of the chemo.

As the months go by in the early stage of my chemo treatment, you’ll see that my hair begins to grow back, but as the chemo begins to damage the hair cells too, the hair grows back thinned out.

But then something really cool happened…

As some of you know, I was fasting for 4 days (only water) throughout each of my chemo infusions every 2 weeks, to help with the side effects. Not only did it help with all of the side effects  (nausea, acid reflex, jaw/head aches, mouth blisters, etc… I could go on!) But my hair started to grow mid-treatment 💁🏻‍♀️

Fasting honestly saved my life. It’s something I’ve shared with many other patients, and I love hearing how much others are benefiting from it also ♥️

Read more about Fasting for Chemotherapy side effects here.

Changing my diet changed my life.

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” – Hippocrates, the father of medicine.

I’m not a nutritionist by any means. I’m just sharing this blog post to simply show how much of an effect a healthy lifestyle can have on our attitudes. When you’re diagnosed with cancer, you hear a lot that “a good attitude is half the battle”. But how do you get a good attitude?  It takes a lot of learning, self-love, and acceptance. All of these things came naturally once I started living a healthy lifestyle, and basically giving my body all the love in the world.  I always thought I was pretty healthy, but there were many things that I had to sacrifice to really show my body I was going to support it 100% throughout this entire process.

I never proactively thought about having a good attitude. I just know that in retrospect, I had a different outlook on things because my body was well equipped with the armor it needed in order to face this battle.

Before I started chemo, I went on a naturopathic diet that really changed my physical and mental wellbeing. The hope was that the holistic approach would cure my cancer and avoid having to go through Chemo. Unfortunately it didn’t work for me, but it has worked for others. But thanks to this healthy lifestyle, I went into chemo with my body and mind ready to fight.

So from mid August through December 25th, my diet evolved throughout the months as it got modified from time to time, but this eventually became my daily Holistic Approach, BEFORE I started chemo:

• Coffee Enema (for detoxing) first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.
• (1) cup of Essaic Tea (for detoxing)
• Beta Glucan (supplement) taken 30 minutes before eating
• Yoga (for meditation) help remove mental and physical stress
• Juicing. When it came to juicing, I was told to not worry about the measurements, but instead focus on making sure that Beets occupied 50% of the juice, and Carrots and Celery 20%.
  • Beets 50% of juice (peeled)
  • Celery 20% of juice
  • Carrots 20% of juice  (peeled)
  • 1 apple
  • 1 or 2 thumb-sized peeled ginger roots
• Breakfast: “The Budwig Protocol”:
  • low fat 1-2% organic cottage cheese and flaxseed oil.
  • Measurements: (6) tablespoons of cottage cheese to (3) tablespoons of flaxseed oil. Mix these ingredients with a hand mixer for about a minute until it looks like curd/yogurt.
  • After the mix, you can then add raspberries, strawberries, almonds, etc..
  • Must be eaten within 15 minutes.
  • This was the only time dairy was allowed for meals.
• Probiotics (supplement)
• Vitamin C (supplement)
• Baking Soda (to alkalinize body)
  • 30 minutes before/after eating.
  • Measurements: 1/2 Tablespoon of baking soda and 2 Tablespoons of lemon. Add 8oz of water once lemon mixture stops fizzing.
• Lunch:
  • see below the “NO’s” and “What to Eat”
• Vitamin C (supplement)
• Green Tea Extract (supplement)
• Vitamin D3 (supplement)
• Probiotics (supplement)
• Iron (supplement)
• Vitamin B12 (supplement)
• Baking Soda (same process as listed above)
• Dinner:
  • see below the “NO’s” and “What to Eat”
• (1) cup of Essaic Tea (for detoxing) so that herbs work throughout the night.

Next day, same thing all over again 😉

The NO’s:

• NO Sugar (in any form)
• NO Processed food (in any form)
• NO Refined foods (like the ones that are refined to increase shelf life, like bread, cake, cookies, pastries, pizza, chips, etc..)
• NO Animal Protein (chicken, red meat, seafood, shellfish , eggs, etc..) Difficult for the body to digest and you are taking 40% of your body’s energy away from fighting the cancer to digest your food.
• NO Dairy (milk, ice cream, cheese, butter, etc…)
• NO Gluten (bread, cereal, pasta, etc…)
• NO Potato and Rice (high in glycemic index, which gets converted into sugar)
• NO Soy products
• NO Microwaved food, no teflon, aluminum cooking or aluminum foil.
• NO White flour
• NO alcohol
• NO caffeine (except for coffee enema)

WHAT TO EAT:

• Raw, whole vegetables 
• Large salads (with a little olive oil and lemon, no salad dressing)
• Veggies/Legumes: dark, green leafy like kale, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, onions, bell peppers, radishes, tomatoes, squash, carrots, leeks, lentils, sprouts of any kind, asparagus, green beans, brussels sprouts, etc..
• Cereals (only if made with millet, quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat) and not gluten
• Fruits (try to limit fruit to one piece of whole fruit / day)
• Nuts: all except peanuts

____________________________________________

DIET DURING CHEMO

Because chemo also affects healthy cells that line the digestive tract, my diet has shifted a little bit to accommodate those changes and make it as fluid and easy as possible for my body. The “WHAT TO EAT” from the list above still remains part of my diet.

The NO’s:

• NO Sugar (in any form)
• NO Processed food (in any form)
• NO Refined foods (like the ones that are refined to increase shelf life, like bread, cake, cookies, pastries, pizza, chips, etc..)
• NO red meat  (Even though animal protein it is difficult for the body to digest, I have found that eating organic eggs, chicken and fish has helped me stay healthy and also help fight anemia. I do eat animal protein in moderation)
• NO Dairy (milk, ice cream, cheese, butter, etc…)
• NO Gluten (bread, cereal, pasta, etc…)
• NO Potato and Rice (high in glycemic index, which gets converted into sugar)
• NO Soy products
• NO Microwaved food, no teflon, aluminum cooking or aluminum foil.
• NO White flour
• NO alcohol (to help liver out since chemo is already working really hard + also will help reduce acid reflux)
• NO spicy food (to help reduce acid reflux and help heal mouth sores)
• NO caffeine (sodas, coffee, chocolate, etc… ) to help reduce acid reflux.

Important:

• Drink lots and lots of water!
• Eat lots of fiber
• Exercise, meditate, and get some sun!
• Focus on eating alkaline foods instead of acidic foods
• Avoid acidic foods at night especially because your body tries to digest while lying down.
• Eat smaller meals more frequently.
• Eating raw or undercooked foods is a common cause of food poisoning. So wash vegetables thoroughly!

After each chemo treatment, I wait a week to continue with the coffee enema and supplements, so it does not interfere with chemo.

That’s all folks! 🙂

Christmas morning I shaved my head, since it was going to all fall out at some point during my chemo treatment. My family had known for weeks that I was planning on doing that before we all met up Christmas morning, and so when the door bell rang, I thought I was going to be the one surprising my family…

The joke was on me! 🙂 My papa shaved his head also and gave me the most beautiful Christmas gift I could ever ask for. Check out this video below.

❤

Every chemo treatment is different, and every body reacts differently, but please, please, please, consider getting your Port-a-cath put in. I’m on the ABVD chemo treatment, which I go in for every 2 weeks, and having this port placed was the best decision I could’ve made! I was skeptical about it for weeks, but after lots of research and talking to people who regretted not getting it (and hearing their horror stories, which I’ll describe below) I decided that the port was a GREAT idea.

Below are the PROS and CONS of having a port:

What is a port-a-cath?

“A device used to draw blood and give treatments, including intravenous fluids, drugs, or blood transfusions. The port is placed under the skin, usually in the chest. It is attached to a catheter (a thin, flexible tube) that is guided (threaded) into a large vein above the right side of the heart called the superior vena cava.”

 PROS

– The surgery is NOT painful 🙂 You’re put under anesthesia and you don’t feel a thing. Within 45 minutes, I was out in the recovery room and the surgeon held a mirror to my chest and showed it to me. I was shocked to see how that port was put under my skin without having felt absolutely nothing at all. IMPORTANT: Once it’s put in, carefully follow the hospital’s instructions on how to take proper care of it for the next few days. They’ll talk you over it and they should give you a handout. You don’t want it getting infected!

-When you go in for your chemo treatment, all you feel is a poke on your chest and that’s it for the whole duration of your chemo infusions. Most people who have the chemo infusion going through the veins in their arm, experience a very strong stinging feeling in their arm, that’s because the veins in our arms are three times thinner than the ones in our chest.

Here are some personal stories I’ve heard from people not getting the port put in and instead having the chemo go through the veins in their arms:

• A girl I talked to said she couldn’t sleep at night through her whole treatment because her arm was in so much pain.
• Your veins in your arms start giving out, due to the chemo damaging them, making it impossible for nurses to find your veins, which brings a whole new set of problems once that starts to happen. You have to keep in mind that chemo isn’t the only time you get injected in your arm. You’ll be doing regular blood work before each chemo as well. So that’s a lot of injections, giving your arms no breaks 😦
• When I went in for a PET Scan, the girl in the room next to me was crying because her arms were in so much pain (she didn’t have port) and the nurses couldn’t find her veins and so they had to cancel & postpone her PET Scan. If you can’t get blood drawn because nurses can’t get to your veins, there’s a chance your chemo treatment can get delayed as well.
• You’ll start to have limited movement in your arm because it’s in so much pain. And so if you’re like me, who’s usually pretty active (exercise/sports, working jobs, etc…) the last thing you want is to not be able to move your arm.

CONS

-It’s not pretty and it’s a constant reminder of chemo. The pros far outweigh this! You can always cover it up with clothes and you won’t even notice it 😉

-You feel something pushing out of your skin (only for the first few weeks) and then you don’t even realize it’s there.

-I originally didn’t want to get the port because I hate feeling “limited” to do things. I thought having the port was going to make me feel that way, but in all honesty, it’s only limited me from playing soccer, racquetball, and sports like that, that could accidentally hit the port and that would be very bad. I can still put a camera on my shoulder no problem (phew) and go on walks, go out, and sleep comfortably.

– Even once your chemo is over and you’re in remission, you’re advised to keep the port for an extra 6 months. The problem is, if you still need to continue more chemo treatments but you don’t have the port anymore, they can’t place the port back where you had it initially. The surgeon will need to start the process all over again on your other side, which is why the suggest to keep it just in case. I’m definitely planning on following their advice.

-Wondering about the scar after the port gets removed? You got nothing to worry about 😉

Here is an update: