Chemotherapy is the cornerstone of cancer treatment. Luckily, there are many options for managing side effects that accompany the treatment. With a nutritionist and medical management for cancer patients, they can get the fuel they need to heal and recover.
Eating nutritious food is not an issue when you’re healthy. Most nutrition guides recommend eating whole grain products, fruits and vegetables. But when you’re going through chemotherapy, these things can be difficult to do. Particularly, if you just don’t feel well or have side effects.
Both the illness and its treatments can change the way you eat when you have cancer. Your body also uses and tolerates certain nutrients differently.
What a nutritionist does for cancer patients
Nutritionists help with cancer recovery and treatment. In fact, they are a part of the cancer treatment team. They not only work with patients, but also their families and the rest of the medical team. So, the nutritionist manages diets for cancer patients during and after cancer treatment.
Dietitians (nutritionists) provide advice to cancer patients regarding maintaining weight before, during and after treatments. In addition, they work with patients to help them steer through side effects from treatment and cancer. For example, how to deal with appetite loss, nausea, and taste alteration.
Patients with neck or head cancers need additional assistance. This include difficulty swallowing and the need for feeding tubes.
Diet with a cancer diagnosis
Diet is important to cancer prevention as well as important during cancer treatment. And those with a diagnosis who eat unhealthily, has extra body fat can actually increase their tumor size. How does that happen? Well, since the tumor is part of their body mass, it will grow as their body mass increases.
Nutritionists for cancer patients also make sure patients don’t loss too much weight. This can easily happen because side effects from treatment causes a patient’s appetite to decrease. If a patient is undernourished, doctors may pause treatments.
For this reason, a dietician encourages the patient to eat more frequent, smaller meals when they don’t feel hungry. They can also make recommendations regarding nutritional supplements and vitamins.
Vegans and vegetarians
If you’re a vegan for vegetarian diagnosed with cancer, please talk to your doctor or dietician about your diet. Remember, it vital that your body stays healthy when undergoing chemotherapy.
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