Dietary modifications for cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy

  About 70% of malignant tumor patients need radiation therapy, during radiation therapy, patients will have various kinds of discomfort (radiation reaction), at this time the diet is crucial.  1. Loss of appetite. The most common thing is anorexia and sluggishness of taste. At this time to patiently encourage patients to eat more, diet to nutritious, light, easy to digest food is good. Pay attention to the color, aroma, taste and shape of the dishes to mobilize the patient’s sense of sight and smell to increase appetite. Chin food should be used to eat less and more meals, serious consumption of stimulating condiments, such as pepper, scabies, strong wine, etc., avoid eating smoked, fried food and indigestible food.  2, dry mouth, sore throat, esophagitis. These symptoms are the most common radiation reactions of head and neck or chest tumor patients during radiotherapy, which are caused by radiation damage to salivary glands and mucous membrane. At this time, you can eat a cool, non-irritating diet and avoid hard and coarse food. The temperature of meals should not be too hot, meat should be finely chopped, vegetables or fruits can be juiced if they cannot be swallowed, and cold boiled water is delicious, a small amount of cold drinks should be consumed, and more yogurt should be drunk. Dry mouth, sore throat, severe esophagitis, can contain or swallow a small amount of procaine solution before meals, and then eat, the pain will be significantly reduced. Can also be used maitake, licorice decoction as tea.  3. Nausea and vomiting. When abdominal tumor radiotherapy is given, some patients will have these symptoms. Avoid protein foods and other foods that are not fresh or have strange odor, and also can contain fresh ginger slices, or decoction of Chen Pi, Persimmon and Bamboo Roo as tea, which can reduce gastrointestinal reactions.  4, abdominal distension, diarrhea. This is due to abdominal radiotherapy stimulation of intestinal mucosa, causing intestinal peristalsis accelerated, it is appropriate to eat easy to digest, light and less greasy food. Such as semi-liquid diet or less slag diet, to contain high fiber food and sticky, cold food.  5, constipation. Should be appropriate to increase activity, eat more fresh vegetables, fruits, and other fiber-rich foods, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, apples, pears, etc.. If necessary, take traditional Chinese medicine marenza pills.  6, frequent urination, urinary urgency, painful urination and hematuria. This is a symptom of radioactive cystitis, which often occurs during or after radiation therapy for bladder cancer, prostate cancer, cervical cancer, rectal cancer and other pelvic tumors. At this time, patients should drink more water and urinate more often, in addition to taking appropriate amount of baking soda to make the urine alkaline.  7.Decrease in blood picture. As radiation therapy can cause bone marrow suppression, manifested as a decline in white blood cells and platelets. In order to prevent myelosuppression caused by blood image decline, we should pay attention to strengthen nutrition, appropriate more food chicken, duck, meat, etc. should be boiled, stewed, steamed and other methods of cooking. You can also choose foods that contain more iron, such as animal liver, loin, heart, egg yolk, etc.. Vegetables are spinach, tomatoes plus, celery, etc. Fruits can be given dates, pineapples, peaches, etc., red dates, prunes, oranges, tangerines, etc.. You can also use stewed black chicken, peanut coats and other blood tonic.  While enhancing nutrition, radiotherapy patients should increase the intake of anti-cancer foods (such as shiitake mushrooms, soybeans, cuttlefish, etc.), and should also take appropriate amount of vitamins and certain trace elements under the guidance of doctors to improve their immunity.