What to eat during radiotherapy

  Currently, radiotherapy is an effective treatment for cancer. However, some toxic reactions can occur during the course of radiotherapy, which can have a great impact on patients. Some patients may suffer from toxic side effects such as anorexia, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and in severe cases, dehydration, resulting in nutritional deficiencies, fatigue and depression. Since radiotherapy has so many toxic side effects, so what is good for patients to eat during radiotherapy?    Before talking about how to properly arrange the diet of cancer patients, two wrong views must be corrected. Some people believe that cancer patients should be strictly controlled to eat in order to “starve” cancer cells, which is actually a misconception. This means that cancer cells will further develop, expand and erode more benign cells. On the other hand, some people think that cancer patients need to eat a lot of tonic food in order to recover faster. This will further aggravate the anorexia.  In addition, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and in serious cases, dehydration may occur, which is undoubtedly a physical burden to the patient. However, in general, cancer patients can eat three meals a day similar to normal people, but they need to eat more foods that are beneficial to the body’s recovery. In the daily diet, protein foods such as milk, eggs, fish, meat and soybean products should be slightly higher than normal people; food should be fresh and live, avoid animal foods that have been left for too long, and eat more natural green vegetables and fruits such as carrots, pumpkins, apricots, wheat kernels, green vegetables, tomatoes, etc.; according to Chinese medicine, cancer is manifested as lumps, so foods that soften hardness and resolve stasis should be used, such as shiitake mushrooms, black fungus, white fungus and kelp. Chinese medicine believes that food should be used to soften and remove stasis, such as mushroom, black fungus, white fungus and seaweed. After radiotherapy, patients with dry mouth and lips and pain can eat more dishes such as reed root, water chestnut, kelp, mung bean and cuttlefish.  It is also the concern of cancer patients and their family members that it is difficult to give a direct answer to this question. It is difficult to give a direct answer to this question. It is important to know that there is a certain relationship between the avoidance of food and the patient’s condition and nature: if the patient finds that there is a deficiency of yin such as dry mouth, bad heart, red tongue and light moss, he should avoid foods that are hot and fragrant and hurt yin such as chili pepper, pepper, raw garlic and fried dried fruits; if the patient usually has a deficiency of spleen and stomach, is prone to diarrhea, is afraid of cold and likes warmth, he should avoid foods that are sweet and greasy, and persimmon and asparagus that are cold and slippery are not suitable.      On the other hand, the diet of cancer patients also lies in drinking, and we should not emphasize food over drinking and neglect water conditioning. Therefore, in the process of prevention, treatment and recovery, it is very important to pay attention to the correct regulation of patients’ drinking water. Cancer patients often have serious and water-electrolyte disorders, so they should drink at least 1500ml of water per day as much as possible. After radiotherapy and chemotherapy, cancer patients should have rich nutritious food: In the process of chemotherapy, some toxic reactions will occur, because while anti-cancer drugs kill cancer cells, they also cause some damage to normal cells. In particular, dysfunction of the bone marrow hematopoietic system, decrease in white blood cells and decrease in platelets can occur, which is one of the most common side effects. This is one of the most common side effects. The hematocrit sometimes decreases, and sometimes mouth ulcers, hair loss, and even skin pigmentation due to drug allergy often occur in the extremities and at the site of infusion. The liver and kidneys are also damaged, and the gastrointestinal system is often involved. In some patients, the toxic side effects of chemotherapy drugs are followed by anorexia, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and in severe cases, dehydration, resulting in nutritional deficiencies, fatigue and mental depression. This aggravates the disease and makes the patient fearful of the drug and unable to keep up the course of treatment, thus missing the opportunity for treatment.      In order to make chemotherapy go smoothly, drug therapy should be accompanied by nutritious food to improve the tolerance of the body to the toxic side effects of anti-cancer drugs. During chemotherapy, the patient’s diet should be mainly high in calories and protein, such as chicken, duck, fish, shrimp, lean meat, eggs, etc., so as to play a supplementary therapeutic role. What is good to eat after radiotherapy? Diet should be diversified, pay attention to dietary mix, with a view to a variety of nutrients to complement each other, to improve the body’s immunity. If you have the symptoms of yin deficiency, you should eat silver fungus porridge or soak 0.15 grams of American ginseng as tea. If economic conditions allow, stewed turtle soup can be taken. Cooking should pay attention to the color, aroma and taste, preferably steaming, boiling and stewing, not eating or less eating smoked, fried and baked food, less eating pickled food, not smoking, not drinking alcohol, alcohol can activate many carcinogens and lower the immune function. The staple food of chemotherapy patients can be selected according to their dietary habits and tastes, such as buns, dumplings, wontons and noodles. Patients with poor appetite can eat less and more meals.      The effect of eating natural herbs after radiotherapy is good: tumor is a consumptive disease, what is good to eat after radiotherapy? It is common for tumor patients to suffer from nutritional imbalance and malnutrition. Therefore, it is very important to promote appetite and strengthen nutrition for the recovery of tumor patients. In daily life, we should pay attention to reasonable nutrition, try our best to shift the food, eat more high protein, multivitamin, low animal fat, easy to digest food and fresh fruits and vegetables, do not eat stale or irritating food, eat less fumigation, baking, pickled, fried and salty food, and mix coarse and fine food to ensure nutritional balance. It has unique curative effect on late malignant tumor and metastasis, and it is safe and does not produce any harm and toxic side effects to the body, so that patients can see the curative effect in a short time, and herbs have special function to shrink tumor blood vessels (capillaries), so that the tumor will not get a trace of nutrients and the tumor will naturally shrink. (As long as the tumor is dead, the cancer cells will disappear). This is the real means to cure malignant tumor (cancer) completely.  What is good for diarrhea caused by chemotherapy?  When chemotherapy affects the superficial cells in the intestine, it may lead to diarrhea. If the diarrhea lasts for more than 24 hours or is accompanied by pain and cramps, it is time to see a doctor. In severe cases, your doctor will prescribe anti-diarrheal medication. However, do not take over-the-counter medications without your doctor’s permission.  You can try the following to control diarrhea: Eat small, frequent meals. Try to eat mainly easy-to-digest foods as well.  Do not eat foods with a lot of fiber that can cause diarrhea and abdominal pain. Fiber-rich foods include pumpernickel bread and cereal, vegetables, beans, dried fruits, melons, popcorn, and fresh and dried fruits. Conversely, eat foods with less fiber, such as refined bread, refined rice, pasta, creamed cereal, peeled canned fruit, yogurt, eggs, peeled mashed or sliced potatoes, vegetable soups, and skinless chicken and fish.      Avoid coffee, tea, alcohol and sweets. Avoid fried, greasy and spicy foods. Do not consume milk and milk products if they make your diarrhea worse. Unless your doctor objects, eat more potassium-rich foods such as bananas, oranges, potatoes, peaches and almonds. Drink plenty of beverages to replace the water lost from diarrhea. It is best to drink milk, apple juice, water, light tea, broth and ginger beer. Chill them to room temperature and drink them slowly. When drinking soda, deflate it first.  If diarrhea is severe (seven or eight times in a day), see your doctor immediately. Ask your doctor for advice on whether to eat liquid food to give your stomach and intestines a rest. When you feel better, gradually eat foods low in fiber as listed above. Do not eat liquid foods for more than three or four days because they are not nutritious enough to meet your needs. If the diarrhea does not improve, you will need fluids to replace the lost water and nutrients.