Vitamins and supplements

[AmyG]

What are you taking, if anything?

Has it improved anything?

I'm currently taking D3, calcium and magnesium. B6 too. I wish there was something I could take to make my eyebrows, eyelashes and hair grow back.

They will return eventually.

[MeAndMine]

I'm interested in your question, too. Before diagnosis, I took D3, calcium & magnesium like you. Also a daily, fish oil & vitamin B's. I've taken vitamins, changing out a few different ones here & there, for many years. I quit taking anything while I'm undergoing tests. I didn't have to but I worried that anything I took would skew my results--I was having heart tests along with cancer tests--so I figured I'd quit them all for now.

I'm wondering if taking those things helped & if my body is like "Wait, where'd they go?" now. I felt better with extra vitamins.

Have you ever been tested for what vitamins your body may need? I'm not sure which doctor would do that testing but I heard someone talking about it once. It'd be great to know exactly what to take & what it was doing!

[Rock_Robster]

Hi Amy,

In addition to my onc I see a naturopath who specialises in cancer support; she has me on a lot of vitamins and supplements (in fairly high doses) when I’m not on chemo, mainly to help with recovering from surgeries and radiation, and also prep for more surgery...

The basic list looks like vitamin D (immunity), vit E (wound healing), a mixture of methylated Bs (neuropathy and other things, EGCG (antiox), curcumin (antiox), resveratrol (antiox), fish oils (lots of things), and legalon / milk thistle (liver repair).

The main challenge will be that many oncologists (mine included) won’t support using most of these during chemotherapy, as many are antioxidants and chemotherapy works by inducing oxidative stress. The research is mixed but most doctors don’t want to take the chance (and fair enough). So when on chemo, I only take vitamin D. His view was that I can do what I like when I’m not in treatment, it might help and it’s unlikely to hurt.

Hope this is of some help.

[NHMike]

d3, Magnesium, Nopalina (Fiber), Slippery Elm., Nuun.

[AmyG]

Thanks yall. Idk if I'll take these when chemo resumes, I'll totally ask my oncologist what she thinks.

Liver resection is a week from Wednesday. I am terrified. It's a big surgery. I don't want anything to f it up. I worry about how hard recovery will be, I don't want to be a useless burden! I mean, I know I'm not but I still feel that way.

I'll be in the hospital for child #5's 10th birthday. I told my husband to bring a store bought cake to the hospital. We're going to celebrate with presents and a birthday dinner on Sunday. He told me I might not be on solid foods yet. I gave him a look and said......and? They can't tell me what to do!!!!

So yeah. This chemo break is great. I can drink cold things! I can mostly taste food! I even had a beer!

[stu]

All the best with the upcoming surgery.

My mum had two resections 68 and 69 . You got this covered !!!

Stu

[Gravelyguy]

Amy,

I had my colon and liver resections at the same time. They were both done in an open surgery. I was out 48 hours after surgery so you might be surprised at how quickly you get out. I moved pretty slowly for several days but made it to a wedding a week after surgery. Full disclosure I did not do any dancing. So you’ve got this.

To answer your original question. My wife had me on several Plexus products including their vitamin, probiotic, and several other things. My oncologist had no problem with me taking them throughout chemo. I am still taking them and feel it has really helped me get through ULAR issues better than I should have.

Dave

[Punky44]

My mom takes Vitamin D.

Will be thinking about you next Wednesday! You got this mama!

[Rock_Robster]

Good luck Amy!

I know everyone’s different, but liver surgery was my easiest op. A 5 day holiday with free drugs and crap food, and I walked out with 25% less liver and a lot less cancer. Hoping for the same for you.

Rob

[Siti]

Our oncologist advised to stop all fatty fish or omega 3 supplements during chemo. Obviously this data is based on mice and it’s conflicting to what we know today but in any case we’re not taking it for 2 weeks out of 3 on his CAPOX cycle.

https://www.nki.nl/topmenu/about-the-nk ... atty-fish/

He is currently taking only Vitamin D (3000 ui) and Tumeric (1000mg) during chemo and will slowly increase to 2k. The study below is done on FOLFOX but I’m just taking a guess it would work for CAPOX too.

https://lra.le.ac.uk/handle/2381/43690

The other thing he’s taking is green tea as a drink not supplement. About 2-3 cups of high grade Japanese tea a day. I figured if anti-oxidants are bad, then he can’t even eat berries, fruits etc which are high in antioxidants.

We’re thinking of adding PSK mushroom in the mix.

What’s really frustrating is everyone has a different opinion. The oncologist would tell you to eat fats and cream to keep your weight up, these known to be bad for us but would advised against eating all the good stuff like antioxidants, omega 3 etc.

[AlexandraZ]

I found all this so confusing too! I understand the theory about antioxidants, but a lot of the supplements and foods which are known for their anti-cancer properties are antioxidants. Doesn't make sense to me that they would suddenly protect the cancer when you are getting chemo. But there are many opinions on this point.

My boyfriend take vitamins A, B complex, C, D3, turmeric, green tea extract, magnesium, fish oil, GLA (evening primrose oil), selenium, coQ10. On top of that, he gets organic garlic and ginger, home-sprouted broccoli sprouts and green juices nearly daily. I don't know if all these things have helped against the cancer or not, but his body bounces back nicely after every chemo and I'm sure nutrition plays a part in that. In the past 6 months we have never had to postpone treatment, as his blood work is always fine. (One doctor even told us you can't tell he is getting chemo by looking at his blood). Again, I don't know what part of what we are doing is working, but since he is doing so well we'll continue with all of the above. It only makes sense to me to fuel his body with the healthiest foods to give it a chance to recover from the heavy chemo.

[boxhill]

High-intensity Omega 3 fish oil 2x per day (triglycerides, etc)
100cap B-complex (neuropathy)
R-Alpha lipoic Acid 300mg 2x per day (antioxidant, blood sugar and neuropathy)
coQ10 300mg (counteract potential side effects of statin)
Multivitamin
Vitamin D3 1000 IU