Dealing With A Diagnosis: CANCER - Diet's Impact On Care and Recovery

After a cancer diagnosis, the physician may emphasize the importance of maintaining a healthy diet. By eating a healthy diet, a person will go into treatment with reserves to help keep up strength, prevent body tissue from breaking down, rebuild tissue, and maintain defenses against infection. Additionally, people who eat well are better able to cope with side effects and may even be able to handle higher doses of certain treatments. For example, it is known that some cancer treatments are actually much more effective if the person is well-nourished and getting enough calories and protein in his or her diet. Nutrition recommendations after a cancer diagnosis may encourage eating higher calorie foods that emphasize protein, or suggest eating less of certain high-fiber foods because they can aggravate treatment side effects such as diarrhea or a sore mouth.

When healthy, eating enough food to give the nutrients needed is not usually a problem, but during cancer treatment, a person may suffer from lack of appetite due to side effects and simply not feeling well. Under these circumstances, the person should simply try to eat anything that he or she can easily digest. On treatment days, learn the best time to eat and drink for one's body. Dr. David Bouda suggests that in preparation for your first treatment you "eat a non-fatty meal, hydrate, practice positive imagery of success and make sure your doctor provides good anti-sickness medicine."  Some people feel better when they eat a little bit before treatment, while others do best when they have nothing to eat or drink beforehand. Additional tips that may help include:

• Eating five or six small meals each day, instead of three big meals
• Eating with plastic spoons or forks if foods taste like metal, and using a glass pot for cooking
• Talking with the doctor or nurse to make sure the anti-nausea medicine is being taken correctly
• Eating less greasy, fried, salty, sweet or spicy foods if they cause nausea
• Letting others, such as a home care agency, friends or a meal delivery service do the cooking if the smell of food causes nausea

When receiving treatment in the home for cancer, coping with the disease and the life changes it brings can be exhausting. Home care and home health care services may be a good resource to provide some relief.  American Companion Care can work with family caregivers and their loved ones with cancer to develop strategies for coping with whatever emotional or practical challenges that arise. If the primary care is done by a patient's family or loved ones, there is risk of caregiver burnout. Arrangements should be made for a caregiver to come in regularly for respite services, so that the primary caregiver can have some time to refresh, even if it's only for a few hours a week.

For more information on helping cancer patients and their families, please contact American Companion Care.

Take this worksheet to your next Doctor's appointment and use it as a tool to record answers to these important questions. Click Here for this free resource - Chemotherapy Questions to Ask your Doctor.

Cancer can be scary.  For this reason, American Companion Care hopes to be a helpful resource for cancer care in our community and a conduit to helping people find the answers they seek. Please refer to the release below for helpful tips on coping and care after a cancer diagnosis. If you have any questions or would like to speak with me to learn more about care for someone with cancer, please Contact Us or call (913)390-6300.