will taking vitamins supplement help to lessen the side effects when the patient undergoes radiation therapy?

Posted by admin in Friday, November 20th 2009   
Topics: Quercetin

-->
6 Comments

my father is now on the 3rd day of radiation treatment. he has a tumor in the cervical spine (neck), resting on the nerves. This morning i gave him vitamin c, vitamin e, vitamin b (all 6 different bs), multi carotenes (beta, alpha, lutein and zeaxanthin) and quercetin, before his appointment at 10am.

This evening he felt very weak and had to sit on wheelchair… So it is my fault? Did the vitamins weaken him?

Or just that the radiation attacked his nerves?.
-_- my parents think it’s the vitamin and dad refused to take the evening dose..

You should never give a cancer patient any vitamin or supplement without first co-ordinating this with his oncologist . . there are some vitamins and supplements that can interfere with treatments or worse can encourage cancer to grow. Cancer is not a foreign object in the body . . it is our own cells, thus whatever vitamins used for healthy cells may well end up making the cancer cells ‘healthy too’. So caution should be used and patients should check with their oncologist first before using. You should not be administering to your father without professional advice. But in all probability this specific incidence is probably the cancer and the treatment and the overall activity of the day . . none of it your fault at all . . blame the cancer.

Related Post

Spread the word

Digg this post

Bookmark to delicious

Stumble the post

Add to your technorati favourite

Subscribes to this post

6 users responded to this post

Tapestry6 said in November 20th, 2009 at 8:10 am    

radiation is very trying on the body it attacks the cancer not the nerves, no it wasn’t you or the vitamins.
References :

Panda said in November 20th, 2009 at 8:42 am    

You should never give a cancer patient any vitamin or supplement without first co-ordinating this with his oncologist . . there are some vitamins and supplements that can interfere with treatments or worse can encourage cancer to grow. Cancer is not a foreign object in the body . . it is our own cells, thus whatever vitamins used for healthy cells may well end up making the cancer cells ‘healthy too’. So caution should be used and patients should check with their oncologist first before using. You should not be administering to your father without professional advice. But in all probability this specific incidence is probably the cancer and the treatment and the overall activity of the day . . none of it your fault at all . . blame the cancer.
References :

Verite R said in November 20th, 2009 at 9:12 am    

No, it wasn’t you or the vitamins. It was very kind and thoughtful of you, although – as someone who write a lot about cancer – sadly up until now there is no proven benefit to vitamins, although they will do no harm, and might be helpful.

What does help is to give your father as much ‘healthy’ food as you can, and as he feels like eating. If you go to http://www.after-cancer.com there is info about which foods are deemed to be healthy, and researchers say that although this is not proven, the healthier a diet the better chance of recovery. But he will probably only feel like eating a little at a time.

However, expect your father to be very tired, and try and get him to have a rest when he gets back from treatment each day. Tell him Winston Churchill always had an afternoon sleep!

Good luck

Verite R
References :

mitchellfrank15 said in November 20th, 2009 at 9:21 am    

Oh God NO……its the radiation therapy that weakened him dear…..Radiation treatment is a catch 22 treatment. IT will kill the cancer tumour but it will damage healthy tissue as well. Chemotherapy will also induce nausea. Also where the tumour is located is on the spinal colum, which controls motor function (walking and standing). It was nothing you did wrong. Beta Carotene is good for helping prevent cancer, stay away from hydrogenated foods……OH……beta carotene..there is one caution…if you are diabetic…..it can send insulin into flux………just be warned. I honestly think it was not your fault. Cancer runs in my family my father is suffering from bone cancer. Will keep you in my prayers as your family goes through this trouble. You may want to talk to some one from the cancer society for advice and counselling. Take care and God Bless……..
References :

AKA Inverse Mushroom Cloud said in November 20th, 2009 at 9:37 am    

Let me be very clear about this.

NEVER GIVE SUPPLEMENTS TO A CANCER PATIENT.

You don’t know anything about the treatments, how they work, and how the supplements may interfere.

In fact, radiation therapy works by creating free radicals. The antioxidants you gave him scavenge free radicals. So basically, you just undermined the effectiveness of his radiation treatments.

It may not be the reason why he felt weak, but just stop with the supplements. You can resume the supplements after his treatments are completed … although … to be clear on this also, there is little evidence that taking vitamins and other compounds out of foods and putting them into pills has any benefit to anyone other than the company selling them.
References :

lo_mcg said in November 20th, 2009 at 9:50 am    

I agree with Panda and Inverse that you shouldn’t give a cancer patient supplements without talking to their oncologist – although don’t assume the oncologist will veto it, mine said it was ok and at the time I was taking a raft of them.

But one of the main side effects of radiotherapy is fatigue. I recall likening the feeling that sometimes came over me to a plug being pulled out of a water filled sink – energy disappeared as quickly and suddenly as that. That exhaustion didn’t kick in till about the 8th or 9th day for me, but then my treatment was to my chest which may have made a difference.

The exhaustion is almost certainly from his treatment; but he should run the vitamins he wants to take by his oncologist anyway
References :

Leave Your Comments Below

Currently you have JavaScript disabled. In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser.

«
»