Diet tips for Mesothelioma patients are Regularize Eating Habits, Moderate Exercise, Using Advanced Medicines and Procedures, Using Non-Medicinal Means.
Having a nutritious diet is crucial for Mesothelioma patients. A well-balanced, healthy diet helps restore the energy lost due to the disease itself and subsequent treatments. Mesothelioma, like other cancers, requires chemotherapy. Chemotherapy has specific side effects like wastage of body proteins, loss of energy, and even loss of appetite in some cases. Therefore, it is important to consume the right kind of foods and adopt certain habits, to combat these side effects and sustain energy levels.
Here are some helpful lifestyle and diet tips patients with mesothelioma can follow to make their treatment less problematic.
1. Foods to Eat
When it comes to eating regularly, it is not uncommon for Mesothelioma patients to face difficulty. Essentially, chemotherapy reduces a patient’s appetite, making it highly challenging to eat. However, it is essential to eat regardless to sustain enough energy to bear the treatment and illness.
Most nutritionists advise a greater intake of proteins for people dealing with mesothelioma. Proteins are essential as they can help boost the immune system by stimulating the creation of antibodies and rebuilding tissues damaged by cancer. Moreover, they also help maintain lean muscle mass, which is essential for maintaining an average weight. Rich sources of proteins include chicken, fish, eggs etc. Remember to ask your nutritionist for instructions regarding portion sizes.
Along with protein, mesothelioma patients should also consume a large variety of fruits and vegetables. These are packed with vitamins and minerals, which are important to keep your energy levels in check. As for carbohydrates, patients should consume whole grain foods instead of refined carbs, as they have a higher vitamin and mineral count. You can find whole grains in cereals and foods like brown rice and sweet potatoes.
2. Foods to Avoid
There are certain foods that Mesothelioma patients must aim to avoid. These include processed meats and red meats. Overeating red meat can give rise to a myriad of complications. Since red meat is high in saturated fat, it can cause heart disease and even increase the risk of other types of cancer like colorectal cancer. Substitute red meat with other healthy options like fish and poultry. However, remember not to completely eliminate red meat as it is still vital for creating red blood cells in your body.
Patients must also aim to avoid excessive sugar and alcohol. It is a well-known fact that high sugar intake results in many health conditions. Continuously rising blood sugar can contribute to diseases like diabetes and obesity. Ultimately, this can affect a patient’s ability to tolerate the treatment, often making it much more painful. Sugary foods include fizzy drinks, cakes, desserts, etc.
Limiting alcohol is also crucial to sustain therapy. Excessive drinking can cause conditions like high blood pressure, liver disease, and many digestive disorders, which can worsen the course of treatment in patients. Patients undergoing therapy are prone to digestive complications like diarrhea, and alcohol can exacerbate the condition. Too much drinking can also cause mental disorders and worsen other side effects of therapy (i.e., nausea, vomiting, and headaches).
3. Other Helpful Diet tips for Mesothelioma patients
Many complications can arise from chemotherapy. Chemotherapy works by using powerful drugs that kill dividing cancer cells. It is one of the most effective cancer treatments out there and one that causes the most side effects. However, patients can avoid or handle them using the steps below.
Regularize Eating Habits:
Chemotherapy is an invasive process that causes unpleasant symptoms like constant vomiting and nausea. Patients need to follow a proper eating chart to manage these. Of course, nausea can make food consumption a challenging task. Nevertheless, a mesothelioma patient must eat while experiencing nausea which can lower the severity of the condition. Moreover, regular eating patterns keep your body weight in check and also help those who cannot sustain their appetite
Moderate Exercise:
Research indicates that exercising during chemotherapy can be very effective in easing side effects and strengthening the immune system. In fact, it may even help provide a better outcome to chemotherapy in the first place. Then again, if you’re looking to start exercising, you should be cautious and only indulge in exercises that are easy on you and your body. Refrain from exercising if you have symptoms like anemia, shortness of breath, and heart or neuro complications. Talk to your doctor about the kinds of exercises you can do and stick to low-intensity ones initially.
Using Advanced Medicines and Procedures:
Gone are the days when patients had to deal with the side effects of chemotherapy heads on. Many new medicines and therapies have evolved in the medical world that can help manage these side effects much better. For instance, certain drugs can now help induce appetite and suppress vomiting at 100% efficiency. Furthermore, treatments like cooling caps have evolved to minimize hair loss during chemo. This treatment works by constricting the blood vessels in the scalp so that chemo drugs do not reach it. While cooling caps may not be 100% effective in retaining all the hair in the scalp, they can be beneficial to a certain degree.
Using Non-Medicinal Means:
Instead of constantly relying on medication, there are some simple ways you can try to calm the side effects of therapy. For instance, chemo may harm the lining in the mouth, giving rise to painful sores and bumps. While there’s no way to treat these bumps completely, keeping an ice cube in your mouth during the procedure can effectively reduce mouth-related side effects.
Final Thoughts
Dealing with cancer can be overwhelming for the patient and their loved ones indeed. With the number of drugs, patients have to consume, combined with the atrocious side effects of therapy, most patients are likely to give up on the treatment. However, to increase the chances of success, modern science has developed ways to combat the negative side effects of chemo. Using the tips in the article, patients with mesothelioma can sustain therapy for as long as possible to retain the full benefit of their treatment. Additionally, Diet tips for Mesothelioma patients like healthy diet and regular exercise along with emotional support can soon eradicate all physical and emotional after-effects of the treatment to a great extent.