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Vitamins, Supplements and Chemotherapy |
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Written by Dr Vasilev
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Sunday, 07 June 2009 11:47 |
In general, please be honest with your doctor when asked if you are taking any nonprescription medications, which includes all natural supplements. You could compromise your health and safety if you don't. Trying to give yourself a boost and help your chances in beating cancer is GREAT! However, in some cases you might be shooting yourself in the foot....or worse. Vitamins and supplements are real natural "medications" and can interfere with your prescription or non-prescription medications. Best to check it out or you can get into trouble. Here are just a few examples or why you need to pay attention to this.
Surgery: Supplements and vitamins, such as Ginko, vitamin E and others can cause you to bleed more than expected. This can artificially shorten a surgical attempt to remove your cancer by surgery. In addition, some supplements can interact with anesthesia medications, putting you at higher risk of heart rhythm disturbances and seizures. In other words, you could die from taking what you thought was going to help.
Chemotherapy: Anti-cancer drugs effectiveness may or may not be reduced by antioxidants. Although some recent medical studies suggest that they don't, it is still not clear. Discuss this with your doctor. In addition, your blood can become thinned during chemotherapy and some supplements can increase your chances of bleeding just as they might during surgery. Finally, all drugs and medications are metabolized (broken down) by your liver and kidneys to be eventually removed from your body. Prescription drugs or natural substances may accelerate or slow down metabolism of drugs such as chemotherapy. So, you can end up with either too high or too low of the desired chemotherapy level in your body. This can either increase harm or reduce effectiveness.
Does this mean you should not take any supplements at all during treatment?? No. That is far from true. Some can help maintain your muscle mass for example, specifically Omega 3 fish oils. Other benefits may also exist, but the point is that you need to discuss these with your doctor as part of an integrative care plan. If they don't know, ask about someone on their team or consult with an allopathic or naturopathic physician who is willing to work with your oncologist and/or surgeon.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 07 June 2009 11:55 |
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