Diet therapy helps restore cancer treatment

Cancer patients often suffer a blow to the immune system, usually because the treatments used to fight the disease can deplete the white blood cells that help prevent infection, affecting the body’s ability to protect itself. Some patients believe that changing their diet, for example, by replacing their daily bag of chips with an apple, will boost their immune system and help them fight cancer. But it is only partially correct.

Although healthy nutrition choices can stimulate the immune system, and help it fight other diseases, this does not mean that it will enable it to kill cancer. Says Carolyn Lammersfeld, MD, vice president of integrative medicine at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Cancer Cure America. ^® (CTCA). It’s important to debunk this common misconception to prevent patients from using nutrition as a cancer treatment, Lammersfeld says.

Look for nutrients that help

However, supporting your immune system during cancer treatment is crucial, as it can help you recover and recover faster, while helping you feel stronger and more energetic, says Lammersfeld. It can also help you better tolerate cancer treatment and the side effects associated with treatment. “It’s important to think of your immune system as just a system, not a single entity,” Lammersfeld says. “There are different things you can eat that will hopefully improve the function of different parts of the system.”

Vitamin C, for example, stimulates the production of antibodies. This key nutrient is found in foods like oranges, peppers, berries, tomatoes, and broccoli. Vitamin E acts as an antioxidant and is naturally found in seeds, nuts, and vegetable oils. Other important nutrients that can help support the immune system include:

• Protein found in oysters, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, lean meats and beans.
• Vitamin A found in green or orange fruits and vegetables, such as sweet potatoes, carrots, kale, spinach and apricots.
• Zinc found in lean meat, poultry, seafood, seeds and nuts

“A lot of this reinforces the huge emphasis we put on a plant-based diet that includes lean protein,” Lammersfeld says. “It gives patients a way to support themselves.”

Strengthening the immune system

While nutrition cannot help the immune system fight cancer, some cancer treatments can. Immunotherapy is designed to train the immune system to recognize cancer cells as harmful, increasing the likelihood of an attack. In contrast to dietary changes, “it’s clear that these cancer drugs boost the immune system,” says Dr. Murray Markman, MD, chief of medicine and science at CTCA. ^® . Immunotherapy drugs known as checkpoint inhibitors, for example, are designed to stop certain cancer cells from sending tricky signals that allow them to hide from the immune system, exposing them as harmful.

“It is very important for people to understand that while the immune system can be weakened during cancer treatment, good nutrition can help prevent infections and heal wounds, but cancer treatments are the only way we know about at this time to fight cancer,” says Lammersfeld.

Learn more about how immunotherapy works.