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Topic
Jamie posted
about 2 years ago
Tips for Getting Through Chemo: Tip No. 2
Tip No. 2: Look after your digestive system: use probiotic foods or supplements to help with diarrhoea
Chemo often knocks the tummy and bowel around quite a bit. While the drugs are trying to kill off the cancer, they also bump off billions of the “good” bacteria living inside us that are an essential part of our digestive and immune systems. So it’s pretty common to lose your appetite and have problems digesting food when you’re on a course of chemo. And this often means you get diarrhoea, constipation, nausea or other digestive problems.
Even if you don’t want to take any supplements or can’t afford to, you can still add some things into your usual diet that might help greatly in reducing these side effects.
Lots of people swear by fermented dairy foods as a way of
keeping their digestive system in good working order when dealing with chemo,
antibiotics, or even just everyday life. The most commonly available fermented
milk product for most of us is yoghurt,
but there are others, such as "real" buttermilk, "real" cottage cheese, "real" sour cream and kefir.
All of these have to be naturally fermented (or cultured) to be useful, though, and not made just by adding "food acids" to milk, and then held together by thickeners, emulsifiers, humectants, gelatine and the like.
Have a look at the ingredients list of your favourite brand of yoghurt to make sure that it’s made up of mostly milk and milk products plus “cultures” such as acidophilus, and isn’t chockablock with other stuff your body can live without. One brand I’ve found to be pretty good is Jalna's organic yoghurt, although I’ve also heard good reports about Gippsland organic yoghurt (which I think you can get in some supermarkets—I haven’t spotted it yet). You can always make your own, too, if you’ve got the time and patience (and some basic equipment).
One small problem is that often the most “tasty” yoghurts are almost useless when it comes to their probiotic content, while the stronger-tasting ones usually have many more good bacteria in them. To get around this, I think it’s best to start off with a really good-quality, unsweetened yoghurt (preferably NOT low-fat, as this spoils the taste and reduces the absorption of calcium). You can then add flavours to it at home. Try some of the following: grated dark chocolate (yes!), vanilla extract, chocolate topping, honey, drinking chocolate, maple syrup, fresh fruit, chocolate, or chocolate. Once you’ve flavoured it up to suit your taste, you can use it instead of cream on top of desserts, as a breakfast “starter” or with muesli, as a snack when you really feel like lollies or sweet biscuits, or mix it into a delicious drink with cocoa powder (are you starting to see a theme here?), soy or cow’s milk and a sweetener (my favourite is maple syrup, but don’t get the fake one; lash out and buy the real thing).
If you can afford probiotic supplements, these are supposed to have much greater concentrations of the good bacteria than you can ever get by eating yoghurt, so they’re a great option if you have problems with the taste of yoghurt, or are lactose-intolerant, or just don’t have time to fit lots of yoghurt into your daily diet. The brand I use is Inner Health Plus, which also comes in a Dairy Free variety. It’s pretty pricey, and you should only buy it if the shop that’s selling it keeps it in a refrigerator. (Discount pharmacies usually have much better prices than health food shops for this sort of thing.)
Check out Tip No. 3 (coming soon!) for another couple of ideas to help with chemo tummy…
Some useful links:
Health benefits of probiotics, prebiotics and acidophilus-based foods/supplements:
http://www.pharmainfo.net/reviews/probiotics-and-prebiotics-functional-food-promotion-health
http://www.nextdaysite.net/radiant7/What_Acidophilus_Does.pdf
General chemo care:
6 Comments in this Topic
Alf said
about 2 years ago
Jamie, you seem like a wise man/woman/toucan!
There's so much to think about with chemo, it just wreaks havoc with your body. Hard to believe sometimes that it's actually trying to help you!
Any tips to try and take the edge off all those side effects can only be good.
Jaz said
about 2 years ago
Thanks for these tips Jamie. I've passed this info on to a couple of people I know and pointed them this way. Eagerly awaiting your next post!-
Jamie said
about 2 years ago
Thanks for the feedback Alf and Jaz -- great to know someone's reading my posts! 
frank said
about 2 years ago
whoa jamie - they are really long tips!-
Jamie said
about 2 years ago
Yes, I agree Frank -- I think I'm giving most of the iceberg as well as the tip! Pretty good value, ay? 
Trev said
over 1 year ago
Gday Jamie
To check out the nutrients & immunity benefits of Raw Cows milk will amaze you. It has served the health of millions of people & thousands of communities in thousands of years or they would have thrown it out. People who cant drink dairy milk can drink raw cows milk (in Sydney its called Cleopatra Bath Milk, in Melb swampys bath milk). This also reflects the benefits of immunity of breast milk when a baby arrives.
In the "Best ways for getting through chemo & healing cancer" Forum check out simple powerful ways to increase the process. Trev
