Therapeutic fasting is turning out to be a powerful tool for changing how the metabolism of both your cancer cells and your normal cells operate, making the cancer cells more susceptible to the chemo drugs, while making your healthy cells less susceptible to collateral damage that causes the common side effects. I reviewed the literature on what timing of fasting was used for experimentation and how long a fast appeared the most effective. Here’s what I came up with:
I am fasting for 36 hours pre-chemo and about 24 hours after the end of the chemo. Since my chemotherapy administration takes about 7-8 hours, that’s about 72 hours in all. So, dinner on Tuesday is my last meal, and dinner on Friday is my first refeed. Chemo is all day Thursday.
During the fast, I consume organic coffee, black, herbal teas, and about 500 mls of homemade bone broth as two “meals” during the first 24 hours (Wed). And water or bubbly water. On chemo morning, I have coffee at the hotel, then fill my thermos for the clinic. Mid morning, my companion will go refill my thermos with black coffee at the coffee shop and I will continue to sip on that, plus water. Mid afternoon, I will get a thermos of herbal tea. That will usually get me through to the evening – more tea. Post-chemo, I feel rather blah, so staying with coffee, tea and water for another 24 hours is no real hardship. But I feel well enough to get out of my recliner and cook dinner on Friday night, not the usual post-chemo reaction.
During the rest of the 3 week cycle, I maintain a ketogenic diet with lots of vegetables, meats, eggs, olive oil, butter, and several varieties of homemade psyllium-containing keto breads (1-2 g carb/slice). I maintain mild ketosis – 0.3-0.6 usually.
It’s working for me!
Martha! Thank you for sharing your protocol with us and for explaining how you approach your fasting window with coffee, tea and broth. I’m excited to see how I can make this work during my upcoming radiation treatment for breast cancer! You are a pioneer in this space and I hope to follow in your footsteps 😉
Can’t wait to see what you do next!
All the best
I’m glad you found your way here, Caroline. All the best as you go through treatment. Let me know through Messenger how you make out.
Fasting for radiation doesn’t necessarily have the same effects as it would for chemo (because the side effects are different), but fasting is the fastest way into ketosis, and that can only be beneficial, or at the least, not harmful. So much more research is needed in this area…
Martha