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| How Cancer Affects the Digestive and Assimilation Processes |
| Cancer causes great stress on all metabolic processes, including assimilation, digestion, absorption of nutrients, and the elimination of waste products. Before selecting a specific diet for a cancer patient, it is necessary to strengthen the individual's vitality and digestive function. |
| Simply eating more food will not halt wasting in a person with advanced cancer nor will it extend or enhance the life of a person in the early stages of cancer. Frequently, in trying to pump high-calorie foods into a person with cancer, it's the cancer that gets fed, so any existing tumors grow faster. |
| The old saying "You are what you eat" should be "You are what you absorb." Poor assimilation leads to nutrient deficiencies. A person with cancer who is undergoing chemotherapy is in a difficult position because, with an accumulation of toxins, there is a need to detoxify. At the same time, however, the body is in a deficient state and needs help to build healthy tissue and become stronger. It is vital, therefore, that a proper nutritional balance be maintained so that both processes can take place. |
| After a patient has been through a series of conventional treatments, such as surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation, or when cancer is at an advanced state, the immune system becomes impaired, the body becomes malnourished, weight loss occurs, and anorexia (also called wasting syndrome or cachexia) follows. A loss of appetite due to chemotherapy, radiation, infection, depression, or the cancer itself frequently results in loss of vital muscle mass. There may also be metabolic disorders that cause changes in the way the body transforms food into energy. These may include: |
| 1. Abnormalities in glucose metabolism (tumors cause an increase in the liver's production of glucose). |
| 2. Abnormalities in protein metabolism, causing decreased levels of albumin in the blood (tumors fulfill their nitrogen needs at the expense of lean body mass). Albumin is the most abundant protein in the bloodstream. It is produced by a healthy liver and performs numerous functions that are vital to health. Maintaining optimal albumin levels is of the utmost importance in regard to the nutritional status of the person with cancer. |
| 3. Abnormalities in lipid metabolism (tumors cause an increase in poor fatty acid utilization). |
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