Question:
Once you get clean from lymphoma how do you stay clean? Any good suggestions on things to avoid? Detoxifying foods, teas, vitamins to take? Any advice is appreciated.
Understandably many have and will try
different life style strategies for this purpose. Unfortunately, there's no
evidence to show that any dietary practices can prevent a relapse
or control the growth of existing disease. While testimonials
will be found to make such claims, unfortunately, testimonials cannot
be considered evidence for many reasons: see The Problem
with Testimonials
Regarding diet as treatment or prevention
of relapse: Relapse occurs from cancer cells
that survive treatment, not from the development of a new
lymphoma. Thus, reducing your risk factors for cancers by eating
well is unlikely to effect the risk of relapse. Consider that
cancer cells will do well - as well as
normal cells - when removed from the body and cultured in assays.
While poor diet can increase your lifetime risk of developing some
cancers, changing one's diet is unlikely to have any effect
on residual cancer cells - if any still exist following treatment.
See
also Complementary and alternative (CAM) dietary therapies for cancer. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2008 Feb;50(2 Suppl):494-7; discussion 498. Review.
PMID:18064662
Related
articles
However, it makes very good sense to eat well and
exercise, because adopting a health-promoting life style will improve
your quality of life and may help to offset the damage to normal cells from the toxicities of
treatments.
See General Diet Guidance
And who
knows, doing so might have additional undeterminable benefits as well, but
again, this can't be known and there is so far no plausible scientific
evidence to make such claims.
Regarding
herbs and supplements, be aware that herbal products
have not
been regulated by FDA, and that herbs sometimes contain contaminants or the
wrong ingredients when examined.
See FDA
proposed rule to promote (not ensure)
that dietary supplements do
NOT have:
-
the wrong ingredients
-
too much or too little of a dietary ingredient
-
improper packaging
or labeling
-
contamination due to natural toxins,
bacteria, pesticides, glass, lead, or other substances
Importantly, there is no evidence that
taking herbs can influence the course of a lymphoma, or prevent a
relapse. Please see also the many caveats of
supplement use .
Regarding
detoxification strategies, it's seems best to leave this
to natural processes, but it can be health promoting to include whole foods (containing fiber) in
your diet and maintaining your hydration (good fluid intake).
... Importantly, so called detoxifying
programs may lead to electrolyte
imbalance, which can make you less well. While chronic
exposure to toxins is associated with increased life-time risk of developing
some cancers, there is no evidence to
show that detoxifying can reverse an existing cancer.
See Detoxifying as Cancer Treatment?
See Enemas -
Wikipedia.org
However, avoiding sources of environmental toxins (cigarette smoke, etc.) will
help you to maintain your health and reduce the risk of secondary
diseases, even if it cannot delay a relapse, or reverse an existing
lymphoma.
If you are reading this you know that It's very difficult to wait
and worry about relapse. One alternative to unproductive worry is to
try to concentrate on becoming the person you were
meant to be. It may help to come to terms with your mortality
(from some cause eventually), and to focus on living a full life. By
all means, eat well and stay active to improve your general health
and performance, and to enhance also your quality
of life.
