A Healthy Diet and Mesothelioma
Date Posted: December 7, 2011
A nutritious diet is essential to a healthy lifestyle, and for sufferers of mesothelioma cancer, a healthy diet is even more important. Mesothelioma treatments can leave a person with little appetite further taxing an already weakened body. Chemotherapy, a common treatment for mesothelioma, causes nausea, vomiting, constipation, and loss of taste and smell making it difficult to meet nutritional needs. Poor diet, coupled with chemotherapy or other treatments, makes coping with mesothelioma symptoms more difficult. For victims of mesothelioma cancer, a healthy diet plays an important part in any treatment plan.
To stay healthy during treatment, mesothelioma patients must maintain as much strength as possible. Keeping the body strong means preventing infections and better coping with negative side effects. Anorexia is one such side effect and is the chief cause of malnutrition for those living with mesothelioma. In severe cases, anorexia can lead to a serious condition called cachexia. Cachexia is a wasting syndrome that leads to a loss of bodily tissues including fat and muscle. Patients suffering from cachexia are more vulnerable to infection, low energy levels, slow recovery times, and don’t respond to treatment as well. Reversing the effects of cachexia is difficult, so emphasis is normally placed on preventing it with a proper diet.
A mesothelioma specialist will likely advise a patient to consume a nutritious diet heavy in protein, fat, carbohydrates, minerals, and antioxidants. Commonly recommended foods include cheese, milk, yogurt, peanut butter, fish, meats, ice cream, eggs, and various nuts. While these all seem like foods a person should normally eat, it is important that the mesothelioma patient take extra care to ensure they meet their nutritional needs. A poor diet may substantially decrease the patient’s life expectancy and quality of life. A healthy diet prevents malnutrition and infection while helping a patient to heal faster, maintain a healthy weight, and increase energy levels leading to a higher quality of life.
Living with mesothelioma is no easy task. The side effects of treatment often leave a person with a poor appetite and little energy. Nausea, vomiting, vulnerability to infection, and anorexia are commonly experienced during treatment. Left unchecked, these can turn into more serious problems such as the wasting disorder cachexia. A balanced diet helps mesothelioma patients to stay healthy, fight infections, heal faster, keep energy levels up, and respond better to treatment. Working with a nutritionist or mesothelioma specialist, patients can create a diet plan tailored to their specific needs.