More cancer treatments focus on food to combat weight loss

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By Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The statistic is shocking: Severe malnutrition and weight loss play a role in at least one in five cancer deaths. Yet nutrition too often is an afterthought until someone's already in trouble.

A move is on to change that, from hospitals that hire fancy gourmet chefs to the American Cancer Society's dietitians-on-call phone service.

With cancer, you've got to "bring a lot more nutrients to each spoonful of food," Certified Master Chef Jack Shoop is learning. A former restaurateur, he's newly in charge of the kitchen at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Philadelphia.



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Don't underestimate the added temptation should the result resemble Bon Appetit: "The visual heartiness, and the actual heartiness, of these foods has to be understood for them to embrace it," Shoop insists.


Tempting the palate is a huge hurdle: At diagnosis, up to a quarter of patients already have their appetite sapped, and most treatments can bring side effects that worsen the problem. Aside from the well-known nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, some cancers inhibit absorption of the nutrients patients force down. Not to mention strangely altered taste, mouth sores, dry mouth, difficulty swallowing and constipation.

About half of all cancer patients eventually suffer serious weight loss and malnutrition, a wasting syndrome called cachexia where they don't just lose excess fat but vital muscle. A healthy person's body adjusts when it doesn't get enough calories, slowing metabolism to conserve nutrients. A cancer patient's body doesn't make that adjustment; metabolism even may speed up.

The National Cancer Institute estimates cachexia is the immediate cause of death for at least 20% of cancer patients, although advanced cancer might have eventually claimed many of them.

How much weight loss is too much? The institute defines patients as at-risk when they've lost more than 10% of their usual weight. Other research suggests that patients who lose more than 5% of their pre-cancer weight have a worse prognosis than people who can hang onto the pounds.

For their best shot at doing that, the American Cancer Society urges patients to ask to be assessed by a registered dietitian up front, right at diagnosis. While that's common at designated cancer centers where dietitians work on-staff, it's not routine elsewhere and surveys suggest just a third of patients have access to cancer nutritionists where they're being treated.

"Patients who are well-nourished as they're going through treatment have shorter hospital stays, are better able to tolerate treatment," not to mention have better quality of life, says Colleen Doyle, nutrition chief at the society, which offers nutrition advice through its hot line at 1-800-ACS-2345.

Desperate patients often hunt their own nutrition advice on the Internet but can't tell the good from the bad. The No. 1 Web-perpetuated myth: that sugar feeds tumor cells. Not true, says Maureen Huhmann, who chairs the American Dietetic Association's oncology nutrition group. In fact, protein-packed milkshakes and smoothies can literally be lifesaving for some patients.

"I don't want people to start losing weight because they cut foods out of their diet when they don't really need to," says Huhmann.

Then there are people overweight when diagnosed who delight at shedding pounds — until they learn they're not just losing fat but muscle, too.

"You can be overweight and even obese and still be malnourished. It's a dilemma," says Carolyn Lammersfeld, the Cancer Treatment Centers' nutrition director who works with Shoop, the chef, to help patients find palatable options.

Typically, a cancer patient needs as much as twice the protein of a healthy person and about 10% more calories. Some tumors bring bigger nutritional threats than others: Gastrointestinal and lung cancers tend to cause more weight loss than breast cancer.

Anti-nausea medications developed in the past decade bring relief to many patients, although they're not always covered by insurance. Among options are a synthetic version of an ingredient from marijuana; cancer experts don't promote smoking marijuana although some advocates claim it helps. Doctors also can prescribe appetite stimulants and, for worst cases, feeding tubes.

But eating by mouth is best, and dietitians can offer tips to help: Snacking throughout the day instead of trying to force down large meals can help, and high-fat or high-fiber foods make nausea last longer.

In his Philadelphia hospital cafeteria, Shoop gives taste tests to introduce patients to healthful foods they may never have tried: Quinoa, a grain with the same amino acids of meat, or Arctic char, a salmon-like fish but less fatty.

Doing his own butchering allows Shoop to make stocks and sauces with the bones to add even more protein to meat dishes. Garnish with mushrooms, he advises, for a bit more.

And he teaches caregivers how to add 400 extra calories and 20 grams of protein to a simple smoothie, milkshake or oatmeal — using whole milk or yogurt, some protein powder, and grinding up fruits, nuts and flax seed.

"If you're not getting answers, keep searching," says Lammersfeld. "People need to know that weight loss and not being able to eat is not a good thing during cancer treatment."




http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/hea ... food_N.htm ( sorry. loads r e a l l y slowly)

It can be a real problem and should be taken seriously by both the doctor and patient..



http://www.cureasps.org/forum/viewtopic ... t=cachexia

http://www.cureasps.org/forum/viewtopic ... t=cachexia

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We often times forget that medicine was governed by food more than meds , at one time in history .
Always talk to your doc when utilizing herbs as a medicine to treat a symtom of something you are experiencing.

Herbal COX-2
Inhibitors
©2009 Huntington College of Health Sciences Literature Education Series On Dietary Supplements

https://www.huhs.edu/literature/COX-2%20Inhibitors.pdf

“Conclusion
The aforementioned natural ingredients have demonstrated COX-2 inhibiting properties (with
the exception of Bromelain whose anti- inflammatory activity works by a different mechanism). Hence, singly or in combination they may offer a viable alternative to the now defunct VIOXX®. Nevertheless, it is prudent to work with your physician if you wish to substitute these or any other natural substances for pharmaceutical medications.“



“COX-2-derived PGs have been shown to increase the levels of lipid-burning BAT and could thus trigger weight loss to prevent the development of obesity. However, it is difficult to ignore the fact that COX-2 activation has been shown to be one of the key factors contributing to the inflammation associated with obesity.”

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Hormonal Regulators of Appetite

Abstract

Obesity is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. There has been a significant worsening of the obesity epidemic mainly due to alterations in dietary intake and energy expenditure. Alternatively, cachexia, or pathologic weight loss, is a significant problem for individuals with chronic disease. Despite their obvious differences, both processes involve hormones that regulate appetite. These hormones act on specific centers in the brain that affect the sensations of hunger and satiety. Mutations in these hormones or their receptors can cause substantial pathology leading to obesity or anorexia. Identification of individuals with specific genetic mutations may ultimately lead to more appropriate therapies targeted at the underlying disease process. Thus far, these hormones have mainly been studied in adults and animal models. This article is aimed at reviewing the hormones involved in hunger and satiety, with a focus on pediatrics.



https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2777281/

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https://cureasps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7248#p7248