Because cancer patients have a faster metabolism than normal people, chemotherapy and radiotherapy consume a lot of energy and nutrients, which can lead to weight loss and muscle loss. At the same time, cancer patients may lack appetite due to fatigue or side effects during treatment, and cannot obtain sufficient nutrition from the diet, which further increases the impact of side effects and makes the body more prone to fatigue, forming a vicious circle. According to statistics, cancer patients who lose more than 22% of their body weight have a lower chance of completing treatment and also increase their risk of death. In addition, the lack of protein can lead to a decrease in drug tolerance, or to delay treatment or reduce the dose, resulting in an impact on efficacy. Therefore, nutritional supplements are an important arsenal to support the fight against cancer.
Cancer patients can start drinking nutritional supplements immediately after diagnosis, and “prime” before chemotherapy or radiotherapy. As for patients undergoing surgery, some studies suggest that they start drinking nutritional supplements 14 days before surgery to help reduce the risk of infection and chances of complications.
International guidelines recommend that cancer patients consume at least 20 to 30 calories per kilogram of body weight per day. For example, an adult patient weighing 60 kg should consume at least 1800 calories (about 6 bowls of rice) and 90 grams of protein (about 5 eggs) every day. If the patient has lost weight, an additional 300 calories per day is recommended. Since it is difficult to obtain these amounts of nutrients through diet, nutritional supplements designed for cancer should be used.
Patients with diabetes themselves should pay attention to the large amount of carbohydrates in general nutritional milk, which may affect the glycemic index. Therefore, it is recommended to choose products that are “suitable for people who are concerned about blood sugar”, or discuss with your doctor about increasing the dosage. As for patients who need kidney dialysis or have chronic kidney disease, because their kidney function is not satisfactory, they cannot absorb excessive phosphate, so they should avoid using nutritional supplements with high phosphate content, and they need to choose suitable for people with kidney dialysis or chronic kidney disease nutritional supplements.
If heating is required, most nutritional supplements can be placed in warm water to help warm them. It is not recommended to boil any nutritional supplements, because high temperature will lead to loss of nutrients and affect the taste. In addition, some products will affect their efficacy when they are above 70 degrees, so they are not suitable for heating with open flames or microwave ovens.
Poon Lang Hin Registered Pharmacist
(Alumnus of the School of Pharmacy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Watsons registered pharmacist)
Chairman of Hong Kong Alliance of Patient Organizations
Yuan Shaolin
2023-08-17 16:00:00
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