The five most common nutritional misunderstandings of cancer patients, early to know!
Malignant tumor is a wasting disease. Studies have shown that the incidence of malnutrition in Chinese cancer patients can be as high as 40% to 80%, which seriously affects the prognosis of cancer patients and reduces patients' tolerance to surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. and sensitivity, increasing the incidence of complications.
Reasonable nutritional therapy can shorten the length of hospitalization, reduce the incidence of complications and hospitalization costs, improve the quality of life of patients, reduce the total mortality rate, and increase the overall survival of patients. positive meaning.
Misunderstanding 1: The patient has poor appetite and should drink more soup to supplement nutrition
In the traditional concept of many people, soup and porridge are more nourishing. If the patient has no appetite, families with poor economic conditions will prepare millet porridge and rice porridge. Families with better economic conditions will have chicken soup, fish soup, and pork rib soup in turn. However, what is the actual effect?
The energy density of rice porridge is low. For the same 100ml of rice porridge and milk powder, the calories of rice porridge can only reach 1/2 of that of milk powder. The nutrients in chicken soup, fish soup, and pork rib soup are mainly a small amount of purine, creatinine, a small amount of free amino acids, a small amount of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, etc. dissolved in meat, and their nutritional value is not as good as 1/10 in meat.
Myth 2: The more you eat, the better your nutrition, and the faster your tumor will grow
Sometimes there is such a voice among cancer patients that they should not eat too well, otherwise the tumor cells will progress faster due to good nutrition, so patients often dare not eat after eating half full every meal, hoping that the energy is insufficient and can "Starve cancer cells to death".
However, no research has shown that sufficient nutritional support will accelerate the progression of tumor cells. On the contrary, malnutrition will lead to normal cell dysfunction, reduce body resistance, reduce the ability to remove tumor cells, and finally enter a state of dyscrasia.
Misunderstanding 3: Blindly relying on health care products
After many cancer patients are diagnosed, they will bring unspeakable pain to their families. The state of emotional fear makes them grasp all the information and try to increase the possibility of patients being cured.
Many cancer patients eat "sea cucumber", "Ganoderma lucidum", "Cordyceps sinensis" or health care preparations that claim to contain active ingredients in the course of diagnosis and treatment. However, are these health foods really so magical?
At present, the research on these medicinal materials with biologically active ingredients is a current hot spot, and their efficacy and anti-tumor effect have also been verified to a certain extent. However, there is no clear application plan in the formal clinical anti-tumor treatment guidelines.
In particular, many patients and their family members blindly believe in its anti-tumor effect. When the total amount of food consumed is insufficient, they prefer to choose the above health food and medicine, which has the effect of "backlashing the growth", which not only increases the economic burden, but also increases nutrition. Bad happens.
Misunderstanding 4: When you lose your appetite, you turn to nutritional injections, thinking that nutritional injections can replace oral eating
When cancer patients experience nausea, vomiting, abdominal distension and other discomforts due to radiotherapy and chemotherapy, many patients and their families require intravenous nutritional supplements to supplement nutrition.
However, there are clear indications for the application of parenteral nutrition preparations. Partial supplementation or total parenteral nutrition can only be given when oral feeding or enteral nutrition preparations cannot meet 60% of the patient's energy needs and last for 5-7 days.
If you do not eat through the gastrointestinal tract for a long time, it is easy to cause the gastrointestinal mucosa to shrink and fall off, causing the barrier function of the gastrointestinal tract to be destroyed, and the pathogenic bacteria and their toxins in the intestinal flora can penetrate the intestinal mucosa and enter the human blood circulation , leading to infection.
Therefore, it is not recommended to completely rely on parenteral nutrition preparations for nutritional supplementation for patients whose gastrointestinal tract still has digestive and absorption functions, regardless of long-term treatment or economic costs.
Misunderstanding 5: Not paying attention to weight loss and not having the habit of monitoring weight
Because the catabolism rate of tumor cells is higher than that of normal cells, the energy and nutrient requirements of cancer patients are also significantly higher than that of normal people.
However, due to the progress of the patient's own disease, and intervention measures such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgery, many patients are prone to nausea, vomiting, abdominal distension and other gastrointestinal discomfort, which affects the patient's eating, and the body's lean body tissue breaks down, causing the patient's resistance to decline and complications. increase, resulting in a shortened lifespan.
For cancer patients, body weight changes can simply and conveniently reflect nutritional intake, which is very important in guiding nutritional therapy.
In response to the above five misunderstandings, we summarize the key points of nutritional therapy for cancer patients.
Monitor your weight every week. Weekly monitoring of body weight changes can timely assess whether the patient has nutritional risk. If the weight continues to decrease within a month, and the decline rate is greater than 5%, it indicates that the patient is at nutritional risk, and medical staff or nutritionists need to give professional advice. Dietary guidance.
Tumor patients should eat small meals frequently, eat 5-6 times a day, and choose a light diet that is easy to digest and rich in nutrients. If there are no symptoms of gastrointestinal discomfort, cancer patients can choose a normal diet with a balanced mix, and ordinary rice and noodles as the staple food. At the same time, ensure that 1 egg, 1 bag of milk, and other animal foods such as fish, shrimp, and lean meat > 3 taels, steamed, stewed, etc. Mainly the way of cooking.
Take in enough fresh vegetables and fruits every day, about 1 catties of vegetables, of which the ratio of green leafy vegetables to bacteria and algae vegetables is 2:1. Fruit intake > 4 taels per day. If there is no pleural effusion, drink 1500-2000ml of water per day.
If the patient is accompanied by nausea, vomiting, abdominal distension and other discomforts, under the guidance of a nutritionist, patients can choose patient-specific enteral nutrition preparations or milk powder, rice noodles, homemade homogenate, etc., to increase the energy density of food intake and maintain a stable weight.
If the condition permits, you can do 30-40 minutes of soothing exercise every day, such as walking, Tai Chi, brisk walking, etc. The brain secretes endorphins during exercise, which can improve the depression of tumor patients. At the same time, exercise can also promote gastrointestinal peristalsis and accelerate the digestion and absorption of food in the gastrointestinal tract.