Training and protein intake while undergoing chemo and radiation

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hey docs,

I have a friend (former BBM group programming member) who is currently in week 3/7 of chemo and radiation therapy for throat cancer. I tried to get him to just register an account here and ask the questions he has himself but he’s a boomer and message boards are apparently very complicated.

His questions are:

-Should he continue to lift?

-He’s on a med called sucralfate (sp?) and is wondering if that will impair his ability to absorb protein and if so, should he try to consume more protein?

-He tends to get some bloating and stomach issues when he increases dairy or red meat so do you have any strategies to limit those effects and keep his protein intake where it needs to be?

Overall I just think he wants some reassurance that he should continue to train and some help setting his expectations for training and bodyweight over the next few weeks of therapy. I can tell he’s pretty anxious about the treatment and training is a big stress reliever for him but he hasn’t been able to find much evidence about training while undergoing chemo and radiation. Any advice or resources I could share with him would be awesome.

Thanks in advance.

2

Nate,

Thanks for the post and I hope all is well. For the questions:

  1. Probably, as the training before, during, and after cancer/cancer treatment seems to be beneficial.
  2. Perhaps to some degree, though it’s not entirely clear the magnitude here. If he’s getting ~ 1.6g/kg/day, that’s probably fine.
  3. Chicken, fish, whey or egg protein, would all be options. Vegan sources of protein would work too.

For a discussion of cancer and exercise, see here: https://youtu.be/sG02f7uBNSU?t=445

-Jordan