Vitamin E and Omega 3 for prevention of peripheral neuropathy
Hello fellow warriors!
I'm at the very early stages of my journey - just diagnosed last week with Stage 3C HGSC - treatment will be 3 rounds of taxol/carboplatin and then debulking surgery, followed by 6 more rounds of chemo - and am heavily into the research of all aspects of this.
My question right now is whether any of you took either Vitamin E or Omega 3 during chemo to minimize the effects of peripheral neuropathy.
The research I have looked at seems to suggest that Vitamin E supplementation has a protective effect and probably doesn't negatively effect the efficacy of the chemo drugs, but it's not completely clear, so I was wondering if any of you have any thoughts.....?
I'm at the very early stages of my journey - just diagnosed last week with Stage 3C HGSC - treatment will be 3 rounds of taxol/carboplatin and then debulking surgery, followed by 6 more rounds of chemo - and am heavily into the research of all aspects of this.
My question right now is whether any of you took either Vitamin E or Omega 3 during chemo to minimize the effects of peripheral neuropathy.
The research I have looked at seems to suggest that Vitamin E supplementation has a protective effect and probably doesn't negatively effect the efficacy of the chemo drugs, but it's not completely clear, so I was wondering if any of you have any thoughts.....?
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When you go for your first chemo treatment, a nutritionist/pharmacist comes over to speak to you as well. They will go over foods you can and can't have either at all or during treatment or first few days. It would a valid question to ask them at the time or any appts you have prior to your first chemo appt just to be safe. Until I underwent chemo, I had no idea that some foods would interfere with treatment.
That would be my suggestion to you going forward. I hope that helps.
Yes, very helpful, thanks.
I will make sure to bring that up at the first appointment.
I wholly concur with Strongwoman's recommendation to you. In fact to take it a bit farther, over the course of your journey you'll have a multitude of people and print and online recommendations of everything from aspirin to chicken soup sure to cure your cancer or eliminate side efffects. Always reach out to the nurses in the chemo room or your oncologist to vet anything you may wish to try; that includes food as well as OTC medications or vitamins. An excellent example is grapefruit. There are several treatments where the efficacy can be negatively impacted if you injest grapefruit.
Good luck with your treatment. I share your diagnosis of 3C HGSC and now in my sixth year of treatment. Mine is not curable but I've adjusted well to living with the disease. We're lucky that today, thanks to advances in treatment most o f us can live longer and better than in past with the disease.
Welcome to our community and please reach out anytime you may have questions.
Such sage advice from you both, and on the basis of that wisdom, I connected with the Cancer Care pharmacist.
In case it is of help to anyone, here are her recommendations while undergoing carboplatin and taxol chemo treatments:
Vitamin E and Vitamin B6: often recommended by surgeons/clinicians, no real evidence regarding benefit, but not harmful either, so go for it.
Multivitamin: recommended
Omega-3 supplements: definitely do not take, as it may interfere with carboplatin and reduce efficacy, and also may increase risk of bleeding by further lowering platelet count.
Green tea: do not take, as there is a potential for decreased chemo efficacy, and a potential effect on platelets
All of these can safely be taken when not doing active chemo treatments, just should be avoided when on chemo.
I hope the nerve damage gets better after the chemo...In my reading, it seems like that can happen and that it often takes a few months, but that many women do see improvements over time.
I haven't started my first round yet, so have no personal experience at all, just based on my reading.