Question to all,

What have you been told about sugar from your doctors? I have seen comments a couple of times about sugar and would like to hear more about the reasoning and what is being said...This is the first I have heard anything about it (I think) the CRS may be kicking in again.

I'm off to use the search and see what I can find .

Tahnsk in advance,
Dinah

Hi Dinah, I got a book right after my sugery called "Beating Cancer With Nutrition" besides being a great book on what's good for you (to eat) the author (who is a nutrition specialist not MD) was convinced that sugar is bad if you are a fighting cancer. His opinion is based on his observation of hundreds of cancer cases and his STRONG suggestion was that a person fighting cancer should keep their blood sugar as low as possible (within the normal range of course). Apparently diabetics experence a higher rate of cancer as well.

When I asked several doctors about this their comments tended to be on the order of: as far as diet goes the book is great but they drew the line short of the sugar thing. However, no one has argued that cutting back on sugar is a bad thing either. To me personally, very few Doctors have a great depth of understanding about nutrition. So I have for 2 years cut out any added sugar. No soda, no candy, none. I do allow myself some chocolate every once and a while (you'd be suprised how little sugar is in chocolate.

Back to the book, I thought it was great to do something myself about a cure and nutrition is something we can take care of ourselves! no doc no pain. The book was worth reading, it also covers a lot about various nutrients that are in short supply when you go through sugery and chemo and such. To top it off it had an audio CD that you could listen to even if you didn't feel good enough to read.

I hope that helps

Since I am diabetic, I have been concerned about the correlation between diabetes and cancer. My doctors told me that no research so far has shown that there is any relationship between these two illnesses. It is true that if one is diabetic, his immune system is somehow affected and may be more vulnerable to other diseases. But it doesn't mean that a diabetic patient has a higher chance of developing cancer. Of course it is sensible for everyone to keep the blood sugar level normal. I don't believe that the more sugar you take, the more cancer cells you feed.I would rather say the more sugar you take by mouth, the faster your teeth will get damaged.Besides, sugar doesn't give our body much nutrition.

Karen stage 4 tonsil cancer diagnosed in 9/01

Hi Karen,
I am happy to talk with a fellow survivor of the same war! I wish what we have in common was something entirely more fun.
As with most positive dialog, sometimes it may seem like an argument. I want you to know this is not intended to be arguing with you personally.
That said, after I read your post I did a google search on "cancer sugar" and came up with this page. Click here to read it:

web page

The author of that article is also the author of the book I mentioned: Beating Cancer with Nutrition.
I am not an expert in this field but fate pushed me to consider ANYTHING that might improve my success this one, sugar, and the broader nutrition was easy to do.

I also want to repeat I do not believe the average MD has enough knowledge in the area of nutrition. Not once did any of the Doc's I saw professionally mention anything beyond the concept of "enough calories so I didn't loose weight".

My observations are also that as a whole we don't eat very well. The "food pyramid were supposed to follow has caused an american fat problem. We consume a huge quantity of sugar and sweetened foods. Many people have to take supplements to get enough of certain nutritional elements. At the same time we have a silent epidemic of dibetes and cancer. Are they related? I can't proove it. I can say that I took substantial vitamin supplements through out my treatments and my rad. doc and ENT were pleased with my recovery...a study of one is NOT conclusive.

I invite more dialog on this subject I think the subject of nutrition is Hugely important and very much under-explored.

What about sugar replacements? my best beloved is 'morphined out' in bed right now, he's just finished radiotherapy, had half his tongue re-built in january, he's been insulin dependent diabetic for 15 years (he's 44) has drunk an awful lot of sugar free pop - I'm still in the 'why us' state... any thoughts re aspartame et al?

Looked through the web site that Mark has posted. There are tons of links to many issues from root canals (one which I find particularly ill informed), fluoride in water, to cell phone caused brain cancer. Many of these articles, while they quote published articles do not tell the whole story, and much is taken out of context. Conclusions are drawn by the author using the portions of the published articles, (not all from mainstream publications) that suit his perspective. Without arguing the details of the raw science here, as I believe this forum is not the place for it, I believe that if anyone looks into this seriously, they will find that our entire body

Well Lets try to remain friendly here!

First, I have a personal rule that if I'm quoting someone I make darn sure it is exactly what they said. I believe it is in the best long term intrest of a forum like this to adhere to that principle.

Second, my previous post of a URL was for the benefit of the specific article only. since the present discussion is in regard to sugar I did not even look at the other things that web page contained. The same article is in fact quoted in several other web pages. If you read carefully my post I mentioned doing a Google search on "cancer sugar" The URL I posted was simply one of the first that came up with that Google search. If by doing so I implied that I am in favor of every fringe element in medicine, MY BAD! If in your rather blunt reply you implicate me as fringe, YOUR BAD!

I simply replied in an honest way to a question about sugar and it's relation to cancer. I am not the only one in the world who thinks there may be. Many have MD and PHD next to their names. At the end of this post I have several more links obtained from my Google search. Granted they may all be from waco's in their basement who just wanted to create a web site and confound those who know everything, but I personally keep an open mind.

Now on to what I really said:
1. To me personally, very few Doctors have a great depth of understanding about nutrition.
2...repeat I do not believe the average MD has enough knowledge in the area of nutrition.

Please note the use of the words GREAT DEPTH and ENOUGH.

I did not say: While Mark does not feel that doctors

This isn

It used to be that politics and religion were the subjects to avoid but I think that nutrition, nutritional supplements, herbs, vitamins, etc. are fast entering that category since they seem to be based more on emotion than science. But in the words of John Lennon "Whatever gets you through the night".

Well said Gary...... As far as I am concerned anyone can take anything they want to try to make it through this battle. They may believe that the eye of a newt, or chanting, or vitamin C, or whatever fairy dust or spirit guide animal, got them through it. And even I have my own weird beliefs about what helped me and what did not, some of which is not based in science as we know it, or religion as we know it. I have refrained from talking about those things on this board. But when it comes to these message boards, where cancer patients and their families come for information, and hope, I am singularly opposed to postings that lean towards the unproven, or worse the half-truth. Here we share our common experience. If Mark would like to say that he believes that reducing sugar in his diet benefited him that