Most Americans don’t eat well. They don’t follow healthful, nutritional diets. The effects of that mount, however, and people’s health can decline quickly.
But those with mesothelioma are in an even more precarious place. The mesothelioma treatments are grueling and strain an already debilitated body. Below are some suggestions for incorporating good nutrition into your strategy to defeat this disease.
1. Focus on increasing muscle mass, maintaining weight
Weight loss during cancer treatment accompanies worse outcomes. One registered dietician encourages patients to try to eat healthfully, but the main goal should be to avoid losing weight and body mass.
2. Mesothelioma causes metabolic changes
Those suffering from mesothelioma often become hypermetabolic. That means that their metabolism accelerated and their caloric intake isn’t enough to keep them from wasting.
3. Patients are not burning fat
Burning off calories might sound positive for people who were overweight prior to their diagnoses of mesothelioma. The problem is that your body isn’t burning fat. Rather than targeting fat cells, mesothelioma causes the body to deplete the tissues that make up the body’s muscle mass.
4. What can mesothelioma sufferers do?
No matter what your health status is, lots of healthy and fresh leafy greens and other vegetables are recommended. But those seeing the pounds drop off might also want to hit the McDonald’s drive-thru for a Big Mac, fries and a large milkshake.
You can also investigate all the legal pathways that you may have available to seek compensation for your employment-related mesothelioma diagnosis. There are asbestos trusts funded to help people just like you – those who acquired this condition due to years or decades of exposure to the known carcinogen, asbestos.