Eat what during treatment

[54Marie]

Hi all!
Starting treatment soon, any foods to avoid?
Is it ok to eat pineapple and yogurt?
How "sterile" must one's environment be? I hear that our immune system is weakened by treatment.
Marie

[spectda]

"hey Dave..always good to have that info .we never need...hahaha    Do you have post tx.  excessive posting disease too..LOL"

I am working on it Will. Maybe medhelp needs a 12 step forum for us although I suppose their goal is to feed the addiction  :)

[spectda]

In all that crap I posted I somehow deleted the simple sentence about how interferon may compromise your bodies ability to fight bacterial infections because of low ANC. Hopefully you got that in my lengthy reply.
-Dave

[willbb]

A lot of information that in all likelihood you may not ever need to consider, but what the heck, lol

hey Dave..always good to have that info .we never need...hahaha    Do you have post tx.  excessive posting disease too..LOL

[spectda]

"How "sterile" must one's environment be? I hear that our immune system is weakened by treatment."

Your immune system will have a huge boost in it's ability to fight viral infections. About 20% of people treating with Interferon experience neutropenia that may require intervention (Absolute neutrophil count below 750).

Aggressive Hepatologists will often not intervene unless ANC is between 300-500 although trials generally have more conservative parameters. The percentage of people who suffer from severe bacterial infections during treatment is about .7% and does not necessarily correlate with low ANC.    http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/493202_4

Intervention would require either dose reduction of interferon which may compromise SVR , or preferably the addition of neupogen injections which work well to raise your ANC count and enable you to maintain your dose of IFN.

http://www.pbm.va.gov/Clinical%20Guidance/Criteria%20For%20Use/GCSF%20Criteria%20for%20Use%20for%20Hepatitis%20C,%20Criteria%20for%20Use.pdf

A lot of information that in all likelihood you may not ever need to consider, but what the heck, lol

Good luck with treatment.
-Dave

[willbb]

Hi Marie..As Anne mentioned...just try to eat as healthy a diet as you can.Don"t know about pineapple,however in the study I was in they said to stay away from grapefruits and Seville oranges. Make sure you drink plenty of water everyday as the meds have a tendency to dehydrate.Also there is evidence that Riba is best absorbed taking it with a high fat food.

Don"t worry about any special precautions with a sterile environment. Sometimes your white cells are affected,however they will monitor that and if need be they can take appropriate steps to make sure you aren"t  overly susceptible to bacterial infection.

Good luck and congrats on starting..

Will

[Anne1717]

Oh - about the sterile thing - I have dogs, my WBC is low and I am fine.  I do avoid obviously sick people who are coughing all over the place, and cover up cuts,  but you can't live in a bubble.  

[Anne1717]

Hi Marie,  I started treating 12 weeks ago and the best advice I got was from NYGirl - BEN AND JERRY'S ICE CREAM!!!!!!!  Truthfully, for me it been like being pregnant with the cravings for things my body might need at the moment.  I really feel like eating well.  Early on the ice cream really did help with the nausea and was about all I felt like having.  I don't feel like eating much at any one meal but picking all day works well.  Juice spritzers are great.
If course in a perfect world you want to eat as heathy as you can but it is important to eat something.  My NP said to take a good multi vitamin but stay away from iron.  She also said to limit caffeine since it dehydrates you and that's a bad thing.

A balanced diet is best and no restrictions on the food, although I have heard something about grapefruit and the new treatment ?????????

So good luck to you and try not to worry.

Anne