What’s one thing I wish more patients understood before starting chemotherapy?

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]What's the one thing most patients aren't told before starting chemotherapy?

[00:00:04]>> That chemotherapy, as necessary as it is, can also be imunosuppressive. The drugs that target cancer cells also affect your natural killer cells as well as your tea cells. And these are the cells that your immune system uses to fight cancer on its own. When they're depleted, your body's ability to defend itself goes down significantly.

[00:00:21]>> So, what do you do about that in your practice?

[00:00:23]>> Well, we work to support immune function before, during, and after treatment. And that means monitoring lymphosy counts closely. It means targeted nutrition and supplementation. It means using things that have evidence for supporting natural killer cell activity without interfering with treatment. Remember, the goal is never to fight against the chemotherapy. It's to work with it. And the goal is to keep the body as strong as possible so that it can handle treatment better and recover faster.