Episode Overview
In this episode of Better Than Before Breast Cancer, we tackle the complex world of supplements, focusing on one essential yet often misunderstood vitamin: B6.
For breast cancer survivors, supplements can feel like a lifeline, but they’re not always the safest or most effective choice. Join me, as I dive into understanding the role of supplements and the science behind vitamin B6, its role in the body, and why it deserves special consideration after a breast cancer diagnosis.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Links to Studies Cited
Key Takeaways
Actionable Steps
Connect With Me
If you found this episode helpful, I’d love to hear from you!
Thank you for tuning in. Together, we can make informed choices and create a healthier, happier life after breast cancer. This show is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice.
Read the full transcript:
0:00
You're listening to better than before breast cancer with the breast cancer recovery coach, I'm your host, Laura Lemmer. I'm a certified life coach and I'm a breast cancer thriver. In this podcast, I will give you the skills on the insides and the tools to move past the emotional and physical trauma of a breast cancer diagnosis if you're looking for a way to create a life that's even better than before breast cancer, you've come to the right place. Let's get started.
0:33
Hey, friends, welcome to episode 395, of better than before breast cancer. I'm your host. Laura lummer, I'm so happy you're here with me today, and I want to start off the show by giving a shout out. I haven't done this in a while, and I want to get back to it. I want to give a shout out to Sherry Henderson, Sherry, you left a amazing review for the podcast. And I just want to let you know I appreciate you so much. I appreciate you taking the time to do that. And it's just it's so important for a podcast. You know, we live in this world of technology, and podcasting is just growing by leaps and bounds. And so it really is important that if you come across a show that is meaningful to you, that you find helpful, or that if you think that that information might benefit somebody else, that you rate it, that you review it, if you're watching this on YouTube. So my podcast is on YouTube, and all the podcast platforms, whatever podcast you follow, it's important to actually follow, to hit subscribe, to hit the Follow button, to leave a rating, you know, hit the stars that are on there, hit the like button, and if you have the time to just write out a review of what it means to you, and leaving a positive review and ratings on a show and subscribing really helps so that other people who find themselves in the same position that you were probably in when you came across this show, they'll be able to find it more easily. It kind of helps it break through all the noise. So Sherry, thank you so much for doing that. And if you are a regular listener, or if you're a new listener and you find this information helpful, I would tremendously appreciate if you could take the time to leave a rating or review wherever you listen to the show. All right, let's get into this. I want to share a story with you. You know, people see me. They see the podcast. You see the clips. And when it comes to social media, you know, we share highlights of life, really, so it's hard to know what people go through every day. And even though, I mean, hopefully, you know, you think that I'm real here on the podcast, I share what's going on in my life, but for me, social media is not the place where I'm gonna post myself crying or laying in bed in pain or something like that. And I know there are accounts out there that do it, and that's fine, and people resonate with that, and that's fine. No judgment there. But it's just not me. It doesn't suit me. And so I try to share as openly as possible what's going on in my life here in the show, because hopefully that helps somebody else. This is not, you know, living with a stage four cancer diagnosis, being very focused on healing in active treatment. It's not always easy, right? And even though I share with you that I work out regularly that I do all the things, or at least I try to do all the things. I'm not always consistent with them, and some days are more of a physical struggle than others. And something I think when it comes to chemotherapy, so I take an oral form of chemotherapy, which is far easier to manage than the IV chemotherapies that I've been through, that's something that I hope to avoid at any and all cause as I focus on my healing. But even the oral forms of chemotherapy take their toll, right? They destroy certain cells. That's what their that's what their goal is, is what their objective is. So I find that I've been on, you know, different forms of oral chemotherapy for over four years now, and I'm realizing that this cumulative effect is tending to create a lot more dehydration and fatigue, so that when I go through my chemo weeks, I'm on chemo one week, off chemo for another week, and when I go through my chemotherapy weeks, I'm noticing that I'm getting exponentially more fatigue than I used to get, and I'm definitely noticing a deeper dehydration, so to the point sometimes where it feels like I'm just moving through a fog now, restricting my carbohydrates, trying to stay in ketosis. And I say trying, because I'm not always in ketosis. And when I'm not feeling well, my body responds very much to physical stressors. So when I'm not feeling well or when I'm really tired, my glucose tends to spike and I'm more I find it more challenging to stay in ketosis. So. Uh, recently, this last week, I found myself just dragging. I mean, dragging. I was going to bed at seven, 730 I just had no energy. And after a couple of days of that, why does it take a couple of days? You know, you start to realize I'm really tired, but you get through the day, you do the things that you have to do. I see my clients, and, you know, I rest in between, or I'm trying to drink more water, or take my electrolytes, do the things that you think help give you more energy. And then at a certain point, it just hits me, and I'm like, I have got to go get some extra support here, because I just do not feel good. And so I'm very, very fortunate. I live in a place where there are many facilities that I've talked about here on the show before, hydration rooms, and I know those are they're growing and expanding and opening over many places around the country, in the United States, I'm not sure how it is outside of the United States, but here they are becoming more and more accessible. So once a month at least, I go in, and it's typically at the end of the chemo week. And now I'm thinking it might be better if I do at the beginning of the chemo week to avoid the fatigue that seems to be hitting me so hard. But lately, the last couple of months, I'm doing it after a chemo week, and I go in and I get an IV hydration that's full of vitamins for whatever it is that I'm experiencing. You know, it's run by a doctor. There are ends there. And so I discuss with them what I'm going through, and they're able to kind of craft to the cocktail that goes into this hydration. So I make sure I get what I need and that I don't get what I don't need. And this is so important, and I'm going to dig into this more here in just a minute, but after my treatment, so I did one of these treatments yesterday. I woke up in the morning and I felt like I just wanted to go back to sleep. That's not like me. I knew I needed something now. I know my nutrition genome. I know what my labs look like, so I know that B vitamins are especially something that I have to focus on, but you also have to be very careful with B vitamins, and I'm going to go into that more in just a minute, but knowing that something was deeply off, right? I was out of balance, I went in, I talked to the nurse, I got the hydration, I got the vitamins that we all discussed and believed that I needed. Came home, and after a couple of hours of everything just starting to metabolize, I felt like a new person, so much better, and it started to get me really thinking about supplements, because sometimes we need supplements. But how do you know if you need supplements? Well, there's one way of knowing, and that is, if you take a supplement and you feel a lot better, it's kind of an indication that you probably needed that supplement. But here's what I find happens, especially after a breast cancer diagnosis, supplements are so beefed up out there, right? They're just promoted so effectively out in the world, and they can start to feel like a lifeline when we're trying to regain control of our health. Now for those of us in the breast cancer community, I think it's especially important that we discuss how we must approach this with caution and care, because supplements have different effects on different people's bodies, but supplementation in someone who's never had cancer, and supplementation in someone who has had or does have cancer has to be approached very differently. And one of those supplements that we hear about, and we think is kind of benign, is a supplement called b6 and I want to talk to you about why it's important to understand supplementation and why it's important to seek educated guidance when you're turning to supplementation. Okay, so I know supplements feel like a very proactive way to protect your health, and in fact, in America, we spend over 35 billion with a B dollars annually on supplements, and yet, there are studies that show that only 10 to 30% of supplements actually get absorbed by the body, meaning a lot of what you take could be wasted because you don't need it, or because your body isn't able to absorb it. Or if you don't need it, it could actually be doing something you don't want it to do in your body. So the reality is that our bodies are so complex and and I if we don't understand that, if we're not deep into like anatomy and physiology and supplementation and biochemistry and organic chemistry and all that which most of us are not, then we can oversimplify supplementation and what we think it does, especially. What we hear on commercials or we see on social media influencers, right? We can oversimplify supplementation, and this is why it's so important for us to work with healthcare providers who not only understand your unique situation, rather than relying on generalized marketing claims, or influencers who are just making a cut out of what they're promoting. It's really important that you understand whether or not you need something and how you'll know if you do decide to take it if it's effective. So let's go back to I want to specifically talk about b6 because there's some important things that a lot of people don't realize about this, and I want us to understand in this community. So b6 and the B vitamins are water soluble vitamins. And here's the difference, right? There's fat soluble vitamins and water soluble vitamins, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K, right? The old the oily ones, right? We think about some of the vitamins that we take that are like in little oil capsules. They're fat soluble, so they have to be delivered with fat, and they're absorbed and oftentimes stored in fat in our body, depending the vitamins. So those fat soluble vitamins can accumulate, and that accumulation can result in toxicity, which is why we're very careful. So vitamin D, super important vitamin, especially for our immune function, especially in the breast cancer population. Lots of correlations there. But Vitamin D has to be at an optimal level. We don't want it too low and we don't want it too high. It can cause problems either way. So this is what happens when we're storing we've got to be continually testing to see how much of that vitamin we have in our body, to be careful so we don't cause harm. So vitamin b6 is one of those water soluble vitamins, and it's essential for so many enzyme driven reactions in our body, over 100 enzyme reactions in our body need vitamin b6 and so that seems like something we could all benefit from, right? But for breast cancer survivors and other cancer survivors, that story is a little more complex. So there have been several studies that explore the relationship between b6 and cancer. There was research published in cancer epidemiology, biomarkers and prevention, and they found that high plasma levels of basics from dietary sources were associated with reduced inflammation and improved overall health outcomes. However, supplementation with high doses of basics did not show the same benefits, and in some cases, they were actually associated with an increase in risk. This is why, whenever people come to me, you know, I used to find this in Ayurveda too, when I was doing Ayurvedic lifestyle programs for people many years ago, when I first started practicing Ayurveda, the first thing people wanted was herbs. I don't know what it is mentally that drives us to that maybe we think it's a quick fix. You know, if we take this vitamin, it's going to get better, so much faster. Obviously, it's easier to just pop a pill or pop an herbal capsule than it is to harvest good food, get organic food, cook food, prep food, but the benefits and the risks from getting certain nutrients from food and certain nutrients from supplements are very, very different. Okay, so there was another study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, and that highlighted that excessive b6 supplementation could actually interfere with cancer treatments by altering drug metabolism. This happens because b6 is processed in the liver, which is compromised often during cancer treatment. So for example, chemotherapy and radiation can impair liver function. If you're going through chemotherapy radiation, you know they're checking your blood all the time, or look they're looking at liver enzymes, amongst many other things, to make sure that your body is handling all of this really intense treatment. Okay? And so the liver may be less efficient at metabolizing nutrients and medications. Everything's got to go through this liver, right? It's got to be detoxified. It's got to be changed into bioavailable forms. Like our liver is an incredibly amazing organ, and if liver function is compromised, or if it's overburdened, it can lead to an accumulation of substances in the body, and it can worsen side effects or affect and diminish the effectiveness of treatments. This is why so many people say, Well, I'm in chemotherapy or I'm in radiation, and my doctor said our standard of care, doctor said, Don't do any antioxidant therapies, don't take any vitamins. Wait till it's over. There's just so much complexity there. And this is also why, when people come to me and they're taking an integrative approach to their treatment, and they're in standard of care, but they're working with a naturopath who is. Not familiar with cancer, I highly encourage them. Find a naturopath that's trained in cancer. Go to the metabolic train Institute of Health website. Look at the list of providers trained by Dr nation winters who understand the the dynamics of cancer and therapies, both standard of care and natural. It's so important for our safety and our health, so treatments like chemotherapy, radiation or other targeted therapies, they put a very heavy burden on the liver, and this incredibly vital organ is responsible for detoxifying our body, metabolizing hormones, processing vitamins, including b6 and when the liver is under stress from these treatments, and its ability to regulate these processes is hampered, it's diminished. It can lead to several issues. Here's some of them, toxic accumulation so high doses of supplements, including basics, can build up in the body instead of being properly excreted, and this can result in toxicity, symptoms like nerve damage and neuropathy, which are already common. Side effects of cancer treatment can be exacerbated by taking too much basics, drug interactions, so the altered metabolism of the liver can change how medications are broken down, and that leads to increased side effects or reduced efficacy, like I've just talked about, of the cancer therapy itself. So b6 has been shown to actually interfere with the metabolism of certain chemotherapeutic agents that affect treatment outcomes. We also can have increased sensitivity, so the liver reducibility can increase the body's sensitivity to substances, meaning that even a small dose of a supplement can have a much bigger, amplified effect on the body than it normally would. So for b6 specifically, and for breast cancer survivors, there are some very unique risks that are posed. So high levels of b6 have been linked to nerve toxicity, which I just talked about, and they can make neuropathy worse, which is already a miserable, freaking experience. And I'll tell you, B 12 is actually very helpful when it comes to neuropathy. So we can't just think that because it's a B vitamin, it's interchangeable and can be beneficial to us. We've got to really understand what's happening so we get the effects we want. So this is one of the reasons why multivitamins, like I know, in the metabolic approach to cancer community, multivitamins are something that are usually discouraged because they got a whole lot of everything thrown into them. And people will turn to a multivitamin and think, oh, I'll just take all of this, and it might have iron and calcium and basics and other things that we don't need or don't want when we have cancer, have had cancer or are going through cancer treatment, so we want to be super careful about what we're putting in our body. So especially, some studies have shown that high doses of b6 can actually act as a growth driver for certain cancers, and this is because b6 plays a role in cell proliferation, right? So cells are growing. DNA is being remade all the time, and in an unregulated environment, b6 could encourage growth of some cancerous cells. So for me, even when I go in, like that hydration therapy this bag, they get very excited, like it's got all these B vitamins, and they start listing the B vitamins, and I say, Okay, let's take the b6 out. Right? There are certain steroids, there are certain vitamins that always have them remove so that I'm sure I'm getting the effect that I want, which is beneficial effect. I want to feel better, not worse. Now I want to be really clear, there may be some risks associated with b6 but it is an essential nutrient and has many health benefits. And so the good news is you can meet your basic needs very safely through dietary sources, foods that are very rich in basics. There's a litany of that, poultry, chicken, turkey, fish, salmon, tuna, potatoes, sweet potatoes. Now, depending on what you're doing as far as your diet goes, carb restriction or not. Carb restriction, you just want to be careful of how much of this you incorporate into your diet. Of course, you want to be mindful of the ultimate goal, whatever your goal is in your diet, how you want your diet to support your wellness. Okay, so I mentioned that because potatoes and sweet potatoes can spike a lot of people's blood sugar, and they can be higher in carbohydrates than what you might want in your diet. Bananas. This is important, because you want bananas. Those are not ketogenic. Not everybody wants to be in ketosis, right? Not everybody follows a ketogenic diet, and sometimes we don't always stick to the. Plan, right? Sometimes you want to have a banana. Okay? So if that's you, know that bananas are one of those foods that are high in b6 they're also very high in carbohydrates. So again, depending on your dietary goal, depending on your objectives, you will choose the foods that are appropriate for you, avocados, spinach, sunflower seeds. These foods are not only providing a good amount of b6 for you, but they come with a ton of other good nutrients. You know, when it comes to things like bananas or potatoes or sweet potatoes, and people are like, Oh, well, isn't that bad? And over and over again, I like to say it's not there that there is a bad food. It is, does that food serve you right? Does that food have the nutrients and give you the benefits that you're hoping to get from your diet? Is a banana bad? No. Bananas are delicious. Bananas have some valuable nutrients in them. Can a banana fit in to the plan you have and the benefits you want for what you're eating and putting in your body, that's the question, right? I hear people ask me all the time, is it bad to eat blueberries? Oh my gosh, blueberries are amazing. But if you're someone like me who wants to stay in a therapeutic level of ketosis, and my body reacts a lot to the sugars in fruit, I can only have a little tiny bit of blueberries, and I must have them with a good fat source, so that my blood sugar doesn't spike so everybody's dispensed. This is why I love nutrition genomics so much. I love that understanding how your own body works, like digging into this information for yourself. Understanding how you respond to food helps you understand how to construct a diet that you love, that works for you. And you know, I feel like, I mean, how many years have people been dieting, right? And so we have this horrible outlook about food, like food is good or food is bad, or I can or I can't, and I I love food. I love to cook. I love to eat. I love to share food. Food is delicious. I love to celebrate with food, but I love to take good care of my body and feel well. I love to have good energy and a clear brain and be able to get through the day. I want to create feeling the way I want to feel. Food serves that purpose, so we can love food and make great choices with food that has lots of flavor and brings us lots of joy without any deprivation. And I just think it's a shame that the whole diet industry, supplement industry, all of that crap makes us think we have to choose between deprivation and joy. It's just not true. It's absolutely not true. So how do you know
22:48
if you need supplementation? How do you know if you need b6
22:53
Well, you don't know unless you really look at yourself, right? Unless you really understand how your body is working. This is why I work with people on their labs. You know, a lot of times people come to me and they're taking hundreds of dollars in supplements every month. I'm totally guilty of having done that and and wondering, is this working? Is this doing what it's supposed to do? I need it, and the labs tell us that story. So how do you know if you need supplements? Well, the first step is know what you're eating, and this means, track your food. Track your food for a few days, track your food for a week. You know it doesn't have to be for everything, but what amazing evidence you find and how much wonderful things you learn about yourself and what you're actually eating when you take the time to track your food for a few days. So how much b6 do you need? The RDA, the recommended daily allowance for b6 is 1.3 to two milligrams for most adults, and that's super achievable through a balanced diet. It's not a lot, but you don't know if you're getting it, unless you put in what you normally eat, and you see what you're actually getting right now. RDA means the minimum amount required for the average healthy person to prevent going into deficiency. So understanding your needs is important. Do you need that minimum amount? Do you need to increase your food intake and bump it up a little bit. And if you suspect for some reason that you have a deficiency, then it's really important to ask a healthcare provider, don't look to an Instagram influencer to figure out if you have a deficiency in something, right? We can look at this through blood work, and it's just self prescribing is not a great idea, you know, and the more that I learn about it, the more I understand that you need guidance. Now, a lot of people immediately will say that's expensive, but it's worth the investment for your safety, and when you think about it, so many. Times when I'll consult with people, or I'm coaching people, and we look at what they're taking, they're spending so much money on supplements that they may not need, that if you worked, at least had a consultation, who worked with a doctor, a naturopath, or someone else who was trained in supplementation and figured out exactly what you need and how to use know that on how to guide yourself, you're probably going to save a lot more money than you would if you just kept self prescribing and buying a bunch of supplements. Because, you know, cancer is scary, right? And we get a cancer diagnosis, and then we hear people saying, well, so and so took this and they don't have cancer, and so and so did that and they don't have cancer. And I heard a podcast the other day. And people, you know, we don't really understand what someone else is doing unless we really know, you know their plan. Like I have a very detailed plan of what I do to support my ability to heal. If I were just to throw out there, oh, I take this and I take this and I take that. And other people who also had breast cancer heard that and thought, Oh, if she's taking that and she's healing, I should take that. We've got to be really careful, because I have the food lifestyle supplement and movement plan that I have, because it works for my specific body, and it's taken a long time to figure that out and get all of the evidence to make sure. And it gets tweaked all the time, right? I'm constantly tweaking my plan depending on how I feel like the story I shared with you at the beginning. If I'm feeling excessive fatigue, I have to check in with myself and say, something's up. What do I need more of what do I need less up? What am I doing? What am I not doing? Right? It's a constant, dynamic flow our body and our health, right? It's like it's just we're in this relationship with our body. In any relationship in your life, relationships are in constant flow, right? Sometimes they need more of something than others, sometimes they need to be left alone, sometimes they need a break, sometimes they need more attention. So I want you to think about your body in this way, like you're in this wonderful dynamic relationship with this beautiful body. So the other day, I was listening to this podcast, well known podcast, and they were just talking it wasn't anything negative. They were just talking about people they knew who had cancer and and one of the guests on the show said something like, Yeah, I know people who've healed themselves from cancer, and they were taking and he started listing some things, and I heard that, and I thought, Oh, not that it's not true, not that some of the things this person listed don't benefit certain people. Some of them I use for myself, but I use them with a very specific protocol and guidance and as a part of an overall plan. So it's, to me, in my opinion, dangerous to just throw these alternative treatments out there without understanding that most treatments come with a protocol. Most treatments come with a caveat. Most treatments need to have your labs watched while you're taking them, to make sure your body is responding effectively. And so this is why I thought it was important, especially to talk about b6 because I think most people don't understand that it can be something that if you're taking more than you need, or if you're taking it in a supplement form, it may not be giving you the benefits you think or you're hoping it gives you so Food First, what are you eating? People, this is so critical, so important, and so easy and such a beautiful act of self love, to take the time to understand how to nourish yourself, to take the time to really put some love into that food for yourself, like I get chills as I think about it, I think our relationship with food is truly An act of love for us. So when your brain throws out these ideas and is, I don't have time for that. I don't like to cook, I don't enjoy it, let's look at those thoughts, and let's question them a little bit, and let's look at our relationship with our body. And just think about someone else that you love so much, and I like to just replace that person with your body and think like, would you cook for that person? Would you make food for them? Would you find if you absolutely not. I mean, I know some people are hard, pass hard. No, I'm not cooking. I'm not making food. Well, lucky for us, and lucky for those of you feel that way, there are food services out there that can provide clean sources of very nutritious foods to serve you, right? So I really want to emphasize when we talk about supplements there, they play an important role. I take quite a bit of supplements, and I feel the effects of them, because I'm taking. The ones that are right for me and supporting exactly what I need, okay, but I also pay a lot of attention to my food Okay, in my opinion and in my experience, through my food and the way that I eat, I don't always get enough of what I need through my food, because I can only eat so much and because I practice fasting protocols as well, right? So supplements are not inherently bad. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying they're not a one size fits all, especially for breast cancer survivors. So when it comes to vitamin b6 the safest and most effective approach is whole food. Your body has an incredible capacity to heal when you give it what it truly needs. And the way food works is an amazing process, right? If we want to absorb things into our body, they've got to get through the stomach, and the stomach is a pretty intense environment. They've got to get down into that gut and then absorbed and used properly and directed to the right organs to be able to be used right Ever think about that process when you're just thinking about taking a supplement? But it is the process, and so it's so important. This is why, what I said earlier, that sometimes we absorb 10 to 30% of what we're taking. So if you're looking at a supplement and you're looking at the amount on the bottle that supplement says it contains, realize that you're not getting all of that absorbed into your body. It's very important thing to consider, to do some research, to ask some questions about Okay, so I not only want you to be safe. I want you to experience the healing, the good health, the energy that you desire. That's what I want for this community, and that's why I share this information. Okay, so if you think this information will help someone else, share it with them too. They don't have to have breast cancer or any other kind of cancer to be in an excellent relationship with their body, and to be in an excellent relationship with their food so that we're not spending like think about it, if you cut out some of the money that you spend on supplements that you may not need, could you afford better quality food? All right, my friends, I hope you find that helpful, and if you want more guidance, if you want to dig deeper into this for yourself, come to my website, the breast cancer recovery coach.com go to my coaching and programs and look at the options available for you under metabolic health coaching packages, understanding your body. Yes, it's an upfront investment, but trust me, it's an investment I am so thrilled that I made for myself, and I have never worked with a single client who has regretted getting this information for themselves. It's so valuable, and it helps us clear up this fear and confusion, and I think, overwhelm of the need to feel safe from outside things that we don't really even understand, if they are safe for us or not. It really helps to clear that up and give us some good direction. So check it out. Check out the details. You can find me on Facebook as the breast cancer recovery coach. The same on Instagram. You can email me or send me a message if you have questions about it, but I'm just so passionate about helping each and every one of you who listens the show, who comes to me, watches this YouTube channel, to have power over yourself, right? Cancer diagnoses are a very overwhelming and powerless experience to go through if we don't understand what is within our ability to control to help us feel as good as we possibly can. All right, I'll talk to you again next week, and until then, take good care of yourself.
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