Is Intermittent Fasting the Key to Feeling Better After Cancer?

A simple change in meal timing might hold the key to helping cancer survivors reclaim their energy. 

At the University of Maryland School of Nursing, Amber Kleckner, PhD, is studying how time-restricted eating – consuming meals only during daylight hours – could help survivors reset their internal clocks and restore the energy that treatment often drains away. 

“Everyone expects to feel tired during treatment,” Kleckner explained. “But then after chemotherapy treatment and radiation treatment, when the cancer is cured, people expect that the fatigue will go away too. However, oftentimes it doesn't, and people don't know why.” 

Her lab is building on years of research into circadian rhythms, or the body’s internal clock, to see whether aligning meals with natural cycles can improve sleep, boost energy, and support overall recovery in cancer survivors. 

“When you really delve into the evidence-based research on nutrition for survivorship, there isn't a lot out there,” she noted, and said her goal is to offer more than the vague diet guidance survivors often receive. 

“If this research isn't done, people are going to keep guessing. They're going to keep going to websites, reading anecdotes on forums,” she stressed. “They're not going to have that larger clinical trial that actually – scientifically – can demonstrate whether it's effective or not.” 

In a new video Q&A, Kleckner shares how nutrition can empower survivors and why evidence-based guidance is essential for long-term recovery. You can read a few of her answers below — or watch and listen as she shares more about this exciting work. 

Questions

There’s so much conflicting diet advice online. How is your research helping discover what works?

“All of things that you're reading online, the vast majority of them are anecdotal. The vast majority of them are, ‘Oh, I tried this and it worked for me. My aunt tried this and it worked for me,’” she explained. “The recommendations for cancer survivors are the same recommendations to prevent cancer, eat fruits and vegetables, eat protein.”

“There's nothing really out there that's cancer survivor specific, that's addressing some of the late side effects that cancer survivors are experiencing or to prevent, specifically, cancer recurrence and second cancers,” Kleckner added, and said the focus of their research is in the “cancer survivorship realm, so that we can guide more specific recommendations.”

What’s one example of how diet advice can be confusing or even harmful during treatment?

“People think antioxidants are healthy – they can help me stay strong to fight this cancer. But what can happen is the antioxidants can help the cancer fight the chemo,” Kleckner said. “Right now. There are very, very few supplements that have been tested in the cancer setting for effectiveness, especially during chemotherapy.”

What else do you want people to know about your research?

“This research is really exciting because it's a relatively simple nutrition program. It is free to implement,” she noted. “Nutrition is very empowering. It's something that you can do. Oftentimes, when you get a cancerous diagnosis, there's a lot of things being done to you. People are poking you and prodding you and doing these scans and taking your blood and telling you to show up at a certain time. But nutrition is something that you can control.”