Think my little question/comment got lost in the "if you starved cancer of glucose"
 

Hello,

I posted a comment/kind of question under the "if you starved cancer of glucose" post but think it got lost or ignored SO I'll throw it out here. http://her2support.org/vbulletin/images/icons/icon7.gif

When I had my PET/CT scan I was told to eat no or very little carbs 24 hours before the test. I was also told not to vigorously exercise 24 hours before the test either. Why was that and what does that say about exercise in general? Don't get me wrong, I'm an avid exerciser (4 - 6 miles a day powerwalk/a little jogging) and wouldn't stop no matter what. It's actually a favorite part of my day. I'm not bringing it up to try to get out of exercise. Just curious.

Thanks anyone and everyone. http://her2support.org/vbulletin/images/icons/icon7.gif

Mary Jo

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Regards
Joe

Hi Marejo,

My opinion:
The reason why they asked you to not eat carb prior to scan is because they wanted to overload your system with glucose with an injection.(pet injection is labelled glucose) This would provide your body with a peak of blood sugar on which the cancer would greedily feed on.

Exercising hard require glucose which your body will produce from liver glycogene store. And therefore again it would dilute the effect of a surge of glucose from the injection and/or possibly show up muscle cell feeding on glucose.

I think it is something slightly different - but I admit to being slightly ignorant on this!

I think since the PET measures glucose uptake, they want the "only" glucose in your system to be the radioactively tagged one they inject. I think they want you to avoid exercise because using your muscles would direct energy (glucose) to the muscles and cause false positive readings. Inflammation can also light up on a PET scan, so maybe it's related to that.

but, now that I've exposed my ignorance, I intend to find out these answers for real. I have one scheduled on July 16 and will ask there - although I'm sure by then you'll have better answers from here!

Dear Mary Jo

Full of Beans said it right on.

Thanks much for these answer's, as my PET Scan is this coming Wednesday, (June 27).

They did tell me to drink lot's water.