Nausea while undergoing chemotherapy is a common problem facing many cancer patients and depends on the chemotherapy drug used and your own personal biochemistry. But there is a lot you can do to prevent nausea during chemotherapy, or at least to reduce the symptoms. People with a history of vomiting, women, and those below 50 years of age are more vulnerable.
Patients can receive anti-nausea (anti-emetic) drugs to prevent nausea. These drugs, given alone or in combination, may be given orally or intravenously. Anti-nausea drugs are usually given before treatment and/or on a scheduled basis for several hours or days during or after treatment.
However, you do not need to wait for the drugs. There are a number of options you can follow yourself:
- Eat small meals but more often. At CANCERactive we believe people should graze with 5 or 6 small meals per day, not one or two big ones.
- Eat the foods you fancy. It may sound odd, but many people on chemo cannot stand the smell or taste of certain foods the pungent or spicy.
- Prepare meals in advance. Especially if cooking makes you feel nauseous.
- Drink lots of fluids. Many patients do not like hot sugary drinks.
- Try peppermint tea found to be very soothing. Some people simply keep peppermints on them at all times!
- Try ginger tea by slicing or crushing fresh ginger and pouring hot water over it. You may even find chewing a piece of fresh ginger helps significantly. There is even Clinical Research on the benefit of ginger with nausea and chemotherapy patients. You can sweeten the tea with Manuka Honey.
- Look for Medicinal Mushroom extracts research is clear that certain of them aid chemotherapy and reduce side-effects significantly. (See our article by clicking here). Another product, a brand called MGN-3 or Biobran, has its fans too click here to read about it.
- Use relaxation techniques - like meditation and deep breathing.
- Try Acupuncture - this can be extremely effective.
- See a homeopath some of their nosodes can be particularly effective.
But always tell your doctor what you are doing. There are now so many options available. There is simply no need to suffer in silence.
Remember to eat nourishing whole foods and take a multi-strain probiotic, the Chinese herb astragalus and vitamin D supplement which have all been shown in research to aid the success of your chemotherapy in terms of nourishment and survival.