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Chemotherapy Nausea Relief

30th March, 2012 - Posted by healthy - No Comments

Cancer has affected the lives of millions of people all over the globe. While the treatments and methods have become stronger and the odds of surviving better, there are still unfortunate and ugly side effects. Many cancer patients are forced to undergo chemotherapy. While it fights cancer, it also causes hair loss, immunodeficiency and nausea.

Hair loss and being sickly is bad enough, but to be constantly sick to your stomach is like getting kicked while you’re down. Sadly, most medications for nausea are internal and keeping a pill or liquid medicine down when nauseas is practically impossible. So what options are there to help?

While eating is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to handle, keeping the stomach satiated will relieve stomach aches. The choices of food are what make it hard. Often, to feel better means giving up fast food and eating healthy instead. The simpler the foods, the easier it is on the stomach. Plus, the more down to earth they are, the less strange smelling they tend to be.

A second course of action is natural medicine. This can involve herbs, oils or other methods like acupuncture or an acupressure wristband. The most common herbs for nausea are ginger and peppermint. Either can be put in a tea or sucked on. Ginger is also good for cooking with or candying for easier consumption. However, the availability of good ginger and peppermint can vary and is often hard to find. With cheap production and high sales on mind, many producers let the quality of the ginger go by the wayside.

Essential oils are a great way to deal with the nausea. Again, ginger and peppermint come in with great results for dealing with the tummy trouble. These oils can be diffused into the air by putting them on your hands and smelling them or placing in a machine called a diffuser to disperse them into the room. If the quality of the oils is high enough, they can be placed on the skin (usually on the bottom of the feet) or even taken internally to help alleviate the symptoms of the nausea. However, even if the bottle says “one hundred percent pure therapeutic grade essential oil” it doesn’t mean it is safe for consumption. In fact nearly all the companies that produce it have warning labels that say it is not safe for internal use and not safe for use on children. If that is the case, all it is good for is the aromatherapy and since it isn’t as pure as it could be it might not be a viable solution to the problem.

Acupuncture has been practiced for thousands of years in the eastern cultures to fight off a variety of ills and realign the body when out of sync with nature and foods. Long needles are inserted into different points on the body to help correct the flow of energy and heal the body. However, this method is time consuming and not an at home option. It must be done by a licensed professional and normally requires several sessions to achieve the desired result.

Another option is using acupressure from small wristbands with a bead in it that is placed over the pressure point on the forearm. This point is associated with nausea and when the bead is left over it the nausea dissipates. This is assumed to be because of the disruption of the energy flowing along through the point. It is a great alternative for those who aren’t finding relief through herbs and oils, but don’t want to get poked with needles.