Fatigue is a feeling of tiredness, weakness or exhaustion, which can be caused by the cancer itself. Cancer can increase your body's need for energy by weakening your muscles, causing damage to organs or altering your body's hormones. Some cancers can release proteins called cytokines, which are thought to cause fatigue.
During treatment, the cancer cells are killed but healthy cells are also affected. This causes your body to work extremely hard to repair the damage caused, making you feel tired. Although this takes a toll on your body, fatigue can be caused by other factors in your life. From stress and anxiety to what you eat.
It is important to look after yourself and improve other areas in your life that may be making fatigue worse. This will help to give you the extra energy your body needs to recover between treatments and recovery.
Try these tips below to help improve fatigue
| Drink Plenty of Water |
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Dehydration is a common side effect of cancer treatment due to side effects, like fevers, vomiting, diarrhoea or excessive urination.
- As dehydration sets in, your blood pressure drops, leading to poor circulation and reduced blood flow to your brain. This causes feelings of sleepiness and increase side effects of chemo brain.
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Eating Habits
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- Avoid skipping meals. If struggling with this, eat regular meals and healthy snacks every 3 to 4 hours, rather than a large meal.
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Eating an afternoon or morning snack, such as a handful of almonds, if energy levels dip.
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Get Moving
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- A 15 minute walk can give you an energy boost and the benefits increase with more frequent physical activity.
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Sleep Well
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- Going to bed and getting up in the morning at the same time every day.
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Relaxing before bed.
- Try aromatherapy or music if struggling to sleep.
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| Rest Well |
- Rest, but not too much. Take short naps or rest breaks (30 minutes or less)
- Too much rest can lower your energy level and make it harder to sleep at night.
- Plan your day so you have time to rest.
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Reduce Stress
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- Stress uses up a lot of energy!
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Deep breathing is a great and easy way to relax you.
- Whatever relaxes you will improve your energy.
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Cut out caffeine
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- Best way to do this is to gradually stop having all caffeine drinks over a 3-week period.
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Caffeine is found in
coffee, tea, cola, energy drinks, some painkillers and herbal remedies.
- Replace coffee with herbal teas and smoothies.
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Plan Ahead
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- Each day, prioritise – decide which things are most important to you and focus on those tasks.
- Spread activities throughout the day and take breaks.
- Do things slowly, so that you don't use too much energy at once.
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Discover more tips - 'The importance of Hydration'
