Dealing with mental fatigue is crucial to tackling cancer fatigue. Beat your frustrations, stresses and anxieties and break the vicious circle of cancer fatigue. Energise your mind and body, feel more positive and improve the quality of your life. Rediscover your motivation and zest for life.

The frustration of cancer fatigue

Cancer fatigue is a well recognised symptom of both Cancer and its treatment. Though there are many recognised symptoms, the difficulty with Cancer fatigue is that there is no standard medical definition and therefore it is difficult to assess. It affects people in different ways.

Physically, you many feel weak and tired, lose your appetite and generally lack energy. You may lack motivation or feel unable to perform your usual activities.

You may lose interest in social activities or at times feel an overwhelming need to rest. You can feel a sense of malaise, aching, feelings of “heaviness” or weight and slowness of movement.

Physical symptoms exasperate anxiety as they are a constant reminder of the Cancer and add to the overall sense of worry and the fear of it getting worse. Mental and psychological distress includes difficulty in thinking and concentrating, mood changes, anxiety and depression.

Cancer fatigue can last a long time

Cancer fatigue is a serious issue that is often treated as “part-and-parcel” of your journey through Cancer. As distressing and debilitating as it is, there is limited conventional help available to you.

It has been shown that there are very few pharmacological treatments for Cancer related fatigue available to patientsclick here.

At times you can feel that you are not being taken seriously – a fatigue life sentence with no ending in sight. For some Cancer patients this is the reality – their cancer fatigue symptoms persist for years.

Even after treatment ends between 30 and 50% of cancer patients say that their fatigue remains for six months or never goes away.

For some Cancer survivors these symptoms persist for as long as 20 years after the Cancer has gone.

When the immune system doesn’t know when to stop

Cancer fatigue has long been accepted by health professionals and patients alike as a side effect of the treatment. Chemotherapy has been shown to play a role in fatigue.

A study has found that Breast Cancer survivors suffered more days of fatigue and more severe symptoms when compared to healthy women. Those women who received Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy reported the most severe and prolonged fatigueclick here.

Another study has shown that Breast Cancer survivors who suffer from persistent, debilitating fatigue years after their diagnosis, have something in common – their immune systems do not shut down following treatmentclick here.

The researchers suggest that this might be causing their fatigue. The immune systems of women undergoing treatment for Breast Cancer are activated at high levels to help them fight the disease and to help them recover from the side effect of Chemotherapy and radiation.

Some data suggests that survivors who develop fatigue might have immune system changes before the Cancer and the treatments may be exasperating the situation.

The authors believe that the severity of fatigue in Breast cancer survivors is not related to the type of treatment they received, or its duration, but rather the fatigue is driven by constant immune activation. They suggest that using behavioural interventions, such as Tai Chi and Yoga, may help alleviate the severity and duration of the cancer fatigue.

The sooner you tackle cancer fatigue the better

A new study has found that fatigue affects Breast Cancer patients even before the first Chemotherapy treatmentclick here.

Between 70 and 95% of Breast Cancer patients experience fatigue whilst undergoing Chemotherapy and most women are not going into Chemotherapy “in the best possible shape”.

Researchers say that...

controlling fatigue after surgery and before starting Chemotherapy is important because fatigue typically increases during Chemotherapy.

Disrupted sleep, low daytime activity and/or reduced activity are likely to contribute to mild fatigue before Chemotherapy and moderate to severe fatigue after Chemotherapy. They say that fatigue should be addressed before and after surgery. For years Cancer patients have been told to rest and take it easy, but in some cases the patients who remain inactive are the ones who report higher fatigue.

The power of your mind to reduce cancer fatigue

There has been a growing interest in managing the symptoms of fatigue with non pharmacological treatments.

A systematic review has shown that regular exercise and psychological interventions including stress management and relaxation training could ease Cancer related fatigue click here.

Eliminating the medical reasons for Cancer fatigue such as Anaemia is always a good starting point which your medical professional would be happy to assist you with. Exercise can also help.

Dealing with the mental fatigue is crucial to tackling cancer fatigue

In a recent experimental study, mental fatigue has been shown to affect physical enduranceclick here.

This study found that mental fatigue did not cause the heart or muscles to perform any differently. Instead, it was the “perceived effort” that determined when the participants reached exhaustion.

Participants stopped exercising 15% earlier when they were mentally fatigued. They stopped at the same perceived effort level in both the fatigued and non fatigued experiments.

However mentally fatigued participants started at a higher level of perceived effort and reached the end point sooner. Patients with mental fatigue perceive exercise to be more difficult. Even though physically they have the same energy levels, it just feels harder!

This highlights yet again the importance of the mind body connection and the power of the mind to control physical outcomes - perhaps never more important than for cancer patients.

Use the power of your mind to tackle your cancer fatigue. Take proactive steps today, regain your control and rediscover your motivation. Find out how by visiting ourconsulting website, orcontact ustoday to book your consultation.

Change your life today … Live, don’t just survive

At The Naked Gene Juggler, we understand that cancer fatigue is a multifaceted issue that brings you multiple challenges.

We can help you resolve the underlying emotional, psychological and mental aspects together with the limiting perceptions and beliefs that contribute to your cancer fatigue.

We believe that to deal with cancer fatigue effectively you also need to break the vicious circle of negative emotions, thoughts and actions that having cancer fatigue brings, as these in themselves contribute to your cancer fatigue.

Take the opportunity to be the director of your own life

Find out how you can…

• Take proactive steps to tackle your cancer fatigue, regain your control and rediscover your motivation

• Energise your mind and body to tackle your cancer fatigue, feel more positive and improve the quality of your life

• Overcome your frustration, stress and anxiety of cancer fatigue

• Resolve the underlying emotional, psychological and mental aspects together with the limiting perceptions and beliefs that contribute to your cancer fatigue

• Deal with your mental fatigue and use the power of your mind to tackle your cancer fatigue

• Break the vicious circle of negative emotions, thoughts and actions that having cancer fatigue brings, that in themselves contribute to your cancer fatigue

Ready to make a change?

To find out more and book your initial constulation, visit our consultancy sitetoday.