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Reduce Cancer Fatigue
Is it possible to reduce cancer fatigue? When I say “cancer fatigue” I’m referring to the fatigue that results from aggressive chemotherapy regimens whether it is from a stem cell transplant or triplet/quadruplet therapies. The kind of fatigue that a good night’s sleep doesn’t touch.
The study linked at the bottom of this post talks about a therapy for reducing fatigue in cancer patients with a type of therapy that I’ve never read about previously.
This short video does an excellent job of explaining the many types of fatigue that can result in cancer patients and survivors.
Fatigue and myeloma
The non-conventional therapies listed below are a combination of those included in the study below as well as my experience as a long-term cancer survivor.
- Yoga-
- Accupressue-
- Massage-
- Tai Chi
- Qi Gong-
- Aricular Point Therapy-
- Reflexology-
- CoQ10-
- Acetyl-l-carnitine-
- Vitamin E-
- Coconut Oil-
- Moxibustion-
- Acupuncture-
I am a long-term MM survivor. It’s been years since I’ve undergone conventional therapies however I still have to push myself to get things done, day in, day out. Yes, I’ve reduced myeloma fatigue tremendously over the years however I am not the person I was pre-ASCT.
Have you been diagnosed with multiple myeloma? Are you experiencing fatigue? Email me at David.PeopleBeatingCancer@gmail.com with your questions about managing your MM.
Hang in there,
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
A circadian and app-based personalized lighting intervention for the reduction of cancer-related fatigue
“Summary- Lighting interventions can mitigate fatigue by promoting circadian rhythmicity. We test whether individualized, wearable-based lighting interventions delivered via a mobile app reduce cancer-related fatigue in a randomized controlled trial with 138:
- breast cancer,
- prostate cancer,
- and hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients.
Participants are randomized to tailored lighting intervention or control. The primary endpoint is PROMIS fatigue 4a at trial end, with secondary endpoints including change in daily fatigue, sleep, anxiety, depression, physical function, and overall health.
Fatigue T-scores at week 11 do not differ between groups but decrease significantly from week 1 to week 11 (3.07 points, p = 0.001) in the intervention group, with a significant final-week treatment effect (p = 0.014).
Daily fatigue, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and physical function improve within intervention. Further studies are needed to see if these results generalize in broader cancer care. The trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (trial registration number: NCT04827446)…
Disruption to the circadian system can lead to detrimental health outcomes; for example, misalignment between circadian and environmental timing has been associated with sleep disruption, metabolic issues, and mood disorders.6,7
Furthermore, disturbances to the circadian system have been implicated in relation to cancer-related fatigue and quality of life in cancer patients.8,9Fatigue and circadian disruption worsened over six chemotherapy sessions in female breast cancer patients.8 Additionally, lower levels of activity and increased nighttime awakenings have been associated with heightened cancer-related fatigue.9…
Overall, this study examined the impact of a personalized and circadian-based lighting intervention on the fatigue levels of three cancer populations. While we generally observed lower final-time-point fatigue in the intervention group, the significance and clinical import of these findings vary by the type of measure.
This study was made possible by leveraging wearable technology to collect data non-invasively and applying mathematical algorithms (e.g., a limit cycle oscillator model29) to base lighting interventions on each individual’s circadian patterns. Importantly, this work paves the way for development and testing of app-based lighting interventions in broader cancer populations…”
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