What's Linked to Cancer Fatigue: Depression? Nutrition?

I just had carrot cake and fresh fruit for lunch, but it's not as bad as you think. There's a cottage cheese snack pack for a chaser and honestly I ate around the frosting.

Let's face it, the cake  is mostly nuts, raisins, coconut and even carrots when you have a good one. (This is)

But still, it's quite a change from my normal wheat thins, nuts, fresh fruit and cheese lunch but if I have a real fatigue wall hit in 30 minutes I'll know who to blame. Not cancer - ME.

Fatigue is a big bugaboo

It tends to grab onto cancer patients including me. National Cancer Institutes's website says Cancer patients often experience both depression and fatigue. Gee, no kidding.

I've been trying to get to the bottom of the fatigue thing that has absolutely decked me for over a year - and bigger fish than me are ahead of me. To almost anyone it stood to reason that relieving depression might have something to do with fatigue. But according to the NCI, "a large randomized trial has disproved that theory and shifted researchers' attention to other possible strategies to fight cancer-related fatigue."

I'm not sure that the message has made it's way around to doctors who still seem to feel that fatigue either means cancer patients need to exercise or we're depressed - or maybe unreasonable.

And then Gary showed up

Thank God for Gary R. Morrow, Ph.D., of the University of Rochester, N.Y. who reports that studies have shown that "Fatigue is a serious problem for at least 70 percent of cancer patients"  He reported the findings at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in San Francisco way back in 2003 see the journal abstract.) Another one of his findings was:

"Unlike normal fatigue, cancer-related fatigue is not relieved by rest and often interferes with everyday activities."

But we didn't need a study to tell us. A couple dozen cancer patients would have gladly shared the information. The researchers thought that a selective seratonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) like the common drug Paxil might also reduce fatigue, since biology suggests that serotonin might be involved in both.

"It all made perfect sense," said Morrow. "It seemed to fit a lot of what we had observed and a lot of what we know. It just happened to be inaccurate."

And they tried out the theory. Unfortunately although the Paxil patients had a lot less depression than those who received a placebo, there was little difference in how tired any of the patients in either group were.

"It appears unlikely that serotonin is involved as a common mechanism for both fatigue and depression," Morrow said. He concluded that the question was "not worth further study."

New tricks

On to something else? Or a combination of tricks? I'm using a high protein diet with multiple small meals during the day. And trying to actually do less - even when it comes to the things I do online. I didn't think it was possible to rest more but I do.

Other ideas to help with cancer fatigue include steroids which are used in chronic fatigue syndrome, and an antihistamine loratidine. Also work at M. D. Anderson cancer clinic has shown that Ritalin eases cancer fatigue without adverse side effects.

They've produced a video about it. and the links are below
Windows Media: 256K / 56K
QuickTime: 256K / 56K

Snoozing works too

For now I'm sticking with the "Kate Reynolds small meal, fresh fruit, grains, cheeses, protein diet," a moderate amount of caffeine but little sugar and a lot of rest. It's similar to the tips provided by M.D.Anderson.

Honestly however, I can't wait for something else to come along to give me a boost.