Nausea and vomiting after chemotherapy

[1], [2], [3]

Nausea after chemotherapy

After chemotherapy, most patients experience nausea - a constant or intermittent sensation, which is localized in the epigastric and mouth regions. At the same time, such symptoms are accompanied by weakness, sweating, "nausea", a strong separation of saliva, chills and pale skin. Sometimes nausea occurs as a reaction to certain smells, for example, the aroma of cooking food.

The cause of nausea after chemotherapy is the effect of drugs on the emetic center, located in the brain. Other causes of nausea include tumor excretion of toxins that can affect the above-mentioned emetic center.

Experts prescribe after the end of treatment, taking drugs that remove the symptoms of nausea. They will be discussed below in the section on vomiting after chemotherapy.

To avoid nausea, it is necessary to minimize the consumption of fatty, fried and spicy foods, as well as salty and sweet foods. Eating should be frequent and fractional, in small portions five to six times a day.

[4], [5], [6], [7]

Treatment of nausea after chemotherapy

Drinking water is a good remedy for nausea after chemotherapy. If it is not possible to overpower a glass, you need to drink water in small sips, but often.

With constant nausea, it’s good to include the following meals and drinks in your diet:

• transparent broths from vegetables and chicken,
• boiled and skinless chicken,
• porridge, semolina, rice cereal and white rice,
• boiled potatoes,
• noodles and pasta,
• crackers and dry biscuits,
• bananas
• canned fruits, which include peaches and pears, as well as applesauce,
• natural yogurts,
• acid,
• cranberry and grape juices,
• fruit ice and sherbet
• sparkling water.

Vomiting after chemotherapy

Vomiting after chemotherapy is an act of reflex nature, which leads to a dramatic emptying of the contents of the stomach, and sometimes the intestines, in the opposite direction, through the mouth. Sometimes vomiting can occur through the nose.

Vomiting after chemotherapy occurs as a result of the effects of drugs on the vomiting center, located in the brain. Vomiting can also be observed as a consequence of tumor producing toxins that affect the aforementioned emetic center.

The emetic center is a zone in the brain that is responsible for the occurrence of nausea and vomiting. Cells of this center show a reaction to the presence of toxins, chemical drugs and other substances in the body. A similar reaction is expressed in the protective function of the emetic center to the above-listed substances dangerous to human life. Therefore, a command is sent from the brain to the digestive system to get rid of such agents by triggering the mechanism of eruption of these substances out, if these agents are present in the stomach or intestines.

During the first days after the end of chemotherapy, patients develop symptoms of acute vomiting. After the end of the first day in patients treated, symptoms of delayed vomiting are observed.

Chemotherapy drugs have a certain property called emethogenicity, that is, “nauseating.” This property is expressed in the ability of the drug to provoke the occurrence of nausea and vomiting. Chemotherapy drugs, in accordance with the level of emethogenicity, are divided into funds with low, medium and high levels.

Most often, vomiting after chemotherapy occurs in patients in the following groups:

1. In patients who have not been given antiemetic treatment.
2. In female patients.
3. In patients of young age.
4. In patients who suffer from excessive drinking.

Treatment of vomiting after chemotherapy

There are several categories of drugs that help get rid of the symptoms of nausea and vomiting. These drugs have different degrees of effectiveness.

1. Medications of the phenothiazine group are pro-chloperazine and ethyl quenzine.
2. Preparations of the butyrphenone group are haloperidol and droperidol.
3. Medications of the benzodiazepine group - lorazepam.
4. The cannabinoid drugs are dronabinol and marinol.
5. The group of corticosteroids - dexamethasone and methylprednisolone.
6. Drugs of the metocloproamide group are raglan.
7. A group of serotonin receptor antagonists - ondansetron, granisetron, kitril, tropisetron, novoban, palosetron.
8. The group of neurokinin receptor antagonists is emend and aprepitant.

To alleviate the condition after chemotherapy and reduce the symptoms of nausea and vomiting, it is necessary to adhere to the following recommendations:

1. Before starting a session of the introduction of chemotherapy drugs you need to eat and drink a little.
2. During the course of treatment, food is consumed in small portions, but often.
3. Highly salty and spicy foods are excluded from the patient’s diet.
4. Food should be of moderate temperature - not hot.
5. Chilled foods can help reduce the symptoms of nausea. You can eat cold meat, cottage cheese and fruits, as well as products with a sour taste - frozen lemon slices, cranberries, plum slices.
6. Excludes fried, fatty and sweet foods.
7. It is necessary to consume food at a slow pace, chewing carefully and in a small amount.
8. Relatives should be asked to prepare food for the patient, since smells of cooking food can provoke a vomiting reaction.
9. You should not be in places with strong odors, especially cooking food, smoke from tobacco products, perfumes and household chemicals.
10. The presence of foreign objects in the mouth provokes the symptoms of vomiting. Dentures at the time of treatment should be removed.
11. The room in which the patient is after chemotherapy should be well ventilated, with fresh and cool air.

Heartburn after chemotherapy

After undergoing chemotherapy sessions and the entire course of treatment, many patients experience heartburn symptoms. Heartburn is a sensation of burning or discomfort behind the sternum, starting from the projection of the stomach and extending down to the neck.

[8], [9]

Treatment of heartburn after chemotherapy

Good help to cope with heartburn antacid drugs - Maalox, Alka-Seltzer, Almagel, Fosfalyugel, Vikalin and so on.

Between courses of chemotherapy need to take the drug Laseprolol for three weeks. Instead, you can use drugs - kvaiathel, ranitidine, omeprazole.

Of the alternative means you need to use jelly, which can be drunk in large quantities. It is also good to drink a decoction of oats, which can be taken two liters per day.

It also helps the use of low-fat 10% milk cream - during an attack of heartburn, you must take one or two sips. Attacks are also well removed with two to three tablespoons of fresh potato juice. A long course of treatment with potato juice consists of consuming a quarter cup of beverage three to four times a day fifteen to twenty minutes before meals. In this case, it is necessary to be treated within two to three weeks.

Alternative medicine also proposes the use of buckwheat to eliminate heartburn. Buckwheat is overcooked in a dry pan until a dark brown color appears, and then ground into powder. It is accepted on one - two grams three - four times a day.

Long-term manifestations of heartburn are well stopped by powder of rhizomes of calamus swamp. One-third of a teaspoon of powder drank half a glass of water. It is taken three times a day for one month.

Helps with heartburn and infusion of flaxseed. It is prepared as follows: two tablespoons of seeds are poured with half a cup of boiling water. After that, the infusion is left in a thermos for two hours and filtered. Drink should be taken warm. It is taken in half a glass three times a day (including before going to bed).

Good use of decoctions and infusions of medicinal herbs:

1. Take the plantain leaves - twenty grams, the herb of St. John's wort - twenty grams, the grass of the dried marsh - twenty grams, mix everything thoroughly. One tablespoon of the mixture is poured a glass of boiling water, insist half an hour. Take half a glass three to four times a day.
2. The yarrow herb is taken - twenty grams, the herb of St. John's wort is twenty grams, the grass of the swamp larva is twenty grams. Three tablespoons of the mixture are poured with one cup of boiling water and left to cool. After that, the infusion is filtered and taken in half a glass four to five times a day.
3. Take plantain leaves, chopped Althea root, oregano herb, St. John's wort grass, cumin fruits in equal quantities. One tablespoon of the mixture is poured with one glass of water and brought to a boil over low heat, then boiled for fifteen minutes. A decoction is taken in two tablespoons four times a day for fifteen minutes before meals. Used with reduced gastric secretion.
4. Take ten grams of chopped licorice root and six grams of chopped orange peels. The mixture is poured with two glasses of water and evaporated to half the disappearance of the liquid over low heat. After that, it is cooled to a warm temperature, and sixty grams of honey is added to the drink. A decoction is taken three times a day for ten to fifteen minutes before eating. Drink to drink during the month. The decoction is useful for increased acidity of the stomach.

Hiccups after chemotherapy

Hiccup after chemotherapy is a spasm of the diaphragmatic muscle of involuntary nature. Usually, hiccups last for a few minutes and can be easily fixed. But it happens that the attacks of hiccups do not stop for two or three hours, and here we can already say that the patient is worried about chronic hiccups (or prolonged). In some cases, hiccups do not stop a month or more, then this phenomenon is called an ongoing attack.

Thirty percent of patients after chemotherapy observe the appearance of permanent hiccups. In this case, men complain of this symptom more often than women. Hiccup after chemotherapy can last so long that it prevents the patient from eating and talking.

One of the causes of chronic hiccups after chemotherapy is damage to the nerve fibers of the peripheral nervous system. Hiccups can cause electrical impulses that travel through the vagus nerve, which is located from the brain stem to the abdominal cavity. The functions of this nerve include monitoring the activity of the heart, the level of gastric juice, the functioning of the intestines, the work of the throat muscles and other body functions.

Sometimes the cause of chronic hiccups is considered to be persistent irritation of the abdominal nerve, which controls the contractile function of the diaphragm, as well as the respiratory rhythm.

[10], [11], [12], [13], [14]

Bitterness in the mouth after chemotherapy

Some patients after a course of chemotherapy have a feeling of bitterness in the mouth. These feelings indicate a violation of the liver, which has experienced defeat toxic effects of drugs. In addition to the bitterness, the patient will also experience pain in the right hypochondrium.

With liver damage, experts prescribe appropriate treatment, which was mentioned in the section on the state of the liver after chemotherapy.

The bitterness in the mouth after chemotherapy also indicates a dysfunction of the gallbladder. Such taste sensations in the mouth are associated with the release of bile into the esophagus. In this case, it is necessary to establish the condition of the biliary tract by means of examination. Then the specialist may prescribe the use of drugs choleretic action.

Bitterness in the mouth is often associated with the appearance of inflammatory processes in the digestive organs. To summarize all possible cases of bitterness in the mouth, we give a list of diseases in which this phenomenon can occur:

• Biliary dyskinesia.
• Cholecystitis - inflammation of the gallbladder.
• Pancreatitis - inflammation in the pancreas.
• Gastritis is an inflammatory and dystrophic process that occurs in the mucous membrane of the stomach.
• Liver failure.

It should be recalled that these diseases can occur (or escalate) after the introduction into the patient's body of chemotherapy drugs that have a strong toxic and destructive effect on the internal organs.

[15], [16]

Treatment of bitterness in the mouth after chemotherapy

If there are problems with digestion or the functioning of the liver, when there is bitterness in the mouth, you can try to normalize the patient's condition with the help of alternative medicine:

• It is necessary to grind flaxseed and boil it kissel. After that, take a drink in a glass in the morning and evening.
• It takes ten grams of calendula and brewed in a glass of boiling water, infused for half an hour, filtered and drunk. In the day you need to drink four such glasses.
• You can rub horseradish and make a mixture of one part horseradish and ten parts of milk. After that, the whole mass is slightly heated, then removed from the heat, left to stand for fifteen minutes and filter. The healing drink is taken one sip five or six times a day for three days.
• Chamomile has a good anti-inflammatory effect. Take one tablespoon of dried flowers and brewed in a glass of boiling water. After that, the drink is infused for an hour and drunk half a glass three to four times a day twenty minutes before meals in a warm form.