Sandra,

A couple other things to consider are:

1). Amount of time up and active
2). Amount of protein taken

The first is very important as the treatment affects nerves and digestion is something that gets compromised by chemo and radiation. The mucocitis causes us to slough epithelial cells and the nerves closest to the surface have to regenerate and reconnect. Digestion becomes slower and the stomach emptying happens less because we are eating less. That causes nausea and acid buildup. The treatment further compromises the most important and longest nerve in our body that controls the release of acid, the churning of our stomach by smooth muscles, the moving of food through our digestive system. The best thing for this is more fiber and more time upright so gravity works with the muscles versus against.

Many people are told to increase protein during healing. If this is the case, high levels of protein while beneficial to regrowth of muscles ends up reducing appetite and causing nausea.

Imbalances of nutrition contribute to the nausea as well. Many people increase potassium during hot weather but reduce sodium. Too much potassium with not enough sodium causes nausea, dizziness and other bad feelings because the sodium-potassium pump in the cells cannot transfer nutrients in and bad things out. It is a common problem with endurance athletes but also with people whose immune systems have been compromised such as what happens with chemo and also much more so with the long-term effects of radiation.