How Lifestyle Can Help You Manage Brain Tumour Symptoms
If you or a loved one is a patient with a brain tumour, you may find you spend a lot of time at a radiotherapy centre getting treatment. This can be arduous and comes with a number of side effects, but it is also vital in helping you to fight against the tumour by shrinking and disrupting it, as well as sometimes supporting other treatments such as surgery.
However, it would be a big mistake to think that the time between treatments is one to simply spend waiting for the next visit. This is, in fact, a time when patients can take some active steps to manage their condition, with lifestyle changes that can play an effective role in managing the symptoms of the brain tumour and treatment for it.
Dealing with a brain tumour involves two specific lifestyle responses. The first is an emotional and psychological one, while the second is about physical actions, from activity to diet.
Psychological Approaches
The psychological element is something that may have been overlooked by some in the past, in an age when a stiff upper lip and stoicism in the face of adversity would have been regarded as the right response.
However, in these days of greater awareness about mental health issues, the impact of a diagnosis on one’s mental well-being is acknowledged. Cancer Research UK states: “It’s normal to feel angry, sad, upset and shocked”. Along with many other organisations, it offers advice on where to go to get support.
Having psychological help doesn’t always mean sitting on a therapist’s couch. It can involve being in a support group with other people who have had tumours in the past or who are going through the same experiences as you now.
Psychological and emotional support is important in itself, but it can also give you the encouragement you require to take up – and persist with – the other lifestyle choices that can help you while dealing with a tumour.
Diet is a case in point. Anyone who has tried to lose weight will know how hard it is to do just by their own efforts, whereas having support can make this easier. The same is true with all efforts to become generally healthier to support your battle against a tumour.
Eating And Drinking Healthily
As the Brain Tumour Charity notes, eating the right diet won’t treat the tumour in itself, but it will help you deal with the symptoms during treatment such as a loss of strength and energy, as well as helping to boost your immune system.
In many ways, this is simply about having a good, healthy diet that maintains strong general health. But some specifics can help.
For example, if your treatment involves steroids, your vitamin D levels can be lower and this means you should up your calcium intake, with dairy products being useful for this.
Common side-effects of treatment like constipation can be eased by consuming more high-fibre food like brown bread, beans, pulses and fruit.
You may find your sense of taste is reduced by chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but this can be aided by adding more spices and flavour-rich sauces to meals.
Your immune system can be weakened by treatment (especially if chemotherapy is part of it). Because of this, you should avoid foods with a higher risk of food poisoning. These include items such as blue or soft cheeses, or uncooked (or lightly cooked) meat and seafood.
Drinking lots of fluids can help too, especially if symptoms like diarrhoea and vomiting are regular problems after treatment. It also helps prevent constipation and bladder infections.
Staying Fit and Building Healthy Habits
At the same time, a good diet can help you maintain a healthy weight, something that is not always easy when undergoing cancer treatment. Getting plenty of exercise can help with this too. Generally, the fitter and healthier you are, the more you will be able to cope with the side effects of treatment.
Other steps cancer patients can take may include reducing alcohol intake, giving up smoking and reducing sun exposure. Some of these are more relevant to other forms of skin cancers (such as smoking for lung cancer and sun exposure for skin cancer), but they add to the list of lifestyle changes you can make to be generally healthy.
A balanced nutrient-rich diet is essential for maintaining general health, but specific adjustments can make a difference:
– Increase calcium
If your treatment involves steroids, your vitamin D levels may drop, so consume calcium-rich foods like dairy products to strengthen bones.
– Ease Constipation
High-fibre foods, such as brown bread, beans, pulses, and fruits, can alleviate constipation caused by treatment.
– Enhance Flavours
Chemotherapy or radiotherapy may reduce your sense of taste. Adding spices or flavourful sauces can make meals more enjoyable.
– Avoid High-Risk Foods
Weakened immunity increases the risk of food poisoning, so avoid soft or blue cheeses, undercooked meat, and seafood.
– Stay Hydrated
Drinking plenty of fluids helps manage side-effects like diarrhoea and vomiting, prevents constipation and reduces the risk of bladder infections.
A balanced diet paired with regular exercise can help maintain a healthy weight and improve your ability to cope with treatment side effects. Staying active also supports physical and mental wellbeing. Other lifestyle changes to consider include:
– Reducing alcohol intake.
– Quitting smoking to lower the risk of recurrence or new cancers.
– Minimising sun exposure, especially for those at risk of skin cancer.
These steps not only enhance overall health but also reduce the likelihood of developing other cancers after brain tumour treatment.
In addition, such measures mean that you are less likely to have to deal with an entirely different form of cancer in the future after spending a lengthy period dealing with a brain tumour.
What all this goes to show is that the time between radiotherapy appointments is not a period of waiting, but one in which you can take active steps to stay healthy, eat well and build good habits, while cultivating a strong support network to help you through the emotional side of the battle.
