How does chemotherapy affect nutrition?
Chemotherapy is a treatment often required for cancer patients. Many are afraid of the side effects of this type of treatment. Everyone is familiar with hair loss but that’s just one – external – side effect that’s possible. In fact, there are internal side effects that may also affect your nutritional status.
Cancer cells actively grow and divide. Chemotherapy works by killing these active cells but it cannot distinguish them from other, healthy active cells. This means blood, mouth and digestive cells as well as hair follicles are affected.
Good to know: everything depends
Of course, these side effects can be frightening but it can help to know about the symptoms in order to learn how to cope with them. And please remember: The type and severity of side effects varies between people and depend on the type, stage and location of your cancer as well as the drugs used for your chemotherapy and their dosage.
Below are four of the most common side effects of chemotherapy that can affect your nutritional status.