5 Vitamins for Cancer Fatigue
Updated: Apr 12, 2022
These 5 vitamins can help with your cancer fatigue.
5 Vitamins for cancer fatigue
Vitamin D3
Vitamin B Complex with pyridoxal 5'-phosphate
Curcumin from Turmeric
Omega-3 from fish oil
Ginsengs
Vitamin D3 Vitamin D treatment of 4000 IU/day for 12 weeks reduced opioid use and fatigue in vitamin-D-deficient cancer patients. Optional vitamin D levels are 50-66 ng/dl. The only way to know how much vitamin D3 to take is to get a blood test 3 months if your lean or 6 months if your overweight after making a dosage change.
Assess Don’t Guess! You can get your vitamin D3 blood test from your healthcare provider or from www.ultalabtests.com.
Vitamin B Complex with P5P Patients that took a Vitamin B complex and have higher levels of methylated B6 pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (P5P) have a better quality of life and more energy. Vitamin B6 has to be changed by your body into P5-P to be used by your body.
We use Xymogen’s B-Active Complex since it has pyridoxal 5'-phosphate.
Curcumin from Turmeric Turmeric supplementation in women with breast cancer for 21 days resulted in clinically relevant and statistically significant improvement in global health status, symptom scores (fatigue, nausea, vomiting, pain, appetite loss, insomnia), and hematological parameters.
Curcumin is one of the active ingredients in the herb turmeric. It’s best to select a turmeric supplement that states how much Curcumin it has in it. Manufacturers will often add oils, piperine, or whey protein to turmeric Curcumin to enhance the absorption.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids Cancer patients receiving higher doses of omega-3 fatty acid supplements from fish had better improvement in fatigue than patients not receiving the supplement. In another medical study researchers found higher blood levels of the omega-3 fatty acids decrease cancer related fatigue and improved muscle strength.
You probably should not purchase fish oils from discount stores. Less expensive fish oil supplements may have high amounts of mercury and PCBs. Better quality and more expensive supplements have been purified to remove contamination. These better companies will provide you with assays showing contamination, if any, levels.
While nuts and seeds are healthy and reduce the risk for cancer plant based fatty acids were seldom studied and when they were they didn’t work as well as fish oil supplements. Plant omega 3’s have to be changed by your body by about 5 steps to obtain the EPA and DHA fats found in fish oil. Very little of the pant omega-3 are converted into what you need. Continue the nuts and seeds but add quality fish oil supplements if your have cancer fatigue.
Ginsengs
Our review of medical research found the active ingredient ginsenoside restores appetites, reduces cancer growth, reduces blood vessel growth to tumors, and decreases inflammation that stimulates cancer growth. The anticancer effect of ginseng is proven in several cancers including; breast cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer, colon cancer and skin cancer. It supports normal cancer cell death. Ginseng aids in the reduction of alopecia (hair loss), cancer fatigue and nausea.
The important active ingredient appears to be ginsenoside. So you want to get a Gensing that has an extract with ginsenoside. There are research studies supporting ginsengs including:
Asian ginseng – this means all the ginsengs originating from Asia (Panax ginseng also called Korean ginseng}, Panax japonicus, Panax notoginseng and Panax sinensis)
American ginseng
Siberian ginseng (Eleutherococcus senticosus) – a very different plant, so it isn’t classified as a Panax.
Supplement Resources
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Since we don’t know your particular treatment program we‘re only including research information on supplements that also support chemotherapy and radiation-therapy treatments.
Medical Reference Include
Klasson C, Helde Frankling M, Warnqvist A, et al. Sex Differences in the Effect of Vitamin D on Fatigue in Palliative Cancer Care-A Post Hoc Analysis of the Randomized, Controlled Trial 'Palliative-D'. Cancers (Basel). 2022 Jan 31;14(3):746. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8833647/
Koole JL, Bours MJL, Geijsen AJMR, et al. Circulating B-vitamin biomarkers and B-vitamin supplement use in relation to quality of life in patients with colorectal cancer: results from the FOCUS consortium. Am J Clin Nutr. 2021 Jun 1;113(6):1468-1481. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8168355/
Kalluru H, Kondaveeti SS, Telapolu S, et. Al. Turmeric supplementation improves the quality of life and hematological parameters in breast cancer patients on paclitaxel chemotherapy: A case series. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2020 Nov;41:101247.
Kleckner AS, Culakova E, Kleckner IR, et al. Nutritional Status Predicts Fatty Acid Uptake from Fish and Soybean Oil Supplements for Treatment of Cancer-Related Fatigue: Results from a Phase II Nationwide Study. Nutrients. 2021 Dec 31;14(1):184. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8747418/
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Matsuoka Y, Tsuji K, Ochi E. Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids, Exercise, and Cancer-Related Fatigue in Breast Cancer Survivors. Front Physiol. 2021 Oct 13;12:759280.
Barton DL, Liu H, Dakhil SR, et al. Wisconsin Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) to improve cancer-related fatigue: a randomized, double-blind trial, N07C2. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2013 Aug 21;105(16):1230-8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3888141/
Kim JW, Han SW, Cho JY, et al. Korean red ginseng for cancer-related fatigue in colorectal cancer patients with chemotherapy: A randomised phase III trial. Eur J Cancer. 2020 May;130:51-62.
Majeed F, Malik FZ, Ahmed Z, Afreen A, Afzal MN, Khalid N. Ginseng phytochemicals as therapeutics in oncology: Recent perspectives. Biomed Pharmacother. 2018 Apr;100:52-63. doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2018.01.155. Epub 2018 Feb 6. PMID: 29421582. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0753332217369482?via%3Dihub
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