Other causes of sickness

Smell

Both pleasant and unpleasant smells can trigger sickness. You might find that it helps to remove strong smelling flowers from around you. Or, you could ask friends and relatives not to wear perfume.

Try eating cold foods if the smell of food makes you feel sick. Or get someone else to cook for you if you can.

Taste

The taste of some foods and drinks may make you feel or be sick. Strong tastes may be troublesome. You might find it helps to stick to bland foods. Your taste could be affected if sickness is related to your treatment. This usually gets better after treatment has finished.

Some people avoid their favourite foods and drinks during treatment periods in case they are put off them for good. Other people find that they start to like foods they have always disliked.

Anxiety, fear and depression

These feelings are very common in people with cancer. Up to 25 in 100 people (up to 25%) with cancer become depressed.

Feeling very frightened, anxious or depressed can affect the way your body works and may make you feel or be sick. Discuss your feelings with your doctor or specialist nurse as they can help you with your anxiety or depression.

Read about mental health and cancer

Movement or travel

Motion sickness (travel sickness) happens when the messages your brain receives from your eyes do not match those from the balance centre in your ear.

This confusion can trigger the vomiting centre in your brain and make you feel or be sick. It often helps to face forward in the vehicle and look out of the window at a fixed point on the horizon.

You can get drugs to prevent motion sickness on prescription from your GP and over the counter from the chemist. Some of these drugs can cause drowsiness, so check this with your doctor first.

Some people find that travel sickness wrist bands also help. They are also called acupressure bracelets or Seabands.

Sickness before treatment

Sickness, before you have treatment, is called anticipatory nausea and vomiting. It happens because you have bad memories of chemotherapy sickness in the past. You could be so worried about this that just thinking about treatment makes you sick. Some people are sick as they get to the hospital or when the nurse starts to set up the drip. 

Your doctor or nurse can give you anti sickness tablets or anti anxiety medicines such as lorazepam. You take them before you go to the hospital on treatment days if this is a problem for you.