Nausea 12 Item Tool Kit for Cancer, Chemo and Radiation

The Benefits of Xylitol are many. Essentially, It's a simple and effective superhero for the mouth. 

Where to start... Xylitol is a natural sugar-alcohol (diabetics can have these mints). It is a great sugar substitute that is not artificial.Xylitol acts like a Trojan horse for oral bacteria which confuses it for its regular food, sugar. Happily, bacteria is not able to digest this type of sugar. So when it is eaten, bacteria starves and is killed off. This brings the pH (the acidity level) of the mouth to a more neutral environment helping to prevent cavities (which are caused by acidity). 

Xylitol also increases saliva flow which helps with dry-mouth. Saliva exposes teeth to healing minerals helping the mouth to naturally prevent and re-calcify current potential cavities. You will notice that your teeth feel smoother after enjoying a mint. Xylitol is recommended by Hygienists and Dentists. 

Peppermint, in addition, naturally slows digestion down which can soothe the stomach when upset, calms nausea and cools the body internally. 

*Note: Xylitol is a naturally mild diarrhetic in higher doses, so experiment and start off slow. 

20 mints, 22g, .8oz.

A sea band is a cloth-elastic-bracelet with a bead-like hard object embedded in the bracelet. When placed on the wrists correctly to apply pressure to the Nei Kuan acupressure point (instructions are provided in our kit), many swear by its effectiveness. Literature on the efficacy of acupressure tactics like pressure points on nausea is voluminous and demonstrated for pregnancy nausea and vomiting relief and other conditions. Oncolink.org recommend it as an easy to implement, possible countermeasure that is safe. If it works for you, that's great. 

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) in different forms has been studied and shown to be effective in some circumstances. It has been a go-to, first line of defense for centuries across many cultures. We chose the premium brand 'Chimes' because of its large and dedicated following and the simple and short ingredients list. The name showed up too many times in our research to ignore.

 GF, V. Non GMO, 42.5g

Peppermint is widely used for nausea management. "Some people find that peppermint helps with sickness. It is thought that it helps to slow down the gut". cancerresearchuk.org 

Peppermint has long been used to calm upset stomach and vomiting. The peppermint is also said to cool the body from the inside. 

Buddha Teas are the brand we chose because of the Organic tea and the non-bleached bags. They use European Peppermint.

Natural sleeping aids are great to experiment with. If they work, great! 

Chamomile is one of those plant-of-many-tricks that is considered safe by medical professionals. From calming nerves and stomach, it has been used for centuries. Specifically, chamomile is a non-caffeinated, stress-relieving plant. It is also recommended to be used as a mouth rinse to swish with - helping relieve mouth sores. 

"By using the highest quality herbs, there is no need to include any artificial or natural flavoring. Enjoy your tea the way nature intended". Buddha Teas wrote this on the tea bags. Makes sense. 

The bags are unbleached as well which was something we went out of the way to find, 

drinking chlorine sucks.

Many cancer and chemo patients develop extreme sensitivities to scents, perfumes, cooking smells and flower/plant aromas. 

Our literature reviews and patient interviews showed many patients asking for less smelly everything. We included these travel-sized tools in our packages as a timely reprieve should scent sensitivity flare up. The idea was not to provide a month's worth of product but to hold you over for a few days till you find a longer-term alternative if needed. 

We sourced Parabane-free products.

Skin is often dry when we are less than well hydrated. Radiotherapy , Chemo, and being sick in general really affect skin. An un-scented cream like TRUE was surprisingly hard to find in travel sized packaging. It took a while to find a basic, great value cream that absorbs well, is not oily feeling, lasts on the skin and does not trigger nausea due to scent-sensitivity. The TRUE line is sold by a fellow Canadian, Calgary based company that we are happy to work with. 

30ml, 1oz. Paraben-free.

Many cancer and chemo patients can have trouble eating if too nauseous, if they develop extreme sensitivities to cooking smells or have oral sores which can make eating difficult. 

Strong spices can sting the oral tissues and hard textures can damage them more easily. 

This is a simple meal when regular food is too difficult. It is important to eat despite the body wanting non-of-it. We included these non-flavored oatmeal packets in our backup packages as a timely reprieve should cooking, eating or digestion become difficult. 

Oatmeal is low scent, easy to prepare, simple to digest food and a source of great nutrition. 

A tip while cooking; leave the kitchen and turn the vent on while food is cooking and let food cool down first if the scent is too much. Cool food smells less.

Many chemo patients complain of a metallic taste that can ruin many flavors.

The term is 'Metal-Mouth'. 

If you ever licked a 9V battery (please don't), it's a bit like that. This is also a reason why chocolate doesn't taste good during chemo (sorry!).

Non-metal cutlery is an easy and safe way to reduce metal mouth. Our Aftercare package includes a set of re-usable cutlery that are easy to wash. It also helps reduce plastic waste from disposable cutlery. Oncolinkuk.org has a great article on reducing metallic taste in cooking.

Sometimes nausea hits at night and there is not much time to rush to the bathroom. Talking to and reading what patients had to say led us to include a night light in our chemo care packages. 

This is a plug and play version that turns off when ambient light is strong and turns on when the room is dark. Simple but effective way of lighting a path in the dark when you are in a rush. 

Also helpful on the nights when sleep is difficult and you don't want to wake up loved ones to leave the bedroom.