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Researchers have discovered that the best way to reduce fatigue for cancer-stricken patients is exercise. Based on the study, doctors are recommended to advise cancer patients under treatment to do physical activities and psychological interventions and therapies to be able to ward of cancer-related fatigue.

Medical News Today explains that compared to a variety of treatments for cancer-related fatigue, it would be advisable to resort to exercise and psychological treatments to address such fatigue. Physical activity was found to be the best wat to combat the side effects of cancer treatments.

Lead author of the study, Karen Mustian, associate professor in the Cancer Control Program of the Department of Surgery at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, together with her team analyzed data from 113 randomized clinical trials that evaluated the effects of physical activity, medication, and psychological interventions to cancer-related fatigue. Effects of both physical activity and psychological treatments were also observed.

The study that included 11,525 patients aged between 35 and 72, all diagnosed with cancer and experiences cancer-related fatigue showed that taking drug treatments, including Ritalin is found to be less effective compared to the combination of exercise and psychological interventions, NBC News reports.

Findings of the research also suggest that doctors aiding cancer-stricken patients should focus less on recommending drug treatments for cancer-related fatigue and instead, advise them to do more physical activities and psychological therapies.

This simple concept can help patients and the medical community to wrap their head around the idea that exercise and psychological interventions have not been given much attention in the past. This research gives medical providers a valuable option to lessen the effects or completely address cancer-related fatigue.

Cancer-related fatigue is very different from other types of exhaustion. Sleep does not help compared to dealing with normal fatigue. Drugs are the most commonly used alternative to address cancer-related fatigue. This study reveals will encourage doctors and clinicians to prescribe exercise or psychological interventions as first-line treatments for cancer-related fatigue.