What is Chemo Brain?
Chemo brain comes as a surprise to many cancer patients. Survivors think their lives will get back to normal when the cancer is gone. Unfortunately, as many as 50% of chemo patients report a lingering phenomenon known as chemo brain. The effects can stonewall attempts to get back to their day-to-day lives. What is chemo brain? What are the symptoms? What can you do about it?
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What is Chemo Brain?
Can you train your brain to think again? Thousands have. Why not you?
Many report improvements in just a few weeks.
By going to the following website, you will learn how others have triumphed over chemo brain.
Chemo brain comes as a surprise to many cancer patients. Survivors think their lives will get back to normal when the cancer is gone. Unfortunately, as many as 50% of chemo patients report a lingering phenomenon known as chemo brain. The effects can stonewall attempts to get back to their day-to-day lives. What is chemo brain? What are the symptoms? What can you do about it?
Some patients report mental cloudiness after chemo treatments. Therefore, chemo brain also goes by the name ‘chemo fog.’
Not all cancer patients suffer chemo brain. A patient may have two choices to fight cancer. The two choices are chemo or surgery, depending on a number of factors. Chemo uses chemicals to kill cancer cells. Cancer patients treated with surgery do not appear to get this mental cloudiness. At least not at the level chemo patients experience.
Fear of this cognitive dysfunction can influence the course of treatment.
There has been a debate for years. Some medical professionals do not believe it exists. Of those who do believe chemo brain is real, they do not agree on the cause.
Recently have there been studies on chemo brain. They are confirming it is real. Researchers have been able to measure symptoms. They have determined that chemo brain is a very real side effect of chemotherapy.
Some reported symptoms include problems in the following areas:
- Memory. Weakened short-term memory. Memory lapses. People’s names escape you. Cannot remember where you put your keys, remote, glasses, etc.
- Concentration. Can’t focus. Easily distracted. Cannot read an entire book.
- Multi-tasking. Can only concentrate on one thing at a time. Cannot talk on the phone while cooking without losing track of one or the other.
- Word Recall. Cannot find the right words. Cannot finish sentences because the right words elude you.
- Slower Thinking. Cannot learn new things as fast as before. Takes you longer to finish things.
The symptoms listed here are the most commonly reported. Sufferers can experience a multitude of issues not present prior to chemo. Some symptoms can be mild and some fierce. The symptoms can last anywhere from a few weeks to ten years.
As you can imagine, this is very frustrating for the sufferer. Cognitive dysfunction can seriously affect a person’s quality of life. I do not know how someone with this condition could not develop coping strategies. Some include:
- Using day planners can be a godsend. Keeping everything in one place makes tracking easier. You can enter ideas, promises made, appointments, phone numbers, etc.
- Routines can be helpful. Put your keys in the same place every time. Keeping a daily schedule can ensure that daily tasks are completed.
- Do not try to multi-task. Only try to focus on one thing at a time.
On average, symptoms disappear in about four years. However, some things you can do may help the process. Lifestyle factors may help overcome cognitive dysfunction. For example, exercising your body and eating vegetables.
Exercising your brain can also be very helpful. There are countless stories of people who have put their lives back on track after suffering mental dysfunction. This includes people with such issues as traumatic brain injury, strokes, and yes, chemo brain.
Challenging your mind is one of the best ways to overcome cognitive dysfunction of any type. There are brain-training games out there that have helped others with chemo brain. They are worth investigating to see if you too can defeat chemo brain.
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