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Dementia Prevention, Heal Chemo brain-
Dementia? Mild Cognitive Impairment? Chemo brain? All these diagnoses have similarities. I am a cancer survivor with chemo brain. From what I have read my chemo brain symptoms are pretty similar to those of mild cognitive impairment.
The point I’m trying to make is that I participate in brain health therapies such as vitamin D, discussed below. That article talks about supplementation with vitamin D3 can reduce my risk of dementia by 40%.
Add the therapies below to that 40% reduction.
In addition I:
- Frequently exercise
- Get plenty of sleep
- Keep my blood vessels healthy
- Eat Right
To anyone who has undergo chemotherapy for any type of cancer, I encourage you to look at your chemo brain in the same way that people look at dementia and mild cognitive impairment.
Common symptoms of chemo brain are:
- Difficulty concentrating and multi-tasking.
- Difficulty remembering things that occurred recently.
- Difficulty completing tasks.
- Slowed thinking speed.
- Inability to think clearly.
The good news is that you can enhance your brain health. I’m not saying that your brain function will be 100%. I’m saying that our brain health is bound to suffer as we age. If you have chemo brain, I’m guessing that your brain health will suffer even more.
The solution? Therapies shown to prevent dementia such as vitamin D. Or nutrition shown to prevent dementia such as the Mediterranean Diet.
Are you a cancer survivor? Do you have chemo brain? Scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.
Good luck,
David Emerson
- Cancer Survivor
- Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Mild Cognitive ImpairmentClinical Characterization and Outcome
“Participants A sample of 76 consecutively evaluated subjects with MCI were compared with 234 healthy control subjects and 106 patients with mild Alzheimer disease (AD), all from a community setting as part of the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s Disease Center/Alzheimer’s Disease Patient Registry, Rochester, Minn.
Main Outcome Measures The 3 groups of individuals were compared on demographic factors and measures of cognitive function including the Mini-Mental State Examination, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Revised, Wechsler Memory Scale–Revised, Dementia Rating Scale, Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test, and Auditory Verbal Learning Test. Clinical classifications of dementia and AD were determined according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Revised Third Edition and the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke–Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association criteria, respectively.
Results The primary distinction between control subjects and subjects with MCI was in the area of memory, while other cognitive functions were comparable. However, when the subjects with MCI were compared with the patients with very mild AD, memory performance was similar, but patients with AD were more impaired in other cognitive domains as well. Longitudinal performance demonstrated that the subjects with MCI declined at a rate greater than that of the controls but less rapidly than the patients with mild AD.
Conclusions Patients who meet the criteria for MCI can be differentiated from healthy control subjects and those with very mild AD. They appear to constitute a clinical entity that can be characterized for treatment interventions…
Vitamin D a Viable Strategy for Dementia Prevention?
“Vitamin D supplementation has the potential to be a viable dementia prevention strategy, especially when initiated early, new research suggests.
In a large prospective cohort study, people who took vitamin D were 40% less likely to develop dementia than peers who did not take vitamin D. The effects of vitamin D were most pronounced in women, those with normal cognitive function, and apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 noncarriers…
Those who took vitamin D supplements were more likely to be women and to have higher education levels. Depression and MCI were more common in those not taking vitamin D…
Over 10 years, 2696 participants developed dementia, including 2017 (75%) who had no exposure to vitamin D supplements. The 5-year dementia-free survival rate was 84% in vitamin D group, vs 68% in the group that did not take vitamin D.
After adjusting for age, sex, education, race, cognition, depression, and APOE4 status, vitamin D exposure (vs no exposure) was significantly associated with a lower incidence of dementia (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.55 – 0.65; P < .001)…
“We know that people with low vitamin D are at higher risk of developing cognitive problems. That’s been reproducible in multiple epidemiological studies…
However, he noted there is no question that low vitamin D levels should be corrected. “That’s something we all practice, because vitamin D deficiency has been linked not only with cognitive impairment but also mobility issues, muscle weakness, and falls…”