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Healing My Chemo Brain: Can It Heal? 7 Evidence-Based Ways to Improve Cognitive Function After Chemotherapy-Chemotherapy-induced cognitive dysfunction, aka chemo brain, is highly prevalent; this side effect can be identified in up to 75% of patients who undergo chemotherapy…
Symptoms of Chemotherapy-induced cognitive dysfunction-
Memory loss
Word-finding difficulty
Trouble concentrating
Mental fog
Slower processing speed
What Is Chemo Brain?
Chemo brain, also called chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment, is a common side effect of cancer treatment that affects memory, attention, and executive function. It impacts up to 75% of patients during treatment and can persist for years in some survivors.
While I cannot support the two statements below with any research:
I believe that all cancer survivors experience some amount of chemo brain. I say this because the brain damage caused by chemo isn’t yes or no, on or off. Some of us experience more damage to an organ than others. But all cancer survivors experience damage from toxic therapies.
Based on the many studies I’ve read, I think limited amounts of chemo brain can heal on their own.
But I believe that more pronounced brain damage now makes us more susceptible to dementia in the future as we age.
I’m not saying it is easy and I’m not saying that conventional medicine understands what we need to do. But our damaged brains can heal!
Can Chemo Brain Be Reversed?
While the first study linked and excerpted below says that the causes of chemo brain are not well understood, I wonder… I have always thought it was obvious that doses of toxic chemotherapy regimens cause brain damage.
After all, toxic chemo and radiation cause nerve, bone, heart, kidney, skin, etc. damage. Why wouldn’t a toxic chemical damage an extremely sensitive organ like our brains?
I’m just a layman- I must be missing something.
While I cannot support the two statements below with any research:
I believe that all cancer survivors experience some amount of chemo brain. I say this because the brain damage caused by chemo isn’t yes or no, on or off. Some of us experience more damage to a organ than others. But all cancer survivors experience damage from toxic therapies.
I believe that brain damage now makes us more susceptible to dementia in the future as we age.
I’m not saying it is easy and I’m not saying that conventional medicine understands what we need to do. But our damaged brains can heal!
7 Evidence-Based Ways to Improve Chemo Brain
The 7 evidence-based therapies to heal chemobrain below are categorized into buckets to put the specific therapies in.
Exercise
Brain training
Nutrition
Sleep optimization
Stress reduction
Supplements (with evidence caveat)
Cognitive rehabilitation
I say that our chemo brain can heal because I’ve been researching, writing about, and healing my own chemo brain for years now- help yourself.
All those evidence-based therapies shown to improve brain health have helped me improve my “brain activity quotient” (BrainAQ) as well as improve the evaluation I had in 2005, identifying chemobrain originally and then again recently identifying improvements, aka healing!
Once you get into the habit of exercising your brain…don’t stop. It may be chemotherapy-induced cognitive dysfunction now, but may become dementia in general or Alzheimer’s specifically later.
And please don’t be surprised or disappointed that your oncologist hasn’t discussed this debilitating long-term side effect with you. Conventional oncology is not in the business of managing long-term and late-stage side effects. That is not what they do. Don’t expect them to be.
“Chemo brain is characterized as deficits in areas of cognition including memory, attention, concentration, and executive function. Development of CRCI can impair quality of life and impact treatment decisions. CRCI is highly prevalent; these problems can be detected in up to 30% of patients prior to chemotherapy; up to 75% of patients report some form of chemobrain during treatment, and Chemobrain is still present in up to 35% of patients many years following completion of treatment…
“Results: Evidence obtained primarily from studies on breast cancer patients highlight memory, processing speed, attention and executive functions as the most cognitive domains impaired post-chemotherapy. Recent investigations established that other cancer treatments, such as hormone therapies and targeted therapies, can also induce cognitive deficits…
Conclusions: CRCI is not limited to chemotherapy. A multidisciplinary approach has improved our knowledge of the complex mechanisms involved. Nowadays, studies evaluating cognitive rehabilitation programmes are encouraged to help patients cope with cognitive difficulties and improve quality of life during and after cancer…”
