Breast Cancer vs Brain Damage?
Written By: Archives of Neurology, January, 2012
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Published - Feb 17, 2012
Despite Doctors refusing to admit it, Breast Cancer survivors of chemotherapy suffer from permanent brain damage known as “chemo-brain”. A newly published study in the Archives of Neurology echoes previous complaints from Breast Cancer survivors that chemotherapy permanently alters thinking, cognition and memory.
Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine studied 62 women asked to solve various problems as well as complete a variety of tasks. In addition they completed questionnaires about their perceived cognitive (thinking) abilities.
Functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) was conducted and found that those women who had undergone chemotherapy for Breast Cancer had reduced cognitive ability in 3 key areas of brain functioning. They suffered with a decline in working memory, cognitive control and executive function (decision making).
This study verifies what many women with Breast Cancer who have had chemotherapy may complain to their doctor months and years later that “something is wrong with me”. Many chemotherapy drugs cause brain damage, permanent DNA injury, Heart Disease and other organ destruction.
Chemotherapy is sometimes effective at killing cancer cells but always causes damage to healthy cells as well. In the case of Breast cancer, chemotherapy also causes permanent brain damage. The question remains “is curing Breast Cancer a reasonable train for killing a healthy brain?”
The prudent answer appears to be if forced to face chemotherapy then follow a healthy diet, lifestyle and supplement regime to protect the brain against collateral damage.