New research published earlier this week has found that cancer patients treated with chemotherapy and radiation often suffered a loss of cognitive function known as chemo brain.
Chemo brain is a term used by cancer patients to describe a mental fog experienced during and after chemotherapy and radiation treatments. This fog could be more accurately described as a decline in cognitive function, executive function, memory, attention, and even motor skills. These negative effects can last long after conventional treatments are over, and have been known to cause depression, fatigue, and anxiety.
The study, published in the journal Cancer, evaluated 94 women who had been treated for breast cancer in the last 3-6 years. They evaluated not only the women’s cognitive function, but also biological markers linked to aging. They found significant damage to their DNA, especially telomeres.
Telomeres are located at the end of DNA strands and protect the chromosomes from fraying or connecting to other chromosomes. There’s also a significant connection between telomeres and cellular aging. As cells naturally divide, the telomeres become shorter, until the cells are no longer protected and die… This is what we call aging. The shorter your telomeres, the more aging your cells experience.
The research found that women who had been exposed to chemotherapy, radiation, or both had significantly more DNA damage and lower telomere activity. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given the way chemotherapy and radiation work.
These treatments are not guided missiles that home in on cancerous cells. They are catastrophic nuclear bombs that destroy everything in their blast radii. And since these drugs are designed to destroy cancer at a cellular level, it is inevitable that collateral damage to healthy cells will occur. And that collateral DNA damage leads to cellular aging.
It is precisely this cellular damage that results in chemo brain. According to the study:
The potential for long-term impact of radiation and chemotherapy on the health and quality of life for cancer survivors is of increasing concern… In particular, these treatments may have a lasting effect on the rate of aging in various tissues in the body.”
I recently published an article about healthy aging, in which we take a look at cellular senescence. Senescent cells are cells that have been damaged but fail to repair themselves or die. Healthy cells that become worn out or damaged are programmed to either repair themselves or commit suicide (called apoptosis). Senescent cells do neither, leading to congestion of the cellular pathways. This can lead to accelerated aging, memory loss, inflammation, and as we now know, chemo brain.
In other words, the cellular damage caused by chemo and radiation can do irreversible damage to your body on a cellular level. That damage to your body’s DNA can cause your cells to age prematurely. The chemo brain and other effects happen because your cells are aging faster than you are.
Dr. Judith Carroll from Cousins Centre for Psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA elaborates:
These findings are important because they provide further information about what might be happening after cancer treatment that impacts cognitive decline in some individuals.”
This is yet another example of the devastating effect traditional cancer treatments can have. Cancer is a complex disease that manifests in many different ways. And it begins at the cellular level. It often takes years for cancer to develop to where it can be detected. And yet once diagnosed, most doctors will tell you that you MUST begin treatment at once. Patients are pressured into immediately signing up for the “cut, burn, poison” methods of surgery, chemo, and radiation.
And why not, when doctors can profit from prescribing chemotherapy? In fact, those who choose alternative treatment – or choose to wait until they’ve done more research – are often pressured by friends and family to start chemo right away. And it’s scary.
The truth is that chemo is toxic, even at low doses. The American Cancer Society has identified chemotherapy and radiation as carcinogens that can increase your risk of developing a secondary cancer. And the risk is even higher when receiving both therapies. There’s plenty of evidence that chemotherapy can actually cause cancer. And that’s only one of the side effects.
In addition to the cognitive impairment discovered in the study, chemo and radiation can cause nausea, dehydration, anemia, infertility, and osteoporosis. Perhaps worse than these is the detrimental effect they can have on the immune system. The immune system is the body’s natural defense against disease of all kinds. But rather than supporting the immune system, these drugs actually destroy the immune system, leaving the body susceptible to a myriad of chronic diseases as a result.
At TTAC, we encourage everyone to get the facts before deciding on treatment. If you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, here are some resources that we hope will help.
- For the truth about chemotherapy, go here.
- Read more here on the 12 questions to ask your doctor before choosing chemotherapy.
- To learn more about the side effects of chemotherapy, read this.
- Discover the best ways to detox and rebuild health after chemo here.
I understand your concern about this and I see your point, however; when faced with inflammatory breast cancer, I was not about to fool around and go holistic with treatment. I also do not agree with the damage that you claim happens to my cognitive thinking skills. As someone who went through chemo therapy, surgery, and radiation myself, I am a year out from my treatment, and feel that my brain is functioning better than it ever has. I am not disagreeing with the fact that humans can have permanent damage from these treatments in different ways, I am not pro- medical treatment, I wish there was another way to treat aggressive cancers like mine–but there is not. For people like me and many others, realistically, if we want to live to see our kids grow into adults, this is what we do. Your article here is preventative at best…
Hi Nancy,
Thanks for your feedback and personal story. We really do appreciate learning more about what you are going through.
Nancy, I agree. I had breast cancer, chemo, and radiation 25 years ago. I was told I had an aggressive cancer and a high risk of reoccurance. I am cancer free today and I would do it all over again in a heart beat. I am not disagreeing with the post. I also used complimentary therapy. I.e. herbal remedies, visualizations, affirmations and tapes.
Hello, So what do you suggest if we have chemo brain from treatment. Other then detoxing, what supplements or treatments would you be able to comment on?
Thanks for all you do!
I chime in with Sandy, before treatment we exhaust alternatives for a cure. Many ways are unfounded remedies which we cant afford either monetarily or a time line for death.
After treatment we search for meals, vitamins, exercises to help us cope. We may not be as we once were, but search for ways to deal with the here and now.
Mr. Bollinger,
I watched your special 4 years ago and should’ve listened. I’m watching my mom fade from the chemo and I don’t have much time but I have all the money in the world. Would it be possible to pay or make a donation for a phone call? I will do anything. I think I need to get her to Mexico ASAP and have a plane on standby but my dad needs to speak with an expert before listening to me. I am begging you. Name the price – I know it’s not about profits for you but if the funds go to helping more people we both win. I beg of you.
Hi Lauren,
You can send our customer success team a message here:https://support.thetruthaboutcancer.com/submit_ticket
They will be able to forward your message to Ty.
I recently connected with a woman who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She chooses not to have chemo treatments. What other course of treatment is available?
Hi Cathy –
Thank you for reaching out to us about this.
I’m sorry to hear about your friend’s diagnosis – I’ll be sure to pray for her.
Unfortunately, we are unable to give any kind of medical advice.
But depending on the type of cancer your mother has, you can find a lot of helpful articles on our website. You can use the search feature in the top-right corner to search for articles by keyword:
https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/category/cancer-treatments/
The best advice we can give you is to consult with one of the doctors we interviewed in the Global Quest series so they can give you the most appropriate advice based on your friend’s exact condition.
Please note that we are not able to select an expert for you.
We’ve created a page with the experts’ contact info as it was available to us.
Here’s the link to the actual webpage:
http://thetruthaboutcancer.com/experts-info-sheet/
We do have one more resource you may be interested in. During our Live Event 2017 series, Dr. Patrick Quillin suggested contacting The Institute of Functional Medicine to locate a practitioner in your area.
If you are interested, here is the link to search for a Functional Medicine Practitioner in your area: https://www.ifm.org/find-a-practitioner/
I’m also attaching the info about the Hope4Cancer clinic in Tijuana, MX if you’d like to reach out to them.
http://www.hope4cancer.com/
https://hope4cancer.com/schedule-a-call/
Please also see the resources below in case they will be helpful to you.
From our beginning, we have supported charities that really help these cancer patients.
HealingStrong:
http://healingstrong.com/
https://www.facebook.com/healingstrong
HealingStrong supports MANY cancer patients and are amazing. HealingStrong, a nonprofit organization, is supported 100% by volunteers, who are experienced in using natural strategies. The organization’s mission is to educate, encourage, equip, and empower those seeking comprehensive natural strategies to heal strong and stay strong.
HealingStrong Connect Groups meet monthly in various areas of the U.S. and South Australia to link others interested in natural strategies, holistic protocols, and local resources. Their groups focus on mind, body and emotional healing based on Biblical promises, as they believe the God of the Bible is our healer. For more information on how to start a group, or become involved in one, please go to http://www.healingstrong.org/groups, and like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/healingstrong.
Cancer Crackdown is so awesome and helps patients without a lot of money get supplements and treatments and even helps them raise money:
http://cancercrackdown.org/
https://www.facebook.com/CancerCrackdown
Also, the Independent Cancer Research Foundation is another charity that we support, also known as Cancer Tutor. They have been a TREMENDOUS help for cancer patients and have a TON of life-saving information they give out freely and they do real research into treatments for cancer that are outside of the toxic Big Pharma Big 3:
https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/independent-cancer-research-foundation/
The best that we can suggest is to contact Healing Strong and Cancer Crackdown for any need in financial resources.
We also support Mary Beth’s “Nick Gonzalez Foundation” which is bringing Nick’s protocol to the people…which is one of the most powerful cancer-killing protocols out there.
I hope this is helpful! Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us again if there’s anything else we can help with.
Wishing you endless blessings and love!
I have heard that many cancer patients said that they had chemo brain because I am sure that chemotherapy affects their memory.