Re: Re: Does Brain Fog = cancer patients 'chemo brain'??? - articles and resources due to April 29 NYT article

[Guest guest]

It's starling, but its not surprising. I think the bottom line for

oncologists, is, as they said, simply keeping people alive,

but when it comes to mold, the loss of our cognitive edge doesn't have a

threat of death from cancer to be balanced against,

so it becomes much more complicated.

I think people's jobs are uch more complicated now, also, than they used to

be, and they rely much more on sophisticated abilities that may be the first

to suffer when someone has been poisoned with a neurotoxin.

This is the part of the April 29 article that I was talking about. ( There

is a lot more stuff on http://chemobraininfo.org ):

" Most researchers studying cognitive deficits say they believe that those

most inclined to notice even subtle changes are high-achieving women

juggling careers and families who are used to succeeding at both. They point

to one study that found that complaints of cognitive deficits often did not

match the results of neuro-psychological tests, suggesting that chemo brain

is a subjective experience.

" They say, 'I've lost my edge,' " said Dr. Fleishman, director of

cancer supportive services at Beth Israel and St. Luke's/Roosevelt hospitals

in New York. " If they can't push themselves to the limit, they feel

impaired. "

Dr. Fleishman and others were pressed as to why a poor woman, working

several jobs to feed her children, navigating the health care system and

battling insurance companies, would not also need mental dexterity. " Maybe

we're just not asking them, " Dr. Fleishman said.

Overall, middle-class cancer patients tend to get more aggressive treatment,

participate in support groups, enroll in studies and use the Internet for

research and community more than poor and minority patients, experts say.

" The disparity plays out in all kinds of ways, " said Ellen , the

associate executive director of CancerCare, which provides free support

services. " They don't approach their health care person because they don't

expect help. "

But approaching a doctor does not guarantee help. , 48, who

does freelance research on economic trends, complained to her oncologist in

, Miss., that her income had been halved since her breast cancer

treatment last year because everything took longer for her to accomplish.

She said his reply was a shrug.

" They see their job as keeping us alive, and we appreciate that, " Ms.

said. " But it's like everything else is a luxury. These are

survivor issues, and they need to get used to the fact that lots of us are

surviving. "

Among women like Ms. , lost A.T.M. cards are as common as missing

socks. Children arrive at birthday parties a week early. Wet clothes wind up

in the freezer instead of the dryer. Prosthetic breasts and wigs are

misplaced at the most inopportune times. And simple words disappear from

memory: " The thing with numbers " will have to do for the word " calculator. "

Lowen, 46, had a hysterectomy and chemotherapy for ovarian cancer 13

years ago, and says she still cannot recognize neighbors at the grocery

store. " I had a mind like a steel trap, and I ended up with a colander for a

brain, " said Ms. Lowen, a radio and television talk show host in Syracuse.

The other night, Ms. Lowen set out to find a good place to store her

knitting supplies. She began emptying a cabinet of games that her teenage

daughters no longer played. Meanwhile, she noticed a blown light bulb and

went to find a replacement. That detour led to another, and five hours later

she had scrubbed every surface and tidied the contents of eight drawers. But

she still had no storage space for her knitting supplies.

" I have an almost childlike inability to follow through on anything, " Ms.

Lowen said. "

Sound familiar?

On 5/3/07, who <jeaninem660@...> wrote:

>

> Thanks Live, doesn't it seem strange that in this day and age that

> some are just starting to realize how toxins affect the brain. I'm

> sure part of the problem came from the stigma attached to anyone

> complaining of head problems or even anxity and depression. and all

> this time the thought that the brain was immune because of BBB. so

> most thought any complaints in that area had to be phycological,

> inherated,or when it came to woman, all in our heads. a sign of brain

> weekness makeing no one want to tell for fear of being laibled as a

> nut case. it's great that ADD, ADHD,scitzofrenia, autisum, ect. is

> starting to get reconized as what it is and hopefully there will be

> safe drugs in the future to help these diseases. weather toxins

> passed threw the womb, or exposure afterwards. cant help but think

> it's been understood all this time, how could it not be? just denied

> for the benifit of industry.

>

>

> >

> > The New York Times had an article a few days ago about " chemo brain "

> > which I had never heard about but which apparently is a condition

> that

> > many cancer patients who have been given cytotoxic chemotherapy

> drugs

> > get. Since many mold toxins are also - surprise - cytotoxic, I think

> > its highly probable that we are dealing with many of the same

> > mechanisms and issues.

> >

> >

>

>

[Guest guest]

How do some people manage to stay sharp?

There are many things going on. Its a multivariate problem that

unfortunately is obscuring the

very real damage that environmental toxins like mold exert on people's

lives.

Yes, everybody gets older. Yes, everybody loses brain cells as they age.

However, when something happens

to age you twenty or thirty years in a month or two, you notice. You also

become much less productive accordingly.

Other people do too, and you lose your job, etc. Then you can throw another

MAJOR stressor into the mix.

On 5/3/07, who <jeaninem660@...> wrote:

>

> > Sound familiar?

> yep, and I've mentioned things like this to family and get the

> responce, oh, well that what old age does for ya. gee I must lost a lot

> of years somewhere, I'm still thinking I'm 45.

> I had to ask them if they ever thought about how some elderly people

> manage to stay pretty sharp minded in their old age while others don't.

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Quack,

But you DO know a story about someone who died of their mold exposure. It's an

unusually severe reaction, but we DO hear of them as much as we'd prefer not to

scare ourselves - RIP Tom (36) 11-20-04 from trichothecene mycotoxicosis.

I would be unlikely to believe it if I hadn't seen his mental and physical

decline while I was going through one of my own which dragged me down, but I

averted being 6 ft under. Proving what happened to him is a bitch (especially

with brain fog), but stay tuned...

~Haley

LiveSimply <quackadillian@...> wrote:

It's starling, but its not surprising. I think the bottom line for

oncologists, is, as they said, simply keeping people alive,

but when it comes to mold, the loss of our cognitive edge doesn't have a

threat of death from cancer to be balanced against,

so it becomes much more complicated.

I think people's jobs are uch more complicated now, also, than they used to

be, and they rely much more on sophisticated abilities that may be the first

to suffer when someone has been poisoned with a neurotoxin.

This is the part of the April 29 article that I was talking about. ( There

is a lot more stuff on http://chemobraininfo.org ):

" Most researchers studying cognitive deficits say they believe that those

most inclined to notice even subtle changes are high-achieving women

juggling careers and families who are used to succeeding at both. They point

to one study that found that complaints of cognitive deficits often did not

match the results of neuro-psychological tests, suggesting that chemo brain

is a subjective experience.

" They say, 'I've lost my edge,' " said Dr. Fleishman, director of

cancer supportive services at Beth Israel and St. Luke's/Roosevelt hospitals

in New York. " If they can't push themselves to the limit, they feel

impaired. "

Dr. Fleishman and others were pressed as to why a poor woman, working

several jobs to feed her children, navigating the health care system and

battling insurance companies, would not also need mental dexterity. " Maybe

we're just not asking them, " Dr. Fleishman said.

Overall, middle-class cancer patients tend to get more aggressive treatment,

participate in support groups, enroll in studies and use the Internet for

research and community more than poor and minority patients, experts say.

" The disparity plays out in all kinds of ways, " said Ellen , the

associate executive director of CancerCare, which provides free support

services. " They don't approach their health care person because they don't

expect help. "

But approaching a doctor does not guarantee help. , 48, who

does freelance research on economic trends, complained to her oncologist in

, Miss., that her income had been halved since her breast cancer

treatment last year because everything took longer for her to accomplish.

She said his reply was a shrug.

" They see their job as keeping us alive, and we appreciate that, " Ms.

said. " But it's like everything else is a luxury. These are

survivor issues, and they need to get used to the fact that lots of us are

surviving. "

Among women like Ms. , lost A.T.M. cards are as common as missing

socks. Children arrive at birthday parties a week early. Wet clothes wind up

in the freezer instead of the dryer. Prosthetic breasts and wigs are

misplaced at the most inopportune times. And simple words disappear from

memory: " The thing with numbers " will have to do for the word " calculator. "

Lowen, 46, had a hysterectomy and chemotherapy for ovarian cancer 13

years ago, and says she still cannot recognize neighbors at the grocery

store. " I had a mind like a steel trap, and I ended up with a colander for a

brain, " said Ms. Lowen, a radio and television talk show host in Syracuse.

The other night, Ms. Lowen set out to find a good place to store her

knitting supplies. She began emptying a cabinet of games that her teenage

daughters no longer played. Meanwhile, she noticed a blown light bulb and

went to find a replacement. That detour led to another, and five hours later

she had scrubbed every surface and tidied the contents of eight drawers. But

she still had no storage space for her knitting supplies.

" I have an almost childlike inability to follow through on anything, " Ms.

Lowen said. "

Sound familiar?

On 5/3/07, who <jeaninem660@...> wrote:

>

> Thanks Live, doesn't it seem strange that in this day and age that

> some are just starting to realize how toxins affect the brain. I'm

> sure part of the problem came from the stigma attached to anyone

> complaining of head problems or even anxity and depression. and all

> this time the thought that the brain was immune because of BBB. so

> most thought any complaints in that area had to be phycological,

> inherated,or when it came to woman, all in our heads. a sign of brain

> weekness makeing no one want to tell for fear of being laibled as a

> nut case. it's great that ADD, ADHD,scitzofrenia, autisum, ect. is

> starting to get reconized as what it is and hopefully there will be

> safe drugs in the future to help these diseases. weather toxins

> passed threw the womb, or exposure afterwards. cant help but think

> it's been understood all this time, how could it not be? just denied

> for the benifit of industry.

>

>

> >

> > The New York Times had an article a few days ago about " chemo brain "

> > which I had never heard about but which apparently is a condition

> that

> > many cancer patients who have been given cytotoxic chemotherapy

> drugs

> > get. Since many mold toxins are also - surprise - cytotoxic, I think

> > its highly probable that we are dealing with many of the same

> > mechanisms and issues.

> >

> >

>

>