Does this sound familiar? (mold neuro issues)

[Guest guest]

This article expresses perfectly one big aspect of mold illness for

me. My brain 'feels different'. I forget things. A lot. A lot more

than ever before.

And there is a deep aching fatigue that wasn't there before.

....

http://www.myhealthsense.com/F030701_Chemo.html

" Chemo Brain " Leaves Patients at a Loss

By: Judy Foreman

07/01/03

Note: Dr. Ian Tannock's Title corrected: 07/15/03

She had been, she says, " a smart cookie, " a university grad who had

built up a successful business in Toronto as a marketing consultant.

But several years ago, when she was 38, she had chemotherapy for

breast cancer and wound up with a bad case of " chemo brain " ---

cognitive problems such as trouble with thinking and memory that many

cancer patients, and a growing number of doctors, believe may be

related to chemotherapy.

Starting with her third round of chemotherapy, says this woman, who

asked not to be identified, " I lost my sharpness. Memory became a huge

issue. It was like being drunk without being drunk. "

Since she had never heard of " chemo brain, " she adds, she was terrified.

After years of being dismissed as a figment of patients' imaginations

or as a result of anxiety or depression, " chemo brain " is beginning to

be taken seriously by cancer doctors and researchers.

Indeed, it appears to be fairly common, affecting as many as 16 to 40

percent of women undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, says Dr.

Ian Tannock, the E. Bergsagel professor of medical oncology at

Princess Margaret Hospital and professor of medicine and medical

biophysics at the University of Toronto.

So far, most studies of " chemo brain " have been in women with breast

cancer, but " chemo brain " can affect both men and women.

In one study by Tannock and others, women who had undergone

chemotherapy for breast cancer fared worse, as a group, on certain

cognitive tests than a similar group of women without cancer. The

differences in cognitive functioning could not be explained by

differences in age, education, menopausal status or mood.

Luckily, says Tannock, the problem is usually mild to moderate:

" These women are not demented. It's a subtle thing. " The problems

usually improve after chemotherapy but in some cases may persist for

years.

At the Netherlands Cancer Institute, researchers have conducted a

number of studies suggesting that chemotherapy is linked to cognitive

deficits. In one study published in 1998, they found cognitive

impairment in 32 percent of women with breast cancer given high dose

chemotherapy and in 17 percent of patients getting standard dose

chemotherapy.

On average, the women were studied two years after treatment. Another

Dutch study in 1999 also found that breast cancer patients who got

chemotherapy had significantly more cognitive impairment than those

who did not.

At Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical School, psychologist Tim Ahles and his

team studied 71 men and women who had had chemotherapy for breast

cancer or lymphoma and 57 similar people who had received only surgery

and localized radiation for those cancers. Five years after treatment,

all were cancer-free, but those treated with chemotherapy fared worse

on paper-and-pencil cognitive tests than those who did not get

chemotherapy.

Still, " chemo brain " is tough to explain. At least until recently,

it's been thought that most drugs used in chemotherapy do not cross

the blood-brain barrier, the protective membrane that acts a filter

between substances in the circulating blood and the brain. (One

notable exception is methotrexate when given in very high doses.)

Indeed, many chemotherapy drugs are too big or have chemical

properties that prevent them from crossing the blood-brain barrier,

says Dr. Lawrence Shulman, chief medical officer at Boston's

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In fact, this is a major reason why most

chemotherapy drugs are ineffective at treating cancers that have

spread to the brain.

But " chemo brain " could be caused by chemotherapy drugs indirectly.

Even though most chemotherapy drugs do not cross the blood brain

barrier, they can cause the body to pump out natural chemicals called

cytokines that do enter the brain and may trigger significant

decreases in cognitive function.

Cancer cells themselves also pump out cytokines, notes

Meyers, a professor of neuropsychology at the M.D. Cancer

Center in Houston, TX.

That might explain why some cases of " chemo brain " seem to set in even

before treatment starts, she says.

And some cognitive problems experienced by cancer patients might be

caused by drugs given along with chemotherapy, like anti-nausea

medications, steroids, sedatives and antihistamines.

Morello-Frosch, 37, an assistant professor of environmental

studies at Brown University who had chemotherapy for breast cancer 10

years ago while she was in graduate school, never could figure out

what caused her " chemo brain. " Yet for three or four days after every

treatment, she would " have a conversation with someone and completely

forget what they said. " she says.

Part of the problem understanding " chemo brain " is that definitive,

longterm tests – on the same patients before, during and after

chemotherapy – have not been done, says Cheri Geckler, a

neuropsychologist at Tufts-New England Medical Center.

Another part is that it's proven hard to tease apart, at least in

women with breast cancer, whether " chemo brain " comes from

chemotherapy per se or from the fact that chemotherapy plunges some

women into abrupt menopause, which can cause hormonal, mood and sleep

disturbances that can affect cognitive performance..

And " none of these studies has been done in large enough numbers or

with good enough controls for us to be certain of what's going on, "

cautions Dr. Glaspy, an oncologist at the Jonsson Comprehensive

Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Potential treatments for " chemo brain " are at an even earlier stage.

Researchers are considering drugs used to treat Alzheimer's,

stimulants, drugs used to treat anemia and the related fatigue that

can lead to some cognitive impairment..

As for the Toronto marketing consultant, memorization exercises, and

the sheer passage of time since chemotherapy, have helped.

" My brain is different, " she says. She now has to use notes to

deliver presentations that she wrote herself and used to know by

heart. " My brain is about 90 percent back. But the rest has not come

back.

Judy Foreman is Lecturer on Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an

affiliated scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center at

Brandeis University.. Her column appears every other week. Past

columns are available on www.myhealthsense.com.

[Guest guest]

me too Live, oh, and sorry about the typo love.lol's

sorry everyone about my typo's. but even if I could see my keyboard

as I used roo theres something else going on with my brain that also

interferss with my writing. believe me it bothers me more than it

bother you but I cant see well enough to catch all my mistakes and

some just dont register until later. I have tried everything and it's

not just a matter of seeing. I know enough about the brain to know it

can be a tony area thats damaged but theres alot about the brain

still unknown. I can spell a word roght and it looks wrong to me so

I'm just the way I am. theres other areas where I'm just as sharp as

I used to be. so I really dont know what else to say. lol's

life is like a box of chocolates.

--- In , LiveSimply <quackadillian@...>

wrote:

>

> This article expresses perfectly one big aspect of mold illness for

> me. My brain 'feels different'. I forget things. A lot. A lot more

> than ever before.

>

> And there is a deep aching fatigue that wasn't there before.

> ...

>

> http://www.myhealthsense.com/F030701_Chemo.html

>

> " Chemo Brain " Leaves Patients at a Loss

[Guest guest]

Sounds similar to " brain fog " . Perhaps it's the same thing.....

--- In , LiveSimply <quackadillian@...>

wrote:

>

> This article expresses perfectly one big aspect of mold illness for

> me. My brain 'feels different'. I forget things. A lot. A lot more

> than ever before.

>

> And there is a deep aching fatigue that wasn't there before.

> ...

>

> http://www.myhealthsense.com/F030701_Chemo.html

[Guest guest]

Yes, that's what I'm talking about.

For some people having brain fog might not matter.

I don't know who they are though. It seems as if our brains are all we have,

really.

On 8/16/07, gsgrl2000 <gsgrl2000@...> wrote:

>

> Sounds similar to " brain fog " . Perhaps it's the same thing.....

>

> -

>