Chemo brain, or chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment, results from the destruction of healthy brain cells in the same way that hair cells are often destroyed. If you have ever experienced memory loss, mental fog, mental fatigue, or confusion, then you may have had a taste of what chemo brain feels like. The episode was devastating for me, since my mind has always been central to my sense of self and to my livelihood. Fortunately, I have largely recovered, and in the course of doing so, became a pioneer in "neuro-nutrition" and brain recovery.

The experience of mental problems related to cancer treatment is just now being discussed regularly in medical circles. Often, doctors are so concerned about saving or extending the patient’s life, they minimize major quality of life issues, such as chemo brain. They frequently prescribe antidepressant medications to patients, and these can actually increase mental fog or disrupt sleep, which, in turn, worsens symptoms.

Much of the literature today tells chemotherapy patients not to be concerned because, they say, the symptoms go away within two years. More recent research, however, that goes well beyond patient complaints, indicates that some damage is permanent. Worse, the damage-- due to destruction of the brain cells' DNA-- may not be evident until months after the treatment has ended. And two years is a long time to wait, particularly when strategies are available to minimize damage and to speed up recovery.

Patients who continue to work during treatment become fearful of losing their jobs or not receiving promotions, and may be afraid to admit—even to themselves—that they are experiencing this life-altering side effect. Help is needed to minimize long-term damage and to accelerate recovery. Currently, the best that conventional medicine has to offer is stimulant medications typically prescribed for attention disorders.

Frankly, I’m very concerned about introducing more chemical agents into the brain. Everyone’s biochemistry is different, and chemotherapy alters it. When the number of drugs in a person’s body increases, so do the potential interactions of those drugs. Doctors have a difficult time understanding more than 2-drug interactions. When that number increases, so does the potential for problems.

I developed this series of articles to empower cancer patients and their families to take charge of recovery and achieve wellness even greater than before the cancer diagnosis. In my years of helping others through diet, training, and lifestyle management, I never simply tell a client what to do or take, without explaining. It will help you to take just a few minutes to understand some basic biology and therefore provide a greater incentive for you to create your own recovery program and stick with it.

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"It’s All in Your Cells:" A Simplified Overview of Cancer and Chemotherapy

The cell is the basic unit of life. From the moment we are conceived, cells are formed and begin the life-long process of dividing and also dying. It’s an amazing process: our unique code, or DNA, tells cells what to do—how to make fingers, toes, organs, and brain cells and in what sequence. Cells take this information and produce energy that enables them to live and form other new cells and those cells form new cells. This is called cellular replication and has been happening to you from the time that you were just a single cell."  Not one of the cells in your body right now existed when you were born: they are all descendants of your initial cellular makeup.

Sometimes, however, instead of replicating, cells must die."  Cell death occurs when a process called apoptosis is initiated. This is a naturally occurring, pre-programmed process. Between 50 and 70 billion cells die every day in the normal human adult. But not all cells die when they should. "Rogue" cells develop that are mutations of original cells and they do not perform functions to sustain the life of the organism. Instead, they may begin a process of uncontrolled, rapid replication and growth.

Cancer is characterized as a regular process gone awry.

In cellular replication, cells that mutate with unrestricted growth must be taken care by our bodies. The body’s defense system, called the immune system, is supposed to detect and destroy mutated cells. Potentially cancerous cells are produced in everyone’s' bodies, but they are normally identified and destroyed. However, if the immune system fails, cancer cells replicate to form tumors. A primary characteristic of cancer cells is that they divide and replicate faster than normal, healthy cells. Another property of cancer cells is that they feed on the body’s glucose (sugar) to continue their rapid growth. Sometimes they even create new blood vessels in a process called angiogenesis to hijack the body’s nutrients and oxygen. Another important point to note is that not all cancers are the same: they differentiate from other types based on where cancers originated. For example, breast cancer cells that have spread to the lung or bone, but they are still breast cancer cells.

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Chemotherapy, designed to halt the rapid growth of cancer, attacks ALL rapidly dividing cells

Chemotherapy has been used for more than 40 years to attack these rapidly growing cells. Different therapies represent separate chemical formulas that use a variety of means to attack different types of cancer cells. Unfortunately, chemotherapies don’t differentiate between cancer cells and other cells that are in the process of dividing. Chemotherapy drugs attack all dividing cells. Cells that comprise hair, skin, blood/immune system, mouth, and digestive also divide quickly. This is why the side effects of many chemotherapy drugs includes hair loss, skin changes, reduced immunity, mouth sores, reduced white blood cell count, and digestive disturbances.

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