According to an article in today’s Scientific American’s Science News, new studies show that chemotherapy promotes a lingering intellectual deficit. Here’s a quote from the article.
“More people survive cancer than ever before. With early detection, for example, women stricken with breast cancer are often successfully treated and go on to live long lives. But concomitant with this cheering rise in cancer survival is a worrying increase in complaints about cognitive impairment as life goes on. Some cancer survivors have trouble with concentration or fatigue. New research shows this is not just in their minds but, in fact, in their brains…It remains a mystery how chemotherapy–and tamoxifen–impact the brain, but it is increasingly clear that these treatments may create a cognitive deficit.”
The real question is why the researchers were so surprised. Let’s be clear here. Chemotherapy is an indiscriminate treatment. It assaults the body with highly toxic poisons and attacks and damages every single cell in the body, which is why it has so many side effects. The hope with chemotherapy is that it ultimately kills the cancer cells before it kills you. And although it definitely has produced some success, particularly in younger people (its benefits diminish rapidly as you age), much of its touted success is the result of statistical manipulation.
I am not saying to never choose chemotherapy. I’m just saying to know all the facts. What are the odds of success with your particular cancer? What are the odds of success with your particular age group? What are the likely side effects with your particular treatment? (Note: many chemotherapy drugs do not cross the blood-brain barrier, but the following ones certainly do: Carmustine, Lomustine, Procarbazine, Temozolomide, Cisplatin, and Carboplatin.) And if you do opt for treatment, make sure you aggressively rebuild your body once the treatment is over. At best chemotherapy is an interesting choice.
It’s worth remembering, as a point of perspective, no one ever got cancer because they were suffering from a chemotherapy deficiency.
Well, I agonized before, during and now after about my choice to go through 4 standard chemo treatments when I was diagnosed with Stage 1 Hodgkin’s almost 3 years ago. I am a wholistic practioner, yet I didn’t have the money or luxury of travel and time to seek alternative treatments that insurance wouldn’t cover. I scoured the research about chemo and my particular cancer. I spoke with many doctors and naturalpaths. For me, there ultimately was only one choice.
So in my early 40’s, I chose to put my body through the onslaught of traditional cancer treatment (surgery, chemo, radiation) and then aggressively built my body back up afterward following many of the ‘Miracle Doctors’ lessons. Today, I feel better than ever and am healthier than ever before in my life. Two lasting side effects that I am still working on, though, are a weakened immune system (that existed before cancer, too) and some cognitive impairment. I was once a sharp thinker, rarely made spelling or grammar mistakes in my writing, and had an exceptional memory. Since I am a writer, I find myself proofreading my pieces many, many times and still finding mistakes and the words not saying what I meant. It’s maddening.
Lastly, I find this article a bit condescending as I do most wholistic practioners who slam chemotherapy. I accepted the treatment that was available to me, yet still feel a lot of guilt and anger about that limited choice. The cancer industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. It is a giant amongst us little ants who suffer with the disease and who know in our hearts there are natural cures.
Hi,
i’m sooooooooooo glad to see that finnally some one is talking about this issue . “”brain fog”” i call it. i am only a year out of my treatment and the short term memory loss is un believable. i talk to my oncoligist about it and allthough he confirms some of it, he is quick to point out worse situations. this i know, it can always be worse. look at the bright side he says, no sh—-t
sherlock. iam grateful that pulled out of this horrific epidemic as well as i did. so thank you for the confirmation.
sincerely
dale rossi
Hi.
Thank you for this opportunity to have a say.
I would like to contribute to healing people.
Firstly they all need to be reassured and the panic they may be feeling should be removed.
Cancer is the manifestation of a biological program in the brain, that has been initiated by the psyche.
A brilliant doctor of internal medicine has re-discovered 5 biological laws, which govern all sentient beings: plants, animals and humans.
He has discovered, that all diseases occur in two phases; the (biological) conflict active (CA), also known as the ‘cold’ phase, in which the body constricts the perimeter blood vessels; and the (biological) conflict resolved (CL=conflictolysis) or warm phase, which is the healing phase.
This meaningful special biological program is Mother Natures answer to help a living entity survive a perceived biological conflict shock.
Since human beings for instance have developed over a course covering millions of years, they are comprised of three germ layers, starting with the brain. Each of our body parts is connected to a specific part of the brain and consequently responds to that part, which is in charge of it.
In the case of body parts connected to the brain stem (inner germ layer or Endoderm), the response is tumour growth. Along with tumour growth, the appropriate myco bacteria grow in quantity to be ready to decompose the tumor after the conflict has been resolved and the body enters the healing phase. –
In the case of a body part being connected to the ‘small’ brain (Mesoderm), there can be either a tumour growth or a cell loss (ulceration) occurring. If it is a cell loss, such loss is replenished in the healing phase with the help of bacteria or viri (viruses).
In the case of the ‘large’ brain (Ektoderm), which is the youngest brain in terms of development, there is always either a cell loss or a function loss in a cancer equivalent disease. Bone cancer is such a cell loss and is invariably caused by a collapse of self worth. The biological reason for a cell loss in the conflict active phase is in the healing phase, because when there is conflict resolution, the resultant replenishment makes the bone stronger then before. If there is a function loss, it will be restored, provided there is a timely resolution to the conflict.
Please find more information about the true causes and healing of ‘cancers’ on these web sites.
http://germannewmedicine.ca and
http://www.newmedicine.ca
Sincerely, Harald Tilgner.
I am really impressed with
I am really impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Either way keep up the nice quality writing, it is rare to see a nice blog like this one these days..
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It wasn’t until this year
It wasn’t until this year that I started realizing that the treatment options are not always the only options that doctors say there is. Last year my 7 month old baby had an enourmous 2.2lb. tumor on her left kidney. It basically consumed it. At first doctors were telling me that she was constipated or had gas, but I knew something wasn’t right. She wasn’t eating very much and noticed her heart was beating very fast. So I took her to the ER and said I wasn’t leaving until they did an X-ray or ultrasound atleast to ease my own mind that she was okay. They finally did and they found her Wilms Tumor. They couldn’t do surgery until they got her heart rate at a normal speed. They said it was because her kidney wasn’t working properly is why it was beating so fast. Two days later they did surgery to remove it, they even pushed other scheduled surgeries aside for my daughters, it was an emergency. We were in spokane Washington at the sacred heart children’s hospital and they were great. After surgery they told me they got it all out and that it didn’t spread to other organs but it WAS cancerous. They gave her 6 months of chemotherapy ,which I was very hesitant about. I didn’t understand why they were pushing for Chemo, if they got it all out. But they basically said that if I didn’t go with their recommendations that there was a more likely chance for it to come back possibly worse that ever. So I let her do it. That we’re giving her vincristine and dactynomiacin. Alternating the two until the last 4 weeks they would give her both at a little higher dosage. She did good through the treatment. But now I’m worried that it will have long term effects on her. She will be 2 this month and she doesn’t seem to have any sideffects as of now. Should I be worried????