Research published over the past year has shown promising results for a treatment for chemotherapy side effects including for chemo fog – also known as chemo brain.  That’s the non scientific name for the cognitive issues that can affect cancer patients after treatment.  Chemo Brain has been compared to the same type of  decline in cognitive abilities that we can see with aging.   What’s unique with one of the studies completed at the University of Illinois is that the research looked at two different perspectives to see if the treatment helped cancer patients.  First, this study looked at how the patients rated their Chemo Brain.  They asked the patients to report on their personal findings and whether or not they felt the treatment helped.   From an objective standpoint, the study also had cancer patients complete cognitive tests and compared the test results before treatment and after treatment.  

Treatment Results for Chemotherapy Side Effects

The good news is that both the objective and subjective findings came to the same conclusion.  The research found that the treatment  helped breast cancer patients improve the deficits that come from chemotherapy side effects in areas of attention, memory and multi-tasking.  This includes things like word finding, forgetfulness of dates/appointments, and problems with attention and focus.   One of the interesting findings from the studies is that starting treatment sooner rather than later showed more improvement than for those patients who waited a few years to start.  The recommendation is to begin treatment as soon as you can after diagnosis to gain maximum benefit. Another important finding was that increasing the treatment dose provided better outcomes on test scores for memory and attention than patients who received less treatment.   What’s great is that this treatment has been used to help cancer patients with other chemotherapy side effects and showing good results.  It helps with fatigue, and nausea as well as longer term issues like osteoporosis and cardiac issues.   Unfortunately, this treatment isn’t covered by drug plans but it’s not expensive.  In fact, cancer patients and survivors only need to do one thing to have this treatment available to them.  

Inexpensive treatment for chemotherapy side effects

What can be the most prevalent problem with getting patients into treatment such as that used at The University of Illinois is motivation.  It can be difficult at times, when patients don’t ‘feel’ like it, to continue with treatment.  But research across the world is showing that this is one of the best treatments for chemo brain, fatigue, weakness, and other chemotherapy side effects.   If you need some help with motivation, let me know.  Because this research is my area of expertise. It’s called exercise.  And it’s awesome for lots of reasons.  You just need to start and learn how to Move Well.   If you’ve started walking for exercise, or wondering if now is the right time, grab this Free Resource. Breast Cancer Guide to Pain-Free Walking