chemo brain and poison bulbs
You remember yesterday I complained of irresponsibility? If you read far enough into this article about "chemo brain," it is clear that people who've been given high doses of toxic chemicals to cure cancer get the same thing.
Doctors apparently have figured out that it's the chemicals that cause chemo brain. I found this sentence particularly interesting:
Ok, so I'm not sure why the affected patients got cancer instead of MCS from the chemical exposures I'm assuming they had before chemo, but I'm just some loudmouth blogger, not a doctor running a study on results of chemical exposure.
And in case you needed to know, and I suspect I would if I didn't know a bunch of people who have a terrible time with fluorescent bulbs, dropping a compact fluorescent bulb can cost $2000.
Doctors apparently have figured out that it's the chemicals that cause chemo brain. I found this sentence particularly interesting:
About 15 percent — roughly 360,000 — of the nation's 2.4 million female breast-cancer survivors, the group that has dominated research on cognitive side effects, remain distracted years later, according to women who say they have the condition.and the following one particularly annoying:
Nobody knows what distinguishes this 15 percent.I suppose it's technically true that no one knows because we don't have common tests that would allow us to point and say, "You, there's something funny with your detox pathways, so you could have a hard time getting the chemicals back out of your brain," but that 15% of the population is bad at processing chemicals is not new information, and it shouldn't be news to doctors working with chemical injuries.
Ok, so I'm not sure why the affected patients got cancer instead of MCS from the chemical exposures I'm assuming they had before chemo, but I'm just some loudmouth blogger, not a doctor running a study on results of chemical exposure.
And in case you needed to know, and I suspect I would if I didn't know a bunch of people who have a terrible time with fluorescent bulbs, dropping a compact fluorescent bulb can cost $2000.
posted by missmolly at 9:23 PM
2 Comments:
Okay, I have heard all these arguments that try to shift the blame for toxins in the environment onto the victims and I don't buy it. I also got "chemo brain" from an exposure to toxic mold (stachybotrys, aspergillus/penicillium, etc.) and after getting out of the apartment where I got sick, I have been trying to struggle back to health for the last year. I have fatigue, it basically destroyed my short term memory, damaged executive function, and my immune system is also a mess, I am basically allergic to everything. I get ill whenever I go into big box stores and sometimes I get sick for days from one exposure.
The best explanation I have seen to date for what is happening is a theory called "TILT" or "Toxicant Induced Loss of Tolerance" by Claudia Miller. Basically, it appears that everyone can get this, but it takes significant exposure to build up this intense immune system reaction to it, the hypersensitivity. The only solution as a society, we have is to stop poisoning people. Otherwise eventually, everyone in developed nations will have these diseases and we will all be in serious danger. Blaming the victims is a serious mistake. We need to listen to them, not try to marginalize them or prevent them from breeding (as some have suggested) That smacks of fascism.
By the way, have you heard of cholestyramine for mold illness? It has helped me substantially. (see moldwarriors.com, chronicneurotoxins.com)
But I am still sick. I think that cholestyramine can help with current exposures, but the 'chemo brain' type symptoms are from my exposure in the past and neurotoxicity and can't be cured.
See
"CNS progenitor cells and oligodendrocytes are targets of
chemotherapeutic agents in vitro and in vivo"
http://jbiol.com/content/5/7/22
...
also useful..
http://www.cancercare.org/pdf/fact_sheets/fs_chemobrain_cognitive.pdf
http://www.cancercare.org/pdf/fact_sheets/fs_chemobrain_doctor_talk.pdf
http://www.cancercare.org/pdf/fact_sheets/fs_chemobrain_concentration.pdf
http://www.cancercare.org/pdf/fact_sheets/fs_chemobrain_memory.pdf
and
http://www.chemobraininfo.org/
To set the record straight, I don't blame victims of chemical poisoning for their illness - I blame our culture's blind trust of synthetic chemicals and their manufacturers. However, based on the people I know, what constitutes a chemical exposure significant enough to trigger MCS depends entirely on the individual, and I blame conventional medicine for not recognizing that toxicity is victim-dependent.
My understanding of cholestyramine was that it was supposed to pull the neurotoxins out of your body and brain, thereby reversing neurological problems. I haven't tried it, but saunaing has the same effect, and my neurological symptoms are improving the more I sweat. It's harder to get better the older you are, but don't assume you can't get better. It's just not really fast.
I don't think people with chemo brain are stuck like that, either. I think the medical establishment hasn't learned anything from us EIs.
Speaking of learning from EIs, are you properly hooked into the MCS community so you know what products to avoid? You already know big box stores are bad, but are you properly fragrance-free instead of unscented?
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