ChemoBrain: How cancer therapies can affect...( While surviving cancer should be an ...)

While surviving cancer should be an occasion for rejoicing, many people who have undergone the standard or high-dose chemotherapy to defeat the disease unfortunately suffer from a physical and mental ailment known as "chemobrain." This cognitively dysfunctional symptom ranges from fatigue and memory loss to serious learning impairment due to possible brain damage. In CHEMOBRAIN: HOW CANCER THERAPIES CAN AFFECT YOUR MIND (Prometheus Books, $18.98), a clear, concise guide for cancer patients, survivors, families, friends, and caregivers, noted science journalist Ellen Clegg provides the latest information on this much-discussed but poorly understood side effect of chemotherapy treatment, while alsoin an objective journalistic fashiongiving voice to those medical professionals who remain skeptical of chemobrain.

Based on extensive and candid interviews with both those suffering from chemobrain and the physicians and scientists who have treated and studied this problem, Clegg cuts through the scientific jargon and explains in understandable terms how chemotherapy works at the most basic biological level. In doing so, she provides cancer survivors with the knowledge to understand what is happening to them and practical tips for coping with the aftermath of chemotherapy treatment.

Clegg's extensive cross-analysis of chemotherapy survivors' stories with the opinions of doctors who recognize the symptoms will provide the affirmation that so many who suffer from chemobrain so desperately need. She includes tactics for dealing with cognitive problems and other lingering side effects, strategies for multitasking at home and reentering the workforce, and even ways to deal with health insurance.

In addition to personal strategies and stories, Clegg also provides the history of the patient empowerment movement that brought chemobrain to the attention of the medical establishment in the first place. She also addresses the future o
'/>"/>