Lead a Fit and Healthy Life
Archive for November 16, 2011
Chemo Brain Does Exist!
06 months ago
Chemo brain does exist. Scott had evidence of this and continues to have some of it –although sometimes, just sometimes I think he’s trying to fool me…
Brain Scan Study Finds Evidence of ‘Chemo Brain’
Women who survive breast cancer after undergoing chemotherapy may also have to contend with impairments in attention, memory and planning skills, U.S. researchers said Monday. The research study reported that women who had undergone chemotherapy for breast cancer had significantly less activity in parts of the brain responsible for executive functioning tasks compared with breast cancer patients who were not treated with chemotherapy. Among those treated with chemotherapy, the study also found a strong correlation between women who complained they were having trouble with memory and thinking skills and actual deficits in these regions of the brain. This study may help explain why many breast cancer patients complain of “chemo brain” — a term used to describe foggy thinking and memory lapses following treatment with chemotherapy. “This is a huge validation for these women who are telling their doctors ‘something is wrong with me’,” said Shelli Kesler of Stanford University School of Medicine in California, whose study appears in the Archives of Neurology. “This shows that when a patient reports she’s struggling with these types of problems, there’s a good chance there has been a brain change,” Kesler said. Her study involved 25 breast cancer patients who had been treated with chemotherapy, 19 breast cancer patients who had surgery and other treatments, and 18 healthy women. While a finding in 25 women seems small, Kesler said it is large for a brain scan study and points to a need to start identifying, which women who undergo chemotherapy are, most vulnerable to these types of deficits.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/sns-rt-us-cancer-breast-braintre7ad26v-20111114,0,300105.story
Change the Voices in Your Head
36 months ago
by Stephy
in Fitness/Exercise
I am taking a few rest days but I plan to still stretch and maybe walk and do some extra mobility. I have been super busy at work too — and the holidays are coming. Nothing like the perfect storm of stress to get you moving right? HA!
I have been thinking about the voices in your head. Not the crazy ones that tell people to go out and do crazy shit. These are the voices in your head that tell you you aren’t good enough, thin enough, pretty enough, smart enough. The little self defeating, negative nagging voice that isn’t there to help push you. It’s there to put you down, to make you lose your nerve and continually distorts your view of yourself.
One of my favorite songs of the past few years has been Pink – F’in Perfect
You’re so mean when you talk about yourself
You were wrong
Change the voices in your head, make them like you instead…
Pretty pretty please
Don’t you ever ever feel
Like you’re less than f—in’ perfect
Have you ever stopped and realized how many times a day your voice inside your head is mean to you? You wouldn’t let your family or friends talk to you like that – so why is it ok for you to talk to yourself like that? What happened to us that created this ugly, mean voice and what can we do about it? Is it as easy as being present in the moment and changing the tone of the voice as it’s talking to you?
Sometimes I play this game with negative people. I am sure you have a few in your life too — they are just Debbie Downers, Eeyores. Their filters on life are just skewed. Everything is half empty if not completely empty. It used to drive me crazy to be around them until I started playing this game — that I learned from one of my boot camp friends Mary Ann. She told me when you come across someone like that — turn what they are saying around into a positive. The Eeyore will either stop talking to you about stuff or they will see the light -and start seeing it in a much more positive light. And it’s a good, fun mental exercise for you as well.
You can play this game with your own little voice. I constantly have to remind myself to stop the crap talking about myself — and there is a difference with the voice that pushes you to new heights and the one that wants to just sit there loudly and prevent you from living fit and sore!
Here are some ideas I found about helping put the lights out on those negative voices in your head — I’m going to start focusing on it, how about you?
