Brighten Your Day

Cold cap prevents hair loss for cancer patients during Chemotherapy

November 20, 2012

It can be very difficult to accept losing all of your hair while under going cancer treatment, especially for a woman. Now those days are close to over.

The "cold cap" is a new treatment that has been kept pretty quiet. Most people have never even heard of it.

The science behind the cold cap is quite simple. Keep blood from flowing to the scalp with extremely cold temperature. By freezing the scalp, the chemotherapy drugs can not affect hair follicles. According to patients it is not comfortable by any means, but it works.

"It feels like massive brain freeze and it just kind of hurts," described Sunday Berquest who is currently undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. "Like have you ever touched something so cold that it hurts your hands, it's kind of like that."

Patients are instructed to wear the cap hours before and after chemotherapy sessions.

So far, more than 1,000 American women have tried the cold cap with very high success rates. In one recent study, researchers reported success rates ranging from 77 percent to 100 percent, depending on which type of chemotherapy was used.

It's one thing to be sick, but another to look sick. This treatment is not only helping patients look healthy, it's keeping their confidence and self esteem up which may result in a higher success rate of beating the cancer.

The mind is a powerful force. It's much harder to beat a deadly sickness in a depressed state of mind. Hopefully those days will be gone forever soon.