Page 179 - Mind Games The Aging Brain and How to Keep it Healthy

Regain an Agile Brain • 163

redesigned and prescribed differently. The body does not
need a constant level of medicine in the blood throughout
the day. It needs larger doses at specific times to support
the body’s fight against symptom changes during the day.
Already, many cancer centers are timing treatments to
match the circadian rhythm of the patient with excellent
success rates.
Although not every researcher agrees, some research re-
sults indicate that surgeries also can be more successful if
scheduled according to a person’s biological rhythms. Death
after surgery is three times as likely at midnight as at noon.
A 20-year study of 1,200 premenopausal women found that
76 percent of those women who had surgery for breast can-
cer in the week after ovulation, and only 63 percent of those

“OK, Claire. If you were saving your brain for something big, this
is it.”