Concussion Treatment

[tonto]

Happy New Year All...

unfortunately my wife slipped with socks on a slippery staircase and fell about 15 steps and was unconscious for about 3 minutes. Since then she has had problems with verbal fluency due to this concussion. I search on Ray Peat Forum but no discussion of concussion protocols. Concussion has elements of metabolic and hormonal dysfunction so wondering if anyone has addressed this in their own investigations that they could share.

I did treat with pregnenolone and progesterone immediately, btw which Ray has recommended for trauma. \

Thanks for any help.

 

[burtlancast]

Magnesium is a must.

 

[aquaman]

Peat talks about Progesterone for brain injuries, from memory on his website. I'm sure google or searching this form for various combinations will point you to the quotes.

eg MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS AND OTHER HORMONE-RELATED BRAIN SYNDROMES.

"Around 1976 I met a woman in her mid-thirties who heard about my work with progesterone in animals. She had been disabled by a brain disease that resembled MS or Devic's disease, inflammation of the optic nerves. It would sometimes cause blindness and paralysis that persisted for weeks at a time. During remissions, sometimes using a wheelchair, she would go to the medical school library to try to understand her condition. She came across Katherina Dalton's work with progesterone, and convinced a physician to give her a trial injection. Although she had trouble finding people who were willing to give her progesterone, her recovery was so complete that she was able to climb stairs and drive her car, and she came to my endocrinology class and gave a very good (and long) lecture on progesterone therapy. Although her sensory and motor functions became normal, she remained very fat, and chronically suffered from sore areas on her arms and legs that seemed to be abnormal blood vessels, possibly with phlebitis. She appeared to need thyroid hormone as well as larger amounts of progesterone, but never found a physician who would cooperate, as far as I know."

and:

"SUPPLEMENTS
Nutritional supplements that might help to prevent or correct these brain syndromes include: Vitamin E and coconut oil; vitamin A; magnesium, sodium; thyroid which includes T3; large amounts of animal protein, especially eggs; sulfur, such as magnesium sulfate or flowers of sulfur, but not to take continuously, because of sulfur's interference with copper absorption; pregnenolone; progesterone if needed. Bright light, weak in the blue end of the spectrum and with protection against ultraviolet, activates respiratory metabolism and quenches free radicals. Raw carrot fiber and/or laxatives if needed; charcoal occasionally for gas or bowel irritation. Coconut oil serves several purposes. Its butyric acid is known to increase T3 uptake by glial cells. It has a general pro-thyroid action, for example by diluting and displacing antithyroid unsaturated oils, its short- and medium-chain fatty acids sustain blood sugar and have antiallergic actions, and it protects mitochondria against stress injury. "

 

[tonto]

My wife is slowly recovering, have been trying pregnenolone and magnesium with brain rest. Learning more about this I have found many interesting research areas for some on this forum. I will have some follow-up articles in next several posts, but to start with I dug up a great 2011 article on concussion recovery: "Assessment of metabolic brain damage and recovery following mild traumatic brain injury" (Brain 2010: 133; 3232–3242). Note that this is a brain spectroscopy study which measures N-acetylaspartate (NAA), creatine and choline-containing compounds. Note that NAA biosynthesis may be a biomarker for mitochondrial activity in the brain. This article shows evidence that NAA biosynthesis is significantly impaired in concussion, and resumption of normal levels of NAA biosynthesis seems to be associated with recovery.

Here is the abstract:

Concussive head injury opens a temporary window of brain vulnerability due to the impairment of cellular energetic metabolism. As experimentally demonstrated, a second mild injury occurring during this period can lead to severe brain damage, a condition clinically described as the second impact syndrome. To corroborate the validity of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in monitoring cerebral metabolic changes following mild traumatic brain injury, apart from the magnetic field strength (1.5 or 3.0 T) and mode of acquisition, we undertook a multicentre prospective study in which a cohort of 40 athletes suffering from concussion and a group of 30 control healthy subjects were admitted. Athletes (aged 16–35 years) were recruited and examined at three different institutions between September 2007 and June 2009. They underwent assessment of brain metabolism at 3, 15, 22 and 30 days post-injury through proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy for the determination of N-acetylaspartate, creatine and choline-containing compounds. Values of these representative brain metabolites were compared with those observed in the group of non-injured controls. Comparison of spectroscopic data, obtained in controls using different field strength and/or mode of acquisition, did not show any difference in the brain metabolite ratios. Athletes with concussion exhibited the most significant alteration of metabolite ratios at Day 3 post-injury (N-acetylaspartate/creatine: 17.6%, N-acetylaspartate/choline: 21.4%; P50.001 with respect to controls). On average, metabolic disturbance gradually recovered, initially in a slow fashion and, following Day 15, more rapidly. At 30 days post-injury, all athletes showed complete recovery, having metabolite ratios returned to values detected in controls. Athletes self-declared symptom clearance between 3 and 15 days after concussion. Results indicate that N-acetylaspartate determination by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy represents a non-invasive tool to accurately measure changes in cerebral energy metabolism occurring in mild traumatic brain injury. In particular, this metabolic evaluation may significantly improve, along with other clinical assessments, the management of athletes suffering from concussion. Further studies to verify the effects of a second concussive event occurring at different time points of the recovery curve of brain metabolism are needed.
​

Selected quotes:

By using a rodent model of closed diffuse mild head injury (Foda and Marmarou, 1994; Marmarou et al., 1994), data from our laboratories confirmed the concept of metabolic vulnerability (Tavazzi et al., 2007; Vagnozzi et al., 2007) and have also produced solid experimental evidence linking the severity of brain injury and recovery with the extent of ATP and N-acetylaspartate (NAA) decrease and recovery (Vagnozzi et al., 2005, 2007; Tavazzi et al., 2007).

Although NAA is the most abundant neuronal-specific N-acetylated amino acid in cerebral tissue, its biological function remains poorly understood (Baslow, 2003a, b). The biosynthesis of NAA is uniquely linked to the mitochondrial phosphorylating capacity, the cell energy state and ATP level, and to acetyl-CoA availability. Due to indirect high-energy expenditure, NAA can be synthesized under conditions of energy surplus, i.e. high ATP and acetyl-CoA concentrations. These observations led to the suggestion that NAA measurement may be a valid indirect biomarker of the brain energy state (Vagnozzi et al., 2005, 2007; Tavazzi et al., 2007). Coupled with its non-invasive in vivo detectability by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) (Moreno et al., 2001; Sinson et al., 2001), NAA appears to be a useful index in monitoring metabolic brain changes following concussion in humans. Alterations of central energy metabolism might well represent a reasonable explanation of the striking and unpredictable discordance often observed between the minimal findings on conventional imaging and the extent of neurocognitive deficits exhibited by patients with mild TBI (Cohen et al., 2007; Rigotti et al., 2007).​

 

[YourUniverse]

"Caffeine synergizes with progesterone, and increases its concentration in blood and tissues."

If progesterone is helpful, coffee could help.

 

[Lee Simeon]

Are she experiencing dizziness of any sort? If that is the case Energin and gelatin have helped me greatly with that.

 

[LoryEl]

I need a lot of brainpower in my day to day work and at some point i started experimenting some memory loss. After reading some studies and going through some interviews of Peats i found some things that work like vit B1, taurine, progesteron, DHEA ( this is a bit o a tricky one and i am not using it too often). I now alternate Estroban and Energin with Panstrone Did this for a few months and i have the memory of an elephant. From homeopathy you may want to look into high doses of Traumeel and consult a homeopath. My small boy kept falling and hitting his head got even dizzy some times after many hits in the same frontal location of his upper headz Lucky for us w had a great homeopathic doc that was able to prescribe some good remedies not to get long term damage. You need to consult maybe with such a doctor because remedies are unique to each person but they work really good on assisting with recovery.

Other than this playing a lot with her hands and doing a lot of finger intentional movement or playing or work will help rebuild a lot of the brain. Like quilling or origami or whatever else. This i know from reading on how to help kids with brain damage. The more younwork on fine motricity the more u help the brain.

Hope this helps.