Head & Brain Injury Advice and Resources

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Curing Hormonal Deficiency after TBI

Mark Gordon, M.D. is an American physician who pioneered the recognition and treatment of hormonal deficiency caused by TBI. According to Dr. Gordon any TBI (mild, moderate or severe) can dysregulate a person’s hormones leading to increased risk of emotional instability, drug and alcohol abuse, depression, anxiety, mood swings, memory loss, fatigue, confusion,

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TBI Significantly ups Risk of Violent Crime

The conclusion of a 35-year Swedish population study published in the December 27, 2011 online issue of PLOS Medicine was that TBI, but not epilepsy, increases the risk of violent crime. Researchers from the Centre for Violence Prevention at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute combined Swedish population registers from 1973 to 2009, and examined associations

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Improving Treatment Outcome for TBI by Healing Mitochondria

Mitchondria are the energy producing component of brain cells that fuel brain cell activity. Following TBI excessive release of the neurotransmitter glutamate can kill mitochondria by causing toxic influx of calcium into brain cells. A new treatment approach involving IV infusion of a drug called a mitochondria-uncoupler has been found to protect mitochondria

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Betacellulin Boosts Brain Tissue Repair After TBI

In January 2012 Maria-Victoria Gomez-Gaviro and Dr Robin Lovell-Badgehave published an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about the potential for a cord blood protein called Betacellulin to boost brain tissue regneration following TBI. The human brain and mouse brain share niches filled with stem cells that can produce

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Brain Injury Support Groups Facilitate Re-Learning

TBI support groups are invaluable psychologically because so many people living with TBI feel isolated and misunderstood until they have the opportunity to meet regularly with others in their shoes. That’s when they get the understanding and social support they have been craving. But TBI support groups can do even more. If they

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Reducing Headache without Drugs in People with TBI

Dr. Ron Stram, a specialist in integrative medicine in Albany, N.Y., has developed a handheld device for treating migraines and nerve pain in patients who have sustained head injuries such as soldiers exposed to blast forces in Iraq or Afghanistan. The device emits changing frequencies of electric current through the skin and teaches

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TBI Decreases Facial Affect Recognition

A major problem for some survivors of TBI is recognizing what emotions other people are experiencing based on their facial expressions. This impairs work and social relationships. A meta-analysis published in the summer 2011 issue of Neuropsychology examined the magnitude of facial affect recognition difficulties after TBI. Effect sizes were calculated from 13

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Mild TBI Disrupts Function of the Thalamus

The July 2011 issue of the journal Radiology has an article by Yulin Ge, MD, of the Department of Radiology at NYU Langone Medical Center, and colleagues, regarding the effect of mild TBI on the thalamus. The thalamus is the part of the brain which receives sensory input from receptor areas for touch,

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Omega-3 Supplements reduce Risk of Dementia Post-TBI

In the Feb. 2011 issue of Neurosurgery James Mills, M.D. and colleagues published research showing that giving rats Omega-3 supplements consisting of DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) for 30 days prior to TBI reduced the amount of beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP) in the axons of the rats’ brains. Hight amounts of APP are associated with

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Doctor examining a brain CT scan

Brainscope device for on-field Diagnosis of MTBI

BrainScope is a new EEG device designed to detect concussions in athletes on the field. A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury. BrainScope consists of a headband with 8 electrodes placed over the forehead and temples. The device sends EEG data to a handheld computer for processing. The mini-computer lets a physician

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