Welcome to a soap box moment brought to you by concussions and head injuries. I’d like to preface this with the explanation that a concussion or traumatic brain injury (TBI) can occur without losing consciousness. This is due to the conditions in which the brain exists which looks like this:
The brain is essentially the consistency of Jell-O/custard
It sits inside a pool of water
That all resides inside of a hard, thick shell – your skull
That’s a pretty image, right? Just floats around, buoyant, swishing in the pool. Now this is all designed to help allow passive swishy movement that is mostly stabilized by the neck and cervical spine. This kind of set up allows for some degree of freedom with respect to environmental change. When we have any sudden stop in acceleration, a resulting compressive force is applied to the brain. This sudden stop causes the brain to impact and compress against the skull with very little cushion (like a pillowcase on a pillow) to soften the blow. Since the brain is Jell-O and the blood vessels are located within, they are prone to being damaged kind of like a bruise, and with a sudden stop in horizonal acceleration it is a shearing force. The reason this is so prevalent is because in the world of sports and car accidents, these events are frequent and because consciousness isn’t lost, they go drastically under reported.
You can have symptoms from a car accident (including TBI) anywhere from 72 hours to 4 weeks post-accident. This means if you have a second injury of the same or similar type within this period, there can be major health consequences that result.
For example, in my first year out of chiropractic school, I was the medic on site for a youth basketball tournament. 4 days of basketball and I was the happiest kid ever! In the middle of the second day, a boy (age 15) got elbowed in the face in the middle of play, he stood dazed for a moment then dopped onto the floor into a grand-mal seizure (a seizure characterized by abrupt loss of consciousness with initially prolonged tonic muscle contractions followed by clonic muscle spasms). I activated the emergency medical response system and found the boy’s father. He was in the seizure for about a full minute. I asked the father if seizures are normal for him(epilepsy) or if this was the first time this has happened. I asked if he had sought medical treatment for this kind of thing which he said, No we have not been to a doctor about this, but it has happened before during football. An attitude that said, “we’ve seen it before so he’s fine.” I explained how this is not normal, how this is the brain saying that it has been damaged and how there is an electrical and chemical firestorm going on that needs attention; particularly since he has experienced this before. His father continued to say that he didn’t need to go to the hospital…unacceptable. I explained how he didn’t need to go in the ambulance that was on its way, but his son needed to be checked out by a scan at a professional medical facility. I also explained how he could do that over the weekend since his son is not allowed to play for the remainder of the tournament. I made sure to speak with the coach and tournament director about the event to impress that this boy is not allowed to play.
The literature and research on MTBI are increasing and have become more prevalent since 2004 with Dr. Bennett Omalu who is a neuropathologist began to spread the importance of brain health with repeated concussions. He was a part of the group who diagnosed the first cases of Gridiron Dementia (dementia due to multiple concussions while playing football) in retired football players who died of the complications of dementia that lead to the act of suicide. It is therefore my impression that though everyone is not as susceptible to dementia after a concussion or even with secondary and tertiary concussions leading to Post Concussion Syndrome (PCS), it remains important for any brain injury to be taken seriously and work to prevent additional damage to neurons.
Brain care starts with looking at what effects the brain and spinal cord the most: chemical toxins, physical restrictions and nutrient deficiencies. My passion has led me to read and learn about nutrition, supplements, movements and activities that help in recovery endeavors. For me, it all starts with the art of the chiropractic adjustment. As a chiropractor, I primarily work with the bones of the spine to remove interference from physical restriction and mechanical inhibition. When the bones and ligaments that house the spinal cord are free from restriction, it allows for improved fluid and blood flow. This means that nutrients are better able to get to brain tissue, and lymphatic vessels are able to drain waste more efficiently.
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