I’ve been studying nutrition and alternative healing for 50 years, and I’ve used what I’ve learned effectively to help heal various conditions. Increasingly since 1997, and especially since 2005, my focus of study narrowed primarily to what healing could we find for TBI or any brain injury. To date, I’ve been studying anything I could get my hands on for healing injured brains for 21+ years since my husband Phil’s first symptomatic TBI, and I’m well educated on the subject of actual HEALING for brain injuries. I’ll explain what and why below, but I promise you, what I’m sharing with you will provide at least some degree of healing, potentially significant, for anyone with an injured brain.
The treatments we have found that have been more than helpful, that have actually created some significant healing for Phil (and our oldest daughter after her second TBI), are treatments that AMA medicine does not use – yet, though I am catching glimpses in news articles of some doctors using some of the treatments we have found in 2+ decades. These treatments will work to at least some degree on anyone suffering from a brain injury (stroke and cerebral palsy included), possibly providing improvements as significant as it’s been for Phil.
My just-turned 70 husband of 50 years had his first symptomatic TBI in 1997, his second one in 2002 (6 weeks before our oldest daughter’s 1st wedding), and a third in 2005 that his neurologist said would leave him disabled for life, unable to drive or work, and because of past treatment history, it was clear he’d have to live with extreme pain for the rest of his life. As we learned about concussions, we realized he’d sustained many early in his life as an athlete from age 8 through playing all sports in high school, then even more before his first symptomatic TBI in the work he did in the restaurants we created, where he worked 60 – 90 hour weeks doing pretty everything, often in dangerous situations, especially for repeat smacks on the head in close quarters, for instance inside equipment doing repairs. Subsequent to 2005, the degree of impact needed to cause additional injury has greatly diminished, so we’ve lost track of how many additional brain injuries he’s had (dozens and dozens at least).
We have found treatments that actually do provide healing for the brain, so instead of Phil being disabled in 2005 as diagnosed, after a month of one treatment I’d had on my list, he was back at work 11 days after the last treatment session, and back to driving 2 months later. We haven’t gotten to 100% healing – yet anyway – but he’s come SO far from his worst periods. There are still good days and bad days, but he is still making progress, even with numerous life events and other health issues that have created significant set backs. I am still studying, and have recently come across another treatment that has significant potential, but we haven’t experienced it yet. I’m by nature a life-long learner, so I’ll be studying until the day I die, and I’ll pass along anything else I come across.
I need to say the typical medical disclaimer “I am not a medical professional. I am not intending on replacing your medical professional(s). I am simply sharing treatments that have been effective in creating healing for my TBI-survivor husband.”
On bad days Phil still has the anger, the lashing out, the inability to be social at all or to be appropriately social, nor to be helpful at all around the house, the PTSD, the pain, the frustration, the memory lapses, the lack of sleep, the pain levels spiking, the tantrums, and more. But on good days or good parts of days, he’s his old self with a great sense of humor, he can learn new skills (like using a chainsaw, winch, and log splitter to create the firewood we need for our wood fired furnace), and use old skills to replace the plumbing drainage system in our rental house that fell the the ground of the crawl space one winter.
Some of what I’ll suggest will be relatively easy to incorporate in your life, some will be costly and not covered by insurance, and some will take dedication and perseverance in life style changes. All have produced noticeable positive and seemingly long term improvements for my husband.
If your brain injured survivor has not been tested for hormone levels, that should be done asap. Our husband’s neurologist was blindsided by this after a naturopathic doctor had suggested the testing in 2006, and some of Phil’s hormones were way out of whack. The neurologist said it was so obvious that hormone testing should be done, but he he was stunned that he’d never had that training in his medical nor neurological training. If your healthcare practitioner asks why you want the testing done, remind them that in the brain, there are 3 glands that are important in hormone regulation: the pituitary, the hypothalamus, and the pineal glands. If the brain has been injured, the glands can have been impacted. My husband takes 2 hormone supplements regularly and will for the rest of his life. Hormones are powerful, and getting them in the correct balance is crucial for healing, emotions, and moods.
Since we’re talking about hormones, there is another hormone we keep in house just in case Phil sustains another injury (or I should say when he does). This came from a collaboration between the above mentioned naturopathic doctor and myself after we’d both read an article in the Atlanta GA newspaper about a small study done by Emory University Hospital and Atlanta’s indigent care hospital, Grady, in the ER. They gave high doses of IV progesterone to incoming TBI victims, and discovered, much to their astonishment, that the mortality rate dropped by 50%. The study expanded to other hospitals, got funding, and then got dropped several years later, the reason stated was that the treatment did not work in the studies. I don’t know how they were doing the studies, but Phil has been using micronized progesterone since 2006 every time he has had another injury. His protocol is 600 mg per dose, 3 doses in 36 hours. If he does this, he does not add symptoms to his condition. If we’re out of progesterone, and he can’t take it, symptoms expand. The results of our own testing is clear: progesterone helps keep a TBI from being as bad as it would otherwise be, and sometimes seems to “erase” it.
The huge improvement in Phil’s condition came in 2005, after he had been diagnosed as permanently disabled by his neurologist. At that point, the next thing on my potential treatment list was hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). AMA approves HBOT for 15 conditions, which insurance will cover. It does NOT approve HBOT for TBI, strokes, cerebral palsy, Lyme disease, and a number of other conditions for which it can produce nearly miraculous results. Considering the healing I’ve seen come from HBOT, not only for Phil with TBI, but for a close friend who was crushed years ago by a large tree (and you’d never know it today), for people who have suffered strokes, for people who’ve suffered hypoxia, and for a kid with cerebral palsy, all of whom I witnessed personally, I consider the lack of use of this therapy to be literally criminal, but that’s a rant I’ll avoid currently.
In October 2005, Phil did 40 sessions of HBOT at the maximum rate it could be done, i.e. 2 sessions a day, separated by a couple of hours, of 1 hour at pressure (1.5 ATA technically), 5 days a week, with 2 days off each week, with 100% oxygen in the chamber (that MUST be monitored by a trained tech – 100% oxygen is extremely dangerous if there is the least chance of a spark). After 40 sessions, another round can be done after a few months break to avoid oxygen toxicity (there is a reason why antioxidants are important, so it’s a balancing act). The older a person is, the more sensitive they are to oxygen toxicity.
HBOT works by increasing oxygen absorption at air pressures greater than normal, allowing the body to incorporate more oxygen into blood cells, blood plasma, cerebral-spinal fluid, and other bodily fluids, and enhancing the body’s ability to aid in its own healing, reducing inflammation, increasing the delivery of oxygen to oxygen deprived areas, waking up dormant cells, and stimulating stem cells. HBOT is like scuba diving where you are in increased pressure as you descend, and is often called “diving”; it has used for decades for people suffering the bends or carbon monoxide poisoning, and has very few contraindications.
There are different forms of hyperbaric treatment relative to oxygen use. Soft chambers (essentially vinyl bags) do up the air pressure and even just increased pressure helps healing significantly, however it is not as effective as breathing oxygen while in a chamber. Phil’s first sessions at 100% oxygen environment in the chamber is the most effective as oxygen is not only breathed in, it is absorbed through the skin, but breathing oxygen through a mask is about 95% as effective as the 100% oxygen environment, and you don’t have the extreme fire hazard that an 100% oxygen environment would cause (in addition, the cost of the oxygen is greatly reduced by simply breathing oxygen through a mask). 100% oxygen treatment must be in a hard chamber for a single person; multiplace chambers (often used in hospitals) are where a number of people can be in a room that is pressurized as they are breathing oxygen. These situations must be monitored by a trained HBOT technician.
We have owned our own HBOT chamber since 2007, with prescriptions for the machine and oxygen from Phil’s neurologist, who, knowing us for as long as he has, had and has complete confidence in our ability to properly use the equipment. Ours is a hard chamber, and Phil breathes oxygen while he’s in it. It’s completely mechanical, the door has no latch and is only held closed by the increased pressure, and we are educated in the use of the machine. Having your own machine is cheaper in the long run, and we knew we were in it for the long haul.
For perspective on how dramatic improvement can be, watch this 3 minute YouTube video of an Israeli neurologist who treats stroke victims with HBOT. One of the patients shown had had a stroke 20 years earlier, and still experienced dramatic healing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wa5Sjm_Nyo
There have been ongoing attempts in several states to require the VA to provide HBOT for vets who’ve suffered concussions. Oklahoma, Arizona, Indiana, Texas, and Kentucky are among those states. I am not up to date on how far these attempts have progressed. If your TB survivor is a vet, check to see if your state has passed legislation requiring the VA to provide HBOT.
HBOT has my highest recommendation for brain injury healing. Without it, I don’t think Phil would be here today.