Traumatic brain injury (TBI) during childhood can have long-term effects on cognitive and psychosocial functioning, including poor academic achievement. Pediatric TBI can cause significant deficits in working memory, as demonstrated in a study published in Journal of Neurotrauma. Read full article.
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How to keep your kid safe in sports
Football happens … along with soccer, basketball, baseball and softball.
Millions of children and young adults are playing these and other sports to the delight of their parents, other family members and friends cheering from the stands and along the sidelines. Sports are deeply ingrained into our culture, and for kids can offer valuable life lessons in leadership, teamwork, character development and sportsmanship as well as a pathway to lifelong fitness.
Of course, there are risks to playing sports, and one of them is a concussion injury. Concussions are serious injuries to the brain. The health implications associated with a mild traumatic brain injury is one of the most important issues in sports medicine today. While they occur more frequently in football and soccer, concussions occur in nearly every sport that kids and young adults play.
Low Blood DHA Levels Linked to Decreased Reading Ability and Memory Performance in Children
Higher blood levels of long-chain omega-3s, and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) in particular, were associated with better reading and working memory performance, according to a new observational study conducted at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Lead researchers indicated that an increased dietary intake of omega-3s may be beneficial for healthy children aged 7 to 9 years who are underperforming in school. Read full article.
No Stone Unturned: A father’s journey bringing his son back from the depths of traumatic brain injury
It is always a pleasure when I read the words of an author who eloquently articulates ideas I believe to be important. Even better when it is a patient’s family that leads me there. A couple of days ago, I was led to a brainline.org article published last year, “Fighting the “TBI Wars”: New Alternatives for TBI Survivors,” by Joel Goldstein, based on his book, No Stone Unturned: A Father’s Memoir of His Son’s Encounter with Traumatic Brain Injury. Goldstein expresses his hope that he can pass along lessons learned from his son’s tragic situation, most pointedly, evaluating and experiencing therapies alternative to conventional medicine.
I strongly urge anyone dealing with a TBI themselves or with a loved one, PLEASE, PLEASE read this article, consider getting Goldstein’s book, go to the family website http://tbibook.com/.
Rather than trying wax poetic about this article, it is easier just to pull a few quotes:
“Conventional medicine only takes survivors of severe TBI so far, often ending at the nursing home door, or heavily medicated at home, facing long empty hours, and overwhelming family resources. Unconventional therapies are not merely a reasonable option, they are a necessity.”
“Should we accept the doctors’ verdict and wait, hope, and pray for the best?”
“Doctors generally offered an editorial opinion, too — suggesting that a therapy, though safe, was a waste of time and money. One trusty “devil’s advocate” was sure that all alternative therapies were bogus, admonishing that, “Not all who rave are divinely inspired.” But here we had the advantage — at least we knew we were ignorant. It seems a truism, but even the best-trained, most skilled, and well-intentioned professionals in the world often suffer a kind of tunnel vision, sticking to familiar, well-trod paths that pioneers once blazed. Before they eventually won universal acceptance, the practices of conducting heart-surgery or of treating peptic ulcers as infections were doggedly opposed and bitterly denounced by the medical establishment.”
Jumping to the bottom line, the Goldsteins put together an informal “board of advisors” to evaluate potential alternative therapies (defined as practices falling outside the standard of medical practice and not covered by health insurance). Through experimentation and experience, they eventually tried several alternative therapies, settling on Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT), Craniosacral, Bolles Sensory Learning, Novavison’s Vision Restoration (VRT), and nutritional supplementation. In Goldtein’s words, “Some successes were breathtaking.” Today, Bart is a “lively, charming young man, living nearly independently in his own apartment near Albany.”
We should be thankful that Joel Goldstein took the time to document his family’s long journey and has the talent to write a powerful story to share with the world.
Diets Lacking Omega-3s Lead to Anxiety, Hyperactivity in Teens: Generational Omega-3 Deficiencies Have Worsening Effects Over Time
July 29, 2013 — Diets lacking omega-3 fatty acids — found in foods like wild fish, some eggs, and grass-fed livestock — can have worsened effects over consecutive generations, especially affecting teens, according to a University of Pittsburgh study. Published in Biological Psychiatry, the Pitt team found that in a rodent model second-generation deficiencies of omega-3s caused elevated states of anxiety and hyperactivity in adolescents and affected the teens’ memory and cognition.
Traumatic brain injury research; good for the troops or just the PhDs?
Pulitzer Prize winning writer Eric Newhouse has been looking into this. “I’ve been deeply troubled about the lack of TBI diagnoses. Five years ago, the Rand Corporation interviewed several thousand soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and predicted that 18 percent of them would return with PTSD.” Newhouse is on a lecture circuit speaking about Middle East war issues, and health care for Veterans, and he is disturbed that more isn’t being done to help our Veterans.
For instance, there are multiple Centers of Excellence, sponsored by tax dollars that conduct research on Veterans with TBI or TBI symptoms. But they lack a unified approach and don’t share findings… unless the sharing includes publishing a paper in a journal and a free trip to Hawaii to present the paper at a conference full of researchers going in different diagnostic and protocol directions. [emphasis added]
NOTE: I don’t normally include latest news in my blog, but this is a GREAT article, albeit very scary in its truthfulness. Research has become an employment agency rarely concerned with finding cures, lest the funding dry up because the problem has been solved. On a global scale as an example, the success of the Roll Back Malaria program in the 60’s and 70’s led to the elimination of funding due to its “success.” Subsequently, arthropod (mosquito)-borne diseases have skyrocketed over the past 20-30 years. It is almost impossible for a new researcher with a novel idea to get NIH funding. The system doesn’t prize original thinking; it values the known researcher with a lab that just pumps out regurgitated papers.
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Do Expensive Football Helmets Prevent Concussions?
These days, parents, student athletes and coaches are much more aware of the long-term medical problems that concussions can cause. Fortunately, many efforts are being made to protect kids from head injuries.
Sports equipment companies have jumped on the bandwagon and have improved the protection their helmets and pads offer. However, some of these newer products, like football helmets, are quite expensive. Parents want to know if these more expensive football helmets actually offer more protection. According to a new study, just because a helmet may be heavier and more expensive, it will not lower a player’s risk of concussion. Read full article here.
Despite Documented Health Benefits, Most Children and Adults Have a “Nutrition Gap” in Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Because of a diet low in fish and seafood, children and adults in North America and other parts of the world, have a “nutrition gap” of omega-3 fatty acids, particularly docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Read full article here.
Not just industry slamming omega-3-prostate cancer links
Reaction to last week’s study linking omega-3 with prostate cancer have been vociferous and near-unanimous in condemning its methods and conclusions. Here Alan Ruth, PhD, and CEO of the Irish Health Trade Association (IHTA), explains why that condemnation was justified and not just sourced from an industry concerned with defending its own patch. Read full article here.
Omega-3s and Prostate Cancer: Really???
Obviously, the big news of this past week in the world of omega-3s is a study published claiming that “omega-3s cause prostate cancer.” I have had friends and family call, text, stop me in person, and email their concerns about what is clearly a headline grabbing ploy by the press to make a huge deal out of poorly designed manuscript masquerading as a scientific publication.
First of all, the study did not look at omega-3 supplementation, but was a look at if there is an association between Vitamin E and selenium and cancers (including lung, colorectal, and prostate). The manuscript was done looking retrospectively at people with prostate cancer and what their omega-3 levels were at a single point in time. When I did a study looking at omega-3 levels and documented suicide, I was very careful not to conclude that low omega-3 levels CAUSE suicide because that would not be a true statement. Low omega-3 levels measured were ASSOCIATED with a 62% increase risk they came from a suicide, but there is absolutely NO WAY POSSIBLE to conclude a causal relationship. These researchers and the press that followed obviously did not feel the need to adhere to such ethical parsing of words in order to grab headlines. Come on, the study showed a possible increase of prostate cancer had a confidence interval of 0-192%!!!!
I am always amazed, though I’m not sure why, when the press blow things out of proportion about a study demonstrating their complete lack of understanding of scientific studies. I could go into details for a long time, but let me just say clearly that this case-control study was not designed to look at the question in which the researchers draw their incorrect conclusions. In the worst case, there may be an association between higher omega-3 levels and prostate cancer, but to conclude that omega-3s cause prostate cancer? Really??? Given that the study was a single snapshot looking at if someone has prostate cancer and what their omega-3 blood level was at that moment, it is completely reasonable to state that prostate cancer causes higher omega-3s in the blood. Or that people with prostate cancer increased their fish or supplement intake because it is fairly well known that omega-3s may be helpful in cancer due to their anti-inflammatory properties. But that is not what catches headlines.
Not sure which argument you might want to use, but the biggest one is that it was a study not designed to look at this question and the investigators completely drew conclusions from data that don’t support their conclusions. So which argument do you want? You mean besides that it is a poorly designed evaluation of data from a totally different study never designed to look at prostate cancer and omega-3s and should have never been published? Or the part where countries and societies that have the most fish intake actually have the lowest rates of all cancers including prostate? Or that there is specific research designed to actually look at that question and everyone of those studies shows decreased rates of cancer? Or that this same study also showed that there are higher rates of prostate cancer in nonsmokers and nondrinkers (so should we recommend everyone drink, smoke, and stay away from fish?)?
One rebuttal can be found at: http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Research/Experts-slam-omega-3-link-to-prostate-cancer-as-overblown-scaremongering. A more scientific-oriented review can be found at http://examine.com/blog/fish-oil-and-your-prostate .
What we do know is that omega-3s are anti-inflammatory and well known and documented to decrease overall and cardiovascular mortality, the incidence of cancer, heart disease, and have a positive benefit on brain health especially in the absence of brain health. What is really sad is how many people will decrease their intake of fish or stop their supplementation because of ridiculous studies/reporting like this. How much additional suffering will occur because of it?
Does eating fat make you fat?
One of the biggest problems is persuading people to eat more healthy fat in their diet. Fat has unfortunately been demonized by mass media, and even by medical practitioners, who claim that fat is bad for our health. That is only half the truth. Bad fats will make us gain weight and lead to many common disorders like high blood pressure but good fats are a vital part of our health. Read full article.
Depression often follows traumatic brain injury
A survey shows that depression and other psychiatric disorders are common after a head injury.
Previous research has suggested that depression may be a complication of traumatic brain injury (TBI), but the issue has not been extensively investigated. Researchers at the University of Iowa compared 91 patients with TBI with 27 patients who suffered multiple trauma, but without any nervous system involvement. They found that a third of the patients had clinical depression during the year after their injury. This was far more frequent than in the control group. Those with TBI and depression were more likely to have a history of mood and anxiety disorders than those who had TBI without depression.
Of the patients with TBI and depression, 77 per cent also reported anxiety and 57 per cent exhibited aggressive behavior. Major depression was also linked to poorer social functioning six and twelve months after the injury. Brain scans also revealed a reduced level of gray matter in this group.
http://www.newsfix.ca/2013/05/20/depression-often-follows-traumatic-brain-injury/
Omega-3 Fish Oils Could Reverse The Effects Of Junk Food On Your Brain
The weight loss benefits associated with omega-3 have been well-documented in the past, but can it actually deter our cravings for junk food? Researchers from the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Aging and Chronic Disease examined 185 research papers dealing with fish oil’s effect on weight loss and neurogenesis, the process that generates nerve cell growth. Read full article.
Are We Doing All We Can To Help Boston Bomb Injuries?
The horrible events of the Boston Marathon are etched into our psyche that gives America a glimpse into what our military has faced every day for the past eleven years in Iraq and Afghanistan. One thing that worries me as a retired Army physician when I see injured soldiers –or a victim of terrorism—are the wounds I cannot see. If an IED blast was enough to cause the loss of a limb, it probably had enough energy to affect the brain causing a traumatic brain injury or TBI. These are the wounds we don’t see but may lead to personal challenges now or later. Such unseen brain injuries also are now a growing issue on the football and soccer fields around the country.
There are no magic pills or cures for TBI and it is unlikely there ever will be. YET, we must move forward.
Unfortunately, our medical system was formed around successes in fighting infectious diseases – one diagnosis: one drug. It hasn’t changed and adjusted to modern problems. The system does poorly dealing with complex situations such as TBI that present entirely different sets of challenges with a constellation of symptoms. Western medicine’s adaptation has been – one symptom : one drug – rather than addressing the underlying situation. The medical community needs to refocus on the whole patient, not relying on trying to find a single magic cure that will never exist. Instead, we paralyze ourselves waiting for that magical golden randomized clinical trial to prove that one drug will cure TBI. It isn’t going to happen, ever.
If it is essential to have omega-3 fatty acids to make a brain in utero, it reasons that they can be helpful to repair a brain after it has been injured. It is like a brick wall that’s been damaged. Wouldn’t you want to use bricks to repair the wall? Omega-3s, Decosahexanoic Acid (DHA) in particular, are literally the building blocks—the bricks–of the brain neuron cell wall. I’ve spent much of the past couple of years working to get that point across, first to the military, and since I retired, to the general public. I have to say, the progress in educating people, the medical community in particular, has been both slow and frustrating.
It turns out that Americans are generally very deficient in their omega-3 levels because of changes to the food chain that have occurred over the last half century. When Dr. Joe Hibbeln at the NIH and I did a rigorous evaluation of active duty military suicides, we came to two serious conclusions: in the blood samples we evaluated (800 documented suicides plus 800 well matched controls), omega-3 levels were profoundly low in the overwhelming majority of them; and even with the low levels, there was a 62% increased risk of suicide! We have no way of knowing how many of these were the result of a TBI because there are usually many factors involved in a suicide, but I’m sure some were.
There are good reasons to be concerned about low omega-3 levels in such brain injuries. They have a major influence on our immune systems. They keep inflammation under control when there is an injury and nowhere is that more important than in our brains. With the advent of corporate farming and subsidies to produce soybean and corn, our food supply has changed so much since the Second World War that our bodies are swimming in omega-6s, the highly inflammatory cousins of omega-3s.
We have learned there are no easy answers. When the medical system talks about “treatment” for TBI and concussion, this is a misnomer. What is called treatment is diagnostic testing and a “prescription” for rest – to allow time to heal the wounds. But there are other steps that can help. Several therapies including nutrition, omega-3 fatty acids, neuro-cognitive rehab, hyperbaric oxygen, and others, can have enormous impact, not to cure TBI, but to optimize the brain’s opportunity to heal itself and give a patient the best opportunity to regain as much function as possible. We must take these steps now.
Michael Lewis, MD, MPH, MBA, FACPM, is a retired Army Colonel and President of the Brain Health Education and Research Foundation (www.brainhealtheducation.org) which he founded in late 2011 to educate patients, parents, and providers focusing on optimizing health following a TBI. He is in private practice in North Bethesda, Maryland citiva.
Omega-3 may reduce the risk of neurodegenerative diseases
Increased intakes of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA may counter the alleviate oxidative stress in older people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), says a new study from Malaysia. Read full article.
Eyes may provide new insight into brain problems, including TBI in soldiers
The eyes may be the window to the soul, but researchers are finding they also provide a view into the brain that could help detect neurological damage from bomb blasts, sports concussions and a wide range of diseases, including Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis. Read full article.
Eating more fish and less red meat, dairy may boost memory: U.S. study
U.S. researchers say a Mediterranean diet high in omega-3 fatty acids and low in red meat and dairy may help reduce the risk of “cognitive impairment.”
The study, outlined in the latest issue of Neurology, the American Academy of Neurology’s official journal, examined the mental abilities of more than 17,000 people consuming varying diets. Researchers found that those subjects who followed a Mediterranean diet more regularly experienced a decreased risk of memory loss of as much as 19%.
The key to the Mediterranean diet is omega-3 fatty acids found most notably in fish oil and other marine and plant oils. The potential memory-saver is also found is flax seed, walnuts and pulses.
Mild Blast Injury Causes Molecular Changes In Brain Akin To Alzheimer
A multicenter study led by scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine shows that mild traumatic brain injury after blast exposure produces inflammation, oxidative stress and gene activation patterns akin to disorders of memory processing such as Alzheimer’s disease. Their findings were recently reported in the online version of the Journal of Neurotrauma. Read full article.
After the Boston Bombing and Texas Explosion, Don’t Ignore Minor Injuries
In the aftermath of traumatic events, such as the Boston Marathon bombing or the explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant, it’s not only those with the most serious wounds who need treatment. It’s just as important for those with seemingly minor physical injuries, or psychological trauma, to get medical care too. Read full article.