Hi Sohitd,

Here is the summary from my blog post. I've shortened it as much as I can. And keep in mind, I didn't start it until almost 3 months after my concussion, after my vision had started getting better and my headaches were under control and on the mend.

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1. First I had to get a baseline test for myself, so I got a polar heart rate monitor and a used treadmill from Craigslist for $250 (yes, I am cheap!) with an electric incline option. This is important, because as I got more in shape, I needed a major incline to get my heart rate up. Also, keep in mind that the heart rate monitors on treadmills are mostly worthless and inaccurate (the kind where you hold onto a bar to get a reading, etc.).

2. My baseline on my first time out was 150 BPM, meaning that at that heart rate I started to feel the "rubber band around my head" feeling and got a little dizzy. So I set my target heart rate at 120 for 20 minutes (80% of max). To get there, I would walk for about five minutes to warm up, then increase the speed and start jogging. Once I saw my heart rate at 120 BPM, I would start the timer and go for 20 minutes. I'd have to slow down every once in a while and tried to range between 115 and 125 so that my average over the 20 minutes would be about 120.

3. To keep my BPM at the right number, I wouldn't increase or decrease the speed usually. I'd just change the incline. That affects your heart rate a lot more.

4. My schedule was to do this twice a day, six days a week.

5. The recommendation is to re-evaluate yourself after about two weeks, find your new baseline, and set a new target BPM to get you out of your comfort zone.

6. My goal for increasing my BPM wound up being to go up by 1 BPM every fourth day (e.g. 3 days at 145, then 3 days at 146). In retrospect, the big jumps suggested by Dr. Leddy would probably be a better way to go - more like jumping from 120 right to 130 or 140, etc. That would have really gotten me out of my comfort zone and made me feel bad, but possibly would have been more effective. I can't say for sure.

7. After about 3 months, I made it 80% of my max suggested heart rate (BPM). Dr. Leddy suggested I go to 90% of my baseline rather than 80% since I had not fully recovered. I was 40 at the time, so it was 180 BPM * 90% = 162 BPM.

8. By January, 2015 I was at 162 BPM. But I still wasn't all the way better. By mid-February, I was at 166 BPM or 92% of my total max. But, again, I still wasn't all the way better.

9. In the end, doing the Buffalo protocol on my own without direct supervision from Dr. Leddy or anyone trained in the Buffalo protocol, I wasn't able to fully get better. But it did help me a lot and I did see progress, which is really helpful because otherwise, things can seem hopeless.

10. Once I decided I had gotten all I could out of the Buffalo protocol, I started looking for other options and that's when I found the UPMC concussion clinic and that is where I got fully healed.

Hope this helps on your road to recovery!
Martin