Scott,

Forgive me for not being more specific. When I mention a neck injury, you need to start the diagnosis. Just asking the doc is not enough.

When your neck is injured, there will be a number of noticeable symptoms. Your neck may be still and lock and pop. If may be sore. Or, it may not have any abnormal sensations. But, you may have a radiculopathy of a nerve that causes symptoms elsewhere. It may be sore and tender spots behind your ear or at the back of your head. Some will even have tenderness at the temples or forehead.

Tingling or numbness in an extremity or muscle twitching or other functional dysfunctions can all be caused by a vertebral injury that inflames the nerve root causing the problem to radiate to other areas.

Most of our PCS problems are up to us to define in a way that the doctor will take seriously. We all can and need to understand our bodies.

When I do this, this happens, not, I have this strange feeling. If the symptom is repeatable, then try to demonstrate it to the doctor. Don't expect the doctor to figure it out by some intuitive method. They won't.

If they are a WC doc, they will try to ignore symptoms that are not extreme.

bendintheroad,

The regimen from vitamin shop includes a big overlap of my regimen.

The MSM sulfur has the same effect as aspirin or ibuprofen. Zinc is in any good multi plus many B-Complex. DHA is in Omega rich fish oil. Grape seed extract has a great concentration of vitamin E, flavonoids, linoleic acid and phenolic OPCs but is just an expensive way to get these nutrients. Its best value is enhancing blood circulation. Niacin does the same and is in B-complex and any multi.

Bromelain is a pineapple derived enzyme that helps with digestion of protein and has some anti-inflammatory values. Curcumin is a component of tumeric and has a variety of values with claims to help with just about any illness or problem. Quercetin is a flavanoid/anti-oxidant. R-alpha lipoic acid is another anti-oxidant that also helps with sugar metabolism. It is common with women trying to increase their metabolism.

Blue berries are an excellent source of nutrients all of which are also available in other fresh fruits. Acetyl-l-carnitine is a powerful anti-oxidant with some neuro-protective values. Pantethine is a form of vitamin B-5.

Of all of the parts of this regimen, my opinion is the espom salt baths were likely the most valuable. They cause the subject to relax and rest.

The other valuable issue is this is an expensive regimen of supplements causing a better level of discipline in daily routine. The curcumin is the only supplement that is not commonly found in the other nutritional substances. In some articles, it is considered a noortropic or smart drug as is the acetyl-L-carnitine, an expensive supplement.

Many of these more expensive supplements have been discussed over time. Taken in context of the basic supplement regimen, they are of value but are not the foundation of getting a nutritional regimen started.

The basic regimen I and some others recommend is B-12 (500 to 1000 mcgs), B-Complex, a good multi like GNC MegaMen, D3, Magnesium, calcium, all of the anti-oxidants, Omega's, and some other things that I forget from time to time.

I tried an expensive 2 month trial of acetyl-L-carnitine and noticed no difference.

I have followed Byron Richards for many years but do not refer to his web site because he makes some claims and comments that are not based on fact or research and tend to support many of the false understandings of concussion. Plus, his web site and comments are extremely profit biased which is frowned upon in NT.

Any nutritional supplement regimen needs to be long term and consistent and combined with quiet rest and lifestyle changes. One intensely stressful event ( a wedding or graduation or break-up) can undo months of discipline by flooding the brain with toxic stress chemicals.

As others have noted, until they finally settled down to let their brain heal, they rode a roller coaster. This is a common experience across most concussion recovery articles.