If you get a blow to the neck, can it cause you a concussion?

I always feel very bad and confused after a small blow to the neck since the concussion (I don't think it's because of anxiety, because symptoms appear even if I don't think about it afterwards).

For example, today at the morning I was rushing to school and put on my backpack too quickly. That caused the backpack to hit the back of my neck when I put it on quickly (I put it too quickly by accident and it stroke the neck), and about 30 minutes later I started feeling confused and foggy, and also an annoying feeling like my legs are a little bit numb (difficulty walking).

Can it worsen the existing injury (cause further minor brain damage), or delay recovery of current symptoms? I'm not sure if the bad feeling I got today is related to anxiety, because I stopped thinking about it after about 10 seconds, and later when the symptoms appeared I started wondering if they are related to the hit I got from the backpack in my neck...

Does it count as a concussive/sub-concussive impact? If no, where does the limit exactly stand between concussions/sub-concussions and not concussions?

Thanks,
-ProAgonist

No, it was not a sub-concussive or concussive impact. And, it is not the cause of your symptoms. At the worst, you may have twisted your head as you were putting it on or for some other reason. If you truly have difficulty walking, you need to be checked out. But, I believe your symptoms are the result of your anxieties.

Again, you need someone to help you with your thought processes. There is a therapy called CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It teaches you to direct your thoughts in positive ways when a troublesome thought comes to mind.

So do you say that the decreased sensation in my legs is a result of anxiety? Do you know how that mechanism works? I mean, why should anxiety should cause me to feel my legs less than I normally do? (A decreased sensation at legs means unstable walking and an overall difficulty walking). I know anxiety can have many consequences, but how is that one of them? Also, I've dealt with anxiety my whole life, and this whole decreased sensation at legs thing started only after my first concussion. Can you please elaborate on why anxieties can cause such things?

I'll seriously consider the CBT therapy you suggested, and maybe also 5-HTP to regulate serotonin release (I've heard that too high or too low levels of serotonin can cause OCD, so I think 5-HTP would be helpful in the regulation of the serotonin and therefore reduce my OCD symptoms).

I also have another question:

I have seen in your supplement regimen that you suggested using Omega 6 in addition to Omega 3. I know that Omega 3 decreases neuroinflammation (which is the main cause for complications following mTBI/TBI), so it seems like it would be a very ideal treatment for TBI.

But why use Omega 6? Omega 6 is an inflammatory agent (creates more inflammation). This can worsen the damage caused by concussions and extend the recovery time, can't it? I mean, isn't the purpose to reduce inflammation after a concussion? Omega 6 just increases inflammation, so I don't see how this can be helpful as a supplement.

Thanks,
-ProAgonist

ProAgonist--

You need to look at the anatomy of the back of the neck....Google it. There are two major arteries going up in a narrow space in your back neck to bring blood to the base of the brain. They are called vertebral arteries. They can get compressed (or damaged) and cause major grief like stroke, etc.

There is a condition called beauty salon stroke, where when patrons (mostly women) sit with their heads back...actually have strokes!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12023594
Also irresponsible chiropractor adjustments of the neck can cause strokes too.

So you will want to avoid extreme backwards extension to your neck, or blows from behind.

So true mrsD.

As mrsD acknowledged, moving the neck can cause a myriad of issues. A beauty parlor stroke is due to plaques in the vertebral arteries breaking free and lodging in the brain. This is usually due to the hyper extension of the neck as the head drops back into the shampoo bowl and the neck rests on the edge of the bowl.

There can also be inflammation in the upper neck that restricts blood flow through the vertebral arteries. This is usually a slow onset and slow recovery as the inflammation is reduced. You could try icing your upper neck on and off for an evening to see if it makes a difference. The recipe to make crushable ice packs in on the vitamin regimen page at the bottom.

If this causes you to struggle walking, a decent neurologist or Physiatrist (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation) should be able to watch you walk and determine if this is a neuro issue. If you truly stumble as you walk, you need to get checked out. If you are not stumbling but just don't feel right, I'd give it a few days to see if it goes away.

Numbness caused by anxiety can be due to a heightened effort to feel the extremities. Anxiety causes the heightened awareness. Once the brain tries to lock onto those sensations, normal mild numbness that comes and goes throughout the day become magnified, increasing the anxiety causing the symptoms to appear to be worse.

I went through a period of strange numbness in many parts of my body after a very emotionally traumatic event in 1998. My neuro could not find anything physical that caused them. They went away as my other emotional stress issues went away.

I was on a maximum dose of Paxil for 14 years for OCD. I switched off the Paxil to L-Tryptophan 2 years ago and recently added some 5-HTP in place of my AM dose of L-Tryptophan. My OCD issues are almost gone. If you are going to try 5-HTP, do it with your parents' oversight. You want to only take the minimum dose to resolve your issues. I take 100 mgs when I wake up. I started with 50 mgs. You could try 50 mgs 2 or 3 times a day. If you tolerate that without it causing you to sweat easily or show other symptoms of serotonin syndrome, you can try increasing to 100 mgs to see if it helps better.

What ever you do, stick to your plan. On again, off again like you do with the Ritalin is not good.

Regarding Omega 3,6,9. You want a balanced dose but most people eat foods that will satisfy the need for 6 and 9. People who eat extremely fat reduced diets need to consider whether they are deficient in 6 and 9. You likely are not. I probably should have not included 6 and 9 in the regimen since those are only needed in very limited situations.

I highly encourage you to see if you can get some help with CBT therapy for you anxieties. You are just too young to spend your life caught up in needless anxious thoughts. You may be able to find a therapist who can help you with your ADHD, too. If supplements can lower your ADHD, you may be able to learn behaviors to tolerate the rest. Neuro-feedback has helped many with ADHD.

My best to you.

Most of the Omega 3-6-9 have the Omega 6 in the form as
GLA. this is not the same as Omega-6 linoleic acid which is inflammatory.

The Omega-6 as GLA is different. As I explained before,
we used it when we did flax/evening primrose/fish oil as our EFA intervention. It worked really well. Over time the GLA was not really necessary anymore so I dropped it.

This is a link showing NOW brand's ingredients:
http://www.swansonvitamins.com/now-f...FfEF7AoduEkAvQ

Check your product and see what it has. The Omega-9 is neutral to EFA supplementation, and will not skew any 3:6 ratio.
Olive oil contains lots of Omega-9's and these are considered heart healthy. For you... less of an issue.

Also a consideration is the consumption of transfats. Now I've been posting on the net long before transfats were eliminated from our foods in the US. But other countries vary from us.
Netherlands banned them in their whole country. But others have been very slow. Israel is one. In fact Israel was one of the highest consumers of transfats in the the 2000's.
http://hamodia.com/2014/04/02/israel...ng-trans-fats/
We abolished them in our home back in 2000 when I started my son on Omega-3'. I had a reference book by A. Simopoulos MD who is from Greece who explained all this. Of all the Mediterranean countries Greece is lowest in transfat consumption and the home of the Mediterranean diet. She gave stats showing a nearby country, Israel, was very high in transfat consumption. So really if you Google transfats, you'll find much more. Look in your home at what your family eats.
If high in transfats (also called partially hydrogentated oils), you will have to get rid of those to see better improvements in your ADHD and concussion recovery.

Most of our posters are in the US so I don't bring this up normally, but it occurred to me, that you might be from a non-US country which is still struggling with removing transfats from the diet and commercial foods and cooking fats.

Mark,

I'll soon ask my parents to get me some 5-HTP to treat my OCD. They know I have a pretty bad OCD so they probably would not resist to let me start trying this supplement on a daily basis.

mrsD,

I stopped taking Omega 3 today due to serious, sudden health issues that have appeared over the last few days (such as the hearing loss I've posted about). I am confident that these issues are attributed to the extremely high dose (18 grams) of Omega 3 I was taking daily for 6 days. I understand that the dosage was too high so I completely stopped using it today before things get worse. It really helped with easing my Post-Concussion Syndrome symptoms and speed up recovery, but this high dose carries with it so many health risks that I have decided to drop it.

I'll return taking Omega 3 in a few weeks/months (the doses will be as you have suggested) to treat my ADHD symptoms and see how well this works (although my main reason for taking the Omega 3 supplement in the first place was for speeding up recovery from the 2 concussions I had, not to treat my ADHD symptoms). So I'll return to it in a while on much lower doses, but I've decided to drop it for now.

About the transfats - Yes, I live in Israel, and I can confirm that my country has many foods with high levels of transfats which are damaging on many different levels. That being said, my family cares for health and nutrition and therefore we barely eat any food with transfats. Aside from ADHD, I'm aware that transfats contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease - another reason to completely avoid them. So that is out of the equation in terms of nutrition and its effects on my ADHD.

Something I did notice is that sleep has a big effect on my cognitive abilities. If I sleep for 8 hours I'll feel much better and perform better at school than 6-7 hours (I feel better if I sleep for 8 hours and perform better, but I still have a hard time concentrating despite sleeping enough time and well enough). So sleep makes a huge difference, but still is not enough to solve my ADHD symptoms.

For now, I'll continue with the Ritalin and will try the Omega 3 again in much lower doses in a few weeks/months. The most important thing to me right now is to recover from the 2 concussions I had.

Pro..

Why don't you just take normal Omega 3 doses such as 2 or 3 grams a day or so ? The immune system issues should be minimal at those doses.

Where do you live in Israel ? I took my family there in 1992 for a great visit. It is an amazing country.

You said you originally hit your head against a wall. Was that wall a concrete block wall or masonry wall as is common in Israel ?

Mark,

You're absolutely right, I should take it at moderate doses and will do so very soon.

I live in Tel Aviv. Where did you and your family visit in Israel? I'm also glad to hear you had a great visit.

I hit my head at a concrete while running slowly (about 2 meters per second, pretty slow I guess). Why does that matter? Could it affect the strength of the impact?