Hello.

I suffered a very minor concussion on Jan. 3rd from a snowboarding fall. It is now 2.5 weeks later.

My question is related to a stress relieving exercise that I do that also helps soothe the scalp and helps with dry skin/itchiness of my scalp:

I plant a hair brush on my scalp, pushing down so the bristles are held in place. I then vibrate the brush forward and back, causing the scalp skin underneath to move back and forth in a rapid/quick pulsed way. The secondary effect of this is that my head vibrates minorly forward and backward. Again, my head barely moves at all in relation to distance, it is mainly the scalp skin moving, but my head does gyrate a just a little. But it is in a quick/pulsed style. I do this for 10 min 2x/day

I showed this to my neurologist and he doesnt think it would be of any concern. He basically just said, if it aggravates any symptoms then I should cut back, but if it didn't then Im good to go. When I did this exercise today, I didn't really notice any aggravation of my symptoms, maybe just some blood rushing to my scalp as I havent done it in a couple weeks.

So my 2 questions:

1) What does everyone think about this exercise in relation to the slight movement it causes when talking about a period after a concussion?

2) For concussions in general, is the individual permanently always more susceptible to minor head movements/gyration, for example from jogging? Any personal experiences with those experiencing or not experiencing this?

Thanks in advance!


*P.S. In case mark from Idaho sees this post, I am looking and open for any input on this. I am hoping our previous conversation doesn't deter from you sharing your wealth of knowledge on concussion related matters. I truly do value your thoughts on these matters and I hope we can move on from any possible quibbles we had. It was just an unfortunate case of miscommunication I think. Hope all is well with you sir.

I don't think the vibration should be any problem. But, it may cause your neck to strain as you attempt to hold your head still. Anything that has caused me to strain/stiffen my neck has been a problem for me.

There is no answer to your second question. Every experience is different. Some will be very sensitive to things like jogging. Others will have no problem what so ever. I try to advise people to learn a soft foot plant so there is less impact. Try jogging with ear plugs in and alter your foot plant to lessen the sound resonating in your head.

I have a very soft foot plant so i have no problem jogging but a ride down a rough road is miserable.

btw, Nothing you said in the past bothers me. Besides, I forget everything too quickly. It has taken me years of repetition to gain the knowledge I have.

Thanks Mark.

So aside from the concern of aggravating symtpoms, you don't think the minor vibration could impair proper healing do you? At the end of th day, as you probably know by now lol, that is my main concern.

Yeah, I have to give a couple test runs to the elliptical/jogging to see how I feel. So far during these 2.5 weeks I have been just power walking.

Thanks again.

If you are concerned about it impairing proper healing, then don't do it. If is causes any symptoms, even a stiff neck, then don't do it.

You are asking questions that do not have definitive answers. Most recovery issues are a risk/benefit analysis with no sure answers.

The elliptical would be much safer than a jogging treadmill.

I understand what you're saying about no definitive answer.

I was just wondering, in your opinion, based on your knowledge and experience, If you felt it might be more probable or less probable for something like this (with little to no exacerbation of symptoms present) to impair healing?

Thanks again

No No No No No

Any post must be 10 characters. Otherwise, I would have just said, No.

Thanks Mark.

Now I know youre going to want to kill me for asking this last question but hopefully you wont be to annoyed with me.

If say I was to do the exercise and I was to get some minor exacerbation of symptoms. In *your opinion* does minor onset of symptoms automatically mean a particular activity is impairing healing, or could it be just residual innocuous side effects that might eventually flare up a bit but then go away as time goes on? Solely just pain w/o negative repercussions. Like having to bear weight on an extremity gradually increasing tolerance..

This exercise really does help me in other ways so this is why I ask. If all I was experiencing was a little innocuous neck strain or innocuous headache from neurons readjusting to how they react to vibration, the positives of doing the exercises would definitely outweigh that small negative. I will be seeing a physical therapist soon to address trigger points in my neck, but in the mean time, in case I did experience a minor flare up, I just wanted to get your opinion on whether you felt it could be impairing healing. And I know everyone is unique and it could go either way, just wanted to get your feedback on the matter.

Thanks for baring with me on my questions sir.

I think the simplest answer that empowers you to understand and make decisions is this. Healing happens best when symptoms free. If you do something that causes a return of symptoms but those symptoms only last a hour, then who cares if you have delayed recovery by a hour. If you do something that sets you back for the next whole day, then that activity may be starting to push it but delaying recovery by only a day is still not a big deal. The anxiety of dealing with that bad day may last much longer and be problematic.

So, if you do something that causes a return of symptoms but those symptoms only last a few hours but your anxiety about that short return of symptoms has you spinning for a week, then you need to either not repeat that activity or at least not repeat that activity until you have found ways to resolve the follow up anxiety.

Is this answering your question ?



Anxiety can be worse than the minor return of symptoms.

I follow you Mark. Thanks.

The most annoying part is that aside from the headaches, which feel measurable and tangible, it is very hard to tell if the effects like increased mental haziness are real or psychosomatic.

For instance today, since it has been 3 weeks since the injury, I decided to see how I felt doing a 30 minute jog on the treadmill. The headaches seemed to intensify a bit for like an hour later, but then normalized to regular levels (close to minor to unnoticeable) through the rest of the day. It couldve been just the fact I hadn't jogged for 3 weeks and the increased circulation gave the feeling of a headache..

On the other hand, there were times where I felt the haziness increase with and without any accompanying headaches. When I have no headache but the feeling of increased haziness its hard to tell if its real or psychosomatic.

I see myself possibly running into this problem from doing my scalp exercise.. Where it could be actually totally ok (like the other day, just some feeling of blood rushing to the head, no headache) but I could just end up psyching myself out of doing it. I guess it's something I just have to work on..

At only three weeks post injury, you need to just let go and let time heal. You could be in the 85% who heal spontaneously in the first 6 weeks. You really need to learn to deal with your anxiety. A job as an RN will eat you alive if you can't learn to compartmentalize thoughts.

There are enough doctors who try to say we have somatoform disorder than we need to not set the stage for that diagnosis.

The haziness or foggy brain is often a result of anxiety. Sounds like you may be your own worse enemy.