I've improved significantly since experimenting with self administered LLLT. But I have also simultaneously done other experiments. Also, my recovery has been very turbulant with lots of ups and downs. Overall, i'm moving in the right direction. With all of the things I've experimented with, i find it difficult to determine which gains are the result of which treatments. Thus, you'll find my opinion on this form to sway from time to time, as you have.

More specifically, it's quite difficult to quantify or qualify any results from LLLT without frequent access to a SPECT scan, or other methods for measuring cerebral blood flow.

The research on 'transcranial LLLT is deep, but some mixed messaging has found its way into the area. It's difficult to identify treatment success when some people tell you it's impossible, and some people tell you it's possible.

My LLLT experiment was purely concentrated on the brain stem and cerebellum. More recently, I had a SPECT scan. To my amazement, the only brain structures within normal ranges were my brain stem and cerebellum. This is either an extreme coincidence, or my experiments worked and I successfully rejuvenated my focus areas.

Now, i'm working on interpreting the rest of my SPECT results. I am using this to create my next experiment with more targeted LLLT. The results of this will further my opinion on 'transcranial LLLT. For now, I personally believe in it, but as a scientist, i'm still struggling with how much I should recommend LLLT using lasers versus a safer more proven option using the -Vielight instrument.

In summary, I went from being a dizzy insomniac to sleeping well with very limited dizzyness. LLLT played a role in this, but I can't quantify how much.

I hope this helps.

Hains

Thanks Hains.

Yes, that all totally makes sense. Why do you think my name is RidingRollerCoaster ! I make gains and think, I'm almost done. But then something happens and I fall back a bit.

That's so interesting that the areas you treated came back good on the SPECT scan.

Where are you getting your SPECT scans? And what type of scientist are you?

Also, what other things have you been doing that you think have helped?

Thanks for trying all of this and reporting back to us. Maybe when you are done you will have excellent results to tell us about!

Quite a suitable name. Thankfully roller coasters have happy endings.

I'm Canadian, so with a great deal of effort I educated then convinced my family doctor about a SPECT scan, but I got him to set me up in the free public system. The hospital where I live has 2 machines. It took a long time on the wait list, and will likely be a year or 2 before I can get a follow up scan to confirm my recovery efforts.

By trade i'm an environmental scientist, but I tend to incorporate data analysis and technical reading into everything, including PCS recovery. I find it super helpful for filtering out crap from frontier medicine, like supplement science, DIY endocrinology and light therapy...

The most effective and cheapest lifestyle interventions ive tried were low carb diet, Dr. Jacobs sleep hygiene, aerobic exercise ,adrenal support through supplements, cold showers and hot saunas for hormone replenishment, and visualization meditation. The latter is the most important. I literally visualize the repair of a damaged area. Lately, I've been visualizing the diffusion of cerebral blood flow into the deficient parts of my brain, as per my SPECT scan. If anything, it helps develop belief.

Additionally, I've found varying levels of success with LLLT, atlas realignment, prolotherapy, and balance physio for visual vestibular mismatch.

Thanks Hains.

Did you do Atlas Orthogonal chiro. adjustments with the special adjustment machine? I tried that for a while but thought it was a bit of a scam.

What adrenal support supplements do you take?

How do you do DIY hormone balance?

Sorry to here that, honest chiros seem to be few and far between. I wonder why that is.

The only machinery my chiro used was his x-ray, and he didn't charge me anything extra for it. To perform the realignment he used is hands, and gently and meaningfully pressed down on my neck, behind my jaw bone, on the appropriate side as indicated by the x-ray. For routine visits he uses a level to measure spinal alignment. He checks my shoulders and my hips with the level, then measures the length of each leg. I find it hard to understand all the skepticism when my own experience has been simple and effective. Hence the optimism.

For adrenal support I started 2 years ago with the full gamut, as I was in stage 3 fatigue (not even producing cortisol or dhea), confirmed with both saliva and blood tests. I started with pregnenalone, dhea, cortex, magnesium, zinc, vitamin b12/c/d, and omega 3. Probably more important than supplements is the elimination of inflammatory foods, processed sugars, refined carbs, and anything highly hyperglycemic from the diet. A adrenal recovery protocol has you eliminate all carbs and sugars (except for vegetables) from your diet for a month.

Now, I'm probably recovered to somewhere in stage 1, basically weak and sensitive adrenals. I take adaptangenic herbs that are based around ashwagandha. Most 'adrenal health' products in the health store include these. I also take vitamin b-complex/c/d, and occasionally magnesium. If you want some good background reading on adrenal health, read through the 'Kalish Method'. This guy, Dr. Daniel Kalish, provides some of the most meaningful information on the topic. I can email you his PDF'd book if it's not free elsewhere on the internet.

Blood work revealed low testosterone, growth hormone and their various precursors. I found that cold showers boost testosterone and hot dry saunas boost growth hormone. I've played around with other things but these are the most effective.

Thanks to everyone who replied, it helps when you are feeling isolated and your GP says everything is a waste of time. Only hope of even small slow recoveries keeps me going. First step is to get a proper evaluation by a neurologist and then try cold laser, theres a place in our capital city that does nasal therapy so well try there. Will also try and talk him into meditation, but hes very stubborn. Thanks Mark of Idaho , i think your thoughts about depression are salient and also the vitamin regime which we are doing ad hoc, need to get moer disciplined there. He has come a long way but is still nowhere near independent. I appreciate you all taking the time to help as I notice I post when were having a bad run. Never give up hoping. Hugs.

Thanks Hains. Do you still take the hormone replacements?

I recently started some hormone replacement and had a bad reaction to it, so I would love to hear more about how to balance hormones naturally.

Also, how long did you take adaptogens? I was taking them for several months and quit because I read that they can cause your adrenals to stop working for themselves. But now my energy has declined again.

What type and how much exercise can you do?

sorry if I have taken over this thread, I guess I am interested because you seem to have done a lot of good research.

I no longer take pregnenolone and DHEA. I'm of the opinion that hormone replacements are for short term use only, for fear that it might affect the bodies ability to produce them naturally. I've never heard about this phenomenon with adaptogens before though, I'll look into it. But for the most part, adaptogens and just herbs providing nutrients to the endocrine system that aren't common in our western diets. If you have any sources please post them.

I'm currently on a second cycle of adrenal support adaptogenic cocktail, and will likely take them for 2 -3 months, depending on progress. I've taken ashwaganda in pure and blended form on and off for 1.5 years. My problem is excessive and untimely cortisol release and I find ashwaganda to be safer and more effective that other supplements like phosphatidylserine or any type of pharmaceutical.

On that note, if you're unfamiliar with phosphatidylserine, it's an excellent supplement that can boost cognitive function but upregulating the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. This improves brain synapse speed. It also has an anti-cortisol affect which is great for stress reduction, anxiety and insomnia. So phosphatidylserine is a pretty powerful, inexpensive and well researched supplement.

As for exercise, I follow the Dr Phil Maffetone method (What exactly is the Maffetone method? - Dr. Phil Maffetone). I run, bike, backcountry ski, mild weight train and do yoga maybe 5 days a week, depending on the week. The key to this method is to stay in a constant aerobic state, while training as close to your maximum aerobic function as possible without going over, measured as heart rate in beats per minute (BPM). The idea behind this is to prevent an inflammatory response caused by anaerobic training, to improve and optimize the biological fat burning system which only works during aerobic output, and to develop an aerobic base that can be built upon at a later date. I feel it's important to continue with physical exercise as it fends off depression, maintains biological function, improves cerebral blood flow, and it will help with dizzyness symptoms by allowing your visual and proprioceptive inputs compensate for lost vestibular function, which is common in physically induced brain injuries.
I sit in the dry sauna 4 -5 times a week.

As for DIY hormone balancing, the feasibility is completely dependent on which hormones are out of balance. Have you done any blood tests? Do you have a snapshot of your hormonal state?

Thanks Hains. I am surprised you can exercise so much with adrenal fatigue. I find exercise to be difficult. I can only do aerobic exercise for about 30 min at about 120 - 125 heart rate. I find strength training to be pretty taxing too. (I was an athlete before my accident and exercised a lot). I also sometimes get a crash of exhaustion after my aerobic exercise about an hour or two afterwards. It is scary sometimes when this happens.

Also, your comments about cortisol confuse me a bit. Isn't adrenal fatigue characterized by low cortisol production? But you say you have excessive cortisol production?

I had a saliva test showing that I have excess bad estrogen and testosterone is fine. I also had a urine test showing that I have low 24-hr free cortisol (the urine test also confirmed the excess estrogen). But then I had a blood test showing that I had high cortisol, and low testosterone.

So I have been very confused about the cortisol issue which test is the right one to use. I know that I have problems with fatigue and exercising and that when I started the adaptogen herbs, those problems decreased. But I also have the same problem of what you describe as excessive and untimely cortisol release, where it seems my fight or flight system enacts out of the blue, especially at night.

I've slowly built my way up to this level of exercise. I started out with 30 minute stationary bike rides 2 days a week at 115 bpm, and slowly progressed. My exercise now almost never exceeds 130 bpm, and half the time I don't sweat.

Regarding your exercise, is it possible your crashes are linked to your diet? It sounds like a possible combo of adrenal fatigue and insulin crash from a refined carb heavy diet. Forgive me if I'm wrong, I don't know your history.

There are 3 stages to adrenal fatigue. Failure to produce cortisol is the 3rd stage. Adrenal fatigue starts out when you are producing too much cortisol. This is very common following physical head injuries, and why people feel prolonged anxiety, it's overproduction of cortisol. Here's a great and quick read on adrenal fatigue (The Kalish Method: An Effective Way to Heal Adrenal Fatigue).

Test results can be tricky. Result reliability varies by the test and the lab. Not knowing too much, I would think blood work is your most reliable test score. Others might suggest otherwise. Maybe Mark can weigh in.

If exercise is a problem, you're doing too much. Keep up the habit, but slow it down, walk if you have to, until your aerobic system builds back sustainably. Also, if you aren't already, get on a low carb diet. No processed foods, low carbs and no sugar. Looking into Dr Kalish's healing diet for the adrenal glands. I can email you a PDF if you can't find it free.

Lastly, try taking magnesium citrate powder at night. It helps calm the nervous system.i prefer the Natural Calm brand.