Originally Posted by Mark in Idaho

Meghan,

When you say "complex concussion" are you meaning multiple concussions? I have never heard of a complex concussion. A complex fracture of a bone is one where the broken bone is sticking out of the skin.

Multiple concussion or secondary impact syndrome is being researched. It is a big part of the VA system's research into veteran soldiers returning from Iraq.

Multiple concussion research shows that the cumulative effect is far greater than the sum of the parts. This concept has been known for decades. It is a common injury to football and soccer players. (I know, the same in some countries) US football.

The theory is that the diffuse axonal injuries common to almost all concussions is magnified because the first concussion leaves the axons weak. The second impact causes more tearing because the axons are weak. And so on.

Other than the placebo oriented therapies, there is nothing like time, rest and avoidance of further impacts or stresses to help you heal. The placebo oriented therapies may make you feel better but will not overcome the decompensations (relapses) that will manifest when you have a stress or other trauma.

The traumas to avoid are chemical (alcohol and other substances), sensory (sound, light, etc) and physical (impact to your head) There is also a small risk from fever. Rarely do MTBI survivors suffer a fever high enough to be a problem. Inflammatory reactions can also be a concern. Those would be caused by allergies, illness etc. There is strong evidence that autism spectrum disorders may be a result of an inflammatory response within the immune system.

I have mentioned this on other areas of this forum. Be sure to get good vitamin supplements focusing on the B's. A multi-vitamin designed for stress is a good start but then add to the B's in it by a factor of two or three, maintaining the ratio of various B's. For example, B-12 is in mcg, micro-grams, usually a total of 400 to 500 daily is good. B-6 should be in the range of 50 to 100 mgs, milligrams per day. The other B's are not as critical.
I take two B-50 complex tablets daily. Sometimes you can find a B-100 complex, but they are awfully big. The rest of the vitamins are also important. Omega-3 and calcium, magnesium, zinc, and the other trace elements are important. Hormones can be a factor and an even bigger factor in women than men since women cycle so much.

I would be cautious about the chinese herb complexes until you have had a chance to get the vitamin therapy going first. Then add the chinese herbs and such individually so you can observe if any one specifically causes a reaction.

Back in 1982, I had a very serious decompensation. An ortho-molecular psychiatrist taught me how to help my brain get back on track with nutrition etc. You might do some research into ortho-molecular psychiatry or ortho-molecular therapy.

A key component of ortho-molecular therapy is a fasting test. You remove all possible allergens and toxins from your diet, drink clean (purified) water, then start adding things back to your diet. Those that cause an improvement you keep. Those that cause a relapse, you eliminate. Do not be overly focuses on a no-fat diet. Your nervous system uses fats as building blocks. Low cholesterol counts actually increase the prevalence of Alzheimer's Disaese.

Avoid a few things like the plague: aspartame (Nutrasweet), Sucralose (Splenda), MSG (monosodium glutamate). They are all neurotoxins. Look up neurotoxin and get informed about them.

Those of us with brain injuries usually are very sensitive to toxins. The reserve capacity of the brain to tolerate stress is gone.

Meghan, I have been were you are. I had a 93 % grade average in the ninth grade. After a concussion early in the tenth grade, my grades plummeted to 85%. It took a lot of work to recover and graduate with a 92.3 %. I had been accepted into the college Honors program. I had a serious decompensation in second semester and ended up dropping out after struggling for the next year.

Be prepared to ask for help with your academics. Just because you may struggle with memory and multi-tasking, if you slow down, you can still reach your objectives. One of the silver linings of brain injury is that it usually does not seriously effect your intelligence, just your performance speed. At a slower speed, you can still do just as well.

If you are serious about this study, you will find there is a lot of information to sort through. The various brain injury web sites can be of great help.