In January 2008 I received a severe concussion and unfortunately then received 3 more concussions within 5 months after the first one. I have been dealing with constant chronic headaches along with dizziness, memory problems, chronic nausea and all the other tradtional symptoms since January 30, 2008. I have missed an unbelieveable amount of school and cannot do the majority of the things I used to.

I have had a very difficult time finding options for treatments and medications to bring the pain down and lessen the symptoms. I got very frustrated with the lack of studies and information on treatments so I decided to do something about it.

Because of my struggle to find options I have started a science research project at my high school comparing the effects of complementary and conventional methods on complex concussion recovery. My goal is to help people like me find their own successful path to recovery and avoid medications and treatments that have had negitive results on majority of people.

I am looking for over the counter medications, prescription medications, therapies/treatments, and complementary substances you have tried and if it was effective or had a negitive effect.
*edit*

Thank you for your help and good luck with recovering!

This is an awesome project you've undertaken here. If you'll rummage through the past posts on this forum you'll see about 800 nearly identical "I hit my head and I don't know what to do" threads... it seems like everyone goes through the exact same procedure of escalating frustration, at least in the first few weeks following their injury, that is.

Things I've tried:

Accupuncture - I did this closest to the time of my original injury. It rarely accomplished anything terribly impressive, but one time (out of the probably 30 times I did it) I had some HUGE benefits come out of a session (significant expansion of peripheral vision, clearer thoughts, etc). Hard to evaluate how permanent those effects were, as I was living a pretty degenerative college-style life at that time, so any depreciation in results could have easily been explained by my continuing to (stupidly) ingest alcohol. I also did basic chiropractic and this other therapy called "Matrix Repatterning" at this same time, but those never reaped any benefits for me.

CTScan - Showed nothing. Other than knowing that there wasn't any visible damage to my brain mass, this did nothing for me.

Lexapro (SSRI/Anti-depressant) and Xanax - Had a nervous breakdown at one point, was put on these afterwards and took them for 3 months or so. They definitely helped in getting my brain to stop exploding (which was useful), but other than that the benefits were nil, so I weaned myself off of them shortly thereafter.

I did this light therapy which was EXTREMELY helpful. It's a therapy designed to alleviate the emotional residues of trauma, and I had pretty pronounced PTSD, so it helped with that end more than with the physical brain, but I am absolutely certain that the therapies I tried on my brain later wouldn't have been anywhere near as effective had I not done this therapy first. Bar none, I feel that this was the single most important element in getting me from where I was a couple of years ago (undeniably horrible) to where I am now (pretty good).

Craniosacral therapy - Did this following the light therapy for about a year (once a week). Really got my brain turned back on... extremely, EXTREMELY helpful. Chronic pain diminished significantly afterwards, and experienced marked improvements in memory.

I'm also on several supplements to help various parts of my endocrine system work properly. These have also been very helpful.

Thank you so much that was very helpful **

I have also tried acupuncture but I dont think I gave it enough time so I will give it another chance.

I have also been reading about craniosacral therapy and it seemed like it was perfect for me. Now that you have confirmed that I will give it a try.

Thanks again!

I would suggest trying alkaline water (Kangan water), it has the same rate of success for the same range of ailments as craniosacral therapy. Just buy it at a Kangan water store, do not invest in a Kangan water machine, they are grossly overpriced. Some health food stores will sell it for about a dollar (US) per gallon. The concept is to de-acidify the body.

My wife buys it and uses it as a part of her health routine.

Kangan water will be much more affordable than craniosacral therapy. It will cost you about $10.00 US per month.

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.

Meghan, I also have been there. Had a grade average of about 90% (even got 98% in my first year Chem final) but now I am struggling to get over 70% I even got 63% in one of last years finals. But I am still at uni studying, I am still passing and that is the achievement. At some point you have to let go and just realise that you are still doing really well.

I am not ashamed to get help with my studies, Mark is right, we still have the intelligence just are a bit slower processing. I get extra time for my exams in a nice quiet room. Access to a room to take a nap during the day or work on computers quietly away for all the other hundreds of students. Things are possible, you just have to adjust a bit. I wouldn't be where I am without the help the uni provides me with. I am just about to start my 3rd year of PT school!

Also another thing I'm not sure if people have mentioned, I find I need loads of sleep, if I miss out and mess up my sleeping pattern then it takes me a week to get over it. I try very hard during term time to keep to a strict schedule.

I found no meds help for the headaches, I just try and manage them by avoiding noise and too much eye work etc. I am no taking meds for chronic pain and this adds to the memory loss, concentration issues etc.

I had concussion and spent 2 weeks in hospital after then had a series of 3 very close together and then beginning of this year another, I have a balance problem from the first so most of those were due to falling down stairs. I hope you are looking after yourself and trying to protect your precious head!

Take care and just know that despite all things, you can do what you set out to achieve!

Could you direct me to a study on this? I'm familiar with alkaline water, but what you're saying here doesn't make any sense to me.

When I said Kangan water has the same rate of success as craniosacral therapy I was trying to not influence the success rate of either.

The studies show that both have a success rate just about the same as a placebo. If I was going to pay for a therapy to get the "placebo effect", I would choose the least expensive. One of the values in the placebo effect is the not knowing the science or lack thereof and thus being able to use the belief system of the body to help with the healing.

The only other alternative therapy that has been mentioned in this forum has been the light therapy. It was suggested to me back in 2000. It does not work by placebo effect. It actually causes neurological changes. The jury is still out on the long term effects of light therapy. It is best suited for PTSD and less suited for concussion injuries. Some are concerned that it may have long term side effects like ECT, Electro-Convulsive Therapy (Shock treatments).

Some of us, especially the older persons, have to be careful about treatments that attempt to modify the brain. Brains that are over 40 years old have very little resiliency compared to brains of 20-somethings.

So your argument is "nothing works, so do whatever costs the least", right?

Honestly Mark, let's drop the cynicism a bit here. I tried many many physical therapy modalities that provided me with no notable results before I moved on to craniosacral work, so you can rest assured that the changes I experienced fell well outside the range of a placebo effect. Maybe craniosacral wouldn't do much for you, but it has done a whole hell of a lot of good for a whole hell of a lot of people, myself included. I would appreciate it if you didn't completely blow off that fact.

Meghan: Try whatever you want. If craniosacral work (or accupuncture, or light therapy, or a pill, or a vitamin, or chiropractic, or a diet change, or whatever else) makes you feel better, then stick with it. If it doesn't, then try something else. Just follow your heart on this stuff - if it feels right to you, then do it. If it doesn't, then don't. That's the best advise I can possibly provide.

Alright Mark, I've got an additional clarification for you as well as a question. First, the clarification:

I believe that you're lumping in the light therapy that I did with a more common form of light therapy, EMDR. This is an (for lack of a better word) inappropriate comparison, as the light therapy that I did is nothing like EMDR in the slightest. In fact, it even says so right on the (admittedly poorly designed) website. Really, the only similarities between the two are that both are aimed at resolving trauma and both use lights to accomplish that goal. The types of lights that are used and the manner in which those lights are used is completely different, as are the intended results.

Personally, I would not recommend EMDR to anyone on this board unless they can find an EXTREMELY careful EMDR therapist. While EMDR can be effective in helping those dealing with psychological trauma, it can also easily overwhelm a vulnerable psyche (taking the problem from bad to worse). It is not at all uncommon to see people become re-traumatized from an overly aggressive session of EMDR therapy, and yes, I've heard of a risk of relapse with EMDR as well, though I really don't know enough about it to comment on that aspect of the therapy. While EMDR is one of the most effective forms of widely accepted PTSD therapy out there (noting the fact that there are barely any PTSD therapies available that could be called "widely accepted"), it's my opinion that there are far more effective therapies emerging at this time. The light therapy I did would be one of those.

Now, onto my question:

You claim that both craniosacral therapy and alkalized water produce the same placebo-level effects in clinical trials, but I'm wondering what objective measures were used to derive these rates of success. Allow me to elaborate:

Basically every single person on this board has the same story. "I hit my head, I have felt awful ever since. I have had every test in the book done on me, but doctors cannot find anything wrong with me. My life is hell, what do I do?"

Now let's say that one of these people with this common story goes to see a craniosacral therapist and a couple of months later all of the symptoms that they've been struggling with suddenly vanish. They "feel like themselves again." In the eyes of objective medical tests, what has that craniosacral therapy accomplished?

I suspect the clinical answer is "nothing." Absolutely nothing. Since the doctors were never able to locate an objective measure to define the patient's state of health, the work has netted no positive gains outside of some anecdotal evidence from the patient (and as we all know, patients can't be trusted to comment on their own condition).

What is obvious to me is that, especially in reference to the brain, modern medicine's ability to diagnose deficiencies, abnormalities, and damage in the body is woefully inadequate. There is no objective measure for "I feel like ****", nor is there a measure for a statement as nebulous as "I just don't feel like myself."

So here's my question again: How do these clinical trials account for these shortcomings in modern diagnostics?

I will be earnestly interested to hear your response.