Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a fairly common occurrence and a common cause of death and disability worldwide. Car accidents, falls (especially the elderly) and contact sports cause a huge number of such injuries every year. Scaling down from the US figures, we probably have 10’s of thousands of cases annually and survivors are often left with cognitive, behavioural and communicative difficulties. Many people are left with a permanent need for help in performing daily tasks at huge costs to themselves and the country.
The latest thinking with concussions is to rest to allow the brain to heal as quickly as possible. The brain uses much more glucose and other nutrients when it is trying to heal itself. The rest required isn’t just physical rest; time away from mental activities such as reading, studying, using computers is also required. This can take from hours to months, depending on the severity of the injury. Great advances have been made in the acute (emergency) treatment of TBI’s in the last 10 years; this knowledge has largely been driven by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These advances have allowed many more people to survive the initial injury, but what then? In many cases, the damage is ongoing and apart from treating the symptoms - antidepressants for depression, pain meds for headaches, anxiety medications, sleeping pills… beyond this there is little that mainstream medicine has to offer. Dr Michael Lewis, a physician in the US army spent three years helping develop programs for the US military on the use of Omega-3’s to treat TBI’s. His idea was to make it easier for the brain to heal itself by providing the key nutrients at the right time, and in his words Omega-3’s (particularly DHA) are the ‘bricks of brain cell walls’. He states that in his experience in treating hundreds of patients over many years, not only do Omega-3’s help the brain heal, but patients often experience a rapid improvement of the post concussive symptoms such as headaches, insomnia, cognitive difficulties and lethargy. It is worth remembering that the modern diet is extremely deficient in Omega-3’s and massively over saturated in Omega-6’s. The ratio has changed from around 1:1 to as much as 25:1 in favour of too many Omega-6’s. Omega-6’s (found in grains and cooking oils etc.) promote inflammation, blood clotting and cell proliferation, Omega-3’s moderate these effects and for optimal health, the two should be in balance. Hee-Yong Kim of the NIH states that Omega-3’s have three main benefits during a brain injury; neuroprotection – they keep brain cells alive; they are anti-inflammatory and ‘synaptogenesis’ promoting the connections between brain cells. This is largely supported by animal studies although comprehensive human trials are largely lacking. The reason for the lack of human clinical research (in my opinion) is just another symptom of the failure of modern medicine. The world has largely privatised medical research, concentrating the money and control in the hands of drug companies, and they have no wish to promote the use of supplements, diet or any non-pharmaceutical drug therapy. Thus, as mentioned earlier, we are left with little more than the treatment of the symptoms; antidepressants, anxiety medications, sleeping pills etc… There are published cases of remarkable recoveries from Traumatic Brain Injuries. In one case, a coal miner with severe carbon monoxide and methane poisoning along with a heart attack, liver failure, kidney failure and significant brain damage from a lack of oxygen was given large doses of fish oil resulting an amazing recovery. Also, a teenager suffered a severe brain injury in a car crash and was given fish oil and attended his graduation three months later. Read article here: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/brain-damaged-teen-grant-virgin-makes-amazing-recovery-after-fish-oil-treatment/news-story/cafa56c128dbf43301773ff911fe44cf The medical establishment still has not caught on to the benefits of Omega-3’s for brain health and, as a useful tool in the recovery from brain injuries, so sometimes you just have to do your own research and educate yourself. Omega-3’s are very safe and very low cost, they can have a blood thinning effect so if you are having surgery it’s good to stop them for a time, certainly raise their use with your surgeon well before any procedure. Fish Oil is one of the very best things we can take for our health, supplementation helps restore the balance vs Omega-6’s and an improvement of this ratio is linked many health benefits. The 20,000 studies on fish oil Omega-3’s dwarf any pharmaceutical drug. This body of research was the reason we developed our Lester’s Oil, made with a very high quality double normal strength - purified fish oil from the UK (along with several other key ingredients). This article is a largely a summary of an article by Dr Michael Lewis; Inform January 2014, volume 25 (1) pages 61-64. Daniel King, MSc (hons)
