BRAIN INJURY: Natural Strategies for Recovery

WHAT-COULD-POSSIBLY-GO-WRONG

As a holistic wellness practitioner I work with clients with many health challenges, one serious issue is brain injury and compromised brain function.  Many of the clients that come to me with these issues have been reviewed by traditional medical doctors and many have been told they have early dementia or Alzheimer’s. One client’s brain challenges were determined to be the cause of a virus. Some people who come to me have been diagnosed with a variety of mental health challenges including chronic depression. Many come because they are in search of recover that they have been unable to achieve through traditional medical offerings. If you are considering using any of the strategies in my blog posts or books or website; discuss them with your regular healthcare practitioner first.  It is important that you are monitored as you add strategies, especially if you are taking medications.  DO NOT STOP TAKING YOUR MEDICATIONS.

My brain challenges were originally diagnosed as ‘a break down’, later to be revealed to be brain injury from ‘off gassing’ of toxic chemicals after moving into a new house. The damage to my brain and blood brain barrier left me with toxicant induced loss of tolerance (TILT), depression, multiple food allergies and other health challenges. My earlier ‘toxicant induced loss of tolerance’ came as the result of pumping leaded gasoline at my father’s service station as a teenager.  I have had two additional ‘toxicant induced loss of tolerance’ challenges with moves into two earlier new house with accompanying off gassings – long before anyone had ever heard of it.

Claudia Miller, a tenured Professor in Environmental and Occupational Medicine and Vice Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio has studied this condition and treats it medically.  You can read about her work in TILT at http://drclaudiamiller.com/. She has written a booklet entitled Protect Yourself – “TILT – A New Class of Diseases: How Exposures to Chemicals Are Undermining Our Mental and Physical Health,” which describes chemical intolerance, Toxicant-induced Loss of Tolerance, and the dangers of certain chemicals in the environment. You can find it here  https://issuu.com/elisco/docs/tilt_ebook

INVESTIGATING THE CAUSES OF BRAIN INJURY

There can be multiple possible cause for brain injury or compromised brain function.  Often there are a combination of contributing factors. Initial injury often leaves the blood brain barrier vulnerable to other factors that would normally not have been a brain challenge in the past.

UnderstandingtheBodysChemicalEquation

Stress is often a big contributing factor in brain injury.  Chronic pumping of stress hormones can chew away at the protective myelin coating in the brain and damage the blood brain barrier leaving the brain vulnerable to harmful chemicals found in air pollution, workplaces and homes.

stress meter 2

Stress: It’s Worse Than You Think by John Carpihttps://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199601/stress-its-worse-you-think

STRESS IDLING: A Modern Day Health Challenge – http://mybodycanhealitself.ca/wordpress/?p=1115

HOW STRESS CHANGES THE BRAIN: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/18/brain-stress_n_6148470.html

Blood brain barrier damage is another factor that can cause brain injury and malfunction.

bbb1

NATURAL CURES: Protecting and Repairing Your Blood Brain Barrier to Restore Mental Healthhttp://mybodycanhealitself.ca/wordpress/?p=639

Viruses and bacteria are also culprits when it comes to brain injury.

Viral infection leading to brain dysfunction: more prevalent than appreciated? US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2782954/

Bacterial Meningitis – While most people with meningitis recover, permanent disabilities such as brain damage, hearing loss, and learning disabilities can result from the infection. Centers for Disease Control and Preventionhttp://www.cdc.gov/meningitis/bacterial.html

Physical injury like concussion are also relevant when discussing compromised brain function. HARD KNOCKS: The Science of Concussionshttp://www.brainfacts.org/diseases-disorders/injury/articles/2012/hard-knocks-the-science-of-concussions/

THERAPIES FOR BRAIN INJURY RECOVERY

In this segment I am going to discuss the strategies that I have found most helpful for repairing my brain injury and those of my clients. You can find these strategies in more detail in my holistic protocol in my workbook THE WHOLE PERSON WELL-BEING EQUATION.  It guides you through the steps for health recovery. At this link you can also read testimonies from people with various health challenges who have recovered using my holistic protocol.

Addressing Body Pollution

Addressing your body pollution and detoxifying is an important first step for any health condition. This was in extremely important step for me in my recovery.  Detoxification is a two step process:  one – stop adding to your body pollution my cleaning up (greening) your personal care products, diet and environments; and two – remove your existing body pollution (we all have some). It took me a lot of trial and error to come up with the best detoxification method which I now recommend to my clients with great results. The complete instructions and recipe for the herbal detoxification baths that I used to recover from my health issues including my TILT can be found in my book THE WHOLE PERSON WELL-BEING EQUATION. Get started today on whole body detoxification the right way.

Body Pollution page 2

DETOXIFICATION: The Benefits of Getting It Right – http://mybodycanhealitself.ca/wordpress/?p=2834.  From personal and client experiences there is no more important ‘first strategy’ to brain health recovery than detoxification.

DETOXIFICATION: A Natural Body Process That May Need Some Helphttp://mybodycanhealitself.ca/wordpress/?p=51

Water

Your drinking water is a big factor in helping your body to be able to remove harmful substances and making sure you are not adding them.

watercontaminants2

YOUR DRINKING WATER: Is It Compromising Your Health?http://mybodycanhealitself.ca/wordpress/?p=830

YOUR DRINKING WATER: A possible connection to Alzheimers and Dementia – http://mybodycanhealitself.ca/wordpress/?p=1

Tai Chi for Health Recovery– I can not say enough about the impact this had on my brain recovery. I would never have believed it could make such a difference. I recommend tai chi to all of my clients.

The health benefits of tai chi – Harvard Health Publications, Harvard Medical School – The health benefits of tai chi – http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-health-benefits-of-tai-chi

Diet

Diet is of course very important for overall health as well as recovery from brain injury. Eat foods that are as close to nature as possible.  Eat healthy fats. Avoid GMOs, artificial additives (including colours) and preservatives which have been shown to have a negative impact on the brain.

Lecithin

According to the Institute of Medicine (1998), lecithin provides a great source of choline– essential to every cell in the body, for it is one of the main components of cell membrane. It builds brain cells and improves cardiovascular function. Lecithin that contains phosphatidyl choline is produced mainly from vegetable sources, although it may also be found in animal and microbial sources. Its role is to breakdown the fats in your body. Lecithin is naturally found in the foods that most of us eat, especially rich foods, such as egg yolks, soybeans, grains, wheat germ, liver, cauliflower, fish, legumes, yeast, and peanuts.

After my brain injury I did a lot of research looking for strategies to repair the damage and malfunction.  Based on the information in the research I added lecithin rich foods and decided to take  soy lecithin supplements.  I took the supplements three times a day for an extended period of time and that provided me with great improvements in reducing the depression.  I know that there is a lot of controversy over soy products and health.  Since I use neuromuscularbiofeedback testing on all my foods and supplements before consumption I was sure it was not harmful to me.  I test clients on both sunflower seed and soy lecithin and usually soy is still the winner.  Make sure that it is pure, unbleached, non GMO. Lecithin also protects your liver important in toxic environments, for people taking medications and for overall body health.

Nutrition expert Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa, author of Brain Longevity, says “Lecithin is practically a wonder drug as far as cognitive impairment is concerned.”

Frank Orthoefer, Ph.D., promotes the benefits of lecithin, including improving memory, nerve and brain functioning, in his book Lecithin and Health. Orthoefer has researched lecithin for over 25 years, and is a leading authority on the subject.

Positive Effects of Soy Lecithin-Derived Phosphatidylserine plus Phosphatidic Acid on Memory, Cognition, Daily Functioning, and Mood in Elderly Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4271139/

Lecithin Extract Counters Brain Aging – http://www.lifeextension.com/Magazine/2006/5/cover_brain/Page-01

Lecithin used to treat neurodegenerative diseases like Alzeihmers, Parkinson, dementia, brain injury  http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/other-nutrients/choline

STRESS MANAGEMENT

This is a must for brain injury or malfunction to help reduce the pumping of ‘chewing’ stress hormones on the blood brain barrier, myelin sheath and brain.

Stress: It’s Worse Than You Think by John Carpi – https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199601/stress-its-worse-you-think

STRESS IDLING: A Modern Day Health Challenge – http://mybodycanhealitself.ca/wordpress/?p=1115

Essential Oil Therapy

I was not aware of essential oil therapy for brain injury at the time of my injury but I now recommend it to my clients presenting with any type of brain challenges.  The results have been amazing.

I have one client who had a viral brain infection and was unable to put words together in a sentence initially.  I started her on some essential oils in a diffuser and to use topically. Her brain is now mostly healed and she recently did a radio interview on essential oils and the impact on her recovery.  You can listen to her story here – https://app.box.com/s/55pf0cxx5a74mj3edasxtsiuzneqej4e. Amazing!

I have other clients that have had severe memory and cognitive challenges and I have recommended various essential oils which have improved both. I am ‘over the moon’ with the results I have seen in my clients and they are pretty quick to see results.

Contact me for your customized brain health recovery regime today at elisabethlhines@gmail.com. Learn more about my approach to natural health recovery!.

Emotional aromatherapy can improve mental and emotional health.  Get started today feeling more like the true you! Contact me for a customized aromatherapy program.

Elisabeth Hines, C.N.C., C.B.P., Holistic Wellness Practitioner, www.mybodycanhealitself.ca

Practitioner, www.mybodycanhealitself.ca, elisabethlhines@gmail.com

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Copyright © 2013, Elisabeth Hines

All rights reserved. No portion of this post may be copied and distributed in any manner without the written permission of the author or publisher and associates.

Copyright © 2013, Elisabeth Hines

All rights reserved. No portion of this post may be copied and distributed in any manner without the written permission of the author or publisher and associates.