traumatic brain injury Archives - Amazing Health Advances

When Your Loved One has Aphasia

The AHA! Team — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 05:28:22 +0000

Meredith Nye, CCC-SLP, MS, via Duke Health – Speech pathologists can help relatives and friends work with a loved one who has aphasia and find ways to communicate effectively. Aphasia is a language disorder that can affect comprehension and communication. Although it is most often caused by a stroke, aphasia can also result from traumatic brain injury, brain tumors, or progressive neurological disorders such as primary progressive aphasia (PPA). These conditions damage the language centers of the brain, leading to difficulties with speaking, understanding, reading, and/or writing. Learning to communicate with someone who has aphasia can positively impact that person’s social interactions, relationships, medical decision-making, and overall wellbeing. “We work with patients and their care partners to provide customized treatment plans focusing on life participation and maximizing communication success,” says Meredith Nye, CCC-SLP, MS, a Duke speech-language pathologist. “Aphasia doesn’t impact a person’s hearing or thinking skills like memory. Rather,” she says, “people with aphasia may use the wrong word, like ‘mother’ instead of ‘daughter’ or ‘yes’ instead of ‘no.’ Or they may make up words, unintentionally repeat themselves, or only be able to say a few words or sounds when they are trying to communicate. Or they may have a hard time understanding what you’re saying.” How to Communicate with Someone with Aphasia Speech pathologists can help relatives and friends work with a loved one who has aphasia and find ways to communicate effectively. Nye recommends keeping these tips in mind: Focus Their Attention If possible, move your conversation to a quiet, well-lit room where there are no distractions. Turn off background disturbances like the radio or television. It’s best to limit conversation to one or two people at the most. Use All Forms of Nonverbal Communication Rather than rely on words, use a wave to say “goodbye” or “hello.” Thumbs up can be used to say “good job” or “yes.” Your facial expressions can show anger, sadness, or elation. Exchange written or drawn messages. Have Patience Sometimes it takes longer for a person with aphasia to communicate. Count to 10 slowly before providing help or choices. Many times it takes that much time or longer for them to get their message out. Confirm Your Understanding After an exchange with your loved one, make sure you understand by verbally repeating or by writing a synopsis of the message’s key points. If they wanted coffee, write “coffee” and draw a picture. Use intonation in your voice when you ask, “You want coffee?” and point to the picture. Have them answer yes or no. Use Technology Computers, smart devices, and other forms of technology can help people with aphasia return to hobbies, read, and converse with others. Icons and emojis can enhance email and social media conversations. Encourage your loved one to listen to audiobooks in addition to reading the print versions. Speech pathologists can also recommend programs that enable your loved one to use word-prediction or speech-to-text capabilities. Get Help Speech pathologists can help people make progress even years after they are originally diagnosed with aphasia, says Nye. “We can help them focus on their strengths and find ways to better engage with family and their community. We can offer tools to help them socialize and have a better quality of life through communication.” Find Aphasia Support Groups There are many groups and resources in the community to support people with aphasia and their families. Nye says a speech-language pathologist is your best resource for identifying groups in your area. To read the original article click here.

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Keto Diet May Reduce Damage from Traumatic Brain Injury

AHA Publisher — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 08:00:34 +0000

Abigail Klein Leichman via Israel21c – Eating a ketogenic diet appears to be beneficial after traumatic brain injury, according to an international study piloted by Tel Aviv University. Traumatic brain injury, which affects some 10 million people every year, can cause physical, cognitive, behavioral and emotional damage and is also a risk factor for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The study indicates that a keto diet improves spatial and visual memory, lowers brain inflammation, causes less neuronal death and slows the rate of cellular aging in injured brains. The study was led by Prof. Chaim (Chagi) Pick, director of TAU’s Sylvan Adams Sports Institute and a member of its Sagol School of Neuroscience, and PhD student Meirav Har-Even Kerzhner, a registered dietitian and brain researcher. The findings were published in Scientific Reports. Har-Even Kerzhner explained that a ketogenic diet aims to mimic a state of fasting. Carbohydrates such as bread, sugar, grains, legumes, pastries and even fruits are significantly restricted, while high-fat foods such as meat, fish, eggs, avocado and butter are encouraged. The diet increases production of ketone bodies, energy-generating molecules produced in the liver when it breaks down fats. The blood carries these ketone bodies to the brain. This diet has been used to treat children with epilepsy for almost 100 years, and more recently has become popular for weight loss. In the study, conducted on brain-damaged mice, the researchers saw that a ketogenic diet greatly improved their brain function compared to a control group fed a standard diet. The findings were unequivocal, Pick said. “These results may open the door to further research that will inspire hope for those suffering from traumatic brain injuries, and their family members.” Researchers from New Jersey and Florida participated in the study. To read the original article click here.

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Blue Light Can Help Heal Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

AHA Publisher — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 04:36:22 +0000

University of Arizona via EurekAlert – The Department of Defense has a vested interest in the new University of Arizona-led research, but the results have implications for civilians as well. Early morning blue light exposure therapy can aid the healing process of people impact by mild traumatic brain injury, according to new research from the University of Arizona. “Daily exposure to blue wavelength light each morning helps to re-entrain the circadian rhythm so that people get better, more regular sleep. This is likely true for everybody, but we recently demonstrated it in people recovering from mild traumatic brain injury, or mTBI. That improvement in sleep was translated into improvements in cognitive function, reduced daytime sleepiness and actual brain repair,” said William D. “Scott” Killgore, psychiatry professor in the College of Medicine – Tucson and lead author on a new study published in the journal Neurobiology of Disease. Mild traumatic brain injuries, or concussions, are often the result of falls, fights, car accidents and sports participation. Among other threats, military personnel can also experience mTBI from exposure to explosive blasts: Shockwaves strike the soft tissue of the gut and push a burst of pressure into the brain, causing microscopic damage to blood vessels and brain tissue, Killgore said. “Your brain is about the consistency of thick Jell-O,” he said. “Imagine a bowl of Jell-O getting hit from a punch or slamming against the steering wheel in a car accident. What’s it doing? It’s absorbing that shock and bouncing around. During that impact, microscopic brain cells thinner than a strand of hair can easily stretch and tear and rip from the force.” Those with a concussion or mTBI can momentarily see stars, become disoriented, or even briefly lose consciousness following the injury; however, loss of consciousness doesn’t always happen and many people who sustain a concussion are able to walk it off without realizing they have a mild brain injury, according to Killgore. Headaches, attention problems and mental fogginess are commonly reported after head injuries and can persist for weeks or months for some people. Few, if any, effective treatments for mTBI exist. The U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command funded the research to find alternatives to medicinal methods of mTBI recovery. “About 50% of people with mTBI also complain that they have sleep problems after an injury,” Killgore said. Recent research has shown that the brain repairs itself during sleep, so Killgore and his co-authors – John Vanuk, Bradley Shane, Mareen Weber and Sahil Bajaj, all from the Department of Psychiatry – sought to determine if improved sleep led to a faster recovery. In a randomized clinical trial, adults with mTBI used a cube-like device that shines bright blue light (with a peak wavelength of 469 nm) at participants from their desk or tables for 30 minutes early each morning for six weeks. Control groups were exposed to bright amber light. “Blue light suppresses brain production of a chemical called melatonin,” Killgore said. “You don’t want melatonin in the morning because it makes you drowsy and prepares the brain to sleep. When you are exposed to blue light in the morning, it shifts your brain’s biological clock so that in the evening, your melatonin will kick in earlier and help you to fall asleep and stay asleep.” People get the most restorative sleep when it aligns with their natural circadian rhythm of melatonin – the body’s sleep-wake cycle associated with night and day. “The circadian rhythm is one of the most powerful influences on human behavior,” Killgore said. “Humans evolved on a planet for millions of years with a 24-hour light/dark cycle, and that’s deeply engrained in all our cells. If we can get you sleeping regularly, at the same time each day, that’s much better because the body and the brain can more effectively coordinate all these repair processes.” As a result of the blue light treatment, participants fell asleep and woke an average of one hour earlier than before the trial and were less sleepy during the daytime. Participants improved their speed and efficiency in brain processing and showed an increase in volume in the pulvinar nucleus, an area of the brain responsible for visual attention. Neural connections and communication flow between the pulvinar nucleus and other parts of the brain that drive alertness and cognition were also strengthened. “We think we’re facilitating brain healing by promoting better sleep and circadian alignment, and as these systems heal, these brain areas are communicating with each other more effectively. That could be what’s translating into improvements in cognition and less daytime sleepiness,” Killgore said. Blue light from computers, smartphones and TV screens often gives blue light a bad rap. But according to Killgore, “when it comes to light, timing is critical. Light is not necessarily good or bad in-and-of-itself. Like caffeine, it all comes down to when you use it. It can be terrible for your sleep if you’re consuming coffee at 10 o’clock at night, but it may be great for your alertness if you have it in the morning.” He and his team plan to continue their research to see if blue light improves sleep quality and how light therapy might affect emotional and psychiatric disorders. Killgore believes that most people, whether injured or healthy, could benefit from correctly timed morning blue light exposure, a theory he hopes to prove for certain in future studies. To read the original article click here.

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Artificial Intelligence-Based Algorithm for Intensive Care of Traumatic Brain Injury

AHA Publisher — Thu, 05 Dec 2019 08:00:49 +0000

University of Helsinki via Newswise – Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant global cause of mortality and morbidity with an increasing incidence, especially in low-and-middle income countries. The most severe TBIs are treated in intensive care units (ICU), but in spite of the proper and high-quality care, about one in three patients dies. Newswise — Patients that suffer from severe TBI are unconscious, which makes it challenging to accurately monitor the condition of the patient during intensive care. In the ICU, many tens of variables are continuously monitored (e.g. intracranial pressure, mean arterial pressure and cerebral perfusion pressure) that indirectly give information regarding the condition of the patient. However, only one variable, such as intracranial pressure, may yield hundreds of thousands of data points per day. Thus, it is impossible for the human brain to comprehend the resulting millions of daily collected data points from all monitored data. This is why researchers at Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) started to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) based algorithm that could help doctors treat patients with severe TBI. At its best, such an algorithm could predict the outcome of the individual patient and give objective data regarding the condition and prognosis of the patient and how it changes during treatment. “A dynamic prognostic model like this has not been presented before. Although this is a proof-of-concept and it will still take some time before we can implement algorithms like this into daily clinical practice, our study reflects how and into what direction modern intensive care is evolving”, says Rahul Raj, Adjunct Professor of Experimental Neurosurgery from HUS and one of the authors of the paper. The algorithms can predict the probability of the patient dying within 30-days with accuracy of 80-85%. “We have developed two separate algorithms. The first algorithm is simpler and is based only upon objective monitor data. The second algorithm is slightly more complex and includes data regarding the level of consciousness, measured by the widely used Glasgow Coma Scale score. As expected, the accuracy of the more complex algorithm is slightly better than for the simpler algorithm. Still, the accuracy of both algorithms is surprisingly good, considering that the simpler model is based upon only three main variables and the more complex upon five main variables”, tells Eetu Pursiainen, Data Scientist from the Analytics and AI Development Department at HUS, one of the authors and main coders of the algorithms. In the future, the algorithms still have to be validated in national and international external datasets. “Finland is one of the world leaders in artificial intelligence solutions in specialized healthcare and Helsinki University Hospital, as one of the largest hospitals in Europe, plays an important role in bringing Finnish excellence into the world. Because of this, we think that it is important act ethically and share our algorithms openly and free of charge for further development, both nationally and internationally”, states Miikka Korja, Chair of the HUS Artificial Intelligence Steering Group and Adjunct Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Helsinki. To read the original article click here.

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Dealing a Therapeutic Counterblow to Traumatic Brain Injury

AHA Publisher — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 07:00:00 +0000

New Jersey Institute of Technology via EurekAlert – To date, there is no effective treatment for restoring damaged neurons. The body’s protective mechanisms also make it difficult to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, which hampers the delivery of medications. A blow to the head or powerful shock wave on the battlefield can cause immediate, significant damage to a person’s skull and the tissue beneath it. But the trauma does not stop there. The impact sets off a chemical reaction in the brain that ravages neurons and the networks that supply them with nutrients and oxygen. It is the secondary effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI), which can lead to long-term cognitive, psychological and motor system damage, that piqued the interest of a team of NJIT biomedical engineers. To counter them, they are developing a therapy, to be injected at the site of the injury, which shows early indications it can protect neurons and stimulate the regrowth of blood vessels in the damaged tissue. The challenge, researchers say, is that brain cells don’t regenerate as well as other tissues, such as bone, which may be an evolutionary strategy for preserving the synaptic connections that retain memories. To date, there is no effective treatment for restoring damaged neurons. The body’s protective mechanisms also make it difficult to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, which hampers the delivery of medications. “Nerve cells respond to trauma by producing excessive amounts of glutamate, a neurotransmitter that under normal conditions facilitates learning and memory, but at toxic levels overexcites cells, causing them to break down. Traumatic brain injury can also result in the activation and recruitment of immune cells, which cause inflammation that can lead to short- and long-term neural deficits by damaging the structure around cells and creating a chronic inflammatory environment,” says Biplab Sarkar, a post-doctoral fellow in biomedical engineering and member of the team that presented this work at a recent American Chemical Society conference. The team’s treatment consists of a lab-created mimic of ependymin, a protein shown to protect neurons after injury, attached to a delivery platform – a strand of short proteins called peptides, contained in a hydrogel – that was developed by Vivek Kumar, director of NJIT’s Biomaterial Drug Development, Discovery and Delivery Laboratory. After injection, the peptides in the hydrogel reassemble at the localized injury site into a nanofibrous scaffold that mimics extracellular matrix, the supporting structure for cells. These soft materials possess mechanical properties similar to brain tissue, which improves their biocompatibility. They promote rapid infiltration by a variety of stem cells which act as precursors for regeneration and may also provide a biomimetic niche to protect them. Now in preclinical animal trials, rats injected with the hydrogel retained twice as many functioning neurons at the injury site as compared to the control group. They also formed new blood cells in the region. “The idea is to intervene at the right time and place to minimize or reverse damage. We do this by generating new blood vessels in the area to restore oxygen exchange, which is reduced in patients with a TBI, and by creating an environment in which neurons that have been damaged in the injury are supported and can thrive,” Kumar says. “While the exact mechanism of action for these materials is currently under study, their efficacy is becoming apparent. Our results need to be expanded, however, into a better understanding of these mechanisms at the cellular level, as well as their long-term efficacy and the resulting behavioral improvements.” Collaborators James Haorah, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, and his graduate student Xiaotang Ma at NJIT’s Center for Injury Biomechanics, Materials and Medicine have shown how a number of TBI-related chemical effects can disrupt and destroy integral brain vasculature in the blood-brain barrier, the brain’s protective border, promoting chronic inflammation that can lead to symptoms such as post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety, among others. Their current work provides insights into the potential neuroprotective and regenerative response guided by the Kumar lab’s materials, while future studies will attempt to analyze other mediators of inflammation and blood flow in the brain. Kumar’s delivery mechanism is a customizable, Lego-like strand made of short proteins called peptides, which are composed of amino acids, with a biological agent attached at one end that can survive in the body for weeks and even months, where other biomaterials degrade quickly. Its self-assembling bonds are designed to be stronger than the body’s dispersive forces; it forms stable fibers, with no signs of inducing inflammation, that rapidly incorporate into specific tissues and collagen, recruiting native cells to infiltrate. The hydrogel, which is also composed of amino acids, is engineered to trigger different biological responses depending on the payload attached. These platforms can deliver drugs and other small cargo over day-, week- or month-long periods. Kumar’s lab has recently published research on applications ranging from therapies to prompt or prevent the creation of new blood vessel networks, to reduce inflammation and to combat microbes. “The ultimate hope is that that localized delivery of regenerative materials may provide significant benefits for a number of pathologies,” he notes. For example, the team recently developed a class of materials that may be useful against infection. These novel anti-microbial peptides are capable of disrupting dense bacterial colonies and have shown promise against a number of yeasts. Additionally, they promote human cell proliferation and are currently being studied for wound healing. That work was published this summer in the journal ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering. Kumar and his lab have created another hydrogel designed to recruit autologous (a person’s own) dental pulp stem cells directly to the disinfected cavity after root canal therapy. The tooth would be regenerated in part by prompting growth of the necessary blood vessels to support the new tissue. Yet another peptide-based therapy, armed with antiangiogenic capabilities, targets diabetic retinopathy, an ocular disease affecting more than 90 million people worldwide. People with the disease form immature blood vessels in the retina, obstructing their vision. The hydrogel can be injected directly into the vitreous gel of the eye, where the peptide interacts with the endothelial cells in the aberrant blood vessels, causing them to die. “Conventional biomaterials used in tissue regeneration suffer from a variety of problems with delivery, retention and biocompatibility, which can lead to rejection by the host,” Kumar says. “We’re trying to address these issues with a technology designed to be universal in its application, delivering materials that persist in the tissue and promote their biologic effects for long periods of time.” To read the original article click here.

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Red Light Therapy: Benefits for Mental Health, Sleeping Issues, Traumatic Brain Injuries, and More!

The AHA! Team — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – It is important to remember, however, that red light therapy can be an incredible tool when it comes to our mental and physical wellbeing, but it should be used as part of a “toolbox” of lifestyle changes if we really want to improve the way our brain and body functions. If you have followed my blogs and podcasts for a while, you will know how much I love my infrared sauna! It is an integral part of my mental self-care routine, especially with my hectic work and travel schedule, and something I recommend to everyone who asks me what I do to stay healthy. In this week’s blog and podcast, we will be discussing red light therapy, which, as numerous studies have shown, is oneway we can help heal and improve our mental, cognitive and physical health. Of course, as I have said many times before, there is no “magic bullet” when it comes to the mind and brain. Living a life of mental self-care means paying attention to all aspects of our mental and physical health, including what we think, what we eat, our sleeping patterns, how much we exercise and so on. And, as part of this balanced, mind-centred approach to living well, red light therapy can be a real plus! Wes, who works at Joovv, a company that sells red-light therapy products, describes red light as the “body’s forgotten nutrient”: it can positively impact the surface of the body, as well our internal health. The company actually began when Wes’ sister Melissa, who suffered from eczema, started using red light therapy to help heal her skin. In just 4 sessions, she noticed dramatic changes, and never looked back. Joovv now sells high quality, affordable, red light therapy products that have helped many people around the world. So, how does red light therapy work? The spectrum of light associated with red light therapy has the unique ability to stimulate our cells, and, in particular, our mitochondria (the power houses of our cells), which creates more energy in the body through increased adenosine triphosphate production, allowing it to function on a higher level. This enhanced mitochondrial function and increased blood flow can potentially lead to reduced inflammation, better sleeping patterns, healthier-looking skin, improved muscle recovery, less joint pain, better moods, enhanced memory and much more! The great thing about red light therapy is that it enhances the way our body functions, rather than adding foreign substances into the body. This is so important in today’s world, which, as Wes notes, is overloaded and overstimulated with unhealthy bright light sources from our many devices and indoor environments, which can upset our circadian rhythm. This, in turn, can have a negative impact on our mental and physical health. Healthy doses of red light, on the other hand, can potentially stimulate our serotonin levels, which can improve our mood and transition us into a para-sympathetic, non-stress state that relaxes the mind and body and can help us recover and regenerate, both mentally and physically, by improving our sleeping patterns, memory, energy levels and so on. Red light therapy can also help heal the brain and body, especially in cases associated with Traumatic brain injuries and memory loss. It does this by stimulating the body’s natural restorative powers, healing tissue damage in a shorter period of time. In fact, a growing body of research (including studies being done by Wes and his team at Joovv) suggests that red light therapy can even improve cognitive function and memory-recovery in people who suffer from Alzheimer’s and the dementias (for more on age-related memory loss and how to prevent it, see my recent blog and podcast on the topic). If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of red light therapy, I highly recommend listening to my full interview with Wes on this week’s podcast. It is important to remember, however, that red light therapy can be an incredible tool when it comes to our mental and physical wellbeing, but it should be used as part of a “toolbox” of lifestyle changes if we really want to improve the way our brain and body functions. This is why, alongside my own research and work, I have teamed up with several great companies that focus on what we put into our bodies, like Four Sigmatic, which creates superfood lattes that can help boost brain function (you can get a 15% discount off your order at foursigmatic.com/DRLEAF, or use coupon code DRLEAF at checkout), and how you use your brain, such as Blinkist, which teaches you key ideas from thousands of bestselling non-fiction books in a short period of time (for free week go to Blinkist see: https://blinkist.com/drleaf). To read the original article click here. To read more articles by Dr. Leaf click here.

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