Category Archives: Brain Injury Treatment

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) - March is Brain Injury Awareness Month. The injury can betraumatic, caused by a blow to the head. Or it can beacquired, caused by an infection or medical condition. The type and length of treatment also varies. It has been a long road towards recovery for Kate Parizek. "I got sick," she recalled. "My friends took me to the hospital and called my mom and dad up and said, guess what? We've got Kate here and we don't know what's wrong with her." In 1991, she was diagnosedwith viral encephalitis. Her brain swelled, causing coordination and memory problems. "It just throws you all off and you don't know if you knew things or didn't know things," said Parizek, "It's just very confusing." Brain injuries can happen to anyone at any age. "The injuries can beminor and they can berecoverable," explained Steve McCarthy, President of N.E.W. Curative. "or can be pretty traumatic and take a long, long time and only see incremental improvement." At N.E.W. Curative, treatment programs are designedaround the individual. "For some people it might be a few months," said McCarthy. "For some people it might be years." Classes often focus on re-establishing the basics … Continue reading →

VIENNA, VA (PRWEB) March 18, 2015 The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) is working to raise awareness about brain injuries by sponsoring Brain Injury Awareness Day on Capitol Hill. Brain Injury Awareness Day, which is hosted by the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force, is an opportunity for people to come to Washington to meet with their legislator to discuss the impact brain injuries have had on their lives. Through this outreach, advocates are working to help legislators understand the need for federally funded TBI programs and research. BIAA leads the nation in observing Brain Injury Awareness Month by conducting an awareness campaign each year during the month of March. The theme for the 2015 to 2017 campaign is: Not Alone. The Not Alone campaign provides a platform for educating the general public about the incidence of brain injury and the needs of people with brain injuries and their families. The campaign also lends itself to outreach within the brain injury community to de-stigmatize the injury, empower those who have survived, and promote the many types of support that are available. People with brain injuries want the same things we all want: to have a job, to have someone to … Continue reading →

BOSTON, Mass. (PRWEB) March 18, 2015 March is National Brain Injury Awareness Month. This year March also marks twenty-five years since neuropsychologist Dr. Diane Roberts Stoler sustained her own brain injury and began her journey back. Determined to get better after doctors told her she was permanently brain damaged, Dr. Diane took over her own rehabilitation. With perseverance, she was able to regain her life and her career by taking an integrative approach to recovery. She now shares her knowledge and methods with other survivors through her writings, speaking engagements, and personal consults. Her latest book, Coping with Concussion and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A Guide to Living with the Challenges Associated with Post Concussion Syndrome and Brain Trauma, covers all aspects of the recovery process and treatment options. I want others to know there is help and hope in the aftermath of brain trauma. I realized what was missing, and really essential to helping others in these situations was clear, concise information. My book provides an easy to understand step-by-step guide to recovery, said Dr. Diane. Most medical professionals lack the proper training to detect symptoms of a brain injury, and dont know the various treatment methods for recovery. … Continue reading →

Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - 9:23am Austin, Texas (Office of Greg Abbott) March is Brain Injury Awareness Month, a time to recognize and support the estimated 2 million Texans living with a brain injury. More than 2.5 million people in the United States sustain traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in the U.S. each year, and 1 million more experience strokes and other acquired brain injuries. At least 5.3 million Americans live with TBI-related disabilities at a cost of more than $76 billion each year. An estimated 144,000 people sustained brain injuries in Texas last year. People living with brain injuries want the same things we all want: a good job, someone to love, a nice home, and fun in their lives. They want to be defined by who they are as people, not by their injuries. They are not alone. Each year, the Brain Injury Association of America Texas Division (BIAA - TX) assists individuals and families who experience the life changing and sometimes devastating effects of brain injury. Callers to our National Brain Injury Information Center (1-800-444-6443) talk with compassionate, knowledgeable specialists who assist in locating rehabilitative, legal, financial, and other support services critical to maximizing recovery. The BIAA Texas … Continue reading →

SALISBURY TWP., Pa. - Little Liam Nagy is a playful undeniable sweet and full of energy. The mother's eyes say it all. This two-year-old is the light of their lives. But in the moments after Liam was born their world almost faded to darkness. "The three words I remembered were brain swelling, posturing and seizures, said Liam's mom, Jeanine Nagy. Little Liam had sustained a brain injury at birth. "There is not only a 50 percent chance of life, but 50 percent chance of disability," Jeanine said. Their doctor told her about a brand new life-saving treatment at Lehigh Valley Hospital. "I just got to hold his little finger and then he was gone," she said. His little head was placed in this cooling cap. Doctors say it's one of the only non-evasive medical interventions that can reduce brain damage and improve an infant's chance of survival. Nagy said it worked wonders for her baby. Liam is now a perfectly healthy 2-year-old. "He has hit every mile stone," Jeanine said. Go here to see the original: Proof Positive: Lauren's Hope Foundation … Continue reading →

IMAGE:This is a brain wiring diagram made by high-definition fiber tracking magnetic resonance imaging (HDFT MRI) of water diffusion. The technique is useful for studies of traumatic brain injury. view more More than 300,000 U.S. veterans have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in recent years, a legacy of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. But these numbers don't tell the whole story. While severe TBI can be obvious, milder cases involving symptoms such as memory loss or inability to concentrate are difficult to confirm and treat. diffusion Advanced imaging of the microscopic motion of water molecules in the brain shows promise for detecting these subtle injuries. A new study of TBI using this diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique will get a quality control boost from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which has been working in collaboration with other organizations for nearly a decade to improve quantitative measures for MRI.* NIST has developed a series of MRI "phantoms" to enable measurements that can be traced to international standards.** Phantoms are stable reference objects designed to mimic human tissue responses to MRI, but in a predictable, repeatable way. They are used to calibrate MRI scanners. As interest … Continue reading →

Scientists at The University of Manchester have made an important new discovery about the brain's immune system that could lead to potential new treatments for stroke and other related conditions. Inflammation is activated in the brain after a stroke, but rather than aiding recovery it actually causes and worsens damage. That damage can be devastating. In fact, stroke is responsible for 10% of deaths worldwide and is the leading cause of disability. Therefore, understanding how inflammation is regulated in the brain is vital for the development of drugs to limit the damage triggered by a stroke. Dr David Brough from the Faculty of Life Sciences, working alongside colleagues including Professors Dame Nancy Rothwell and Stuart Allan, has studied the role of inflammasomes in stroke. These inflammasomes are large protein complexes essential for the production of the inflammatory protein interleukin-1. Interleukin-1 has many roles in the body, and contributes to cell death in the brain following a stroke. Dr Brough explains: "Very little is known about how inflammasomes might be involved in brain injury. Therefore we began by studying the most well researched inflammasome NLRP3, which is known to be activated when the body is injured. Surprisingly we found that this … Continue reading →

March 13, 2015 12:49 PM (Accident victim Candace Gantt with daughters Morgan and Carter, and husband Russ Gantt, at a HUP conference on traumatic brain injuries. Photo by Mike Dougherty) Mike is a general assignment reporter and editor for KYW Newsradio... CBS Philly (con't) Affordable Care Act Updates: CBSPhilly.com/ACA Health News & Information: CBSPhilly.com/Health By Mike Dougherty PHILADELPHIA (CBS) Doctors and patients came together today at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for a conference on traumatic brain injury. One of the main concerns patients have is the gap between rehabilitation, when they are functioning but not at 100 percent, and full recovery. Dr. Douglas Smith says the best way for medical professionals to help is to start with a proper diagnosis. Excerpt from: HUP Doctors and Traumatic Brain Injury Patients Compare Notes on Treatment and Recovery … Continue reading →

A recent study of retired NFL players by Johns Hopkins medical researchers adds to growing evidence linking football with brain damage. The study published last month in the journal Neurobiology of Disease focused on nine retired NFL players, but the results add to a growing body of research and anecdotal accounts associating brain disease with the blows to the head that are a common part of football and other sports. Using an improved brain-imaging technique, Hopkins researchers found evidence of brain injury and repair in the former NFL players while it did not appear in a control group of nine healthy men had who never played professional football. Because of the small number of subjects and lack of consistent results, however, the retired players' cognitive performance tests did not present clear evidence of mental impairment, said the researcher who conducted that part of the study. The sample was also too small to correlate the results of another element of the study, eight cognition tests including measures of word memory, verbal fluency and attention with the images showing damage chiefly in three parts of the brain, the report said. Dr. Jennifer M. Coughlin, the lead project researcher, said the study is … Continue reading →

Columbia Engineering research findings could reduce mandatory rest periods for military personnel exposed to blast injury, enabling them to return to duty faster IMAGE:This image shows increased tight junction immunostaining 1 day after blast injury due to dexamethasone (DEX) treatment. (A) Characteristic staining of the ZO-1 tight junction protein in untreated controls. (B)... view more Credit: Image courtesy of Barclay Morrison III/Columbia Engineering New York, NY--March 11, 2015--Barclay Morrison III, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering, has led the first study to determine underlying biological mechanisms that promote functional recovery of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) after blast injury. The research demonstrates that treatment with the glucocorticoid, dexamethasone, after primary blast injury promotes rapid recovery of an in vitro model of the BBB, a highly restrictive semi-permeable barrier whose primary function is to maintain the brain's microenvironment and protect it from potentially toxic substances. The study is published in the March 11 Advance Online Publication of the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism. "Our research should stimulate renewed clinical interest in developing glucocorticoid therapies to treat blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) and other disorders of the central nervous system," Morrison says. His findings also hold important implications for … Continue reading →