A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury. The aftermath of a concussion can lead to headaches and dizziness that lasts for months to over a year. This complex disorder is known as post-concussion-syndrome. The symptoms of concussions and the prolonged recovery time can lead to behavioral health issues such as anxiety, confusion, and depression.
Three NFL deaths have been linked to suicide following post-concussion syndrome. Through applied kinesiology post-concussion syndrome can be treated to alleviate inflammation and bring faster healing to the brain.
WHAT’S HAPPENING INSIDE YOUR HEAD
Inflammation must be managed with a brain injury. A simple way to self-test for brain inflammation is to take an anti-inflammatory medication. If symptoms temporarily alleviate this test proves the presence of inflammation in the brain. Omega 6 promotes inflammation and omega 3 decreases it. If this self-test shows positive for inflammation then the omega 6 resolver and cascade is in full force.
Omega 6 is one of our body’s natural coping mechanics for response to pain and injury. When your body is at full health and functioning optimally omega 6 responds to acute distress and turns on. Omega 3’s then respond to shut omega 6 back down. Inflammation becomes an issue when the body does not shut back off the omega 6 resolver, this is due to an imbalance in the body, an over abundance of omega 6 and not enough omega 3.
Let’s relate this process to cooking in order to better illustrate and understand the relationship between omega 6 and omega 3.
Let me present a picture of boiling water on the stove top. In an optimal situation where everything is functioning normally, the stove top burner gets turned on under the pot of water. The fire is neither good nor bad in this situation. It is simply a tool to bring water to a boil. The flame gets turned on as needed to accomplish a goal. The flame gets shut of once the water has been brought to the desired temperature. Omega 6 should act as that flame. It gets turned on in response to an acute injury and ideally should get shut back off.
But what if the flame is unbalanced in that cooking scenario and your body lacks the proper balance of omega 3 to shut the flame down? The burner on the stove does not get shut off, the kitchen catches fire, and you call the fire department to come put the fire out. In this scenario, pain reliving medication is taken to shut off the omega 6 response; the fire is put out.
What happens if the fire still persists after medication? That kitchen fire spreads to a house fire that spreads to the rest of the buildings on the block. At this point you are in serious trouble. The situation is akin to taking 800mg of Pain Reliever and still experiencing pain.
TAMING BRAIN INFLAMMATION
Let’s discuss how we can combat that inflammation and create an optimal environment. The best way to begin this process is internally through diet. Begin by eliminating consumption of foods that are high in omega 6 such as wheat, rice, oats, millet, and all grains. Eliminate sugar consumption as it is high in omega 6 and strips essential minerals away from the body. One of the minerals it robs the body of is magnesium, which is essential for proper inflammatory regulation.
Eliminate cooking with oils that are liquid at room temperature and introduce coconut oil, butter, or lard.
Grain-fed meats are loaded with Omega 6, as much as possible, eliminate these and opt for grass-fed alternatives. Farm-raised fish are heavy carriers of Omega 6. Eliminate these and opt for wild.
To create a good internal environment that combats inflammation eat a diet of grass-fed meats, vegetables (no potatoes), and fruit. This will create a prime internal environment for reduction of inflammation. See my diet page for further information.
Supplements can play an important role to help balance your body’s omegas. It’s best to see your AK to discover which supplements will be most beneficial; she can then muscle test supplements to help establish which will be effective to fight inflammation. This reduces waste caused by taking unnecessary and costly supplements and also reduces the risk of further throwing off your body’s biochemistry caused by taking unneeded supplements. The supplements your AK may test on you could include the following; cod liver oil, tuna omega 3, magnesium, sesame seed oil, black current seed oil, Spanish black radish, garlic, boswellia, ginger, turmeric, curcumin, and zinc. These help establish proper cofactor and co enzymes to have the winning chemical cascade for omega 3 pathway.
Omega 3 is great for head trauma because you have a fat head! Yes, your brain 60% fatty acids. Any time that there is trauma to an area it’s important to give that area the building blocks needed to heal and repair.
HOW YOUR AK CAN HELP
Now that we’ve explored what steps you can take to create a better omega balance internally in order to fight inflammation, lets take a look at the work your AK can do to fight inflammation and treat post-concussion syndrome.
Sometimes neck trauma is associated with the concussion, similar to a whiplash injury. Often times neck trauma causes headaches as the neck muscles are unbalanced. Some of the muscles in the neck are “on” and the opposite are “off”. The ones that are left “on” are doing all the work for both sets of muscles. Getting those “off” muscles to turn back on is different than exercising them. The fuse is blown and needs to be turned on with manual therapy to the muscles and or an adjustment to the spine.
It’s important to check the muscle’s origin, where the muscle inserts, to ensure the muscle ends have not pulled away from the bone. If so, the muscles can be stimulated back onto the bone, this also turns that muscle back “on” to functioning.
When treating concussions your Applied Kinesiologist can check for an ocular lock. This is often the source of visual disturbances associate with the concussion. Each eye must be muscle tested. By muscle testing an arm while directing the patient to set their eyes in varying directions we can test ocular muscles. A weak ocular lock will trip the circuit causing an immediate feedback signaling that your body doesn’t like that particular eye position. Each one of these eye position correlates with a particular area in your spine to reset each eye movement.
If a patient complains of dizziness or spinning sensations associated with their concussion an AK can help relieve this by adjusting the ear so the estuation tube can properly drain out and decrease pressure which can help relieve dizziness.
In treating concussion symptoms it may be important to treat the nervous system as an injury can cause the nervous system threshold to get reset to a new marker. For example, it typically takes one pound of pressure to obtain a reflex response when your knee is tested. With one pound of pressure we can hit your knee and expect an involuntary kick. When the threshold has been reset due to an injury, that knee’s reflex response may now have the same response at only a quarter pound of pressure. This is an example of a new reset point. A body that has been through trauma is overly sensitive and over reactive. You need to go to an Applied Kinesiologist that can help you to reset this overly sensitive nervous system back to its original set point.
With any concussion or with post-concussion syndrome it is important to get in to see your Applied Kinesiologist to get back on the road to healing. By combining a proper anti-inflammation diet with AK treatment one can reduce and resolve post-concussion syndrome returning once a gain to a path of health and wellness.