“What are the best ways to deal with a concussion?”

What you need to know about concussion management (basics)…

Unfortunately there isn’t a universal best way to deal with a concussion. The injury’s severity, location, and pre-existing health of the individual all have to be evaluated and taken into account.

Historically rest was recommended. This recommendation has been significantly changed over time to include a more active recovery within the capabilities of the person – which can be measured.

A couple of big picture ideas that most don’t know include that a concussion generally causes significant energy production problems in the brain, it causes neurological inflammation, and causes both the blood brain barrier and the gut barrier to open up. All these factors are very important in recovery.

The following is part of a blog post on my website about recovery from a concussion…

Here’s the basic, over-simplified changes necessary to begin reducing neurological inflammation and damage.

Reducing neurological inflammation.

Tipping the scales in your favor if you have neurological inflammation with lifestyle changes…

• Sleep. Improve sleep quality and insomnia. Easier said than done sometimes but this likely means reducing pain with the appropriate amount/type of chiropractic care, improving blood sugar problems, addressing sleep apnea, and possibly other issues.
• Diet. In some people, elimination of certain dietary proteins could help. This includes #1 gluten (grains), #2 dairy, #3 corn (a grain), #4 soy, and often others depending upon the specific person. The reason for this is that as mentioned above the barriers of the gut and brain open up quickly following a concussion.
• Exercising consistently at the right intensity, frequency, time (length), and type of exercise for you. The amount and intensity are very important. Each person needs a certain ‘dose‘ where too much intensity or time may cause further problems. This is why someone may feel very bad after exercising, if they drove their nervous system too hard too soon. Conversely, if you don’t do enough then there won’t be any benefit.
• Stress reduction which may include many different things depending upon the person. This is an important and often over-looked part of care that is necessary for so many people.
• Very likely supplementing with various things to help reduce the ongoing problem and to correct damage to the gut and blood brain barriers. The type of supplementation will depend upon the person.
• There’s more and many people have to make other changes depending upon so many different factors that are unique to the individual.

Many people recover well from concussions. The flip side is that many do not. Unfortunately for the average person, they won’t really know which group they are likely to fall into in the early stages. There are signs that a competent healthcare practitioner can identify that can help a person understand their risk and specific things they can and should do to recover.