Neurofeedback: The Final Stop On Your Path To Concussion Recovery

Botox, chiropractic manipulation, and pain meds?

If these sound familiar, you may have tried just about every protocol you know to alleviate your concussion symptoms. But, if you’re reading this article, it’s likely you are still symptomatic. 

You may have even felt a glimmer of hope with some short-term recovery, but soon after, your symptoms came back (and worse) and you ended up in the exact same state—this time, less hopeful. 

We know it can feel like the end of the road and it’s tiring to perpetuate a cycle of hope that often leads to disillusionment. But we want you to know that there is a real long-term solution—and it works. It’s called neurofeedback. And it may be just the protocol to help you recover fully, enjoy lasting health and get your life back.

Before we talk about how neurofeedback works, let’s discuss what happened to your brain when you got a concussion so you can fully understand neurofeedback and its benefits.

What Happened When I Got a Concussion?

A concussion is a blow to the head that causes what we call a shearing force in the brain.

The medical dictionary definition of shearing force is: The distortion of a body by two oppositely directed parallel forces. The distortion consists of a sliding over one another of imaginary planes (within the body) parallel to the planes of the forces.

So imagine that during impact, the brain shifts inside your skull. The outer parts of the brain (those wrinkly parts on the outside) are malleable so they’re able to bounce with the impact. The lower parts of the brain, however, are not malleable so they shear (or get worn down) easily. 

When your brain wiring gets worn down, the neurons (brain cells) can misfire and disrupt communication in the brain. 

But, this isn’t the only event that occurs during a concussion. Glutamate (one of your brain chemicals) gets released in excess amounts which drives inflammatory reactions and the death of brain cells. This is when you start experiencing symptoms.

Flu-like Symptoms After Head Trauma? It Could be a Concussion

Did you feel flu-like symptoms after your concussion? Well, it may not have been a virus. 

Your brain contains glial and microglial cells (non-neuronal cells) that act as a support and protection for the nervous system. When you endure a head trauma, these cells go into protection mode thinking they are helping you—but they are doing the opposite.

When you get a concussion, your glial and microglial cells think there is an infection in the brain they need to take care of so they get overactive, which produces excess inflammation.  

Ever bang a body part? The injury swells and gets red. This is your blood plus your body’s inflammatory response which sends fluids and white blood cells to the injured area. Acute inflammation is good; too much inflammation can cause problems. 

So your glial cells are overactive which causes an inflammatory response in the brain. This can make you symptomatic with what feels like the flu: brain fog, fatigue, lack of focus, etc.

Hormonal Symptoms After Head Trauma? The Two Could be Related

When we think about concussions, we often focus only on the head instead of the neck. But, the upper neck will also undergo a force since it is connected to the head and sustains around 1/10 of the impact.

So now, we have a disruption in communication between the brain stem (the base of the brain) and the lower glands inside the brain. These glands are responsible for producing and regulating our hormones. So when the impact hits, it can cause symptoms such as:

• Fertility issues
• Irritability
• Mood swings
• Irregular menstrual cycles
• Problems with temperature regulation
• Lack of focus
• Memory issues
• Lack of energy / weakness
• Lack of libido

These symptoms are typically the cause of imbalance in our sex hormones but concussions can also affect two other steroid hormones, DHEA and cortisol, which balance each other to manage stress and inflammation. 

So you can see how concussions not only cause symptoms like headaches, but a host of others that can steal the quality of your life and make finding a solution kind of like a treasure hunt (with the treasure hidden deep beneath the ground). 

There is hope…read on..

The One-Two Punch For Treating Concussions (With Lasting Results)

Have you had a CAT Scan? An MRI? While those tests can show changes in the structure of the brain, they do not tell us the function of your brain. Structure and function are entirely different.

In fact, your brain structure could be intact and you could receive a clean bill of health after an MRI, but you still may be symptomatic. This is because you are not addressing the function of your brain. 

How do you get a functional analysis of your brain? 

With a tool called Quantitative Electroencephalography (qEEG), we can get a functional brain map and see how your brain functions in comparison to someone your age and gender.

This is where real recovery begins.

There’s really no cure for concussion because its symptoms can manifest differently from individual to individual. This is why we need to see how your brain is functioning, so we can help you, the individual, and not just focus only on your concussion. Quantitative EEG allows us to pinpoint what systems need attention and what therapies will help you recover—once and for all.

Neurofeedback reorganizes the brain

Neurofeedback is a non-invasive, effective technique that trains the brain and teaches it to function more efficiently. Once we get a comprehensive assessment of what’s going on in your brain and body via qEEG and other tests, we use neurofeedback to reorganize your brain. 

When we say reorganize, we’re not talking about the same way you would reorganize your closet. Although that’s always a fun brain exercise!

We are talking about how concussions can shear (wear down) your brain wiring which leads to disrupted communication and misfiring. Reorganizing the brain simply means that we are teaching it how to communicate again.

You may have heard of (or even tried) therapies such as Botox, pain medications, or chiropractic manipulation. These may help with pain in the short-term but if you do not teach the brain how to reorganize so it stops misfiring, you won’t get long-term relief. 

Neurofeedback is also the gift that keeps on giving because it teaches the nervous system how to self-regulate! Your brain learns how to work again (on its own) without being dependent on external assistance. 

And the best part? As long as you don’t hit your head again, the effects of neurofeedback are permanent (yes, we said permanent!). As your brain continues to reorganize, everything starts to come back into balance—your sleep, emotions, memory, energy, digestion, focus—once the brain starts to regulate correctly again, symptoms improve automatically.

Get Lasting Results With Neurofeedback

Give hope one last try… 

No more Googling for answers (an exercise in futility) or wondering if anyone out there actually understands what you are going through. You are not alone. 

Brain-based symptoms require brain-based solutions. With neurofeedback, we can get to the root of the problem and look at what is going on in your unique body, so you can come back into balance and get the results you are hoping for.