Concussions | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
Post-concussion syndrome occurs when concussion symptoms persist for weeks, months, or years after sustaining a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Typically when someone hears post-concussion syndrome they think, “Can this condition be treated?”If you or a loved one received a post-concussion syndrome (PCS) diagnosis, you're probably wondering if it's treatable.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Brain Safety & Care | Education & Resources
Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning can lead to severe long-term cognitive, physical, and behavioral symptoms, such as problems with memory, difficulty concentrating, balance issues, and mental health problems. Symptoms can continue even when the source of the gas is removed. Patients affected by CO poisoning can experience symptoms for months or even years after exposure.
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Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Education & Resources
Most patients with COVID-19 recover within a few days or weeks after a brief acute infection. However, about 10% experience long-term symptoms such as brain fog, fatigue, headaches, shortness of breath, and even psychological issues like depression and anxiety. Experiencing these persistent symptoms is known as long COVID, long-haul COVID or post-acute sequelae of SARS-Cov-2 infection (PASC).
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Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Education & Resources
At the moment, treatment options for long COVID patients are limited. Many patients cope with their symptoms using existing medications or treatments targeting specific symptoms like headaches or sleep problems, but these efforts are just stopgaps. They don’t actually resolve the underlying cause of symptoms associated with long COVID. Researchers know there is a growing need to identify new and effective treatments for these patients.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Brain Safety & Care | Post Concussion Treatment
After a concussion or other type of traumatic brain injury (TBI), some patients experience persistent symptoms for months, or even years. This condition is known as post-concussion syndrome (PCS), and it can affect patients of any age.
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Brain Safety & Care | Education & Resources | Traumatic Brain Injury
“Post-traumatic brain injury syndrome” refers to long-term repercussions from concussions and other head injuries. Someone using this term could be referring to one of three conditions:
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Brain Injury Awareness | Other
Loss of taste and smell featured heavily in the news during the COVID-19 pandemic as one of the first signs of infection. But this is not the only condition that may lead to loss of smell. You could also experience this symptom after a traumatic brain injury (TBI), whether it was a mild TBI (concussion) or a severe head injury.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions
Headaches. Dizziness. Brain fog. Constant fatigue. Feeling overwhelmed or like your emotions can’t stabilize. These and so many other symptoms can remain for months, or even years, after a concussion. If you feel like your recovery is excruciatingly slow, you’re not alone. Up to 30% of people who suffer a concussion experience persistent symptoms for months or years later.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
After suffering a mild traumatic brain injury, you might expect to feel off for a few days before being able to function at your normal level again. However, a rapid return to normal is not the case for everybody. If symptoms like headache, dizziness, neck pain, fatigue, trouble concentrating, insomnia, or mood changes linger for weeks or months after your concussion, you may be suffering from post-concussion syndrome (PCS).
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Brain Injury Awareness | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
Many hospitals offer robust medical treatment to help patients survive traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). It’s common for those same hospitals, or affiliated care providers, to offer rehabilitation to patients after the danger of death has passed. These rehabilitation services often focus on activities of daily living (walking, dressing yourself, eating, etc.). It’s less common to find appropriate rehabilitative medical care for long-lasting symptoms following TBI.
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Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Education & Resources
Long COVID symptoms such as fatigue, muscle weakness, joint pain, poor endurance, and respiratory problems can have a significant impact on your daily routine. Some long COVID patients’ symptoms are so severe that they need a reduced work schedule or are no longer working due to their illness. Persistent symptoms can follow both mild COVID and cases that required treatment in the ICU.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Brain Safety & Care
Neural fatigue can develop after any type of brain injury, including mild traumatic brain injury (concussion), severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), hypoxia, viral infection, stroke, or transient ischemic attack. It might surface immediately or after some time and can last for months or even years. It can also develop in patients with neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and dementia.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Traumatic Brain Injury
As you read this text, your brain is processing the incoming visual information and sending directions to your eyes so they maintain focus on what you want to read. But if you have post-traumatic vision syndrome (PTVS) and your eyes do not work together efficiently, you may have a hard time keeping track of what you’re reading and develop a headache from your efforts. You may have also noticed that everyday activities that should be automatic — like reaching for an object, driving, or going shopping — require more effort.
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COVID-19 can affect the autonomic and central nervous systems. It can affect organ systems directly through infection or indirectly via dysfunction in the nervous system. That means a host of crazy-sounding symptoms — such as blood pressure changes, memory and attention issues, and gastrointestinal upset — are possible during and after COVID. But many of the lingering, post-COVID symptoms are related to nervous system dysfunction.
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When most people think of COVID-19 symptoms, they often recall the most common acute symptoms: brain fog, sore throat, congestion, headaches, and the like. What many don’t know is that long COVID can affect your vision for months after contracting the illness.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
Many people are surprised to learn that concussions can have long-term effects if left untreated. Chronic concussion syndrome is a less common term for persistent post-concussion symptoms (also known as post-concussion syndrome, or PCS). If you suffer from headaches, brain fog, vision issues, fatigue, short-term memory problems, irritability, feelings of overwhelm, or other persistent symptoms after a head injury, you might have chronic concussion syndrome.
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Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Education & Resources
Long COVID is real. Data shared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from the Household Pulse Survey (July/August 2022) show that more than 40% of adults in the United States have had COVID-19, and nearly one in three of them (approximately 30%) experience symptoms for more than three months after their original acute infection. Not all patients with long COVID are severely affected, but the report estimates that two to four million Americans are currently unable to work because of persistent COVID symptoms.
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Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Education & Resources
Memory and attention problems are common in long COVID patients: A recent study showed that 70% of COVID long haulers experience memory and concentration difficulties for months after their initial disease. If you’re one of them, you might struggle to focus on work, forget where you left your keys, struggle to remember an acquaintance’s name, or space out unintentionally during a conversation.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Education & Resources
COVID-19 can cause cognitive symptoms in some patients, such as short-term memory loss, difficulties concentrating, problems recalling words, and brain fog (a condition known as long COVID). While most initial studies focused on patients hospitalized with severe COVID symptoms, it became apparent that most long COVID patients developed their condition after only a mild case of COVID.
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Traumatic Brain Injury
Headache pain is the most common symptom after a traumatic brain injury, with up to 90% of patients experiencing this symptom for at least a few days after suffering a concussion. These headaches can also develop after other causes of head trauma, such as bacterial and viral brain infections, carbon monoxide poisoning, “chemo” brain, transient ischemic attack, and COVID-19.
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Brain Safety & Care | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
After headaches, dizziness is the second most common symptom patients experience after a concussion. Although this symptom often resolves by itself, it becomes persistent and debilitating for some patients. If patients experience dizziness or other concussion symptoms for more than three months, they may have post-concussion syndrome (PCS).
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Brain Injury Awareness | COVID | Education & Resources
More than 20 million Americans have lingering symptoms that can be described as long COVID (or “post-COVID conditions”), but doctors and scientists are still researching why it develops. As a result, these patients often struggle to get a diagnosis and find a suitable treatment for their condition.
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Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Education & Resources
If you’ve been experiencing headaches for weeks, or even months, after your initial COVID infection, you are not alone. Headaches are one of the most common neurological symptoms being experienced by COVID-19 long-haulers, and some patients even experience daily, persistent headaches. But they’re often just one of many symptoms long COVID patients report. Other common symptoms include fatigue, brain fog, gastrointestinal issues, and more.
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Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Education & Resources | Youth
When the pandemic started, we were told that children wouldn’t be seriously affected by the virus. And while most children only experience a mild version of the disease, evidence shows that some children are at risk of developing persistent symptoms after their initial COVID-19 infection.
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Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
If you’ve experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI), it’s natural to want to know how long and how difficult your recovery is going to be. There are so many factors affecting recovery time — such as the specifics of the injury, gender, treatment options, and more. Remember, the length and extent of your recovery is unique to you. Recovery stories vary even between patients with similar injuries.
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Concussions | Education & Resources | Traumatic Brain Injury
Head injuries vary wildly in severity. You could suffer anything from debilitating brain damage to a few days of feeling “off” before returning to normal. You might suffer a moderate traumatic brain injury and feel no lasting effects, or suffer from persistent symptoms after “just” a mild TBI.
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Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Education & Resources
More than two years since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the list of symptoms caused by the virus keeps getting longer. In addition to the most common symptoms of a persistent dry cough, fever, and shortness of breath, many patients experience an array of seemingly random body changes both during and after the acute phase of the disease. We’ll discuss a number of them, including but not limited to:
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Post Concussion Treatment
Have you ever caught yourself holding your breath while doing something challenging? Or feeling lightheaded and breathing faster when you stand up after sitting for a long time? Maybe you often have rosy cheeks without a reasonable cause, like exercise.
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Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Education & Resources
Your heart races when you stand. You hate the dizzy spells. Your head hurts, you’re exhausted, and you can’t think clearly like you used to.
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Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Education & Resources
Fatigue is a common symptom of viral infection, and having fatigue with a COVID-19 infection is no exception. But the severity and longevity of that fatigue is what sets COVID-19 apart from the common cold or even the flu. You might…
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Post Concussion Treatment
Diagnosing a concussion can be a challenging process. There is no definitive test to confirm the diagnosis with 100% certainty. Instead, doctors often rely on subjective descriptions of symptoms and simple neurological examinations to check systems such as vision, balance, and cognition.
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Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Education & Resources
Many patients have heard of the most common long-term effects of COVID-19: symptoms such as breathing issues, brain fog, and constant fatigue. But there is mounting evidence that COVID-19 may also affect sexual health negatively in both men and women. Men who hadn’t previously had problems of this nature have started developing erectile dysfunction (ED) after their COVID-19 infection.
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Most people who get infected with the coronavirus recover within a few weeks. However, some continue to experience symptoms weeks or even months after they are infected. They have what are known as long-haul symptoms of COVID-19. As such, they are sometimes called COVID-19 long-haulers. Sometimes, even patients who had a mild or asymptomatic coronavirus infection can become long-haulers.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Patient Stories
You’d think a family of eight with the foresight to pull their children out of school earlier than the rest of the nation would be safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, seven out of the eight family members contracted the coronavirus at the very beginning of the pandemic, back when testing was frustratingly difficult to obtain, and our knowledge about the disease was limited.
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Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Education & Resources
While recovering from COVID-19, you may find yourself getting breathless easily from activities that didn’t used to tire you, like carrying laundry or walking up the stairs.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Education & Resources
Concussions, a type of traumatic brain injury (TBI), pose potentially significant health issues no matter their severity. Despite this, as many as five in 10 concussions aren’t reported or detected.
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Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Education & Resources
If you’ve been feeling fuzzy-headed and have been struggling to concentrate since you’ve had COVID-19, you’re not alone. Even months after the disease, some patients still can’t shake the feeling that their brain is lost in a maze. Many describe it as walking through a fog, unable to see where they’re going.
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Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Education & Resources
A growing body of scientific evidence suggests some COVID-19 patients will experience neurological signs or symptoms of the infection. Genetic material from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has been found in the cerebrospinal fluid of a person with COVID-19. And the virus has been found in the brain tissue of patients who died of COVID-19, which suggests it can affect the nervous system.
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Living with the lingering symptoms of a concussion for months or even years is life-changing. Patients with post-concussion syndrome (PCS) can feel worthless, misunderstood, lonely, and frustrated. In fact, almost half of these patients develop anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems. Even if patients don’t develop these conditions, many still struggle with negative thoughts and emotions in their daily lives.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
Have you ever gotten stuck in a task, set it aside for a while, and then discovered that it somehow seemed easy when you came back to it? If so, you’ve experienced the power of strategic breaks to re-energize your brain. If you’re recovering from a traumatic brain injury, these breaks play a vital role in revitalizing your brain throughout the day.
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If you’re constantly struggling to find the right words to finish a sentence or express your ideas clearly in a conversation, it’s easy to become frustrated and angry.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Education & Resources | Mental Health Support After a Brain Injury | Post Concussion Treatment
Sustaining a traumatic brain injury can be a challenging experience. You probably felt angry, demoralized, helpless, and even hopeless in the days following your injury. For some people, these feelings eventually subside and disappear — but that didn't happen for you.
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Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Education & Resources
Even after you've recovered from the acute symptoms of COVID-19, you might find yourself struggling with short-term memory loss, concentration issues, and other cognitive symptoms. If it's been weeks (or even months) since you had COVID-19, it can feel like there is no reason why you should still feel this way. These lingering symptoms after initial recovery from COVID-19 have become known as “long COVID” and can have a debilitating effect on your life.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
If you’ve been struggling with lingering symptoms after a brain injury and even a mild jog is enough to trigger misery, then you might flinch at the idea of high-intensity interval training as a recovery method. But there is a way to exercise while keeping your symptom levels down.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Post Concussion Treatment
If you have post-concussion syndrome (PCS), then you likely know how difficult it is to get an accurate diagnosis and comprehensive treatment. Many medical doctors don’t have the resources to treat PCS effectively, or they rely exclusively on pharmaceuticals that help some symptoms while making others worse. So when you find a healthcare provider who (a) actually knows what post-concussion syndrome is, and (b) claims to treat it, then it’s worth following up.
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Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment | Youth
It’s normal for kids to get bumps and bruises when playing and participating in sports, but it’s always worrisome when your child hits their head. How serious is it? Could they have a concussion? Do they need to see a doctor?
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Brain Injury Awareness | Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Post Concussion Treatment
Many people have neck pain after a concussion or whiplash injury. It may show up immediately after your injury or weeks to months afterward. That pain may involve stiffness, tension, sharp pain, and pain associated with certain movements or behaviors (e.g., looking at your phone). The pain may feel deep or superficial.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
Tingling hands following a concussion (mild traumatic brain injury, or mTBI) might sound relatively minor, but for anyone who’s had the misfortune to experience this symptom, it can be painful, puzzling, and disruptive to daily activities.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Brain Safety & Care | Car Accident | Post Concussion Treatment
Receiving a concussion (a mild type of traumatic brain injury) in a car accident can be an extremely traumatic experience, regardless of whether you were at fault.
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Concussions | Education & Resources | Healthy Food & Habits | Post Concussion Treatment
Many doctors’ first response to a concussion is to recommend resting in a dark room until symptoms go away. And if that doesn’t work (and it won’t for up to 30% of post-concussion patients), their next step is often to prescribe medications for the symptoms that haven’t gone away.
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Education & Resources | Mental Health Support After a Brain Injury
Post-concussion syndrome is an “invisible” illness.
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Education & Resources
Following concussions and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), impaired vision and vision-related symptoms are common. Signs and common symptoms include blurred vision, light sensitivity, light-related headaches, eye movement issues, and more.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Post Concussion Treatment
Any head injury — including concussion — can cause symptoms that last for years after the injury. Up to 30% of post-concussion patients experience symptoms beyond the expected three-month recovery window. Other types of brain injury, such as severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), transient ischemic attack (TIA), certain viral or bacterial illnesses, carbon monoxide poisoning, surgery, and chemical exposure can result in lingering symptoms, too.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
The type of head injury doctor you need to see depends on the type of injury you’ve experienced and how long ago the injury occurred. Doctors who excel at concussion treatment, for example, are often not the doctors you would see for a skull fracture.
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Adult | Car Accident | Life After EPIC Treatment | Patient Stories | Post Concussion Treatment
If you’ve ever felt like you were suffering alone with a traumatic brain injury (TBI), you may find it reassuring to learn you’re definitely not alone.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
Brain injury recovery is hard. The severity of your injury, which parts of your brain were affected, and how they were affected, all factor into things such as how much you can recover and how long it will take.
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Concussions | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
Post-concussion syndrome, also known as persistent post-concussion symptoms (PPCS), occurs when concussion symptoms persist for months or years after you sustain a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) or another type of brain trauma. If you or a loved one received a post-concussion syndrome (PCS) diagnosis, you're probably wondering if it's treatable. (Short answer: yes!) You may also want to know how long recovery takes, what you can do to alleviate symptoms, and whether what you're experiencing is "normal." We treat hundreds of post-concussion patients every year and regularly answer these questions for our patients. This guide will help you understand post-concussion syndrome in depth by answering a number of questions, including:
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Education & Resources | Traumatic Brain Injury
When people think of concussion symptoms, they often think of the obvious ones: headaches, drowsiness, fogginess. What they don’t expect are gastrointestinal issues.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Post Concussion Treatment
If you’ve experienced a concussion or traumatic brain injury, you may already know that a bewildering array of symptoms can occur days, months, and even years after the injury.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
Severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), concussion (mild traumatic brain injury or mTBI), and other head trauma can cause high blood pressure, low blood pressure, and other circulatory system changes. Head injury may lead to dysfunction in the autonomic nervous system (a condition known as dysautonomia), which in turn can cause blood pressure dysfunction and other symptoms to persist for months or years after the injury. Some patients experience a particular type of dysautonomia known as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which we discuss further in the post.
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Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
Perhaps this sounds familiar: You wake up from a relaxing nap expecting to feel refreshed, but instead, your heart is pounding for no reason. Or you stand up after a few hours on the couch and feel lightheaded and unstable. Maybe your resting heart rate is now 90, even though it used to be 65.
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Life After EPIC Treatment | Patient Stories | Post Concussion Treatment | Young Adult
Health care providers often set low expectations after a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). When patients exceed those expectations, it’s cause for joy. At the same time, it’s disheartening to be caught up in an endless litany of “can’t.”
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Education & Resources | Traumatic Brain Injury
If you’ve had a severe or mild traumatic brain injury (severe TBI or mild TBI) that’s left you with post-concussion syndrome (PCS), just thinking can be taxing. Cognitive health is “the ability to clearly think, learn, and remember,” but a brain injury can disrupt these processes, either temporarily or in the long term. This can make day-to-day functioning a challenge, to say the least.
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Education & Resources | Mental Health Support After a Brain Injury | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
Mild or severe traumatic brain injury (concussion and TBI) can cause upsetting changes to your mental health. Brain injury can worsen pre-existing mental illness or cause new symptoms — such as anxiety, depression, mood swings, anger, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and more. Don’t give up hope: There are good treatment programs that can help you recover.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Brain Safety & Care | Education & Resources | Life After EPIC Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
The fight with cancer is difficult enough, so it’s understandable if you’re frustrated and confused by the cognitive symptoms that can crop up after chemotherapy. Memory problems? Clouded thinking? Fatigue? No thanks!
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If someone you love breaks their wrist, it’s easy to know what’s next. A doctor will tell you how long the injury needs to heal, what to do, and what not to do. Helping out could mean braiding hair or carrying books. While it’s not a fun experience for anyone involved (and you might tire of being on dish duty every night), there’s always an end in sight. No one struggles to understand why they’re in pain from a broken wrist.
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
Dizziness. Nausea. Balance problems. Car-sickness. These are a few of the unpleasant symptoms of vestibular dysfunction after a head injury. Fortunately, they don’t have to be permanent; most patients make rapid improvement with a good therapist.
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Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
Recovering from a head injury is an emotional, difficult journey whether you’re male or female. On that journey, women face a few hurdles that men do not. Today, we’d like to talk about those hurdles and a few ways you can handle them as they come.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Brain Safety & Care | Education & Resources | Traumatic Brain Injury
Here’s something you probably won’t hear in the emergency room: A transient ischemic attack (TIA, or mini-stroke) can have symptoms that last for months or years afterward. Many healthcare providers think these symptoms are rare or at least short term, but a 2013 survey from the UK Stroke Association showed otherwise. Seventy percent of respondents reported long-term after effects such as cognitive difficulties or poor mobility. And sixty percent had emotional changes after the incident.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
Neurofeedback is a confusing topic for patients to decipher on their own. Many clinics use big words and brief explanations, and they claim that neurofeedback can cure any number of conditions, from ADHD to post-concussion syndrome.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Brain Safety & Care | Healthy Food & Habits | Post Concussion Treatment
What you eat affects your health, whether you’ve sustained a traumatic brain injury or are in perfect health. But nutrition is especially important after a brain injury. Diet can be the difference between your brain getting “just enough to squeak by” vs. being powered up for healing.
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
Dry needling and acupuncture can help relieve certain post-concussion symptoms. They are not a cure-all, either for acute concussion or post-concussion syndrome, but if you suffer from headaches, neck and back pain, or nausea, keep reading.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Education & Resources | Traumatic Brain Injury
At our post-concussion treatment clinic, patients sometimes present with short- or long-term hormone dysfunction after brain injury. While we don’t treat hormonal imbalance at our clinic, we often make referrals for it and communicate with our patients’ physicians about their condition.
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Brain Safety & Care | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
Oxygen is good for the brain. A lack of oxygen is bad for the brain. So is getting more than normal levels of oxygen better for the brain?
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Brain Injury Awareness | Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Education & Resources
Low energy, difficulty concentrating, brain fog, anxiety, depression, memory problems...
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Education & Resources | Healthy Food & Habits
Some doctors say it’s absolutely unsafe to drink liquor when you’re recovering from a concussion. Others say it’s safe, but it might set back your recovery. Still others say, “Why not substitute a fancy coffee for your favorite cocktail on your next night out?” (Please don’t do this. We’ll explain why later in this post.)
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Brain Injury Awareness | Brain Safety & Care | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
Persistent symptoms after a head injury (post-concussion syndrome) can be confusing. They don’t always seem like problems an injured brain should cause. Symptoms like memory problems, trouble reading, or light sensitivity make sense; your brain is closely involved in those processes.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Life After EPIC Treatment | Patient Stories | Post Concussion Treatment
“It’s like there’s molasses in my brain.”
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
What should you do when your concussion symptoms don’t go away?
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Brain Safety & Care | Cognitive FX News | Education & Resources | Life After EPIC Treatment
The Hariri lab at Duke University recently published a review that questions the reliability of task-based fMRI as used to examine individual patients.
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Brain Safety & Care | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
Between 80,000-90,000 of people who suffer traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) each year develop long-term disabilities related to their TBI. Many others suffer from a variety of long-term, problematic symptoms that continue to interfere with their lives. When they try to get help for these issues, they are often told there’s nothing more that can be done — or worse, that there’s nothing wrong with them at all. Here’s the good news: Recovery can and does continue for patients who find the right help.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
Anxiety. Depression. Irritability. Dramatic mood swings. Difficulty sleeping and concentrating.
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
There is a whole world of hurt and pain for patients who experience mental health symptoms after a concussion. Not all of them realize that concussions can cause anxiety, and those who do know it don’t know why it’s happening or how to fix it. Many visit psychiatrists who prescribe medication that may just make things worse (something we’ll explain in depth later in the post).
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Concussions | Mental Health Support After a Brain Injury | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
“No one ever told me my concussion could cause depression.”
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Brain Safety & Care | COVID | Education & Resources
It should come as no surprise that COVID-19 — both the illness itself and all the situational changes that come with the coronavirus pandemic — is messing with our minds. Many people are experiencing heightened anxiety in response to the pandemic, and not just people who have experienced anxiety before.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Brain Safety & Care | Education & Resources | Traumatic Brain Injury
Many viral and bacterial infections are capable of affecting the brain and causing widespread dysfunction that may outlast the acute disease symptoms. Patients with long-term symptoms after viral encephalitis or meningitis may suffer from fatigue, headaches, difficulty concentrating, sleep issues, memory problems, emotional changes, and more.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Education & Resources | Traumatic Brain Injury
Note: While this quiz will give you some insight into your current conditions, your results are only as good as your answers. It is not a substitute for seeing a doctor and is not official medical advice. If you’re experiencing any of the signs of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), seek medical attention immediately. Otherwise, feel free to use this quiz as a starting point to determine if you need further care. Also note that, while we may record your responses, it is not linked with any personally-identifying information.
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
There is no exact time frame for recovering from a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), otherwise known as a concussion. The majority of people who sustain an acute concussion recover within a few weeks. For a small percentage, however, concussion symptoms persist for weeks, months, or even years after their brain injury. This condition, known as post-concussion syndrome (PCS), leaves frustrated patients searching for answers and concussion treatment options that might help.
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
[Note: This article was written during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We recommend that you check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for travel advisories and health information when making travel decisions.]
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"All I remember is hearing screeching and then blackness," Anthony Loubet said as he talked about the car accident that changed his life.
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Brain Safety & Care | Education & Resources | Mental Health Support After a Brain Injury | Post Concussion Treatment
If you’ve had a concussion (or two, or three … ), there’s a good chance someone told you to rest in a dark room and do nothing until your symptoms go away. But research over the past few years has revealed that resting in a dark room (known as “cocooning”) is not the best way to treat a concussion.
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
We can all agree that nausea is terrible. If it’s a one-time thing because you ate expired yogurt, well, it’s not the end of the world — you’ll be back to normal in a day or two. But nausea that lasts for days? Or comes back every time you exercise? It’s awful.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
The topic of football concussions is a controversial one. If you’re a football player worried about the long-term health of your brain, it can be confusing to wade through all the information out there. Opinions range anywhere from people claiming that all the worry about football concussions is ruining the game to those who want to ban tackle football, for children (since kids who play tackle football sustain 15 times more head impacts than children who play flag football, according to the CDC).
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
Modern traditional medicine has transformed the way we diagnose and treat disease and injury. And in most cases, it is extremely effective. But it doesn’t always provide the solutions patients need to improve their quality of life, especially when they suffer from poorly characterized ailments (such as unexplained chronic pain, fibromyalgia, or movement disorders).
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
If you’re struggling to recover after a brain injury, dealing with healthcare providers is often a frustrating process. Unless you have a clear, severe injury, they might be dismissive of your symptoms or just may not have enough treatment options to help you. Oftentimes, they’ll order an MRI or a CT scan.
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
Brain fog is one of the most common symptoms of a concussion. On lists of warning signs of a concussion, it might be listed as “trouble concentrating,” “slowness in thinking,” or even “difficulty remembering and learning new information.”
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is difficult enough to handle alone. When you add concussions into the mix, it can feel overwhelming. The relationship between ADHD, concussions, and post-concussion syndrome is still being researched, but that doesn’t mean there’s no good info or treatment options for patients who need them.
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Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
Light sensitivity (photophobia) can manifest in different ways for different people. For example, you might:
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Brain Injury Awareness | Education & Resources | Mental Health Support After a Brain Injury
Personality changes (or what feels like them) are common following a traumatic brain injury. Even a concussion can affect the brain long after it’s healed from the initial injury. The way we process and understand information can change as a result of the injury, so it’s not surprising that our emotions are affected too.
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Concussions | Life After EPIC Treatment | Patient Stories | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury | Young Adult
I started figure skating competitively when I was eight years old. I loved the feeling of flying across the ice, the “wind” racing across my skin, vaulting into the air and sailing through a landing. Like many, I dreamed of the Olympics, and I poured every ounce of energy into training.
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If you ask the average American which sport causes the most concussions, they’re probably going to say, “football.” It’s a contact sport with violent collisions on many plays. Football players take repeated hits to the head and often suffer concussions.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Traumatic Brain Injury
Dealing with a concussion can be a confusing and frustrating experience. Unlike straight-forward illnesses that can be diagnosed by a simple lab test, there is no easy, one-size-fits-all test to diagnose concussions. Not everyone experiences the same symptoms, and the road to recovery is unpredictable.
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Concussions | Patient Stories | Post Concussion Treatment | Young Adult
Chris Nicastro’s head was pounding. He opened his eyes, wincing at the bright lights from the bathroom vanity. It took a few moments for him to remember where he was: sprawled on the floor after fainting out of the blue. As he realized he hit his head — now for the fourth time — his heart sank. Another concussion.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Traumatic Brain Injury
If you’ve been reading about concussion diagnosis and symptoms and feel confused, that’s pretty normal. Most advice about concussions feels vague. It’s hard to know what applies to you. And if you’re like most patients, you may be second-guessing yourself and unsure whether to see a doctor after your injury.
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Brain Safety & Care | Life After EPIC Treatment | Patient Stories | Young Adult
If you speak to him today, you’d never be able to guess that Nathan “Nate” Benson is a brain injury survivor. The Bountiful, Utah native is in his final year of undergraduate school for a Neuroscience degree at Brigham Young University (BYU).
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
It’s not uncommon for people in today’s society to be tired. The demands on our time seem to be never ending. However, there’s a difference between being tired from being on the go all of the time and the feeling of extreme fatigue.
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Concussions | Education & Resources | Healthy Food & Habits | Traumatic Brain Injury
If you’ve recently suffered a concussion, you might be confused about when and how to return to exercise. Maybe you were told to avoid all physical activity until you feel better. But what if that time never comes?
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Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
When you get a concussion, you may worry about when it’s safe to sleep. You might even have a friend or a family member wake you up every few hours. And while that is sometimes necessary (if you have a severe injury and have not yet received medical attention), most of the time, it’s better to sleep as much as you can while you heal.
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Education & Resources | Life After EPIC Treatment | Patient Stories | Post Concussion Treatment
Many people who have a concussion suffer from some kind of vision problem as a result of the concussion. However, except for “blurry vision” or “sensitivity to light,” the vision problems people often experience after head trauma are not usually listed among the most common concussion-related symptoms. These symptoms are often overlooked and left untreated, or they are not treated as effectively as possible.
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Education & Resources | Life After EPIC Treatment | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
Are you still experiencing post-concussion syndrome symptoms even after resting like your doctor recommended? If you’re frustrated, tired, and in pain because your concussion symptoms won’t go away, you’re not alone.
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Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
If you’re searching for answers and think you might have post-concussion syndrome (PCS), the path to diagnosis can be challenging. Few medical professionals are experts on the condition, and many lack the most sophisticated diagnostic tools. Many doctors will make a diagnosis based on concussion symptom history and a quick physical examination. Others will supplement their findings with imaging or computerized testing.
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Brain Injury Awareness | Brain Safety & Care | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
“I feel like there’s a tight band around my head.” “My head feels like it’s blowing up like a balloon.” “I have a constant pressure headache.” “I feel like my head is being pulled apart between the eyes.”
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Concussions | Life After EPIC Treatment | Patient Stories | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury | Young Adult
When Sam Pembleton arrived at Cognitive FX for post-concussion syndrome treatment, she was shaking. Her nerves were so bad that she couldn’t speak to the other people in the waiting room. When they put her in the MRI machine, she panicked. It took several tries just to get through the scan.
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Adult | Female | Life After EPIC Treatment | Patient Stories | Post Concussion Treatment | Sports Injury
Quirien Willemsen is a happy, busy mother to three young girls in Loenen aan de Vecht, The Netherlands. She works as a legal counsel for a bank, loves going skiing on holiday, and embraces life to the fullest. But just six months prior to this interview, it seemed like that lifestyle was lost forever.
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Life After EPIC Treatment | Patient Stories | Post Concussion Treatment
Memory loss is a common concussion symptom. You can struggle with long-term or short-term memory formation after a concussion, but short-term memory problems are more common. Some common issues include…
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Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
A regular MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) looks at brain structure and integrity. While it is helpful for diagnosing structural brain damage, it can’t often be used to detect post-concussion syndrome (PCS). However, a specialized form of MRI called functional neurocognitive imaging (fNCI) can detect PCS.
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Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Post Concussion Treatment | Traumatic Brain Injury
In post-concussion syndrome (PCS), a patient with a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) experiences persistent symptoms from the injury. If left untreated, the symptoms might last months, years, or even decades after the event.
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