The Cognitive FX Blog
Your source for everything you need to know about traumatic brain injury and concussions.
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.
Share
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.
Share
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.
Share
Brain Injury Awareness | Concussions | Education & Resources | Post Concussion Treatment
Share
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.
Share
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.
Share
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.
Share
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.
Share
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.
Share
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.
Share
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.
Share
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.
Share
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.
Share
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.
Share
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!
Share
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.
Share
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.
Share
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.
Share
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.
Share
Brain Injury Awareness | Brain Safety & Care | Concussions | Education & Resources
Low energy, difficulty concentrating, brain fog, anxiety, depression, memory problems...
Share