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The Cognitive FX Blog

Your source for everything you need to know about traumatic brain injury and concussions.

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Brain Safety & Care (5)

Traumatic Brain Injury and Car Accidents

Traumatic Brain Injury and Car Accidents

Guest Author - The Advocates

Out of all of the injuries a person can suffer in an automobile accident, brain injuries are probably one of the worst. The consequences of a brain injury are often severe and long-term. Brain injuries can be as minor as concussions, headaches, and dizziness or involve more serious conditions like memory loss or physical damage to brain tissue. Brain injuries can be difficult to detect and should be treated immediately by a medical professional. 

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The Cost of Distracted Driving Commit to Focus on Driving

The Cost of Distracted Driving: Commit to Focus on Driving

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Cognitive FX Team

When it comes to multitasking, we all think we’re great at it, but really only about 2% of people can successfully multitask, according to Psychology Today. Even if you think you MIGHT be one of these people, chances are, you’re probably not. Yet it seems that we all like to test out that theory in inappropriate places, specifically when we’re on the road.

Most of us have sent a text or talked on the phone while driving, but we also all have been in or know someone who has been in an accident involving distracted driving. You’d think we would have gotten the hint by now, especially with driving laws being the way that they are. According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, “ 15 states prohibit all drivers from using hand-held cellphones while driving”, and “all states except 2 include at least one category for distraction on police crash report forms.”

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5 Ways to Prevent a Brain Injury

5 Ways to Prevent a Brain Injury

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Cognitive FX Team

According to the CDC, “there are around 2.8 million TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury)-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths each year in the United States. TBI contributed to the deaths of almost 50,000 people. TBI was a diagnosis in more than 282,000 hospitalizations and 2.5 million ER visits. These consisted of TBI alone or TBI in combination with other injuries.” 

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5 Ways to Get Ready for Fall Sports

5 Ways to Get Ready for Fall Sports

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Cognitive FX Team

The new school year is just around the corner; kids are preparing for another year of learning, friendships, and experiences, and mothers are rejoicing everywhere! Whether it’s vocabulary tests, after school clubs, or sports, your kids are going to be kept pretty busy, and you want them to have the best and safest year possible.

The benefits of getting children physically active at a young age are numerous. According to The Aspen Institute, physically active children are 15% more likely to attend college, score up to 40% higher on tests, and are 1/10th as likely to be obese.

Whether this is their first year or their last participating in sports, every child wants to perform the best they can. Every parent wants their child to have a good time while also staying safe so they can keep playing the sports they love now and lead healthier and more successful lives later. 

Here are some tips on things to help you keep your athlete safe and have a successful season.

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Top 5 Foods for Brain Health

Top 5 Foods for Brain Health 

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Cognitive FX Team

The brain is the most important organ in the human body. It regulates the profuse amount of information that the body needs to regulate itself. This includes comprehending pain levels, regulating blood pressure, controlling nervous response, creating and secreting hormones, assisting digestion, along with coordinating the countless other signals the body sends to the brain to help our body function. It is so important to give your brain the vital nutrients it needs to keep your body running in tip top shape.

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The Just Right Challenge - When to Rest & When to Push Your Limits

The Just Right Challenge - When to Rest & When to Push Your Limits

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Cognitive FX Team

The Cognitive FX EPIC Treatment program is designed to help patients recover from a concussion in a week. 

Centered around the specific deficits and symptoms of each patient, this week is intense for the mind, brain, and body, and uniquely customized to each individual. We use standard modalities that have been amplified for our patient’s specific needs such as Neurological Occupational Therapy, NeuroMuscular Therapy, Vision Therapy, Brain Games, De-stimulation and more. 

Our team focuses on giving the “Just Right Challenge” to help our patients know when to push through an exercise or when to rest or slow down a bit. The “Just Right Challenge” is simple. As you start the day you work to get to your optimal activity level. We often try to push through the mental and or physical challenges. Instead of pushing through pain and symptoms to the point of crashing, we have you slow down or take a short break , with the goal to get back to your optimal activity level again. As you move forward with this challenge, the goal is to need and take fewer breaks. 

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Differences Between Post-Concussion Syndrome PCS & Chronic Trauma Encephalopathy (CTE)

Differences Between Post-Concussion Syndrome (PCS) & Chronic Trauma Encephalopathy (CTE)

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Cognitive FX Team

A concussion is a traumatic brain injury (TBI) which is caused by the brain hitting the skull. This can happen in sports, car accidents, falling, or anything similar. A concussion can even be the result of a whiplash. Whenever the body moves quickly back and forth and the brain in turn hits the inside of the skull, it can result in a concussion. A concussion can cause damage to nerves and neurons, alter the blood flow in the brain, and cause chemical and functionality changes in the brain.

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Cultivating Gratitude

Cultivating Gratitude

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Cognitive FX Team

By Brittany Prijatel - Sports Psychological Consultant

Gratitude is a profound tool for cultivating positivity. Gratitude is simply the conscious act of bringing your attention to what you have or want to appreciate. More importantly, gratitude is a choice. By taking the time to appreciate the abundance that we have in our lives, we create a momentum towards receiving even more. When you begin to say thank you for the things that you have, and the kindness others share, you truly notice all the great things you have to be thankful for each day.

Gratitude has been demonstrated to have a large impact on multiple areas of your life. By being grateful studies have shown that individuals have seen improvements with:

  • Immune System
  • A Decrease in Blood Pressure
  • Improvements in Sleep & Relationships
  • Increases in Happiness
  • More Feelings of Enthusiasm, Interest, Attentiveness, Energy, & Determination
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Awareness & Concussion Recovery

Awareness & Concussion Recovery

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Cognitive FX Team

By Britany Prijatel - Cognitive FX Sports Psychology Consultant 

What is Awareness?

Awareness is defined as having knowledge, or being in the state or condition of being conscious of your surroundings. This concept can be applied to many different subjects, but awareness is an important part of understanding a concussion and your recovery process. It takes awareness to facilitate change, even if it is changing a mindset. 

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Using the Brock String Test to Strengthen Your Eyes

Using the Brock String Test to Strengthen Your Eyes

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Cognitive FX Team

 What is the Brock String Test? 

The Brock String Test is designed to test and treat visual perception problems. This is important because these problems can contribute to headaches, blurry vision, balance problems, and more. Symptoms that can be caused by a concussion. The Brock String Test really looks at two different things: convergence and suppression.

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Know Your Concussion Myths and Facts

Know Your Concussion Myths and Facts

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Cognitive FX Team

We know that there are millions of individuals who suffer from concussions yearly. There is no better time than now to expand our knowledge and application of research to help individuals recognize there is hope and recovery when addressing brain injury. There is a lot of information available about concussions and mTBI (mild Traumatic Brain Injury) and we want to share what recent research has taught us when it comes to concussion myths and facts. 

Concussion Myth: To get a concussion one must pass out or hit their head.

mTBI is defined as “the result of the forceful motion of the head or impact causing brief change in mental status (confusion, disorientation or memory loss) or loss of consciousness for less than 30 minutes.” Notice here the definition mentions forceful motion OR impact OR loss of consciousness.

Concussion Fact: You can get a concussion without passing out and/or without hitting your head.

Since the brain is essentially floating in water and connected to our spinal cord via the brain stem one can get a concussion from forceful motion of the head, like whiplash. Yes, hitting your head can increase your risks of having a concussion but you do not have to pass out or receive a hard hit to sustain a concussion.

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Computerized Concussion Testing-1

Computerized Concussion Testing

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Cognitive FX Team

Computerized Concussion Tests

As concern about sports concussion has continued to rise over the last few years, there has been some hope that large-scale baseline testing, such as computerized cognitive tests, would help teams, schools, coaches and parents. The hope was that baseline tests could help athletes avoid some of the more serious consequences of multiple concussions. Computerized baseline tests or concussion testing is relatively cheap and can be used to test a large number of athletes in a short amount of time. But recent studies are showing that we need to use more than baseline tests to understand the influence of concussion. 

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What is EPIC Concussion Treatment

What is EPIC Concussion Treatment?

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Dr. Mark Allen Ph. D.

By Mark Allen, Director of Research

The Enhanced Performance in Cognition - EPIC concussion treatment provided at Cognitive FX is a highly effective approach to concussion rehabilitation. We have developed an optimal program for recovery that typically lasts about 1 week, with intensive daily therapy. Each day includes a cycle through specific therapies for each patient guided by her/his brain activation images (fNCI).

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