Monday, November 24, 2008

Your Brain On Trauma

By Amy Price PhD

Brains have axons. These are tiny fibers that are like an electronic circuit board. Axons make brain communication possible. If these are stretched past ten percent of their length they can not function and the connection is broken. To put this in perspective you can stretch your hair sixty percent beyond its length before it breaks. Broken connections mean lost function. Hair can be broken simply by running a brush through it. We seldom question the news when we are told the ninety pound teenager shook the baby to death. Yet when an adult brain is shaken by the impact of a 2500 pound car people think this could not happen. The injured are often asked if they were unconscious. The sad truth is that most brain injured people will not know if they were unconscious and will just say no.

The brain...you can build it a team can help!

Dr. Gail Denton author of the best selling book Brainlash states the Brain Injured person needs a team to restore their potential. Dr Denton wrote the first addition of this book after she sustained a brain injury. She is a successful artist, author and therapy consultant. She is presently working on research to determine the optimal brain diet and has contracted with her publisher to produce a new book featuring food for the brain and great recipes. Brain Injury does not have to be a death sentence! For helpful strategies for yourself or others take a look at this book!

Every brain injury is unique. Recovery usually does not mean returning to who and how you were before, but rather finding a new relationship to your abilities and your world. Lisa sustained a brain injury in 1993. She used her recovery to create a remarkable tool for individuals and families that struggle with brain injury. The kit was developed with Sandra J. Knutson, CRC, CDMS, CCM, Lisa’s former brain injury caseworker, and a thirty-year veteran in the brain injury recovery community. The Brain Injury Recovery Kit™ (BIRK) was created by Lisa Keller.

Try the complimentary 39 Point Learning Assessment to see if you can be set free from brain fog and live in the land of clarity! Try some free brain games to help with brain fog. CDC has published a helpful guide about what to do if you or a loved one has experienced a head injury with or without loss of consciousness. It is free http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/tbi/tbibook.pdf

'Peace is not the absence of war....it is a deposition for benevolence, confidence and justice' (Francis Bacon)