ScienceDaily published a recent article discussing a nutritional study from Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Brain foods: the effects of nutrients on brain function. This study was focused on how food and exercise affects the brain, going so far as to say they can stave off mental disorders.

According to the study, UCLA professor of neurosurgery and physiological science Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, has spent years studying the affects that food, exercise and sleep have on the brain. Considering how we tend to feel after eating too much, sleeping too little or falling out of shape, Gomez-Pinilla’s interest in this makes sense.

He found that omega-3 fatty acids helped to improve memory, learning and protected against depression, mood disorders and even dementia. While you can find omega-3 in pill form, the scientists state that you will receive more benefits from actual food that contains this valuable nutrient. Some of these foods include flax seed, salmon, walnuts and squash.

Omega-3 fatty acids help with the plasticity of your synapses - and considering the damage that is done to these vital parts of the brain by a TBI, this study may be worth paying attention to. We’ve already discussed how a brain injury often worsens with time and can lead to dementia, but with active preventative measures such as an improved diet and increased exercise, you may be able to help prevent or stall this deterioration.

Gomex-Pinilla said that “The brain and the body are deficient in the machinery to make DHA; it has to come through our diet.” The DHA is a type of omega-3 fatty acid, and is in foods such as salmon.

An interesting addition to this is the suggestion that a lower calorie diet may also help with the brain’s overall health. Too many calories can increase cell vulnerability to free radical damage and also decrease the flexibility of your synapses, leading to memory and learning problems.

Another especially beneficial supplement is folic acid. It has been proven to help with the effects of antidepressants and to prevent the mental decline that comes with aging. If it helps with aging…perhaps it will benefit a damaged brain?

Our lesson from this study seems to be smaller portions with higher nutrient values. Not always the easiest shift to make in our fast food oriented society, but one worth making if you value your mental health!

The study of the use of Polyethylene glycol (PEG) for traumatic brain injuries is continuing to discover new information. Researchers from Purdue University found that if treatment was delayed more than six hours after a brain injury, the use of PEG no longer had any positive effects.

The authors of this study found say that this doesn’t have to be an issue as PEG can be easily administered from an IV at the scene of the accident. The study has moved on from rats and guinea pigs to dogs, so hopefully there will soon be an application approved for human use. When it comes to preventing long-term brain injury, every little bit counts!

We hear all sorts of reasons why you shouldn’t be required to wear a helmet - why it should remain a choice. With this new report from Vietnam, perhaps some of the die-hard, bare-headed bike and motorcycle riders will start to see the error of their ways.

Ninety percent of the vehicles in Vietnam are motorcycles, and until last year, only ten percent of these riders wore helmets. Add that statistic to the one the government cites, that there are an estimated 30 traffic related deaths a day, and you have a scary situation that obviously called for a helmet law.

In the year since the enforced helmet legislation was passed, official reports note a thirty percent decrease in traumatic head injuries and related deaths. Contrast that report to the one from Pennsylvania that found head injuries and deaths have risen 42 and 32 percent respectively since they reppealed their mandatory helmet law in 2003.

Interestingly enough, even with the obvious negative fall-out from repealing this law, the governor of Pennsylvania is said to encourage people to wear helmets, but still firmly believes it’s a choice. When this “choice” costs taxpayers thousands upon thousands of dollars, costs families missing wages and overwhelming medical costs not to mention the loss of loved ones - at what point should we decide to make the “choice” of mandatory helmet use? What do you think?

Doctor Paul Harch has been studying the effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on more than 500 patients with brain injuries. He claims to that the high doses of oxygen stimulates the brain’s ability to repair itself.

Examples of those this therapy has helped include a Florida judge who says he experienced improved cognition, word finding and balance - all areas that were damaged when he suffered a traumatic brain injury in Afghanistan.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been used for Autism, decompression sickness in deep sea divers, gas embolism, CO poison, smoke inhalation, migrains, burns and a variety of other medical conditions. It increases neuronal energy metabolism in the brain, wakes up sleeping brain cells, enhances the immune system, reduces tissue swelling and deactivates toxins among other benefits.

As more studies are done and applications documented regarding oxygen therapy’s application to TBI, hopefully there will be an increase in patients with improved functioning.

An article from Medinfo came to our attention as it includes some information on traumatic brain injury (TBI) research along with summaries of a few of the most recent studies. Some of the authors mentioned are among the top researchers in this area.

For a worthwhile teaser on controversial drug treatments, healing TBI, cognitive development methods and testing for TBI, this article may pique your curiosity.