-

 

CONCUSSIONS: SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENTS





A concussion is a type of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) that can cause a mix of physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms. People usually report headaches, dizziness, feeling tired, trouble focusing, memory lapses, irritability, and changes in sleep patterns. It’s not unusual to also see visual problems—like blurry vision or sensitivity to light—since the visual system can get thrown off after a concussion (Frontiers in Neurology; Pediatrics; International Review of Psychiatry).

Most people bounce back in a few weeks, but about a third find their symptoms stick around longer than expected, a situation known as post-concussion syndrome (PCS) (Frontiers in Neurology; Pediatrics; International Review of Psychiatry). The initial treatment is pretty straightforward: rest, both physical and mental, to give the brain some breathing room. But research now shows that after a short rest, slowly easing back into activity—while paying close attention to what feels okay—can help speed up recovery and cut down on lingering symptoms (British Journal of Sports Medicine).

When symptoms drag on, doctors often call in a whole team for support. This might mean teaching patients more about concussions, helping with cognitive rehab, giving targeted physical therapy, and managing specific issues like headaches or vision changes (Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology; Frontiers in Neurology). There’s also ongoing research into medications and treatments that target brain inflammation, but so far, there’s no go-to drug for concussion recovery (Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience).

Bottom line: concussions can mess with just about every part of your life, and the best approach is a mix of rest, symptom-based care, and a gradual return to normal activities—with extra help from specialists if recovery isn’t going as planned.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Diabetes drugs may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s.

-
Image
    Diabetes drugs may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s. The study finds people taking the drugs have fewer biomarkers, slower cognitive decline. People taking certain drugs to lower blood sugar for type 2 diabetes had less amyloid in the brain, a biomarker of Alzheimer's disease compared to people with type 2 diabetes who are not taking the drugs and those without diabetes. The new study, published in the August 11, 2021, online issue of  Neurology , the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, also found people taking these drugs, called dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors, showed slower cognitive decline than people in the other two groups. In people with type 2 diabetes, the body no longer efficiently uses insulin to control blood sugar. Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors, also known as gliptins, can be prescribed when other diabetes drugs do not work. They help control blood sugar when combined with diet and exercise. "People with diabetes have been shown to ...
Read more

EXTREME HEAT MAY NEGATIVELY IMPACT COGNITIVE HEALTH

-
Image
  EXTREME HEAT MAY NEGATIVELY IMPACT COGNITIVE HEALTH          July 2023 was the hottest month, with cities like Phoenix experiencing record-breaking heat waves for weeks. A new study finds that ongoing extreme heat can worsen cognitive decline among vulnerable groups -- particularly Black older adults and those living in poor neighborhoods. "Our research finds that cumulative exposure to extreme heat can undermine cognitive health, but it does so unequally across the population," said Eunyoung Choi, a postdoctoral associate at the NYU School of Global Public Health and the first author of the study, published in the  Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health . Extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the U.S., claiming more lives each year than hurricanes, tornadoes, and lightning combined. Young children and older adults are particularly vulnerable to heat-related illnesses such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Recent stud...
Read more

B12 MAY HELP PREVENT ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE.

-
Image
  B12 MAY HELP PREVENT ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE. Worms don't wiggle when they have Alzheimer's disease. Yet something helped worms with the disease hold onto their wiggle in Professor Jessica Tanis's lab at the University of Delaware. In solving the mystery, Tanis and her team have yielded new clues into the potential impact of diet on Alzheimer's, the dreaded degenerative brain disease afflicting more than 6 million Americans. A few years ago, Tanis and her team began investigating factors affecting the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease. They were doing genetic research with  C. elegans , a tiny soil-dwelling worm subject of numerous studies. Expression of amyloid-beta, a toxic protein implicated in Alzheimer's disease, paralyzes worms within 36 hours of reaching adulthood. While the worms in one petri dish in Tanis's lab were rendered completely immobile, the worms of the same age in the adjacent petri dish still had their wiggle, documented as ...
Read more