• Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Directory
  • Subscribe
  • Contact Us
The Brain Health Magazine
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Directory
  • Subscribe
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
The Brain Health Magazine
No Result
View All Result

The Curse and Blessing of Neuroplasticity After Concussion

Your brain is malleable... but to a fault?

in Brain Function, Functional Neurology, Nervous System
April 1, 2022
0
The Curse and Blessing of Neuroplasticity After Concussion

By Jonathan Chung, DC

Neuroplasticity is defined as the ability for neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. If you’ve been involved in the world of strokes and brain injuries long enough, you probably heard of neuroplasticity in the context of how it can provide hope for people to rehabilitate and recover from their condition. It’s a major reason why I put the word “Neuroplasticity” into the name of my clinic!

However, at a very basic level, neuroplasticity simply means the central nervous system can change through learning. For the most part, the behaviors our brains learn are useful or helpful to us. This happens when our brains learn how to properly perform an exercise, learn new skills for work/school, develop social intelligence, or even learn how to cope with stress. But in the same way we learn things that become a net positive for our lives, our brains may also learn behaviors that can be detrimental. This can be something benign like a little bit of procrastination, or it can be more serious behavior leading to addiction or abuse.

So what does this mean for the ailing brain after concussion?

In the acute phase of injury, physical and biochemical processes lead to the death of neurons or disruption of pathways in the brain. During this time, our ability to perform specific tasks becomes compromised because we lose access to the parts of the brain responsible for those behaviors.

While all brain injuries and concussions are serious, most concussions don’t create widespread death of most of the neurons in our brain. Another advantage is that our brains have a lot of redundancy, meaning we have lots of neurons and pathways in our brains that perform similar jobs. So, if we receive a physical injury to parts of our brain, then plasticity allows other parts of the brain to perform the same job. After the immediate injury, our brains start working hard to form new synapses and build new connections to bypass the injured pathways.

If this process works well, you have a good chance of recovering from a concussion with seemingly few symptoms or consequences. This may be why many studies show that upwards of 80-85% of concussion patients recover on their own, because plasticity worked in their favor.

But what happens to the 15-20% who struggle after their symptoms? A concussion patient can have persistent symptoms for many reasons. Some patients receive  injuries outside the brain contributing to dysfunction (neck and vestibular injuries). Patients with some pre-existing conditions are susceptible to longer recovery (migraine and anxiety). But there’s also a case to be made that many patients may experience neuroplastic changes in their nervous system that actually worsen the patient’s symptoms.

One key example with this is found in a phenomenon called central sensitization. Central sensitization is a condition that can cause chronic pain symptoms after injury. Immediately after an injury, your nervous system may make your nerves or your spinal cord more sensitive to pain as a way to protect it from further injury. This sensitivity should go away as the injury heals, but patients with central sensitization will have areas of their spinal cord going through neuroplastic changes that cause the sensitivity to persist long after the injury heals. So instead of a painful stimulus causing pain, the neurons in the spinal cord learned a maladaptive pattern causing normal sensation to trigger pain. Some researchers believe this may be a mechanism for how some concussion patients develop chronic pain or persistent headache long after a concussion occurs.

Negative plasticity may explain other post-concussive symptoms. Some patients after concussion learn to compensate for loss of balance after injury by learning subtle changes in how they walk and maintain balance. While these subtle changes in balance help in the short term, these new compensations may not be ideal for sport and activity and may cause higher rates of lower body injuries. Negative plasticity may also be a reason why some post-concussion patients experience persistent tightness or spasm of different muscles after injury, which can contribute to movement disorders.

The brain didn’t intentionally create these negative adaptations, but  simply did its best to cope with an injury to a really important part of the body. In the process of creating new connections that are supposed to be helpful, sometimes wires get crossed and things don’t go as planned. At the end of the day, while plasticity is intended to help, the truth is that plasticity sometimes gets in the way.

What Does this Mean for Recovery?

This article might feel like a lot of doom and gloom, but there’s a bright side to all of this. The most important thing to know about plasticity is that the brain can change throughout our entire lives!

At one time time, people believed our brains didn’t change as we got older. People also once believed having persistent symptoms after a concussion for over a year meant they had little hope of getting better.

In the world of neurorehabilitation, clinicians use principles of neuroplasticity to change the brains of injured patients, regardless of age or length of injury. Research shows therapeutic applications for cardiovascular exercise and resistance training helps the brain produce chemicals called brain derived neurotropic factors (BDNF) that increase brain plasticity. Engineers continue to develop tools for non-invasive neuromodulation like vagus nerve stimulators and tongue stimulators, which show promising results in increasing the speed of plasticity in patients with stroke or multiple sclerosis.

In the world of functional neurology, we use these principles and tools to identify harmful plasticity, and how to harness these tools to use neuroplasticity in a personalized way for recovery.

But neuroplasticity isn’t something exclusive to a clinic. We can all harness neuroplasticity ourselves in our day-to-day lives. We can harness plasticity every time we exercise, whenever we learn a new way to slow down our breath, and when we practice mindfulness. We can harness plasticity whenever we develop greater consciousness of the thoughts and actions that may fracture relationships and slow down our instinct to be reactive.

Achieving plasticity is hard. It is difficult. It takes a lot of practice and work, and not everyone will succeed, especially the first few times you try. But like anything else worth having, a strong amount of social support and dedicated effort to persist through failure can stack the deck in your favor for the ever-changing brain.

Jonathan Chung, DC, is the founder and upper cervical chiropractor at Keystone Chiropractic and Neuroplasticity in Wellington, Florida. Learn more about their cervical vestibular rehabilitation program at www.chiropractickeystone.com

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare Via EmailPinterest
Next Post
From Calamitous to Cannabis

From Calamitous to Cannabis

SIGN UP

BLOG

Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas

Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas

by Amy Zellmer, Editor-in-chief What You Need: 2 lbs. (900g) chicken breasts 4 bell peppers, sliced 1 red onion, sliced 2 tbsp. honey 1 tbsp. olive oil 1 lime, juice 1 tbsp. chili powder 1 tbsp. cumin 1 tbsp. paprika 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. onion powder 1 tsp. garlic powder 1 cup chopped tomatoes […]

Read more
From Calamitous to Cannabis

From Calamitous to Cannabis

By Ian Hebeisen Over her life, Nikki Lawley has sold H-Vac filtration systems, dealt cards at a casino, and started her own company, solidifying her as a true renaissance woman of the modern age. Most recently, she worked as a pediatric nurse in Buffalo – a career choice resulting in a TBI. One shift, a […]

Read more
Busting the Neuromyth of Left-Brain Versus Right-Brain Dominance

Busting the Neuromyth of Left-Brain Versus Right-Brain Dominance

by Dr. Amy Moore I remember calling myself a “right-brained thinker” in college because I was creative, musical, highly emotional, and full of big-picture out-of-the-box-ideas. I struggled to relate to classmates who enjoyed math. They were polar opposite left-brainers who analyzed everything. Imagine my surprise in graduate school when I found myself truly enjoying my […]

Read more
Valor® Essential Oil

Valor® Essential Oil

By Amy Zellmer, Editor-in-chief Essential oils are a complementary tool that can help you achieve a healthy lifestyle. They are easy to use, smell great, and have a variety of uses. All oils are not created equal. Young Living is the only brand I personally trust because I know they have complete control over their […]

Read more
Caregiver Corner: Paying Attention to Tics and Triggers

Caregiver Corner: Paying Attention to Tics and Triggers

By Ian Hebeisen Over seven years ago, my mom received a traumatic brain injury from a car accident. As a result, she sustained nerve damage that often leads to painful contortions in her arms and legs. At first, we couldn’t tell what would set off her arm spasms, but as time went on, we began […]

Read more
Yoga: Bird Dog Pose

Yoga: Bird Dog Pose

by Amy Zellmer, Editor-in-chief Yoga is a powerful tool for recovery after brain injury. Contrary to some beliefs, everyone can do yoga — you don’t need to be super flexible, be able to balance, or even be able to stand up. The beauty of yoga is that every pose can be modified to accommodate anyone. […]

Read more
The Woman of Courage

The Woman of Courage

By Ellen Fortini Courtad There’s something surprising about Kathy Colace Laurinaitis that she doesn’t mind sharing. The managing partner of JBN & Associates recruiting firm. She is a self-proclaimed chicken. “People know me in business, so they think I have that no-fear personality,” she confides. “But I am such a chicken. I fear bugs. I […]

Read more
Looking Through Different Glasses Can Benefit Muddled CNS

Looking Through Different Glasses Can Benefit Muddled CNS

By Deborah Zelinsky, O.D. “Our entire biological system, the brain and the earth itself, work on the same frequencies,” said Nikola Tesla, the late 1800s/early 1900s inventor and electrical and mechanical engineer. But traumatic brain injury (TBI) – even a mild concussion – may knock the central nervous system (CNS) off that frequency, resulting in […]

Read more
The Power of Garnet for Energy and Wellness

The Power of Garnet for Energy and Wellness

By Kristen Brown When we get overwhelmed or stressed, our bodies and energy get blocked. This can cause you to feel foggy, sluggish, scattered, and generally unwell. Several powerful crystals can help you refocus your energy and amp up your physical body, but one of the best is garnet. It’s a multi-functional stone used since […]

Read more

INSTAGRAM

Follow Us!

  • Some of our book award goodies arrived today … the swag looks pretty good with this book 🥇 

#ConcussionDiscussions #author #publisher #writer #blogger #braininjury #tbi #concussion #pcs #anthology #FunctionalNeurology
  • I am thrilled to share that Concussion Discussions has won TWO book awards for excellence in publishing. A huge thanks to all of the contributors who helped make this book award-winning:
@steadmanshane 
@dr.perry.maynard 
@integratedbraincenters 
@dockeiser 
@portlandchiropracticneurology1 
@midcoastbrain 
@drszimmerman 
@neurowellnessdoc 
@learningrx_brain_training 
@healingresponse 
@dr.habanova 
@rezzimaxpaintuner 
@bagnell_brain_center 
@nurenbergparis 
@frameworktms 
@northwestfunctionalneuro 
@drerikreis 
@mindeyeinstitute 
@functionalhealthunlimited 
@michironeuro 
@deltasperformance
  • #kindness
  • Comment below!
  • #kindwords
  • Yoga or Pilates? Comment below!
  • #blazeyourownpath
  • Congrats to Jeffrey M Heller recently named the newest partner of @nurenbergparis
  • It’s officially March … and that means Brain Injury Awareness Month!! Join us on March 16th for a FREE virtual event with over 20 survivors and professionals sharing their experience. Register now for FREE! www.FACESOFTBI.com/event

© Copyright 2019 | The Brain Health Magazine

  • Advertise With Us
  • Submission Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Contact Us

DISCLAIMER: THIS MAGAZINE DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE - View PDF

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Directory
  • Subscribe
  • Contact Us
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used.