There is a rising awareness around the world of the frequency and impact of brain injuries. The inadequacy of conventional medicine in effectively treating secondary injury after-effects that commonly follow an initial brain trauma has driven us to look in new directions to help our ever-growing population of brain injury survivors. (1)
What is Functional Medicine?
Functional medicine is concerned less with the dysfunction or disease, and more on the dynamic processes producing the dysfunctional outcome. Overall, it’s focused less on grouping individuals into specific disease categories and more on defining and treating symptoms expressed by a unique individual. (2)
As defined by the Institute for Functional Medicine [https://www.ifm.org/functional-medicine/], functional medicine describes a scientific, yet individualized and patient centered treatment approach designed to address root causes as opposed to treating symptoms. Focused on developing an understanding of specific physiological, cognitive, and emotional function, the goal is to create and implement a personalized therapeutic program designed to meet the needs of each patient. (2)
What Does That Mean to Me?
With the suboptimal success rates of conventional treatments, many brain injury survivors are looking to alternative medicine treatments, and functional medicine shows great promise. Treatments offered in a functional medicine approach are tailored to each individual, and may include acupuncture, Ayurveda, massage, chiropractic care, neurobiofeedback, specialized diets and supplements, meditation and mindfulness practices, tai chi and yoga.(1)
But Does It Work?
According to a large number of scientific papers published over the last decade, it may. The overriding theme to many of the published papers in this area is that “additional research is warranted.” The other point worth some of our attention is that there is much positive evidence that the benefits are real.(1)(4)
I can only comment on what I’ve experienced directly, and that would be therapeutic treatments, diet, supplements, meditation and mindfulness practices. I’m working to maintain a diet recommended for brain injury survivors. I’ve added key supplements that are known to help. I meditate and practice mindfulness.
In many of my posts, I discuss the recommendations I’m finding in my research. At the time of this post, there’s only a few that talk about my own results from following these regimens. Here’s what I can tell you from the perspective of an observer who is probably biased and observing himself in unstructured tests in an uncontrolled experiment. I put it that way because I want it clear that my results reflect my perceptions from my own perspective.
I am coming up on my two-year mark of having a daily meditation practice. There’s no brief way to tell you all that this has done for me, so for now I’ll just touch on brain fatigue. When I talked with my doctor about my brain fatigue he had nothing for me. The best thing he could think of was to prescribe a sleep medication to see if that would help. As grateful as I am for better sleep, and as much difference as that alone made in my day-to-day experience, it didn’t reduce my daily stress and didn’t help me get through the days following a night when I’d still had poor sleep. But I found something that did make a difference, and I learned earlier this week that it falls into the category of functional medicine.
Meditation and Mindfulness
This is a big topic, and I plan to do a series on this subject because I believe it’s significant and can benefit anyone… even more so if you are a brain injury survivor. My meditation series will go into depth on how it all happened, when I started seeing changes, and what I was seeing. I’ll also go a little deeper into this topic to discuss the most popular meditation techniques in some detail.
For now, I’ll tell you this. I’m coming up on two years of daily meditation practice, and the difference is significant. I have more resilience, more patience, more acceptance, and I internalize so much less stress than I once did. It wasn’t immediate, but it really didn’t take long to start realizing the benefits of this practice. A long and demanding workday no longer leaves me in a constant fight or flight state. There’s so much I want to share with you in this area. But days are short, and words take time for me to make these days… be patient and keep watch, gentle reader. Big things are coming this year.
In closing
I’ve read enough on functional medicine to understand that I need to know more about what it means to me. Thus far, no one has invented a time machine, so I know I can’t go back to who or what I was before my injury. Still, anything I can do to improve my current situation is worth exploring. One area where I’m seeing some positive results that falls into this category is with following a regimen recommended for increasing BDNF levels, if you haven’t yet, be sure to have a look at my BDNF post and the ongoing follow ups. My experience in this area has only fueled my passion to explore other possibilities, and all the things I’m exploring fall into the category of functional medicine.
I’m so very tired of the platitudes and the pills offered by conventional medicine. It’s time I started to see differences in my daily experiences.
The other thing I want to make clear is that my exploration into this approach was guided only from the various unconnected breadcrumbs I found on the internet talking about various brain injury treatment options. I didn’t have the benefit of being guided by a medical professional following the tenets of functional medicine. As a matter of fact, I hadn’t even heard of functional medicine at that point – none of the medical providers I worked with ever mentioned functional medicine. If your medical provider is stuck in the loop of new prescriptions, it may be time to see what options are available a little farther from home. I can tell you that I’ve started my search for a local practitioner of functional medicine.
References
- Functional Medicine Approach to Traumatic Brain Injury
Alice C. Richer, RDN, MBA, LDN
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5580364/ - Defining Function in the Functional Medicine Model
Jeffrey Bland, PhD, FACN, FACB, Associate Editor
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5312741/ - Functional Medicine Approach to Traumatic Brain Injury
Richer AC
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28874921 - A pilot study examining the effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction on symptoms of chronic mild traumatic brain injury/postconcussive syndrome
Azulay J, Smart CM, Mott T, Cicerone KD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22688212
Brilliant job Rod! I love your blogs!
Thanks for reading, and thanks for your kind words, Anne. I’m on a journey to make the most of my post injury life, and if I can also help others find information that will help them on their path at the same time, then my time is certainly well spent.