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The brain is brilliant at survival, which can make your recovery more difficult.
A head injury can change everything. Your brain is smart - and adaptable. However, due to the nature of head injury or whiplash, your brain may stay locked into a protective response, long after the danger has passed, stalling your healing process.
If you’ve experienced a concussion or head injury, you know recovery can feel frustratingly slow. Even months later, you might still struggle with:
Poor cognitive function or brain fog
Trouble thinking or concentrating
Sensitivity to light, sound or movement
Mood changes like anxiety, irritability or depression
Anxiety, depression or irritability
Chronic headaches, chronic pain or body tension
Poor energy or sleep
For many patients, these symptoms can get worse over time after head injury and may not resolve even with rest, medication or therapy alone.
That’s where LENS neurofeedback, a form of brainwave disentrainment can make a big difference.
LENS (Low Energy Neurofeedback System) is a gentle, non-invasive brain training method. It works by sending a tiny, imperceptible radiowave signal through sensors placed on the scalp. The brain picks up on this signal, which is small enough to get underneath neuroprotective filters. This signal helps the brain outline and sense its own functioning, and the brain responds (the feedback) by releasing “stuck” and inefficient patterning created by injury or trauma.
Think of Traumatic Brain Injury like a traffic jam in the brain: after an accident, your brain compensates by protecting and slowing down blood flow and neural pathways around the injury, causing symptoms such as reduced cognitive functioning, headaches and brain/body scrambling.
Slowing down in one part of the brain affects other areas, and eventually entire areas of ‘the city’ become less efficient. It takes more and more energy to function in your life and things that were once easy, become a chore.
The LENS acts like traffic control, helping the brain sense these inefficiencies and access new resources (increased blood flow, neural signaling) to heal.
Your own brain provides the feedback, as it traces the tiny signal from LENS and exercises out of stuck, inefficient pathways.
Reduces Stress on the Body and the Brain – LENS is FDA cleared for Stress. The LENS calms overactive fight-or-flight responses, giving your brain and nervous system the support it needs to regulate and repair itself.
Restores Clarity – Patients often report clearer thinking, better focus, increased concentration and reduced brain fog.
Improves Sleep & Mood – By helping regulate the nervous system, LENS supports better sleep patterns and emotional balance.
Accelerates Progress in Therapy – When your brain is less stuck,it becomes receptive again to other treatments (cognitive, speech, vision, or physical therapy) often become more effective.
Releases NeuroMuscular Tension + Trauma Patterning - After an accident, the biggest challenge to the brain is the body. When the brain senses motor trauma, or neuromuscular patterns of gripping in response to an accident, functioning slows. The LENS can also be used on the body to release muscle tension, directly influencing the nervous system to repair neuromuscular or structural issues, recover from panic, anxiety or PTSD and reduce chronic pain signaling.
Small sensors are placed on the scalp and ears.
The system measures brainwave activity and sends back a signal slightly offset from what it reads.
Sessions are very brief — often just a few minutes of stimulation.
Entirely Passive! Patients don’t need to “do” anything — your brain does the work.
Most people find the process relaxing, and depending on sensitivity, patients experience gradual or faster changes in mood, energy and cognition as the nervous system reorganizes.
For 24-48 hours after a session, patients might experience responses based on nervous system changes such as: changes in energy, sleep, brief echoes of past symptoms, increased dreaming, or in the case of trauma - the release of memories without much emotional content.
If you’re still experiencing headaches, brain fog, cognitive slowing, mood swings, or sensitivity after a concussion, LENS may help.
Talk to your doctor and wait at least 2-4 weeks after a major concussion to give your brain time to rebalance, and then try a LENS session. It’s especially supportive when nothing else has worked, or for people who feel stuck in recovery. The LENS can even be helpful for people who are too sensitive to tolerate more stimulating therapies.
Citations:
Hammond, 2007 (Anosmia). Case reversal of anosmia post-head injury with LENS.
Hammond, 2010 (QEEG TBI case). Quantitative EEG improvement post-LENS.
ISNR Journal 2006 issues. Multiple TBI-related LENS case series.
Larsen, 2009. Theoretical fit of LENS for TBI.
Nelson & Esty, 2012. Veterans with TBI/PTSD – symptom reduction.
Nelson & Esty, 2015. Chronic TBI-related headaches improved with FNS.
Schoenberger et al., 2001. Early randomized trial—FNS in mild to moderate TBI.
St. Clair, 2008. TBI from AVM – LENS application report.
After a traumatic brain injury, some people experience anxiety or panic attacks. They don’t occur in everyone who’s had a concussion, however, they can happen.
Are they the same thing? Well, yes and no. Panic attacks are a type of anxiety and anxiety is just a more general term.
Anxiety is a general sense of worry that may be difficult to control. One may experience racing thoughts about a number of things including worrying about things that haven’t happened yet or worrying about situations that have already happened. Everyone feels stressed sometimes, but anxiety may feel like it’s impacting your functioning at work, at home, or in your relationships. It may feel difficult to relax, sleep or eat and you may experience tightness in your body.
On the other hand, panic attacks can have a sudden onset, often lasting for 10-60 minutes. Common symptoms include shortness of breath, chest pain, trembling, hot or cold flashes, heart palpitations, sweating, nausea, and numbness. Sometimes people aren’t sure why they experience panic attacks as they can feel like they “come out of nowhere.” It’s my professional opinion that panic attacks occur when people are under a lot of stress or have had traumatic experiences. Getting a traumatic brain injury (TBI) or concussion is, by nature, a traumatic experience.
If you haven’t already, you should see a doctor to get your concussion evaluated and treated. They may have a myriad of treatment recommendations to help you start feeling better including possible medications as well as different therapies.
Make sure you are engaging in basic self-care like getting enough sleep, drinking plenty of water, eating nutritious foods, and moving your body in a way that feels good to you. This will help aid in your concussion recovery, support your overall health, as well as support your mental health.
Then I would recommend seeking out a mental health therapist or counselor to help support you with your anxiety or panic attacks. Counseling can help you explore the cause(s) of your anxiety/panic and ways to cope with it.
At Colorado Concussion Clinic, we have a mental health therapist who can support you toward feeling better from anxiety and panic attacks after sustaining a concussion. Reach out today to schedule an initial appointment!
If you've experienced a concussion and are dealing with ongoing vision problems, a thorough neuro-optometry evaluation is essential. Unlike a standard eye exam, which primarily checks for eye health and visual acuity, a neuro-optometry evaluation goes much deeper, addressing the complex systems that control how we process visual information.
You had a head injury and now everything has changed. You may not be able to think clearly, you’re having issues with your memory or concentration, and tasks that were easy for you before are now challenging. Some people may also experience ongoing headaches, problems sleeping, and other physical symptoms. There can be a lot of grief and loss associated with getting a concussion and the ramifications of it.
It’s the last 6 weeks of 2024, and we’ve officially entered the holiday season. Christmas music is playing, lights are going up on buildings, and people are getting into the festive spirit. Holidays are meant to be a fun time of the year, hopefully spent with loved ones. However, this year could be a little different if you’ve recently sustained a concussion. Holidays may now feel overwhelming and overstimulating. But with the following tips, you can prevent the worst of the symptoms.
This is a question we are asked quite often here at the Colorado Concussion Clinic. It is a difficult one to answer, as there is no definitive timeframe for recovery from a brain injury, and no way to fully predict how long any given individual will take to feel fully recovered. Everyone recovers slightly differently, and every human brain is unique.
CTE is a neuro-degenerative condition that is caused by repeated head impacts. Researchers found that even sub-concussive blows (i.e., the hits that an offensive/defensive lineman would incur on every play) can cause CTE even though the impacts don’t meet the criteria of a diagnosable concussion.[1] For those who did sustain a concussion, it has been shown that sustaining a second concussion before fully healing from a prior concussion significantly increases the risk of a protracted recovery time and more severe cognitive, physical, and emotional symptoms.
One of the most prominent symptoms of concussion is headache. After a concussive injury headaches are often the main symptom that impacts one’s daily functioning. One moment you might be effectively managing your pain and then the next thing you know you have a significant headache that causes you to stop what you are doing. Patients often remark, “It just came out of nowhere!”
You’ve just sustained a concussion, which is a mild traumatic brain injury. You might be wondering if you need a neurologist on your team, since neurologists diagnose and treat disorders of the brain. This is a great question, and one we get all the time.
In most cases, it is not necessary to see a neurologist following a concussion. A lot of our patients go to the ER to get checked out in the first few days, which is a very appropriate course of action. If there is no concern for brain bleed or need for surgery, they are typically told to follow-up with their primary care physician, or PCP. Ideally the PCP will give the patient some guidance for how to manage the symptoms during the acute phase and refer them to a concussion specialist. Getting care for your concussion early has been shown to decrease the risk of persistent post concussive syndrome.
What’s most important to your recovery, is having a medical professional on the case who has extensive knowledge of the typical and atypical courses of concussive injury, as well as the treatments available. Concussion management has dramatically evolved over the years, and it is important to understand that not all doctors, including neurologists, might be up to date. BEWARE of physicians who tell you to sit in a dark room for a week, or that there is nothing you can do but wait for your symptoms to go away. We now know that getting care within even as little as 36 hours post injury improves your chances of a shorter and faster recovery.
When someone has a broken leg, it’s pretty obvious how we can be helpful. We can drive them places, open doors for them, carry their groceries, etc. Concussion is a different kind of injury. It is known as “the invisible injury” because it is not externally obvious to others. There’s no cast, no crutches, and it doesn’t even show up on a CT scan. The individual often struggles with thinking, overstimulation, and fatigue, among other things. Sometimes people aren’t sure what they can do to help. The answers may vary, depending on the individual, but here are some general tips for how to help someone you know who has had a concussion.
As a speech-language pathologist who has focused on treating adults with neurological deficits, I hear this question ALL. THE. TIME. It’s understandable that people become very concerned whenever they have changes in their memory. And unfortunately, there is no easy answer. But hopefully the information in this blog post will provide you with the information you need to help answer this question.
Unfortunately, many of the signs of early stage dementia are also symptoms of concussion. These common signs include forgetfulness, trouble concentrating as long as you used to, difficulty finding the right words, changes in behavior/mood, and difficulty completing daily tasks. Therefore, it can be very difficult to determine if you have dementia based solely on those symptoms. One of the biggest ways to differentiate between the two is that you can typically make progress and recover after a concussion, but dementia typically gets progressively worse over time. If you did not notice any difficulties prior to sustaining your concussion, and then acute changes occurred, that would lead me to believe that the issues are concussion related. It is also possible that you are experiencing some normal cognitive decline (we call that getting older).
One of the things I hear frequently when I meet a new patient is, “All of a sudden I have to write everything down. I used to just remember things and now I’m totally overwhelmed. It’s SO frustrating!”
Let’s take a minute to analyze the situation and put things in perspective. Normally, you have a routine which may involve work, typical household chores, family obligations, etc. But now you’ve been hurt - maybe due to a fall, a sports injury, or a car crash. You’re not feeling like yourself, you’re tired and scared, and all of a sudden tasks are piling up. In addition to your usual responsibilities, you may be dealing with any or all of the following:
Physical symptoms: headaches, dizziness, nausea, sleep disturbance, etc.
Emotional symptoms: sadness, fear, anxiety, trauma, etc.
Medical appointments happening at different times on different days
Insurance companies
Work issues
Not having a car
Being unable to perform household chores
When we think of it that way, it’s a lot! You’ve had several things added to your plate, and it’s hard to juggle and remember everything that needs to be done.
Did you know that hearing impairment is a common symptom after sustaining a concussion? Many people are aware of post-concussive symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, or memory loss, but are less familiar with the possibility of hearing impairment. Some people experience hearing loss while others may experience symptoms such as difficulty processing auditory information, ringing in the ears, or sensitivity to noise. It varies significantly by person, but these symptoms can sometimes have a profound effect on your life.
You might be surprised to learn that even mild hearing impairment can impact a person’s life and daily functioning. In fact, research shows that even mild hearing impairment is associated with a faster rate of cognitive decline as well as an increased risk of dementia. In this blog, we’re going to discuss several examples of different areas of cognition that are directly impacted by a hearing impairment in addition to some tips to help you alleviate these challenges.
When recovering from a concussion, routines are extremely important for brain health and healing. Given the current pandemic, many of us have had our daily routines completely upended. As we settle into the changes in our day to day lives, maintaining routines when possible, as well as creating new routines will be helpful to support ongoing recovery. With stay at home orders in most states, we have put together some tips to help get through these trying times while dealing with the effects of a concussion.
According to the Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association, up to 90% of people following traumatic brain injury experience visual issues. 90%!! Given that the visual system is such a big driver of symptoms, we thought we would delve into the different symptoms that can occur due to visual dysfunction, as well as the most common visual dysfunctions seen following concussion.
We’ve all heard that exercise is good for our health. It has been associated with benefits for almost all systems in the body including improved cardiovascular health, increased bone mineral density, decreased risk for stroke, diabetes, and cancer. It is also well known for decreased rates of depression.
What do we know about how exercise impacts the brain? Exercise has been associated with improved cognitive function including memory, attention, executive functioning, and problem solving. It has been shown to promote brain vascularization (improved blood flow to the brain). Exercise is linked to a larger volume of the hippocampus, the brain center for learning and memory, and also one area of the brain that is affected in Alzheimer’s. Exercise has also been shown to promote the growth of new neurons in the brains.
