It’s March, and that means it’s Brain Injury Awareness Month. The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) has made survivor awareness the focus of this year’s activities. The My Brain Injury Journey campaign aims to start a larger conversation about what it is really like for those living with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). It recognizes the 5.3 million-plus adults and children in the U.S. living with some sort of brain-injury-related disability. Many of these injuries are a result of strokes, infectious diseases, and brain tumors, but these numbers also include mild TBIs, or what we call concussions.

Most of us never imagine that our lives could be impacted by a brain injury, but the BIAA reports that at least 2.8 million people sustain brain injury each year in the United States. We should all inform ourselves about how brain injuries occur, and how to reduce them. Awareness is so important if we want to reduce the number of incidents and keep our brains healthy.

To help increase awareness about brain injuries during Brain Injury Awareness Month, we’ve updated our “Five Fast Facts About Concussions and Brain Health”.

1. Concussions Happen More Often Than You Think.

According to the BIAA someone in this country will experience a brain injury every nine seconds. That’s a lot of cases! How does this happen so often?

Sudden bumps or jolts can cause the brain to bounce back and forth in the skull, causing injuries of varying degrees. Concussions are TBIs that can cause functional changes in the way our brains work. Concussions most often occur because of blows to the head during:

• Sports and recreational activities
• Car accidents
• Slips and falls.
• Military combat involving explosives.
• Workplace accidents

You can also incur a concussion from simple household mishaps, like accidentally walking into a door and banging your head. While most concussions are luckily not life-threatening, long-term effects of TBIs can affect some patients and require prolonged medical care.

2. Concussion Symptoms Aren’t Always Obvious.

When they happen, concussions may or may not present themselves in obvious ways. TBIs can cause the symptoms you might expect, such as:

• Headaches and/or migraines
• Dizziness
• Nausea
• Ringing in the ears or hearing changes
• Vision problems

Unfortunately, concussions can sometimes go undetected because their symptoms may not appear related to a head injury. These symptoms can include:

• Sleep difficulties or irregularities
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Slower-than-normal reaction time

Most individuals who experience concussions will fully recover within a few days or weeks. Others may, unfortunately, experience consequences for longer periods of time, a condition known as Post-Concussion Syndrome (PCS) or Persistent Post-Concussive Symptoms (PPSC). If you or someone you care about has had a serious head jolt of some sort, early medical assistance can mean the difference between full recovery and living with some of those lingering longer-term and unpleasant symptoms. MAC Alliance utilizes advanced screening tools to help facilitate early diagnosis of concussions. Prompt assessment means that we can establish individualized brain injury rehabilitation programs to maximize patient outcomes.

3. Alcohol and Caffeine Can Impact Concussion Recovery.

Two of the most frequent questions we are asked are, “Can you drink alcohol after a concussion?” and “Can you have caffeine if you have a concussion?”

Alcohol and Concussions

After a concussion or other TBI, your tolerance for alcohol can be reduced. You may also be more sensitive to alcohol. Even just the one or two drinks you might normally consume over the course of an evening in the past can be too much while your brain is healing. That’s because alcohol changes our brain chemistry, at least temporarily, and alcohol is a neurotoxin which can potentially damage brain 

cells. When you compound this with the issues that can be caused by a traumatic brain injury (TBI), it means that even moderate alcohol consumption can negatively affect the brain as it is trying to heal.

Caffeine and Concussions

Consuming too much caffeine when your brain is recovering from a concussion or other TBI can interfere with your recovery. Any temporary boost is short-lived, and then the brain becomes depleted of the energy it needs to heal itself from its injuries. It can result in neuro-fatigue, sleep troubles, migraines and other exacerbated PCS symptoms. According to the Mayo Clinic, a safe amount of caffeine for most healthy adults is up to 400 mg. a day. But for concussed patients, Dr. Schaller asks that they limit their daily intake to no more than 100 mg., which is roughly what an 8-oz. cup of black coffee contains. (Read more about caffeine and TBIs.)

4. Older Adults Are at Higher Risk for Concussions, and Preventive Measures Should Be Encouraged More.

We tend to think about head injuries as they relate to youth sports and professional athletes, but older adults also face high risks of concussion, often simply from falling. Harvard Medical School reported that head injuries from falling are a common cause of hospitalization and even death among individuals over age 65. And the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that, from data collected as recently as 2014, a full four in five TBI-related emergency department visits in older adults (aged 65 years and older) were the result of falls. In addition, hospitalization rates stemming from TBI-related emergency room visits were highest among persons 75 years of age and older.

Helping Seniors Prevent Falls and Concussions

MAC Alliance encourages our senior patients and their families to take all possible steps to avoid potential concussion-related falls in their households. Why not honor Brain Injury Awareness Month at home by taking a moment to make senior spaces a little safer? Proactive steps can include:

• Removing home hazards like throw rugs
• Lighting up living space to help avoid tripping.
• Employing assistive devices (like handrails, grab bars, raised toilet seats)
• Regularly reviewing medications with a doctor
• Staying as active as possible
• Wearing sensible shoes

5. Screen Time Impacts Concussion Recovery.

Previously we have reported on new research from the University of Massachusetts that supported reducing screen time for post-concussion patients to help reduce recovery times. The findings suggested that avoiding screen time in the first 48 hours of acute-concussion recovery may greatly shorten the duration of concussion symptoms. To allow for important cognitive brain rest following a concussion, Medical Director and founder of Mid-Atlantic Concussion (MAC) Alliance, Vincent Schaller, MD, DABFM, CIC, prescribes reduced electronic screen time with little brain stimulation for all his post-TBI patients. Beyond stimulating the injured brain too much, screen use can hamper the initial concussion-recovery refreshing LED screen pixilation can cause eye muscle strain for someone who has just suffered a TBI. In refreshing LED screen pixilation can cause eye muscle strain for someone who has just suffered a TBI. In addition, backlighting from most screens and the loud noise from some electronic devices may also cause other negative symptoms in post-concussive patients, such as headaches or nausea.

Source: The Brain Injury Association of America