Light Therapy helps Brain Injury Fatigue

[merylg]

Some interesting Australian research:

http://www.braininjuryforum.com/wor...sly-been-used-for-seasonal-affective-disorder

 

[taniaaust1]

That was quite interesting ...

 

[Esther12]

I'd just been googling about brain injury and fatigue - and a thread from yesterday on this site pops up.

I'd been reading this, and it sounds very CFS: http://www.tbiguide.com/fatigue.html

Given the increasing evidence that EBV causes brain damage, I wouldn't be at all surprised if that was the depressing cause trouble for many of us. Ah well - maybe no cure, but at least it would get rid of some of the quacks.

 

[Wayne]

Some interesting Australian research:

http://www.braininjuryforum.com/wor...sly-been-used-for-seasonal-affective-disorder

Excellent article Merylg. As somebody with a past severe concussion, and then Lyme induced cognitive dysfunction, (and probably more from ME/CFS) I'm always looking for ways to affect and harmonize my brain function. Will be keeping this in mind. Thanks much for posting this link.

 

[Wayne]

The following is a recent post from another CFS forum. I think it fits in with this thread:

Mikie
8/3/11 6:31 PM We Are Like Victims of Brain Injuries

I'm watching Piers Morgan and his guest is Bob Woodruff. About five years ago, while covering the war, an IED exploded and he had a head injury much like Rep. Gabby Giffords from her being shot. He was explaining the after effects and I was amazed at how closely they resemble what we go through. He said that even though it's not obvious to most people, his brain just doesn't work like it did before. He has aphasia where he can't find words and has to use synonyms or talk his way around what he's trying to express. I think most of us can relate to that. He also has problems with facial recognition and names. I have this when I'm run down and it's embarassing. He now has dyslexia; how many of us are frustrated with this every time we sit down to type? Finally, he said he doesn't have his old energy and tires easily.

I've always known that our brains, cognitive function and memory are affected by our illnesses but it never occured to me that many of us function at the level of someone who has had major brain injuries. Dr. Cheney says this is not permanent and that if we heal, our function returns. We've had a few here who have pretty much recovered and they said that even memories which they thought were gone had returned.

So, hope is not lost if we can find ways to heal. In the meantime, I think we should cut ourselves lots of slack when we get frustrated with our illnesses.

Love, Mikie

 

[ukxmrv]

I'm wondering if the light therapy will be useful for ME though? I had a traumatic brain injury in an accident but after having ME for 20 off years. Previously used a light box to try and help the ME but it didn't and I found that the morning photo-phobia and other normal for me symptoms were so intense that I was worse off.

Having ME on top of other things (like the brain injury) makes recovery hard from anything.

My ME started with an acute viral onset and fever/delirium.

 

[Esther12]

I'm wondering if the light therapy will be useful for ME though? I had a traumatic brain injury in an accident but after having ME for 20 off years. Previously used a light box to try and help the ME but it didn't and I found that the morning photo-phobia and other normal for me symptoms were so intense that I was worse off.

Having ME on top of other things (like the brain injury) makes recovery hard from anything.

My ME started with an acute viral onset and fever/delirium.

It could be that acute viral onset causes brain injury. It really does seem strange to me that the symptoms of brain injury sound so similar, CFS is often triggered by EBV, and we're increasingly aware of the role EBV can play in brain injury for MS.

I had a mate who only semi-recovered from glandular fever, got in a car crash, and two years later developed lots of symptoms which were dismissed as psychosomatic. A couple of years later he was diagnosed with a brain injury, and put on an appropriate rehabilitative programme.

It could be that our brains can manage a certain amount of damage, but the more it adds up, the more things go wrong - particularly if you're being told by your doctors that your problems are just deconditioning, and you'll return to full health if you just work through it.

(Not the I'm saying this is the 'cause' of CFS, but I personally expect that neurological damage that directly results from certain viral infections and the bodie's response to them is likely to be significant for a lot of patients).

 

[Esther12]

Another thing on brain injury and fatigue that sounds just like CFS:

http://www.gloshospitals.org.uk/SharePoint5/Patient Information Leaflets/GHPI1016.pdf

If it is that EBV causes brain injury, and Wessely manages to escape condemnation by saying "I always thought it was neuropsychiatric", then I will by unable to contain my anger. I think that he already realises that something like this is the case, hence his increasing emphasis on neurology, but he's never acknowledged how damaging that means his earlier work was, how much harm that did to patients, and how justified their hatred of him is.

 

[Wayne]

Another thing I keep in mind is the cumulative effects that chronic pain in the body can do to the brain. I seem to remember reading chronic pain for as long as a year can cause the brain to atrophy by as much as 5%. Sounds like brain injury to me.