Tag: neuroscience

Traumatic Brain Injury Treatments That You Can Try at Home

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A ceramic model of the human brain

Affordable and accessible options backed by scientific evidence

Photo by meo

Like an estimated five million Americans, I am living with a disability caused by a traumatic brain injury. Brain injuries can be caused by many things, including genetics, head injuries, drugs, trauma, and disease.

Disabilities are expensive! For many people living with traumatic brain injuries, it can be difficult to get adequate care. Like most disabled people, I’ve found several free or cheap options to help mitigate the effects of my disability. I chose a few treatments based on reading scientific research about them and tried them at home myself. I listed them along with the research supporting their efficacy for anyone else who wants to try them.

Here are some things that you can do at home, for free or for relatively cheap, to help heal your injured brain:

Language Lessons

Learning a new language is great for your brain! It’s good for memory and critical thinking skills. It also has many other benefits, like being able to make new friends among people who speak the languages. According to the University of Potomac, learning a foreign language can help you improve at your first language, as well!

A 2013 study found that “lifelong bilingualism can maintain youthful cognitive control abilities in aging.” A 2014 study found similar results, including that bilingualism seems to slow the onset of dementia. A 2016 study found that learning a foreign language increases attention span and ones’ ability to control one’s own behavior.

Apps

I use an app called Duolingo which turns learning language into a fun game. The app is a time investment of as little as five minutes a day– but you, like me, might find it to be an addictive alternative to social media apps. Duolingo has a free version, and there are paid upgrades that remove ads and improve the lessons. Please take note that you can turn off some the annoying noises that this app makes by default, in your settings!

I also use another app called Lingvano which is like Duolingo, but for sign language. Lingvano offers American Sign Language, British Sign Language, and Austrian Sign Language.

Alternatives to Apps

If you can’t find an app you like, or are over using apps, other great ways to practice learning language include watching movies in other languages (even with subtitles in your home language), or reading or listening to books on tape in a foreign language.

You can also use old school tools like flash cards. I visited an alternative school once that labeled objects all around the school with the words for those objects in foreign languages. This is a great way to learn, and I recommend doing this at home.

Nature Exposure

A very recent study, released in June 2025, showed that exposure to nature can help people with brain injuries at all stages of their recovery. I found it interesting that people in the study were initially exposed to nature through gardening. A 2019 study revealed similar positive effects on the brain from gardening in people with brain injury.

I like gardening myself, and I also like spending time hiking in local parks and walking on local beaches to get my fill of this treatment.

Earlier this year, thru hiker and biologist Emily Wastson-Cook wrote about how hiking helped her repair her brain after a stroke and brain surgery:

“Have you ever mentally zoned out while picking your way through talus, up a rocky streambed, or over tangles of roots? Thanks to the automatic process of proprioception, the body is able to regulate muscle tension to maintain balance. This allows you to walk and hike without constant mental engagement. Strokes, traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), and various other neurological conditions can impact proprioception,”

explains Watson-Cook.

Watson-Cook goes on to explain how proprioceptive training like “dance, yoga, walking, and hiking” can improve motor functions and reduce the risk of injuries in people recovering from brain injuries.

Yoga Stretches

Yoga is a great low impact exercise that pretty much anyone can do. There are yoga stretches that work every single muscle in the body, which can be great for repairing your brain’s connections to those parts of your body.

A 2019 literature review found that yoga improved overall mental health, reducing stress, depression, and anxiety. A study published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress showed that yoga can reduce the hyperarousal symptoms associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (a common symptom of brain injury) along with reducing anxiety.

Yoga builds self-awareness and self-discipline. It’s a great practice for many reasons, along with being curative. If you can’t afford classes, there are endless videos on the internet on YouTube and pretty much every other single platform with videos that contain free yoga classes. You can also find diagrams and photos on platforms like Instagram or Pinterest. This makes yoga accessible to pretty much anyone with an internet connection.

Sometimes you can also find public yoga classes that are cheap or donation based, like Portland Yoga Collective or Yoga on Yamhill here in Portland.

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation is about slowing down and focusing on what’s going on in the present moment. Almost any activity can be turned into a mindfulness meditation exercise.

Mindfulness meditation has been shown to have numerous positive effects on the brain, including improving emotional regulation and focus. If your brain injury causes stress, brain fog, or problems regulating your emotions, mindfulness meditation might be for you. Mindfulness also improves memory.

Any task that you can get really absorbed in can be used for mindfulness meditation. You can also try things like mindful eating, to get more enjoyment out of everyday life and to build a greater awareness of the connections between your mind and body.

Walking

Walking is a low impact exercise that almost anyone can do.If you’re currently sedentary and capable of walking, I suggest getting up and going for a short walk. Even just around the block! Get the blood flowing to your brain again! If the weather isn’t nice, you can even start a walking routine inside your house.

Walking can help reprogram your brain’s neural connections to the muscles that control your movements.

Walking can also be used as a form of meditation. A type of mindfulness meditation, walking meditation reduces stress and improves focus. Try being mindful and deliberate about observing the scenery where you place your feet when you walk. Pay attention to your breathing and the thoughts that pass through your head.

Supplements

There are many supplements that you can take to help heal your brain injury. All the supplements listed below are available over the counter.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D has been shown to reduce inflammation and injury to neurons from traumatic brain injury. Vitamin D deficiency is more common in the winter months and in climates that get less sunlight, since sun exposure helps your body produce Vitamin D.

Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12 can help your nerves repair themselves after an injury to your brain or central nervous system. Vegetarians and vegans are sometimes more deficient in B12, since it can be difficult to find plant-based sources of B12. B12 can be found in meat and dairy products, and in plant-based sources like mushrooms and seaweed.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

A 2014 study found that Omega-3s can reduce inflammation in the brain and also help to “restore synaptic circuits.” A 2017 study found that repeated and prolonged exposure to Omega-3s can help with tissue regeneration in people with traumatic brain injury.

Creatine

Creatine can help protect the brain from injury by reducing stress on the that is caused by a lack of adequate blood or oxygen flowing to the brain. There is growing evidence that creatine is effective in treating both neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Huntington’s along with more common brain problems like depression and schizophrenia.

Lion’s Mane Mushrooms

A 2014 study showed that Lion’s Mane Mushrooms can help nerve cells repair themselves. While there’s lots of anecdotal evidence and non-human studies which present evidence for the neuroprotective effects of Lion’s Mane mushrooms on the brain, more human studies are needed.

Curcumin

A staple in Ayurvedic Medicine, curcumin is a compound commonly found in the spice turmeric. A 2020 study found that curcumin can help improve spatial memory and reduce inflammation after a traumatic brain injury. Another 2025 study supports the theory that curcumin reduces inflammation in the brain

Caring for a brain injury long term

Remember that the process of healing isn’t linear, and that everyone has their ups and downs along their healing journey. Good habits that have been abandoned can always be picked back up again, and progress that has stalled can always be continued in the future.

Human brains are programmed through repetition and consistency. It’s key to make these therapies a part of your regular routine and to practice them consistently in order to get good results.

Good luck healing your brain!

Your Gut: The Original Brain

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Unwinding the mysteries of our bowels

a woman’s exposed midriff
Photo by Şahin Yeşilyaprak

You know the expression “go with your gut?” Have you ever made a decision based on a gut feeling? How about butterflies in your stomach– have you ever had those? Ever been so nervous that it made you nauseous? Have you ever hated someone’s guts?

You aren’t imagining things– there’s actually some pretty interesting science suggesting that our guts and brains are connected in ways that you may have never thought possible. We really do feel emotions in our digestive systems, so it might make sense to pay attention to your gut feelings.

I recently watched a documentary about the marvels of the human gut and its connection to our minds and emotions. Intrigued, I decided that I wanted to find out more.

I did some reading about the gut-brain connection and compiled some facts that I think are useful to know:

The gut was the original brain

Eukaryote cells first started figuring out how to digest things about two billion years ago, during the Proterozoic Era.

Some of the Earth’s earliest multi-celled organisms consisted of basically only a digestive system shaped liked bags two cells thick. These later evolved into tube-shaped creatures like roundworms. Stomachs started evolving around the end of the Proterozoic, about 542 million years ago.

Human fetuses start out looking like a primitive gut as well, around the 16th day of development. It almost seems like having a gut is more essential to being a living organism than having a regular brain.

The gut has its own nervous system

Did you know that your stomach’s brain has as almost as many neurons as an entire cat?

As powerful as the brains of many small animals, the enteric nervous system is a spiderweb of 500 million neurons that rule the gastrointestinal tract.

The ENS is smart enough to act independently of other systems like the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, and is often called “The Second Brain.” This brain usually communicates with your other brain through the vagus nerve– but can still operate even if the vagus nerve is severed.

The gut and the brain are connected

There’s so much biochemical signaling going on between your belly and your noggin that there’s even a name for the system: the gut-brain axis.

The vagus nerve is the largest lane on the gut-brain superhighway, sending signals in both directions. The connection is strengthened by chemicals called neurotransmitters, which produce feelings and emotions in the brain.

Gut microbes make chemicals that affect the brain

The huge population of microfauna in your gut also produces many other chemicals that affect the brain, mind, and emotions.

Microbes play an important role in the immune system, controlling what is absorbed into the body and what is excreted as waste. They produce short-chain fatty acids and amino acids, which also affect the brain in a myriad of ways.

The connection is clear- the gut is essential in many processes that regulate our mood and emotions. If your gut isn’t healthy, it makes sense that you’re feeling bad in other ways.

You can care for your gut-brain connection

One way to help the health of your gut and brain is by consuming bacteria called probiotics.

A study found that feeding mice probiotics reduced the level of stress hormones in their blood. Another found a reduction of the stress hormone cortisol in humans after three weeks of a certain probiotic.

You can also eat a diet that benefits your gut-brain connection. Fermented foods like yogurt and sauerkraut contain beneficial microbes that can aid your gut, and high-fiber foods like seeds, nuts and vegetables can aid your friendly bacteria.

Eating Omega-3s like the ones found in fish, walnuts, and chia seeds can help your gut bacteria as well as reducing the risk of certain brain disorders.

Eating foods high in tryptophan like turkey eggs, and cheese can help your gut fauna make serotonin– a chemical that produces feelings of happiness and contentment.

In fact, about 90% of the body’s serotonin exists in the gut, along with about 50% of the dopamine. Dopamine is responsible for helping us regulate mood, attention, and emotional responses, as well as aiding us in taking action towards goals by affecting pleasure and reward systems in the brain.

Understanding how our bodies and minds connect is a powerful way to learn to care for both. Now that I know my gut and brain are connected, I’m going to pay closer attention to both my food and mood.

How about you?

Anyway, happy eating– and remember to go with your gut.

Originally published on medium.com on October 3rd, 2019. 

I Still Love Everyone I Have Ever Loved

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And I always will

Photo by Aziz Acharki

“True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.” — Honoré de Balzac

Throughout the course of my life, I’ve been lucky enough to fall in love more than once.

But what exactly is love, and how do we “fall” into it?

Anyone who’s ever experienced a passionate intimate relationship can probably relate to this feeling of “falling,” and I believe there’s a reason why we use that particular word to describe it.

Falling, in the figurative sense, certainly feels a bit like falling in a literal sense. It’s similarly exciting, overwhelming and scary. The euphoria associated with this kind of infatuation is how I imagine a skydiver or an astronaut probably feels, hurtling back towards Earth, while taking in a view which is vast and beautiful at an indescribable level.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that there’s a difference between “falling in love” and actually loving someone. The lust and drama of connecting on a deep level with another person can certainly feel earth-shatteringly meaningful– for a while. But when we crash from the high produced by the cocktail of oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine that swirls in our brains during a romance, what is left?

The truth is that real love has nothing to do with bringing flowers, reciting poems, or fantasizing about your future children. It’s not about great sex, great conversation, or sweeping anyone off their feet. We think of love as something intense and epic, but in reality, it’s quite mundane.

Real love isn’t a fairytale story with princesses, knights, magic or prophecies. It isn’t thrilling and intoxicating- actually, it’s rather boring. It’s an everyday story that includes things like eating, sleeping, cleaning your house and paying the bills. It’s about dealing with the challenges of whatever journey you each happen to be on, together.

Real love is about seeing someone who they truly are, flawed like all human beings inevitably are, and accepting them, wholly and completely. Real love doesn’t fade as physical attraction does, and it doesn’t fizzle out like lustful passion.

Real love doesn’t even go away when you want it to.

You’ve probably seen the evidence of this in your own relationships. The people we love are often the ones who hurt us the most, but somehow, we love them anyway.

I’ve heard many people say, “love shouldn’t hurt,” but the truth is, no matter how good everyone’s intentions are, it’s bound to hurt sometimes. Often we are only hurt by those we love because of our love for them. If we didn’t care, it would be easier to be indifferent.

When I look back over my past relationships, I can now see the difference between having “fallen in love” and having “loved.” It’s an easy distinction for me to make because there’s a single measurement I can use to be sure: I still love everyone who I have ever truly loved.

True love is eternal. It’s not about physical beauty, sex, validation, or power. It’s about the essence of what makes us human, and the recognition of our humanness in each other. It’s about looking at another person in the eyes and seeing a part of yourself.

When you truly love someone, it is truly unconditional, and irrevocable.

Real love doesn’t go away because of hardship or conflict. It doesn’t end in the heat of an argument, or after the pain of betrayal. It isn’t reduced when someone loses their job, gains weight, or gets old– because things like that aren’t the real reasons why we love people.

Love has nothing to do with the temporary bodies we live in, or the temporary experience we have while we are alive. It is the act of accessing the innate, infinite knowledge programmed into our souls and our cells, and truly understanding that we will never really be separated from each other, despite any physical or emotional detachment.

The truth is that I still love everyone I’ve ever truly loved.

I’ll love them if they are poor or wealthy.

I’ll love them if they are sick or healthy.

I’ll love them if they marry somebody else, go to prison, join a cult, or lose all of their hair and teeth.

I’ll love them in spite of time, in spite of anger, in spite of distance, and in spite of death.

And I always will.

Anything less just isn’t love.

Originally published on medium.com on February 15th, 2020.