Tomorrow’s Practice represents our plan for brain healing, using a combination of nutrition and therapy. We recommend that you read our Brain Healing section before proceeding to get a better understanding of these treatment options.
Tomorrow’s Practice
Excelling on the field requires a proven plan and a set of practice drills to achieve peak performance. It’s no different with healing the brain. Both work best when following a plan that is executed by a team.
The road to brain healing and brain health takes an honest commitment and a plan from the participant and their supporting cast: doctors, parents, coaches, trainers, fellow teammates, athletic directors, etc.
The road to brain healing and brain health takes an honest commitment and a plan from the participant and their supporting cast: doctors, parents, coaches, trainers, fellow teammates, athletic directors, etc.
Please visit our Brain Healing *section for more information on treatments that may help athletes recover after a brain injury before reading this page in full. This will help you better understand important therapies.
One Hit Away Foundation believes in FOUR PILLARS of brain healing and brain health. Following these pillars, we believe, will limit the long-lasting impact of brain insults. Recreational and organized athletic participants need to understand and adopt these pillars as both teams and individuals. Unfortunately, today’s traditional awareness is concerned only with the third pillar (Concussion Recognition & Treatment) and does not include the other vital pillars: Education, Preparation, and Healing.
Pillar 1: Education
What Teams Need to Do
- Educate all team members and their supporting cast about the importance of and responsibility to maintain healthy brains, before, during and after a concussion.
- Educate team members and their supporting cast on all four pillars of brain health.
- Survey all participants to determine who has had a concussion before joining and when playing on the team; supporting cast should be aware of a participants’ concussion records.
- Chart the individual’s playing position on the field, court, mat or ring and determine their risk of a brain injury (for example, a middle linebacker in football or a mid-fielder in soccer who use their heads in contact frequently are at greater risk); rate the risk on a scale of 1 – 10 (10 is the highest likelihood and 1 is the lowest).
- Determine the athlete’s current nutritional balance.
What Individuals Need to Do
- Learn the lifelong consequences of injuries to the brain.
- Understand that one or many sub-concussive hits can cause a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI) or a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)—an official concussion is not required.
- Recognize the minor, obvious and major symptoms of concussions.
- Prepare to vocalize your concern for fellow players if they exhibit symptoms of a concussion while practicing or playing.
Pillar 2: Preparation
What Teams Needs to Do
- Emphasize the importance of brain nutrition and implement a healthy brain food regimen for all players; adopt OneHitAway's nutritional guidelines for brains and bodies while participating in sports activities.
- Incorporate Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) in your training discipline for participants with a history of concussions.
- After doctor’s examination and prescription for HBOT, provide access for high-likelihood participants; require HBOT in off-season for concussed players by renting or purchasing portable HBOT chambers for your team.
- Incorporate access to a chiropractic neurologist for all participants.
What Individuals Need to Do
- Fuel your brain properly: use the nutritional guidelines to feed your brain good food and liquids and incorporate in pre, during and post-concussed situations.
- Experience the healing benefits of oxygen, even if you have not experienced a concussion or TBI; obtain a doctor’s prescription to use a HBOT chamber and use it for the rest of your athletic career.
- Incorporate access to a chiropractic neurologist while active.
Pillar 3: Concussion & Treatment (“Bell Rung”)
What Teams & Individuals Need to Do
- Nurture the brain with good brain foods, water and brain-directed nutrients after a concussion.
- Use a HBOT chamber as prescribed by your doctor (the use of HBOT provides necessary oxygen to the tissue, assists in the elimination of toxicity, and increases blood flow to the damaged brain tissue).
- Incorporate chiropractic neurology (these professionals are equipped to re-align neuropaths that have been disrupted by a concussion) while active.
Pillar 4: Healing
What Everyone Needs to Know and Do
We only are given one brain and those of us who have suffered a brain injury now have a choice of possibly overcoming residual effects of an unhealthy or incompletely healed brain. The brain continues to be the command center of your mind and body even after brain injury symptoms appear to go away.
KNOW THE TWO MOST COMMON MISPERCEPTIONS AFTER A CONCUSSION:
- Post-concussion symptoms vanish and the damaged brain neurons and cells are healed. Unfortunately, the brain may still be in very bad condition even after you are back on the field of play.
- That the brain’s neurons and cells heal over time and on their own. This may be partially accurate for a minimal amount of damage.
- Research has shown that after a brain injury, the brain’s neurons and cells more than likely are not healed nor are they in the proper stages of healing.
UNDERSTAND SECOND IMPACT SYNDROME
Research shows that if not healed and more blows to the head subsequently take place, the participant may be placing himself or herself into a very dangerous situation in the near-term and or long-term. Near-term danger with the “Second-Impact Syndrome” to life-long symptoms such as:
– Depression
– Anxiety
– CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy)
– A tragic and/or a confused balance of life
When SIS occurs, an individual suffers post-concussive symptoms following a head injury. If the athlete returns to play too soon and sustains a second head injury, it may:
Many times the individual won’t sustain a direct blow to the head, but may receive a jolt to the body that rapidly jerks the head forward and backwards causing the brain to be shocked again within the skull.
– Depression
– Anxiety
– CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy)
– A tragic and/or a confused balance of life
When SIS occurs, an individual suffers post-concussive symptoms following a head injury. If the athlete returns to play too soon and sustains a second head injury, it may:
- Diffuse cerebral swelling
- Cause brain herniation
- Result in death
Many times the individual won’t sustain a direct blow to the head, but may receive a jolt to the body that rapidly jerks the head forward and backwards causing the brain to be shocked again within the skull.
THE INSIGHT OF SPECT IMAGING & FUNCTIONAL MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING (FMRI).
What you can’t see, you can’t treat properly. Historically, the brain has been the one human organ that medical prescriptions are commonly made without even taking the proper visible image of what and why it is being treated.
After a concussion and a proper consultation with your doctor, demand a SPECT image to visibly understand the irregularities of the brain’s blood flow as a result of the recent or past damage. These visible blood-flow irregularities are evidence of tissue damage a treatment plan may be better diagnosed.
Another helpful procedure is (fMRI) Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. This procedure uses MR imaging to measure the tiny metabolic changes that take place in an active part of the brain.
A SPECT Image & or a fMRI will certainly allow your practitioner to pinpoint the damage that may provide adjustments to the future healing plan which we believe to consist of the main three brain health and healing agents:
After a concussion and a proper consultation with your doctor, demand a SPECT image to visibly understand the irregularities of the brain’s blood flow as a result of the recent or past damage. These visible blood-flow irregularities are evidence of tissue damage a treatment plan may be better diagnosed.
Another helpful procedure is (fMRI) Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. This procedure uses MR imaging to measure the tiny metabolic changes that take place in an active part of the brain.
A SPECT Image & or a fMRI will certainly allow your practitioner to pinpoint the damage that may provide adjustments to the future healing plan which we believe to consist of the main three brain health and healing agents:
- Nutrition
- Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
- Chiropractic Neurology