After dealing with post-concussion syndrome for 6 years, I tried so many natural remedies at home to feel better, improve my symptoms and just find some relief.
As many people are in the same situation, Googling to find solutions, I would love to share my experiences about natural home remedies that really helped in my concussion recovery. Hope there is maybe one remedy that might help you as well.
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Finding help can be overwhelming
I felt so overwhelmed when I started looking for a natural remedy that might help with my concussion on the internet. There is so much information out there. However, one thing I really missed was experience from other people, not just blog posts or information from “professionals” from clinics, people who didn’t sustain a concussion themselves.
You only know how it feels when you sustain a concussion yourself.
So let me share my experience with you, as I sustained a concussion and whiplash in May 2017, and I know many people are missing real experiences in their recovery as well.
The 6 natural home remedies for post-concussion syndrome
1. Binaural Beats:
It’s so important to relax your brain when you feel overwhelmed. When you sustain a concussion, this can be so hard. You might feel you’re in fight flight mode all the time. When I heard of binaural beats, at first, I didn’t know what it was.
Binaural beats are auditory illusions that occur when you hear different frequency sounds in your ears. If you listen to two tones, each at a different frequency and each in a different ear, your brain creates another tone you can hear. This third tone is called a binaural beat.
There are 5 brain wave frequencies. See photo below:
Studies show that brainwaves in meditation are primarily in the alpha and theta range.
So, what I do is I listen to Alpha or Theta waves while laying down before I go to bed or while I do a meditation. It really helps me reduce my anxiety.
You can find many of them on Spotify or YouTube. Or you can use the app: Brainwave 35 Binaural Series (only for iPhone).
2. Cognitive therapy
This is something you can do from home as well. It’s all about activating your brain. What I did? Every day (5 days a week), I focused on cognitive exercises for about 10-20 minutes. It really helped me with my memory, focus, concentration, headaches and brain fog.
Cognitive exercises can be everything: a puzzle, sudoku, crossword, multitask games, you name it!
Don’t have any inspiration or curious about my 15 most effective exercises? Take a look at my 5-week cognitive course. (Inspired by Cognitive FX, a concussion clinic where I went in 2019).
3. Nutrition
First of all, I can really recommend reaching out to a nutritional therapist as we are all very different. What might work for me can be totally different for you. I reached out to Iris Kee who has great knowledge about nutrition and supplements. (she does work online as well).
I had a microbiome test and a blood test (which can be done at home, they will send you the tests), and because I have specific information about what’s wrong in my body and what would help, I can take great steps forward.
Let me share some things that helped me.
Less gluten is something that changed a lot for me, especially when it comes to brain fog. Lots of vegetables, 2 pieces of fruit and enough proteins a day.
With every meal, I take proteins, healthy fats and carbs to keep a balanced blood sugar level, which is important for people with a concussion.
Another thing that helps me is not to eat anything after my dinner (6pm) and before my breakfast (8am). This is called intermittent fasting and gives your body rest, and you can use this energy to heal. Some people use other time frames, but I like the 10-hour time frame where I can eat. (the middle one).
Another important thing is to eat enough healthy fats, as your brain needs it. I take a supplement with fish oil, eat nuts, pits, seeds, fatty fish, olive oil, flaxseed oil, walnut oil, coconut oil and avocado.
The most important vitamins for your brain are: magnesium, iron, vitamin B12, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E and Zinc.
I avoid alcohol and caffeine, and I almost eat no sugar. When you start looking at the ingredients on products, know that there are 75 different names for sugar. I know it’s a lot but the more you do this, the easier you recognize it on the label:
And last but not least! Drink enough water!! I start my day with ginger tea as it cleans the body, and I make sure to drink 3 liters water every day.
4. Interval training
Interval training are short bursts of exercises alternated with recovery periods. I always exercised a lot but still got symptoms from every session. Once I started with intervals, things changed. I could do them more easily than a normal workout.
In the beginning (the first week), my symptoms were a bit worse, but my doctor told me that’s normal. After that first week, I noticed the first improvements: reduced headaches, better sleep, more energy, better mood, less fatigue.
However, simply engaging in 'some' cardio exercises or doing ‘some’ puzzles won't bring about a massive change.
More is simply needed if you truly want to overcome your symptoms.
That's why I invested $10k in a comprehensive treatment (at Cognitive FX, a concussion center in Utah) that brought significant results.
As a result, I launched a 3-month program to guide you through intervals and cognitive exercises in the most beneficial way to reduce your concussion symptoms.
This way, you won't need to spend $10k as I did. Click here for more information.
5. Rest
You can’t recover from your concussion when you don’t take enough rest. I remember my first year, I was pushing myself to go back to work, keep up with my social life and just ignoring my symptoms. It didn’t help and made everything worse.
I didn’t feel any improvements because of that. Once I learned how to rest, things started to improve. It’s not easy as I was always busy and on the road, so this wasn’t something that happened overnight.
Don’t know how to rest or what to do when you need rest? Maybe one of my following posts can help:
6. Essential oils for brain injury
Essential oils can help you relax or reduce some pain, it's a natural remedy that helped reduce my concussion symptoms. It helped me with my neck pain, feel less stressed and to get more energy.
My three favorite essential oils are:
Frankincense oil: This one has an anti-anxiety effect and helps reduce inflammation and nausea. This is one of the most powerful essential oils for brain injury, as it is rich in compounds known as sesquiterpenes. This delivers oxygen directly to cells and also to the damaged ones.
Lavendar oil: Lavender is perhaps the best essential oil for brain injury for people dealing with anxiety problems or sleep disorders. It really helped me calm down.
Peppermint oil: Finally, one of the best essential oils for brain injury people is peppermint oil. This oil can ease muscle pain and headaches and is also helpful for treating stomach issues. This one gave me more energy as well. Sometimes, I just smelled the bottle, and it gave me a boost.
To use the essential oils for your brain injury, use an essential oil diffuser. I have this one as I like the design, and it received many great reviews on Amazon. Click here to go to this diffuser.
But you can also use the oils by rubbing them on your wrist, inhale directly from the bottle or use them like perfume. Make sure to be careful with the peppermint one, you don’t want to get this into your eyes. This happened to me ;)
I really hope my home natural remedies for post-concussion were helpful for you. If you still have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. I’m always happy to help!
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