Change Your Brain Every Day - Rehabilitate Your Brain by Taking These Nutrients, with Dr. Kabran Chapek

Episode Date: February 4, 2020

The standard concussion protocol has evolved over the years and greatly improved outcomes for people who suffer head injuries. Sadly, however, many of the long-term effects of such injuries are never addressed, and many of these brains eventually regress. In the second episode of a series with “Concussion Rescue” author Dr. Kabran Chapek, he and the Amens reveal the nutrients and supplements that will keep your brain in a healing state for the long term.

We are going to start your new year, your new decade off with a bang. Tan and I are going to do a six-week live class. So starting January 21st, every Tuesday, we're going to be with you for an hour. And at the end, we're going to give away over $20,000 in prizes. We look forward to helping you kick off this new year by becoming brain health revolutionaries. Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body. The Brain

Warrior's Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we have been transforming lives for 30 years using tools like brain spec imaging to personalize treatment to your brain. For more information, visit amonclinics.com. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to brainmd.com. Welcome back. We are still here with our friend and colleague, Dr. Kabran Chapik, and we're having so much fun. And we're talking about something really serious, though. Your new book, Concussion Rescue, which really outlines how people's hand through this process, educate them on what it really means to have a brain injury. Cause we talked about how so many people don't actually know. So thank you for being here with us and talking about your new book and the new course. So when someone has a concussion, what's the first

thing they should do? Well, if there's, if it's severe, of course, the standard protocol, go to the ER. Get a CT scan, MRI, check for brain bleed. The standard protocol is fine. In fact, we've reduced the death rate from 40% to 50% down to 20% to 30% in the past 30 years. So that's huge. We don't want to minimize the good work of the neurosurgeons and their teams, miracle workers. However, you know, the death rate has gone down over the past even five years, but we see, we're seeing a rise actually in patients going to the ER. There's now nearly 3 million people going to the ER with a head injury.

Mostly kids, zero to four, and then older adults, but also many people in the middle. And sports teams, standard protocol, watch and wait, rest, progressive exercise, both, you know, schoolwork, going to work, using your brain, and also physical exercise. But then that's kind of it and it just leaves so many people without enough help and you know 20 to 50 will go on to have post-concussion syndrome or chronic symptoms from their brain injury could be memory problems could be depression like we're talking about earlier um depression can come out of the blue and And I don't know why I'm depressed. When you think back, it could be due to an injury. We need to do more to actually help the body and the brain to heal and facilitate that healing. And, and specifically, it's that quenching of inflammation, the chronic, it's like a fire that hasn't been put out and it continues to smolder. There's excess glutamate, it's excited to our neurotransmitters, there's excess calcium, there's swelling.

And also there's a metabolic deficiency, like the brain is a very hungry or it uses a lot of energy and it's not, it's damaged so that it can't use the energy as well. So the brain needs a lot of help and a lot of support. And part of why I wrote this book is that there's actually thousands of studies that tell us and clue us into some of the mechanisms that are really helpful at healing the brain. Yet the standard protocol is very basic and doesn't utilize any of this. So I would like to see a big change in the standard concussion protocol in schools and physical therapist offices. I mean, they're doing great work, but it's just, we need to do more. So early on, there's way more things people can do

than they're typically told. So yes, you should go to the emergency room and have a neurological exam. And if the neurological exam shows trouble, you should have a CT scan to rule out a bleed. But unfortunately, that's where it stops for virtually everyone. The emergency room doctor says, you're fine. Go home. Rest. Maybe they'll go see your primary care doctor. There's this one study from UCLA where they gave rats a head injury.

And one group they gave their standard healthy diet to. The other group they gave their standard healthy diet and fructose. They put fruit sugar in there. Which, you know, just think of Gatorade on the sidelines of games. The rats that had the healthy diet in three weeks could run the mazes that they knew how to run. The ones that got the fructose, the excess sugar, they were still confused. And so immediately, we want all of our brain warriors to change their diet to a low-sugar, anti-inflammatory diet, which you talk about in the book. So right away, eating better can be helpful. And then you actually, you and I've been talking about

nutrient support. So if you've had a concussion acutely, that there are some nutrients that can be helpful to prevent the damage that is occurring from the excess release of calcium and glutamate and inflammation. So talk about that for a minute. Yeah. So the way to really quench the inflammation, in addition to, like you said, I love that. See, that's the evidence we have. The research, the higher sugar diet is perpetuating that inflammation.

But taking targeted nutrients, vitamin C doesn't give enough respect. We need more vitamin C. The brain uses a ton of vitamin C. It's an antioxidant, quenches inflammation. Simple vitamin C right after a brain injury is something very simple. Vitamin D. So there was a study out of Iran in 2013 where they had for acute brain injury, they had a placebo group, progesterone and vitamin D group, and then a just progesterone group. And they found that those who were given progesterone

and vitamin D right after, and these were acute, I mean, Glasgow coma score less than eight. So many, some of these patients didn't survive, some of them died. 65% had good recovery, which meant either they were sort of back to normal, in quotes, or had minor disability, the folks who had the progesterone and vitamin D, whereas 45% who had just progesterone and 20% who they did standard procedures. So vitamin D is a real key. And in this study, they used about 13,000 international units a day, which is a higher dose, but it's not, you know, you get 10,000 international units when you go out into the sun, not maybe where we're at in Seattle, but maybe down where you are, you get a lot of sunshine and 10,000 international units on a sunny day. So that's something is vitamin D. And another thing is that if folks are deficient in vitamin D prior to a brain

injury, it's been shown they have poor outcomes. Kind of like. So let me just stop you there. Those of you that are listening, vitamin D is a universal risk factor for trouble. Cancer, depression, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, heart disease. All of you should know your vitamin D level now. Normal's between 30 and 100. We think optimal's more like 60 to 100. And you should optimize it because what Dr. Chapik just said is if you get a head injury

and you have lower vitamin D level, you're at more risk. And this is so stinking easy to fix. And Neurovite Plus, which is the multiple vitamin mineral supplement we create directed toward your brain, actually has 2 has 2000 units of vitamin D. And why did I do that? Because there's actually a study that said that decreased cancer risk by 30%. That, that level.

Speaking of cancer. So I, I go to a doctor who is a research, he's a research specialist up at UCSF, not a functional medicine doctor. Technically he, but he, but he,

and he actually gets a lot of criticism because he practices more like a functional medicine doctor. So but he but he and he actually gets a lot of criticism because he practices more like a functional medicine doctor so when i first started seeing him my vitamin d and i take a lot of vitamin d um because i know it's good right but i think it was around the 60 mark and he's like no we need to increase that i was like what i've never heard a doctor tell me that ever usually my doctors say your vitamin d is either really good or it's a little too high and so so in his case, he's like, no, I want it actually closer to a hundred. And I was like, wow. I mean, and it's because of the cancer. So. And look at you, you're just like so amazing. It's probably vitamin D. Omega-3 fatty acids, which is another thing that you recommend. It's

anti-inflammatory. It provides support for the membranes that have often been torn or ripped. How much do you recommend for someone with a concussion? It's higher, correct, than what you'd recommend on a daily maintenance basis? There's a lot of research. Some say you need very high doses, five grams a day, nine grams a day. I don't think it needs to be that high. I think three grams a day is sufficient. I think when we want to target a lot of different mechanisms, cell membrane stability, anti-inflammatory, that's the omega-3 captures that, vitamin D, anti-inflammatory, modulation vitamin c water soluble antioxidant another one i like to mention is nac or n acetyl cysteine and this is a supplement it is um a precursor to glutathione our body is one of our main antioxidants and they did this really cool study um with humans so often these are animal studies,

but this was a human study in the field. So at war, these active military, 81 of them, double-blind placebo-controlled trial in 2013. And they had, if they were suspected of having an injury, they would go to the medic and they would give them a were suspected of having an injury, they would go to the medic and they would give them a large dose of NAC and then follow them over the course of that week. And at the end of the week, 84% of them had improvement in their concussion symptoms and only 42% who didn't have

NAC. So both groups got better, but significantly better with NAC as this antioxidant. And that's just NAC. And what was the dose? Do you remember? Was it a gram of NAC? They actually gave them, immediately they gave them four grams. And then days one through four, they gave them two grams twice daily. And then days five through seven, one and a half grams twice daily. So this is fairly heavy doses. But you can buy this at the health food store. These are not outrageous doses that you could buy. NAC usually comes in 600 milligrams. And so you load it for the first week and you talk about this in concussion rescue. You know, what are the dosages? It's just so such important information for you to have.

I wish it was on the sideline of football games. You know, some of these treatments, of these treatments high school football these kids are having concussions and watching and waiting my own son plays basketball and when I see a concussion happen I'll go and offer some help

if they need to be seen they'll be evaluated but the parents are just so grateful because they feel helpless it's like what can i do to help nice well and this rest and see if you get better is just stupidity as far as i'm concerned right it's like you put the brain in a healing environment immediately if you break your leg, they don't go, well, let's see. They work on rehabilitation immediately. And I think this is just, it's a discussion we have to have, which is why I'm so pleased you have written this book.

When we come back, we're going to talk about more strategies that you write about in Concussion Rescue. If you're enjoying the Brain Warriors Way podcast, please don't forget to subscribe more strategies that you write about in Concussion Rescue. or trying some of the brain healthy supplements from BrainMD, you can use the code PODCAST10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com or a 10% discount on all supplements at brainmdhealth.com. For more information, give us a call at 855-978-1363.