In this weeks episode, we will talk with Dr. Michael Lewis about protecting your kids from concussions and head injuries. Dr. Lewis is a Retired Army Colonel and Author of When Brains Collide: What Every Athlete and Parent Needs to Know About Prevention and Treatment of Concussions and Head Injuries. (You can purchase it here on Amazon in either Kindle version or paperback.)

You also can read the Kindle version FREE here.

We are going to talk with Dr. Lewis about his prescription to protect your kids and your entire family from the damage that can happen with something as simple as a tackle on the football field, a header on the soccer field, a batter getting hit, running into another player or even whiplash.

Dr. Lewis says every day he, his wife and his entire family take 3 capsules of Omega 3 Fish Oil and 2 Plus CBD Oil soft gels.  If your family has an injury you should increase the Omega 3 Fish Oil to 3 capsules 3 times per day for a month to load your body with extra fish oil to allow the brain to repair itself.

In his breakthrough book, When Brains Collide, Dr. Michael Lewis explains how therapeutic doses of omega-3 rich fish oil and hemp-derived CBD oil can effectively assist in the prevention, management, and healing of concussions and traumatic brain injuries (TBI) – whether suffered on the playground, on the highway, on the sports field, or on the battlefield.  His breakthrough nutrition-based protocol for brain health has helped thousands of patients who suffered head trauma, in some cases years after the injury occurred.

What is a concussion?

“A concussion unfolds in two phases,” says Dr. Lewis. “The first phase is the primary injury, where the brain tissues are violently thrown against the inside of the skull, whether because the head hit the windshield or helmet-to-helmet contact on the football field, a soccer ball strike, or a fall.”

Dr. Lewis says that the primary injury changes the way the brain functions and brings about a secondary injury which can be far more devastating:  a biochemical cascade triggered by the initial impact that can go on for months and create dangerous conditions in the brain such as oxygen deprivation and inflammation or excess fluid in the cranium.

Who gets concussions?

“Out of the 3 to 4.5 million concussions every year, nearly 2,000,000 are children aged nineteen or younger who are treated in emergency rooms for sports and recreational-related head trauma. The list for sports-related brain trauma includes soccer, hockey, lacrosse, wrestling, playgrounds, bicycles, skateboards, horseback riding, and falls. Though the number of reported sports-related concussions is sobering, it’s only a fraction of the concussions in children that go unreported.” says Dr. Lewis.

What are the symptoms?

“The most common symptoms are headaches, brain fog, fatigue, lack of energy, personality and mood changes, anxiety, and irritability. Sometimes symptoms may not be readily apparent for days or even a couple weeks,” says Dr. Lewis.

Using Fish Oil to address concussion and brain injury:

“The brain is made of fat, and about 30 percent of that fat is what are called ‘omega-3 fatty acids’,” says Dr. Lewis. “We’ve found if we saturate the brain with what it is made of we can help create the nutritional foundation making it possible for the brain to heal itself.”

“Patients typically notice improvements within the first week, often in the first several days. Depending on the individual and the injury, patients have described being able to think more clearly, having more energy throughout the day, decreased headache frequency and/or intensity, and a sense of calmness,” says Dr. Lewis. “The individual results may vary.”

Using Hemp-derived CBD oil to address post-TBI depression & anxiety:

Dr. Lewis says another oil that he often uses with TBI patients experiencing lingering depression and anxiety is hemp-derived CBD oil.  CBD oil, or cannabidiol oil, is derived from agricultural hemp but does not produce a “high” for the user as it contains less than 0.3 percent of the psychoactive compound “THC” found in other cannabis plants.

CBD oil’s potential to enhance neurological health even motivated the NIH (National Institutes of Health) to obtain a patent on CBD’s medical use under the title: “Cannabidiol as a Neuro-protectant and Antioxidant.” One of the authors of that patent is a Nobel Prize researcher who first described serotonin in neurotransmitters.

“CBD oil not only helps protect the brain from injury, but we’ve observed that it is also highly effective in alleviating post-concussion depression and anxiety, and because it is derived from hemp, it’s available as a nutritional supplement without a prescription,” says Dr. Lewis. “Our clinic has had great success with PlusCBD oil from CV Sciences, an extracted oil containing high concentrations of CBD and over 500 other distinct biochemical compounds naturally found in the hemp plant, all working synergistically.”

If you want to know more about CBD Oil you can check out our Intro to CBD Oil Podcast here.

We discuss all of this and more about what brain injury is in full detail in today’s podcast.