Posted on 06/23/2009 2:07:26 AM PDT by neverdem
No direct impact caused Paul McQuigg’s brain injury in Iraq three years ago. And no wound from the incident visibly explains why Mr. McQuigg, now an office manager at a California Marine base, can get lost in his own neighborhood or arrive at the grocery store having forgotten why he left home.
But his blast injury — concussive brain trauma caused by an explosion’s invisible force waves — is no less real to him than a missing limb is to other veterans. Just how real could become clearer after he dies, when doctors slice up his brain to examine any damage.
Mr. McQuigg, 32, is one of 20 active and retired members of the military who recently agreed to donate their brain tissue upon death so that the effects of blast injuries — which, unlike most concussions, do not involve any direct contact with the head — can be better understood and treated.
The research will be conducted by the Sports Legacy Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Waltham, Mass., and by the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, whose recent examination of the brains of deceased football players has found damage linked to cognitive decline and depression.
Whether single, non-impact blasts in battle can cause the same damage as the years of repetitive head bashing seen in football is of particular interest to researchers. The damage, primarily toxic protein deposits and tangled brain fibers, cannot be detected through noninvasive procedures like M.R.I.’s and CT scans.
“We don’t know much about the medium- or long-term effects of head trauma experienced by our military,” said Robert Stern, co-director of the Boston University center as well as its Alzheimer’s Disease Clinical and Research Program...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
My son suffered the same TBI from his tours in the sandbox.
He has gotten better and now holds a job - I’ll send this along to him.
THanks for posting.
Vatican’s Celestial Eye, Seeking Not Angels but Data
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May HE provide a way for your son to continue to improve and lead a fruitful life. We salute his patriotism and sacrifices.
jesseam was kind enough to share his comments about vitamin D for TBI on my other thread. Comments on this thread finally jarred my memory. Vitamin D3 is the supplement that I buy, which is also called cholecalciferol. Vitamin D2, aka ergocalciferol, has to be converted to D2 in the kidneys. I take 1000 IU(international units) of D3 in a tablet and 400 IU of D2 in a multivitamin daily.
People have become sick taking too much Vitamin D. The blood test for it is serum 25(OH)D, aka 25-hydroxyvitamin D. You can find the source for the test by searching the keyword vitamind in this forum. It's on of of my threads in the last month or so. The keyword tbi will find many threads on traumatic brain injury in this forum.
Vitamin D2, aka ergocalciferol, has to be converted to D3 in the kidneys.
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