You’re probably aware of the brain damage professional football players can suffer. Until recently there wasn’t a lot of things that could be done to help stem their suffering.
Enter Daniel Amen who has been using SPECT scans to see what’s going on in the player’s brains and what things can improve functioning. SPECT uses what he calls single photon emission computerized tomography and radioactive tracers to detect blood flow to tissues and organs.
The amount of radiation is the equivalent of a CT scan of the head.
BTW, Amen was the medical consultant on the film Concussion about the doc who discovered the brain damage football players were suffering.
Amen has viewed more than 160,000 brain SPECT scans and has detected distinct blood flow patterns that are specific to common brain disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression and learning disabilities.
They can even distinguish between traumatic brain injury and PTSD. This is important because while both conditions have similar symptoms, they have very different treatment approaches.
Using SPECT scans, Amen was able to study 30 retired football players with brain damage and cognitive impairment from repeated head injuries and substance abuse. The players were encouraged to lose weight and take supplements for six months.
What was different with this study is that they used SPECT to be able to make treatment decisions based on biological evidence as opposed to basing treatment decisions on symptoms.
At the end of the six months, 69% of the former players reported improved memory, 53% moods were better and nearly half showed improvement on cognitive function tests and information processing. These are major changes in how these players would be able to live their lives.
The supplements that they put the players on included:
Omega-3 fatty acids
High-potency multivitamin/mineral supplement
Ginkgo biloba
Vinpocetine
N-acetylcysteine
Alpha-lipoic acid
Phosphatidylserine
Huperzine A
Acetyl-L-carnitine
So…If you or someone you know has brain damage, see if you can find someone in your area that uses SPECT for diagnosis and evaluating treatments.
(Reported Bottom Line Health)
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