Show 1012: What to Do About a Ghost in Your Brain
The People's Pharmacy
Joe and Terry Graedon
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 November 2015
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Head injuries are all too common, affecting millions of Americans every year. They can result in brain injury if the brain gets jostled inside the skull. This can be a problem even if the incident did not result in a loss of consciousness (a “blackout”). Around 5,000 people daily experience a concussion as a result of head injury.
How Can You Tell If a Bump on the Head Caused Lasting Damage?
Sometimes it can be hard to assess the impact of such an accident, whether it was due to slipping on the ice or getting rear-ended in a car. The standard medical tools don’t always reveal the true extent and nature of a head injury. If people continue to have difficulties with balance or cognitive tasks long after such an event, conventional medical wisdom holds that they just have to learn to adapt to their deficits. But what if that dogma is mistaken? Is there anything that can be done to help a person overcome impairment due to brain injury many years later?
Dr. Clark Elliott tells about his amazing experience of recovering from a severe concussion from which he had sustained apparently permanent damage. Learn what approaches helped him overcome the severe impairment he had suffered for many years, and listen to the therapists who made such a difference in his life.
This Week’s Guests:
Clark Elliott, PhD, is professor of artificial intelligence at DePaul University in Chicago, IL. He is the author of The Ghost in My Brain: How a Concussion Stole My Life and How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Helped Me Get It Back. His website is clarkelliott.com.
Donalee Markus, PhD, is a specialist in neuro-cognitive restructuring who practices clinically applied neuroscience. She creates instruments that maximize intelligence and catalyze creativity using clinically applied neuroscience. Her website is designsforstrongminds.com
Deborah Zelinsky, OD, FNORA, FCOVD (Optometric Doctor, Fellow of the Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association, Fellow of the College of Visual Development), is a neuro-optometrist who specializes in bridging the gap between neuroscience research and eye care. To find a practitioner of neuro-optometry, consult the website: https://noravisionrehab.com/
Other websites of interest: The Society for Neuroscience (sfn.org)
And the Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics (https://www.worldbrainmapping.org)
Listen to the Podcast:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Every day, 5,000 Americans suffer head injuries. |
| 0:04.0 | Many recover, but some have lasting impairment. |
| 0:07.0 | Is there anything that can help? |
| 0:09.0 | This is the People's Pharmacy with Terry and Joe Graydon. |
| 0:13.0 | Dr. Clark Elliott was in a traffic accident that left him with lasting balance and vision problems. |
| 0:25.8 | He was told he'd have to learn to live with his symptoms. |
| 0:28.9 | Although he was a professor of artificial intelligence, he was having trouble managing the complexity of his job and his family life. |
| 0:36.8 | We'll explore the science of neuroplasticity and cognitive restructuring that helped Dr. |
| 0:42.9 | Elliott build new neural pathways. |
| 0:46.0 | Coming up on the People's Pharmacy, Dr. Elliott tells his compelling story, the ghost in my brain. |
| 0:55.0 | First, this news. |
| 0:59.9 | In the People's Pharmacy Health Headlines, a study published in JAMA this week shows that |
| 1:06.0 | Americans are taking more prescription drugs than ever. Almost 60% of adults were taking at least one prescription |
| 1:12.9 | medication in the 2011-2012 survey year. That's a significant increase from just over 50% between |
| 1:21.1 | 1999 and 2000. In addition, more people are taking several medicines at once. |
| 1:31.1 | Polypharmacy, the use of at least five prescription medications, |
| 1:39.6 | nearly doubled from 8% in 1999-2000 to 15% in 2011-2012. |
| 1:49.4 | You might assume that the increased use of prescriptions is because the population is aging, and older adults are more likely to have chronic conditions that require treatment. |
| 1:53.9 | Although that may be a factor, it's not the whole story, according to the authors. |
| 2:00.4 | There may be cultural effects at work that encourage people to accept or even embrace prescription drugs. Perhaps a generally positive attitude |
| 2:03.3 | toward taking prescription medications makes people accept drugs prescribed off-label. That is, |
| 2:09.5 | treating problems for which they were not originally intended or tested. Scientists from Boston and |
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