Brain injury usually is caused by a violent jolt or blow to the head or body.
Objects that penetrate the brain tissue, such as shattered skull bone or a bullet, can also lead to a brain injury.
Brain injuries can vary in degree and seriousness.
A mild brain injury may affect your brain only temporarily, whereas a more severe one might result in permanent damage and deficits.
Depending on which part of the brain has sustained the most damage, symptoms of brain injuries can vary widely.
Sometimes these symptoms appear immediately after the traumatic experience; other times they appear after a day, or even after several weeks.
Symptoms of mild brain injuries usually include:
Symptoms of moderate to severe brain injuries may include:
Brain injuries usually happen accidentally, and are very hard to predict.
However, there are some precautions we can take to prevent them, such as:
The treatment of brain injuries differs, depending on the severity of the damage.
It can be short or long in duration, and include surgery, physical therapy, psychological therapy, and alternative medicine.
One form of alternative medicine that shows promise in treating brain injuries is PEMF, which we will discuss more in the next part of the article.
PEMF is an intensively-researched therapy, with thousands of studies supporting its health benefits.
A large number of these studies reports how PEMF therapy can help heal traumatic brain injury.
Prompt modern medical intervention is crucial in the healing of brain injuries.
Speed in treatment is necessary when preventing serious consequences.
However, alternative medical approaches, such as PEMF, should not be overlooked, either.
Combined with modern medical procedures, PEMF can greatly decrease the recovery period, and improve patients’ quality of life.
We do not intend to claim that PEMF therapy is a cure for brain injury.
Depending on the severity of the injury, a cure may not exist.
However, considering numerous studies, we believe that patients could greatly benefit from the treatment.
There is no doubt that there is a need for professional medical attention from the very moment brain injury symptoms appear.
The sooner the patient receives treatment the better, which also goes for PEMF therapy.
Even though PEMF therapy is not usually a cure, it can reduce a wide variety of symptoms associated with brain injury, improve brain function, and improve patients’ quality of life.
People of all ages can use PEMF therapy, so these health benefits are available to children, as well.
In most patients, PEMF therapy will reduce inflammation, improve stimulation of damaged neurons, speed up healing of tissue necrosis, treat pain, and more.
Perhaps the most important of these health benefits is the reduction of brain inflammation. Inflammation is a common symptom of brain injury, which is followed by swelling.
Together, these can cause lasting damage, or even death.
Let’s take a look at several scientific studies that support these claims.
The positive effects of PEMF therapy on brain injury are supported by hundreds of studies conducted at prestigious clinics and universities.
Some of these studies were done using rTMS devices, which are very similar to those providing PEMF.
They use almost the same technology, and achieve essentially the same health benefits when used to treat patients suffering from brain injuries.
Let’s discuss some of the most prominent studies and their conclusions.
Headaches of long duration are one of the most common symptoms in patients with brain injuries.
The study, named Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Managing Mild Traumatic Brain Injury-Related Headaches (1), observed the effects of rTMS/PEMF treatment on mild traumatic brain injuries.
The study was conducted on veterans with mild traumatic brain injuries who were split into two groups: Those treated with real rTMS/PEMF, and those treated with sham stimulation.
The real group received 2000 pulses, divided into 20 trains and administered at 10 Hz frequency.
The sham group received placebo over the left motor cortex.
The assessments were conducted immediately before and after the treatment, and then one and four weeks later.
Initial assessments showed that there was a reduction in the frequency and intensity of headaches in both the real and sham groups.
However, follow-up assessments indicated that there was a more significant decrease in the real group.
The same trend also continued until the four-week assessment.
Final results showed that 58.3% of patients from the real group experienced a higher than 50% reduction in headache intensity, while the same was true for only 16.6% of patients in the sham group.
Thus, the scientists concluded that rTMS/PEMF is a viable treatment method for headaches caused by mild traumatic brain injuries.
A group of researchers from the University of Sao Paolo, Brazil, conducted a study in 2015, named Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) for the cognitive rehabilitation of traumatic brain injury (TBI) victims: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial (2).
The goal of the study was to find out whether rTMS/PEMF treatment is useful in the rehabilitation of victims suffering from diffuse axonal injury caused by traumatic brain injury.
They attempted to prove the safety and the efficacy of this method.
Thirty-six patients with diffuse axonal injury participated in this double-blind, randomized, controlled trial.
They were split into two equal groups – one received real, and the other received sham, stimulation.
The rTMS/PEMF protocol was as follows: Ten sessions were administered over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, at 10 Hz frequency.
The results included both cortical excitability measures and neuropsychological evaluations, obtained and performed respectively, one week before, one week after, and three months after the treatment.
The scientists concluded that rTMS/PEMF treatment provides significant benefits in treating brain injury-related symptoms, and has a lot of potential for use in cognitive rehabilitation strategies.
The objective of the study named Effect of Epidural Electrical Stimulation and Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Rats With Diffuse Traumatic Brain Injury (3) was to find out more about the effects of rTMS/PEMF and epidural electrical stimulation (EES) on diffuse traumatic brain injury in rats.
A total of thirty rats was included in the study, with inflicted diffuse traumatic brain injuries, caused by a weight-drop method of 45 kg/cm2.
They were split into three groups: The EES group, the rTMS/PEMF group, and the control group.
Before the study, all thirty rats were trained for 14 days to perform a rotarod test and a pellet-reaching task.
After the study ended, the success in completing these tasks and the time required it were assessed.
The results of the study showed that the pellet-reaching task was significantly improved in the rTMS/PEMF group between day 4 and day 14, as well as in the EES group between day 8 and day 12.
The rotarod test also improved between day 4 and day 9 in the rTMS/PEMF group, and between day 6 and day 11 in the EES group.
Thus, the conclusion was that both rTMS/PEMF and EES could be used in rats to enhance brain activity and motor recovery after traumatic brain injuries.
The principal investigator of the study, named Transcranial magnetic stimulation in brain injury (4), is interested in the effects rTMS/PEMF therapy has on different types of brain injury, such as traumatic or anoxic brain injury, or stroke.
Depending on the type and severity of the brain injury, patients typically experienced a reduction in cortical excitability, as well as changes in the interaction between the two hemispheres.
rTMS/PEMF is known to restore the connection between the hemispheres after a stroke via exciting the lesioned cortex with 3-50 Hz frequencies, or inhibiting the healthy cortex with frequencies lower than 1 Hz.
Moreover, the effects rTMS/PEMF therapy has on visuospatial neglect and aphasia are very encouraging.
The same can be said for motor recovery, as well. The only possible side effect is a slight risk of seizures.
At the end of the study, the scientists note that rTMS/PEMF therapy is a powerful tool that can influence post-lesional recovery, and, as such, should be considered in cases of various types of brain injuries.
Traumatic brain injury causes physical, cognitive, and psychological damage in a large population.
However, many modern procedures are not substantially effective, and often cause side effects.
That’s why a group of Canadian scientists conducted a study called Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation for the Treatment of Symptoms Following Traumatic Brain Injury (5) to observe the effects rTMS/PEMF therapy has on brain injury symptoms.
Thus, this study examines cases where rTMS/PEMF and tDCS (transcranial direct-current stimulation) were used to treat symptoms of traumatic brain injury.
The main areas of focus were the values, and the potential risks, of these therapies.
The scientists researched databases of PsycINFO and PubMed, and found eight studies and four multi-subject reports in which rTMS/PEMF was used, and six multi-subject studies where rDCS was used.
After analyzing all the studies and reports, the scientists concluded that rTMS/PEMF could be an effective treatment for symptoms of traumatic brain injury.
Moreover, they say that there is no substantial risk of side effects, as there were only two instances of seizures reported in all of these studies.
This study was conducted at a veterans’ hospital in Illinois, in 2009.
The full name of the study is Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation-associated neurobehavioral gains during coma recovery (6), and seeks to discover more about the efficacy of rTMS/PEMF therapy for patients with severe traumatic brain injury.
The study focused on two main hypotheses.
The first was that rTMS/PEMF therapy would not cause any adverse effects, and the second was that this therapy would cause neurobehavioral gains in patients who have been in a coma for longer than three months.
The study was conducted on a 26-year-old patient who had been in a coma for 287 days before the study.
He received a 6-week rTMS/PEMF treatment of 30 sessions on his right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
Upon conclusion of the study, the scientists noticed that there were no adverse effects related to the rTMS/PEMF stimulation.
In addition, there was a noticeable increase in neurobehavioral gains, which suggested that certain neurobehavioral improvements occurred in the patient’s brain.
Thus, they concluded that rTMS/PEMF therapy shows promise in treating comatose patients.
However, this treatment requires further research before we can fully understand the best way to use it to help patients with severe traumatic brain injuries.
PEMF therapy undoubtedly shows significant promise in the treatment of mild to severe traumatic brain injuries.
Extensive studies prove this by demonstrating positive health effects on headaches, neurostimulation, motor control, cognitive and psychological function, etcetera.
It is important not to view PEMF treatment as a cure for these ailments, but rather as a tool that will significantly improve the quality of life, and decrease recovery time, for patients who have sustained a brain injury.
Using PEMF therapy alongside modern medical procedures is the best way to achieve a quicker, more complete, recovery.
Richard Hoover is a PEMF expert and content contributor to PEMF Advisor. With a bachelor’s degree in physics and multiple certifications in natural health programs, he is one of the best PEMF experts around.
PEMF therapy can be effective at treating and relieving a wide range of conditions and…
In this article we will explain what is the difference between TENS and PEMF therapies,…
Magnets have been used for centuries to help heal the body, and there are many…
For over 3,000 years, magnetism and electricity have both played a significant role, whether in…
In this article we are going to explain what FIR (far infrared rays) therapy is…