I recently experienced a rather bad concussion.
It’s pretty embarrassing really! As I jumped down from a kitchen barstool at home, my socks hit the tiles and I went flying across the room and was stopped when my head met my large oak table.
My poor wife found me seconds later in a pool of blood. Did I pass out? Who knows… if I did, it wasn’t for long. Looking back, what happened next was terrifying; my legs were like jelly and apparently my eyes were rolling around inside my head.
I was thrown inside a car at 12:20am and driven to A&E. My CT scan was cleared fairly quickly but then my wife and I had a long wait before I finally had stitches at 2pm the next day. In my opinion, this was completely unacceptable. Somebody with concussion needs to sleep to be able to recover and keeping me awake all night waiting for stitches wasn’t providing me with adequate care.
I left hospital on the Saturday afternoon, exhausted, weak, with a dented ego and the worst brain fog I have ever experienced
I decided I would record how I felt each day (1 = terrible, 10 = back to 100%)
Day 1 – Saturday (the day after)
Energy – 1
Appetite – 2
Brain Fog – 2
Tiredness at 5pm – 1
Steadiness – 1
I went to bed at 3pm, woke up at 7pm, rested on the sofa, drank some water and went back to bed by 8pm for another 12 hours sleep.
Day 2 – Sunday
Energy – 2
Appetite – 3
Brain Fog – 3
Tiredness at 5pm – 1
Steadiness – 2
On Sunday, I still felt dreadful and was convinced that I was suffering from a concussion, especially as I had been vomiting on a regular basis since Friday night until Sunday night. So, I used what little energy I had to research recovery from concussion. It became clear that the effects of concussion can last a long time and be serious and I needed to recover quickly as I was due to take my son away for the weekend in exactly one week.
I decided that my strategy was to:
1. Rest as much as possible – prioritise sleep
2. Take 4g of krill oil per day
3. Molecular hydrogen once a day
4. Curcumin – twice a day
5. PQQ/ CoQ10 – 6 ampules a day
6. Infrared light – 820nm (twice per day for 20 mins)
7. Glutathione – doubled my usual dose
8. Put myself into ketosis as much as possible
I went to bed at 9:30pm and woke up at 8:30am.
Day 3 – Monday
Energy – 3
Appetite – 3
Brain Fog – 5
Tiredness at 5pm – 3
Steadiness – 3
I still felt incredibly unsteady on my feet with a sense that the world was going on around me and I was merely observing it. I still did not have much of an appetite but ate what I felt I could manage. I found that a Bulletproof Coffee in the morning was really helping to wake up my brain and for a few hours each morning, I had great mental clarity. The infrared light was healing the wound pretty quickly.
I went to bed at 9:30pm and woke up at 8:00am
Day 4 – Tuesday
Energy – 5
Appetite – 5
Brain Fog – 6
Tiredness at 5pm – 6
Steadiness – 4
The ‘big gun’ arrived in the post; liposomal CoQ10 and PQQ. I’d not used it for a while and WOW, I forgot how good it is. I hit the dosage pretty hard taking 8 ampules in the first day and I could feel a dramatic improvement.
Day 5 – Wednesday
Energy – 6
Appetite – 6
Brain Fog – 7
Tiredness at 5pm – 8
Steadiness – 6
This was a strange day, I could feel I was on the path to recovery but still not feeling at all right. Also, I had a really strange craving for sugar, which I’ve not had in a long, long time and certainly not since going on a keto diet. The craving was really intense, and I found myself eating my son’s Haribos by the handful. I discovered that my brain wasn’t really craving sugar, it was craving fat and as soon as I increased the fat in my diet, the cravings went away.
Day 6 – Thursday
Energy – 7
Appetite – 8
Brain Fog – 8
Tiredness at 5pm – 8
Steadiness – 7
I was feeling much better on Thursday and despite my wife’s protests, I travelled to London and booked myself in for intravenous vitamins and glutathione.
Day 7 – Friday
Energy – 8
Appetite – 9
Brain Fog – 9
Tiredness at 5pm – 9
Steadiness – 8
The stitches came out today, two days earlier than the Doctor said in hospital. I’m convinced the infrared light sped up the healing process.
Now for the disclaimer because (with apologies!) there always has to be one with this sort of information. This protocol definitely worked for me and I’m very grateful that there is so much great information out there in the biohacking forums. However, just because it worked for me, it doesn’t mean it would work for you, so I encourage you to do your own research and consult a medical practitioner.
I was able to take my son away for the weekend – so all in all a good result for me.