Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are brain dysfunctions caused by an outside force, usually a blow to the head. Millions of Americans suffer from some variety of brain injury every year. From mild accidents like concussions to severe blows incurred in car accidents, sports games, or other events that involve sudden accelerations and forceful rotations.
Dr. Johanan Rand is committed to helping the residents of North New Jersey and Essex County who are suffering from the debilitating changes that occur after a traumatic brain injury.
Dr. Rand specializes in TBI treatment for:
Veterans/
Soldiers
Athletes/
Sports Injuries
Post-
Accident
Post-Trauma
or Fall
Common Symptoms of Traumatic Brain Injury:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Memory loss
- Inability to concentrate
- Strokes
- Insomnia
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Loss of libido
- Obesity
- Angry outbursts
- Mood swings
- Learning difficulties
- Menstrual irregularities
- Premature menopause
- Loss of lean body mass
- Muscular weakness
Traumatic brain injury patients can suffer broad effects, often appearing decades later. Conventional medical treatment seldom achieves substantial recovery, and these symptoms can become extremely disabling.
Often, there is both primary and secondary injury. Primary injury occurs at time of injury and is considered irreversible. However, complex secondary mechanisms crucially affect the delayed progression of brain damage—presenting unique opportunities for therapeutic strategies. One secondary process potentially promoting latent neuronal death is post-traumatic inflammation, which increases blood-brain barrier permeability, resulting in cerebral edema, intracranial pressure, and neuronal dysfunction.
Some patients who suffer a traumatic brain injury seem to have recovered initially, but studies suggest that many suffer lingering cognitive problems.
Recent medical studies indicate that traumatic brain injury symptoms are often caused by neuro-steroid hormone deficiencies. Traumatic brain injury damages the hypothalamus and triggers pituitary dysfunction. Dr. Johanan Rand treats patients by restoring neuro-steroid deficiencies.
Studies demonstrate that hypopituitarism—where the pituitary gland fails to produce normal hormone levels—is relatively common following traumatic brain injury. Sometimes, however, hypopituitarism is not diagnosed for over 20 years post-injury.
Many traumatic brain injury patients have a growth hormone deficiency, exhibiting greater deficits in attention, executive functioning, memory, and emotion than patients with normal levels. Growth hormone binds to brain receptors that are especially dense in regions responsible for learning and memory. Perhaps explaining why declining levels are associated with poorer cognition.
Critically, growth hormone increases survival of damaged nerve cells and promotes nerve tissue regeneration. It increases body-wide receptors for other hormones, helping overcome the effects of their deficiencies.
Other hormones are also closely related to cognitive stability. These hormones can function directly as neurotransmitters in the central nervous system. At least 16% of long-term traumatic brain injury survivors develop hypogonadism, meaning that male testes or female ovaries produce insufficient sex hormone levels. However, these deficiencies are not identified or treated in most individuals.
Low sex-hormone levels are increasingly linked to dementia. Age-related sex-hormone declines significantly contribute to Alzheimer’s risk. In a study involving over 500 aging men and women, optimum testosterone levels were linked with better cognitive performance. Other studies concluded that testosterone levels are positively associated with multiple aspects of cognition.
Medical researchers are now studying the impact of acute injury on the pituitary and the hypothalamus, two important hormone-producing glands in the middle of our brains. What they are finding is that long after a brain injury, and even when brain scans show no physical distortions after healing has occurred, the hypothalamus and pituitary may never fully recover. The consequences of this can be far reaching because the hypothalamus and pituitary glands are master glands that signal the proper production of thyroid hormones, sex hormones and adrenal hormones.
The resulting hormone imbalances cause a number of psychological, physiological, and physical symptoms. Practitioners working with an aging population will easily recognize these symptoms as those that mirror declining levels of TSH and thyroid hormones, DHEA and corticosteroids from the adrenal glands, and estrogens and testosterone from the ovaries and testes. And, now, these symptoms are also beginning to be recognized as associated with TBI, as well.
It is a disrupted hormonal function, not simply physical “brain damage,” that creates the sustained neurological deficits suffered by victims of traumatic brain injury.
Medical researchers and practitioners began to review medical findings and literature for ways to aid those recovering from traumatic brain injuries. A 2010 update to a literature review in Future Neurology notes that there are literally hundreds of studies regarding the “neuroprotective” effects of progesterone and its metabolites, with most of these studies being published in the last few years. In particular, two clinical trials demonstrated the effectiveness of using progesterone to successfully treat patients with moderate-to-severe head injury, resulting in sparing the lives of about 50% of those treated.
Dr. Rand employs a comprehensive laboratory test panel that covers all pituitary-related hormones when treating patients with brain injury. For direct testing of pituitary hormones, he looks at growth hormone (HGH), luteinizing hormone (LH), thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) levels. He also orders tests for the secondary hormones (i.e., those produced from the thyroid, adrenal, ovary and testes glands) including T3 and T4, cortisol, testosterone and estrogens.
Growth hormone is particularly important because it is also neuroprotective, meaning that it enhances the survival of damaged nerve cells and even promotes the creation of new nerve tissue. Declining growth hormone has been associated with cognitive decline and memory loss, symptoms that may persist after a brain trauma.
Recent studies have been conducted on a method of treatment for TBIs that involves hormone replacement. Dr. Rand offers these hormone replacement therapies to significantly improve the quality of life for patients suffering from traumatic brain injuries. His customized and personalized treatment plans are based on a variety of tests to determine how the injury has effected a patient’s hormone levels. His treatment plan and prescriptions are based on his findings and your unique situation.Dr. Rand has seen impressive success with patients suffering from traumatic brain injury and the symptoms and side effects of such injuries. His personalized hormone therapies can help optimize hormone levels and minimize symptoms of traumatic brain injury.
