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Nutrition Key to Traumatic Brain Injury Recovery

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A new report suggests that an infusion of calories and proteins may help reduce inflammation and aid recovery in traumatic brain injury cases, as brought forth by a Lawyer.

Service members wounded on the battlefield are finding that proper nutrition plays an important role in improving the outcome of their traumatic brain injury. This is especially true if it is administered soon after they incur the injury, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report proclaims.

The report, commissioned by the Department of Defense, urges the military to make calorie and protein-based infusions a standard part of care in the immediate aftermath of an injury.

Naturally, the report has the same implications for brain injuries in the civilian population. “The investment the military makes will cross over into the civilian population for injuries suffered by those in car accidents, in motorbike accidents, by kids on soccer fields,” says the IOM panel chairman.

Sadly, brain injuries are becoming commonplace among service members in both Iraq and Afghanistan. A source says that since 2000, the U.S. military has logged more than 200,000 cases of traumatic brain injury diagnosed. 2,124 of those cases were classified as severe.

The IOM was asked to review the scientific literature linking nutrition to brain injury outcomes. A mix of food and nutrition specialists, neurologists, and other experts met several times over the course of the last year before finally submitting their report.

A Specialist in Manhattan and Westchester said that the panel made some strong recommendations, but they also had to admit that the field is still very new and too much is still unknown. Mandates cannot be levied on their findings, but recommendations are at least a step in the direction of progress.

The chairman says that “In most areas, we need more research. We’re a bit at the infancy of understanding which particular food components may enhance or protect someone,” from further injury.

The studies that the panel chose to review were less than 20 years old and they offered enough evidence for the panel to conclude that “infusions of calories and protein begun within the first 24 hours of injury and continued for the following two weeks” did, indeed, significantly reduce inflammation in the brain and aided in the patients’ recovery.

Long-term effects of nutrition supplements were not studied.

As more is uncovered through research and testing, NYC Brain Injury Law Office pledges to keep its clients up to date on what those findings do to aid their ongoing cases.

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