In recent years, brain injury news, awareness and health information on successful breakthrough treatments had finally begun making frequent headlines in medical and science journals, universities, and health conferences around the world.

Sadly, and understandably, over the past several months, COVID19 and its impact on global health have taken center stage.  Many health professionals had to restructure their entire system while battling the onslaught of changes associated with an unknown health crisis.  The good news is medical research and developments for brain injuries, and brain health continues to expand behind the scenes. Innovators in the fields of advanced therapeutics, medical devices, laboratory biomarkers, functional medicine, neuro-optometry, and more are attributing to the progress needed in understanding how the brain and body react, function, and recover from head trauma. Improvement is definite, yet it can take up to fifteen years for medical advances to become mainstream.

In 2019, The University of Arizona Fire Chiefs Association implemented the EPIC-TBI Project featuring new developments in improving treatment protocols in prehospital injury care. In sharing their vision, they said, “The goal of the EPIC Project is to dramatically increase the number of severe TBI victims who survive with good neurologic outcome by thoroughly implementing the national EMS TBI guidelines.” In last year’s edition of Forbes, the EPIC project featured three critical elements to changing TBI patient outcomes, “focus on adherence to the three interventions: prevention and treatment of hypoxia, prevention, and avoidance of hyperventilation, and addressing and treatment of hypotension.”

In the Lancet Journal for Neurology, blood-based biomarkers for the immediate detection of traumatic brain injuries have made their way through numerous clinical trials. TRACK-TBI Network emphasizes the significant problem with undetected brain injuries through CT scans and even MRI’s.  Thousands of patients leave emergency rooms each year with undetected brain injuries, leaving them at risk for unknown health complications within the following days, weeks, months, or even years. In some cases of delayed concussion symptoms, Neuroendocrine dysfunction after traumatic brain injury can appear up to thirty-six months post-injury, leaving it as one of the crucial health indicators a traumatic brain injury occurred.  Health professionals who treat brain injury or concussion patients may be uninformed of the post-injury fallout from endocrine and hormonal imbalances that contribute to further cognitive and health decline if not routinely checked for prevention. Those who persevere in finding a physician or specialist who understands the risk of long-term health problems caused by a traumatic brain injury could improve their recovery.

In the field of alternative care, functional health professionals continue emphasizing the importance of rehabilitating and treating the whole patient after injury because everything within our body connects with the brain. Medical physicians in the field of functional health allow the patients’ symptoms only to be a guide, pointing the way to the root of the problem.