Sports-Related Traumatic Brain Injury

Nearly 300,000 sports-related traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) occur each year in the United States.1 Athletes involved in sports such as football, hockey and boxing are at significant risk of TBI due to the high level of contact inherent in these sports. Head injuries are also extremely common in sports such as cycling, baseball, basketball and skateboarding. Sadly, many sports head injuries lead to permanent brain damage or worse. Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, is the leading cause of death in sports-related accidents.

Players who have sustained a traumatic brain injury require immediate medical attention and, if permanent damage results, often need ongoing care, which can be very expensive. Many traumatic brain injury patients and their families suffer financial hardship due to injury-related expenses.

If you or someone you know suffered sports-related brain damage as a result of someone else’s negligence, you may be entitled to compensation for medical expenses and other damages. A traumatic brain injury lawyer can review your case and help you earn the compensation you deserve.

High School Sports and Traumatic Brain Injury

While moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries are usually obvious, seemingly mild head injuries often go undetected. Because they usually fall under the category of closed head injury, as opposed to open head injury (in which the skull has been penetrated), damage caused by these injuries is not visibly apparent — nor is it visible in computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging scans. As a result, doctors are often forced to rely solely on reported symptoms. Unfortunately, many players hide their symptoms or pain in order to continue playing, despite being injured. For this reason, some players do not reach full recovery and experience devastating brain damage.

The failure to detect and treat a TBI is particularly harmful to younger athletes. Because teenagers do not have fully developed brain tissue, head injuries sustained among high school athletes often lead to detrimental damage. Injuries suffered at this stage of development can cause longer-lived symptoms and create vulnerability to further damage if another injury occurs.

Approximately 21 percent of all traumatic brain injuries in people under 18 years old are a result of sports-related accidents, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Unfortunately, many high school players fail to recognize the signs of a traumatic brain injury, or downplay their symptoms in order to continue playing. The American Journal of Sports Medicine estimates three to four concussions occur each year in an average 50-player high school football team.

Traumatic Brain Injury in College and Professional Sports

Unlike the brains of high school athletes, college and professional sports players’ brains are fully developed. However, the blows they endure are much more powerful than those endured in high school sports. According to one study, the force to the head sustained by National Football League (NFL) football players is 98 times more powerful than the force of gravity.2

Most sports-related traumatic brain injuries come in the form of a concussion. The American Journal of Clinical Medicine defines concussion as “a trauma induced transient loss of normal mental function that lasts less than 24 hours.” Patients with concussions sometimes, but not always, lose consciousness.

The classification of concussions is an inexact science. However, for the sake of simplification, concussions are sometimes divided into three “grades.”3

Grade 1 concussion: A concussion in which alteration in mental status lasts less than 15 minutes. Patients experiencing a grade 1 concussion should cease participation in sporting activity immediately and be monitored for 15 minutes. Grade 1 patients should then see a physician and refrain from participating in sports until symptoms are absent for more than a week.

Grade 2 concussion: A concussion in which alteration in mental status lasts more than 15 minutes, not accompanied by loss of consciousness. Like grade 1 patients, grade 2 patients should cease participation in the sporting activity and see a doctor immediately. In addition, they should avoid returning to the activity until symptoms are absent for more than a month.

Grade 3 concussion: A concussion in which the patient loses consciousness for any period of time. Patients who lose consciousness should be immediately transported to an emergency facility. Some grade 3 patients will need to undergo a CT scan.

Athletes who experience multiple concussions will need to take extra measures to prevent undue brain injury. The measures taken depend on the severity of the concussions as well as individual circumstances.

Second Impact Syndrome

Following a concussion, the neurovascular system can struggle to respond to the body’s increased demands for energy. When a second injury occurs, the situation is compounded. One of the most dangerous potential aftereffects of TBI is second impact syndrome, or brain swelling that occurs after an athlete has suffered a second concussion before the first concussion has fully healed. This can result in the death of brain cells, in turn leading to severe and/or permanent brain damage. Second impact syndrome is often a fatal condition.

Patients who have sustained one concussion are four times more likely to sustain a second one.4 Some well-known football players have suffered several concussions over the course of their careers, including NFL quarterback Troy Aikman, who racked up more than 10 concussions.

Once an athlete has sustained a head injury, each subsequent traumatic brain injury needs more time for recovery. Subsequent injuries also cause more severe damage, often leading to devastating results. Brain damage caused by multiple concussions is called chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Preventing Sports-Related Traumatic Brain Injury

Coaches and sports officials have recently taken several steps to encourage traumatic brain injury prevention. The National Athletic Trainers’ Association and the American Football Coaches Association have edited some of the regulations regarding head contact, including those aimed at regulating head-down and helmet contact more strictly.

Players are encouraged to purchase helmets that are approved by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). Players should also promptly replace any athletic equipment that is damaged, and rest if they have been injured or ill.

Coaches who fail to take the necessary safety precautions or allow for proper recovery after a head injury may be found negligent. To learn more about traumatic brain injury and TBI legal implications, continue reading All About Traumatic Brain Injury.

1Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
2The Denver Post
3American Journal of Clinical Medicine
4Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

March 29 2011
Glutathione and Detoxification

With so many man-made chemicals being released into the atmosphere and waterways, and added to foods and medications, you might wonder whether or not your body even knows what to do with such harsh materials when it comes into contact with them. After all, many of these toxic chemicals do not occur in nature, but are manufactured in the lab. Fortunately, your body has a natural, inborn detoxification system that relies primarily on glutathione for its activation and operation.

Glutathione is one of your body’s primary antioxidants (1). It is utilized by virtually every cell in your body, in its cellular enzymatic state (glutathione reductase), to maintain the cell’s healthy (redox) state and prevent the proliferation of harmful free radicals. Naturally, to aid detoxification, glutathione levels are highest in the liver and kidneys, which are the body’s primary detoxification organs.

Cellular detoxification is broken into three phases, and glutathione enhances these stages of detoxification in many ways:

Phase I (toxin modification) – Toxins are detected within the cell, and modified through oxidation and reduction reactions into forms the body can target.

Phase II (toxin conjugation) – Once a toxin is detected and modified, its activated metabolites are then bound to or “conjugated” directly to glutathione. There are other charged species in the body which may conjugate toxins, but glutathione is the primary contributor to this process. In fact, this process is termed “glutathione conjugation.” The conjugation of glutathione disables the toxic metabolites from diffusing across membranes, so that they are removed from the body in the next step.

Phase III (excretion) – This step relies upon enzymatic derivatives of glutathione, glutathione S-transferases (GSTs), to catalyze reactions in the body to metabolize and excrete the toxins.

All three building blocks of glutathione play important roles in the completion of the detoxification pathway.

As simple as this process may seem, your body unfortunately faces a number of challenges in maintaining effective and useful levels of glutathione, which may explain why there are so many toxicity-induced diseases prevalent in North America:

A bombardment of toxins causes your body’s stores of glutathione to be run down. Unfortunately, glutathione is part of the specific system designed to deal with environmental toxins! Therefore, as the body is exposed to harsh chemicals, heavy metals, and all xenobiotics, there is a negatively-spiraling wasting of glutathione, and subsequent accumulation of toxins in body tissues.

It’s very hard to obtain glutathione in the diet – or in supplementation form. Only a few vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, and carrots contain significant levels of dietary glutathione. However, it has been observed that the cooking of raw vegetables depletes their usable glutathione contents by nearly 100%. Similarly, the glutathione stores available in meat, dairy, and eggs, are only significant when the foods are in their raw forms (2). Oral supplementation with glutathione has not been proven to be effective, as it is largely destroyed in the body before it can be brought into the cells in usable form (3).

When we speak of environmental toxins, we are no longer just dealing with smoke from a wood-burning fire, fungal and mold toxins released from rotten food, rare poisons in the leaves of certain plants, or heavy metals found in water wells. Your body now has to ward off thousands of man-made chemicals used in food preservation (pesticides and herbicides), personal care products (petroleum bi-products), home cleaning products (benzene, chlorine, etc.) and much more.

Maximized Living’s DailyDetox relies on the enhancement of intracellular glutathione to accelerate detoxification, while taking these challenges into consideration to deliver a superior product:

DailyDetox is not an intense “flush” or “cleanse,” but rather a gentle and daily support system for the detox pathways, since not a day goes by that we are not bombarded by more chemicals.
CellDetox (step 1 of DailyDetox) supplies your body with the three building blocks of glutathione (L-cysteine through N-Acetyl cysteine, L-glutamic acid and glycine), plus the important vitamins (B2, B6, and selenium) necessary for glutathione synthesis in the body.
To enhance the body’s detoxification system beyond the glutathione pathways, BodyDetox (step 2 of DailyDetox) provides the body with super-activated carbon to bind any external toxins which may surpass the body’s limitations and to bind any toxins that may be trapped in fat-soluble bile, thereby preventing re-circulation of toxins into the body.

While the risks of many chemicals are well-documented, the dangers of many others are unknown. Although chemicals are often accepted to be “innocent until proven guilty,” this has not been their pattern in history. The North American epidemic of disease in the 21st century may have much less to do with nutrient deficiency and much more to do with chemical toxicity. For this reason, more North Americans are making DailyDetox their daily supplement of choice.

(1) Meister A, Anderson M (1983). “Glutathione”. Annu Rev Biochem 52: 711 – 60.
(2) Jones DP, Coates RJ, Flagg EW, et al. (1992). Glutathione in Foods listed in the National Cancer Institute’s Health Habits and History Food Frequency Questionnaire. Nutr Cancer 17: 57-75
(3) Witschi A, Reddy S, Stofer B, Lauterburg BH. The systemic availability of oral glutathione. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 1992;43(6):667-9.

Using nebulized Glutathione in GlutaCrine for Neurologic revitalization. Brain Power!

This is my video on how Nebulized GlutaCrine helped my knee arthritis pain and inflammation. It comes in Suppositories too. They really work!

A new study unravels key signals that regulate protective and sometimes pathological inflammation of the skin. The research, published online on January 26th in the journal Immunity by Cell Press, identifies a “gatekeeper” that, when lost, can cause inflammatory skin disease in the absence of injury or infection. The findings may eventually lead to new treatment strategies for the more than 10% of people in the western world that suffer from inflammatory skin diseases.

Although the skin typically remains in a “quiet” state, injury or invading pathogens cause skin cells to sound the alarm and mobilize an impressive immune response called inflammation. Inflammation of the skin is a powerful and appropriate response to infection or injury, but overzealous or unwarranted inflammation of the skin is harmful. Therefore, it is important to understand how skin cells regulate the function of immune cells.

“We knew that skin cells called keratinocytes direct the local immune response, yet the signaling networks in the skin that control the immune response were poorly defined,” explains senior study author, Dr. Rama Khokha, from the Ontario Cancer Institute. “In our study we investigated whether an enzyme called ADAM17 is involved in crosstalk between the skin and the immune system. ADAM17 sheds proteins from the cell surface and has been implicated in immune cell function and development.”

Aditya Murphy of the Khokha lab inactivated the gene for ADAM17 in the skin of adult mice and observed spontaneous production of inflammatory proteins by keratinocytes, culminating in skin inflammation and immune cell proliferation. Khokha and colleagues went on to show that ADAM17 controls Notch signaling in the adult epidermis (the outer layer of the skin). The Notch signaling pathway has been linked with the maintenance of normal skin and was recently implicated in preventing inflammatory skin disease. Importantly, reactivation of Notch rescued local skin inflammation and abnormal immune cell proliferation in the mice lacking the gene for ADAM17.

“Our study provides the first demonstration of the physiological requirement of ADAM17 in Notch signaling and demonstrates that loss of this gatekeeper triggers an immune response, even in the absence of injury or infection,” concludes Dr. Khokha. “A better understanding of the mechanisms that regulate communication between immune and non-immune cells will be of significant value in the treatment of diseases affecting the skin and other barrier tissues.”

An extremely valuable method for down regulating inflammation and the subsequent symptoms is via proper supplementation with glutathione.  GlutaSourceprovides effective, bio-available reduced glutathione that has rapid absorption throughout the body. We welcome you to check out GlutaSource, review the many testimonials regarding how both glutathione delivery systems have made a difference.

Yours in health,

GlutaSource.info

Evidence suggests that autism spectrum disorders are influenced by the intricate interface between genetics, immune function, toxic environmental exposures, and increased oxidative stress. Antioxidants have various purposes including reducing oxidative stress, toxicity, and free radical activity. An antioxidant is a molecule with an extra electron that stabilizes free radicals.

The body’s “master antioxidant” is glutathione. Glutathione (GSH) serves as a potent immune system activator providing cellular protection from the damage of free radicals. Glutathione is your body’s most powerful antioxidant. Glutathione (GSH) is your major defense system against illness and aging as it functions both as an antioxidant and an antitoxin. Increasing glutathione levels results in increased energy as your body is detoxified and your immune system is strengthened.

In recent years, various clinical and research findings have been published regarding autism and its causes. One of the most important discoveries about autism is the link between autism and antioxidants, such as glutathione. Recently, investigators in Arkansas discovered that antioxidant levels of autistic children are significantly lower when compared to the antioxidant levels of children not suffering from this disorder. Research has shown that a child with autism has 80 percent lower antioxidant levels than usual.

Without adequate glutathione levels, free radical damage can occur. Free radicals are found in various food substances, and even environmental substances such as smoke, radiation, and pollution. It is antioxidants, such as glutathione, that cleanse the body of harmful substances, so to speak.

The fact that levels of glutathione of children with autism is extremely low is concerning. On the one hand, this means that an autistic child has no way of cleansing your body the chemicals that are derived from the food you eat. Furthermore, the digestive systems of autistic children are not fully capable of digesting and breaking down the food they eat. Given the fact that an autistic child has low concentrations of glutathione the damage can be catastrophic, if proper supplementation is not addressed. It is clear that free radicals and toxicity can damage our brains thus hindering development.

GlutaSource has trained professionals with extensive experience working with children, adolescents, and adults with ASD who routinely conduct evaluations that provide practical and detailed recommendations for immediate support that include utilization of glutathione.

GlutaSource™ provides potent glutathione via effective routes of delivery (e.g., nebulization and suppository) that can reduce various symptoms of ASD caused by poor absorption, toxicity, and free radical damage. The GlutaSource™ product lineup is the result of exhaustive clinical and programmatic research, culminating in the creation of a patent pending blend of ingredients in proportionally correct amounts.

Please feel free to contact visit our website at www.GlutaSource.info or contact Dr Lieurance at 941.330.8553 for additional details, questions, or to place an order.

What is inflammation? In its simplest form, it’s the body’s response to a perceived threat– whether it’s a splinter in our finger, sunburn at the beach, a sprained ankle or the reddish edges of a paper cut.

When chronic inflammation is maintained over a period of time, it can lead to serious conditions such as cancer, heart disease, heart attacks, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Diabetes and others.

Traditional Approach to Controlling Inflammation = Toxicity
How do we control inflammation? Typically, if you have a headache, you reach for an aspirin, right? Or, if the pain is really bad, you go for any number of other Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAID’s) such as Ibuprofen, Aleve, Excedrin or Acetiminophen. New drugs, the Cox 2 Inhibitors (Vioxx and Celebrex,) have recently been added to this group.

However, NSAIDs have a not so well publicized record of health risks. Specifically:
• NSAID-induced disease causes at least 113,000 hospitalizations per year.
• Every year 16,500 arthritis patients die from NSAID-related gastrointestinal damage alone.
• 21% of all adverse drug reactions are due to NSAID use.
• People over 60 have a significantly higher probability of experiencing complications associated with NSAID use.

Yet there are over 13 million regular users of NSAIDs in the US, with at least 30 billion over-the-counter NSAID tablets sold annually. If deaths from gastrointestinal toxic effects from NSAIDs were tabulated separately in the National Vital Statistics reports, these effects would constitute the 15th most common cause of death in the United States. Yet many physicians and most patients remain unaware of the magnitude of this problem.

When Nutrient Is Not Enough: Supplement with Glutathione

The real answer to controlling inflammation and preventing disease lies in nutrition. Certain foods, nutrients and antioxidants have powerful anti-inflammatory effects. The body’s own anti-inflammatory system heavily depends on Glutathione.

In addition to Glutathione, there are other foods and herbs which have significant anti-inflammatory properties. The following is a brief list of some anti-inflammatory foods and herbs:

• Citrus peel contains a phytochemical called limonene, which is anti-inflammatory and helps protect the skin from the harmful effects of the sun.

• Tumeric has the active ingredient curcumin in it, which is well known as a powerful anti-inflammatory agent.

• Nettle Leaf extract is an herb used for its anti-histamine properties.

• Boswellia serrata contains an aromatic gum resin which has been used in Ayurvedic medicine to treat arthritis.

• Perilla seed extract is an anti-inflammatory which helps heal respiratory tissue and reduce histamine levels.

Because the body makes less and less Glutathione as we age, it is essential to engage in proper supplementation. Many patients have asked me “What makes GlutaSource so different from other Glutathione supplements? Plain and simple, it is absorption rate. If you Google Glutathione, you will find that 80% of the products being offered for sale are simply oral Glutathione. This is troubling because if you simply ingest pure Glutathione it will be broken down into its component parts by the acid in your stomach, and simply stated, will never get into your body in a form that can be used. It has often been stated that the most expensive nutritional supplement you will ever purchase is the one that doesn’t work.

The GlutaSource™ product lineup is the result of exhaustive experimentation, all culminating in the creation of a patent pending blend of the appropriate ingredients in proportionally correct amounts, enabling it to:

1. Utilize efficacious delivery systems such as nebulization and suppository routes not the digestive system.

2. Be preferentially absorbed (because not everything you put into your mouth gets absorbed into your body).

3. Have the ability to pass through two critical membranes – one at the entrance to the cell, and a second at the entrance to that furnace inside each cell called the mitochondria.

4. Have the ability to recycle the spent Glutathione through the liver after it has been utilized to eliminate the oxidants that are the byproduct of ATP production within the mitochondria.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions or comments at 941.330.8553

Best wishes,

GlutaSource.info

Proper supplementation with Glutathione and eating a healthy diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables provides the body with the antioxidants and nutrients needed in order to function properly.

The relationship between Glutathione and health status has been well documented in clinical research. GlutaSource is proud to provide potent, highly absorbed glutathione via effective delivery methods.

Here are some of the other benefits that you can get when you increase Glutathione levels:
-You will think more clearly
-Quicker muscle recovery time
-Less soreness following exercise
-Fights the aging process
-Eliminates toxins and waste
-Improves your lung and heart functions
-Improves our immune system

The master antioxidant, glutathione, is produced primarily in the liver. As we age, we make less of it – the liver’s capacity to produce glutathione is reduced by approximately 10 percent per decade. Glutathione plays a key role in slowing down the aging process, and holding off diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease, chronic inflammatory diseases (osteoarthritis and Type I diabetes), autoimmune diseases (Lyme Disease, chronic fatigue syndrome), seizure disorder, cancer, and diabetes to name a few.

Until recently the effects of glutathione were an obscure subject matter, but with the advancement of technology over the last decade, the critical health benefits are gaining greater more attention. In fact, if you perform a search for “glutathione antioxidant” on PubMed, you’ll find thousands of peer reviewed (approximately 90,000) clinical research and studies that validate the critical role that GSH plays in the body.

Essential for vitality and health, the numerous benefits of glutathione are overwhelming:

• In 2004, the Journal of Nutrition reported that a Glutathione’s antioxidant properties have an extremely important role in anti-oxidant defense, nutrient metabolism and regulating cellular events.
• “Glutathione is a very interesting, very small molecule that’s [produced by the body and] found in every cell.” That’s Gustavo Bounous, MD, and he’s a retired professor of surgery at McGill University in Montreal.
• Dr. S. J. R. Heales at the London Institute of Neurology has written “when glutathione levels are compromised, the mitochondrial respiratory chain is a vulnerable target and cell death ensues.”
• A 2003 New England Journal of Medicine article confirmed that a low level of the glutathione antioxidant was associated with an increased risk of a cardiovascular event.

Food, water, and oxygen are recognized as substances essential to continued living, but such is the power of this glutathione antioxidant molecule that it too is essential to our lives.

Here’s What You Know…

We can never get enough Glutathione. You’re never going to overdose on it, it doesn’t have any crazy side effects like HGH does. The benefits of Glutathione antioxidant as the body’s super-powered defender are unparalleled. So the question is, where do we get this stuff?

• The body produces it naturally
• We can get more by eating right, living a healthy lifestyle, and proper supplementation

And Here’s A Shocking Twist About Glutathione Antioxidant!

The glutathione we get from those foods isn’t overwhelming. I mean, eating right is its own reward, you’ll get vitamins, minerals, and other great benefits that you can’t get with any pill. I could go on for ages about the importance of a healthy diet! But… when it comes to pure glutathione antioxidant power, we can’t get that from just food alone.

For that… you’re going to need a potent, viable Glutathione supplement. GlutaSource.info Is Your Trusted Source for Everything Glutathione. Bioavailability and absorption rate of glutathione is essential. Glutathione products from GlutaSource.info act as immune system boosters, body detoxifiers, and super antioxidants. Please feel free to contact us at 941.330.8553 regarding any questions or you can place an order online.

The GlutaSource team