This was sent to me from
http://www.brainplace.com , its very interesting.
The brain is everywhere there is news about people, especially inside our soldiers' skulls.
A growing number of U.S. troops whose body armor helped them survive bomb and rocket attacks are suffering brain damage as a result of the blasts. It's the injury some military doctors say has become the signature wound of the Iraq war. Known as traumatic brain injury, or TBI, the wound is one that many soldiers from previous wars never lived long enough to suffer. The explosions often cause brain damage similar to "shaken-baby syndrome," says Warren Lux, a neurologist at my alma mater Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC.
"You've got great body armor on, and you don't die," says Louis French, a neuropsychologist at Walter Reed. "But there's a whole other set of possible consequences. It's sort of like when they started putting airbags in cars and started seeing all these orthopedic injuries."
The injury is often hard to recognize - for doctors, for families and for the troops themselves. Months after being hurt, many soldiers may look fully recovered, but their brain functions remain labored. "They struggle much more than you think just from talking to them, so there is that sort of hidden quality to it," Lux says.
To identify cases of TBI, doctors at Walter Reed screened every arriving service member wounded in an explosion, along with those hurt in Iraq or Afghanistan in a vehicle accident or fall, or by a gunshot wound to the face, neck or head. They found TBI in about 60% of the cases. TBI may be the wound that characterizes this war, as illness from Agent Orange typified the Vietnam War.
An explosion can cause the brain to move violently inside the skull. The shock wave from the blast can also damage brain tissue, Lux says. "The good news is that those people would have been dead" in earlier wars, says Deborah Warden, national director of the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center. "But now they're alive. And we need to help them."
Symptoms of TBI vary. They include headaches, sensitivity to light or noise, behavioral changes, impaired memory and a loss in problem-solving abilities.
In severe cases, victims must relearn how to walk and talk. "It's like being born again, literally," says Sgt. Edward "Ted" Wade, 27, a soldier with the 82nd Airborne Division who lost his right arm and suffered TBI in an explosion last year near Fallujah. Today, he sometimes struggles to formulate a thought, and his eyes blink repeatedly as he concentrates.
Our new radio show, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, is receiving wall to wall calls from all over the country. Tune in Saturdays at 8 – 9 AM (PST) on 1170 KCBQ in San Diego or 1300 KKOL in Seattle or on the web at www.kcbq.com or send me questions at changeyourbrain@amenclinic.com.
"Brain In The News" is offered as a free service to educate people on how the brain relates to our behavior. You can see over 300 color 3D brain SPECT images at www.brainplace.com. You can subscribe for free at www.amenclinic.com.
Daniel G. Amen, MD
Amen Clinics, Inc.
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