Comment by rl3
6 years ago
After having three concussions in the past two years, one just recently—I've taken a keen interest in learning as much as I can about mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).
Impairment of glial-lymphatic function is thought to play a role in all manner of neurodegenerative disease, including TBI and mTBI.[0][1][2]
My potentially incorrect layperson oversimplification:
mTBI in particular is broadly characterized as a loss of homeostasis within the brain, more specifically metabolic dysregulation secondary to primary mechanical injury. When you suffer a concussion, an inflammatory response occurs within the brain. This is useful in the acute phase of injury, but can lead to chronic neuroinflammation if not properly mediated. Oxidative stress secondary to the primary injury can interfere with this process, and what you end up with is a complex biochemical cascade that furthers metabolic dysregulation and loss of homeostasis, resulting in latent neurodegeneration (brain damage). Among those systems impacted by said dysregulation is the glymphatic system.
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) by contrast is a term used to describe brain injury more severe than that of a simple concussion. It's basically everything mTBI is and then some: compromised blood–brain barrier, immune cell infiltration, necrosis, sometimes direct mechanical destruction of brain tissue in the case of open head injuries. It's typically quite horrific.
In researching the topic, I've noticed many papers suggest pathologies from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to CTE may in fact stem from chronic loss of [metabolic] homeostasis within the brain. Whether that's from chronically poor sleep, or hits to your head, the end result is disturbingly similar.
In my own experience, the number one thing that has helped me recover after a concussion has been sleep. Usually following an injury I need more of it than normal. It's not hard to imagine the glymphatic system plays a critical role in healing.
[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6261373/
No comments yet
Contribute on Hacker News ↗