Love Your Brain? Snowboarder Turned Activist Kevin Pearce Thinks We Should. Star of "The Crash Reel", a GRATE Film!

Everyone reading this has a brain, but do you LOVE your brain? Our brains do so much for us, and have since the very beginning of our time in this life, and they're secured away inside the head and 'invisible to us' -- out of sight, out of mind. So people are often out of touch with our own brains!

So I ask you to ponder this a bit: How much do you know about your brain? How well is your brain? Has it ever been injured? (More than likely it has, many times as there are many ways brains are injured - 'trauma' of 'concussion' (a physics term) is what 'everyone' thinks of probably, but what about chemicals injuring the brain? What about when we were marinating before birth, what toxins made their way into the mix? ... and many things in between those examples). Is it fully recovered from the injuries? Is it currently healing? Healed? What are you doing today that is helping your brain health? And does this have an impact on your 'state of mind' -- what is your understanding of 'brain' and 'mind' and the interrelationship? Lumigrate uses the popularized and simplified 'mind, body, spirit' concept utilized in 'integrative medicine' for much of our material (sometimes I go into a different model with a few more items subdividing a whole person's life).  

Ultimately 'functional medicine'  is the type of information at Lumigrate as well, where the underlying reasons for illness symptoms (or wellness symptoms) are looked at and that is where you focus attention and only address the outward symptoms as necessary. And it's a rare person in the US who doesn't talk about, complain about, or demonstrate symptoms of brain dysfunction. There are many reasons for this, and an 'injury' to the brain is likely not typically suspected by most people. So I wanted to preface this topic with some extensive setup because this is going to be the starting place for a lot of YOUsers. Kevin Pearse and the film The Crash Reel focused upon acute, traumatic brain injury, but when I watched the film I was seeing many other facets about the brain coming into the picture and story. 

Often, people's symptoms that manifest are not even connected in their minds (with the mind doing the thinking) to the actual brain, and they're 'missing the boat' entirely in terms of what is causing their symptoms, with sometimes devastating consequences to the person's life before they're even aware of the brain's invovement in what the body shows as symptoms. So I hope that this topic is 'interesting and appealing' becasue of the outward information and will open the door to much more thinking and understanding by the reader. YOU in this case!  

For starters, I want to specify that Lumigrate's target audience is anyone who has the interest in wellness information and finding quality 'outside the box' information coming from an 'integrative approach' -- we have many different experts who have collaborated by providing information from their area of expertise over the years since we launched (2009).

This might be medical providers, who are frequently exhausted and have extensive reading to keep up with their professional life's requirements, but I hope they'll find Lumigrate and enjoy seeing what we provide also. And the public / consumers who are seeking this information who ultimately have more interest in their health issues are more likely to find Lumigrate, but with our YOU model of how to become a proactive 'team leader' of your health team, suggesting Lumigrate to providers is something they might consider and do. 

Ultimately there are a lot of people who are inclined to research and learn who have enough symptoms of a variety of 'environmental illnesses' that affect the energy in the tissues (including the brain), that I've created the content to hit that 'sweet spot' as possible. Sometimes people with low energy will see a long video or long topic and say 'pass'.

I edit our content to have more paragraphs that are shorter and have lots of 'visual breaks', this is very important for people who have had brain injury, actually. And our font is rather large. Granted we want people to be able to print things too, so again, it's finding the 'sweet spot'. If this topic seems long, please take a break if you need and come back to it if it's been resonating with you. Set some reminder if necessary. I hope this is of value to those who make their way through it.  I also bold things that would be what I'd put in a shorter version if I wanted to use a short format. That way those who are busy and with high energy can scan and pick out the pearls, and it also helps those with limited energy. 

While many people's symptoms don't lead them to thinking it has to do with the brain, other times they do. Sometimes people's overall physical/mental symptoms might be so connected to the head that they think 'brain' when it has more to do with things outside the head than inside! Many of my patients in the past who had fibromyalgia had headaches, and many would admit they had thought they had a brain tumor. Many pushed for imaging studies even. When a person learns about what contributes to having fibromyalgia symptoms, some of it IS in the head, as the hormone system does have some key players inside the brain, but it's really a WHOLE system of the body and it's tissues.

Every cell in the body has a receptor for progesterone, we have learned here at Lumigrate from environmental medicine and 'anti-aging' specialist Marc Spurlock, MD. I mention progesterone specifically as it is one of the treatments for ACUTE, TRAUMATIC brain and neurologic injuries in more progressive allopathic programs. It is also one of the hormones that is found to be out of tune in the hormone symphony of the body in people who have a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and other disorders under the umbrella of 'environmental illness'.  

So when a person hasn't had the opportunity and learned this type of information and they do 'the obvious' related to chronic pain in the head, they often are going down a 'garden path' of thinking that leads them away from the underlying reason for the symptoms. Migraine and headache is a classic example and I know from personal experience! I suffered from headaches, and I mean 'suffered', from my early 20s, which eventually were diagnosed and treated as migraines.

My father was in middle age when I was a child through young adult and he had a headache of some level every day except one. He took the day off from work he felt so good. Growing up within a family that had a medical impairment shaped my life, so I very much appreciate the way The Crash Reel shows this aspect of Kevin's story. 

Kevin is the youngest of four brothers, and David is a co-star of the movie, as are other family members. David has Down sydrome and it was apparent to me that the family was 'primed' to help Kevin when there was a sudden change from well and snowboarding to medically impaired from an acute TBI because of the way they had adapted from before Kevin was born to having a person with special needs in the family. As I say, there were so many aspects to this story, that I found myself watching The Crash Reel many more times to study more of the nuances. 

There's an odd advantage to someone who has an acute injury compared to someone whose symptoms of a medical impairment come on gradually -- you get put on the front burner of major medical experts. As an example, from the onset of headaches in my early adulthood to when I had them controlled due to a new medication that came out I could function when taking was 20 years, and it was another 10, almost before I went a year or more without "one of THOSE headaches" and had ultimately solved the underlying problem with the help of CAM (complementary AND alternative medicine, and I prefer to use integrative medicine which includes selective use of allopathic medicine's appropriate 'bests'). 

I had been hindered and affected by headaches for half my lifetime at the point in time when I found the solutions that were successful in turning that around and headed back in the direction of 'wellness'. (And this was only one symptom of environmental illness / fibromyalgia, I had extreme blood sugar problems as well as a blood clotting disorder with thin blood and gynecological issues that are common with FM, as well as thyroid issues which weren't properly tested and treated until I went back to a FM specialist after my massage therapist was concerned about swelling in the area of my thyroid.

Her wisdom to not allow another massage be scheduled until an appointment with the MD was scheduled was a great example of having a good team of providers around you that can help spot things about your wellness on the outside of your body and encourage you in the right directions to end up with improved wellness. I like to share the story of a diabetic who was compliant with going to the doctor whose hair stylist pointed out what she saw as symptoms of hypothyroidism and suggested a visit to the doctor as well. The labwork confirmed it, medication was prescribed and taken, with better wellness the result.

And by the way, these both occurred in a city of about 50,000. I keep hoping the hair aspect of the esthetics world will break out with some speciaists as the skin aspect has with medical skin estheticians. I'd like someone to be looking at the scalp, teaching me while I'm in the chair, and naturally the talk among clients in such a shop would be interesting and informative. 

All the symptoms I shared from my history, above, are very common with people who, when it's not addressed as they come on, end up having what can be classified as "fibromyalgia". With so many people in the US having fibromyalgia, you'd think the primary care doctors would know what to do, but they don't, it's not being taught to them and the system of short appointments and simple labwork analysis does not lend itself to allopathic medicine's 'treadmill'.  

So the irony is that millions of people can be "off in the ditch" and not on the path of wellness for years or decades with their health because of a common condition like fibromyalgia (and the overlapping conditions that go alongside or with it), while in the time between two winter Olympic seasons someone can have a major brain injury and get back to a higher functional level, personally and professionally. 

Having entered the medical profession at the same time as I was a patient with chronic illness trying to figure it out had consequences on most aspects of my life, positive and negative, allowing me or leading me to be a very different kind of occupational therapist, certainly. And when I had the solutions 'in hand and in mind', I rolled up my sleeves to create a website that brought this kind of information to people on the Internet, as presenting in person with patients 1:1 or in weekly groups limited the number of people who could receive the information.

And when insurance is the basis of the treatment, it's very limited what you're able to provide in the sessions. Patients can pay for other advise out of pocket, but the clinic and building you're in also has expectations of what you provide and that is why I went to the integrative clinic that was opening in early 2008. Lumigrate's videos are a time capsule of the first year when there was almost a true integrative approach and team, but that all dissolved and none of us are affiliated together aside from Dr King sees patients at Dr Schulte-Barclay's integrative wellness clinic now.

It's a pleasure to see it grow all the time, and they have graciously allowed me to utilize their articles they prepare for the local independent paper to also be on Lumigrate. So I encourage people reading this to consider looking into what is available where you live. (Hint: The compounding pharmacies are great places to find out about the progressive providers of human and veterinary services.) 

Lumigrate was the result of my seeing these great local providers having good attendance at an education group I co-created in with Dr Young when I was the OT two floors down from his behavioral wellness clinic.  I left the conventional therapy practice and allopathic medical building I'd been in since January 2005 on the last day of February 2008, and after a year of startup, filming, and editing, in the spring of 2009 Lumigrate went live on the Internet focusing in the 'chronic illness / wellness' overall information initially (with 'fibromyalgia', 'chronic fatigue', 'chronic pain' being the catch-all word that allows for the most people to identify with.) The YOU! model was, and still is, the cornerstone: 

There's an astoundingly complex interplay that occurs that makes people having similar scenarios end up being in very different places related to their symptoms of wellness/ illness and function/ dysfunction, intact-ment / impairment. (Yes, intact-ment is a made-up word, but it's a good word to make the point! This is hard stuff so let's sprinkle in FUN!)  

This has become another 'cornerstone' at Lumigrate, as I like presenting to people the concept of 'load theory'. I appreciate a fun evening in Provo, Utah with Dr Spurlock in the fall of 2012, and we've created information since then that you can find on Lumigrate.  

An analogy I like to use is it's like a computer, you put in data, it gets manipulated and things interplay and then what you get out is the result. In the case of people, though, everyone has unique genes. Genes are influenced by things you do that are helpful or harmful to them, and with epigenetics, your genes are actually affected by things your ancestors did, particularly your grandparents, it has been reported. So that hopefully inspires people when it comes to their lifestyle decisions. You are controlling your health with the next breath, sip and bite, potentially. 

I hope by the time you've read this topic, once all the components to support this initial topic are added on, you'll have a better understanding about 'functional brain information' that you can apply to YOU or someone else, whether you're a medical consumer or also a medical professional. ... Or perhaps you're in another profession that would benefit by your investing some time / energy resource for learning. There are the obvious and better-known brain injuries from trauma, such as snowboarders and football players sometimes are out there in the public eye about, with 'concussions' being one form that most people have heard of yet ultimately don't typically have much real understainding about.

The majority of injured brains out there are from other things than 'trauma', but ironically, when a patient has an acute traumatic brain injury, those other things come into play related to how much progress they make. And these patients often don't realize these other factors that come into play related to brain function. I saw a focus in The Crash Reel on more injury from trauma if falling again snowboarding, and alcohol. There is new legislation in recent years in Colorado that all students who have a brain injury at a school-related event have to sit out of further stressful work (mental and physical) until they have been tested by a qualified medical provider who determines the brain is to 'baseline'/healed and not healing.

Not only is that a difficult thing to determine, there isn't much information circulating that I think is really helpful related to post brain injury do's and don'ts. Hydration. Water quality (think fluoride that's added to many people's water). Other drinks. Blood sugar and beverages thought to be 'healthy' -- someone recently consulted with thier physician's office when having a stomach virus 'clean them out' and dehydration was a concern and they were told to drink 'Gatorade' specifically. Have you read the ingredients in Gatorade? I can understand someone recommending that product 10-20 years ago, but with the increase in awareness about commercialized products and the traps they've laid for our wellness, I would prefer they suggest keywords to look up on the computer and get ideas rather than recommending one product (of questionable health benefits.)

It's just mind boggling the gap between conventional information 'inside the box' and what is increasingly sought after and used 'outside the box'. I saw one article about Colorado's law where the MD expert on brain injury said that it's just 'time' that heals brain injuries. Time has nothing to do with it, it's what occurs IN TIME, and I believe that what is commonly taught about brain injury and recovery from a functional standpoint is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Obviously this is a big area to cover and so this will be a rather lenghty introduction and overview. If it's too long 'for now', I hope you come back to it, and continue on.  

It is my belief that much of what could help people get ideal brain injury recovery is not provided to them unless their team of supporters has helped them dig for leads and pursue them. And when you have a person in a critical situation, there is simply not a lot of time, and you end up relying upon what lands in front of you. There are so many facets to cover that there is simply a limitateion of TIME as well as ENERGY on everyone involved, let along the MONEY element.

So Kevin Pearse's story, portrayed brilliantly in the new film The Crash Reel, is THE BEST thing I have seen related to teaching about brain injury and recovery for the whole system surrounding a person EVER. Gold Medal in my book! 

In 2013, I became a fan of snowboarding, due to the new documentary The Crash Reel, about 2010 Olympic hopeful Kevin Pearse, who had been approaching, and sometimes surpassing, Shaun White in competitions prior to Kevin's crash that resulted in a traumatic brain injury. He had just 'dropped in' to 'do his first trick', a very challenging one, on his first half pipe practice run while "training" on the last day of 2009.

He was practicing with his long-time competitive snowboarding world friends in Utah (USA), with the 2009 winter Olympics in Vancouver less than 50 days away. As the filmmaker conveys in what I've included in the comment below about the making of the film, cameras were always going around these guys and so they gathered up the various sources recorded that day and the days before and after, and created a very interesting and educational film. It has great music too, I might add. 

We all watch something in real life or in media through our own lenses of perception, and so I was looking at The Crash Reel's portrayal of the lead-up to his crash and injury with my unique background and 'lenses'. My background includes working within health education at a major US university that had earned a reputation as a 'party school'. And in Colorado, it was not the biggest party school, that honor goes to what we affectionately called 'Wasted State', which is located near some of the best skiing and snowboarding in Colorado. The culture of snowboarding is overall not one of the more 'healthy' ones, and the film shows that when it came to the 21st birthday celebration for one of the snowboarding circle.

Shaun White was in attendance, as was Kevin and his group. It reminded me of parties I have been to and at my housewarming party in my mid 30s we had an injury that required an ER visit, and the majority of the people at the party worked in high tech. That was 21 years ago, closing was on Valentine's Day, coincidentally. The partying in the film is diplomatically edited and leaves it to people's observations mostly in terms of what was going on, but drywall divets were the result of some at the party riding their boards down the stairs inside the home.

Someone is shown hitting the floor as they pass out, presumably from excessive alcohol and /or the combination of all things that were being put into the body. (Water and hydration, food, the overall has much interplay, and what kinds of foods, for instance.) Lumigrate's about functional medicine, getting to the underlying issues often using an integrative medicine model's simplicity  in order to show that mind, body spirit -- the whole / holistic -- as an advantageous way of looking at things, rather than segmenting the way allopathic medicine does.  

Kevin and Shaun grew up on opposite sides of the US yet became friends through snowboarding and shared a very special connection and actually got together once a year to hang out and do fun stuff since they were basically two peas in the same pod, so to speak (which I imagine their parents had something to do with as they were young). This was a part of the snowboarding story and the Olympics I'd never seen and it was fascinating! As the filmmaker says, below, to paraphrase and use the old saying "you couldn't make this stuff up"/ reality is stranger than fiction. In this case it's not 'strange' so much as fascinating! 

Millions of people in the US (and beyond) have the occupation of 'snowboarding', and all totalled billions have occupations that include other sports or activities as occupations which put the brain at risk of TBI/ traumatic brain injury, though most have the mild form, mTBI. The 'trauma' comes from there having been a physical force causing the injury, and a physics word that has been intermixed with medical and now is, in my opinion, misused, is 'concussion'. Calling it a "concussion" dismisses the 'brain injury' component, as concussion is really a word about a physical force that has been morphed in definition into a medical word and I disagree with it and therefore try to work it into my conversations about brain injury. There, worked in! 

Like Kevin, my husband's medical problems occurred when he was a young man and after he'd had a stellar amateur career on the ice, playing hockey. It was written in the Minnesota Star when he was a young teenager that he was likely the next Gordie Howe-level player for the US; that was hockey's celebrity at that time, many people today don't recognize he name. In 50 years people won't recognize Shaun White's name perhaps either. I hope they will recognize Kevin Pearce because of success that will come from movies like The Crash Reel and his Love Your Brain program. 

Doing outreach, education, and "real activisim", I would call it, related to brain injury and brain function is very important, and I hope we're doing our part at Lumigrate. Kevin Pearse is doing a marvelous job with that just four years after having the life-changing crash. And having this online to link to and create this topic 'surrounding' at the time of the Olympics -- and starting it off on Valentines Day for Love Your Brain, I hope will go far.  We're all in this together, after all!

I'm posting this for Valentine's Day because Kevin's brain injury and the love from and for family, friends and fans have lead to their creating a nonprofit "Love Your Brain".  In previous years at Lumigrate we've focused for Valentine's Day on the more obvious heart, or the congruence between the brain and the heart, such as is offered via "Heart Math". But in 2014 I am getting back to my 'old love', neuro and brain injury. But I hope to bring a unique twist to the many CONTRIBUTING FACTORS to healing a brain and keeping it well, or to injuring it. 

• The Crash Reel and it's director's story about the film, in comment box immediately below.
• Kevin Pearse, and
• "Love Your Brain". 

And naturally, I hope that you will go and learn and be inspired at Kevin's charitable organization's website for Love Your Brain. And mostly, I hope our YOUsers are reading this and wanting to learn more about loving your brain every day!