Blue light therapy

[FlowerPower62]

Hi, someone put on about this the other day, and I was wondering if you had done any more about it? I can't find it now! I googled it, but all it seemed to say was that it was for acne and other skin complaints. Also SAD, that people get in the winter. does anyone know if it helps with a brain injury? And if so, which one should I get? There are loads on Amazon! Thanks. x

[randomphantoms]

The post was put on by Marnie22 4 days ago.

You could send Marnie22 a message.

[pinkvision]

Hi I looked at this a while back and it was related to how it helped fatigue in people with 'white areas of the brain' seen in particular scans. It's at the early developmental stage.

[Marnie22 in reply to pinkvision]

Are you still interested in this or did something give you second thoughts?

[pinkvision in reply to Marnie22]

Hi Marnie, I never considered using this therapy, I found that dealing with sensory overload and building up automatic processes has had a huge effect in reducing my fatigue. If these had not worked I would have given it a go for sure. Horses for courses.

[Marnie22 in reply to pinkvision]

If it's not too much trouble for you, could you you give me a bit more information on how you have dealt with sensory overload. Plus I don't know what you mean by building up automatic procecces - could you explain a bit?

I have been trying to deal with my fatigue for almost four years (by following all the advice from Headway and other tips I have read about, but I haven't yet found anything that makes a difference to the normal daily base level of fatigue that I have before I have done anything. I have made some progress in avoiding setting off sensory overload, but that hasn't affected the level of fatigue that I experience. Would love to hear a bit more about your methods.

Thanks.

[pinkvision in reply to Marnie22]

Hi Marnie. If you read through all my posts you will see the history of my progress and areas that I looked at and what I found. It may seem a bit rambly and incomplete (that's brain injury). I think it's important to write everything that happens to you for other people to see, sharing an experience could help someone else no matter how crazy you think it is at the time.

Fatigue can have many causes, from a general illness, mental health and brain injury. It will be unique to the individual. I had never experienced fatigue before my BI. With hindsight I can now break down events of fatigue.

Initial fatigue developed over 2 months post injury to the state of almost permanent sleep for a few months after this. I think this was the brain injury in general and time was needed to recover.

It took a long time and during this recovery I would get more fatigued when exposed to light. I had a very strong visual element to the BI.

My memory and concentration was bad, I had to concentrate to do the most simple of things like making a cup of tea and doing the laundry, remembering to wash and clean my teeth and change my clothes.

So to round these up there was an initial rest phase followed by recognition of major factors causing fatigue. These were visual and cognitive.

I came across a book called 'The ghost in my brain', where a BI sufferer had a heavy visual element and eventually found treatment via optometry. It is not recognised by the UK health authorities. I tried it privately and the results were astonishing, truely astonishing. Much of my fatigue, stress, anxiety and panic attacks lifted within hours of wearing them.

They did not help with the cognitive issues. I came across a lecture given to members of staff working for the (American) veterans association and addressed automatic brain function. Basically what it said was that most people do not have to concentrate on what they do on a daily basis, it's all pre-learned from a lifetime of education, training and repetitive action. It went on to say that following a BI many of these automatic processes are damaged. Concentration is then required to complete a previous automatic function and leads to fatigue.

I then came across an Australian documentary that used mindfulness techniques mixed with activities to fix functions as neural networks in the brain. Basically making automatic functions, fixed and set after an 8 week process. This showed that damaged cognitive regions can be bypassed, bridged or fixed.

I made up my own training program using visualisation meditation before and after activities and just repeated this day after day for an 8 week period. I have improved so many things from 3D vision to balance, to daily activities to communication skills. I have just designed my next program.

Get back to me if you want to know anything else

[FlowerPower62 in reply to pinkvision]

Thank you for such a detailed reply. I will try and get that book. By "heavy visual element", do you mean some kind of glasses?

[pinkvision in reply to FlowerPower62]

No I mean I had many visual problems.

[FlowerPower62 in reply to pinkvision]

I have just ordered the book too, ghost in my brain, looks excellent. Hope it's not too difficult a read though.

[pinkvision in reply to FlowerPower62]

look for it on youtube, the author gives a lecture

[Marnie22]

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl... posted the original question about blue light therapy. Have a read if the above article or Google 'blue light therapy for brain injury.'

I am confused about you saying that there are lots of devices you have seen to buy. I have been researching this and have found the opposite. Which devices did you discover and where are they for sale?

The SAD lamps give out a different type of light. It's only the intense blue light that is being looked at for brain injury.

[FlowerPower62 in reply to Marnie22]

It was just on Amazon, but they all seemed mostly to be for skin complaints, and depression.

[Marnie22 in reply to FlowerPower62]

I think they are the smaller lights. I have only found one lamp to buy and it's about £200 to £300. 😵

[FlowerPower62 in reply to Marnie22]

Just read the article you sent, it was quite long a complex, but I think I got something from it. It certainly sounds like it might do some good. Not sure about causing headaches though? Ian does not suffer form them now, so perhaps it would be OK, but I would hate to cause them. Food for thought indeed.

[sashaming1]

I looked into it and I didn't find anything directly relating to brain injury. Does anyone know how it relates? Thanks.

[FlowerPower62]

Perhaps I typed in the wrong thing, it would seem so! Where did you see that? Have you, or are you going to try it? It sounds a lot, but if it works, it would be well worth it.