Dr Chalmers Path to Pro - Concussion
Concussions aren't just caused by a direct hit to the head they happen when the brain moves too quickly and bumps against the inside of the skull. One of the easiest and most overlooked ways to help prevent them is by strengthening the neck, especially for kids in sports. A stronger neck can better absorb impact and keep the head more stable during movement.
When it comes to recovery, it's not just about taking it easy. Things like creatine, omega-3s, and B vitamins can support the brain as it heals. Staying well-hydrated and keeping up with electrolytes also makes a big difference. There are even options like hyperbaric oxygen therapy that may help speed things up. It's all about giving the body the tools it needs to heal and bounce back.
Highlights of the Podcast
00:04 - Misconception About Concussions
01:26 - Helmet Training for Kids
02:39 - Supplements for Prevention and Recovery
05:18 - ATP and Brain Healing
08:10 - Role of Testosterone in Healing
10:50 - Post-Concussion Care at Home
12:02 - Return-to-Play Protocol
15:40 - Plant Medicine and Brain Regeneration
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:04] All right, let's go through concussion. So the biggest stuff that we've got to remember for concussion is that you don't get a concussion from hitting the head. We see this all the time. He will talk about football, like, oh, football has all these concussions. Yeah, football had some concussions, girls' soccer and girls' baseball, sorry, girls' basketball, and girls soccer and volleyball have quite a bit of concussions as well. So the way that you actually get a concussion isn't from hitting the head, it's from the brain hitting the skull or hitting the inside of the head. So what we're actually looking at is translation of the heads. So if the head moves really quick, then the chances that the skull is going to collide with the brain are pretty high. So the easiest way to radically reduce concussions, severity of concussions or the fact that you can get a concussion is to actually strengthen the neck. And the reason why that is because as the neck gets stronger, the chances that the head's going to move too quickly just decrease because all the force that goes into the head trying to get it to move also has to go into the neck and so all that force dissipates and is absorbed by the musculature of the neck. So if you're worried about your kids getting concussions, get them iron neck, get them, you know, have them start doing neck and upper back and you know trap exercises. Get that neck really, really strong.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:01:26] So that's gonna be the easiest way to actually reduce and prevent concussions. All the, you know, change in tackling and stuff like that, fantastic. But if you really want to go the extra mile, then I would definitely start doing exercises specifically for the neck. The other thing, if you guys have, so I have a 10-year-old who's starting, this is his first year to play, and so I went and got him his helmet and so making him. You know, he plays video games, watch TV, whatever, but he wears his helmet while he's doing this. And the reason for that is because if you look at, if you pick up a helmet, they're not super light. And most of these kiddos, like my 10-year-old, is pretty big for a 10- year-old. But his neck is a little bit small and wobbly. And so what we wanted him to do was to start wearing the helmet, get used to the weight as he moves his head around, it'll help strengthen the neck and kind of get it where it needs to be. Because again, strength in the neck is our primary goal for reducing concussions. And so as he moves his hand around wearing that helmet, it's going to help strengthen the neck, and get him used to it. So those are two really big things. It's always funny because you see these kids running around with their bottle heads, your helmets, It's like, oh, that's so cute.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:02:39] Yeah, a lot of times that helmet is not helping. It's actually creating more of a problem. So you've got to strengthen that neck because the neck gets stronger than everything that's going to kind of get better. So have them wear that helmet where they're just sitting around, walking around the house, stuff like that. It'll help tremendously. The other things from a biochemical standpoint, one of the really good things to make sure your kiddos have if you're worried about concussions in sports is make sure they're on creatine. Creatine is fantastic for muscle development. It's great for a lot of other things. But what we're finding is it's extremely neuroprotective. So if your kids get a concussion and they have creatine already in their system, what we are finding is that these kids get better a lot faster. And so we definitely want to have, make sure they've got creatine in them. Depending on body weight, I usually tell people it's roughly five to seven grams for every 100 pounds of body weight. So if your kid weighs 90 pounds or 80 pounds, give them five to seven grams. They weigh 120 pounds. Give them five or seven grams, um, if you're going to do more than say seven grams, I recommend, I even did this with adults. I recommend splitting the dose and so doing it in the morning, doing it at lunch, doing it night.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:03:50] So just, just so you're not taking it all at once. So as far as creatine goes, that's fantastic. You guys can take the capsules. There's all sorts of different kinds. The one we have on the website is the one I take. It's this big tub. It's my favorite way to do it. My kids would take it. I take it, it's fantastic! The other big one for concussions are make sure ahead of time that these kiddos are on a fully methylated, full-spectrum B. B2, B6, All right You know, so the folic needs to be like an L-methyl tetrahydrofolate, a fully methylated version. The B12 don't take cyanocobalamin. If you've got supplements with cyanocabalamin or if you're drinking energy drinks, you're consuming anything with cyanocobalamin in it, that's not really where you want to go. You want methylcobalamine. So get the methylcabalamine in, that is the B12 you need. Omega-3s are going to be really big for this. So getting your omega-3's in is really beneficial. Thank you very much. Have a great day. Bye. The one that we have, I call brain. So on the website, it's called brain. And the reason why it's call brain is because it's part of my concussion protocol. So the Omega-3s are great. Usually I'm gonna go with two capsules per every 100 pounds of body weight. You can split that dose up morning and night as well. You usually wanna split some of these things up since your body gets a little bit here and there throughout the day, but morning and nine on that Omega- 3s would be great.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:05:18] The other thing that I'm a big, big fan of is Your brain works off of ATP. This goes, this kind of goes back to my whole argument against, you know, allowing people to think that the body runs on calories, calories, but it does not run in calories, it runs on an innocent triphosphate or ATP. Your brain uses a giant amount of ATP and so what you want to do is you want to say, okay, if we're going to be injured, we're gonna start rehabbing or rehabilitating the brain. What's the brain gonna want? It's definitely gonna want omega-3s. We've already talked about that. It's certainly gonna want methylated folic acid. Talked about that one. The other thing is it's gonna want ATP. And so we're looking at, this is where your NAD comes in. This is where you're CoQ10 comes in, but I'd also recommend that you double down on the NAC, the inocidal cysteine. Your body uses NAC for a couple different things, but one of the big things it does is it helps it to create glutathione. Glutathione helps your body denature and move out. Uh and you know free radicals reactive oxidative stress things like that so um highly highly highly recommend that you guys get some NAC as well um CoQ10 is also going to be beneficial it's an antioxidant your body uses CoQ 10 and what's called the electron chain transport system which is directly where you make all your ATP so CoQ-10 is gonna be a big one uh the one that we use for that is the cellular restore should be on the website It's got CoQ10, it's got NAC, it got alpha-lipoic acid, it has got some other stuff in there.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:06:45] So that one is really good, we give that one to the kids. And then make sure they're hydrated. This is a big, big, deal. This is one of those that is I think really overlooked, especially because if your kids are going out and they're running around, we had practice for almost two hours yesterday with these guys and they drank a bunch of water but they were all dehydrated going into it. And so people always like, I'll make sure you take your water to practice. Fantastic. 100% take your one to practice, not everything that, uh, but I would highly recommend that you guys start getting the kids to drink the water the day before the morning of all the way through the day, um, because the more water they've got in them, the better everything's going to be. So, uh getting that extra water in will be really, really beneficial. So, Uh, I would make sure that you get that stuff in. The other thing is, so electrolytes. Yeah, sodium is great. You know, so the Himalayan pink salt or the sea salts, like we use a sea salt, a pink sea salt we get here, that we have at the practice that's Hawaiian. Sea salts are fantastic. You know as long as it's clean, Celtic salts, those are great. Get those in. Most of these kids who are playing football are gonna be boys. Selenium is gonna be a big, big, big play for them. So selenium's big for testosterone, it's big, for electrolyte function, and it's going to be a big one. Uh, I like to make sure they're getting all the electrolytes in.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:08:10] So sodium chloride, uh, iodine, magnesium, magnesium is a giant one. Um, so getting those things in, uh are going to be, you know, boron. There's a whole bunch of other, the one that we use for that one is superior mineral, which is also on the site. Um, that one will also suppress sex hormone binding globulin. And allow more free testosterone to be at play. So I would highly recommend that any of you guys who have kiddos who are in the gym, definitely get them on that one, because the more free-testosterone they have, the better they're gonna heal, regenerate, and repair. So this is another piece for concussions. Your brain uses testosterone as the healing hormone. So I'm not gonna tell you guys that your kids should be on testosterone. Some of them should. Totally different conversation about UIL rules. Um, but definitely get them on the sphere of mineral that'll help push down that sexual and inviting level and allowing more free testosterone. So not only will they heal, regenerate, repair, and grow bigger, stronger muscles and bigger, a stronger heart. It'll also help prepare the brain. So, you know, that's another big one to, to make sure that their bodies are getting, uh, so. These are some of the things that we've got to get in these kiddos as they go through. This will also help, you know, immune function. It helps brain function. It helps all the other stuff.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:09:31] So of course, if your kiddos, if you guys have dogs or your kids come in contact with dogs and cats and stuff like that, or you guys eat out ever, I would highly recommend that you start looking at antiparasitic stuff for your kiddos. Parasites create inflammation that creates issues in the gut, issues in the liver, and issues in the brain. So if we're talking about concussions, we definitely want to take out anything that's inflammatory or damaging to the brain, anything that is stealing nutrients. We've got to get those things out. So killing the parasites is a great one. We have a couple things we use for that. I granted you're not going to talk most kids into doing coffee enemas. Those are the best for antiparasitics, but you have to be realistic. Um, so the things that we usually use for that the wormwood, allicin, uh, rfa hcl Those are all great for it. Uh, if I had to pick one see the worm wood's really really good, but it doesn't taste very good So getting kids to maintain that is a little bit difficult the um superior detox that we've got is a pretty solid option as far as um Killing parasites and moving them out You can give these kiddos ivermectin. The only problem I've got with ivermectin in kiddos is that you've really got to kind of balance it with the liver. So that's going to be, you know, if you've got more B vitamins and stuff like that, that's great.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:10:50] You might want to walk through the anti-parasitic stuff with somebody. That would probably be a good idea who understands the detox reaction, the liver functionality, the kidney issues, stuff like with anti- parasitic work. But that's kind of where I would start with, or just things to look at when we're talking our kiddos, their health and concussions. But if you guys do get a concussion real quick, whether you guys are told this or not, primary thing is if they are sensitive to light, right? So they're squinting, and the lights are too bright. They're doing this type of thing, or they're wanting to wear sunglasses after they've fallen down or whatever. We want to keep them in a dark room, feed them lots of fats, lots of omega-3s, lots of avocados, avocado oils, olive oils, butter, all that type of stuff, because your brain's made of LDL cholesterol, it's made of fat. So give the body the fat. Eggs are going to be a phenomenal choice for this. But keep them a darkroom. What's going on is that the brain's trying to heal, regenerate, and repair the metabolic function your brain is. Is shifted. And so it's like, Hey, we're gonna spend all this energy repairing and healing. And we're not going to spend it doing other things.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:12:02] And So if your if your eyes are sensitive, cool, your eyes or brain tissue, we got to calm that down. So dark room, I would leave them in a dark room until they can stand light. So they can come out and they're like, Okay, it's you know, seems a little bright, but I'm fine. Cool. Then it's gonna be okay, just stay around the house, do the things around the house. They're going to get fatigued easier. They're gonna get grumpier, all those type of things. Think hangry, right? Their emotions are gonna be a little bit easier to set off, things like that. So what we normally do for that is, once they've kind of got out of the dark room phase, kidney cast repacks are fantastic for it. We already went through all the supplements to be taking. And then... The other big one that we do outside of hyperbaric oxygen, well, I don't think I'm talking about that. Hyperbaric Oxygen is probably the number one thing for us because what's your body, what your brain needs is more fuel. Oxygen's the number-one fuel it needs. Hyperbarric Oxygen can be the best place to go for that. We have a chamber here in the office. We work with people who have hard sides and all the whole deal. So just Google hyperbaria near me and get in, get your kids some hyperbarric oxygen. We've, I think we're doing this protocol, we're about half the time, we are 50% faster than the average return to play because we do all these things.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:13:25] Concussion is more of a metabolic thing than it is a, like a bruise or a trauma type of thing. So, changing the chemistry is the fastest way to get these things healed. So those are kind of some of the things that the standard return to play protocol real quick is after the concussion, stay in a dark room until your body is functional. Stay around the house until you have the energy. 30%, you go to school for about 30% of the day, come home. You do that until you're like, oh, that was cool. Like no big deals. Wasn't extra tired, wasn't extra grumpy, didn't start having extra brain fog. Then you go half a day until half a days, same way, no brain fog, no fatigue, no extra issues. Then you go the whole day and once you can do the whole day, then you go hang out at practice and you start kind of, you know, slowly getting back in 30% of practice, 60% of practice. You know, 90% of practice minus hitting and then you're back back at this can take six months, this can take five days, it just kind of depends on the severity, what your what your kiddo had ready to go. If it had the tools to help regenerate, repair, rebuild, you're good. Now there are some kiddos who have, there's some people who have significant issues healing from concussions in general. I would do an APOE and a COMT test, genetic testing, to figure out where your kid sits on this idea.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:14:52] There are some kids that I would, as much as I love football and that sort of thing, I would tell you, you've got to strengthen your neck and not play contact sports, depending on where that genetic function comes in. And then there's some kiddos you're like you can just you can drive nails with your face. Like if you get a concussion a week from now, you'll be totally fine. So there are there is a big spectrum on on that as far as concussion goes. So the other thing is if you figure out where you are on that spectrum, that concussion issue, you can be like, okay, either, you know, we're totally fine, or we really shouldn't play. But in the center, you're, like, Okay, cool. If you're closer to let's say you're you're in No. I would make sure that you get all those nutrients in all the time so you can ensure that you're not going to have Long-term damage from the concussions.
Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:15:40] So That's kind of where a lot of that stuff sits Uh, the other thing that's been an option for the adults who've had traumatic brain injuries who've have concussions and things like that Plant medicine, ayahuasca, psilocybin has been shown to help regenerate and regrow some of this damage I'm going to go through a whole bunch of stuff on plant medicine here in the next four weeks I mean, I would 100% make sure you're working with somebody who knows what they're doing with plant medicine Not only the administration, but there's a whole set set up and there's whole Thing around using plant medicine that you've got to kind of get yourself ready for so if you guys have any questions Hit us up questions@chalmerswellness.com Or toss some of the DMs or whatnot. I'll talk to you guys later. Have a fabulous and amazing day. Thanks for your time
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Dr. Matt Chalmers
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