Unique Brain Fitness exercise clinic in my area for those with TBI and other conditions - thoughts?

#1

I suffered from a brain injury over 10 years ago and have some other health issues, like EDS, dysautonomia and some kind of muscle weakness. Recently I heard about a location in my area called Mindeo (https://www.mindeobrainfitness.com/) which was advertising itself specifically towards those with brain injuries and other conditions. I have always felt like gyms and even some physical therapists I have gone to are just not accommodating to me when it comes to exercise as a lot of them are focused on just pushing yourself to the max, which can cause a flare. The idea of using multiple evidence based techniques to get more out of exercise with the goal of harnessing the cognitive benefits, rather than the physical ones, really appealed to me. They routinely serve seniors, people with EDS like me, people with long COVID, and so on so it felt really accommodating.

I decided to do a 2 week trial of their program. They put you on a low impact recumbent stepper where you are breathing high concentration oxygen. The seat is chilled and you also have a neck fan to keep you from overheating. The stepper is hooked up to an app that helps times intervals and binaural beats are played as you do the workout. In addition they also used something called Blood flow restriction training which I hadn’t heard of before. They put cuffs much like blood pressure cuffs on your arms and legs, and there is a good amount of research behind this helping in all sorts of populations by allowing you to get more out of the workout than you would normally, by increasing growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor 1.

After the workout you spend time in a red light room with a calmer frequency of bineuaral beats. The idea behind all this is to get as much as you can from the workout and decrease the body’s inflammatory response to it which would in turn help neuroplasticity and neurovascular remodeling. They have a few other things for different conditions that I did not try such as gamma entrainment, as I already have the David Delight Pro at home.

I’ve never heard of a company like this and it seems like this may well be the only one in the country. I could absolutely see these techniques being integrated medically some day and being covered by insurance for stroke, brain injury and memory care patients. Unfortunately it did not end up being a good fit for me as it did flare my muscle weakness and I couldn’t really tolerate the longer sessions - they were happy to accommodate that but in the end I decided to try some of these techniques at home so I could tailor them better to flares.

What do you guys think about the science behind this? Have any of you used techniques like extra oxygen while working out, blood flow restriction, or red light after work outs to help cut down on the post work out inflammation? Did it help anyone cognitively? I personally felt like I got the most out of the oxygen, but that could be because my ferritin is quite low.

Sorry if this is not allowed, not trying to promote this company and in the end it wasn’t a good fit for my condition, but just excited seeing that something like this exists and that we may see more of it in the future. I’m glad I tried it because I feel like normal gyms or even senior exercise courses just aren’t made for people with TBIs or have unexplained flares of muscle weakness, and it gave me some ideas about what I could integrate at home to go more at my own pace.

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#2

One thing to consider is NAC which supports glutathione production. One of the more important antioxidants for the brain.

I’ve made a NAC nasal spray for friends with TBI and they said it was like turning the lights on. It is a bit tricky to make as NAC is extremely acidic. It requires a basic buffer like sodium bicarbonate to adjust the pH in the range of 5.5 to 6.5

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#3

I think the concept is really interesting and shows promise, but ultimately I would look at the people and training and education of the people who created the business and see how well these factors match the expected expertise needed for such a venture.

I checked on the website and couldn’t seem to find any formal training that would match with the stated goals of the site - but perhaps I missed it.

I would want someone very well trained in neuroscience, so they can identify the best techniques.

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#4

I’ve wanted to integrate NAC for a while but I struggled with it. I would have mood swings. I finally found out the only brand I could tolerate was the Jarrow time release which matches some anecdotal reports I saw on Reddit I saw about NAC intolerance.

You’re right that the acidity is a concern. I had to stop NAC as well as Alpha Lipoic Acid for now due to a gastritis flare up. I’ve read some studies saying that NAC can take up to 6 months to see the full benefits. My mom with Parkinson’s does really well on it but jury was still out for me.

I haven’t heard of the NAC nasal spray is this safe for mucous membranes? But it’s an interesting administration route idea. My understanding is that NAC can be quite rough on mucous membranes including the gut in high doses, could be why I do better on the time release.

#5

I agree. I did meet with the founder who seems to care quite a bit about the concept and brings a mix of lived experience and her biomedical/biochemistry background to the table. She had a TBI herself and her experience in the medical system was totally useless - stuff like doctors wanting to throw heavy antidepressants at the problem. She only started recovering when she started trying some of these modalities for herself and wanted to bring it to other people.

This resonated with me a lot because I’ve had a similar experience. My symptoms now are more subtle by now but it was clear to the people who knew me before and after that something had changed. The most benefit I’ve gotten from the lingering effects of it and my other medical conditions have been doing my own research and trying things say from here or other CFS/chronic illness communities.

Traditional doctors just aren’t great with this TBI/dysautonomia/CFS spectrum of things and I feel like I lot of the best data these days are coming from people like us who are trying things and keeping up with the research. That’s why I was excited about this idea, seems to have a lot of anecdotal evidence backed by science, would love to see something like this graduate to clinical trials and be in mainstream medical treatment for conditions like this.

#6

I make my own :slight_smile: it’s quite easy and with pH strips it’s easy to adjust the pH.

The key to nasal sprays is that is a direct route to the brain…