Contributed by Center for Diagnostic Imaging 

Brain injuries are complex and can impair a person's physical and emotional functioning. They can be traumatic, resulting from accidents, falls or contact sports; or non-traumatic, resulting from strokes or aneurysms. Severe brain injuries can be difficult to treat. For all types of brain injuries, advanced imaging tools and expertise aids in accurate diagnosis and guiding a care plan.

Diagnosis and Treatment Planning
The treatment of head injuries depends on the type of injury and the severity. To assess the severity of a head injury, a physician may perform a physical and neurologic exam and imaging tests such as: 

COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY (CT)
A CT of the head and brain is often used as a first imaging test when a concussion is suspected. It is useful for detecting bleeding, swelling, brain injury and skull fractures.

VOLUMETRIC BRAIN IMAGING
This is performed with MRI post-processing software that provides objective, quantitative volume measurements of two conditions that can result from a brain injury: hydrocephalus and atrophy of the hippocampus.

SUSCEPTIBILITY-WEIGHTED IMAGING (SWI)
SWI is an MRI protocol run at a high resolution, increasing the ability to detect subtler injuries in patients with concussions/traumatic brain injuries, hemorrhages, neurodegenerative diseases and a variety of lesions.

​Learn about CDI’s outpatient medical imaging centers throughout Puget Sound and their specialized clinical teams and services at myCDI.com. ​

 With each step, you grunt, remember yesterday’s run and ask yourself some version of “why now?” Why do your legs feel like they weigh 200 pounds each? Your mind scrolls through the usual suspects – hills, speed, a new class at the gym, coming back from vacation. None of them fit. You have done this same exact run hundreds of times and your legs have never felt like this the next day.
     Post-exercise recovery science tells us that much more goes into the creation of muscle fatigue than meets the eye. Complicated biological systems co-mingle to birth “Maybe I’m too old for this” trains of thought and make pinpointing the cause of our sore muscles impossible. But, thankfully, scientists can point us to a few action steps to make the morning surprise of tight, tired things much less common.

1. 1.     Increase your VO2 Max. Wait. What? How do you just do that? When I think of VO2 max, images of Lance Armstrong turning in freakishly high numbers while spinning in a laboratory chamber come to mind. Not exactly helpful. However, the reality is that we all have a VO2 max – an amount of oxygen we take in during exercise – and it can increase with specific types of training. Research has shown that athletes with a higher VO2 max recover more quickly between bouts of vigorous exercise. So, how do you improve your VO2 max? High-intensity interval training. (I know, I know, if you had a dollar for every time this was the answer to your training woes…) Recent studies have shown that 6-12 interval bouts of 2 minutes each is enough to increase VO2 max. So, the real action step for improved recovery is simply this: add at least one interval workout to your weekly training schedule.
2. Remember that rest and recovery are not the same. When we are moving, blood flows to the muscles and promotes the resynthesis of substances, such as C-reactive proteins and glycogen stores, to help tissues return to their normal state. Blood flow also facilitates the removal of protons. This is why there is ample research to support active recovery. Light intensity exercise (less than 50% of maximal heart rate) between interval bouts, following workouts or the day(s) after races can speed the rate of muscle healing. Most athletes overdo active recovery, so monitor your heart rate and make your recovery sessions uncomfortably easy!
3. Find a good massage therapist. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is the technical name for those 200 pound legs, and one of the best prevention strategies for DOMS is traditional massage therapy. A 20-30 minute massage immediately following or up to 2 hours after a workout has been shown to decrease DOMS for up to 3 days after exercise. It also provides many other post-exercise benefits, such as a reduction in perceived fatigue, cortisol levels and creatine kinase concentrations. Many athletes utilize massage as a tool for recovery from injury, but science tells us it is one of the most effective ways to recover from exercise. Find a massage therapist who is willing to listen to you, adjust pressure based on your feedback, and work with your training schedule.

      These three post-exercise recovery tips will help keep you training without leg setbacks or mind games about why your body feels tired. Set yourself up for success by being intentional about your recovery, not just your training!
 
Have an ache or pain that’s keeping you from training the way you want? Outpatient PT offers free consults with Board Certified Physical Therapists at every location: Covington, Maple Valley Kent, Renton, Auburn and Puyallup. Need a good massage therapist? Schedule one for right after a long workout at any Outpatient PT clinic! www.outpatientpt.com.
 
Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5932411/
https://acewebcontent.azureedge.net/SAP-Reports/Post-Exercise_Recovery_SAP_Reports.pdf
            

Article written by Phil Kriss of Kriss Chiropractic

k It’s easy and comfortable to do what you are good at. It may be hard, but since it is in your psyche “that’s cool, this is fun”, it may be difficult but enjoyable. Chances are you are pretty good at it. Top Maple Valley Chiropractor Phillip Kriss explains the importance of getting outside your comfort zone.
It’s easy to do what you love! If swimming is your passion, you probably find yourself in the water 3 or more days a week doing very difficult workouts. And, it likely is enjoyable!
There are some who may not have the same passion. When they do make the occasional water appearance, it can be with apathy and sarcasm resulting in lack of effort. (That’s me!). Not only will it hurt that person’s performance via poor mindset, but it can pollute others who think swimming is really cool!
Even if you do something you really love to do and are good at it, finding room for improvement is necessary and beneficial. It is important to make your strong suits stronger.

ADDRESSING YOUR WEAKNESSES
​However, everybody has a weak spot that needs to be addressed. If anybody is going to make progress, they must work harder on the weak spots than they do the strong suit.
Weak spots could be swimming, biking or running. It could be strength training. It could be nutrition. It could be your health. It could be your head space. It could be your lack of time. It could be you hate getting up in the morning (because you stayed up too late eating junk food while drinking excessive amounts of bad for you stuff while on a Netflix or YouTube binge). Ever make that choice? Doesn’t make getting up at 4:30 to work out sound like much fun now, does it?
Making a positive change is not as difficult as we may think it is. Much of it has to do with who we hang around with.
So, find people who successfully do what you need to do and do what they do!
I had a most interesting conversation with a then unknown running buddy of mine many moons ago. I heard he ran the famed 20.5 mile “Orting Death Loop” each Sunday morning at 4:15. I needed to do that since my running long distances sucked. I found him on Facebook. We agreed on the time. Having never met him before, I opened the conversation with “I hope you don’t’ think I am too much of an a#*^($e, because I am going to run with you each Sunday unless I am racing”. We became best of friends. The group grew. They all became my friends and story-telling comrades. I made it to Boston several times. I got sucked into the Ironman thing. I met my wife Heidi when she showed up to run one day! Amazing how that story turned out. After not too long the 20 mile run was a piece of cake.
The marathon became easy, not because of my super great talents, skill or determination, but because of those I hung around those that spurred to think bigger than I had thought. I didn’t want to fail largely because of them, and they encouraged me to suck it up and keep going.
It confirmed the truth anybody can accomplish almost anything they want, provided they are willing to pay the price necessary for success.
Just one word of advice…Don’t be telling the successful thinkers what your stinking thinking brain really thinks. Keep your fat mouth and loose tongue shut and paste a smile on it until it becomes real!