BrainSAVE! by Dr. Titus Chiu is an incredible resource for anyone who is suffering, or caring for someone suffering, from a concussion or brain injury. Dr. Chiu provides concrete action steps in his six-week plan to help your brain get back to normal.
Pairs with: The darkest, most pure chocolate you can find. Rich dark chocolate is full of antioxidants that will reduce inflammation.
Overview
Despite what you may find Googling concussions, they rarely last 7-10 days!! (My doctor informed me that the brain can take MONTHS to heal.) You’ll also find a bunch of people writing “I didn’t go to the doctor for mine but you should!” The internet is incredibly unhelpful when it comes to brain injuries and this book was the best resource I was able to find.
Save yourself from major healing setbacks and read this book first!
The Six-Week Plan
- Week 1 – Prime Your Cells: Dr. Chiu recommends increasing brain supporting supplements
- Week 2 – Put Out the Fire: this is the week where you remove all inflammations (sugar, gluten, etc.) and focus on eating good clean food. Dr. Chiu recommends eating plenty of healthy fats and lists what foods to increase and which ones to avoid.
- Week 3 – Rebuild: this week helps you figure out what area/s of the brain is damaged and provides exercises to help heal those regions.
- Week 4 – Slow Down: this is the week where you take breaks, reduce screen time, get enough sleep, and chill. (I’m sure there’s a reason he listed it as Week 4 but I wish I had done this at Week 1.)
- Week 5 – Take Out the Trash: similar to the prior weeks, continue with your digital detox, continue eating cleansing food, sweat, and drink LOTS of water
- Week 6 – Expand Your Mind: this week involves focusing on meditating and visualizing a healthy you
The most important thing Dr. Chiu mentions that you can do while recovering from a brain injury is something I thought I was doing but I was doing it wrong…
Dr. Chiu emphasizes the importance of taking breaks.
I learned that taking a break is NOT walking away from your phone to get up and go do laundry, and then taking a break from laundry to go vacuum, and then taking a break from vacuuming to go back to your phone.
Instead, people trying to heal brain injuries should, “Stop. Chill Out. Close Your Eyes. Breathe” (119).
Laying down and closing my eyes throughout the day was a game-changer. I would set my alarm for 30 minutes, lay down on the couch, and do absolutely nothing. Then when the alarm went off I would get up and attempt to do something. But as soon as I felt terrible, I’d lay back down and set my alarm. Eventually (like over 4 months) the amount of time I set my alarm for was able to go down. Also, the amount I was able to get done without having to chill out went up!
CONCLUSION
I recommend this book to anyone with a brain… haha but for real.
Even if you don’t have a brain injury or know of anyone, the information in this book will be extremely beneficial if something (God forbid) were to ever happen. Similar to learning CPR, you hope you never need it but it’s good to know in case. I had no idea what to do when I got a concussion and everything I thought I was doing right, I was actually doing wrong. Learn from my mistake and read up on how the brain heals before something happens.
P.S. Another great book on how the brain heals is called The Brain’s Way of Healing by Norman Doidge, M.D. Some of the stories in this book seemed like medical miracles but the science on neuroplasticity and noninvasive techniques that can heal the brain is fascinating.
