Author Archives: tbionthehill

Holiday Season’s Favorite Flavor Could Help Brain Injury Recovery

The aroma of candy canes dangling from Christmas trees, the rich sweetness of peppermint bark shared among friends, the warming comfort of peppermint hot chocolate on a cold night, mint is a staple of winter season. Throughout the years, scientists involved in various studies have found that the benefits of mint go beyond taste.

Menthol, mint’s active compound, can be thought of as a targeted healing agent. Millenia ago, Aretaeus of Cappadocia, a physician in the 2nd century AD in Ancient Greece, first documented mint’s effects on the nervous system when he recommended it to treat epilepsy, a possible side effect of brain injury. A 2022 study in the Journal of Neuroinflammation showed it reduced stroke damage and accelerated recovery. How? By calming inflammation in injured brain tissue, ramping up the body’s natural antioxidant defenses, and improving blood flow to areas desperately needing oxygen and nutrients – the trifecta of post-injury healing.

Studies found in the NIH database confirm that mint doesn’t just freshen breath, it strengthens the brain. A 2018 trial discovered that spearmint extract improved working memory by 15%, while 2008 research revealed that simply smelling peppermint enhanced memory and alertness.

Most exciting? A groundbreaking May 2025 study from Northumbria University found that drinking just one cup of peppermint tea significantly boosted memory, attention, and working memory in healthy adults, with effects appearing within mere minutes. “Those people who had drunk the peppermint tea had better long-term memory,” explains Dr. Mark Moss of Northumbria University, whose research appears in NIH databases. That simple cup of tea may do more for your brain than you ever imagined.

While mint may be a star in the winter, you don’t have to limit consumption of the mint to December. Summer brings mojitos and mint juleps mocktails. Mediterranean kitchens toss mint into tabbouleh salad and swirl it into creamy tzatziki. And, of course, fresh mint ice cream is always a tasty dessert. From ancient remedy to modern superfood, this versatile herb truly deserves a spot at your table year-round.

University Pays Millions for Treatment Positioning Outcome

The Iowa State Appeal Board approved a $4.16 million settlement on December 2, 2025, following Conrad Colombo’s catastrophic brain injury during prone (lying flat on stomach) restraint at a University of Iowa Hospital.

Colombo, 38, sought emergency psychiatric help in April 2022 after days without sleep or medication for bipolar and schizoaffective disorder. After striking a security officer during a psychotic episode, 16 University of Iowa Health Care employees restrained him face-down while administering the sedatives droperidol and midazolam. During this time, hospital staff failed to consistently monitor his breathing. When he was finally rolled over, his lips were blue and he had no pulse. Resuscitation took eight minutes and left permanent brain damage.

Such tragedies aren’t isolated. A patient died in Virginia in 2023 during prone restraint at a psychiatric hospital, resulting in an $8.5 million settlement. In Toronto General Hospital, a patient suffered fatal brain injury from restraint asphyxia in 2020.

Instead of prone restraint, experts recommend supine (lying flat on back) positioning, verbal de-escalation, and trauma-informed systems, which can reduce the use of restraints by up to 99%. In 2024, Colorado passed HB 24-1372, which restricts prone restraint.

Counterintuitive TBI Quality of Life Results in Eastern European Nations

Reported by Scientific Reports, on nature.com, and published by the NIH on November 25, 2025, a new study sheds light on the burden of traumatic brain injury in three post-Soviet nations – Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova. This “first of its kind research” reveals that injury severity alone failed to predict patient recovery, challenging conventional clinical assumptions.

The study, led by Diana Dulf and colleagues from Babes-Bolyai University (Romania) in collaboration with universities in all three countries, analyzed 386 adult TBI patients admitted to major trauma hospitals between March and September 2019.  Of these patients, falls accounted for 51% of injuries while road traffic incidents caused nearly 30% of their brain injuries. The study’s most striking discovery was a negative correlation between injury severity and reported quality of life (r = −0.29, p < 0.001). Patients with mild TBI did not consistently report higher quality of life than those with more severe injuries

What makes this research particularly significant is its focus on low and middle-income countries, where TBI occurs more frequently yet receives far less attention than in wealthier nations. Quality of life scores varied notably by country, with Moldova and Armenia showing higher outcomes compared to Georgia. The “disability paradox” that was found suggests that local healthcare systems and rehabilitation support may play a significant and crucial role in recovery and challenges conventional assumptions about recovery trajectories. Age, country of residence, and having additional injuries alongside the brain trauma proved to be stronger predictors of reduced quality of life than injury severity alone.

Military Brain Injury Research Receives $5.3 Million Federal Grant

University of Virginia School of Medicine and Naval Medical Research Command researchers received a $5.3 million Department of Defense grant announced November 21, 2025, to combat blast-related brain injuries affecting military personnel.

“This is about moving from concern to capability, turning careful science into practical ways to identify, prevent, and treat blast-related brain injury,” said Dr. James Stone, a UVA Health radiologist leading the research. The four research projects will explore the neurovascular unit—where blood vessels and brain tissue interact—and how damage to this system causes chronic health conditions.

Dr. Stone explained that many service members “do not feel like the person they were before they entered the military” due to blast exposures, noting that providing diagnosis and explanation “would be an enormous contribution to this community.”

The project builds on nearly 20 years of research and aims to develop biomarkers, establish safe exposure limits, and create treatment protocols.

“We are very optimistic that the work being done right now is going to make a real difference for these affected populations,” Stone said.

Enjoy a Choline-Rich Thanksgiving!

On Thursday, Thanksgiving dinner allows us to incorporate many choline-rich foods into our meal. Beyond simply turkey, many sources, including the NIH, have found that traditional Thanksgiving vegetables, such as broccoli and brussel sprouts, and starches, such as russet and red potatoes, provide health benefits.

While pumpkin pie may only have a moderate amount of the nutrient, recipes that contain higher levels exist, and various puddings have significantly more.

https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Choline-HealthProfessional/

Brain-Boosting Nutrient: Choline

“Choline is critically important for brain functions,” said Dr. Ramon Velazquez of Arizona State University-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center in 2024, noting that research links it to better cognitive function and lower Alzheimer’s risk. According to a 2024 report from the Cleveland Clinic, choline is essential in “helping your brain and nervous system manage your food and memory,” through its control of the slow of methylation, “which controls how genes are turned into proteins so your cells can grow.”

As has been shown in the past decades, consumption of choline is a boon to all people. NIH-published studies, though, have also proven its specific and special benefit for those with brain injuries. According to NCBI information, the nutrient choline plays a crucial role in building cell membranes and producing acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter vital for memory and muscle control. This month, November 2025, UC Davis reported, “A new study finds the essential nutrient is 8% lower in the brains of people with generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder and social anxiety disorder,” common emotional effects that follow a brain injury.

However, while studies show dietary choline supplementation can improve spatial memory, reduce brain inflammation, and preserve cortical tissue following traumatic brain injury, doctors say that most people don’t consume enough. Beyond eggs, food sources of this nutrient include beef liver, salmon, chicken, and brussel sprouts. Based solely on nutrient research, an omelet, filled with broccoli, chicken and cheese, seems to me to be a easy, tasty and choline-rich lunch choice.

(The recommended daily intake of choline, also referred to as Vitamin B4, is 550 mg daily for men and 425 mg for women. Choline supplements are also widely available, with the tolerable upper limit of 3,500 mg daily.)

From Execution Chamber to Fraternity Basement

When you think of fraternity hazing, the first example that likely will come to mind is excess alcohol consumption or perhaps streaking through campus. Some fraternities, though, may take hazing to an extreme.  On October 15, 2025, a fraternity at New Jersey’s state university Rutgers did just so: a 19-year-old student was electrocuted during fraternity hazing activities involving water, suffering serious electrical burns and lost consciousness. A second student was shocked while attempting to rescue him. (This fraternity has now been closed at the school.)

In 2019, at the University of New Hampshire, 46 students were arrested in 2019 for a “talent show” involving stun guns. Washington and Lee University suspended Phi Kappa Psi for three years in March 2015 after a member used a Taser on a pledge during initiation. Washington and Lee University President Kenneth Ruscio called it “clear physical abuse, harmful enough as it was, but under the circumstances potentially even more dangerous.”

While electrocution consequences may be first thought to be physical, the cognitive impairments from electrical injury can be more disabling.

According to the NCBI, this process disrupts the semi permeability essential to neuronal function, causing ATP depletion, mitochondrial damage, and loss of electrical charge. As with many traumatic brain injury cases, survivors experience impaired episodic memory, struggling to form new memories or recall recent events. Research into 26 electrical injury survivors found 62% showed processing speed deficits—the most common impairment. Another 62% demonstrated auditory memory and working memory dysfunction. Verbal learning suffered in 54%, while 46% had concentration and attention problems, and 35% showed visual memory deficits.

Brain injury occurs even when current doesn’t directly traverse the skull, transmitted via spinal cord myelinated axons and systemic hormonal stress responses. However, with comprehensive neuropsychological testing, psychiatric support, and occupational rehabilitation, the NIH acknowledges that functional improvement remains possible.

HISTORY & LEGISLATION:

As to how electrocution became a known means of torture, it may be good to look though America’s past: electrocution emerged as a death penalty method in 1888, when New York adopted the electric chair as supposedly more humane than hanging. Currently authorized in nine U.S. states including Alabama, Florida, and South Carolina, it has been used in approximately 4,251 executions since 1890. North Carolina Governor Josh Stein called execution by electrocution “barbaric” in October 2025, while Representative Pricey Harrison described it as “gruesome” in September 2025, noting victims are “literally cooked to death.”

Parties Unite to Combat TBI-Linked Veteran Suicides

Reports have found that hundreds of thousands of American troops have sustained a traumatic brain injury since 2000. Similarly, a 2024 Department of War report revealed that troops regularly exposed to blasts faced suicide rates roughly twice as high as service members in noncombat roles. To address these sobering realities, on November 6, 2025 [when the government was officially shutdown], Senators Dave McCormick (PA) and Jacky Rosen (NV) introduced the Veterans Traumatic Brain Injury Adaptive Care Opportunities Nationwide Act.

According to official text, the S.3130 will establish a program within the Department of Veterans Affairs to award grants, “to develop, implement, and evaluate approaches and methodologies for prospective randomized control trials for neurorehabilitation treatments for the treatment of chronic mild traumatic brain injury in veterans,” as current TBI treatments often fall short. By prioritizing cutting-edge research and complementing existing VA efforts like the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grants program, the initiative aims to close critical treatment gaps and proactively reduce the underlying conditions that contribute to veteran suicide.

“As I think about the soldiers I served alongside, I feel this issue deeply,” said Senator McCormick, a West Point graduate and combat veteran. “Our veterans deserve access to innovative and groundbreaking TBI treatments that will enhance their quality of life and finally address the suicide epidemic among servicemembers.” Senator Rosen concurred: “Our veterans put their lives on the line to defend our freedoms, and they deserve every resource available to heal from the invisible wounds of service.”

The bill now awaits consideration in the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, where supporters hope it will gain momentum as part of a broader push to address veteran mental health care.

Historic Federal Shutdown Resolved as Disability Services Faced Collapse

“The House of Representatives passed the ‘Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, abd Extensions Act, 2026’, with a vote of 222 to 209… after a damaging and unnecessary shutdown that lasted 43 days,” states a press release on the Committee on Appropriations section of the House of Representatives site.

The longest congressional government shutdown in U.S. history ended November 12, 2025, after 43 days, and 15 votes, that threatened the funding of critical services for people with brain injuries and disabilities. The House passed the Senate Appropriations Committee’s spending bill H.R.5371 with a vote of 222-209. President Trump signed the bill into law at 10:25 PM EST.

As was widely reported, the shutdown disrupted Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program November benefits for 42 million Americans. Nearly 14 million people with disabilities rely on SNAP benefits.  Senator John Fetterman, who suffered a stroke in 2022, was among eight Democrats who voted with Republicans to end the shutdown. He stated: “I refuse to gamble with the food insecurity of 42 million Americans”.

Many financial assistance government programs that benefit the brain injured population are state-based: Supplemental Security Income, employment services, support for independent living healthcare, such as Medicaid and state-specific programs. As such, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) payments thankfully continued without interruption, though other crucial services suffered.

However, many disability advocacy organizations operated “on fumes,” with some stopping new cases entirely. Maria Town, President of the Washington D.C. located nonprofit American Association of People with Disabilities, warned: “Given how many people with disabilities rely on benefits from government programs, this shutdown is especially harmful for the disability community”. The Tennessee Rehabilitation Center in Smyrna closed completely due to lack of federal funding, while Arkansas suspended rehabilitation services starting November 1.

Interestingly, the government shutdown, officially termed a “lapse in appropriations”, was not introduced to the Country as a negotiating “tool” until 1980, during the presidency of Jimmy Carter.  Since that time, most Presidents have weathered these shutdowns. Only two, Ronald Reagan and Donald J. Trump, weathered 3 shutdowns while in office. If history is to be the guide, this government inaction will soon be forgotten, which is both a positive and great negative for America’s well-being.