MME 20 Years Out From Brain Injury - CT

MME 20 Years Out From Brain Injury - CT

            In 1985, a then 21 year-old CT sustained multiple injuries in a motor vehicle accident.  He was out for a week; prolonged mechanical ventilation was required, along with a tracheostomy.  Fluid needed to be drained from CT's lungs, along with surgery to stabilize long-bone fractures.  Trauma to CT's skull produced a cerebral contusion (bruising and damage to the brain).  A compressive blood blister developed between the brain and the skull (subdural hematoma), requiring surgical drainage.  CT's bones, joints, and respiratory function healed, but his brain didn't.  Brain cells were lost, and with that the functions they previously carried out.  CT underwent an extensive program of physical and speech therapy.  He received Cranial Sacral Therapy, and Repatterning Therapy, a process I am not familiar with that involves training intact nerve pathways to take on tasks previously carried out by the now damaged regions.  With these measures CT improved.  He can walk slowly, but with an abnormal gait.  His right side is weak, and these muscles are stiff and somewhat rigid.  CT's intellect is intact.  He knows what he wants to do and has a sense of humor.  CT knows what he wants to say but has trouble getting the words out.  This is aphasia, a frustrating condition where one part of your mind forms a thought or group of thoughts, but another part can't process the thought into words that you can speak - you have a lot to say but can't spit it out.  Our original plan was to treat CT over the winter months, but a fall led to fracture of both ankles.  CT healed up and then underwent 300 hours of MME in 6-7/05, 20 years out from his original injury. 

            Our theory is that MME is stimulating stem cells residing in the Hippocampus (a midline region deep within the brain) to proliferate and migrate (an eight day trip) to peripheral brain region, there to become cells of that region, restoring function that was lost when the original cells of that region were lost.  We feel that heavy metal toxins are detrimental to this process (the same reason that Mercury is more toxic to an infant than to his/her  Mother).  CT has one Mercury amalgam filling in place, and he has been exposed to toxins over his life, same as the rest of us, so CT received DMSA, an oral metal binding agent, with each MME session.

            I saw CT in mid-July, then at 264 hours of a planned 300 hour program of MME.  I'm not a neurologist and I'm not trained in physical medicine.  I'm a cardiologist and I acknowledge that this limits me in assessing the response of a patient such as CT to MME, but I think that CT is better.  So does CT and his family.  CT no longer uses a cane to walk into the office (some of this may be due to further healing of his ankle fractures), and his gait is a little less disordered.  He feels that he is thinking a little better, although this was not a major limitation pre-MME.  He is talking better.  It is easier for CT to get his words out.  He is also talking more, because, as CT told me - "it is now easier to talk".  When I first met CT, I did not feel that his mood was particularly down, but post-MME CT seems more optimistic and happy.  CT is smiling more and cracking jokes.  Overall CT rates himself as 20% better and the staff and I agree. 

            CT will keep up with DMSA, to scavenge any metals that might interfere with his stem cells "setting in", and I will see him again in three months.  We are hopeful that CT will gain a little more function over this interval.  Depending upon his condition than, we may treat CT with additional MME.  I would not want to have aphasia.  I would not want to be able to have thoughts, and then not be able to make them known to others.  If CT's ability to express his thoughts has improved, as he and I feel it has, then I would view CT's MME program as a success.

AMRI of NW Ohio provides MME treatment under the guidelines of an Investigational Review Board, consistent with FDA regulations.

 Please note that MME treatment is considered to be experimental by the FDA. Although many patients have improved, no guarantee of success is implied.