Diet and Neurology Management

Last week I ripped my calf muscle and will be incapacitated all winter. I have a wrapped leg, boot and a walker to get around. Some days the muscle is in such spasm, I can barely move. As a result, our schedule has changed completely. I now do rehab in the pool very day for 60-90 mins, always with one of the kids while the other is in school. That is a very long time for a little body (theirs) to be in the pool. Yesterday, we unintentionally did an interesting experiment with food, partially due to our new schedule. I have always suspected that what Alex eats affects his neurological function, far beyond the sugar highs that parents recognize in their children when they eat sweets. Since Alex's first seizures, we have tried to keep him on a higher fat, lower carb diet. It is hard to attribute behavior changes to food intake, but observationally, the change in diet seems to work. Yesterday, we proved it further, this time with such certainty that I am now the world's greatest proponent of high fat diets in kids with brain injuries. Although I packed a healthy high fat diet for Alex's lunch, I also included popped chips and other high carb options. Throughout the day, he consumed mostly high carbs, low fat foods, and had spent over an hour swimming hard in the pool. Around 2pm, the minute we walked into the house, he started to melt down. The meltdown lasted a good 30 minutes and he was totally out of control. It was one of those meltdowns that appear neurological, as though Alex has lost all control of his brain. I thought about what he had eaten that day, and decided I better feed him some fat. I cooked two eggs in 2 tbs of butter, and added half an avocado with olive oil and salt. Still sniffling and fussing, he devoured the meal, along with a glass of whole milk. Within minutes, he returned to normal. Our sweet, peaceful Alex came back and he went on with his play. We didn't have a single other issue all day. I recently learned of a grant application with the NIH to examine the effect of exercise and nutrition in children with traumatic brain injuries. I hope the NIH funds this one, even though I feel any parent who has tried diet and exercise to improve physical and neurological function in their child with TBI needs no study to prove their positive discoveries. It would be nice to have a study to document the benefits of non-pharmaceutical therapies in children with neurological challenges. I wonder how that might change school lunch programs and PE, for all children.