#5ThoughtsFridays ?

Please consider becoming a member by CLICKING HERE.

We are launching a new

Special Summer Membership Campaign:

#5ThoughtsFriday is Powered By:

"Social Security"\

Edition

Graphic Courtesy of Project ECHO

Dr. Sanjeev Arora was angry, frustrated, and saddened. He was one of the top liver disease specialists in all of New Mexico and one of his patients, a forty-year old mother of two, had just died of liver cancer. The reason? She had gone untreated for years because she could not make the 400-mile trip from her home to his clinic in Albuquerque to see him. When she had finally been in so much pain that she made an appointment, the first available appointment was 8 months later. By the time she was able to see him she was diagnosed with inoperable stage four liver cancer. If caught sooner, the cancer could have been treated with chemotherapy which had proven to be remarkably effective. 

In 2001, Dr. Arora was one of the only doctor’s in New Mexico specializing in Hepatitis C. Hepatitis C is a liver infection that can lead to serious liver damage. It’s caused by the hepatitis C virus. About 3.9 million people in the U.S. have the disease, but it causes few symptoms, so most of them do not know. The virus spreads through an infected person’s blood or body fluids. Dr. Arora realized that the finite number of patients he could see in a year was not nearly enough to keep up with demand. In addition, New Mexico was such a large state, he needed to overcome the long distances patients would have to travel to get help. If he were going to prevent other patients like the young mother of two from dying unnecessarily, he was going to have a find a way to either clone himself or create more medical providers who could treat Hepatitis C. 

Two years later, Project ECHO was born. 

CLICK HERE to read more about an inspiring program who's time has truly come.

CLICK HERE or the Arrow above to view a brief video about Project ECHO.

Please CLICK HERE to sign up using our online registration.

Once we receive your registration, we will send you the link.

We hope to "see" you there!

We are witnessing mandated social isolation and social distancing on an epic scale. As part of BIAMD's interest in serving Maryland's Brain Injury Community, we are starting what we call "Check-In Chats".

We would like to "check in" with anyone looking to share their experiences and challenges with either an individual or in a social group setting.

Even though we can't meet in person, there are many ways open to us, and, if you are interested, we would like to hear from you about your needs and how we can help you feel more connected.

Tuesday, August 18th, 2020 at 8pm ET Live CLICK ON on Facebook and Youtube.com to join the concert!

CLICK HERE or on the arrow to the left, to hear more from BIAMD's friend, Rob Guttenberg about his music and his journey back from brain injury.

Photo by juan garcia on Unsplash

3) The Mammalian Brain Starts Eating Itself When It Doesn't Get Enough Sleep

Weirdly enough, research on mice has revealed the same process starts to occur in brains that are chronically sleep-deprived too - except it's kicked into hyperdrive.

Researchers have found that persistently poor sleep causes the brain to clear a significant amount of neurons and synaptic connections, and recovering sleep might not be able to reverse the damage.

In 2017, a team led by neuroscientist Michele Bellesi from the Marche Polytechnic University in Italy examined the mammalian brain's response to poor sleeping habits, and found a bizarre similarity between the well-rested and sleepless mice.

Like the cells elsewhere in your body, the neurons in your brain are being constantly refreshed by two different types of glial cell - support cells that are often called the glue of the nervous system.

The microglial cells are responsible for clearing out old and worn out cells via a process called phagocytosis - meaning "to devour" in Greek.

The astrocytes' job is to prune unnecessary synapses (connections) in the brain to refresh and reshape its wiring.

We've known that this process occurs when we sleep to clear away the neurological wear and tear of the day, but now it appears that the same thing happens when we start to lose sleep.

CLICK HERE to find out yet another reason for proper sleep hygiene.

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

When your brain stops working — completely and irreversibly — you’re dead. But drawing the line between life and brain death isn’t always easy. A new report attempts to clarify that distinction, perhaps helping to ease the anguish of family members with a loved one whose brain has died but whose heart still beats.

Brain death has been a recognized concept in medicine for decades. But there’s a lot of variation in how people define it, says Gene Sung, a neurocritical care physician at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “Showing that there is some worldwide consensus, understanding and agreement at this time will hopefully help minimize misunderstanding of what brain death is,” Sung says.

As part of the World Brain Death Project, Sung and his colleagues convened doctors from professional societies around the world to forge a consensus on how to identify brain death. This group, including experts in critical care, neurology and neurosurgery, reviewed the existing research on brain death (which was slim) and used their clinical expertise to write the recommendations, published August 3 in JAMA. In addition to the main guidelines, the final product included 17 supplements that address legal and religious aspects, provide checklists and flowcharts, and even trace the history of relevant medical advances. “Basically, we wrote a book,” Sung says.

CLICK HERE for more on Dr. Sung's attempt to address this truly challenge healthcare issue.

2^nd and 4^th Sunday of the month, 7:30 p – 8:45p

tpgallup@comcast.net

​For individuals in their 20’s to 60’s, Contact: Susan Emery susan@circleofrights.org

2^nd Thursday, 6:30p – 7:30p

Feature Event : Sept. 22 and 23, 2020

Workgroup Sessions : Sept. 24, 25, 28, & 29, 2020

Podcasts Available : Beginning Sept. 22, 2020

Post-Intensive Workshop : Sept. 29, 2020

Rate (Covers the entire event.)

CLICK HERE for the Agenda (Tentative.)

CLICK HERE for Sponsorship Opportunities

CLICK HERE to Register

Sharp, lyrical poems celebrating the Black vernacular—its influence on pop culture, its necessity for familial survival, its rite in storytelling and in creating the safety found only within its intimacy

Definition of finna, created by the author: fin·na /ˈfinə/ contraction: (1) going to; intending to [rooted in African American Vernacular English] (2) eye dialect spelling of “fixing to” (3) Black possibility; Black futurity; Blackness as tomorrow

These poems consider the brevity and disposability of Black lives and other oppressed people in our current era of emboldened white supremacy, and the use of the Black vernacular in America’s vast reserve of racial and gendered epithets. Finna explores the erasure of peoples in the American narrative; asks how gendered language can provoke violence; and finally, how the Black vernacular, expands our notions of possibility, giving us a new language of hope.

CLICK HERE for more on this book.

Photo by Brittany Colette on Unsplash

Got a story we need to follow or share? Send it to info@biamd.org.  

 Please let us know your requests and suggestions by emailing us at info@biamd.org. 

 Which bullet above is your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Let us know! Just send a tweet to @biamd1 and put #5ThoughtsFriday in there so we can find it.

 Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful weekend.