Exploring New Frontiers in Brain Recovery

Dr. Brandon Crawford, a prominent neurologist and researcher, discusses his journey into the field of developmental functional neurology and how through the use of PhotoBioModulation, incorporated with traditional neurological treatments, revolutionizes brain injury recovery.   He is renowned in the field of  photobiomodulation, or laser therapy, and its role in accelerating neuroplasticity and enhancing brain function.  Influenced by personal as well as professional experiences, Dr. Crawford explains the differences between traditional and functional neurology; all the time focusing on brain function, neuroplasticity, energy management,  getting to the root cause of neurological dysfunction, and holistic approaches. Additional topics include brain health, hormonal imbalances that can lead to strokes, inflammatory load, immune components and most importantly post-injury care. Listeners are challenged to investigate new, novel therapies as well as grasp the fact that recovery and brain adaptation are ongoing processes and not time limited.

Transcript

0:10

Opinions shared by the guests of the show are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the hosts bind waves or the Brain injury network. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and it's not a substitute for professional medical advice, the diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Thank you.

cohost: 0:37

Hi, I'm Brittany and I'm a brain injury survivor and a member of BIND. And hi, I'm Carrie, a stroke survivor, and also a member of BIND. And today we are welcoming Dr. Crawford, Dr. Brandon Crawford. There are some words I'm gonna skip over'cause I kind of copied this from your website and they're a little big for me, even if I wasn't a brain injury survivor.

Dr. Crawford: 0:55

All good.

cohost: 0:56

Um, he is a leading functional neurologist and a pioneer in brain healing with revolutionary laser therapy and innovative methods. An expert in traumatic brain injuries, and this is the one, I'm not gonna say photo bio modulation.

Dr. Crawford: 1:11

Absolutely. We'll

cohost: 1:12

Okay,

Dr. Crawford: 1:12

that down. Don't worry.

cohost: 1:14

thanks. He empowers global audience with groundbreaking approaches for optimized brain function and enhanced wellbeing, and we are excited to have you here today because. We don't get a whole lot of neurologists. We know a lot of the words. Like I said, uh, that's one I'm gonna have to work on. After you teach it to me, I'll be better, but, so what led you to want to be in the field of neurology? I.

Dr. Crawford: 1:34

Absolutely. So it, it's a long story. I'll try to give you the, the elevator pitch, right? So early in my career I actually wanted to be a neurosurgeon. Um, and what happened was I met, my wife actually started dating her in high school when we got married while I was in college. And I looked at divorce rates'cause I'm kind of a research nut. and I wanted to know what the statistics are for marriage and surgeons and it's not very good. And so I decided, you know what, maybe not, uh, this path for me. And so I actually got accepted into pharmacy school, um, I into multiple pharmacy schools, and I was trying to decide which one to go into. And I'm a faith-based guy, so I was, I was praying about it one day, uh, actually dove hunting in a field. I come from like a small town in Texas and that's what we do. and so I was, I was praying about it and literally heard a voice in my head that said, you're not going to pharmacy school. It was like the biggest like download from God, I've, I've had. It was pretty cool. I was like, well, what the heck do I do? And so I was led to actually go shadow a chiropractor in my hometown because I had a failed back surgery in high school. I. And what happened was after this failed back surgery that was from a sport, a sports injury, um, this chiro saw me dragging my leg across the parking lot and he said, Hey, I can help you. And I was like, well, you know, I don't know. I've already had surgery and you know, it failed. And he said, don't worry about it. So I went and saw him for two weeks, literally, and he completely changed my life. Um, and so I was led to go shadow him. And so I did. Um. And my eyes were opened and I, I just knew, I felt that connection. I was like, okay, there's something here. This isn't exactly what I wanna do. This isn't exactly my purpose, but this is my path. And so I turned down pharmacy school. I actually got accepted to chiropractic school. And so I started, uh, in Chiro school. And my first semester, you know, I was there. I was like, okay. I'm here for a purpose. I'm, you know, walking out on faith here. Um, but I didn't know why, right? I still wasn't sure why. my first semester there, there was an impromptu lecture given by the president of the functional neurology board, he was talking about how you can change the brain by firing physical receptors in the body. And I was so intrigued. And so I went up to him and I said, look, I've never heard of this, um, but this is absolutely why I'm here. so he became my mentor right there from the beginning. So I've been entrenched in this, uh, functional neurology world ever since. Um, I started going through the Diplomate program, um, right then and there, you know, I went through that and then I did my fellowship course. I got my fellowship in childhood neurodevelopmental disorders. Um, started teaching the developmental, uh, course, um, and now sense of actually created my own methodology and my own line of laser therapy and all these things. So it, it, it was a long process, but what I can tell you is that I'm absolutely doing what I was placed on this earth to do and I absolutely love it.

cohost: 4:37

All right. That's awesome. That's cool. So, uh. Um, for the question, it's what's the difference between traditional neurology and functional neurology, which for me it's special because I actually was diagnosed with functional neurological symptoms disorder. So you probably know kind of what that is. It's like the computer's on what I was told. They're like, okay, yeah, you're like a computer on the hardware, it works. But if you try to open something or install something, the software goes haywire.

Dr. Crawford: 5:05

Right.

cohost: 5:05

for my brain injury, um, I was in a car accident, someone crashed into me. I blacked out on impact. and after that my brain injury was neglected three times and it was neglected for seven months. And so after seven months. It still went downhill and they still know what was wrong with me, so they diagnosed me with F and D. So functional neurological symptoms disorder. So I guess for the audience, could you tell them what's the difference between traditional neurology and then functional neurology?

Dr. Crawford: 5:34

Absolutely would love to. So in your traditional neurology, we're they're looking for what is wrong or what's broken and how do we manage it? Right, and, and their forms of management are going to be things like medication, maybe some surgical procedures or something like this, right? functional neurology, we're looking for function. We're looking for how well are these networks connecting? What does the connectome look like and how is that functional connect connection or lack of connection, uh, giving rise to the. To the functions or symptoms that we're observing. Right. And a big difference is, um, ablative lesion versus non-ablative lesion. So just like you described, the hardware versus software component, right? If we scan a brain, like we look at the MRI and the anatomy looks fine, but then there's symptoms, there is something going on, whether it's brain fog, fatigue, pain, some kind of dysfunction has arisen. But the anatomy's fine. There's not a frank pathology or anything like that. That's where functional neurology steps in. And we have ways to functionally evaluate the person, identify the strengths and the weaknesses. And then really the true focus of functional neurology is developing neuroplasticity, right? Because neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to mold and change no matter what the age, no matter what the health status, right? Everyone has the ability, uh, to develop neuroplasticity. And so that is our focus. And here's the thing I like to communicate, is that. One does not replace the other. Right? We need both forms of healthcare that I'm talking about, traditional and functional neurology. We need to be working together, and that's what we do in my office. I have, um, Dr. Marcella Madera, she's a, a neurosurgeon actually. Uh, but she acts as my medical director. Um, and we get to collaborate and co-manage. So I think that these two fields really need to co-manage together, and it's, it could be a beautiful relationship.

cohost: 7:27

Okay. That's, that's interesting. So, um, when I was reading through your website, um, I noticed you talked about, and these questions probably are gonna not, they're gonna end up being, you're gonna probably answer 'em before we can ask 'em. But, um, you talked about like. And I, I mean, I love this kind of stuff 'cause yeah, I've, I, my stroke was 15 years ago, I had a hemorrhagic stroke, so neuroplasticity has been a word that I have known and come to understand very well. Um, and hopefully our listeners have finally figured it out too. I don't know that. Um, but so you talked about, um, getting to the root cause of neurological dysfunction. Can you explain that to me? Because that was.

Dr. Crawford: 8:11

absolutely. So, um. In our form of functional neurology that we've created over the past seven years or so. Um, we take two parallel paths. We, we look at fuel and we look at activation. Okay? So we want to know on the fuel side, is there any type of, um, what I call road roadmaps or metabolic, or I'm sorry, roadblocks or metabolic challenges that could prevent, you know, or cause plateaus in rehab. Okay? This can be anything inflammatory. This could be autoimmune. This could be infectious. This could be a whole host of things, right? Because I can be driving a system over here trying to develop neuroplasticity, but if in the fuel side there's a toxicity or an autoimmunity or something like that, inflaming the system, we're only going to get so far, right? And then on the activation side, we need to take what I call a developmental approach. And so in our exam process, we look at several different buckets of care. We look at how is the brain. Designed to develop. Right? And we all know this to be true. We know a baby has to crawl before they walk. We know there are certain milestones that are supposed to be met, but what people don't understand is that this concept does not just stop when that baby turns a magical age. This whole process continues on through adulthood until we die. And so what. Postural reactions, core stability, vestibular system, eye movements and cognition, and a big difference in developmental functional neurology versus your, know, typical more standard functional neurology is. If we identify something in, uh, going awry in one of these more foundational systems, we start there, right? Because this is a blueprint, we know that the brain and the nervous system will use those sensory systems and primitive reflexes to develop these other more complex, uh, functions in the brain. So, yeah, we may have someone with dizziness or vestibular symptoms or abnormal eye movements, but if they come in with certain primitive reflexes or something like that, that are present as well, we have to start there because those systems need to be integrated to be able to stabilize our eye fields, stabilize our vestibular system, et cetera. Right? So it's really, we're giving more structure to this rehab concept. And it, it's really awesome because after the exam we can say, Hey, here's where you're at in that developmental trajectory. Here's the roadmap, gives us better prognostic indicators. And it really just is a whole better experience for the patient because you really do see these incremental gains along the way. Another way I would explain it is, you know, I was talking about the brain has this blueprint for development and we know that, you know, babies have certain milestones and whatnot. When there's an injury, right, whether it's blunt force trauma, whether it's a chemical exposure, something happens and it causes some kind of dysfunction or damage to the brain, it doesn't make sense that the brain just throws its hands up and says, I don't know what to do. What's going on here? No. The brain never does that. The brain goes, okay, I lost my ability to walk or talk, or whatever it is. I'm gonna go back in time. Use those systems that I initially used when I was a baby to develop those functions. And so that's this concept of developmental functional neurology is the brain will sequentially degrade, right? And start using these same blueprints that it used to develop itself initially. So that's getting to the root cause in my books, is looking at the fuel components, making sure you're not inflamed or have any of these other issues that we need to address. And then properly activating what I call the neuraxis, which is the spinal cord in the brain, um, with a very strategic, targeted approach. Does that make sense?

cohost: 12:10

It does. Yeah. And let me just say, um, so I was completely paralyzed on the left side. My left arm unfortunately has not really come back. But let me just tell you, I'm glad they didn't try to teach me how to crawl before they taught me how to walk.'cause I can't even imagine trying to crawl again, but.

Dr. Crawford: 12:27

there's certain mechanisms here, right? We, we, in, in my world, um, we would want to make sure to work on what's called your hand supporting reflex. Um, the hand supporting, there's a magic little button here in the palm of the hand. There's about 20,000 mechanical receptors right here in the base of the palm. is stimulated, you get contraction of the triceps, and then this actually fires a muscle called the serus anterior along the rib cage. This is equivalent to a baby doing tummy time and starting to push the hands down into the floor and then working up into, um, a, a, uh, a lion pose and then into a quad and starting to crawl, accelerate, et cetera. But in this scenario, we need to make sure that you have proper truncal support, proper core stability before we work on gait training, et cetera. So, I may not have you crawl, but I wanna make sure that these mechanisms. Are in place to stabilize your ribcage, stabilize your core order to safely be able to walk, and then something, sorry, I may go on tangents. I'm known for tangents. Right. Something that is really important that is overlooked in traditional, uh, rehab settings when we're doing gait training or helping someone walk again, is the concept of postural reactions, right? Yes. We need to get you up. We need to get you up and mobile and all these things, but I need you to be safe. Our postural reactions, which are primitive reflexes, turn on our postural reactions, and then they volley back and forth. And those postural reactions will actually then inhibit those reflexes as these neural networks grow and develop. So our postural reflex reflexes or reactions. If I get pushed right, my head will write to keep my eyes level with the horizon, my arm, my shootout, I'm gonna hop, et cetera. We need to make sure that those systems, those safety systems are in place so that you can properly walk around and not fall and hit your head again. that's something that is kind of missed, uh, quite often in rehab. And I, you know, I've got several patients where they came in. got 'em up, you know, they were gotten up outta the wheelchair. That's fantastic. I love that. But then if you just barely touch 'em, they're falling over and they can't catch themselves.

cohost: 14:42

Sure. No, I, I understand that I still have my balance issues. Mm-hmm. But

Dr. Crawford: 14:46

Yeah.

cohost: 14:47

they're not horrible, but yeah.

Dr. Crawford: 14:49

Good.

cohost: 14:49

catch you off guard sometimes. Yeah, because for me it does too. And actually for me, um, after my accident, you know, when it's neglected, the first. Like seven months and then the months after that, um, to, believe it or not, I was supposed to go to physical therapy, but I actually couldn't do physical therapy for six months because my myofascia was basically shot. Like if you got near me, I. Like I jumped or it was pain and like you couldn't do anything. So I had to do six months of myofascia release. So basically physical therapy put like her hands on me just to release my fascia, which the fascia is the layer right under your skin, like right there. So.

Dr. Crawford: 15:27

Very important electrical, uh, conductor in, in the muscles in or on top of the muscles that actually fuels the brain, the nervous system. Yeah, it's a very important network.

cohost: 15:37

Yeah, so you can believe like when mine was like shot, it was hard. But um, also in terms, in layman's terms, can you explain what neuroplasticity is for listeners? I know you kind of went over a little bit, but can you like explain a little bit more in depth?

Dr. Crawford: 15:52

Absolutely. So neuroplasticity, just at the very basic level, is literally just the ability of your brain to mold and change. the general concept, which is a myth, is that after a certain age you lose this neuroplasticity. there's actually a really cool study that was done on a group of people in hospice care, and I don't remember what the average age was, but it was. You know, probably upper eighties, you know, maybe some, you know, close to 90, something like that. Um, they were on very strong medication. Um, they were actively dying, right? And so if any population would not have neuroplasticity, it's this population. Well, this study proved that they actually did have neuroplasticity, the ability for the brain to mold and change, the way up until they died. So no matter what age, no matter what the situation. Your brain is actively changing on a daily basis, on a moment by moment basis. And the other concept about neuroplasticity that I like to communicate. Is, it goes both ways and, and I call it negative plasticity and positive plasticity. And it's the concept of if I have an injury and I have, let's say a muscle contractor, right? And I have this arm that's come up and, and it's contracted in spastic, brain is automatically building a sensory and motor map relation to this change, right? And the more I stay in that position. The more efficient these new maps become in my brain. I call that negative plasticity, right? Because the longer that stays there, the more we're going to have to work to build what I call positive plasticity. So that's the concept, right? And now this works for everything physical body, but also our mental capacity, right? So if I wake up every morning and I'm like. Like, today sucks. I hate my job, I hate this, blah, blah, blah. Right? That's building a negative neuroplastic map or filter for that day, right? Like even that constant inner verbiage, right? That can actually develop negative plasticity too. I did a podcast on, on my podcast, the Longevity Formula with Cody. Uh, he was a brain injury survivor. He was a Marine. Um, and he really did a good job of, of talking through his battle with that mental, you know, negative plasticity and how he had to overcome that. Um, it was really interesting.

cohost: 18:24

I'll have to go check that out. Mm-hmm. But I'm gonna take a quick little break real quick. Quick and just remind our listeners to go ahead and click that like button, click that share button, click that notify button, click all the buttons that have good thought, positive thumbs up. Click work on that. Good neuroplasticity and click on good things. So thank you very much. Um, so Dr. Crawford, I was gonna ask you, um, you kind of, this was one of our questions, kind of explained how your approach starts, but then you also have this. New laser technology that you're doing. So explain how that works along with, you've started this, you've got the blueprint and you're working on, I guess, some of the normal things that we know of, that we've done in traditional therapy

Dr. Crawford: 19:07

Mm-hmm.

cohost: 19:08

you know, the, like for me, you know, it was the get up, the start standing, being able to stand straight, the weight shifting. Um, my foot rolls so I have a A FO 'cause I can't stand. Right. Anyway, without it. Um, so you know that, you know the core function here, but what you're, it sounds like what you're talking about is a lot more core function, but then you also have a laser. So kind of explain to us how a day in the life of Dr. Crawford getting us brain injured better looks.

Dr. Crawford: 19:36

A absolutely, well, it, it will definitely look different depending on what's going on. Uh, we're very specific in our, in our rehab strategies, but, um, the concept of photo biomodulation, right? And so I guess we can just break that down first,

cohost: 19:48

Okay.

Dr. Crawford: 19:50

bio modulation just means changing life with light, right? So photo is light, bio life modulation to change. So just changing life with light and most people know photo biomodulation by the term of like red light therapy or something like this. Um, I want to, to explain is that this concept goes well beyond just red light. Um, you know, we're looking at red infrared, mid-infrared, far infrared, green violet, all these different wavelengths of light and they each have different biological impacts. Um, we're now do, I just actually just met with my, one of my lead researchers yesterday. We're looking at how different wavelengths of light activate different biological components, um, like stem cells and other growth factors and things like this. Um, so there's a lot going on, uh, behind the scenes over here with me on the research front and what we're trying to achieve. But way I want to think about biomodulation is as an accelerator. Um, as I'm doing rehab, as I'm doing care with someone, want to activate these systems and then I want to stabilize them and promote neuroplasticity faster, and that's why. I really started to combine the rehab approach with a targeted photobiomodulation or laser therapy. Um, that was the big thing. Now, can you use photo modulation by itself? Yes. Uh, it has great anti-inflammatory properties. It improves blood flow. Um, it enhances growth factors in the brain, promotes neuroplasticity, um, helps with neurochemistry. There's great studies on depression, anxiety, and things like this. So, yes, this is a powerful modality, even just by itself, and it's very, very safe, right? That's the thing. It's safe and it's effective, and it's easy to use. Um. What I wanted to do, I wanted to create a more powerful laser, but I wanted it to be very safe, and I wanted to, I wanted to be able to really control the different parameters within the laser beam so I could be very specific with each setting what it's doing. Um, this is our, you know, secret sauce if you will. Um, but basically, I, I tell people a laser beam is like a voice, right? So. I can speak to you like this and say whatever I want, or I can be nice and charismatic and have this kind of conversation with you. Right? There's going to be a different neurophysiological response depending on how I modulate my voice. I can say the same words, but I can say them in certain ways and create different neurochemistry for you, right? That's how the laser beam is. So for example, I have a. A setting for sleep, right? Well, I don't want to be yelling at the person like it's time to go to sleep. know what I mean? I want my laser beam to be speaking very soft and quietly and helping to promote that sleep state. So that's what I've done and we modulate things like frequency. We modulate the duty cycle. We modular, modulate the polarization, we modulate the power, we mo, right? So all of these different, more granular things that's never been done before, um, in a laser device. And so. That's really what's unique there. But, um, you know, the, I guess the thing to, to really drive home is that this concept of photobiomodulation, it's really safe, it's really effective. Yes, it can be used by itself, uh, to enhance any kind of condition really, but specifically for the brain. Um, but what we like to do is folded into our rehab strategies. Uh, we could even create home care plans for people so that you get this really specific targeted result and enhance neuroplasticity and accelerate change.

cohost: 23:38

Okay. Um, one of our members actually had a question. Um, how does hormonal imbalances like, can affect strokes? And if there any, if there is any pre risk factors to be aware of.

Dr. Crawford: 23:51

Um, so yes, hormonal factors can have an influence on stroke status or you're predisposition to have a stroke. And it's really about this concept of, uh, the total inflammatory load, right? So let's say, you know, you are highly inflamed, whether it's from. Chronic stress, whether it's from some kind of exposure you've had or some kind of disease process or something like that. It's very well established now that that inflammatory load will have an impact on your hormonal status. Right? And then as those hormones fluctuate, this then can have an impact on, um, your regulatory systems that control blood flow. Um, so your ability to vasoconstrict and vasodilate, um, for example, if you get. Spikes of certain, uh, hormones. You can get a, a very acute vasoconstriction that can lead to, um, an hypoxic event, um, et cetera. You can also get the opposite where it it over dilates. Um, and so there's several different mechanisms, uh, involved here. So the number one thing you know to look for is what are my inflammatory markers, right? So when I run labs on someone. I'm always checking things like homocysteine, C-reactive protein, lipoprotein A, lipoprotein B, um, all these different inflammatory markers. have to be checked in combination with, uh, the hormones. Um, now on the hormone discussion, we also want to know what's driving the hormonal imbalance, right? We, we talked about inflammatory load, um, but it could also be a central component, right? We could have a disconnect between the brain and the ovaries or the brain and the testicles, and then this can actually be a driver for hormonal imbalances. We see this a lot in chronic stress. We see this in brain injury. Uh, we see this even in genetic disorders. I see it in autism. Um, so this can be a driver too. Now, this is a great use case for the type of therapy we do, because what we're doing is we're rehabbing the brain and actually improving that central component. And we'll see hormones change just from doing that, which is awesome. Um, I'm a great use case of that. Uh, if my stress levels get too high, my testosterone plummets. Uh, sometimes I've, you know, caught my testosterone around 200, which is not good. If I work on my brain, work on my stress laser, you know, have some targeted laser, uh, strategies, my testosterone goes up to about 700. Um, so I'm a great use case on that. Um, but yeah, the, the hormone world, I mean, yeah, we can even talk about the neuro immune components, right? Because there's even immune components to this discussion, but several different factors to look at when we look at, uh, hormones in the brain.

cohost: 26:31

Awesome. Okay, well, so we might have to have you on again to ask more quick, like get a more focused, pick a couple of different topics, have you help us figure out, and then kind of ask, because we try to ask our members to come up, help us come up with the question. So it's not just us, but before we run outta time, we've got a couple more que I wanna ask. Go back and ask one more on the. I am just gonna say laser. I'm not gonna try this. Say that

Dr. Crawford: 26:53

yeah. Just say laser. Yeah.

cohost: 26:55

word again. I'm just kidding. Um, so my question is, so it sounds like you usually start this with a new survivor. Okay. My stroke was 15 years ago. Is there an age limit? Not a, maybe an age limit, but a time limit? Post injury that this laser therapy would work. I mean, if you don't start it like in the beginning, like 15 years ago, if I didn't get it started, if I came in and said, Dr. Crawford, can you help me now? Is there a benefit?

Dr. Crawford: 27:26

Yes, absolutely. And we see people on, you know, all different spectrums. I'll see people, uh, right out of the ICU. Uh, I've actually been in the hospital before I've gotten hospital rights and go in and start working on people there. Um, so the earlier the better. Of course. That's my preference. I. And we can talk about the energy crisis and why that is. Um, but I've also seen people 40 years after an injury. Um, I had a guy that actually had a football injury, uh, 40 years ago, right? This was like when they had leather helmets and all that kind of

cohost: 27:57

Wow.

Dr. Crawford: 27:57

Um, and it was pretty severe and we were still able to get great results with 'em. Uh, and in fact, we're still working with him. He still continues to improve. Um, so can always see improvements. Again, going back to the concepts of neuroplasticity. The brain is always able to mold and change. The sooner the better. Absolutely. Um, and what most healthcare providers don't understand is the concept of the energy crisis in brain injury. And this is true for mild, moderate, and severe brain injuries. Um, I wrote a whole chapter about this in my book and we're, we're trying to find the pu, you know, the right publisher for my book right now. So it's not out, but it's finished. Um. But there's research on this. It is a well-documented thing whenever there is a brain injury of any type, um, this energy crisis can develop. And, and I describe it like this. So we're all in Texas. I'm in Austin. You're in Dallas. The Dallas area. So when it freezes here, everyone goes inside, turns up to heat. We start seeing rolling blackouts.

cohost: 29:01

Right.

Dr. Crawford: 29:03

There's an increased demand on the electrical grid. Okay? This happens in brain injury. Our neurons are power hungry cells. They need a lot of power, a lot of energy. They require a lot of electricity. they're damaged, they go into high alert mode and they start trying to heal, right? So this has an increased. Energy demand on these cells. If we don't address the energy crisis first in brain injury, that can create complications and then that can create plateaus in rehab. yes, the sooner the better. And I say that because photo Biomodulation is a very safe and effective way to address the energy crisis. Is it the only way? No, but it is a very safe and effective way to address it. So yes, the earlier, the better.

cohost: 29:48

Okay, so with that being said, when are you gonna open an office here in Dallas so I don't have to come all the way to Austin?

Dr. Crawford: 29:54

Oh goodness. Well, I just opened in Dubai.

cohost: 29:57

Oh, I on.

Dr. Crawford: 29:59

yeah, so I know, um, so we have here, yeah, here Atlanta and Dubai. So I'm still fighting the jet lag. I just got back a few days ago, but, um, I, I don't have, you know, any plans on the near future to go to the Dallas area, but who knows, maybe one day.

cohost: 30:18

That's okay. Uh, I'll look into it and see if I can make a way to Austin. I don't know.'cause I would be interested 'cause I would like to see, 'cause I, you know, like I said, I have learned how to have great OTs so I am okay not being able to use my left arm. Would I like to be able to use it? Sure.

Dr. Crawford: 30:32

Sure.

cohost: 30:32

Can I function without it? Yeah, but you know, same. I would be assist it. I I what I, what I like more than anything would to get the stupid A-F-O-A-F-O off my leg so I could walk barefoot or in flip flops.'cause I am in Texas.

Dr. Crawford: 30:46

Absolutely.

cohost: 30:46

like shoes, but, um, so before we have to let you go, I know I did see on your website about your book too, so explain a little bit about the book and we'll keep looking for that because I knew it's

Dr. Crawford: 30:59

Yeah.

cohost: 31:00

on the horizon.

Dr. Crawford: 31:01

Absolutely. I wrote the book because I, I would hear the same story over and over again. I would get a phone call, whether it's a parent or a caregiver or someone like this, and they're in the ICU still, or they were just released from the hospital and they were just left with, Hey, this is the state of your brain. Um, sure do some OTPT, whatever, but this is probably what you have, you know, you're gonna deal with for the rest of your life. and it, it was frustrating because that's not necessarily true. what I wanted to do was create a resource for those individuals to understand that, hey, there are different options and these are evidence-based, very safe. Like this field, the developmental functional neurology, and things like photo biomodulation and even regenerative medicine, like the things that we're doing. These are very viable options that have real, tangible results. So that's why I wrote the book. It was because I've heard the story, the story way too many times, and I wanted to create a solution.

cohost: 32:00

That's awesome. I love that because that is a big. I mean, 15 years ago there, I mean there wasn't even this brain injury network clubhouse that I'm a part of now, I got to help start it up because there was nothing. And you know, the only good thing that I know that I learned in the very beginning is a little bit of what you've already said is that the neuroplasticity is always there. I know as long as I work on my recovery, I'm going to get gains. I may not see those gains, but I know, so like I said, the arm doesn't work, doesn't mean I don't exercise it and move it. I do get Botox in my arm, so I'm not like this. I'm like this

Dr. Crawford: 32:34

Mm-hmm.

cohost: 32:35

or more like this, you know, it's still a little. But yeah, so, okay. This has been really exciting, but I'm serious. I might have to do, I'm gonna do a little more deep dive research on you and see, talk to you a little bit more or Marz and see yeah, if there's a specific topic that we might can get you back on here for, because this is like cutting, not cutting edge, but it's new for us. And then the more we can learn and share with our new survivors and just the general public that you know,'cause every brain injury is so. It's grown. I mean, there's so much more to learn, but I mean, there's so much more known about it today than there was, like I said, 15 years ago when I had mine. So yeah.

Dr. Crawford: 33:15

In the field is rapidly advancing. You know, again, even the research that I'm doing, um, you, you wouldn't believe the things that are going on right now in the research field. Um, I think we're about to have some massive changes and, and some really cool, I. Technology and new options, uh, for brain injury and, and various other conditions. Uh, really close, you know, coming up pretty soon.

cohost: 33:40

Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, I would definitely like to do it, especially with me being diagnosed with f and d. So that would be a whole new field and probably a whole new conversation to go on. So, yeah.

Dr. Crawford: 33:50

That's right.

cohost: 33:51

So, um, thank you so much for joining us, Dr. Crawford, and thank you for all those who listening today. Absolutely. And again, if you would like to contact us, um, you can email us at bindwaves@thebind,org. Or find us on the website on thebind.Org or follow us on Instagram @bindwaves, and we will get Dr. Crawford's Instagram and or Facebook or whatever he has, and make sure we tag him on our post so that you can find him and find out more about him. We will let you know all about that, his information in Austin. If you're in Austin, Texas, or close by, you've got a brain injury. Dr. Brandon Crawford is who you're looking for. Mm-hmm. And, um, it's got some great information. So again, thank you Dr. Crawford and thank you listeners. Yep. Um, don't forget to like sur share, subscribe on your favorite platform. Also hit notify on YouTube while listening to bindwaves And again, you can find us on all your favorite platforms. So until next time. Until next time. We hope you've enjoyed listening to BIND Waves and continue to support BIND in our nonprofit mission. We support brain injury survivors as they reconnect into the life, the community, and their workplace, and we couldn't do that without great listeners like you. We appreciate each and every one of you. Continue watching. Until next time. Until next time.