#52: Shae Datta, MD: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), gut-brain connection and supplements for healing

Dr Shae Datta, MD, is a Sports NeuroTrauma Neurologist and the current Director of Concussion & Neuro-Cognition at New York University, Long Island. Dr Datta specializes in helping people heal from brain injuries, especially including traumatic brain injuries and concussion (also called mTBI = mild traumatic brain injury). In this incredible episode, we wind our way first through the anatomy and physiology of the central nervous system, meaning the brain, spinal cord and associated microglia, astrocytes, relay neurons and the glymphatic clearance system of the CNS. Dr Datta then illuminates an understanding of the gut-brain axis with a special focus on psychbiotics, naming some of the specific types of probiotics that impact mood, cognition and the nervous system. She notes, ‘unhappy gut = unhappy brain’. The show returns to prognosis after brain injury and that every head injury is a unique story and very dependent on functional level, age, stress, co-morbidities, prior TBI and history of migraines. She reviews a bit of the TBI evaluation, which, barring a bleed in the head visible on CT, can often present with subtle findings regarding balance and ocular or vision changes that can potentially reflect outsized cognitive, sensory and/or motor challenges. We end the show with an exploration of a wide variety of treatments, some common (physical and occupational therapy) and some unique to Dr Datta’s integrative training: choline, creatine, vitamins and others.

Learn more from Dr Datta from her co-authored chapter on TBI in the Integrative Neurology textbook in the Andrew Weil Series:  https://www.elliottbaybook.com/book/9780190051617

To see Dr Datta as a patient, find her at NYU Langone: https://nyulangone.org/doctors/1720493141/shae-datta