Researchers in Australia have successfully harnessed the power of seaweed to help repair damaged brain tissue caused by injury or stroke.
The remarkable study, published by Nature Scientific Reports, successfully used the sugars in the marine algae to develop new techniques to assist the brain in healing itself naturally after trauma. The researchers combined a natural anti-inflammatory polysaccharide, or sugar molecule, found in seaweed with short peptides (proteins) to create a scaffold that matches the structure of healthy brain tissue.
Healthy cells exist in this scaffold that is mostly water with proteins forming a web, known as hydrogel.
The “hydrogel scaffold” was created by Dr. Richard Williams from RMIT University and Associate Professor David Nisbet from the ANU, which stops scar tissue from forming, while promoting healing at the same time.
“Traumatic brain injury results in devastating long-term functional damage as the natural inflammatory response to injury prevents regrowth,” says Williams. “This stops or prevents the healing process. So, it’s critical that you find a natural way to stop the inflammation and scarring, yet encourage healing.”
The study used fragments of the seaweed proteins to form an artificial hydrogel that the body recognizes as healthy tissue. The web like tissue was then formed with sugars found in the algae to create the anti-inflammatory hydrogel system.
They were then able to inject the hydrogel scaffold into a damaged brain, with results they surprised even the researchers.
“Incredibly, it had a positive effect on cells a long way from the wound. This potentially allows an entirely natural, biomaterial approach to treat the damage caused by traumatic brain injury and stroke by allowing the brain to repair itself,” Williams says.
The breakthrough study revealed that seaweed not only tastes delicious but that it has medicinal purposes as well. The seaweed properties are remarkably able to stop scar tissue forming and the scaffold lets the cells grow, hopefully reversing the brain tissue damage caused by trauma or a stroke.
“For the first time ever we have shown that we can engineer a tissue construct that allows regrowth in damaged brain tissue, increasing for repair and regeneration,” Nisbet says.
The two researchers are now taking the successful results of their study and exploring how the treatment can be applied to other technologies, such as 3D bioprinted implants. This would help to replace damaged muscles, nerves, and bones.
Is there a way to try this? My husband has scar tissue on the front of his brain caused by a stroke and it has caused some dementia like .
Julie, I have had two strokes now, the first one was two years ago, end of 2019, and this last one was in October 2021! I’ve been a Colonel military pilot/airline pilot, so I was used to being very eloquent with my speech!
And I was only at 55 at my first stroke. Never smoked, worked out and took good care of myself, but it seems to be in the family. The stroke in 2019 was pretty severe, but I walked away with it within about two months! No side effects.
But the one that I incurred more recently, it has taken about three months to learn how to talk and effectively! Thank you Jesus! He truly is the healer when you repent and receive his Lord. And it is currently at the five month mark, and I am as eloquent as ever! But it was not easy, and you cannot ever give up! In the beginning, I could not even say my name or my Social Security number!
My research started immediately after stroke! Traditional medicine can only offer limited approaches to heal! They will to try to send you to therapy and such.
Not certain if this will fit here, but I will show you a list the list that I have used every day! Everything from supplements, Neuroplasticity of my own brain, electrodes (Transcranial electrical stimulation) using 9 V battery and something that I purchased on Amazon! The electrical current is harmless, but it forces your brain to grow in much the same way a young child’s brain grows!
And when I find that there is a word that I have not used since after the stroke, I will practice that word all day if I have to, until I’m an expert! There are times I have tried and cried, but I never gave up! People who talk to me now are clueless of the fact that I could not talk even three months ago!
The laundry list.
Ginko
Citicoline:
B 50
Paramount to drink ginger tea! More effective than acupuncture in trials!
Salmon (Neurogenesis of new brain cells.)
Blueberries (These flavonoids found in blueberries are not only able to pass through the BBB to help reverse oxidative stress and prevent neuronal damage, but have also been linked to increased stem cell proliferation and adult neurogenesis in the brain’s hippocampal region.
Scientifically proven!
Started taking these supplements starting 02 March 2022
Vitamin C and MSM
Try these in combination for about a week and see if there’s any difference in how you talk etc.
Acetyl L-Carnitine 8 March 2022
And something else that I did that was paramount and I had researched this years ago, and that was to drink about a glass of water combined with DMSO, it has been proven to stop a stroke and its tracks, if you are late in getting to the hospital and they tell you that you can’t have TPA blood thinner.
And I hope this helps you.
Tom