Eeg

[hb1125]

Hi everyone. I had an EEG a week ago, and the doctor said that it showed mild slowing of the brain waves, although I am not at risk for seizures. I'm going to have a longer EEG in a month, but I was wondering if anyone has any idea what this means! She said it could be related to my repeated concussions. It sounds like it makes sense, since brain fog feels like that- like my brain is working slower than it should. But, I'm not sure if that is what it means. If anyone has had similar results, I would love to know! My MRI/MRV and CT scans were normal.

[SpaceCadet]

Sorry, I'm not sure what that means. But, I've had 3 "normal" EEG tests which is weird because my main symptom is extreme brain fog. It didn't show any abnormal or slow brain waves.

I would have asked the doctor what that meant. I'm the type if someone tells me my test was abnormal, I will ask them every question under the sun until I understood what they were saying.

Wish I could be of more help.

[hb1125]

Thanks for replying anyway!

I link my brain fog to so many things! Concussions, hypoglycemia, allergies, and thyroid are the main ones. At the moment, I'm beginning to think maybe it's a mix of things for me. It really gets a lot better when I stop eating anything with added sugar, so although I don't like it (I'm a huge sugar addict!!), I think that might be most of it. But, it never goes away completely, so that's why I'm starting to wonder if it's a mix of symptoms. Who knows!

I haven't talked to the doctor yet, just her office. They are doing the second EEG because she said there wasn't enough to go on with the results from the first one, so I figure I'll wait until after the second one to see what she thinks.

ETA: My concussions were all mild, nothing like yours!

[Klaus]

I have seen studies saying that EEGs have shown abnormal readings following concussion, and seen another saying that these abnormal readings are not uniform or specific enough to concussion to be diagnostic (ie they can't diagnose you with anything purely on the basis of these readings). There are different sorts of brain waves based on speed, frequency or whatever, and these can apparently be different following concussion. I don't think that slower brain waves necessarily equate to your brain running more slowly, I think it's more complicated than that, though I may be wrong.

Sorry it was a while ago so I don't remember any more about these studies, so that's probably not very helpful!

fMRI studies hve shown that different areas of the brain light up when people engage in a cognitive task following mild TBI than in a control group, even if performance levels are the same: the assumption was that the brain is compensating for lowered efficiency by recruiting different areas to achieve the same result. This could be reflected in EEG readings somehow, so that might be the source of any unusual readings. It also seems to me to be a good reason why we get tired - the brain is working harder just to keep up.

These sorts of active imaging techniques are something I'd like to learn a lot more about.