January 2008 Events

January 1st-Happy New Year 2008.

Jan. 3rd-Victor Borge’s Birthday.

Jan 7th-Harlem Globetrotters play 1st game at Hinkley, Illinois in 1927.

Jan. 8th-Elvis Presley’s Birthday.

Jan 17th-Benjamin Franklin’s Birthday.

Jan 17th-Persian Gulf War Began officially on this day (1991).

Jan 21st- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

---------------------------------------------------- Jan 21st-7PM Monthly Support Group meeting of the North Central Indiana Chapter of the Brain Injury Assoc. of America at Howard Regional System-West. For Info call: 765-452-6700! Family & Friends are invited. ----------------------------------------------------

Jan 27th-Vietnam Peace Accord (1973).

February 3rd-SuperBowl-Phoenix, Arizona.

------------------------------------------------------ Feb 18th-7PM Monthly Support Group meeting of the North Central Indiana Chapter of the Brain Injury Assoc. For Info : 765-452-6700.

----------------------------------------------------- Did you know … the meaning of "Keep your chin up.“ When someone is sad or depressed, he/she might drop his/her head, bringing the chin down to the chest. A chin held high shows confidence, optimism, & strength. So next time you get bad news keep your chin up. When you look up you won‘t fee so down!

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Brain Power Some people work hard & can live to be 100 yet still look like they are 40. But what happens if your brain goes soft at 40 or 70?

What happens if you get brain injury? What happens if you get an illness that affects your brain? What's the point of any hard work if you don't have the mental power to run your brain?

Research shows the key to keeping the brain as fit no matter what your age or brain ability, is to keep the brain stimulated; use it or lose it applies to the mind as well as the muscles.

There are fun learning tools & interactive games that are scientifically developed to help make the most of your brain.

Libraries, computers with internet access, educational stores, card games or puzzles at your local library, store, or superstore can provide activities & techniques to make your brain sweat.

Play often & check your progress to see if you've improved. If your caregiver, boss, or your kids catch you, tell them it's your required anti-aging brain-training, exercise! #

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Small Voice By Katie O.

“Don’t let fear stop you from being the person you want to be.

“The worth of the gain is greater than the pain of the loss.”

“Don’t look at people in the natural sense, many times you won’t like what you see. But if you strive to look at people the way Jesus did you won’t be offended by anger, meanness, hatred, jealousy, crudeness, laziness, disease or imperfect nature. You will see not imperfections, but pure potential.”

“Do not be disturbed by the world’s vision of success, for your success is marked by each goal you set & strive to achieve in order to better yourself.” #

----------------------------------------------------------- How Brain Injury affects The BRAIN How do you remember the way to the store? Why do your eyes blink without you ever thinking about it? Where do dreams come from? Your brain is in charge of these things & a lot more. The brain looks like a big gray sponge & is in charge of everything in the body. It operates & controls just about everything you do. The brain has many different parts that work together:

1. cerebrum (suh-ree-brum)
2. cerebellum (sair-uh-bell-um)
3. brain stem
4. pituitary gland (puh-too-uh-ter-ee gland)
5. hypothalamus (hi-po-thal-uh-muss)

1. The Cerebrum is the biggest part of the brain & makes up 85% of the brain's weight. The cerebrum is the thinking part of the brain & it controls voluntary muscles, the ones that move when you want them to. So you can't dance, or kick a soccer ball without your cerebrum. When you're thinking hard, you're using your cerebrum. You need it to solve math problems, figure out a video game, & draw a picture. Your memory lives in the cerebrum — both short-term memory (what you ate for dinner last night) & long-term memory (the name of that roller-coaster you rode on as a teenager). The cerebrum also helps you reason, like when you figure out that you'd better do something now instead of later.

2. The Cerebellum is at the back of the brain, below the cerebrum. And is a lot smaller than the cerebrum at only 1/8 of its size, but it's very important. It controls balance, movement, & coordination (how your muscles work together). Because of your cerebellum, you can stand upright, keep your balance, & move around. Think about a surfer riding the waves on his board. What does he need most to stay balanced? The best surfboard? The coolest wetsuit? Nope — he needs his cerebellum!

3. The Brain Stem sits beneath the cerebrum & in front of the cerebellum. It connects the rest of the brain to the spinal cord, which runs down your neck & back. The brain stem is in charge of all the functions your body needs to stay alive, like breathing air, digesting food, & circulating blood. Part of the brain stem's job is to control your involuntary muscles--the ones that work automatically, without you even thinking about it.

There are involuntary muscles in the heart & stomach. It's the brain stem that tells your heart to pump more blood when you're biking or your stomach to start digesting your lunch. The brain stem also sorts through the millions of messages that the brain & the rest of the body send back & forth. It's the brain's secretary!

The brain does more than just hold memories or help you do math. When brain injury occurs any part of the brain can be effected & the location of the brain injury can determine the behavior & abilities of a person.

4. The Pituitary Gland is very small, about the size of a pea. It’s job is to produce & release hormones into your body. If your clothes from childhood are now too small, it's because your pituitary gland released special hormones that made you grow. This gland is a big player in puberty too. This is the time when boys' & girls' bodies go through major changes as they slowly become men & women. This little gland also plays a role with other hormones, like ones that control the amount of sugars & water in your body. It also helps keep your metabolism (pronounced ma-ta-ba-liz-um) going. Metabolism is everything that goes on in your body to keep it alive, growing, & supplied with energy for breathing, digesting food, & moving blood.

5. The Hypothalamus controls temperature, it is like your brain's inner thermostat. The hypothalamus knows what temperature your body should be (about 98.6° Fahrenheit or 37° Celsius). If your body is too hot, the hypothalamus tells it to sweat. If you're too cold, the hypothalamus gets you shivering. Shivering or sweating are attempts to get your body's temperature back where it needs to be. The Nerves! So the brain is boss, but it needs many nerves, to rely information from one part of the brain to the other or from one part of the body to another.

And it needs the spinal cord, which is a long bundle of nerves inside your spinal column, the vertebrae that protect it. It's the spinal cord & nerves (known as the nervous system) that let messages flow back and forth between the brain and body. If a spiky cactus falls off a shelf towards your best friend, your nerves and brain communicate so that you jump up and yell for your friend to get out of the way. If you're really fast, you're able to catch the plant before it hits your friend!

Nerves can't be seen without a microscope. The nervous system is made up of millions of neurons (nur-on-z), which are microscopic cells. Each neuron has tiny branches coming off it that let it connect to many other neurons. When you were born, your brain came with all the neurons it will ever have, but many of them were not connected to each other.

When you learn things, the messages travel from one neuron to another, over & over. Eventually, the brain starts to create connections (or pathways) between the neurons, so things become easier & you can do them better and better. Think back to the first time you rode a

bike or the first time you drove a car. Your brain had to think about foot movement, staying balanced, steering with the handlebars, watching the road, & when to hit the brakes--all at once. But eventually, as you got more practice, the neurons sent messages back & forth until a pathway was created in your brain so you could ride your bike or drive a car without thinking about it because the neurons have successfully created a "bike" &“car ” pathway. # ------------------------------------------ BRAIN-BOOSTING RECIPES Try A Healthy Recipe Tonight 1.) Rachel's Cream Cheese Fruit Salad When buying cream cheese chose Vitamin D-fortified. Try this is a wonderful salad because it takes advantage of all the fresh fruit at the market, & because it has a glorious dressing made from strawberry flavored cream cheese, brown sugar vanilla & cinnamon. Serves: 8. Ingredients 2 pears 2 apples, cored and chopped 2 ripe bananas, sliced 1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced 3 cups seedless grapes 1/2 lemon, juiced 8 ounces fat-free strawberry cream cheese 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon 1 cup fat-free pretzels, broken 1.) Combine the pears, apples, bananas, strawberries & grapes. 2.) Add lemon juice and toss. 3.) Blend together cream cheese, brown sugar, vanilla & cinnamon.. 4.) Fold in fruit & pretzels. 5.) Serve quickly with lite whipped topping or put in refrigerator until chilled. --------------------------------------- 2.) Almond Green Beans. Meet your daily Omega-3 intake goal with almonds. Ingredients 1 (15 ounce) can green beans 1 (14 ounce) can canned stewed tomatoes 1/3 cup sliced almonds Italian seasoning to taste 1.) On medium heat, in a pot cook the green beans & tomatoes til heated through. 2.) Season with Italian seasoning. 3.) Stir in the almonds just before serving. # ------------------------------------------ “Freedom is there, on the other side of the fence we build or allow others to build.” Anonymous ----------------------------------------------------------- Small Beginnings A column for kids By Katie O.

Emotion Location With all the things the brain does, is it any surprise that the brain is in charge of emotions? When an injury occurs to the brain the emotions can be one of the many things affected. Maybe you got a special gift or card you wanted & you were really happy. Perhaps there was a time when a friend was sick & you felt sad. Maybe someone messed up your room or workspace& you were angry! Where do those feelings come from? The brain, of course.

The brain has a little bunch of cells on each side called the amygdala (pronounced ah-mig-duh-luh). The word amygdala is Latin for almond, & that's what this area looks like. Many believe that the amygdala is responsible for emotion. It's normal to feel all different kinds of emotions, good & bad. Sometimes you might feel a little sad, mad, scared, silly, or glad.

What happens when someone you know has brain injury & their emotions seem opposite of what it should be? Maybe the person reacts to something & the emotions are louder or more intense. That could be caused by the brain injury. Please understand that it is ok to be surprised, shocked, or even saddened by the brain injured person’s response or lack of response. The best thing for you to do is tell yourself the brain injured person is having “a brain injured emotional response.”

You need to: First---Be cool. Don’t yell or laugh. Next---Tell your parent, adult friend/family member, or teacher to help you respond or reply in an appropriate way. Third---tell the brain injured person’s doctor so the Dr. can analyze & prescribe treatment. Remember: It is not ok to make fun of any person or yell at a person whether they have brain injury or not. You should be always strive to be understanding & patient. #

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