Brain Injury Reversed

Science that Feels Miraculous

“It’s magic,” said Dr. Rene Alfaro, an ophthalmologist from Mexico, of the single-dose injection that almost instantly restored much of his wife’s movement and cognition more than a year after an aneurysm and subsequent stroke incapacitated her left side. “It’s like a click.”  Within minutes of receiving the injection on Monday, Anna Alfaro walked without a cane, got up from a chair more easily and regained sensation in her left arm. Hours later, when some of her left eye vision returned, she could see the phone clearly enough to dial a number for the first time since her stroke.

Her response is not unique.

Louisville resident and successful grocery owner, John Campisano suffered a stroke during his heart bypass surgery. He awoke with expressive aphasia [unable to speak or pronounce words] and very poor balance. Expressive aphasia is a condition in which the patient understands words and pictures, but is unable to pronounce words to express his or her needs or what he or she sees in words and numbers.

Mr. Campisano consistently responded to his yearly treatments with “my mind is clear,” improved speech fluidity, improved word and picture recognition and improved balance. After one of his treatments just before a family Christmas party, Mr. Campisano shocked and delighted his daughter Karen, his brothers and cousins entertaining them with stories from their past.

[Note: Mr. Campisano presented to Dr. Cruz 20 TWENTY years after his STROKE!!! This means even though conventional medicine believes no improvement is possible 2 years after Stroke or TBI injury; there is hope even 20 YEARS LATER!!!] His daughter Karen Campisano is our practice manager.

The PSE peri-spinal etanercept treatment consists of a single injection given in the soft tissues of the cervical spine, followed by a short wait of several minutes to allow the medication to get to the brain. That’s all it took for hundreds of stroke and traumatic brain injury patients from South Florida and nationwide to reverse years of debilitation. Now they are walking more steadily, reading more easily, concentrating better, speaking more clearly and regaining use of once-rigid limbs – long after giving up hope that their bodies would ever respond.

The medicine in the 25-milligram injection that provides renewed independence is etanercept [a rheumatoid arthritis medication sold under the brand name Enbrel among others]. This  treatment approach represents a “radical breakthrough” in the management of chronic neurological dysfunction.

The medicine in the 25-milligram injection that provides renewed independence is etanercept [a rheumatoid arthritis medication sold under the brand name Enbrel among others]. This above treatment approaches represent “radical breakthroughs” in the management of chronic neurological dysfunction.

According to the above study, of the total patients studied, more than 80 percent saw improvements in their ability to walk; more than 80 percent had less spasticity; and more than 85 percent exhibited improved motor function.

This is an impressive treatment response rate because it means that out 629 patients; 503 patients saw improvements!

Improvements also were recorded in many patients’ range of motion, pain and cognition, as well as their ability to *speak, *see, *swallow, *concentrate and *maintain bowel & bladder control. The benefits reportedly are long-lasting in many patients. To promote the potential for long lasting results, patients must engage in physical therapy at home and or physical activity so that their newly discovered neuro-plastic changes can have an opportunity to wire and fire together in a more permanent manner. The old adage of “use it or lose it”, definitely holds true. According to the first patients treated in November 2010, many continue to enjoy improved mobility and cognition.

Note with all of the above success, there are an approximate 20% of patients who receive NO benefit at all from this therapy so patients and family must accept the very real possibility that they may not improve.

Hollywood, Fla., resident Jennifer Cody said the treatment gave her 59-year-old father, a former outdoor maintenance man, renewed independence 18 years after his stroke.

“Within five minutes, her father was saying how clear his head was,” Cody said. “It had always been so cloudy.”

Now her father talks without slowed speech, he’s confident enough to drive on the highway, he can roll down the window in his car, and he no longer drags his left leg behind him.

“He does one-legged squats now,” [18 YEARS AFTER A STROKE] Cody said, with a laugh. “For them to be able to do something like that for someone who had a stroke (so many) years ago, it’s incredible. I’m telling everyone I know.”

Though most people are satisfied with their improvement after a single dose treatment, a second treatment dose after one month can be administered if patients saw some improvement but wanted an opportunity for even more improvement.  About 25% patients, including Cody’s father, choose to receive a second injection.

“These results represent a sea change in the therapeutic possibilities for stroke and TBI patients,” Steven Ralph, associate professor at Griffith University School of Medical Science in Australia, said in an article produced by Adis’ parent company, Springer Science + Business Media. “Rarely do we see such a radical breakthrough in medical treatment as this for stroke.”

Numerous scientific and medical journals around the world – have found that this therapeutic technique is also beneficial for treating sciatica and Alzheimer’s disease.

Etanercept – better known by its brand name Enbrel – has proven effective in neutralizing TNF – Tumor Necrosis Factor, the chemical that causes inflammation in the body, and has Food and Drug Administration approval for treating rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis.

Enbrel’s makers warn of side effects from continued use, including headaches, upper respiratory infection and, in severe cases, immune system impairment, risk of cancer, heart failure and blood and nervous system problems. Stroke and TBI patients undergoing this treatment are receiving only one, maybe two doses of etanercept so it is rare for  patients to experience side effects.

Because the therapy’s “off-label” use of etanercept is not FDA-approved, this treatment is not covered by Medicare or other insurance plans.

For Lantana, Fla., resident Martha Levine, 88, it meant being able to feed herself again. More than THREE years after a stroke left the retired clinical social worker with a severely weakened left side.

 Martha’s gait-ability to walk- immediately grew steadier and quicker, and she was able to think more quickly and clearly, said her husband, Irvin Levine.

Still dependent on a walker and, sometimes, a wheelchair, her improvements were important but not dramatic, her husband said.  “When you stop to think she had nothing before and she’s a little better now, to us, it was a big difference,” he said. “Even though it’s slight, we’re thankful for it.”

Anna Alfaro’s quick, dramatic improvements had her husband in tears. The couple, with their 13-year-old son in tow, flew in seeking a glimmer of hope after doctors in Mexico City had assured them nothing more could be done for her.

“The real important thing is the daily things, the simple things,” said Anna Alfaro, who had been dependent on a cane and no longer able to manage her husband’s glaucoma diagnostic center.    “For me, this is the difference in my life. I’m going back to work.”