When a person suffers a brain injury, food is often the last thing on the medical staff’s mind. Patients with TBIs will often go days without eating, or they may receive nutrition through an IV, while the staff determines the best course of treatment. But a new study shows that getting enough calories can boost the healing process after a brain injury.

The results of the study will be presented at the American Physiology Summit, the annual meeting of the American Physiological Society (APS) In Long Beach, CA.

What the New Research Reveals

In the past, when people were brought in for a brain injury, they would not get fed or they would be fed intravenously through a tube or line. The tools clinicians use to determine a patient’s nutritional needs have not been set up for brain injuries. Injured parties typically get fewer calories than they require.

The research team developed a new biomarker to assess nutritional status. It offers a way for providers to measure the amount of glucose the body is producing internally to meet energy needs. It measures fractional gluconeogenesis on a scale from zero (fully fed) to 100 (drastically underfed).

The tool allows medical staff to determine the number of calories needed for patients to meet their energy needs. This is a complex process that was difficult to achieve until now.

The Study

Researchers conducted an animal study to determine how nutritional status affects fractional gluconeogenesis and protein synthesis. A rat model of TBI was injected with deuterium oxide (heavy water) to trace and assess fractional gluconeogenesis and protein synthesis in different parts of the brain and body. They assessed the rat’s reaction to different caloric intakes to determine how nutrition affects the healing process.

“Our study found that after TBI, the brain responds abnormally by increasing protein synthesis in the higher brain region while decreasing it in the lower regions,” said Casey C. Curl, Doctoral Candidate, Exercise Physiology Laboratory, University of Berkley California.

Previous studies have found that being underfed results in reduced protein synthesis in the skeletal muscles and liver cells. The new study suggests that a similar process happens in the brain.

“Understanding the decrease in protein turnover during the brain healing process is crucial because a caloric deficit may affect the patient’s ability to heal from their injury,” said Curl.

The research suggests that adequate nutrition can help the brain manufacture the proteins it needs to heal after a TBI without having to prioritize certain regions of the brain over others.

Curl noted that feeding patients sooner can help with healing. She also recommended fractional gluconeogenesis as a worthy metric for assessing whether patients are getting proper nutrition during healing and recovery.

“This evidence highlights the importance of ensuring proper nutrition for TBI patients during recovery.  Specifically, formulations containing fuels that are preferred by the brain, such as lactate, should be prioritized during the acute and chronic phases of recovery from TBI,” Curl notes.